Sutton Stracke is the best part of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills

In one of Sutton Stracke’s earliest appearances The Real Housewives of Beverly Hillsshe calls her fellow actor Teddi Mellencamp Arroyave boring.

It’s the third episode of season 10, which aired in spring 2020, and the ladies are at a dinner party at Kyle Richards’ house. They play a deranged game apparently orchestrated by the producer, walking around the table and sharing their first impressions of the person sitting next to them.

All other women follow the unspoken rule of giving each other fake compliments, but when it’s Sutton’s turn, she bats her fake eyelashes and says with her soft, sweet tea accent, “I thought, Teddi, maybe you’ll be one.” Bit boring.”

The other guests at the dinner party seem stunned that this newcomer isn’t following the unofficial housewife code of being fake nice to people you hate. “I’m sorry,” she follows, not sounding sorry at all. “Shall we be honest or not?” If you watch this moment closely, you can barely see the corners of Sutton’s peachy pout curl into a mischievous smile.

Was it mean to say that? Yes, definitely, and Sutton’s half-heartedly feigned innocence suggests she knew it was. But more importantly, it’s true. And funny. Teddy is boring! Throughout her tenure on the show (which happily ended with its tenth season), she’s consistently been a major buzzkill. Finally someone said it!

In that moment, a polarizing Housewives legend was born. For this author, it was love at first offense.

Dressed like a walking Fornasetti candle in bright Dolce & Gabbana couture, Sutton made her debut in Season 10 as “friend of”, Bravo lingo for a recurring cast member who isn’t yet a full-fledged housewife.

Fan favorite OG Lisa Vanderpump had just left after a rocky ninth season, and this Georgia-born newcomer seemed poised to fill the LVP-shaped hole in the cast. Like Lisa, Sutton speaks in a voice that exudes a fussy, ladylike pose, only instead of feigning a posh London accent made harsh by decades of chain-smoking, she feigns an “Oh, my stars!” Southern train.

Both women are, of course, disgustingly rich, and both invest most of their wealth in expanding their collections of overpriced bow-tie blouses.

Over time, however, Sutton has proven to be her very own brand of homemaker. She is so different from the other women, with her fake correctness and girly outfits inspired by the anthropomorphic teapot in Beauty and the Beast. She responds to calls from her co-stars not with words, but by silently widening her saucer-like blue eyes in a sort of disapproving, “Are we really doing this?” see.

She’ll disarmingly say something shady about a castmate in the sweetest voice you’ve ever heard, and then play the victim so effectively you’ll forget she was the one who started the drama in the first place. In other words, she makes for great reality television.

After a season as “girlfriend of,” Sutton really came into her own as a homemaker when she was the only person on the right side of history when it came to Erika Jayne’s legal troubles. Much of last season focused on the aftermath of Erika’s split from disgraced attorney Tom Girardi and the ensuing allegations that Girardi embezzled millions of dollars from his clients — orphans, widows and burn victims — in part for his and Erika’s fund a lavish lifestyle.

Things weren’t looking good for Erika, who refuses to travel without a small army of stylists and once starred in a husband-sponsored music video singing about how expensive (sorry, XXPEN$IVE) it is to be her.

And yet only Sutton was brave enough to question Erika about her knowledge of her husband’s horrific crimes and point out the many inconsistencies in their stories. She was slandered for asking her lawyer how all of this might affect her, although that just seems wise when you’re on a TV show with someone who’s being prosecuted. Meanwhile, Kyle, Lisa Rinna, and their coven were reduced to silent submission by the threat of Erika’s admittedly terrifying wrath, and they spent the season ducking and apologizing for daring to ask questions.

As well as being a stand-in for frustrated, confused viewers amid the Erika Jayne controversy, Sutton possesses the essential Housewives skill of the succinct, artfully timed clapback. When Crystal Kung Minkoff accused her of being jealous during a fight last season, she dramatically stormed out of Rinna’s yard, pausing just before leaving to quip, “Jealous of what? Your ugly leather pants?”

Although only three episodes this season of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills was basically the Sutton Stracke Show, and we’re not mad about it.

The season premiere was dedicated to Dorit Kemsley’s horrific home burglary, in which she was held at gunpoint and robbed while her young children slept in the house. Between the security camera footage and Dorit’s emotional retelling of what happened, it’s an utterly chilling, heartbreaking narrative for a franchise normally concerned with alcohol-soaked boat trips and group trips to the plastic surgeon’s office.

Thank goodness Sutton and her unmusical narcissism provide some comic relief.

When Kyle tries to talk to her about the burglary the morning after and recounts how Dorit had to beg for her life, Sutton sighs that she “put out fires all day too.” She speaks of one of her designers being unable to enter the country because of an immigration delay, an inconvenience she seems to equate with Dorit holding a gun to her head. It’s so awful, so amazingly self-centered, and so far removed from a normal human response that it’s completely hilarious. And honestly, a lot less annoying than Kylie co-opting Dorit’s trauma as her own story.

The second episode was also Sutton-centric, with the ladies rehashing an incredibly boring drama about whether or not she paid for Rinna’s ticket to Elton John’s AIDS fundraiser. The details are muddled and uninteresting, but Sutton shows up to Harry Hamlin’s 70th birthday dinner like it’s a reunion, armed with literal printed receipts proving she paid for the table. Opening her eyes wider than a bush baby’s to show she’s above all that pettiness, she slides the receipts across the table to Garcelle and makes Rinna look like a proper idiot.

On last week’s episode, newbie housewife Diana Jenkins comes over here in her second episode of Hot RHOBH, says that while she doesn’t know Sutton very well, she thinks she’s “really weird.” First of all, can the woman who doesn’t know what an outlet store is, call someone else weird? And secondly, yes, and…?

That’s what makes her so much fun to watch. Mean and awkward, Sutton is prone to martyrdom. She’ll refer to a mille crepe cake as a “pancake pie” to remind you that while she’s a self-proclaimed Francophile, she’s still a Southern girl with roots. She’ll call someone’s pants ugly while wearing a hideous sheath dress embellished with a giant leopard. She’s vegetarian, except when it comes to bacon, which she can’t resist.

So, yes, Sutton Stracke is absolutely one stone-cold freak, and she’s also the most refreshing addition to a Real Housewives cast in years.