Previously On Starting Over-

Lisa, still dependent on her parents, learned what it was like to work for a living. Christina began to realize how damaging her hustling lifestyle was and began to establish clear boundaries of respect with a former client. Allison finally saw the anger behind her smile. TJ exploded when her Housemates didn’t support her murder mystery assignment.

Today’s episode begins a man in a cowboy hat knocking on the door at 6am. TJ answers the door to discover the gentleman is looking for Lisa. TJ awakens Lisa and tells her that she might want to fix her hair before meeting her gentlemen friend. Kaleo, the cowboy was sent by Rhonda to notify Lisa of her day of work at the Sunset ranch. She has until 7am to pack a lunch and to get to work. Lisa complains about not knowing how to pack a lunch. Allison offers to get out of bed and help her and Lisa insists she doesn’t need the help. The camera then shows Allison sleepily making a sandwich for Lisa’s lunch.

Lisa struggles in the car to release the emergency break and leave for the Ranch. She arrives at 7:46 am amid horses and chickens. She meets up with Kaleo and says “You have a funny name.” He replies by repeating his name and adding that she was late arriving. Lisa has to clean the debris and horse droppings. Rhonda wanted this assignment for Lisa to see if she can take on a difficult task AND complete it, without charming her way out of it, laughing it off or cutting corners. All about follow through.

The ladies stand around the kitchen discussing the cute cowboy and how Lisa is getting “her ass whooped” with all the heavy duty work at the ranch. Back at the ranch, Kaleo tells Lisa that works on a ranch is 70% poop.

While doing the work, Lisa starts to think that she is out of shape because she experiences back pain and says that everything was so heavy. She giggles through each task. She believes the point of the task is to take her off her high horse and make her humble.

The ladies continue to giggle over Lisa’s task in the kitchen, while Lisa has to give a horse a shot at the ranch.

Back at the house, Jessica is in confessional. Christina asked her if they could catch up. Jessica replied “Of course, after I finish my task” and Christina says she wants to know how she is doing because she is afraid Iyanla will ask her and she won’t have an answer about the status of her accountability partner. At that point, Jessica is reluctant to share the info because it seems to her that Christina just wants to look as if she is being a good partner and not really interested in what she has to say.

Iyanla walks through the door—Ding dong, your doorbell is ringing and again, she didn’t ring the doorbell. She runs into Christina and says “Just who I wanted to see.” In her hands is a package that came from her client from days past when she was a stripper. Christina decides to return the package and she meets with Iyanla to discuss the ways she manipulates. As a continuation of the chip assignment, Iyanla has reversed the rules and Christina has to earn the chips by doing loving and wonderful things for her housemates. Purpose is to reverse the hustle.

Back at the ranch, Lisa is working on horse shoes and is informed that she has put them on the horse incorrectly but told she will be the one fixing them. Lisa says she isn’t used to getting dirty and she isn’t sure how much more she can take.

Jessica notices that Christina has been “super” eager to help with things and she isn’t sure why. Christina puts the groceries away.

Iyanla meets with Allison and asks her what she has learned as a graduate of the Starting Over house. Allison replies, “Absolutely that I am loved.” She has also learned how to care for her body and chose life over death. Iyanla informs her that she was selected to be the celebrated survivor of the women of the Laugh for the Cure in Charlotte, her home town. The group is having an awards ceremony so Allison’s acceptance speak will be videotapes and her assignment is to work on the speech about moving through the ugliness of cancer. Iyanla says in Confessional that it isn’t the time to be a nice little girl or steel magnolia to save everyone else from dealing with the reality of the disease but fears that she holds back because it’s too much for Allison, herself, to deal with.

Back at the ranch again, Lisa struggles with the horseshoe and finally gets it off. She saddles up the horse and is off to clean the goat pen. When told that girls clean the pens up everyday, Lisa comments that they “must be strong girls” and is told that they become strong. She is told to Think Strong just before making contact with the Poo.

Christina pours a drink and serves it to Allison and Allison is questioning her generosity as well. Christina helps TJ on the computer and adds chips to her bowl before moving on to clean the bathroom. Still needing to collect chips from Jessica and believes Jessica is making it difficult. When asked about it, Jessica says she didn’t trust her intentions in all of it because Christina said she ‘needed’ to do it for an assignment and it didn’t come from a real place of wanting to help. Christina starts to explain her position and Jessica reminds her about their talk this morning about being accountability partners. Confrontation brewing. Christina ends with “My words betrayed me and I didn’t mean to say it like that”, in explaining her actions earlier.

Lisa moves on to chickens and Kaleo tells her to catch a chicken, not a rooster but a chicken. She chases the chicken through the ranch, over the hills and through the woods before he stops her and tells her it was a nice effort.

Back at the house, Christina asks Allison –in a really transparent voice—if she wants her to type for her because she types 90 wpm. Allison continues typing.

Rhonda meets with the Ranch staff and Lisa and finds out she was late to her second job. The staff says she was very charming and that she worked hard. The camera flashes back to Lisa massaging one of the staff members and discussing being a manipulator, leaning in near kissing him asking if he felt manipulated. Lisa says it was her way of connecting. Flashback shows her telling one of them that they could ‘get her on her hands and knees. I’m sure you could think of a way,” before they respectfully told her to stop it. When asked if she has to be sexual because people are being nice to her, Lisa answers, “Probably.” When asked if they would have her back, the staff said they would if she could come on time. One of the staff members adds that she didn’t really believe in herself and kept saying “I can’t” before trying each task.

In confessional, Jessica reiterates that she cannot trust Christina’s intentions because it’s more about her completing an assignment than it is about wanting to help. Christina is practically begging to do Jessica’s laundry and she relents and tells her she can unload the dishwasher.

Jessica meets with TJ on the patio and explains her feelings about Christina’s assignment. They decide that Christina’s “Niceness” for an assignment is a hustle.

Sexy Cowboy returns to the house to check on some homework they sent back with Lisa. Upon inspected her folding of the (sorry guys, horse fabric stuff—no clue what they call it), he says that she did quality work and told her she did a great job. Rhonda wanted Lisa to understand the whole picture and just because the clock strikes 5 doesn’t mean the day ends there. She adds that for most people, the real work begins after their job.

Allison is shown dressing her wounds and says it’s a reminder of how horrible and ugly cancer is. She shows that she gets the assignment because she stresses that everyone wants her to be real and to do that, she has to discuss the pain and the wounds of cancer.

She comes outside to meet with the production team to record her acceptance speech. “Cancer is ugly but grace is beautiful” is her message.

Allison returns inside the house and talks with her housemates about how the videotaping went. Jill says in confessional that Allison still has that sweet, innocent Southern girl and that she feels Allison is discussing cancer from her head and not her heart.

Iyanla meets with Christina. Iyanla gets on her for begging Jessica about the laundry. Iyanla tells her that she hustled her because she lied to get what she wanted and tells her that she has lied to her in the past but it was minor. She adds that this time is major because she implicated someone else.

Iyanla ding dongs at the door again and brings Christina into the house to tell her housemates that she has been hustling them. She immediately starts to cry as she explains her hustle. Wanna dance anyone? Do the hustle. Dun, dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun….

TJ says in confessional that Christina’s explanation was difficult and necessary as a few of the ladies were questioning her authenticity and integrity. Jessica is surprised by the partial truth explanation Christina gave to Iyanla.

Iyanla is giving an assignment of calling Christina on her inability to be authentic anytime she sees, hears, feels or detects her is not telling the truth. They are all given chips to give to Christina when she has earned them by accomplishment work on the goals she has established for herself that are written on her walls. All the ladies hug Christina and tell her that this is a place where she can be totally real with them.

In private, Christina tells Jessica that she is scared to look at her because she doesn’t want her to be mad at her. Jessica tells her that she isn’t mad at her and they discuss the projects at hand. Jessica reminds Christina of all her accomplishments like Jackson and being in the Starting Over house and gives her a chip.

Christina is in confessional and explains that she will earn chips by being direct, setting new boundaries and standing up for herself with her housemates. She confesses that she is horrified and has no idea what is in store for herself.