The most interesting parts of Sunday night’s episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians were, as usual, brief moments in otherwise over-exaggerated plotlines. For instance: why did E! censor the faces of Balmain designer Olivier Rousteing and model Jourdan Dunn?
In the episode, Kylie discusses her nerves re: walking the Billboard Awards red carpet without her sister Kendall, who was there to promote Balmain’s line with H&M with Rousteing and Dunn. The event took place Sunday, May 17, which was the same night the first part of Caitlyn Jenner’s special on transitioning aired on E!. In the new episode of KUWTK, Kylie says she fears getting questions about the transition without Kendall by her side, though she ends up running into Kendall while her sister is walking the carpet with Rousteing and Dunn anyway.
Like the many other randoms who surround them, Rousteing and Dunn’s faces are blurred out during this interaction, despite the fact that they are not randos: Rousteing is a good friend of the Kardashian family, and Dunn at least a friend of Kendall’s who has also worked with Kanye West. The moment invoked past episodes of KUWTK, when Kanye appeared but would not be miked—his commentary later subtitled to be fully understood—or when Kim was clearly speaking to her daughter North, but North remained slightly off-camera.
In the episode, Kylie says she knew Kendall had to walk the carpet alone, but then— probably to create some conflict for the television show she is a part of—says that Kendall “ditched” her. Later on, however, it becomes apparent that Kendall’s new career might be changing her relationship with her family on multiple fronts. “I can’t do my own solo thing,” Kendall says during a shoot with her sisters and mother for Cosmopolitan magazine’s 50th anniversary, “because I guess it’s like a conflict with something I already had. I heard Cosmo’s not happy about it, but mom handles everything.”