This week on Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Kendall and Kris stepped to the front. It fits, given that both celebrated birthdays this week, so they deserve a little time in the spotlight, especially Kendall who hasn’t been around much since the show returned. Her absence is, as always, due to her over-packed schedule and endless travel. In other news, back home in Calabasas, Scott has fallen in with an older crowd.
The Pilates machines at Kris’s house are not just for show. Scott arrives in the middle of a session with Kris and a trainer. He jumps on a machine but comes to regret it, moving in ways that it seems that Lord Disick has never moved before. Kris warns him that the soreness comes later and in unexpected places. “Oh my god, that sounds great,” he says. “I can’t wait.” Scott and Kris always have a laugh together, and that gets Kris to thinking. She should invite Scott out to tea with her friends. Her reasoning is classic Kris: “It makes me really happy when he chooses to spend time with me instead of his friends who might not be the best influence on him.”
Kendall’s storyline is set up early during a lunch with Jonathan and Kim. Kim explains to Jonathan how she is feeling more anxious than normal. She is always running through worst-case scenarios in her mind. He asks her if she is turning into a worrywart. “I am not this person,” Kim says.
Scott’s tea with the ladies is an exercise in pure reality-tv fantasy. Scott and Kris are joined by Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’s Kyle Richards and sometimes-Housewife and OJ Simpson trial hanger-on Faye Resnick. Their so-called high tea is obviously a set-up, made for tv moment. The restaurant is empty. Kyle and Kris are wearing awkward hats. But, hey, Scott is a hit, and they order an Arnold Palmer for “Scott, our other girlfriend.”
The anxiety issue that Kim and Jonathan teed-up is at a whole other level for Kendall. She calls Kris from New York to tell her mom about her escalating struggles with anxiety, panic attacks, and how she is having trouble sleeping. She discovered sleep paralysis on the internet, and she thinks that has what been happening to her. Kendall explains to her mom that she wakes up, mainly on planes, and because of her anxiety she can’t move. “It is so scary when it happens,” she says.
Scott’s next adventure with Kris and her gang is when Kris invites him over for a swim. He arrives to find a full-blown water aerobics class. The group cajoles him into diving in. “Pretty sure I have no idea what’s happening,” Scott says to the camera. “It’s a little bit of a weird life that I lead here.” Have truer words ever been spoken on this show?
When Kendall returns to Los Angeles, she and her mom discuss her anxiety. The planes and the travel are major triggers for Kendall, which makes life as a fashion model difficult. “Kendall basically lives on an airplane,” Kris explains in her interview segment. This anxiety is not part of the plan.
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Word about Scott’s dip in the pool travels fast. Kourtney and Kim want to know what the hell is going on with him and Kris. “Scott, why on earth are you hanging out with my mom, going to tea parties, and doing water aerobics?” Kim asks. Kourtney is also confused since Scott isn’t a big work-out guy and now he’s all about Pilates and water aerobics with Kris. Scott is defensive, but he knew it was going to come back to haunt him. “The only difference between them and all of you is that they are not on their phones the whole time,” Scott says to Kim and Kourtney. The peer pressure gets to him, and he blows off his next lunch date with Kris and her friends.
An event in LA is exactly what Kendall needed. No travel, no muss, no fuss. Kim joins her at the appearance and commiserates with her younger sister about their shared anxieties. Kendall clues Kim in about the sleep paralysis, and it scares Kim. “I feel so bad that she’s been going through this,” Kim says. Later, at Kris’s house, Kris suggests that maybe Kim and Kendall could work on the anxiety together. Kris suspects they both are feeling a little out of control in their own situations.
Kendall and Kim meet with an anxiety specialist. Kim is skeptical because, as she puts it, she and Kendall aren’t really “therapy people.” Kim also says she prides herself on having her shit together. The anxiety specialist suggests simulating an anxiety event to learn coping techniques. Kendall takes a hard pass, literally squirming in her seat at the whole idea. Kim is up for it, willing to take a ride with the specialist since Kim’s current fear is about being in a terrible car crash in the middle lane of the highway. They take the ride. Kim is chill. Problem solved. Meanwhile, poor Kendall is still on her own.
Khloé makes a rare appearance in this episode to tell Scott not to worry about what Kim and Kourtney have to say about him hanging out with their mom. Khloé repeats Kris’s earlier sentiment that it is better for him to hang out with Kris than with his old friends. The subtext for everyone this episode is about control. Scott leaves Khloé’s with renewed purpose. “They are fun,” he says of Kris and her friends.
It is hard to believe that Kris Jenner would host a wine and painting party at her house if it weren’t for the cameras, but there she is paintbrush in hand. Scott joins in, serving as head cheerleader, just one of the gang doing what all sorts of groups of friends do together across the country. Kris says sculpting is next. One of her friends says they could reenact the scene from Ghost. Surely, that’s the line, right? Ghost-ing would be too far, even for this family.
The anxiety specialist calls Kim to check in. “I’ve had no anxiety since I met with you,” Kim says. See? Cured. The therapist reminds Kim that there is no cure for anxiety and asks about Kendall. Kendall is in the same place she was when this started; the specialist recommends trying meditation. Kim, who doesn’t need it and says later she’s not into meditation, sets something up for her and Kendall. The meditation seems to help Kendall or at least give her something that she can work with to help her anxiety. She doesn’t need to clear her busy schedule, much to Kris’s relief.
“Sometimes it's good to be forced to do things,” Kim says, summing up their meditation session in a most Kardashian way.