ProTourist

1) It depends on Justin's income. If he has enough to afford an apartment, he could move out once he's mobile enough to take care of himself. And he would still be part-owner of the house, even if he doesn't live in it. 2) It's possible Senior will find some way, but I think those days are over. Senior has less and less leverage over Justin as time passes, and especially now that Junior is living completely independently of him in Iowa. 3) When the time comes, if both sons survive him, and if Senior does leave his portion of the house to Junior, they will probably sell it at that point and divide the proceeds between them. That's what the survivors usually do, what's been done in my family a few times when a house it to be split among two or more beneficiaries.

Senior understood all right. But he didn't want Justin to keep his appointment with Dr. Now -- that's why he spoke to Justin in such an ineffective way, and it's one of the reasons that Senior brought along Junior -- to sabotage Justin's post-surgical appointment. Yes, Senior is that bad. But Justin should have gone in to the waiting room, and then waited to have a private consultation with Dr. Now after he was done with Junior. This wasn't just a routine checkup after all, and Justin was lucky that nothing was wrong after the surgery. But no, Senior is not supporting Justin or his hobby shop financially, although he does help Justin in other ways due to Justin's disability and because Justin cannot drive. Senior has not given any kind of assistance to Junior for at least the past year, as far as we know -- since Junior moved to Iowa and married Stephanie Sanger.

I'm guessing that's what happened too. One of the film crew probably called the police, and either they did not film it or the footage was not used.

Defensive? Or defending himself by telling the truth? If a lot of misinformation is spread about a person, it's natural to want to let the truth about yourself be known.

Actually, he said it was one of the camera operators on the show who was the perpetrator. He didn't give details on how it happened, but It's possible that the production company has their bank account numbers if they use direct deposit for their payments. [I've known people who have had funds stolen from their bank account, before the days of online banking when there were no 'passwords', where the perps just had their account numbers.]

On that other message board, Justin said he purchased the dog himself, that the voice over by his father stating that he had purchased the dog for Justin was false. He also stated that he has financed the hobby shop all on his own, although he did have to borrow some money from his father at one point when his bank account was robbed, and he paid his father back a few days later once the bank had restored his account. He also said he had run an online version of the hobby shop for six years prior to opening the brick-and-mortar store, and that he is part-owner of the house he lives in with his father.

According to Justin's posts on another message board, he was seeing Dr. Paradise while he was in Houston, and Dr. Now made a reference to his psychotherapy at one point. They did film during one of Justin's sessions, but none of it was used in the episode. In fact, he said a lot of his footage was not used, including filming done after his return to Rhode Island. But I agree that Justin needs more intensive psychotherapy.

I do too -- nothing like personal experience to make one a believer!

Aha, 'tis true! I've found this old news item from 2015. Thanks!

Another post from Justin on that same board said that his father is retired now, so I guess he gave up his window-washing business, but that he's driving Uber to stay busy. And he stops by the hobby shop when he's done driving for the day, and works on building models.

By the way, I read on another message board where Justin posts that the Assanti brothers have their mother's last name, because their parents were not married and their mother had custody of them. So it seems that Steven Senior's last name is a well-kept secret.

The problem was that Justin couldn't remain in Houston that long, because his father kept forcing him to see his brother. At first Justin thought he had lost the needed weight while at home, and so would have surgery shortly after arrival in Houston. But when it turned out that he had actually put on a few pounds, Dr. Now could not approve him and gave him a new weight-loss goal of 60 pounds (not 75) over two months, which would have been thirty pounds a month. When Justin explained that he couldn't remain that long, he asked if he could do forty pounds in one month (ten pounds more for the time period). I think Dr. Now agreed because Justin would have gone back home otherwise and he wanted Justin to have one more chance to have the surgery. And this does fit with pre-surgery WL goals he gave to patients in the early seasons, when people would just have to lose 25 pounds, or even less, in one month, so not unheard of.

Well you may be right, sad to say. I must admit I never saw the father in this light until now. I must be rather naive, which is nothing new for me really. <sigh> I do share your hopes for Justin, but am afraid he may be too damaged. I think we've just got to let go of these people.

Well then that was a very lengthy setup, including helping Justin in opening the hobby shop, to get him out of the house and more involved in life, as Senior had said. But why would the father want to set him up like that? Why would he really care whether or not Justin associates with Junior? Pure insanity with no specific motivation?

The biggest surprise of this fourth episode, for me, has been the change in Steven Senior and his rotten, abusive behavior toward Justin. If Senior has always been like this, then the previous episodes were recorded/edited so as to keep it hidden. Senior had always seemed concerned for Justin and supportive of him, sometimes to a fault, and although he would indulge Junior in the past, it wasn't at Justin's expense as it was now. Even if Senior were paid to dramatize for the show, it's shocking to me that he would be so mean and nasty to Justin in the process; there is no justification for it. The way he turned on Justin was incredible, like a traitor. The screaming fit Senior had in the car as they were approaching Houston, during the phone call with Junior, just because Justin told Junior he was not going to come along to visit him! Senior started acting like a madman, saying 'don't you think that hurts his feelings' but acting as though Justin had just committed murder! Well, with Junior living in Iowa with his wife for the past year, and Justin back home in Rhode Island, I think we are all safe from any additional follow-ups with them on this program. The only hope I have is for Justin, that he can get his life together personally and professionally, and move out of his father's house.

I understand the point you are making, but why would Steven Senior do this? What would motivate him to be so rotten toward Justin? Steven Senior has never impressed me as a delusional, abusive, or deranged person before -- he used to seem like the 'normal' one of the three. Maybe it was just that the show paid him to dramatize and stir up controversy, mostly at Justin's expense. Poor Justin. I was glad when he punched his father in the arm when his father was screaming senselessly at him in the car.

Justin's friend Toni was supposed to be looking after the hobby shop while Justin was in Houston, but then she went down to Houston to be there for Justin's surgery, so who knows what happened to the shop at that point. Probably the shop at least closed for a while when Toni was away. But the shop is still open nowadays, although only four days a week according to the posted schedule.

No, I don't think there was any setup for a fifth episode. Both Steven Junior and Justin have left Houston far behind, and I doubt either of them will return. There was no cliffhanger, because Senior and Junior walked out of the office without Junior's blood draw. They just left.

The episode finally came up on Amazon a few hours ago, and I've watched it. What a strange episode! It was more about the family relationships than about the diet and medical treatment -- even when they were in Dr. Now's office. Here are my take-aways from part 4. There wasn't much repetition from the previous episodes, thankfully -- I'd say about twelve or fifteen minutes total. But the 'new' material, meaning not previously broadcast, is older, from 2017 and very early 2018. I was shocked by the way Steven Senior was lashing out at Justin. With very little provocation he would fly off the handle and scream at him -- and always because Justin would say a little something to Steven Junior -- no big deal really -- that Senior said was hurting Junior's feelings. Since when Is Senior so concerned with Junior's feelings, and so little concerned with Justin's? It made no sense to me that Senior was so interested in reconciling his two sons; he was never interested in that before and used to understand why Justin wanted nothing to do with Junior. I think Senior was wrong to force the meetings between his two sons onto Justin, especially when Justin was in the hospital recovering from surgery. This shows even less respect for Justin. For the first time Steven Junior impressed me as evil, not as just a big, manipulative, grand-standing baby. Yes, I think he is worse that Angie J. To me, he never came across as evil like this in the previous episodes. I couldn't stand to look him full in the face. I don't understand what happened to Junior's hair, and don't believe it was due to some uneven buzz cut. But we know it was temporary because in the photos of Junior with his wife, later in 2018, he has a full head of hair again. I was surprised that Junior was back on the pain meds -- I suppose he found a way to get them without his own prescriptions -- and that he ended up gaining weight toward the end of the episode after he had done so well and was mostly on liquids. I was shocked that Senior took Justin's post-surgical pain meds and gave them to Junior. What is going on with this man, the way he turned against Justin, even to the point of making him suffer in pain after his surgery, to feed Junior's addiction? I was surprised that Justin would go back to Rhode Island without a post-surgical appointment with Dr. Now, although his father never should have brought Steven Junior along to the same appointment, which was ridiculous. I do hope he'll be all right. The way Senior and Junior moseyed out of Dr. Now's office at the end without the blood test Dr. Now had ordered to check for narcotics in Junior's blood -- I don't comprehend the complicity between those two, which was never there before. Senior's behavior toward each of his sons was so out-of-character, I can only conclude either that: 1) Senior is dying and just doesn't care any longer, or 2) Senior was paid very big bucks to stir up controversy for the show, which was mostly at Justin's expense. Either way, both brothers seem to have done with Dr. Now, and I've had it with all of them. I do wish them all well, and recovery to the extend possible. Sheesh.

Window-washing business back in Rhode Island. But who knows, maybe the cars are just different rentals.

No, this is the 2019 episode. If there is another it would be in 2020. The article that said an update was coming 'later in 2019' had been published in April, and at that time it was not yet made public when the 2019 update would be aired.

Especially if they keep doing what it sounds like they did tonight -- one quarter new material padded with three-quarters repeated scenes from previous episodes. And even the 'new' footage is more than a year old. 😒

Steven Junior's middle name is John. I believe within the family he was called John to differentiate from his father who is also named Steven.

Yes, I agree! I used to live in southeastern Massachusetts many years ago, right over the border with Rhode Island, where the accent it similar. 😄

Yes, in the past episodes Steven Senior was never concerned about reconciling his two sons, and he admitted that Justin was doing better since Steven had moved out of their home. So, either Steven Sr. has changed his attitude quite a bit, or this behavior was manufactured for the show. Hrmph.