IvySpice

You're touching on something wise here. The problem isn't that he didn't have a romantic love relationship with each wife. The problem is the mismatch between expectation and reality. Zina Young, a 19th-century polygamist wife of Brigham Young, said that women in polygamous relationships "expect too much attention from the husband and ... become sullen and morose ... a successful polygamous wife must regard her husband with indifference, and with no other feeling than that of reverence, for love we regard as a false sentiment; a feeling which should have no existence in polygamy." The system works fine if you just view your husband as your patriarch. This is more or less what worked for Janelle. But if you want an emotionally fulfilling romantic bond, polygamy is doomed.

The mountain view from Coyote Pass is pretty gorgeous in my eyes. But these are people who thought a giant mud hole was a plus.

I love that the hard-hitting journalists at places like ET do interviews that are that much better than TLC's. We want real tell-alls, people! Even the after-show cast interviews like "Talking Dead" are better than these tell-nothings. At least the hosts have watched the show.

Kody is illustrating why the framework of being "triggered" is so unhelpful. A trigger is a mechanical device that automatically responds to external pressure in the same way every time. People are not guns. They always have choices about how they react, even when provoked. They can learn different ways of responding to a stimulus. But people like Kody use this framework as an excuse. In Kody's mind, he's off the hook because Janelle "triggered" him. It's not the gun's fault somebody fired it. "Losing My Religion" is about unreciprocated love...exactly who was Kody loving without reciprocation? His children? Isn't that something? Earth to Kody: ALL THREE OF YOUR OG MARRIAGES FAILED. These are women who had nothing in common but you. YOU are the problem. Eh. The host works for TLC and will do whatever TLC tells them to do. If TLC wanted to provide us with confrontation, they could. As you say, this is a D-list reality show; Kody knows he can't go pitch it to Netflix. I think the Browns need the paycheck badly enough that they wouldn't just walk away. (From one interview, sure. From the whole enterprise, no way.)

Agreed! If that was a "performance," he's a hell of an actor. He seemed really delighted with Meri early on. Right, and this is why (table for one!) I think it's not crazy for her to consider plural marriage again with an older man. She could have her own place where her husband comes to see her now and then, and she'd probably gain a bunch of bonus grandkids to enjoy. She might have more financial stability, too. The one legitimate argument for plural marriage that's ever had any traction for me is that multiple women can benefit from being with a good guy who's kind and well off. If all the good ones are taken, they're not off the market.

Any theater professors here who can help explain the difference between an "act" and a "performance"? Otherwise, I'm going to tell Kody that the distinction is BS. They're both names for being false to your wife, and all spouses deserve genuine love, not pretend. A better man would be able to say something like: "I'm really sorry, Meri. I married you thinking it was the right thing to do. I see now that I was trying to keep up with my dad, and you were collateral damage. I wish I'd been wiser." But Kody is not that better man.

This setup is discouraged nowadays, because this is being a plain old biological mother, blurring the concept of a surrogate. The "Baby M" case pretty much killed this model in the U.S., though there are still would-be gay dads without a $100,000 budget who might arrange this informally with a friend. Artificial insemination at home is easy and cheap.

Mother Brandan was dead right about Brandan and Mary coming from dysfunctional pasts and having no model for a healthy family. Love isn't enough, and what they have looks more like codependence than love. She even presented her concerns in a respectful way. But even if they wanted to commit to changing (which is a tall order for people with a personality disorder, like Mary), how in the world would they pay for therapy? I doubt that there are Al-Anon meetings or other free support groups in the rural Philippines. Kenny & Armando's scene was sweet and actually rang true to me. There seemed to be love around that table. I can't with Holly. If you move to another country, you have to do the work to build a life there.

Mother Brandan could make a lot more effort to be polite to her hosts. That said, Mary's so worried about being judged -- welcome to having a mother-in-law. MILs disapproving of your house, your cleaning, your parenting, etc. is just how it goes. Grownup women old enough to get married know this.

Right? My uncle left my aunt and their 5-year-old child weeks before her 40th birthday. Then he was hurt that she didn't invite him to her party. I guess there are a lot of people incapable of seeing how things look from the other person's point of view.

Me neither, and now it's all I see. They did an amazing job casting themselves in those costumes!

Given the sunset behind them, I bet they are wearing this to a non-formal dinner. You can get away with a lot on vacation.

Christine's see-through outfit is not my jam, but I think it is appropriate on a Caribbean cruise. If a 50-year-old wore it to dinner in Flagstaff, I'd give her side-eye. That said, she is LIVING "you're never fully dressed without a smile." The joy just radiates out of her.

No kidding. My family started doing them even though we had been living in three different cities to begin with. Now that you mention it, I wonder why we stopped.

Yes. He showed up in the Americas and basically repeated the Sermon on the Mount. This is described in the Book of Mormon.

It's clearly an illegal conversion, maybe of a casita or garage. There is no way that a living unit without an attached bathroom is legal in LA County. Agree that it's a cheap wig. Nothing attractive about that.

No, the story is that American Indians are the literal descendants of these ancient Jews. White Mormons know that they are of English or Swedish descent or whatever. But one of the first things they appropriated from Jews was calling everyone outside of their church "Gentiles." They believe that Joseph Smith restored the original church as founded by Jesus and the Apostles, which fell into apostasy shortly after Jesus's death. So they have a long history of presenting themselves as more authentically Jesusy and tied to ancient Jerusalem than other flavors of Christians.

He may, but I don't think that was the vibe. The vibe was that he's a better, more authentic Christian because praying in Hebrew is more Jesusy. He was joining a bandwagon of people approximating Jewish practices in service of their Christianity. To be open-minded, you'd have to recognize that this tradition is foreign to you. He believed it was his to reclaim.

I hated most of these people today, except for TJ for being joyous about his wedding. I can go back to hating him again when he's introducing Kimberly to her new kitchen wench life. I actually thought Kenny and Armando were cute, joking about their shared taste in women. I mean, this is how we evolved to choose genetic partners.

That pissed me off worse than any of the other religious BS. Anybody who wants to can celebrate Passover -- with Jews. Just as anyone who wants to attend a Catholic Mass can do so, but Buddhists performing a "Mass" at home with crackers and wine is a gross insult to other people's tradition. Kody could visit a synagogue and seek an invitation to a Seder, but why do that when you can just spew some nonsense and feel self-righteous? Loathsome man.

I thought the tech bros were robbed not being in the top 2. I LOVED the tractor beam with the mini-figs stuck to it! It was brilliant to have a continuous belt to create the illusion of upward movement. Then on top of the huge UFO and its beam, they came up with the tractor-Transformers, each of which was compelling and different from the rest. I don't get what was so special about the monkey build. I guess it's a little creative to place the monkeys acting up in school, but it was such a literal interpretation of the sound. And it didn't have the amazing scale or surprising movement elements of either the clock or the UFO/tractor beam.

Istanbul has fantastic food, and the vast majority is stuff that would not violate any American expectations. The raw meatball situation was totally producer shenanigans. It's a real dish, but nobody who speaks English like Sarper would be unaware that it's an acquired taste from a US point of view. It's never a coincidence on this show when the main course just happens to be wriggling octopus, organ meats, etc. Brandan, Mary, and Lolo were having a misery-face contest, and nobody won. Including us.

Right. I have seen good parents come to the end of their rope with grown children, but (1), the kids in question had severe and treatment-resistant addiction problems or personality disorders, and (2) the parents showed obvious distress every time they talked about the sad estrangement. Kody talks about his own children like they're former business partners who screwed him over. I don't see any appropriate emotion from Kody about this situation. Just rage and insistence that these relationships are a two-way street. Hello, a parent-child relationship is not symmetrical! What in the world is wrong with you? Think of how rich Kody's life could be with all these interesting young adults and their families in it. Too bad for what he's missing. The nicest thing about Christine and Janelle is their obvious joy at being around all their kids of every age. She's acting like Kody shutting Meri out (over and over for years) is somehow Meri doing Robyn wrong. That's not how any of this works!

Isn't that adorable. They all look great. I agree about Maddie looking better with her natural hair color. It's not easy to get three little kids to look at the camera/smile. Axel looks like Logan to me!