taragel

Religion just seems like a very convenient excuse for these folks. They treat God like their imaginary friend who visits them in their garage occasionally, like Snuffleupagus visits BIg Bird. I thought it was very telling that when Garrick was talking about what was important about marriage, he said it wasn't about the ceremony or the vows but how they feel about each other. Uh, isn't the spoken vow (and all the pomp and circumstance that may or may not accompany it) the most important thing to you if you're uber-religious and getting married? If not, why marry these women at all? Just live/date/fornicate with them. Don't confuse your kids with this endless "search" for additional wives. Not a lick of sense amongst any of them sadly. Actually...Natalia seemed smarter than I expected. When she wasn't talking about loving/marrying Garrick, she seemed pretty savvy and on the ball. Did it also say she was studying to be a lawyer or some such? If she's in it for the money, she better work on "designing" better jewelry for the sisterwives. (The ring and necklace were both My Sisterwives' Closet worthy.)

Agreed. Although I was surprised by the pratfalling roll he did on to the wedding stage. That reminded me of something Kody might do/had done when he was younger. He did used to have a lot more goofy moments. They all talk so much about how he's changed/is a different man and I think we've always seen the frustrating/unfair sides of his personality so it's easy to be like "Bah, he hasn't changed much." But talking about this and watching the Look Back episodes, he was a much happier man (it seemed) when he was younger. More open to love, seemed to give his affection much more freely (didn't seem like he was pretending/playacting). I guess all his good humor went out the window as the strains of being a polygamist when it would've been so much easier to be monogamous with Robyn (in his eyes) who catered to him as she would her "best customer" took over.

Oh, thank you! Correcting above!

It was nice to see the adult kids again (though I wonder how the contract works/if they get paid to sit down for confessionals now--brief though they were). There was also a brief shot of the side of Leon's head on the boat, as they were in the row in front of Janelle, I think, right before or after she gave her speech. I was really struck by Maddie being overcome by tears for how happy she was for Christine because David loves her so much/is awesome. That and the brief convo about living with a man in the house all the time with Truely both were such sadly revelatory bits alluding to Kody's continually awful treatment of their moms. And even Caleb seemed sort of angry about it in that confessional. Hope Kody saw it and wailed for an hour about a knife in the spleen from his mancrush.

I definitely saw signs of physical attraction/chemistry/flirting between Janelle and Kody on the show even as late as the Vegas move. I wonder if she had left (for good) first if he would've reacted the way he did to Christine's leaving. Probably not because he wouldn't have taken it seriously since she's left and come back before. Maybe that's why he's in denial that this is "it" and is talking about potentially reconciling with Janelle even now--that's their pattern and he's waiting for her to want/need him in whatever way she does again. I expect he always mistook Janelle's general complacency with him for submission but she was actually doing whatever suited her and maybe he's aware of that now. But I think witnessing Christine's newfound freedom and joy and his unwillingness to reconcile with the boys or pay attention to Savannah has opened her eyes and she's fully done with him now. Hopefully anyway.

Whoof. So much re-trod ground. A few interesting bits: - The unedited scene of Kody and Janelle's big fight was actually uglier than we saw. It's hard to believe they never fought like that previously if she left him on 2 or 3 other occasions. -Kody actually used the term triangulation, which was brought up frequently during last week's show on Twitter. I don't think he used it correctly (surprise) but someone's been peeping the socials. -Meri's dead-eye, dead-voice recitation of "My voice will be heard" actually kind of made me laugh. It was so awkward and weird. Girl...too little, too late. -Why on earth does Kody want to fix it/have a romantic relationship with Janelle if he's finally admitting he's ONLY in love with Robyn? What for? Especially if she's not into it and he's saying he's annoyed that he's only seen as a piece of meat? WHY? WHAT? MAKE THE KODY BRAIN MATH MAKE SENSE. I know he's always angling but....surely he realizes he doesn't get any brownie points for hanging on to one more wife. He obviously doesn't care about his eternal heaven kingdom or whatever it is. I just don't get it. -I am ready to hear how Kody keeps sabotaging his relationship with Robyn by picking fights with her. Give me every schaedenfreudish detail. -I want a real question about personal debt and finances and Coyote Pass but I won't hold any breath for that to come. -i hope David is truly a delightful person who matches Christine's energy and love investment.

Probably not, but didn't Maddie have a nose peircing or eyebrow or something as a teen? Maybe I'm misremembering as Google isn't showing me anything on that. But when Kody first said that Christine has two piercings -- I thought he meant ears and somewhere else non visible/scandalous -- not two in her ears. Lol. Although now she has a tattoo on her chest and a lot of the kids have tattoos also. I also thought it was funny/intentional that as they were talking about Kody forbidding earrings so the wives wouldn't/never wore them...they kept showing old photos of the wives all wearing earrings. And then Kody said he had an ear pierced in high school and they kept showing his class photo, but I didn't see an earring or stud or anything in those? Maybe my vision was failing me but I thought they were trying to slyly point out that these fools even lie about trivial shit like that.

Me too. There was a scene much later, when they were moving their mattress in at the Vegas house where they were super flirty/affectionate/making with the innuendos and it surprised me.

NVM - late to the party seeing the trailer but glad the show is back!

A new clip of Janelle (and some Kody) from part three! GO JANELLE, GO! Sister Wives’ Janelle Is 'So Tired of Counselor Robyn' Meddling in Kody Drama (msn.com) https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/recaps/sister-wives-janelle-is-so-tired-of-counselor-robyn-meddling-in-kody-drama/ar-AA15YiEw?cvid=29d89fea48bb4d669c0c7187440f0741&ocid=winp2fptaskbarhover A little disappointed this isn't the segue into getting into Gabe and Garrison more but maybe there is more to come in the show itself.

Is it me or am I not seeing anything in these articles about Meri "confirming split" other than them playing her Kody's clip saying she can just go elsewhere and her saying "I guess he made a decision"? I mean they're already divorced and have been for years...so the only thing that would really confirm the split is her maybe leaving Flagstaff for good? But it wouldn't honestly surprise me if this signifies nothing/no changes. She'll just keep living like a single woman in Flagstaff presumably. Maybe she'll talk to Robyn... a little less?

Three parts!

Right, but... as the head of Deadline, Nikki (RIP, as she died earlier this year I believe) and/or her staff would have pretty good sources and good familiarity (as would many other Hollywood folks) as to what reality tv show budgets look like at TLC. So that top number about the budget is likely correct: 250-400K an episode. It sounds about right to me (my knowledge is limited but I'm a literary agent and when my authors books get adapted they get 2% of the budget for the film/TV episodes or a flat fee in the same ballpark) that the cast wouldn't get any more than 10% of the episode budget. So I think those numbers are probably pretty accurate. What happened regarding taking a pay cut in 2012 or subsequent raises afterwards or how the Kodouche clan allocates the money? All that we're very unlikely to ever know unless one of them actually talks about it (and even then... 🤷‍♀️). Completely agreed that the money they take in from the show seems like it could not possibly fully fund their lifestyles, maybe not even just their mortgages alone. Some percentage of all the graft (Kody's actual career as a gun salesman, Meri's inn, Lularoe, Plexus, Cameo income, whatever Robyn does, real estates sales) clearly goes into the family income, but even then.... In addition to the crazy housing and daily living expenses, Kody has a taste for fancy watches, a wardrobe x4, and previously at least, expensive cars. I agree that he likely funds his lifestyle by being "creative" with money just as he said last episode. He grifts the system, relying on backruptcy, tax evasion, and who knows what other under-the-table type dealings and no doubt carries an enormous amount of debt.

Me too! October 11 Libras, unite! That Kody would call him on his birthday, when their relationship had already been pretty estranged and he gave Gabe so much flack about not obeying his "protoculls" only to say "Oh shit, Robyn and the kids (and maybe me) got it anyway. What should I do now? I'm so confused!" is so perfectly egregious that it's right on brand for Kody. Of all the needy selfish things you could call and ask him about (and there are so many, when it comes to Kody)... how to protect Robyn/you from Covid is like literally the very worst possible thing. The fact that there was no follow up confessional with Kody about it also seems very telling -- though a little surprised they didn't have one where they clearly ask Kody about it and he complains that he was out of his mind with Covid AND ROBYN MIGHT DIE, how could Gabe dare expect him to remember something as insignificant as his birthday. I wish Janelle had been more pissed and challenged him more at that restaurant. She's great in the talking heads, not so much in the room/on her feet. Define loyalty, Kody, without mentioning Robyn (or Christine). Can you even do it? I have a hard time blaming her or any of the OG wives for sticking it out so long though. Even though the Browns aren't religious or following the polygamist/Mormon traditions much, they all clearly have some indoctrination issues they can't shake. Anyone who can say "I won't give up on this marriage even though I'm not sure I love him" has a whole magazine rack to work through probably. I'm loving how terrible this all is for Kody, but this does feel like an incredibly long season, eh? (I'm also amused that even after leaving him and being in Utah, Christine still has more screen time than Meri.) I thought for sure this was the finale and next week would be a tell-all. If they even do one. I would love for them to get Leah Remini to host it. Haha.

The pay cut was actually many seasons back. Now that the ratings are up again, maybe pay has increased. Here's the most recent piece I could find (dated 10/25/22) about payment from Nikki Swift's news site (she was the former head/founder of Deadline). There are links to the InTouch and SoapDirt articles at the link too : https://www.nickiswift.com/1069511/how-much-money-do-the-stars-of-sister-wives-really-make-from-the-show/ Unlike other reality stars that have individual salaries, the Brown family in "Sister Wives" get paid as a collective. In Touch Weekly notes that the famous clan rakes in roughly 10% of the show's budget per episode, which is in the neighborhood of $250,000 to $400,000. If you do some quick math, the Browns only get $25,000 to $40,000. That may seem like a high amount, but there five adults (plus their kids) in the family splitting this salary. However, there were also reports that the Browns took home more than that. Per Soap Dirt, the adult members of the family each took home $180,000, totaling nearly a million dollars per season. But when TLC suggested that they cancel "Sister Wives," the patriarch of the family, Kody Brown, reportedly negotiated the network and agreed to a pay cut to keep the show on the air. He purportedly proposed to continue doing the show for one salary, less than $200,000. This apparently happened for season 12, but seeing as the show is now on its 17th season, it's safe to say that his tradeoff was successful.