Suffice it to say that things are a little off-kilter lately — but that’s never stopped the cast of Vanderpump Rules from cheering us up with their extra (actually, very very extra) lives. This week’s episode brought a lizard funeral to Vanderpump Rules, complete with drinks, a pool, and the West Hollywood hijinks you expect from this show. Totally extra, totally wonderful.
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Now, I’m not the kind of person who would condemn someone because they want to have a funeral for a pet — pets are like family. Your fur babies (and in this case, a… scale baby?) are companions like people, so when they die, it’s super sad. Tom Schwartz needed to have a memorial for Daug, his lizard. This is a man who named his lizard after another animal, so of course he would be the one to rent out an entire rooftop pool in Los Angeles for the sheer fact of wanting to say goodbye to Daug, who lived 2019-2019. Here are Tom and Daug in happier times:
All of the details were perfect. There was the sign pointing out that Daug was like, weeks old; the punch bowls that bikini-clad servers brought out to quench the sadness and extreme thirst of the Vanderpump Rules crew; the “pouring one out” for a lizard; a literal lizard. And the fact that all of Schwartz’s closest Vanderpump pals (and Max, who I’m not sure counts as a friend yet) showed up for this thing.
Pet funerals are fine, but this one was patently ridiculous. But that’s okay, because there’s actually something so wonderful about it. Most of the people watching this episode of Vanderpump Rules are stuck inside, quarantined away from their families and friends, and we’re not really sure when this is all going to end. So leave it to Schwartz, Sandoval, and the rest of the Vanderpump gang to bring some levity to a very heavy world. It all calls back to simpler times, and times where we were definitely more ready to laugh than we are right now. Times are tough. At least we can lean on Vanderpump Rules to escape.
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The other wonderful thing about Schwartz’s lizard funeral is that it really highlights just how much his friends are willing to go along with his shenanigans — and how much they love him. In particular, this event shows Sandoval’s undying love for Schwartz. We knew how close these two men were, but so seldom on television do we get glimpses of men who platonically love each other so unabashedly that they cry for each other, ride in a sidecar with each other, and go to lizard funerals together. Friendship is spending time together, but it’s also sucking it up and going to your friend’s improv show on a Wednesday night at 11 p.m. because you know it’s important to them. The Toms know how to be good friends, and they show that to each other every single day. No toxic masculinity, no shying away from emotions. It’s just wonderful.
And as the drama of the day moved from Daug to something about Max and Danica and these new robotic cast members being angry about… something (it was hard to tell what they were talking about, honestly), Daug looked down on his lizard funeral and these ride-or-die friends, and Daug decided that it was good.
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