S01.E03: Three's Company or Three's Crowd?

[Gothish520]

On 2/7/2018 at 3:34 PM, Meghzie said:

I’m not surprised by people not liking her. But I am kinda surprised by all the mocking of her speech impediment. There are enough other issues with the family to talk about. 

April does seem manipulative. I’ve known people a lot like her, so maybe I’m overly sensitive to it and just falling into the TLC editing trap!

The mocking of her speech impediment bugs me. I'm surprised it's been allowed, as this website is usually pretty strict on stuff like that.

[Gothish520]

On 2/7/2018 at 10:44 PM, Pachengala said:

I’m so relieved to read that I’m not the only one who hates Auralee’s passive-aggressive victim routine—another board I’m on is 100% #teamauralee and I was starting to gaslight myself. Oooh, she is the very worst. When they were all bickering and she went over and draped herself like a child around Bootleg L Ron Hubbard, I was done. April’s abrasive and awkward, but Auralee’s got this down to a science—she’s even played Angela onto her side; April’s lost this game. 

I can so easily sympathize with April—she grew up LDS, where the fundamental tenet for girls is obedience, and fell in love with a cute (to her), ambitious lawyer-to-be; I’m sure she thought her life would play out perfectly: perfect, successful husband, perfect homemaker wife, perfect children, the perfect LDS family. Then, almost a decade in, L Ron (and his ego) decides that there’s too much of him to waste on just one little lady, and he’s going to take another (and possibly more) wife. What are her options here? She doesn’t work, she has no skills, and he’s a lawyer. Sure, she could tough it out as a single mother, but you can kind of understand the temptation to believe that god really is speaking to her husband, that it’s not just that he’s a faithless piece of shit with a wandering eye, and that you can make it work through the power of love and faith.

Unfortunately she bet on the wrong horse—all these women did—and now she’s just stuck. I just feel so bad for her. What a nightmare to find yourself in. 

No, I can't understand that even one little bit. 

[Pachengala]

6 hours ago, Gothish520 said:

No, I can't understand that even one little bit. 

Ha! Apologies if the use of the Corporate You feels like a mandate to anyone! What I meant was that one can kind of understand the temptation etc. etc.

[Gothish520]

5 hours ago, Pachengala said:

Ha! Apologies if the use of the Corporate You feels like a mandate to anyone! What I meant was that one can kind of understand the temptation etc. etc.

LOL, no worries. But I really can't understand it, at all. Life is way too short to be living in such misery. 

[TurtlePower]

On 2/7/2018 at 7:44 PM, Pachengala said:

I’m so relieved to read that I’m not the only one who hates Auralee’s passive-aggressive victim routine—another board I’m on is 100% #teamauralee and I was starting to gaslight myself. Oooh, she is the very worst. When they were all bickering and she went over and draped herself like a child around Bootleg L Ron Hubbard, I was done. April’s abrasive and awkward, but Auralee’s got this down to a science—she’s even played Angela onto her side; April’s lost this game. 

I can so easily sympathize with April—she grew up LDS, where the fundamental tenet for girls is obedience, and fell in love with a cute (to her), ambitious lawyer-to-be; I’m sure she thought her life would play out perfectly: perfect, successful husband, perfect homemaker wife, perfect children, the perfect LDS family. Then, almost a decade in, L Ron (and his ego) decides that there’s too much of him to waste on just one little lady, and he’s going to take another (and possibly more) wife. What are her options here? She doesn’t work, she has no skills, and he’s a lawyer. Sure, she could tough it out as a single mother, but you can kind of understand the temptation to believe that god really is speaking to her husband, that it’s not just that he’s a faithless piece of shit with a wandering eye, and that you can make it work through the power of love and faith.

Unfortunately she bet on the wrong horse—all these women did—and now she’s just stuck. I just feel so bad for her. What a nightmare to find yourself in. 

 

This! Spot on. I'm not a fan of April but I've lightened my disdain for her after reading this. If she had no idea what she was getting into, if a plyg life was originally not in the plans, what else could she do? April is a pretty woman. There's no doubt she could find another man, but I understand why a woman stays in this situation--they're afraid and they've got some stability if they do stay, even if they're unhappy. And now she's replaced by two others, how can she not feel angry?

Clearly Drew has no regard for her. He probably wouldn't even miss her if she left. That should be the sign for her to exit this lifestyle and find someone who cares.  

[Pachengala]

Thanks @TurtlePower! I didn’t set out to be an April apologist but I feel so sad for her, and really, for all these women.

[Chalby]

On 1/31/2018 at 8:11 AM, Kyanight said:

Bitch, please. You aren't that damned special.  And neither is Dmitri.  Snort.

You know, I felt bad for Angela when Dim pointed out he wanted a big family (always talking about 9 kids). He also pointed out he wanted a large, close family as his family wasn't close. Who knows, maybe his dad was similar to him, wanted other gals, but actually left each woman to move on and have more kids? If that's the case I can see Angela preferring to accept a woman into her home so that her children aren't left behind while he moves on. She also made it very clear that she doesn't want more than 3 children, and she knows that too was a dealbreaker for Dim. But I agree, they had better have a ton of money as they aren't not special enough to have that kind of list with all those demands for the 'wife'. Lastly, the Allredge guy (or whatever his name is). When he was telling his kids he 'couldn't' claim them because that's illegal - bull. Lots of kids have their dad's last name. It just means his spirit wives have to take him to court for child support because they cannot receive any gov't assistance without trying to get the father to man up financially as well. As for April, I don't think she has ever accepted this polygamy. If you keep your kids separated, you are not committed.

[Chalby]

On 1/30/2018 at 4:41 PM, Roslyn said:

Kids are sponges and this kind of shit changes how they have relationships in their lives and how they parent in the future.  Not always in a good way. 

 

Wasn't Drew the one who said that he looked forward to coming home to Auralee after a rough day at work because she always makes him feel better? Or was that the old dude? I am mixing them up.

[Kyanight]

3 hours ago, Chalby said:

Wasn't Drew the one who said that he looked forward to coming home to Auralee after a rough day at work because she always makes him feel better? Or was that the old dude? I am mixing them up.

Probably Drew.  He is the one who LOVES LOVES LOVES the fighting and drama between his wives and won't do anything to put a stop to it... because isn't it fun to have three woman FIGHTING over you???  (Eyeroll).  The other guy's wives seem to get along quite well and he doesn't seem to show favoritism.   I almost like both of his wives but it's too soon to say. (Vanessa and Sharis).  The thing that bothers me about HIM is that he has a previous wife and fiftydozen kids with her and yet he treats her/them like they don't exist.  I think that's a crappy thing for a dad to do.  Even if he just mentioned that he is divorced from his first wife... or his first wife and kids didn't want to be on the show - or whatever the truth happens to be.  The viewing audience isn't stupid and when someone finds photos of he and this wife and kids - people are going to confused and wonder what's going on.

[grammaester]

On 1/31/2018 at 1:37 PM, GussieK said:

This truly is double talk.  But I'm still not sure she is interested in a lesbian relationship.  I don't get that vibe.  I think she is just deluded.

Totally agree. I think she believes what she's written 100%. Where she's deluded is that she thinks Dmitri's motivations are the same because he is BS'ing her. He wants a harem of women he's completely hot over. That is his primary motivation. He is deluding himself by thinking he can choose someone he's more attracted to then Ashley, hope Ashley's wish list for marital communism is fulfilled thereby everyone is happy. Isn't going to work that way which is why their first sister wife experiment failed.  If his motivation was the same as Ashleys, he would advocate Ashley choosing the woman. Ashley would vet athat the woman adheres to all their beliefs and Dmitri over time would come to truly care about and love the woman because of that.  

[MrSmith]

Deleted as not relevant.

Edited February 12, 2018 by MrSmith

[MrSmith]

On 2/7/2018 at 9:44 PM, Pachengala said:

I’m so relieved to read that I’m not the only one who hates Auralee’s passive-aggressive victim routine—another board I’m on is 100% #teamauralee and I was starting to gaslight myself. Oooh, she is the very worst. When they were all bickering and she went over and draped herself like a child around Bootleg L Ron Hubbard, I was done. April’s abrasive and awkward, but Auralee’s got this down to a science—she’s even played Angela onto her side; April’s lost this game. 

I can so easily sympathize with April—she grew up LDS, where the fundamental tenet for girls is obedience, and fell in love with a cute (to her), ambitious lawyer-to-be; I’m sure she thought her life would play out perfectly: perfect, successful husband, perfect homemaker wife, perfect children, the perfect LDS family. Then, almost a decade in, L Ron (and his ego) decides that there’s too much of him to waste on just one little lady, and he’s going to take another (and possibly more) wife. What are her options here? She doesn’t work, she has no skills, and he’s a lawyer. Sure, she could tough it out as a single mother, but you can kind of understand the temptation to believe that god really is speaking to her husband, that it’s not just that he’s a faithless piece of shit with a wandering eye, and that you can make it work through the power of love and faith.

Unfortunately she bet on the wrong horse—all these women did—and now she’s just stuck. I just feel so bad for her. What a nightmare to find yourself in. 

I was originally going to disagree with the bold part (since I made the mistake of reading from page 3 backward to page 2). Good reminder to me that context is important. heh. So I had to delete my previous reply and just say that, yes, in this context I can understand this. Especially since April is still technically part of the religion she grew up with, and that's a hard thing to overcome. I've spent a lot of years wandering around blowing up my own religious beliefs over and over until I could figure out what I really believed. It's a hard thing to do with little comfort to be found along the way. While I think that everyone should do this because it's good for them on many fronts, I can't fault people too hard for not doing it.

The reason I'm still Team April is because it would be very easy to restate and misconstrue April saying "There are spare mattresses in the basement. Why don't your children use those?" into "Your kids can have my kids' mattresses and then we'll just get my kids new mattresses, instead." Another thought I had is that it's possible April was volunteering to have her kids double-bunk in order to free up mattresses for Auralee's children to use until they got new mattresses, which would be even easier to twist into "April's trying to get her children new mattresses instead of mine! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

On 2/7/2018 at 2:34 PM, Meghzie said:

I’m not surprised by people not liking her. But I am kinda surprised by all the mocking of her speech impediment

It seems to me that she's playing this up a bit because either Drew thinks it's cute or she believes he does and also because she probably believes it makes her sound/appear less threatening and less manipulative. Also, there's surgery available for what I am sure is a cleft palate**. Perhaps instead of having eleventy-million children and "marrying" a dweeb who's already married, she should invest in corrective surgery. So that's why I had mocked it.

**My older brother was born with a severe cleft palate. It's been corrected through surgery and he speaks perfectly clearly and can be understood with no effort.

[Juliegirlj]

Those going into polygamy for non religious beliefs are different than those going into it for religious reasons. I still think Ashley and Dimitri are looking for a polyamory partner. Perhaps “advertising “ for a sister wife attracts a more desirable type of person than polyamory. 

There is much unspoken emotion going on between Ashley and Dimitri and it seems neither is being truly honest about their situation. They should have waited until after their baby was born and Ashley’s hormones returned to normal. 

The date with Dimitri and the 22 year old was awkward to watch, and they both broke trust with Ashley by having sex. 

Did I hear April say she is the “real wife” when they were discussing how to present themselves to the neighbors?! 

I found it sad when Angela voiced her concerns about her infant son being put into foster care if something would happen to her! Neither of her sister wives gave any indication that they would care for him. Aren’t they all supposed to be ONE family?! And why do the wives sitting next to Drew always have an iron grip on him?! Unhealthy competition between sister wives will not bring a good outcome! 

[Kyanight]

35 minutes ago, Juliegirlj said:

Those going into polygamy for non religious beliefs are different than those going into it for religious reasons. I still think Ashley and Dimitri are looking for a polyamory partner. Perhaps “advertising “ for a sister wife attracts a more desirable type of person than polyamory. 

There is much unspoken emotion going on between Ashley and Dimitri and it seems neither is being truly honest about their situation. They should have waited until after their baby was born and Ashley’s hormones returned to normal. 

The date with Dimitri and the 22 year old was awkward to watch, and they both broke trust with Ashley by having sex. 

Did I hear April say she is the “real wife” when they were discussing how to present themselves to the neighbors?! 

I found it sad when Angela voiced her concerns about her infant son being put into foster care if something would happen to her! Neither of her sister wives gave any indication that they would care for him. Aren’t they all supposed to be ONE family?! And why do the wives sitting next to Drew always have an iron grip on him?! Unhealthy competition between sister wives will not bring a good outcome! 

Fantastic post!!  You just voiced so many thoughts running through my head!  In regards to Dimitri and the 22 year old nymph - we have never been given any indication that SHE was told that boinking is a no no until they are a committed threesome... so next week's show where Ashley demands to be told the truth about the tumble between the sheets or else Jocelyn is out the door - is that fair?  Gotta know the rules from the get-go.  Maybe this is Ashley's ace up the sleeve... every single time they meet a new potential sister wife, Dimitri goes out and has sex... and then Ashley gets to say "GONG!!!  Next contestant, please!

 

I ALSO thought I heard April say she was the "real wife" and thought.... what the heck?  Drew needs to dust off his balls and set things straight.  He isn't very masculine, from everything I have seen.  No one is asking for a disgusting cave man... but geeze louise.... man up, dude!!    He's the biggest pansy.

And YES.... these other two wives would just dump that poor baby off without a second thought if things went badly?  This is three separate marriages and families stuffed under one roof.  

Did you also notice that April is ALWAYS sitting next to Drew.... and they always grip him until his hands turn blue!  No wonder he has such health issues... his circulation is getting all screwed up!

[princelina]

On 2/2/2018 at 4:04 PM, Gothish520 said:

Entirely possible. I don't know the timeline and how many kids she had before they went plyg. I find it hard to believe that the courts would take children away from their mother and award them to a man who is living a plural lifestyle though - I don't care how good an attorney he is. Maybe I'm just being naive, but surely he would not have a leg to stand on?

It doesn't matter whether he does in this case, only that he can make her believe that he does!

On 2/7/2018 at 10:44 PM, Pachengala said:

I can so easily sympathize with April—she grew up LDS, where the fundamental tenet for girls is obedience, and fell in love with a cute (to her), ambitious lawyer-to-be; I’m sure she thought her life would play out perfectly: perfect, successful husband, perfect homemaker wife, perfect children, the perfect LDS family. Then, almost a decade in, L Ron (and his ego) decides that there’s too much of him to waste on just one little lady, and he’s going to take another (and possibly more) wife. What are her options here? She doesn’t work, she has no skills, and he’s a lawyer. Sure, she could tough it out as a single mother, but you can kind of understand the temptation to believe that god really is speaking to her husband, that it’s not just that he’s a faithless piece of shit with a wandering eye, and that you can make it work through the power of love and faith.

Add to that her religious belief that marriage is forever and the husband is head of the household, and her own extended family members may not have supported her leaving him - you pretty much said everything else I was thinking :)

[Pachengala]

1 hour ago, princelina said:

Add to that her religious belief that marriage is forever and the husband is head of the household, and her own extended family members may not have supported her leaving him - you pretty much said everything else I was thinking :)

Yes, you’re absolutely right—that reasoning should have been FIRST on my list! He’s literally her path to eternal salvation; shaking that kind of indoctrination is difficult for intelligent, strong-willed people, much less April. 

[Gothish520]

19 minutes ago, Pachengala said:

Yes, you’re absolutely right—that reasoning should have been FIRST on my list! He’s literally her path to eternal salvation; shaking that kind of indoctrination is difficult for intelligent, strong-willed people, much less April. 

That's one of the saddest things I've ever read.

[luckylisp]

After watching for a few weeks now, my feelings haven't changed much.

The Brineys - Disagree with the majority on this forum as I (still) cannot stand April. She wouldn't know an honest emotion if it smacked her in the face. That fake sicky sweet tone she uses all the time. Give me a break. I find her to be incredibly transparent. I still maintain she's a massive manipulator and the biggest problem in that family. 

The Snowdens -  I think we all saw this coming from a mile away and so did Ashley. haha. Why are they even on this show? All the same, they are oddly entertaining. I also get the feeling they both totally know the score between themselves and are just using the show for some easy money and exposure. They seem more savvy than the others to me. I also don't really think Ashley cares one way or another what Dimitri does in the bedroom department so I don't think him sleeping with Jocelyn (despite their so-called agreement) really phased her. I just never feel like they are being entirely honest to the camera about their feelings and intentions.

The Allridges - The most typical polygamy family on the show, complete with creepy poly husband and wive's that talk in hushed tones and look like they could burst out crying any minute. All the polygamist husbands act the same, it's so weird. The same vocal intonations and everything. I can only assume they all talk in that fake, sweet, calm, hushed tone because they are constantly trying to be soothing because their wives are always a wreck trying to deal with this nutty lifestyle. Kody on SW is the only exception I've seen. He actually acts fairly normal by poly husband standards,

[Gothish520]

36 minutes ago, thebalconyfool said:

After watching for a few weeks now, my feelings haven't changed much.

The Brineys - Disagree with the majority on this forum as I (still) cannot stand April. She wouldn't know an honest emotion if it smacked her in the face. That fake sicky sweet tone she uses all the time. Give me a break. I find her to be incredibly transparent. I still maintain she's a massive manipulator and the biggest problem in that family. 

The Snowdens -  I think we all saw this coming from a mile away and so did Ashley. haha. Why are they even on this show? All the same, they are oddly entertaining. I also get the feeling they both totally know the score between themselves and are just using the show for some easy money and exposure. They seem more savvy than the others to me. I also don't really think Ashley cares one way or another what Dimitri does in the bedroom department so I don't think him sleeping with Jocelyn (despite their so-called agreement) really phased her. I just never feel like they are being entirely honest to the camera about their feelings and intentions.

The Allridges - The most typical polygamy family on the show, complete with creepy poly husband and wive's that talk in hushed tones and look like they could burst out crying any minute. All the polygamist husbands act the same, it's so weird. The same vocal intonations and everything. I can only assume they all talk in that fake, sweet, calm, hushed tone because they are constantly trying to be soothing because their wives are always a wreck trying to deal with this nutty lifestyle. Kody on SW is the only exception I've seen. He actually acts fairly normal by poly husband standards,

Well said and I pretty much agree.

April Briney - I just can't abide that woman-child act. Maybe I do kind of feel sorry for her. But I still don't completely buy that she's the innocent put-upon wife she's playing on tv. I suppose the same could be said for Auralee as well.

The Snowdens - I think you've got something there. The Snowdens are snowing us! Ashley did say in a social media post that one of her takeways from doing the show was that she discovered she's a pretty good actress.

The Alldredges seem sort of ok, but that's relative. I agree that there is an eerie vibe about them and their calm and hushed manner of speaking, but I kind of like Sharis and Vanessa. Hard to tell if Jeff is being genuine, but he seems to have great affection for his wives and children. I just hope things aren't ugly behind closed doors.

[gonecrackers]

IMO all the people on this show are being disingenuous, playing a TV game to further whatever agenda they may have, & make a few bucks in the process. The only ones I actually have sympathy for are the children being born into their fucked up lives.

We know Reality TV uses multiple takes, setup & editing to get the effect they want to portray in whatever scene... Ashley gives herself way too much credit for her 'acting'.

[Meghzie]

I’m kind of amused by all the Kody Brown love on this thread! 

[Gothish520]

1 hour ago, Meghzie said:

I’m kind of amused by all the Kody Brown love on this thread! 

I actually like Kody, for the most part. The Browns have all kinds of issues for sure, but compared to the way other plyg families are presented, they're a dream. 

[RedheadZombie]

On ‎2‎/‎12‎/‎2018 at 12:13 AM, Kyanight said:

Probably Drew.  He is the one who LOVES LOVES LOVES the fighting and drama between his wives and won't do anything to put a stop to it... because isn't it fun to have three woman FIGHTING over you???  (Eyeroll).  The other guy's wives seem to get along quite well and he doesn't seem to show favoritism.   I almost like both of his wives but it's too soon to say. (Vanessa and Sharis).  The thing that bothers me about HIM is that he has a previous wife and fiftydozen kids with her and yet he treats her/them like they don't exist.  I think that's a crappy thing for a dad to do.  Even if he just mentioned that he is divorced from his first wife... or his first wife and kids didn't want to be on the show - or whatever the truth happens to be.  The viewing audience isn't stupid and when someone finds photos of he and this wife and kids - people are going to confused and wonder what's going on.

Something tells me that the Alldredge first wife and kids chose not to be involved, and refused to sign releases to speak of them.  I think production is more to blame for allowing this false image.  All the information is out there, and they would have been vetted.  Same with the Snowdens.