General Days

I'm pretty sure the "baseboards" weren't baseboards. I think we were looking at the bottom plate — the rough lumber at the bottom of a wall frame. I don't think it was woodwork. It was unfinished and stained (as in discolored from existing there for a long time, i.e. not treated with wood stain). I don't know why they didn't take off the outlet covers, though. That was dumb. They didn't get near the outlet covers I don't think. Maybe Blaire cut around them with a brush. I would have taken them off.

What I got from something recent I saw from Meri (maybe a Facebook video, but I don't remember), is that her "Worthy Up" grift is the tell-all. In other words, people who subscribe will get the "real" story. I have a lot of sympathy for Meri, Janelle, and Christine. I wish them all well. I'm never going to be a mark for one of their grifts.

I agree with your prescription, but don't actually buy the idea that Janelle's finances are a disaster. I think Janelle expects Kody and Robyn to financially screw her and Meri (and she should; Meri is being naïve), and so she is talking like that for a reason. That said, I do think she doesn't have control of the amount of money she should, and she's fighting for it. I think she's also kicking herself in the seat for trusting that she didn't need everything in writing, but I don't think she's tapped out. While I accept that she isn't where she should be, with regard to preparing for retirement (and the end of the show), I think the crying poor is mostly for show.

Lord love a duck. Thank you, Mickey. Here's a link for anyone else who wants to see it: https://www.janellesays.com/ I'm not so sure. I get those two too (but she made the shirts too wordy).

Where is Janelle selling these t-shirts with tongue-in-cheek sayings? All I see on their farm website is shirts with the farm name and slogan, i.e.: Taeda Farms Building Beauty from the Ground Up and then there's a holiday twist on that: Sowing Seeds of Beauty this Season Taeda Farms

never mind

This is part of my personal overarching theory of Sister Wives. It's a long one, so you know it's genuine Genny D. b.s. 😉 The BROWN THEORY: 1) Until Covid, the family used to agree on what narrative they'd put forth, before they were in front of the cameras. There were times a wife broke rank. Most famously was when Christine went off script and made it clear she thought Kody and Robyn's wedding gown shopping ruse was a shitty thing to do, but most of the time, they all protected the narrative on-screen. BTW, I think Christine went off script, because Kody went off script with that "bomb." 2) To stick to whatever the operating narrative at a given time, the Brown parents sometimes speak to each other in coded language on camera. I think this holds especially true when it comes to conversations between Kody and each wife. Examples: Kody and Meri's outdoors conversation (I think in her Vegas yard, maybe) during the catfish aftermath. It seemed clear to me that when Kody said certain things to Meri, she gave him the kind of look you give someone when they bring up something private in front of other people — like "I can go there, but we weren't going to talk about that in front of people." I think she only didn't spill, because Meri realized doing so could land her on the outs with Kody forever, and she (mistakenly) thought she could still win him back. More recent examples of #1 & #2 include this season's staged "fight" between Robyn and Kody, and the restaurant conversation between Janelle and Kody (about paying off the Coyote Pass loans), and last season's big pre-Christmas fight between Kody and Janelle, which pretty much ended their relationship. In the Robyn/Kody fight, at the outset, it was pretty clear the whole thing was originally contrived for the cameras, in order to rehab Robyn and Kody's image, but then it seemed to me that Robyn got real in the midst of it. Kody seemed caught off guard, so he tried to wiggle-word promise Robyn that he'd try to reach out to his kids, to avoid a real fight on camera. After the initial fakery of the conversation, the rest of it struck me as one of the few times Robyn has seemed at all real on the show. I think was particularly real when she mentioned her bio-dad and how she felt forsaken by him. In the Janelle/Kody pay-off-the-loan convo, I am convinced they talked beforehand. I think Kody told Janelle something like, "We'll talk about reconciling, just to string our storyline along, because nobody is going to watch a show called Sister Wives, if they know there's only one marriage left." I don't think Janelle expressed her disagreement with Kody before filming the episode. I think she realized he not only wanted to string along their storyline, he also wanted to deflect from the real issue, which was that their loan was coming due in (then) 75 days. And Janelle is so done with his b.s., especially when it comes to her money. She let him think she was going to play the "should we reconcile game" to get him to the restaurant, and get him on camera, to talk about the loan. You could tell he was reeling, when she immediately changed the subject from a fake reconciliation to their debt. The Janelle/Kody pre-Christmas fight was probably the first time Janelle took a hard on-camera stand that Kody understood to be a legitimate hard stand against him (even though she'd told him to eff-off in a previous parent meeting in Robyn's backyard), and he did not know how to deal with her "No you listen to me" insurrection on camera, so he stormed out of her apartment and shut off communication with her. The Biggest Coded Conversation of All? Since the time that Kody browbeat Meri into deciding if she wanted to try to have another child, only to pull the rug out from under her, I have always believed that Kody's "I think it would be better if we didn't try for a baby" was code for, "I'm not having sex with you anymore." And? I think Meri knew it. I think all the wives knew sex was over with Kody and Meri way back then. In recent seasons, Christine and Janelle have acknowledged that Kody strung Meri on for years. I think they knew, because Kody has always used gossip about the other wives to manipulate whichever sister wife he was with at the moment. I think the Meri/Kody marriage moved to the realm of Make-Believe, when he shut down the possibility of a baby. I just think Meri thought if she jumped through certain hoops, she could regain his favor. My guess is that this had always worked, when it was just Meri, Janelle, and Christine on the canvas, and that acquiring Robyn (which was probably a hoop Meri jumped through) changed the dynamic enough, that Kody decided to change their sick little game, entirely. In the Season 16 "Tell-All," Meri said she and Kody hadn't been intimate in ~10 years. That episode aired in February of 2022. It was probably filmed sometime in 2021 (although who knows with Covid), which means they hadn't been intimate since 2011 or so (and maybe, like Christine, there wasn't a clean intimacy break -- maybe there was sometimes birthday or anniversary sex, but it was pretty much over for them). Meri legally divorced Kody in season 8. The finale aired in September of 2015, but the divorce went through (in real life) in September of 2014. She got involved with the catfish in March of 2015. I think every single Brown parent knew Kody and Meri were OVER (except maybe Meri, who did things on Kody's list like, "Divorce me so I can legally marry Robyn" to try to get back in his good graces). Kody used to spend 1 night out of every 4 (or whatever their real rotation was) at her house, but one of the things Meri revealed during the catfish fallout episodes, is that one reason she kicked him out of her house was that he used to lie next to her in bed and not touch her. I'm not even talking about sex. One of the things she said was that he wouldn't even put an arm around her (or maybe it was hold her hand). I think Meri legally divorced him, thinking he would revive their marriage out of gratitude if nothing else, and he got even colder. She thought, "Eff this," and then the catfish found her at her most vulnerable time. I don't think any of the Brown parents were blindsided by Meri's emotional affair with "Sam." First of all, it seems they had intel from Robyn's friend/employee, but also, I don't think Meri tried to hide it from them — just from us, and maybe from production. I don't even think she tried to hide it from Leon or Kody. Think about how Leon talked about it. They said they tried to warn Meri that it could be a catfish. I don't think a kid says that to mom, unless they already know mom feels romantically involved, and mom knows they know. And? Meri brought Leon with her to Disney to meet "Sam," who then couldn't come, so she met one of the catfish's Alts, instead. You don't bring your kid to what you think is your first in-real-life meeting with your secret, adulterous boyfriend, unless he's not a secret, and you don't think of it as adulterous, because you know your marriage is over, and so does your young-adult kid, who probably realizes that dad has stopped sleeping over. Likewise, Kody talked about how Meri had developed online "friendships," and he tried to warn her that they might not be safe (or honest, or whatever he said). The Browns knew she was moving on. They just didn't want us to know she was moving on. They still wanted to present a positive image of polygamy, because Kody would have felt less manly, and because they were afraid it could derail their gravy train that is the Sister Wives TV series. I think Leon got a little too real about the catfish, on camera with Kody, in such a way that he could no longer pretend to think the catfish was just a mean fake friendship gone awry. I think he realized (or maybe his guy friends made him think) that it made him look like a "cuck." From there on in, he started losing sympathy for Meri's situation, and started talking angrily about it, instead. (The catfish publishing their voice mails and/or texts, or whatever, probably contributed to this too.) Recall Meri's oh-so-coded conversation in that restaurant on the Alaska trip. She said a whole lot of words that amounted to, "Don't be surprised if I'm gone," but she never said why. And none of the parents ever asked her why! That's not natural. I think that's because they all knew why, and they all knew what was coming. I just think they all agreed they wouldn't talk about the elephant in the room on camera, but there are a couple of seconds where you can see Christine looking extremely pleased at the whole thing — not shocked. I think there are other coded or pre-arranged conversations, too. The above are just highlights, but a big one is the whole "Don't let Meri have the Prairie Dog Poop Pond house lot" of a few seasons back. I think there were a whole lot of machinations behind scene, between Kody, Christine, and Janelle. I think Robyn's defense of Meri in that episode was another rare genuine moment from Robyn. Now, maybe it didn't come out of genuine concern for Meri's well-being or finances, or whatever, but I think Robyn realized Kody, Janelle, and Christine had their own little game going, and didn't like it (for whatever reason) and spoke up. Anyhow, this is the biggest part of my working theory on Sister Wives. It's all been so very fake, for so very long. Kody has lost control of his wives now though, so I'm still interested in seeing how the series wraps up. I doubt I'll ever be satisfied — that we'll ever get their real story, but I'm watching to see what we do get.

I think Meri was just priming the walls, but I'm not sure. Meri and Jenn have been friends since the Browns lived in Las Vegas. I know she was around during the catfish days. At some point, the Browns moved to Flagstaff and Jenn moved to Oregon (not sure which happened first). Jenn and her family were going to move to Texas, when Meri's mom died. They stopped in Parowan to help her at the B&B for a while, took to the area, and decided to move there. All in all, Jenn seems to have been pretty ride-or-die for Meri. I pretty much agree with everything you wrote. I have more to say, but it doesn't really pertain to this episode. I'm gonna go figure out where it does belong and post it there. Posted here:

Maybe they think we're "confused"?

Kody has done nothing but sh1t on that girl for at least the last 10 seasons.

Oh spare us, Kody. Did you all catch Kody sobbing and literally shaking at leaving Meri in Parowan? He's not right in the head.

Oh my word, Ysabel is breaking my heart with the tears. I hope Kody watches this and feels it in his gut. I think he's not capable, though.

I do think he sent her mixed messages. I also think she wanted him to tell her to her face, and part of the reason she wanted that, is so that she would have grounds to get a religious release from their marriage from the AUB.

I do enjoy Meri calmly reading Kody for filth in the couch segments. "He didn't have the integrity..." I also appreciated that she said the thing about how it's hard to leave the kids (Robyn's) but that she didn't really get to see them much anyhow, even though she texted and asked all the time. Put it all out there, Meeer. YES!

I'd like to know Kody's list of specific things he wanted Meri to work on. I think the blond one looks like Tony (and Avalon, who looks like a blonde Tony), and the redhead looks like a Brown kid. I don't know, but I appreciate the break from Christine talking about David David David, and how she and David David David know they're going fast, and she and David David David are not going to stop going fast, and intimacy with David David David, and living in sin with David David David, and wedding wedding wedding to David David David. Also, I appreciate Meri's guy friend (Blair) just casually sprinkling some shade on Kody here and there. It breaks up the Meri-Jen giggle fest.