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Everything to Know About Vanderpump Rules Season 1
Look back on the first season of the show — from Pandora to Pumptinis and beyond
Flashback to January 2013: Chunky necklaces were in, Barack Obama was sworn in for his second term as president, and Vanderpump Rules Season 1 premiered on Jan. 7, 2013.
A lot has changed in the past decade, but the drama, fashion, and characters will forever remain iconic — especially now that Vanderpump Rules Season 11 premieres on January 30 and the plot lines are only getting juicier. (You can also watch The Vanderpump Rules special, dubbed “A Decade of Rumors and Lies” — which takes you inside the last 10 years of the lives of the SURvers and their inner circle as narrated by Lisa Vanderpump — on Peacock right now.)
Look back on the cast members and episodes that first caught viewers attention.
SUR Owner and Vanderpump Rules Executive Producer Lisa Vanderpump
In the center of it all was (and is) Lisa Vanderpump, then a cast member on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and the woman in charge of running the show at SUR (who sometimes meddles in her employee's lives). She had two children: Pandora, her daughter who helped her run her online magazine, The Divine Addiction, and was essentially her mom's right-hand woman; and Max, her son who sometimes worked at SUR and had an interest in music.
At the time of filming Season 1, Lisa was also the owner of only two West Hollywood restaurants with husband, Ken Todd: SUR (which stands for Sexy Unique Restaurant) and Villa Blanca. (The couple would go on to open Pump in 2014.)
The Season One SURvers: Katie, Tom, Scheana, Kristin, Stassi, and Jax
Now, the wait staff.
There was Katie Maloney, a server and wannabe music industry executive who was dating model Tom Schwartz (who didn't work for Lisa...yet). Kristen Doute was an aspiring actress and server who was dating Tom Sandoval, a bartender, model, and musician who was seen flat ironing his hair and shaving his forehead in the first episode.
Scheana Marie (now Scheana Shay) was an aspiring pop singer, fan of dangly earrings, former waitress at Villa Blanca, and then-new waitress at SUR. At the time, she was in a solid relationship with her then-boyfriend, Michael Shay. But Bravo viewers had actually been introduced to Scheana during Season 3, Episode 8 of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, when she was confronted at SUR by an RHOBH alum whose then-ex husband had an affair with Scheana while he was still married. (The first episode of Vanderpump Rules premiered immediately after.)
There was also Stassi Schroeder, the wannabe fashion writer, self-proclaimed queen bee, and then-server. When the show began, she had been in a tumultuous two year on-again-off-again relationship with SUR bartender Jax Taylor (neé Jason Cauchi), a former Marine and part-time model who admittedly had cheated in all of his relationships.
Their manager was Peter Madrigal, who started at SUR in 2008 and was promoted through the ranks to manager by 2011.
Season 1, Episode 1: "Welcome To SUR"
This was the episode that introduced the world to SUR and began the start of more than 10 years of fights, hookups, and goat cheese balls.
Within the very first minutes of the show, SUR was introduced as being a spicy little restaurant, especially with its unique waitstaff. "Villa Blanca's where you take your wife, and SUR's where you take your mistress," Lisa explained.
But Stassi summed it up best. "Working at SUR is different from working at any other restaurant," she said. "The servers all want to be models, actors, writers, singers," she continued. "The servers at other Hollywood restaurants just want to be waiters at SUR."
Season 1, Episode 2: "This is a Breakup"
Happy Pride! As viewers would come to learn, Pride is an iconic celebration for the show. But the first-ever televised Pride celebration for the Vanderpump cast was one of their more subdued parties. The cast got to ride on a bright pink float as it cruised around West Hollywood during the episode.
RELATED: Is This Jax Taylor's Strangest Anecdote About His Mysterious Past To Date?
But the parade wasn't the only focus. This episode was also viewers' first introduction to a very important location — the back alley of SUR — where many people throughout the show's history would go on to have important conversations, fights, and take their smoke breaks. It was here where Stassi and Jax fought over their relationship, with her demanding him to grow up.
The episode ended with Jax taking seven shots in a row, and the couple splitting for good. (Maybe.)
Season 1, Episode 3: "You Don't Know Jax"
Stassi knew what she had to do in Episode 3: Permanently break things off with Jax, put in her notice at their apartment, and move out so she could be on her own. But Kristen and Katie could not stop singing Jax's praises and insisting that Stassi get back with him.
Jax confided in fellow SUR bartender, Frank, about his relationship troubles. But instead of consoling Jax, Frank made the moves on Stassi, and the two began hooking up shortly after. "It's like a normal, mature, no drama relationship," Stassi explained in a confessional.
Throughout the rest of the episode, she remained torn between the two men, throwing herself into a love triangle after showing up at a club with Frank but leaving with Jax.
Jax seemed to think that he had won this battle, until Frank told Stassi that he'd heard Jax cheated on her in Las Vegas and got the girl pregnant, which left her absolutely devastated. Kristen and Katie, though, insisted the rumor was untrue, which had Stassi believing that they were siding with Jax.
Episode 4: "Vegas with a Venegance"
Happy birthday, Stassi! As viewers would eventually come to learn, Stassi's birthday is a huge deal. But in her debut birthday episode, the SUR waitress invited her friends and new beau, Frank, to Las Vegas, where she hoped that they could all just get drunk together and she could be the center of attention. But she got what she wished for in all of the wrong ways.
RELATED: Tom and Jax Talk About the Big Fight
Jax ended up delivering flowers to the hotel room that she was staying in with Frank, starting things off on the wrong foot. Jax later crashed the party at Stassi's birthday dinner, verbally fought with Frank inside the restaurant, and then tried to physically fight him in the parking lot, therefore ruining the birthday.
Episode 5: "I'm Not a Ghetto Bitch"
Jax might not have been able to get Stassi back, but he did find comfort in SUR waitress, Laura-Leigh, who he began hooking up with in this episode.
Stassi, obviously, wasn't too happy with this, especially since she noted that she was the "only person at SUR" who had befriended Laura-Leigh and saw this as a betrayal.
Conflicts came to a head when Lisa called for a staff-wide meeting where she reprimanded her staff for fighting and hooking up with one another. It was here where Laura-Leigh and Stassi got into a shouting match, throwing some pretty intense insults at one another.
Scheana, however, was able to end the episode on a high note, making her musical debut by performing her single "What I Like" for an audience full of her coworkers — with Ariana Madix visible as a backup dancer before she joined the cast —and making amends with Stassi.
Episode 6: "Caught With Your Trousers Down"
This episode started off by focusing on the careers of the SURvers outside of SUR, showing a bit of their lives beyond the restaurant. It showed Kristen rehearsing lines, Scheana recording a song, Stassi working on her fashion writing, and SUR manager, Peter Madrigal, showing his co-workers a film he helped produce.
But, careers were put in jeopardy when Ken told Lisa that Jax and Laura-Leigh had been "caught with their trousers down" in a bathroom at work. Jax wasn't the only person who needed to worry about his job. Frank got fired from SUR later in the episode after he double charged a customer for drinks, threatened to "pull a customer's underwear over their head," and then had to meet Stassi's parents immediately after.
Although the meeting went surprisingly well, Frank and Stassi later got into a fight about her being high maintenance. The fight ended up in an explosive argument outside of her apartment, with him walking away, and them breaking up. This left Stassi in tears, now having gone through two breakups in one summer.
Episode 7: "In Love With Someone Else"
Jax learned more about Laura-Leigh in this episode, allowing him to come to his own personal realizations. He realized he would rather eat a cheeseburger than sit in a sauna with her for an hour. And when he attended a Narcotics Anonymous meeting with Laura-Leigh, the seriousness of the relationship set in, thus leading Jax to attempt to break up with her immediately after attending the meeting. This naturally upset her.
"Sorry, I thought it was a good time, maybe it wasn't," Jax told her, wanting to pump the breaks on their fast paced relationship.
Stassi, meanwhile, was looking forward to establishing her independence. But she failed to meet her fashion writing deadlines and ended up on thin ice with Lisa, Pandora, and their magazine.
While Stassi was able to get back in Lisa's good graces, Jax was trying to get back into Stassi's, telling her he would do anything to be back with her, which meant permanently putting an end to him and Laura-Leigh.
RELATED: Katie Maloney Reached Out to Vanderpump Rules Alum Laura-Leigh, and Here's How It Went
But Laura-Leigh refused to go down without a fight. After Jax attempted to ghost her and unfriended her on Facebook, she confronted him while he was working at SUR and delivered this Academy Award worthy monologue:
"You are a coward, you are a coward. I deserve out of respect a f-cking conversation. And you can't bully me out of here. You can both be a—holes to me, but guess what, I'm not leaving, you're stuck with me. You're gonna have to deal with me every f-cking day until I book a job and then I'm out of here. And then when I'm walking on the red carpet, and I've got my own TV show, you're gonna look at me and you're gonna say, 'I should have been nice to her.' Because guess what, I never gave up on you."
Episode 8: "Last Call"
Luckily for Jax, Laura-Leigh ended up booking a big time movie role alongside Jennifer Aniston shortly after their breakup, which meant leaving SUR and Vanderpump Rules for good.
With one of their major problems gone, this both gave Jax and Stassi the opportunity to reunite, as well as Kristen, Katie, and Stassi the opportunity to reconcile their friendship. Jax went to therapy and realized he couldn't work at SUR anymore, putting in his notice with Lisa.
The staff was finally able to let loose during the annual SUR photoshoot, with Stassi getting closer to Jax and strengthening her relationship with Scheana. But things didn't end off on a positive note.
The final episode of the season ended with Jax dropping a bombshell that he did in fact cheat on Stassi and get someone pregnant in Las Vegas, leaving her in hysterics, especially since her friendships had been put in jeopardy because of his lie. This left for plenty to be addressed in the VPR reunion.
Episode 9: "Reunion"
The first ever VPR reunion was hosted by Andy Cohen, bringing all of the cast members to recount the most controversial moments throughout the season.
Jax revealed that he returned to SUR days after quitting and admitted to lying to many people this season, including his therapist. Stassi admitted that she went on more dates with Frank once the season was over, and Jax continued to profess his love for Stassi, while she seemed over it.
"The only woman I want is sitting right there and I don't care about that anymore," Jax told Andy. "I just want her. She knows. She knows exactly how I feel, she knows I'm being honest."
Long time questions like — Why did Jax lead Laura-Leigh on? And why does Tom Sandoval shave his face? — were finally answered.
Jax finally admitted that he "bit off a little more than he could chew" when it came to Laura-Leigh and begged the cast to stop ganging up on him. Tom revealed that he shaves his forehead because it's exfoliating and "gets the dead skin off."
There you have it.
Episode 10: "Reunion Secrets"
Unaired footage from throughout the season and the reunion were revealed during the final episode of Season 1.
Footage included Jax begging for Stassi back, Stassi getting in fights with her SUR coworkers, and don't worry, the servers actually working at SUR.
You can rewatch and relive every single memorable moment by streaming Vanderpump Rules Season 1 on Peacock.
