Sister Wives Recap: Mother-In-Law Invasion S06Ep12

Will wonders never cease?

Not only has the new season of Sister Wives started only 3 months after the mid-season finale, episode 12 was  available on Amazon Instant Video within 24 hours of the broadcast on TLC!

Unfortunately, that's where the wonders cease.

If last nights episode titled "Mother-In-Law Invasion" is any indication of how the remaining episodes are going to play out, the audience is in for a long, boring, predictable ride.

But First...

I just want to say to the producers of Sister Wives - It is time to cut the apron strings to Big Love. OK, so the fictional Bill Henrickson died on the series finale,  Kody's random musing that if he should die, would his separate families survive as a family was ludicrous. Come on, anyone can see the only reasons those four women are staying together as a family are:

1. Each wife has a McMansion in a semi private Plyg-de-sac.
2. The reality show is their main source of income, and they spend money like there's no tomorrow (Four overpriced McMansions, anyone?).

None of Kody's wives compare to Barb, Margene or Nicki and Kody is no match for Bill. So enough already. And another thing. My leaving Kody off this list was intentional. The women are better off without him and he knows it. So please, no more references to Big Love...thank you!

Let's move forward, shall we?

Once the producers got past the gratuitous "Let's show Kody RUNNING from house to house" moment, and the "Let's have Christine say how she expected how her life would be magically better once they moved into the cul-de-sac" moment, we were blessed with the obligatory recap of the mid-season finale - just in case anyone missed it.



So imagine my surprise when Christine mentioned the wives and Kody would be having a " major financial conversation..." concerning their children's college education.

Say WHUT??? Are the Browns finally showing some financial commonsense?? Has Hell frozen over??

Well, not exactly...

Kody had absolutely no clue about college costs and how families deal with them. But he was adamant that he didn't want his children (all 17 of them, mind you) taking on that kind of debt in the form of student loans. And he was able to mention concepts like debt based society, and that college graduates rarely find a job in their field of study, blah blah blah....

Naturally, Robyn stuck her nose into the fracas, because she's got her own 4 kids to worry about. She told Kody there are four sources from which to pay for a college education: money from parents, financial aid, student loans, or scholarships. Oh yes, Kody even used the "J" word, but she shot that source down by saying a college student's job is college, not a job...

For once, Kody was right. There's no reason why a college student can't work while attending college. Maybe not their freshman year, but trust me, by their sophomore year there's no reason why they couldn't.

And I think it's admirable Kody doesn't want his children saddled with student loans. They could do what many other parents of college students have done - it's called a Parent Loan for College Students. In fact, a parent loan was mentioned as one of EIGHT different ways to finance a child's college education in a recent Forbes.com article. With all the money Kody and Krew supposedly make each episode, their financial advisor should have mentioned that to them. If they have one, that is.

So let me break this down for the Browns because it looks like they need some help and being that there are soooo many Brown fans that believe these people are rolling in dough...here's a way for them to use that moola constructively rather than on vacations to Disneyland or for buying cars.

• Allow each child $25000/year to be provided by Kody. Yes, KODY.
• Allow each child $10000/year to be provided by the child's mother.
• Sorry, but there is really no need for a car if attending an out of state college. Also, if they are living on campus there is no need for a car.

So applying Kody's philosophy that "Love should be multiplied and not divided" (just replace the word "Love" with the words "College costs"), here's the final bottom line:

$35000 x 4 years x 17 kids =  $2,380,000 

That's a conservative estimate for a relatively inexpensive college. If they put that money away in a trust account, it should be enough, right?

Well, maybe...

Yep, I'm a card carrying jerk!

The next segments were about Kody and his relationships with his mothers-in-law.

Good grief, Kody. Why was it even necessary to suggest that you don't like one of your mothers-in-law? And that smug look on your face...man, you are definitely an arrogant piece of work!

And what was up with the dour look on Robyn's face during the couch segments? I suppose it was because Robyn wasn't the center of attention. Poor Robyn

It was rather interesting to see that Michoacan restaurant was not featured on the show. That's a shame because their Mexican food always looked so scrumptious. I think the only thing the new restaurant served were plates and huge glasses of water.

Anyway...

The Mother's Day gift shopping segment was really uncomfortable to watch. It was so obvious that Kody's favorite wife was Robyn because the gift he chose for her was the only item that wasn't  kitschy, or a wooden sign with some dumb saying painted on it.

The sign Kody chose for Janelle was soooo awful....it said "I Kiss Better Then I Cook". Yes, it used the word 'then' instead of 'than'. Now I don't know if this was intentional, but if you see the sign saying " I Kiss Better [comma] then I Cook" it has a WHOLE different meaning.




Alice, Kody's Mom Genielle, Sheryl, Bonnie and Annie

But Janelle's mother Sheryl was right. The sign was a stupid mistake because what sisterwife wants to know how well another sisterwife kisses their husband?

I mean it's bad enough to know your husband's lips are kissing three other women's lips. Imagine the yuck factor when that is shoved in your face each time you see that sign in Janelle's house.

It reminds me of that saying Robyn used so many moons ago, what was it...oh yes, "A baby is a physical manifestation that there is an intimate relationship between a husband and wife..."

So I suppose that sign is a physical manifestation that there is an intimate relationship between Janelle and Kody. Good job, Kody for being just as insensitive as Robyn.

The scene showing Kody cooking in Meri's kitchen (and tripping the circuit breaker in the process) reminded me of my own experience on day one in my college dorm. We were all given a mimeographed (remember those?) list of what electrical items could be used at the same time without tripping the circuit breakers. We were also given a tour of where the circuit breaker box was and what to do. Which was useful when you forgot your roommate was ironing and you turned on your hair dryer. Thank goodness for the emergency lights in the hallway (yep, I tripped the entire 12th floor...my bad!)

Kody should have gone to college and lived in a dorm. For a man, he is totally useless...it took him forever to find that breaker box!!!

 

Finally, the wives and mothers-in-law and Kody had a semi round table discussion how hard it was to be a sisterwife before he handed out his gifts.

It was so sad listening to Kody's mother Genielle explaining how jealous she was when her husband took Janelle's mother Sheryl as his third wife (that's right she's #3), and then watching her cry while Kody sat stonefaced in his chair.



Frankly, Kody showed  more concern when he earlier explained how his father and Janelle's mother were spiritually married after Kody and Janelle were ADULTS.


No Kody, I never thought you and Janelle were siblings when you got married, thank you very much!





And it was even sadder when Sheryl described how she felt so out of place and unwelcomed when she married Kody's father, that  she questioned why she put herself in such a bad situation in the first place.





Which makes me wonder, if polygamy is so wonderful and fulfilling, why are those women all so sad when they talk about living in plural marriage?

Why so many tears?

And I think Christine has a lot more in common with her mother Annie than she wants to admit. Everything her mother mentioned as reasons why she left plural marriage were the same things Christine appeared to struggle with in her marriage to Kody. Maybe the producers were trying to show how Christine's situation was different from her mother's. Unfortunately, I'm not seeing the difference.

Meri's WetBar finally getting used

At least the Mother's Day brunch Kody and Kids prepared looked really good. And all the food was piled high on Meri's infamous wetbar.

Sorry, it just doesn't look like it's worth a sixth bedroom in Meri's McMansion.




The episode ended with Kody saying "...I'm hoping the direction we go with this commitment ceremony will actually take us to a place where these relationships [with his wives] want to endure for years to come...we are establishing we are one family..."

And as the music played and the credits rolled, each wife presented her Mother's Day Gift to the cameras...