On last weekend’s 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After?, Asuelu had to tackle his sister Tammy to protect his wife.
Tammy is well known to viewers, and not in a good way.
She has lunged at Kalani and made explicit threats of violence.
But there’s plenty of information about Tammy that hasn’t made it onto the show. Who is she, really?
From her first appearance on the show, Tammy has been an antagonist.
While it’s true that Lesina Pulaa is one of the worst in-laws in the franchise’s history, Tammy is her accomplice.
And, at times, Tammy is even worse — with Lesina having to hold her back.
Sometimes, the physical confrontations on 90 Day Fiance seem like the cast is only doing it for the cameras.
(Okay, we’re talking almost exclusively about the Potthast family. Also about Jovi and Yara’s strip club conflict)
But Tammy lunging for Kalani? If it was acting, it’s shockingly good for this show.
Somehow, Tammy continuously expressed the belief that Asuelu and Kalani "owe" Lesina support.
While Tammy felt fully justified in telling Kalani how to be and what to do, that did not extend to Kalani’s family.
She acts like Kolini has no right to speak whatsoever … a weirdly inconsistent view that she has not explained.
Violent threats are just part of it, as we mentioned.
Tammy has also seemed to believe that Lesina is justified in pushing this intergenerational pyramid scheme onto Asuelu.
Lesina wants money from all of her children, apparently. Does Tammy give her money?
Tammy’s name is Tammy Acosta.
Like the rest of the Pulaa family, she is originally from Samoa.
Tammy married a man named Erik Acosta, who has not been seen on the show.
Tammy has two children: a son named Eric and a daughter named Lezyna.
Reportedly, she does have a job.
Aside from her appearances on 90 Day Fiance, however, what she actually does is unclear.
“I have my own little family, just like Asuelu does," Tammy told the camera after pushing for more cash for Lesina.
"I work and take care of my family here, but at the same time, I need to take of mom and my parents back home,” she added.
Bizarrely, Tammy then insisted: “He needs to help back home and make it fair.”
There is, of course, nothing "fair" about endlessly sending money to someone.
Asuelu didn’t sign up to be born — no one does.
There is no justice in his mother demanding regular payments from him because she feels entitled to it.
Though Tammy does not appear to be on Instagram, she is on Facebook.
There, she has posted about how "the opinions of others" do "not matter" to her.
We suppose that this must be a comforting thought to someone who receives public backlash for her bad behavior.
It is possible that some of Tammy’s violent antics and threats are only for the camera’s benefit.
This was implied by Kalani’s father, Low, who is also Samoan.
He noted that people sometimes modify their behavior when they are in "hand distance," earning a chuckle from viewers and from his wife.
If Tammy is acting, though, she is much better than some of the less convincing members of the cast.
(Angela Deem, for example, is not a very skilled liar; her tone and facial expression are easy giveaways when she’s being dishonest)
From her appraisal of the house to her snubbing of Kalani to her aggression that evening … Tammy seems sincere.
Cultural differences are not enough to explain the malice and hostility at play here.
And frankly, though Lesina is not the only one to present Samoan traditions as a pyramid scheme, Low has explained that she’s misrepresenting things.
Sometimes, someone is a bad person and tries to hide behind claims of cultural differences. It’s a shame that Asuelu’s relatives have chosen to be this way.
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