Grifter Lives

The Browns are so boring that they make time stand still. Here are some of the time markers that suggest that it was around June or July, if all the events in the episode were in the same timeframe: The high school graduation parade occurred on May 29. Christine proposed the move to Utah in late June (based on social media) Janelle said that she had to be in North Carolina in August (or September). Hunter was in Flagstaff for 3 months after his graduation in late April or early May.

She wrote a post about the possibility of weather warm enough for sunbathing, based upon a dog, from her dark living room. She couldn't even bother to go outside, or check her phone, newspaper, television or radio for a weather forecast. I always hope that she posts such insipid reflections to goad us, but that gives her too much credit.

When the fambly met at Prairie Dog Plague Flats for Christine's, "Let's Move to Utah!" sales pitch, Janelle mentioned that she had just attended this wild plant seminar and recommended it to the others. Around the same time (around Page 151 in this thread), she posted pictures of Christine as her accountability buddy for morning hikes. Only because they're the Browns, it's almost believable that Christine never would have mentioned any of her simultaneous life crises (Ysabel's surgery, her realization that Kody's a jack wagon and returning to Utah) to her accountability buddy. I hope that Christine ghosted Janelle the day after their big meeting.

A trip to Sedona in a convertible was Christine's delayed anniversary celebration. Janelle gets the same treat for her great non-communications skills a day or two before Kody and Meri's anniversary. If Meri and Kody celebrate their anniversary this year, it will be behind a rest stop or at the landfill.

I absolutely agree. I may repeat this comment in the episode thread: She wants to move back to Utah to be closer to her family, the Dargers (as if they're so tight), and the plyg community, to which they no longer belong. She also doesn't think that she can be married to Kody "right now." She is entrenched for time and eternity and actually wants to hold tighter, not escape. Her demand for independence is limited to asserting that she won't share a house, but she still assumes that they will all be together, even after Kody has nearly destroyed two of her daughters' physical health and all of her children's well-being, openly loathes her and admits that he retaliates against her children because he is so fed up with her. In every episode, including the finale, she distinguishes how special polygamists are. In the finale, she said something to the effect of, "We're polygamists who are living like monogamists, and that's something we never wanted," to persuade the others.

Someone upthread attributed Kody's overt anger to financial troubles. I'm sorry that I can't find the post, because the poster was insightful. Kody and Robyn took out the emergency $150,000 HELOC on March 20, 2020, around the start of the quarantine. He's seeing the ramifications of his lifetime of bad decisions and has nothing to distract him. So, he lashes out at the OG wives. And to top it off, Robyn starts to nag him about the brown-haired spirit baby who's been hanging around, waiting for her to bring him into the world.

Christine should have just thrown all Kody's justifications for Flagstaff back at him. At the beginning of the season, he patted himself on the back when he reported that his lawyer said the land increased in value already. He even floated the idea of selling the land then. (But, he pictures himself a real estate mogul.) More recently, he said that he wasn't rushing to build on it, because they didn't have the money. They will never have the money to pull utilities and build upon a floodplain, especially after the show is cancelled. God's providing Robyn with purchased home (not a rennal) extends the lead time before they ever start to build even further. The move to St. George would be a cost-savings measure - which Kody was seeking by moving to Flagstaff. Kody has already admitted the move to Flagstaff was dumb. Even Truely said so. If Christine really wanted to speak truthfully, she could note that Day'un is not continuing at NAU, so their purpose for the move is no longer valid. But she'd risk more backlash from Robyn and Janelle. (Gabe's credits could easily transfer.) Christine could also play into Janelle's woes that the family is falling apart in Flagstaff, like nowhere else they have ever experienced and cite Kody's "Where we go one, we go all."

I thought that I heard Christine say that she just got insurance coverage for Ysabel 6 months earlier. There seemed to be a 3-month lead time, somehow too. Did the storyline jump to June? The last episode was in April. Janelle was in North Carolina in July. Ysabel's surgery was in September. Thus, Kody's suggestion that she hold off for 6 months is even more heartless and nonsensical, since he may have been negotiating three months ahead already. Also: Janelle got Kody's permission to travel to be a support player for a grandchild post-surgery, but he was pulling out all stops to prevent his own daughter and Christine from traveling for a serious medical need.

Minor point: She had the money to buy an easel, pack of markers and a flipboard for her big communications discussion, and she's going back to the office supply store to laminate whatever they wrote. Not even Kody had that set-up for his Plyg Palace dissertation. And, it's not like she borrowed it from an actual job or workplace. She did save money by transporting her ratty backyard patio furniture to the picnic on plague pond. Another sister wife brought a small folding chair, although I can't imagine that any of them would sit comfortably in it. And, they lived in a subdivision in Las Vegas and bought a bunch of plots in a subdivision in Flagstaff. Her next stop is a parking space in a trailer park or Robyn's driveway for up to 6 days. It's easier to attack their ordinary foolishness than to address their innate cruelty and irreversible stupidity and indoctrination. I am still stunned and angered by Kody and Christine's conversation about Ysabel's surgery, and their subsequent actions. Hearing and seeing her parents devalue and blame her may be the worst experience in Ysabel's life, and I can't imagine the long-term impacts on her, or her future relationships.

When she was giving Christine that pep talk, I felt that Meri was more concerned about her own definition of success than Christine's misery. In the previous episode, Meri said that this family was not how she and Kody envisioned it when they started it, and she may have said something similar in last night's episode. She didn't want Christine to end or ruin (if possible) Kody's ability to brag, "I have 4 wives!" Or, she knew that Kody would become even worse to her in retribution; after all, it would never be his fault. Regardless, it remains sunk-cost fallacy. Although I do believe that Meri truly did empathize with Christine and hurt to see Christine's pain, I also think that all the wives exploit each others' situations to win Kody's approval. Someone else has to be down for another one of them to avoid being the basement wife.

They are watching Christine cry - really cry. And, they sit there, because Robyn demands social distance. I guarantee you that Kody ran to all the wives' houses to tell them to shoot Christine's idea down before her presentation.

He totally gaslighted her. And, he's punishing her for anything and everything. All his talking-heads are just pile-ons about all her failures (in his interpretation). She should have thrown his fake statistics in their faces: The property value has increased, according to his accountant, and now is the time to sell. She and Robyn are the only homeowners otherwise, so the two wives are just throwing money away on rent.

Or, she could be assigned to another polygamist and be in the clique again. She is Polygamy Royalty, after all.

New Job? Career Change? What is Kody smoking?

Robyn didn't care about any long-term effects on Gabe, or any other child when they were uprooted to Flagstaff.

They are! I just looked as she walked in flip flops in Prairie Dog Plague Flats.

And King Sol finally got his own scene - as Kody, Jr., filming himself.

I'm still somewhat speechless, but a bit relieved that Janelle is essentially comic relief. So, 1-2 weeks ago, 5 weeks was the longest Kody and Janelle had gone without seeing each other. But, here, Janelle's going away for 5-6 months, and Kody says that they've faced worse in the past and grants her permission to travel. And, she is totally optional as a grandmother to Caleb's child. (Let's face it - it's his mancrush on Caleb, not his daughter Maddie.) What a contrast to the scene just moments before. I wonder when Christine thinks when she sees this.

He is so twisted. He blames Christine's current bad attitude for this issue, and he somehow shifts the focus from his daughter's health & well-being to his own egotistical fantasy that it must fit into his schedule and life goals. Christine should have kicked him out and kicked him in the crotch once Ysabel had to excuse herself to cry. That whole scene was nauseating, and his spin on it in his talking head was diabolical.

Yes! Ysabel is holding it together better than I would have. Her father is completely diminishing her physical pain, creating more emotional pain and abandoning her. And now he's blaming Christine!

He just said, ". . . not just what Ysabel wants," as if surgery is just her whimsy. If Christine felt unimportant before, she should now feel that she and her children are completely worthless to them. He is reprehensible.

Why do they have to have the surgery in NJ?

Kody really spoke a lot of truth here.

Part of his adamancy that their not moving back to Utah may be his promise to her that Flagstaff would be their last move. And, another part is that it's not his idea.

They're really scared. Their salvation depends on him. That's why he's such a phenomenal douche. And, his griping that he's fed up with the catfights (because all conflicts between women are reduced to catfighting) is reprehensible. He's the leader - Meri just said so - but he takes no responsibility or accountability.