IvySpice

Watched the First Look: Mother Gregory needs to get her story straight. She doesn't want to overhear sex, fine. Neither would I. But what does that have to do with them being unmarried? Would you ask them to sleep in separate rooms once they're married? Let's get real: you don't want him to get a girlfriend and stop being a mama's boy at all. I'm sure I will love to hate Mina, but her distress over leaving her son seems genuine, and that's endearing. Her son looked like he felt safe showing that he wasn't happy about the situation. There are plenty of situations where I side-eye parents on this show for leaving their kids behind, but thus far, it seems legit that the separation is unforeseen and temporary. (In other words, NOT Joanne/Sean.)

Yeah, the French Quarter is a hell of an introduction to freedom. Let's put the worst excesses imaginable on full display...

I could not possibly live in Torrington, WY, and I am American, I grew up with Midwestern winters, and I'm already happily in the old-and-boring stage of life. It's 30 miles from the nearest Walmart. Torrington vs. Hattiesburg, MS is like a "death is not an option" game to me. I guess Hattiesburg is at least a college town. A person could have a swimming pool. But TLC knew they hit the jackpot with Torrington.

I'm pretty sure that was some kind of free or subsidized apartment he was living in. Even a small apartment like that in private new construction in Oakland would cost a fortune.

This episode was like, "What if we shot an episode of Intervention and never did the intervention?" His mom needed to say she was done, and without that, there's no hope. Watching this made me feel like I'm wasting my life worse than Gary.

So he just sent her off into the wilderness without his loving supervision? Where she might sit with men and have no protection at all? That doesn't make sense. If he thought that table was not an inappropriate place for her, he would have brought her elsewhere where he could be sure she was safe. He wanted to sit at that table without her.

This is Matilda in a nutshell. She's going to be a terrific American. So well said! I like Vanja for being kind to everyone, but this was delulu. Well, I'd say she thought she would be competing for Miss Venezuela. Her dress was ideal for that. My husband and I work together. If we were at a work lunch and he told me to take my food and go away because he wanted to eat with some dudes without me?!? I know that's the least of Adnan's sins, but Tigerlily's willingness to eat that shit tells us a whole lot about their "marriage."

All of this. I know a lot more about how all that stuff feels than I care to recall. If you refuse to power through, you will not get better. It's just that simple. You stay in the environment that's stressing you. You feel like you're about to hurl? You don't leave; you carry a bag. You feel like you can't breathe? You don't leave; you breathe right through that feeling. Or you just go home and eat crap and lie about the changes you're making. Either way.

I mean, look at Karine. Pole was smart enough to go after a very young/ignorant girl who lived in the sticks, not a grown woman supporting herself in the city. If death is not an option, I'd choose Brian over Pole.

Someone upthread said that the Chicago suburb where Brian lives is not nearly as nice as the places they're visiting in Brazil. "Suburb" is a strong term to use about that town. You can get to downtown Chicago in 90 minutes on the express train, and it's literally the most remote stop in the entire commuter rail system. It's much closer to Wisconsin and to Rockford than it is to Chicago. It would feel like a freezing, gray prison coming from a big coastal city like Recife, Brazil.

I was thinking that, too. I wonder if Teeny wants to BE Sam.

Niles is from Mobile. I bet that Mobile -- and especially the Black community in Mobile -- is not going to be super different from Ghana when it comes to saying hello and interacting on the street.

Re Evie's surgery, far be it from me to defend Kody, but I never had any grandparent present during any medical procedure, even when we all lived in the same city. Cross-country flights during Covid for a grandchild's operation...no.

John Oliver was making fun of Jamie Oliver, but I watched both the UK and US versions of Jamie's School Dinners, and they did address all kinds of real problems on those shows. The core point is that you can't change the food without providing a lot of context and support OUTSIDE the lunchroom. Kids will rebel and the parents will back them up. To have even a chance of success, you have to integrate lunch into the curriculum; gradually teach kids about one or two unfamiliar foods at a time so they can see, touch, and taste; get kids involved with growing, chopping, and cooking ingredients; educate the parents too -- it requires a massive cultural shift. In the UK, it was wild -- 300-pound parents were sneaking McDonald's to their kids while demanding to know what the problem was with the old school menu.

Thanks to TLC for letting us experience this 56-hour labor saga in real time.