'The Haves and the Have Nots' Season 7 Episode 16 Review: Veronica's plans for Benny get more devious by the day

Brothers get their brothers raped and current flames link up with older ones to ambush the common apple of their eye at brunch. Need we say more?
(OWN)
(OWN)

Spoilers for 'The Haves and the Have Nots' Season 7 Episode 16: 'Counting the Costs'

If you're looking for a hundred and one ways to bed people who are no way into you but suavely succeeding, then the latest 'The Haves and the Have Nots' episode might come in handy. From brothers forcing older teens to rape their younger brothers, to older women coercing married younger men into sleeping with them - it gets every bit as outrageous as this acid trip from Tyler Perry can get. Trust us, Madison's (Brock Yurich) ex even tries to convince Jeffrey Harrington (Gavin Houston) into surprising the nurse at brunch together. It's all kinds of dramatic and tension filled but what really hits us hard us after the hour long ride that was Season 7's Episode 16 is Veronica Harrington (Angela Robinson) and her schemind mind. What could her plans for Benny Young (Tyler Lepley) be?

Titled 'Counting the Costs', this episode was supposed to reveal whether or not Wyatt Cryer (Aaron O'Connell) is still alive, but like we addressed the issue in our review last week - who the eff really cares, right? Grossly unsurprisingly, he is still very much alive because Vinny did not shoot him after all. Wyatt's mother on the other hand seems to be getting the shorter end of the stick with neither money to appease Mama Rose's control over the prison, nor legitimate information from prison guards who still keep assuring her Wyatt is in custody. Poor, dumb Wyatt mopes about his family to his captor Vinny who sympathizes with the grown man with no common sense or will to be an upstanding citizen of the society, but that's not the same compassion he shows for Sandy for not being able to pull the trigger.

The episode focuses a lot on sibling tension, starting with Vinny and Sandy, moving on to Candace Young's(Tika Sumpter) snubbing a visit to the realtor with Ben all to meet her ex-flame Mitch. Candace assures it's not 'like that' because she's still head over heels in love with Charles who is pretty much done with her bulls***t and has made a choice that's definitely not her. But even though things between her and Mitch seem prospectively great, it might turn sour now that Benny knows who Derrick is and how Mitch gave him false information about the man. The whys of the question aside, what Benny will do in his confrontation with Mitch has our interest piqued, but what we can't absolutely shrug off is the idea of Veronica taking him for a ride with the new info she's been dropping.

Right at the end of the episode, when Benny is sat at the realtor's office (who he thinks sounds 'hot', but actually she's Andy's ex) he gets a call from the queen V. The older woman toys with him over information related to Derrick and tells him deets that contradicts absolutely everything Mitch had told him. We don't quite hear what Veronica tells him right before she is able to seduce her housekeeper's new husband Samuel into bed, but it's obvious she is calling the shots here. And that's not just with bedding guys half her age, whenever she wants. From ogling at Samuel during his very extended pool cleaning sesh to enticing Benny just enough to get him to come over and get into her bed - Veronica is scheming like a vulture but what else can she do. She's in love with a man who loves another woman, she needs something to take the edge off and grown, but much younger men seem to do the trick.

While all of this dropping information seems like another ploy of seduction from Veronica's end, the episode also focuses quite a bit on the absolute mess that is Justin and Tanner's relationship. After their father died, in an attempt to de-gay his brother, Tanner forced a fifteen-year-old girl to rape a then six-year-old Justin because he had to be the 'man of the house'. How did that work out for you Tanner? The resentment and loathing in Justin rages in this episode - something that one would expect in Jeffrey when he learns Madison occasionally sleeps with a very chiselled ex of his. But that's not the case with 'The Haves and the Have Nots'. Brothers get their brothers raped and current flames link up with older ones to ambush the common apple of their eye at brunch. Need we say more about why Veronica's plans for Benny worries us?

'The Haves and the Have Nots' airs on Tuesdays at 8 pm only on OWN.

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