First Wives Club: The David and Vanessa drama

The surprise ending between David and Vanessa is the perfect example of why First Wives Club is so engrossing to watch.

First Wives Club has certainly never shied away from a cheating scandal, and between the messy marriages of Bree and Gary Washington and Hazel Rachelle and Derek Ellsworth, most of the show’s core group of friends dealt with infidelity from pretty much the first episode.

However, the one (still-imperfect) couple who managed to avoid a cheating scandal is Mark Tallman and Ryan Michelle Bathe’s David and Ari.

The affair that never was

When StilettoJill interviewed Michelle Mitchenor (Jayla), RonReaco Lee (Gary) and Mark Tallman (David) before the premiere of First Wives Club’s third season, Tallman admitted that the series was “deep, but also funny and crazy”.

And while Tallman was specifically referring to the newly-found bromance between David and Gary in this particular instance, we just cannot help but feel that this sentiment also perfectly encapsulates the whole ‘Is David cheating with Vanessa?’ storyline.

After all, David and Ari certainly had some glaring issues in their long-distance marriage (which is no laughing matter).

But resolving the storyline with an elaborate heist and unexpected ending is one of the funniest twists that we have seen on the show so far.

And while it would certainly be fun to debate whether or not David and Vanessa were just lying about the entire thing (like we are still wondering about what really happened between Ari and Wesley), it seems pretty evident that there nothing was really going on between the two of them – and that it really was all just a big misunderstanding.

The characters involved in this brilliant bait-and-switch

Few things are better than genuinely being surprised by one of your favorite television shows, and it turns out that this almost-love-triangle between David, Ari and Vanessa was just the right thing to bring some levity to season two’s David and Ari-storyline.

Moreover, the actors responsible for stringing us along so convincingly all season long were:

Let’s hear it for the friends

Regardless of the fact that David turned out to not be cheating on Ari with Vanessa, we have to admit that we would all like a group of friends who are not only willing to make shady comments about the other women around the dinner table, but who are also willing to plan and execute an entire heist in order to ensure that we did not get blindsided like they were.

On an added different-but-related note, we also believe that Jayla’s willingness to go along with this crazy plan – may just have subconsciously been the thing that convinced Bree, Hazel and the rest of the group to finally allow her into their inner circle.

Why we should have never believed the rumors in the first place

While the scene with David feeding Vanessa is certainly questionable (to say the least) we should have actually caught on to the fact that there was nothing going on between them much earlier on.

After all, Vanessa is a young, hot and up-and-coming campaign manager in New York City who was clearly still hung up on her ex-boyfriend and her ashy, and much older boss, was likely just about the last person on her romantic radar.

Not to mention the fact that David is a self-proclaimed workaholic, who has a reputation for getting so wrapped up in his own campaigns that he neglects his wife and daughter.

This makes it entirely unlikely that he would have even considered an affair whilst in the middle of his campaign, which is also probably why we never as much as saw David and Vanessa discussing anything but work on screen.

The irony of the entire situation

As ironic as it may seem, David and Vanessa’s almost-affair may have been one of the best things to happen to Ari and David’s over 17 years of marriage.

David and Ari’s marriage was clearly hitting a very rough patch by the time that she had accepted her new job and moved 3000 miles away from David. However, there is nothing like some competition to keep things interesting.

And while Ari moving away might have  reminded David of how much he misses her, having Vanessa around may have been the push that Ari needed to decide to fight for her marriage, even if she was stuck in another city.