RECAP: ‘Sister Wives’ Kody Brown Says He’s in ‘Polygamy Hell’ Amid Family Drama!

This week on Sister Wives, the Browns are still in the midst of a global pandemic and a family meltdown. The family is about 7 weeks into the pandemic. Each adult is still filming themselves. 

Kody Brown, 52, and his wives are going to finally all gather at Coyote Pass. Janelle Brown brings along Hunter Brown. Each wife has a lawn chair and lunch. Kody starts right in on explaining that passing Covid-19 is similar to getting pregnant. You have to take all of the precautions or be prepared for what happens.

Meri Brown is content to stay at home and away from everyone. Christine Brown wants to get everyone together.

Robyn Brown is still being cautious. Janelle thinks that if everyone is quarantined and no one has it, then they should be able to intermingle as a family. Kody says that Garrison Brown and Gabriel Brown are still out and exposed. Kody is frustrated that he is trying to comply with what was known at that time (7 weeks into the virus in the United States), and his wives are still saying what they will and won’t do. This isn’t just the Brown family. This was the entire world making decisions like this. 

Kody says that some of his wives think that he’s taking sides with one wife (Robyn). So therefore, they are upset. Kody thinks he’s protecting his entire family. Janelle keeps saying that if this separation continues, they won’t have a family. Kody is trying to set the family standard for precautions, and some are turning on him.

Christine doesn’t even want to go to Coyote Pass anymore. She wants to move back to Utah. She believes they need the support of the plural community in Utah. She seems singularly focused on that, but no one in Utah is gathering in large groups either, seven weeks into the pandemic. 

At Meri’s house, she and her mom, Bonnie, are working on perfecting some bed-and-breakfast recipes. They call Audrey Kriss and Mariah Brown to check in on them and check on the bed-and-breakfast. Meri is struggling to figure out the technology and filming. Mariah and Audrey are enjoying the inn and are ready to get back to real life — school, work, and wedding planning.

Janelle is making her final stop of the individual wife tour, talking to Meri. Janelle’s first statement is, “I think we need to figure out ground rules for conversations because we don’t do conversations very well.” Janelle thinks they don’t seem to make any progress when they have conversations as a group. Meri agrees that conversations are rough, but she also says that “people don’t talk to who needs to be talked to.” Some wives talk about each other and not to each other. It seems like Meri and Janelle are in agreement that their family could heal and move forward if they would speak to each other instead of behind each other’s backs. Do you wonder if any of these conversations are happening with Kody? Or is he the last to know? 

Aurora Brown and Gwendlyn Brown have a socially distant drive-thru graduation parade. Gwendlyn’s graduation present was a trip to Utah. Kody us upset because he told people not to come to Flagstaff to keep the spread down, but Christine is going to visit them anyway. Kody sees it as more separation when Christine and her kids will have to quarantine two weeks when they get back to Flagstaff.

Christine days that things with Kody have been hard for years. And she is ok with distance between them. She doesn’t like just seeing Kody for a couple of hours per week. And she’s looking forward to seeing Aspen and Mitch Thompson, Paedon, and Mykelti and Tony Padron. 

Janelle is asking everyone to come together again to talk about ground rules for conversations. Kody is coming to the conversation very frustrated that he can’t get all of his wives on the same page about how to keep from spreading Covid-19. Janelle starts out adding to a big chart that she wants to be heard. Christine follows with she wants to feel important. Kody thinks that everyone feels like they have to fight constantly to have an idea heard. Kody decides not to write anything down. Then Kody says, “I don’t want to write anything down because I don’t give a sh*t anymore.” 

Kody is beaten down by the constant fighting. Janelle agrees that Kody is tired of facilitating these conversations and being the middleman. Kody is saying he is “in polygamy hell.” In his opinion, it stems from a fundamental disrespect of him and that not all of the wives have the same values. Meri says it’s scary that “the head of our family” doesn’t care anymore. 

Kody says that he doesn’t see “Team Brown” anymore. Christine decides to read the family mission statement from many years ago. Meri wants the family to get back to that. Janelle thinks if they communicate better, they can get back to it. Robyn has been silent throughout this conversation, but Kody seems very disinterested and checked out. Christine admits that after these tough conversations, she’s nauseous and just goes to her room to shut down. 

Christine tries to ask Kody what he means when he says that the moms don’t have the same values. Kody says, “I’m at a point now where I see the family, in many ways, as an obstacle to my own goals. We are not happy. The five of us are not happy.”

Kody is challenging the claim that the wives all get along great and that he’s the problem. “The wives say if you weren’t in the picture, we would still get along. That’s such bull. I’ve seen these women treat each other so sh*tty for so many years that I can’t take it anymore.”

Janelle is struggling to hear what Kody is saying, and she also says he is being selfish. Kody mentioned many times in past episodes about “the next part of his life,” “what he wants to do with his life.” This sounds like lack of communication meets midlife crisis of Kody (and Christine). Janelle thinks that her sister wives should be her social group. And as the kids get older, the wives should be more focused on each other. Janelle refers to her mother and how her mother is best friends with her sister wife, Kody’s mother. Robyn adds to the list that she wants the adults to show more grace and forgiveness toward each other. Did Meri add to the list?

Christine is focused on moving back to Utah. She decides to talk to Kody about moving back. Christine tells Kody that when they decided to move to Flagstaff, it was conditional for her. She only wanted to move to Flagstaff if they couldn’t move back to Utah. And now they can move back to Utah. Kody is reminding Christine of the timeline of decisions. He found a property with four homes in St. George, Utah, where they could move, and every wife killed the idea. Christine is not remembering that she was the most adamant against it. 

Kody thinks that Christine was “mistaking his nostalgia with a desire to move back.” Kody doesn’t want to move again. Christine’s dad is sick. Her mom is there. All of her kids are there. Christine says, “We are living as monogamists in a monogamist’s world. And we swore we never would.” Kody thinks that no one else, including the kids, want to move to Utah. Christine is asking for something that doesn’t work for the whole family. Kody is not willing to dismiss her idea. He wants the other wives to do dismiss it for him.

Kody wanted to move to St. George. And everyone was against it. And Kody feels like he is right back in the same place where Christine is talking about what she doesn’t have. 

Next time, the family is struggling to decide what to do about Ysabel Brown’s surgery for scoliosis. 

Sister Wives airs on Sundays at 10 pm, ET, on TLC.

 

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