Kim Kardashian Was Always Going to Tell Her Story Her Way

In hindsight, there was never any doubt that Kim Kardashian would retain the power to describe her own experience being robbed in Paris, that she would never lend her story to any platform other than one already integrated into her life. Thinking back to the weeks following that traumatic event, the speculation about what interviewer she would go with seems naive, when she had all the tools at her disposal to do it in her own time and on her own terms.

Sunday night’s episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians was a sharp contrast to the Season 13 premiere the week prior—were this not a reality show, it would fit well into the “very special episode” format favored by after-school sitcoms. Utilizing a variety of stylistic choices, such as title cards and time-jumping, techniques favored in past episodes devoted to serious topics—the episode devoted to Lamar Odom’s overdose, for example—the show explored what the experience of Kim’s robbery was like for her and her family. Six months later, not much was revealed that isn’t already out there; what was notable was the way the story was told. The episode was a potpourri of grainy footage from Kanye West’s documentary team, one camera man filming mostly unmiked individuals, and post-mortems we can assume (though perhaps not with full confidence) were scheduled and planned once proper filming of the show reportedly resumed three weeks after the robbery.

The episode begins the morning after the robbery, with footage of Kim and Kanye entering their apartment in New York with his manager, Kris Jenner and her boyfriend Corey Gamble. None of them are miked; there are subtitles over Kim and Kanye’s words. They speak quietly. “I just don’t want to cry in front of the kids,” Kim says, before they agree they won’t talk about the robbery in front of the kids (though later you see them softly referencing it as North plays in the background). Then, the episode cuts back to a week earlier, when Kim and Kourtney are prepping for Paris, which requires a lot of dress fittings. That continues when they get to Paris, with filming at Balmain and Givenchy. The sisters aren’t miked for much of this either (perhaps it would have gotten in the way of the clothes, or perhaps they weren’t sure they’d use any of this footage in the first place; in past episodes, they’ve often been more spare when filming the more high-end parts of their life, such as their forays in the fashion world). We see Kanye fly to Paris for a day because, in Kim’s words, he “saw pictures online of an outfit I was in, and was like, I have to fly out there and help you with your looks.” There is mention of the “prankster” who tried to kiss Kim’s butt and was handled by her security, and Kim with a man at Givenchy lightly joking about Snapchat. Because we know what is going to happen later that night, every event, bad or good, feels more significant—the family is being set up for the fall.