[S09.E03: I Will Survive]

1 minute ago, OtterReality said:

Maddie's birthday is in November. Kody should have given Maddie her watch for her birthday and given Caleb the matching one for a Christmas gift a month later. Kody's an unthoughtful jerk though.

He's set a precedent now.  Come Mykelti's, Aspyn's and Logan's birthdays, their significant others should be expecting a gift equal to the birthday child...or does that privilege extend only to Caleb, The Knighted One.

[Meri Brown and her Wet Bar of Tears]

10 minutes ago, Marshmallow Mollie said:

Agreed, I think it's odd to say it is a natural progression. Janelle (via Maddie) and Robyn have/had young kids at home, Meri could, for instance, host a family dinner once a week. Then those households don't have to worry about making a meal or cleaning their house.

Or who knows how their finances work, but this is the perfect time for her to work like hell to help with retirement, college costs for the other children, savings, etc.

I know, I know, it's Meri and Meri isn't into to working or anything that isn't exclusively for living her why and making her happy (eyeroll). My point is there are ways she can contribute to the family and still be engaged even though she is an empty nester.

In a perfect polygamy world, I think that's the way it's supposed to work.  In a sense, each of the wives are partnered with the other wives and share not only a husband, but support each other emotionally as a spouse would.  

I don't think this lifestyle is right for Meri, she grew up in it, so she should know what to expect and what is expected of her.  It's possible she has never encountered a well functioning polygamist family (if there is such a thing) and had no role models to pattern her behavior.  Kody and Meri have been in therapy before the show even started and if after all these years they still haven't reached common ground and acceptance, it's probably long past time to call it quits. 

The fact that she engaged in the dalliance with the catfish indicates that she is detached from the 'group think' where she could have taken her perceived voids in her life and embraced the concept of  'all for one and one for all'.  She has made a pariah of herself and I don't think she wants it any other way.

[S09.E03: I Will Survive]

35 minutes ago, Kohola3 said:

But, but, but......the teeny-tiny Bible forever strapped to their bodies!  That can only be read with an electron microscope.  Another load of cockamamie religious crap.

When Maddie is in labor, they can ALL crowd into Janelle's bathroom (if it isn't their's by now).  Caleb will be able to time the contractions with the swell new watch, gifted to him by his loving FIL for Maddie's birthday.  

When the 72 hour labor becomes overwhelming, they can flip the watch over and find some bible verse that justifies this travesty.

[Meri Brown and her Wet Bar of Tears]

11 minutes ago, Celia Rubenstein said:

I'm sorry, but that skirt. If I had sewn that as a 9th grade home ec project, I would have received a failing grade. 

I just don't think I have ever seen an uglier line of clothes than the stuff in that picture. It seems like it has to be some kind of joke. Each outfit is worse than the last. Just mind bogglingly hideous. 

Whoever styled this presentation should be fired.  The redhead in the fugly skirt is facially attractive, but the garments emphasize all of her figure flaws (and we all have some).  The top should not have been tucked in and whoever thought that their pasty white lower legs should be exposed is way off.  Don't they carry a line of leggings, that would have given continuity to that awful gap between the skirt hem and those hideous booties or whatever they call those shoes. 

[S09.E01: Meri Moving?]

On the few occasions we have seen Meri have the family over, they are seen kicking off their shoes at the front entry.  I wonder if 'shoes off' will be a house rule in the B&B.

[Meri Brown and her Wet Bar of Tears]

23 minutes ago, Kohola3 said:

What the heck are they wearing on their feet? 

I'm just glad this isn't close up - it's bad enough without the glaring details if the hideous prints.

I notice the moderator isn't decked out in LLR, but the guy on the far left is loud and proud in his colorful smock.

[S09.E03: I Will Survive]

19 minutes ago, ginger90 said:

Poor Janelle 

If she had "Strived" a little harder, she might have been fit enough to get to the front of the line.

[Meri Brown and her Wet Bar of Tears]

14 minutes ago, TurtlePower said:

Right? Wasn't sure if I even heard that correctly. I wonder if she is planning for it to "fail", and when it does, she's got her quiet place away from the family (which she's clearly alienating herself from).

Eagerly awaiting this Sunday's episode when this snippet will be expanded on and we get the full picture.  If this is as it appears, Meri had some audacity to ask the others to be involved financially but I wonder if this was her sly way of extracting her equity from the LV home.

[S09.E03: I Will Survive]

2 hours ago, ginger90 said:

I can’t watch......did someone describe Garrison being dropped off by Logan? As in, Logan didn’t even go in the house?

I thought I heard that mentioned too, but I thought Logan and Michelle were attending school in Wyoming or Montana.  Maybe Garrison's base camp is in one of those places and Logan drove him down and we just missed him in attendance with all the commotion that any Brown event entails.  

[Meri Brown and her Wet Bar of Tears]

16 minutes ago, TurtlePower said:

I have been asking that question for a couple years. Maybe she stays around to make everyone else miserable. 

I think she will stick around until every last drop of TLC funding has been squeezed, then she'll head off to Get Her Groove Back and #Live Her Why in Parowan.

[S09.E03: I Will Survive]

30 minutes ago, ginger90 said:

Regarding the bath house

I hope she gave her feet a helluva good scrub, before she went.  Did you catch the soles of her feet when she was sitting on the couch...unless she was out on the desert walking barefoot in some exercise program, she has one very dirty house.

[Janelle Brown: Smarter Than Your Average Brown (Maybe)]

6 minutes ago, LilWharveyGal said:

Random thought:  I wonder if Janelle had to go begging-bowl-in-hand to the rest of the family to request their cash and emotional support for her sparkly, passionate dream a la Meri, or if she had that much saved up in her "grocery money" account already and went ahead with her plans on her own.  We'll never know, but I'm curious.

Don't forget that Presbyterians are sharks!  (Comparative Religion)

Wearing dollar store boas and performing awkward dances is entertainment. (Music and Drama)

[Meri Brown and her Wet Bar of Tears]

5 minutes ago, TurtlePower said:

I forgot about that! There's so much BS with this woman it's hard to keep it all straight. She definitely did not deserve what happened to her, no one does, but I don't feel empathy from the fallout on how she handled it. 

My contempt for Meri arises from the fact that she was 'all in' with this escapade right up until the moment of discovery, it didn't just happen to Meri, she was an eager participant.

If she was truly a strong woman, she would have extricated herself from a loveless marriage before pursuing an alternative.

[Meri Brown and her Wet Bar of Tears]

31 minutes ago, TurtlePower said:

I have heard the messages she left. There were also the photos JO had, something with a banana (that I never wanna see again), it was definitely Meri. This is why everyone  in the family had--and still has--a right to be so angry with her--she minimized all of this, made "Sam"/JO out to be 100% the bad guy. She then moved on without addressing the reality of how she really felt; she was the victim in all this. I feel like her "remorse" was never about the pain she caused others, but rather the pain inflicted on her. 

Whatever, Meri. It's still under that rug where you last swept it. And everyone knows it. 

And let us never forget, brave little soldier that Meri is, was 'protecting' the family from some imaginary/implied threat by going along with Sam/JO.

[S09.E02: Groomzilla]

33 minutes ago, AZChristian said:

Kody made a comment that Maddie and Caleb lived in a "tiny town" in Wyoming.  He said it had "one stop light, if that."

Just for the record:  Laramie, Wyoming has over 36,000 people, and is the county seat of Albany County.  They don't usually put even junior colleges in towns with one or two stoplights.  Their website shows a pretty good number of restaurants - local and chain.  It's right on I-80, and its many hotels/motels would be useful to people traveling on the interstate.  It's similar to my husband's home town of North Platte, Nebraska.  NP has lots of stoplights  et, Kody calls it tiny, in a tone of voice that infers he knows what he's talking about.  As usual, he is full of hot air.  It's not Las Vegas, but it's nothing like what he described either.

Kody envisions himself the worldly sophisticate now that he lives in LV and hobnobs with celebrities.  He no doubt thinks of himself as on a par with headliners.

[Meri Brown and her Wet Bar of Tears]

1 hour ago, Fosca said:

<pedant> Polygamy is actually the generic term: what the Browns have is technically polygyny.  One woman/two or more males is polyandry, and is a lot less common. </pedant>

As I recall, Kody nearly hurled his cookies just thinking about polyandry when an interviewer or someone brought it up, calling it disgusting.  And yet everyone is supposed to be just dandy with his polygyny, and if someone doesn't like it it's because they are bigots or whatever.  Sauce for the goose, Kodester.

It was Meri that brought it up, I can't recall the circumstance, but they were seated in a restaurant and she was trying to elicit some kind of testament of his commitment to her.  As I recall, Kody used the word 'disgusting' at the mere thought of multiple husbands.

[S09.E02: Groomzilla]

5 minutes ago, Jeanne222 said:

Does FT work?  Don't tell me he's living off of this show too? and get 

How can Maddie move back home?   Doesn't her husband work?

This is sounding like the Duggers.  Nobody works.  Everybody's a star!  I bet FT and Derrick Dugger never dreamed so bid!!!

FT will probably do the same as Camo Caleb and get Mykelti enlisted into Meri's LLR downline.  Free beds and eats for all in the cul-de-sac. 

[Meri Brown and her Wet Bar of Tears]

42 minutes ago, AZChristian said:

Maybe the truth of the birthday movie trip was that Meri wanted to take Solomon, but Sobyn wouldn't let him go with Meri unless Kody went along to make sure that she didn't take Sol across state lines and imprison him in one of those bedrooms in Parowan.  Meri has always loved Sol.

It's heartbreaking to see Meri take such a devoted interest in Sol...baking/craft sessions, while Truley sits and watches Sol toddle across the courtyard for fun times at Meri's house.  Sort of contradicts the whole concept of embracing each others kids as their own.  Even if Meri doesn't feel the affinity to Truley that she does to Sol, it will never develop unless she nurtures it.

[Meri Brown and her Wet Bar of Tears]

11 minutes ago, Kyanight said:

I totally see your point - BUT - on your birthday you shouldn't have to pick an activity that a grown man wants to participate in.  Any OTHER time - sure.  But if what Meri wanted to do on her birthday was go see a kid's movie - then she should get to see it and KODY should suck it up and be a decent human being just because it's her birthday.  And that's what she wanted to do.  Not sure why she took Solomon unless she's afraid to see a kid's movie without a kid because of what people might say.   I went to see Shaun the Sheep - (well duh - it's obvious I think he's a cutie patooty!) with my 21 year old son and believe it or not there were other adults in the audience there without any kids.  Of course we went kind of late at night, lol.  But you get my point.

Pretty sure the reason she took Solomon was to get Kody to go with her at all.  The way things have been going between them, he probably would have been quite happy to just take a pass on any birthday celebration for her.  By involving Sol, his Golden Boy, Meri manipulated Kody into a night out.

[S09.E02: Groomzilla]

17 minutes ago, TurtlePower said:

I used to be on Team Meri and felt the same way for quite a long time. And then, one day, I saw it: With Meri, if you pay attention, it's ALWAYS ABOUT HER. She always wants something for herself. She likes to play the victim and blame others. With the catfish situation, she never admitted how crazy she was about "Sam". She never took that responsibility. Instead, she blames "Sam" for saying bad things about the family to try and "get her to leave". BS! Mariah warned her, others warned her, but she fell hard and was ready to bail. 

Meri also insults her followers on social media, often "rolling her eyes" at them when they respond to the myriad of cryptic, "woe-to-me" posts that leads people to think there's something wrong. When they respond, she gets all mean instead of writing a more articulate answer of the misunderstanding. Over and over she does this.

The turning point for me was how she treats her followers--if you don't have anything great to say about her, you're blocked or insulted. Even if the comments come from a place of concern, she doesn't care. And she expects the family to back her up, yet she alienates herself from them. And then blames THEM. So done with her. 

I was ambivalent about Meri until we witnessed the episode where Meri and to some extent Mariah, sat snivelling in the court of the cul-de-sac because they weren't able to move in to the new house before Christmas.  Wah-Wah-Wah, it was her own fault for not getting paper work attended to on time.

Instead of jumping in and helping the moms of multiple kids get settled as you would expect a good plyg. family member to do, it was all about herself and her inconvenience.

[S09.E02: Groomzilla]

40 minutes ago, Natalie68 said:

I had a vision flash through my head.  *IF* FT is bold enough, and I kind of think he is,  it would be super awesome if he told Kody that since Meri isn't at her house much he should let he and M move in to it.  

I have a fillin' there will be some shuffling going on in the old cul-de-sac.  I can envision Robyn angling for Meri's house with her 5 bedrooms, Maddie and Caleb moving into Robyn's house, they'll want to keep Maddie close because she too is now embroiled in LLR.  At the very least , Kody may ask Janelle to give up her master bedroom suite to Maddie and Camo Cap, per the preview where he said something like "the kids will need their own bathroom".

If they are wise, they will keep FT and Mykelti close, where they can keep an eye on him and I'm sure there are many major banks in LV that would be eager to employ a man of his dignity and intellect.

[S09.E02: Groomzilla]

18 minutes ago, Gothish520 said:

I understand why everyone is telling Meri to cut and run, but it's not that simple, if you think about it. If she tries to take her money out of the family coffers, she is basically cutting her ties to the family completely. They have an agreement and a commitment to each other, and to the family as a whole. Whether we agree with it or not, that's the way it is. Meri would have to think long and hard about what taking her money and leaving the family would mean. In fact, I'm sure she has thought about it, a lot. And the benefits of staying outweigh the risks, at least for now.

Meri would have cut and run without a backward glance if 'Sam' had turned out to be real.  

[S09.E02: Groomzilla]

The 5 individual wedding cakes were utter nonsense and a blatant disregard for the budget.  I have made wedding cakes for 3 of my grand daughters and I can state that the expense is not in the ingredients for the batter and frosting so much as the time factor in assembling and decorating.  I would venture a guess that the 5 cakes of different flavors would cost as much as 4 full size tiered cakes.  They could easily have made a 3 tier cake, with different flavors in each of the layers, each tier could have had 3 layers, giving them a choice of up to 9 flavors or duplicating the most popular ones.  That way, Mykelti could have had her choice of German Chocolate for at least part of the cake.  But no. The Browns. And maybe TLC money.

Had I been Mykelti and had the aversion she did to a smash cake in the face, I just may have arranged with the cake shop to decorate an actual chess piece, maybe Mexican onyx to use as my Queen, to checkmate Tony in his early stages of control.

[S09.E02: Groomzilla]

9 hours ago, MrsPatrickBateman said:

This. This is all I could see. I would not be surprised if they had an affair.

Much as I dislike Robyn, I don't think lust is what predicates her flirting with Tony.  Robyn wants to be idolized by every member of the family as the great Goddess She-Ra.  She feels her tawdry flirting with Tony is a means to establish rapport with him.

[S09.E01: Meri Moving?]

9 minutes ago, greekmom said:

Meri, Janelle and the douche had jobs.  Christine stayed home to watch the kids.  Despite the fact that Meri was a major beyotch then, the Browns overall were happier than they are now.

If Meri (and to an extent Janelle) had any common sense, they would Air bnb the empty rooms in the LV homes and play up the "stay with the sister wives" aspect.  Even offer shuttle services for extra $$ or uber.  

What a great concept.  Could you just imagine breakfast with Janelle, tater tots smothered in processed cheese food and for an extra small fee, the experience of a dip in Meri's whirlpool tub by candlelight.  She may even scratch your loved one's initials on your soapy leg.