Literata

When Bin first started coming around, he was clearly more into Jessa than she was into him. Did anyone else perceive it that way? And then something clearly changed ... but what? By the time he moved in, she certainly wanted to get in his shorts.

Gotta admit I find it a little refreshing that Jill is rather chill about the due-date thing. My stepdaughter has had two kids, and both times, she went to the doctor just before her due date and whined and cried until he agreed to induce her. Neither baby was overly large or apparently "overdue" in any way.

Exactly. Thus my concern for Jana, which I expressed in the Jana thread. I hate idle speculation about potentially horrible things, but her beaten-down demeanor concerns me and makes me wonder if she could have been one of Gothard's "chosen ones." And you know that if anything happened, Boob and MEchelle would blame her for dressing too immodestly or some such ridiculousness. I keep hoping she has her eye on someone in DC, and that perhaps the Smuggars are encouraging a relationship...

I saw her cook an egg once. Once. One egg. And I've been watching since since "14 Kids and Pregnant Again," and I believe Josh was about 15 then. So that's, what, 11 years? One egg in 11 years.

Yes! I was thinking the exact same thing. I wonder if Bin reminds her of Boob as a young man? I would imagine Boob was just as intelligent and articulate. :)

I love Josiah. Glad to see last night that he's back from Alert Academy, but I wonder what he's doing now. And did anyone else notice he looks... different? I hate to speculate, but he had kind of a steroid look, with a wider forehead and just larger features in general. And bad, bad skin.

This struck me last night, too. I don't think MEchelle is all about Derick; thus, she's not really all about Jill and her new life. Remember the stupid episode with the etiquette lesson? Derick had just returned from living in some pretty humble circumstances in Nepal, and you could tell he thought the dinner was insane. MEchelle was all over Bin in that episode and barely acknowledged Jill and Derick. I think MEchelle is the primary driver of the Gothard Bus to Crazy Town, and as such, I don't think she cares for the fact that Derick strays a little outside the lines; he graduated from a real university, he has a good job with paychecks NOT signed by Boob, he's not from a large and Gothardite family, and he's a relatively intelligent and independent guy. Yes, he's drunk a little of the Kool-Aid, but he's a far better catch than man-child Bin will ever be. I think the ever-controlling and passive-aggressive MEchelle is threatened by him. And clearly, she also has the hots for Bin, so she's probably living a little vicariously through Jessa.

Someone shoot me. When we saw the quick shot of Jinger mouthing "I love you" to Jessa, damned if I didn't tear up.

Please, someone, help me understand why Jessa's skin is so bad. Surely there are dermatologists in Arkansas.

Pass the cornea bleach, but Bin is kind of hot from the neck down. Aaaand then ... he opens his mouth.

"He was gonna get Jessa, but I was gonna win this football game." Wtf, Boob, seriously. You're her father, not her boyfriend.

I just don't like Jessa. I see her as the fundie equivalent of a Mean Girl, and I would so much rather see an hour of Joy or Jana.

So there were two announcements of No. 20 -- the one in the video above, and one at the house?

I just did some checking, and I think the Josiah incident might have happened during the announcement of No. 19, not No. 20. The announcement of the Jubilee pregnancy is below, and that's not it.

Derick really seems to enjoy giving Jill pedicures. Good for him. I can't see Boob painting anyone's nails.

I Googled it to try to find a recap. The source here is https://www.tumblr.com/search/jimbob%20duggar: In the episode where they announced Michelle's pregnancy with Jubilee Josiah runs away and looks upset when he comes back. Do you know what happened? It's toward the end of episode 10 season 8 on Netflix. Thanks! I’ve gotten a couple people asking me about this - sorry I’m just now getting to it. No, I don’t have any real insight into what happened. I think he was either upset because he remembered how close his mother had come to dying with her last pregnancy, or what his little sister went through for the first months of her life - he seemed to bond immediately to Josie and they still seem closer than most of the older boys and the little kids. And unlike a lot of the others, I don’t think Josiah has the disposition to just say “it’s in God’s hands” and leave it at that like the older girls seem able to. He seems like a worrier and a thinker. What bothered me that it looked like JimBob dragged him back forcefully into the group, hard enough to hurt him. I’ve seen other incidents where JimBob treated Josiah in particular with nastiness and disrespect; enough so that this was around the time I stopped being able to write JimBob off as a largely harmless father, especially in conjunction with hearing about the temper problems he “used to” have. And yeah, it reinforced the idea that all these kids - not just the girls - have to smile and parrot the family party line, and never display doubts or unhappiness, or you’ll be made sorry.

I still remember how upset he was during the televised announcement that MEchelle was pregnant with either Josie or Jubilee, and how horribly Boob seemed to deal with him. I'm so hoping he is the one who somehow eventually leaves the cult and goes on to live his life on his terms.

Word. So much word. As a pseudo-midwife-in-training, Jill has to be -- one would think -- aware of instances in which things haven't gone as planned. But I wonder if, to her, all that indicates is that those mothers didn't pray hard enough.

I so agree with this, but something else also nags at me: In that she was certainly spent a great deal of time with Gothard and his minions, I hope Jana was never the target of Gothard's documented abuse of the young women he surrounded himself with. If that were the case, I can honestly see her parents blaming her in some way -- maybe some perceived lack of modesty or something. Who knows. And if that were true, it easily would explain her demeanor and her seeming lack of desire for a different life.

I'm not feeling too charitably toward Anna these days, what with her Muslim-holiday hate speech and all. But I actually think she can conduct herself pretty well in most situations. Someone posted not long ago that although we've been led to think the Duggars are fundie royalty, the Kellers actually are, or have been, pretty high up the totem pole, and Anna actually could have been regarded as quite a catch for Smuggar. So despite having been brought up in very humble surroundings, Anna probably found herself in a broad range of social situations growing up -- her dad's prison ministry comes to mind -- and likely made her share of small talk. The fact that one or more of her sisters seem to have easily acclimated to mainstream life is evidence that maybe their lives weren't quite as cloistered as the Duggar kids'. So, yeah, it would be nice if she had more to talk about than violin lessons, but I think she's probably pretty confident and outgoing in most situations.

This would be kind of fun. http://www.inquisitr.com/1943799/joseph-duggar-courtship-did-tori-bates-hint-that-shes-interested-in-dating-a-duggar/

Anyone else see the new "Jessa is pregnant" rumors today? I thought she looked pregnant in the People Magazine article a couple of weeks ago, and my guess is another honeymoon conception with an announcement put on hold so as not to steal Jill's thunder.

Of course Boob is asking about her contractions. Any opportunity to be inappropriate, especially as it relates to a daughter's lady parts. http://www.people.com/article/jill-duggar-derick-dillard-first-child-baby-dilly-due-date-photo

Yes, Josh is arrogant, but he’s not angry. I think he genuinely appreciates Anna. TFDW, on the other hand, is a classic example of someone who’s forced to live a lie and is lashing out because he can’t be who he is. (Yes, this is speculation on my part, but come ON.)

Yes. I was honestly afraid he was going to kiss Jessa.