Season 5 of Love & Hip Hop: New York debuted last night, and in just one hour we not only caught up with some of our old faves, we meet some new castmates as well.
First thing’s first: Mendeecees Harris is out of jail after spending 14 months behind bars. Yandy Smith and Mendeecees Jr. are happy to see him. (By now we know that Yandy is pregnant, but that hasn’t been revealed on the show yet. They should probably do that soon because Yandy is clearly showing. She looks about five months in every scene. Fix it, Mona!)
Anyway, Yandy plans a welcome home party for Mendeecees, and that’s where we run into Rich Dollaz and newcomer Chrissy Crastanda. Chrissy is a model manager, and according to her, she also used to be a “madam” back in her day. One of her former “employees” was Erica Mena, who she’s had a bone to pick with ever since Erica made some comments behind her back. The two come face to face (or rather fist to fist) at a model call Rich Dollaz is holding for his new liquor. I hear we can expect lots of fighting from Erica this season.
The episode is obviously centered around Mendeecees and Yandy, and things get awkward when Mendeecees takes Yandy on a surprise date to Las Vegas; during their getaway, he asks Yandy to elope. She pretty much denies him at the chapel, and rightfully so—no woman wants to hold you down for 14 months (and maybe longer) only to get a shotgun wedding in Vegas.
Remember Darryl Strawberry, the former baseball player? Well, he has a daughter named Diamond Strawberry (yes, that’s her real name… of course), and she’s an aspiring model living in L.A.. She wants to leave everything behind, including her daughter, to live in New York with her boyfriend Cisco Rosada, a record producer. According to Cisco, they have a “don’t ask, don’t tell” relationship. As long as Diamond doesn’t ask, he doesn’t tell. I guess this works well for him while he cheats on her and she’s none the wiser. I wish Diamond had best friends to convince her not to move across the country for a man she barely knows, but my gut tells me she wouldn’t listen.
Lastly we get an update on the Peter Gunz/Amina/Tara love triangle. Amina is five months pregnant, and we find out that she and Peter are having a girl. Amina wants things to change when the baby gets here. She especially wants Peter to introduce his sons to their new daughter when she’s born. Not much has changed between Tara and Peter. Tara’s furniture situation is still pretty minimalistic, and she still isn’t budging on her children not being around Amina—and that includes her new daughter.
Stephanie Ogbogu is a freelance writer who has been featured on ESPN, Anderson Cooper, USA Today, The New York Post, Huffington Post Live and more. Follow her at @eleven8 on Instagram and Twitter.
