IvySpice

All of this is well speculated. He was healthy for most of the time that Robyn and his kids have been in the public eye. A tabloid would pay him real money for a truth-about-Robyn interview with supporting evidence. Why hasn't he done that? The best explanations are (1) he's already been paid somehow to lay low (2) he's actually an unselfish parent who won't publicly humiliate his kids by smearing their mother, even at the cost of being labeled an abuser on national TV.

Or that his children with Christine were scared to tell him some fairly big news in THEIR lives (getting a stepdad) when they talked to their dad. Either way, healthy parenting relationships there. A. Of course, you're right. B. This is TLC we're talking about. Filming was a financial investment, and they're going to air the footage to recoup those dollars unless there's a scandal so bad that they believe it would hurt THEM. Like, hypothetically, if a prominent member of the family were revealed to be a child sex abuser.

Me too, but I didn't marry her! Marrying people you like seems an absolute minimum bar, KODY. I was thinking of the atomic explosions from the opening scene of Oppenheimer...

I agree with everyone that it remains to be seen if Sparkle Pony Princess is just in a honeymoon phase or if this is really an ideal match. My husband and I were a lot like this when we met at 38 and 45. We've been together 10 years now, and it's still pretty much sunshine and roses. One reason I'm hopeful for Christine is that, like me and my husband, they won't have much if any parenting stress, and maybe not money stress either. It's pretty easy to stay honeymooners when you don't have kids and day jobs to sap all your energy.

Yes, we never learned what Kody was really going to say about Christine, because it started with "She made the accusation..." The Robyn-mediated follow-up was totally inconsistent with that prelude. Yes, he was Mormon, which makes the speed of his relationship with Christine make a little more cultural sense. Marrying 11 months after you meet is not so speedy in that context.

It's nice to see that Mykelti was in Madison's picture, too. They're still a family across moms.

I am yet another person on the thread with panic disorder. No, I haven't seen a single frame of this show that made me think, "She's having a panic attack." Mary from 90DF: The Other Way did a slightly better job of faking one. Some people who've been having panic attacks for years are good at hiding them -- my husband doesn't always realize I'm in the middle of one if I don't tell him -- but Robyn is clearly trying to show everyone that she's upset, not pretend like everything's OK. Panic attacks are a misfiring of the body's suffocation alarm system. If Robyn were panicking, I would expect to see/hear about physical symptoms such as sweating, trembling, heart palpitations, headache, nausea/vomiting, chest pain, stomach cramps, and stiff or tingly hands. You typically either see the person hyperventilating or (if they've gotten some treatment) working hard to keep their breathing steady, with long, deliberate breaths. They either look like a person having heart issues or a person with food poisoning trying not to vomit, because that's what having a panic attack feels like. What Robyn needs is a fainting couch and smelling salts. She's a throwback to another century.

Damn, does Robyn ever respond to a stressful situation without a fit? She's a 45-year-old mother of 5! It's creepy and manipulative if she's faking it, but it would be pretty bad even if all those crying jags were real. Some people can't help getting choked up, but getting choked up is not the same as getting hysterical and running away. She has had YEARS to get used to the idea of each sister wife leaving. It's one thing when (allegedly) bad news is fresh, but if you can't handle talking about it months or years later? That's not normal for a grown-ass adult. And if you're faking that degree of helplessness, you are a weapons-grade drama queen. You have to love Robyn interrupting Kody to say "We're so happy for them" in the wedding episode preview. She knows damn well he looks like an embittered fool when he goes off on his rants. Imagine thinking that providing love, care and support to the stay-at-home caregiver of your 13 kids was WASTED. I'm on a different page about this. At 53, single with six kids, and (no shade, just looking at chronic health conditions) overweight, she's smart to be worried about her family's financial future, especially given this show's possible demise. I'm 48 and childless and actively planning for retirement. None of us knows when a health problem will keep us from working or when a child or grandchild will have an emergency requiring support. I respect Janelle a lot for being concerned about this. I want to bring Kody's attention to the fact that if plural marriage was a horrible experience for him, he might turn some of that anger toward Joseph Smith, his own dad who joined the AUB, and the other patriarchs who set this system up, rather than the women he chose to marry? That was actually insightful on the wives' part, and I have no doubt that it would have been true. Too bad Kody had to see this as the wives' failure rather than as revealing part of the truth: that the reason they didn't get along was partly because they didn't feel he was treating them equally. If they didn't have to fight for scraps of his attention, they'd be fine.

Well, why are you even doing things that you know would upset the other wives? How about you just treat them equally in the first place so there's nothing to hide? Then you might not have gotten the knife in the kidneys.

Is it me, or is this format kind of awesome? I'd still love to see the adults confronting one another in person, but reacting to this old tape is the next best thing. Kody's "acting" was sure fooling me when it comes to his former affection for the OG3. And the wedding dress situation was a hell of a prediction of the favoritism to come.

Mother Brandan was struggling to keep her lunch down watching the videos of classic Mary. Whatever rehab she's been in, they did a good job and she's working the shit out of her program. You could practically see her thinking: "the serenity to accept the things I cannot change..." before smiling at Mary and praising her. Mary was damn good at changing the subject. "You can't criticize me for shaking my ass online, Shekinah, because you do it too." The apt comparator is not Shekinah, it's BRANDAN. You have set up a double standard in your relationship, and you won't acknowledge it even though it's obvious. Just a reminder, Brandan, that people with personality disorders do not change. Yes. They are actually grown, they aren't bringing any vulnerable babies into this relationship (thank you, Shekinah!) and they aren't financially dependent on anybody else, so they can have whatever sick isolating relationship they want. Mary and Brandan, on the other hand...

I guess I would never be chosen for a romance reality show, because I think there's no point in picking apart evidence of someone's fidelity. If you don't trust them, don't marry them. It's actually that that simple.

At least they've watched the show...unlike the host.

There are only four siblings in my family, but depending on the year, there might well be any pair of us on the outs. It would be amazing to me if a group of 13 OG kids were friends with all 12 others all the time. Add in a stepfamily situation and universal good relations just become mathematically impossible.

I don't know if this is true. If every righteous man needs at least 3 wives to achieve exaltation, there are not going to be a lot of never-married young women in that community. A guy who wasn't super desirable might have a lot of trouble attracting even one. Robyn was still young enough to have more kids, too.

Yes, it reminded me of a 13-year-old who's gotten into big trouble, and is doing her best to pretend that laughing and using dirty words show that she's too cool for your judgment, when she's really terrified and putting up a front. She is WAY too old for that. People should outgrow this stage after middle school. My interpretation. Shekinah and Holly, if your partner telling you what to weigh and how to apply makeup each day is a signal to you that he cares, then you are a survivor of abuse or neglect, and you need to work on healing and not be in a relationship that feels comfortable and familiar. Five sisters and your mom are ALL estranged? You are going to be in a world of hurt. I can only hope that Shekinah's daughter doesn't repeat these sick patterns. Please, please tell me that Midnight is a direct translation of a Tagalog name. Otherwise, you're naming her after her work shift on the pole. A baby this cute deserves a better name, though that's the least of the ways her parents are doing her wrong: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0Xsgpzvs-_/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Bwahahaha! Chances are good that she won't stop even WITH help. It doesn't look like she perceives it to be a problem or is taking any steps to address it. A bag of corks in my couchless living room? Oh HELL no. I mean, maybe she's talking about this bird, as far as the bustline is concerned?

I can picture anyone who's homeschooling 10 kids and working at night, and who is awakened by a preschooler at some ungodly hour, having all kinds of choice words.

Melting down a wedding ring is extreme. That sounds like it would be the means of formalizing a divorce in a non-literate culture. The idea of destroying a ring is literally part of our culture's mythology. It's the marital equivalent of burning a nation's flag. The fact that Meri stuck around after that suggests there was something pressing her besides her attachment to Kody. Maybe she was invested in Leo being in the same household with their siblings, or in the show and its paycheck, or in the sacred covenant, or some combination. But boy, is it unhealthy to stay in that kind of "marriage." I did notice that throughout this episode, Kody and Meri both reflect on their relationship without ever acknowledging that they ever had a child together. Did Leo request not even to have their existence acknowledged? Re "speaking Kody": this means that Robyn takes Kody's tone-deaf, cruel, or narcissistic statements and explains that the meaning of the words is not what the words mean. But this crew sure sold us a bill of goods in the early years of this show! I bought that Meri and Kody were the most connected pair of the original 3 in the Utah period.

Not all of my siblings watch this show, but if they did, this would be an ideal cacklefest the night before our Jewish Chinese banquet.

She gets a pass from me for being angry at the whole world while she's in the process of throwing her husband's stuff onto the lawn. She's allowed to have a tantrum and arrive at a nuanced understanding later on.

Or you could turn to your sister wife, in which case your husband gets enraged because his wives are ganging up on him and trash talking him behind his back. Or maybe that's just Kody.

Thank you so much for prompting me to find that scene on Youtube.

That's how it looked to me. The Brandan/Mary wedding looked like a great event until the bugpocalypse happened. The venue was gorgeous. Too bad they are doomed to suffer together until they decide to suffer separately.

Centuries of gay men have fathered children with their wives. Assuming Kody likes girls, as I think he does, it has to be easier for a straight/bi guy with an unappealing woman than for a gay guy with any woman. Kody was pretty young when he married Christine. My stereotype is that a guy in his early 20s can make it work in practically any situation -- especially if he's not invested in showing his partner a good time.