['Bethenny Ever After' - 'Fleeing From 40']

Poor Jason, but good Jason. It was hard to empathize with Bethenny when she shuttered herself in the bathroom to cry bloody murder. Everyone around her was supportive and happy to make her happy. But there was that old chestnut, her past, latent or invisible most of the time, exploding at just the wrong moment.

So, her husband was good to weather the storm, however inconvenient or awkward it was. What are over 40 friends and family members when you've constantly got cameras in the house, anyway?



Still, you had to feel bad for Jason when he had to sheepishly offer up "she really hates birthdays" to the guests in order to explain Bethenny's deer-in-headlights reaction to the non-surprise party. A surprise affair probably would've significantly upped the therapy bills for Bethenny. That is, if it didn't do worse, like induce some kind of catatonic state, for example.

Whether it was the make-up artist or Ramona offering explanations for why this kind of birthday breakdown (that really had nothing to do with the number 40) can occur, the fact that they "got it" didn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. Bethenny was still going to have her breakdown.

At least Jason wasn't exactly glossing over this disaster of sorts. He was unafraid to label his wife's 40th birthday party a "trainwreck," in terms of Bethenny's weepy, stressed-out response. As for the planning, Shawn was on-point. Yet after watching this episode he might again wonder why he was hired at all.

One can only hope Gina received some kind of apology from Bethenny for the feeding comment. However that whole possible-baptism debacle overshadows this small infraction, especially since Bethenny actually didn't know what was going on behind her back.

It might seem like Jason does candy-coat the issue by looking on the very, very bright side, acknowledging that he at least has learned something about Bethenny in the process. Yet what else can he do? Get angry at Bethenny and thus create even more problems? He did want the party more than her, it seemed, probably because he wanted to, as he said, rewrite her experience of negative birthdays. You can't fault him for trying.

Maybe the skating routine with Ethan will prove more successful. Then again, if you watched 'Skating With the Stars,' you already know what went down.

Of course there's that sunny ending, with puppy, baby and parents in the bathtub, dressed in full beach attire, including sunglasses for Cookie. It was never going to end with Bethenny bawling in the bathroom.

'Bethenny Ever After' airs Mondays, 10PM ET on Bravo.