‘Vanderpump Rules’: Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss Were the Villains We Needed in 2023

The biggest TV event of 2023 so far wasn’t the Super Bowl, The Bear Season 2 or the Succession finale. It was Vanderpump Rules. From the minute news of “Scandoval” broke in early March, we as a nation were hooked on the drama. Tom Sandoval had cheated on long-time girlfriend Ariana Madix with her best friend Raquel Leviss and we as a society snapped into action pillorying the guilty cheaters. What could have otherwise been a rather routine affair for a reality soap opera like VPR became national news. Why? Well, because of the moral infraction of cheating on a partner with their friend. Because of the years Bravo fans had spent rooting for Ariana and Tom’s relationship to survive against the odds. But mainly because we as a fractured society needed the catharsis of coming together to collectively hate two tailor-made villains.

As the sordid details of Scandoval trickled out, it soon became a perfect storm of gossip. It united us as a nation in way that sports, politics, and superhero movies simply could not because Vanderpump Rules gave us something more, something we all deeply hungered for. Vanderpump Rules gave us the perfect people to hate.

Vanderpump Rules first premiered on Bravo in 2013 as a spin-off of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. The series followed life for the servers employed at “Housewife” Lisa Vanderpump’s various LA restaurants. Fans of the show watched as cast mates hooked up, fell out, got married, and even divorced. However for the bulk of the show’s run, there was one couple that seemed to have found a semblance of a happily ever after: series original Tom Sandoval and girlfriend Ariana Madix. So when news leaked in March 2023 that Ariana discovered an x-rated FaceTime recording of best friend Raquel Leviss on Tom’s phone, it sent shockwaves through the ecosystem of Vanderpump Rules. Otherwise cynical reality fans were scandalized and people who hadn’t even seen an episode of ‘Pump Rules — including yours truly — were lapping up the drama.

Tom and Raquel’s affair was blasphemous on a level you didn’t normally see on reality TV and Ariana’s devastation was easy for Vanderpump newbies to understand. Moreover, the same stylistic choices that made Tom and Raquel reality TV stars — his perfectly coiffed hair and off-trend mustache next to her overly shadowed doe-eyes and honey-blonde highlights — made them picture perfect villains. He was, as James Kennedy said, a “worm with a mustache” and she looked like a disingenuous “pick me” girl next to the show’s older, more innately sophisticated starlets.

By the time the three-part reunion special aired on Bravo in May 2023, the public was primed to hate Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss. And we did. That, I think, was what made Scandoval so electrifying to watch as event television. Ariana didn’t come to the special deflated, but in a red revenge dress. While she didn’t have to take the offensive against Tom and Raquel — cast mates and friends Lala Kent, Katie Maloney, Shaena, and James Kennedy were happy to tear into them — she managed to lob some fabulous insults with wit and poise. (The way she mocked Raquel for liking Harry Potter lives in my head rent-free.)

Watching the Vanderpump Rules Season 10 Reunion Special made me feel like I was a Roman citizen watching a gladiator slice a man’s head off in the Colosseum. I was witnessing the execution of Guy Fawkes in Jacobin England. I was part of the crowd tar and feathering a village criminal. Every verbal blow that struck Tom and Raquel gave me a target for my personal rage and grief outside of my own body. It was a catharsis I personally realized that I needed and had been missing in our overly polite society.

Tom Sandoval and Raquel Leviss betrayed Ariana Madix in a deeply fucked up way and, as punishment, they became the objects of our collective hatred. They joined a long legacy of sin-eaters, whipping boys, and other figures who carry negativity for the rest of us. Time will tell if either one is savvy enough to rebrand themselves as anything besides a villain, but for now, they’ve served their cultural purpose. Tom and Raquel took a non-stop barrage of insults on national television and in doing so transcended from reality show baddies to human sacrifices.