‘Sister Wives’ Recap: Janelle Brown Can’t Dump Kody Because Robyn Took All Her Money!
‘Sister Wives’ Recap: Janelle Brown Can’t Dump Kody Because Robyn Took All Her Money!
The November 13 episode of Sister Wives centered around Christine Brown’s announcement that she’s leaving the family and all hell breaks loose, as Robyn Brown questions her future relationship with her former sister wife and Kody Brown explodes. As they all try to pick up the pieces, Janelle Brown’s RV lifestyle hits another obstacle and she spills some financial secrets.
Sister Wives: Christine Wanted The Man, Not The Family
The episode picks up again in Christine’s backyard, her house has sold, she’s leaving in a week and the news has created a whirlwind of chaos among Kody and his wives.
Kody and the other wives have gathered for a gaslighting and explosive discussion, where Kody, Robyn and Meri Brown all blame Christine’s leaving for the family existing fractures.
The vibe is hostile, everyone is on edge during this heated conversation/showdown. Christine tells Kody that a year ago she examined their relationship and Kody seemed on board to move to Utah then he changed his mind and that was her final straw.
Christine comments that she wouldn’t wish their relationship on any friend of hers. However, they both agree that moving to Utah was just a small part of their issues and would not have fixed their relationship.
Kody then says Christine was only interested in the man, and not the family. He accuses her of not being willing to invest in the family and only interested in what he could do for her as a man. He then thanks Christine for cleaning up his “mess” of a marriage [to Meri Brown].
Meri is offended by his statement, “it stings when he says that,” Meri tells the camera. Meri explains that she was a young wife at the time and not mature enough to handle marriage, much less a plural union.
“You came into our lives, you did us a favor.” Kody tells Christine. “You’re leaving, I almost feel like it’s a favor too.” Ouch!
Christine disagrees with Kody and asserts that she did believe in plural marriage and made it all about the family. She shares how much she loved the big family concept but felt she didn’t matter in Kody’s big picture, and that changed her perspective on everything. Christine tells Kody that she stayed for the big picture for years but, she’s “tired of being heartbroken for years,” and she stayed for so long because she wanted it to work.
In a talking head confessional, Kody says that he’s very angry…very upset.
“And if I really boil it down, if I bring it to the core of what’s going on, it feels like after all I’ve done, I’m being rejected anyway. And it’s just not rejection for me. It’s rejection for some of my kids, and my other wives.” Kody tells the camera.
Sister Wives: Did Christine Drive A Wedge
Kody then tells Christine that he feels his relationships with his older children is off and he believes Christine is to blame for poisoning them against him.
“So I’m curious, in all of this, it seems like my relationship with all the kids…the adult kids, is really off too. Have you been talking to the adult kids about this” Kody questions Christine.
“No! No one wants to talk about this. I think your relationship is off with your kids because of COVID, not because of me,” Christine tells him, referring to Kody’s strict COVID protocols.
Kody refuses to take accountability for the fractured relationship with his older kids, instead he continues to point the finger at Christine.
“Bull, you’re telling them. It’s Christine telling them,” Kody says of his ex in a talking head confessional. “She’s running to this person, to this person, to this person, to this person to complain about the relationship. She’s been playing games for years. I just call bulls**t.”
While addressing the group, Kody admits, “I cannot figure out why I’m so angry.”
Janelle Brown chimes in and says Kody’s masking his pain with anger — she thinks he grieving the loss of Christine.
“I’ve seen you grieving, Kody, in a way I’ve never seen you grieve before,” she tells him. “You disguise it, but it’s grief.” Janelle says in a talking head confessional. “I don’t know how to explain it. He’s just been off. He’s gone to a more angry place quicker than he ever did.”
Sister Wives: Kody Never Loved Christine
Kody compares his feelings to a failed business investment, “like an investor who poured everything he had into something and it just didn’t work.”
In a talking head confessional, Kody explains he’s upset because he put “so much effort” into his marriage with Christine.
The Brown patriarch then makes a disgraceful admission about his true feelings for Christine and how he viewed their 25 years of marriage to her.
“I was holding her hand. I was kissing her. I wasn’t in love,” Kody says. “I was doing it as my duty as a husband. She’s not either. She quit loving me years ago. Now that we’re here, I’m just so upset because it’s not the breakup of two people. It’s the breakup of a family.”
Then he turns his venom on Meri with a snide remark because she’s not being supporting him and Robyn as he expects.
“I know Meri’s ticks. I know her. She’s leaking emotionally, and I recognize it after all these years. It drives me nuts normally, but now I’m looking for her to be sort of supportive. Really, I feel like I’m swimming.” Kody says in a talking head confessional.
Kody continues on about his feelings and says this will likely be the family’s final sit down regarding Christine leaving and he’s the only one saying anything because he’s a mixed ball of emotions. Robyn comments that she’s struggling and frustrated. Robyn musters up some tears and mumbles about some day she feels they’ll work it out.
“Plural marriage is not easy and on a bad day, you can feel trapped in it.” Kody says in a talking head confessional. “And she’s [Christine’s] getting out the lobster bucket. I’m in this really hard lifestyle, partly because of her [Christine]. And it has been very very hard, partly because of her. And she’s just leaving now.”
Sister Wives: Christine Needs Space
After an awkward silence, Robyn has a question about the future of her and her children’s relationship with Christine.
Robyn asks Christine does she plan to keep the relationship open with her and the rest of the family.
“Are you in a place where you just wanna go do your thing and those of the kids that have a relationship with you, you’ll spend time with them or whatever?” Robyn asks Christine. “And then the rest of us that maybe you don’t have a great relationship with, do we just need to give you your space?”
Christine tells Robyn, “I think for right now, I need space.”
In a talking head confessional, Robyn stresses the shift in the family’s future after Christine leaves.
“I have definitely been mourning the loss of the family culture and there’s this part of me that has wondered if Kody’s not in the picture for her, will it be easier for her to have a relationship with me and my kids?” she wonders, getting teary.
Christine, who has been vocal about Robyn being Kody’s favorite, acknowledges that she will attend family functions but in a limited capacity.
“I do see us getting together for family reunions and I do see us having fun together,” Christine says.
Christine admits that the dynamics between her, Robyn and Meri, will change drastically because they don’t share the same bond she has with Janelle.
“Janelle and I are super close but I’m not that close with the rest of you and for right now, I kind of need it that way,” Christine says.
In a talking head confessional, Robyn gets teary and says, “It’s kind of that last little bit of hope sort of dying.”
Meri feels the conversation really has nothing to do with her and she’s over it.
“My immediate thought was, ‘Well, I may as well stand up and leave ’cause there’s no point of me being here in this conversation,’” Meri says in a talking head confessional.
“She doesn’t want to work on anything. I have seen her non-acceptance of Robyn and I have seen her disdain for me through the years. As much as it hurts me, I’m glad to know where she actually stands,” Meri tells the camera.
Before Christine could respond, Kody jumps up and yells, “She’s treated you like dirt from the beginning!”
“[Christine] treated you like dirt from the very beginning,” Kody says to his fourth wife, Robyn. “That’s the relationship you have with her. That’s the reason I’m angry.”
Kody screams, ” Man, just the knife in the kidneys over all these years! The sacrifices I’ve made to love you. Wasted!”
Kody then rips Christine for not putting her “best self” into maintaining the family relationships.
He says, “The accountability is what I’ve been asking for here. And you are running away rather than being accountable. You’re like, ‘I’m divorced. I’m leaving. I’m done with you. You’re out of my house’ instead of actually asking the relationships work and trying. If you’re not trying to be your best self in this relationship and in this family, then you are wasting your time. Marriage is a call to be better than you are. Plural marriage is a higher call.”
Christine, who appears unfazed by Kody’s aggressive rant, calmly reassures the group that she never intended to treat anyone badly.
“Hey look, I never tried to treat anybody like crap,” Christine replies. “I never did. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”
“But you did,” Kody fires back. “And you admitted to it, and you couldn’t correct it. And now we’re sitting here with a broken family.”
After Kody unleashes on Christine, she doesn’t bother to refute his claims because she’s exhausted. She says she’s “I’m tired, it doesn’t matter” adding, “it’s over.”
Kody storms off to his truck and Janelle hugs and comforts Christine, while Robyn and Meri get up and leave without saying goodbye. Robyn and Meri share a teary emotional hug in the driveway.
Janelle comments in a talking head that marriage “takes work” by all parties, obviously siding with Christine.
Kody comments that he’s not happy that Janelle showed Christine so much sympathy.
Sister Wives: Janelle Wants To Leave But Her Hands Are Tied
A week has gone by since the emotionally charged meeting at Christine’s and Kody pays Janelle a visit on Coyote Pass. She informs him that the electric company was there, and they won’t install electricity on an empty lot.
Janelle’s been on the land for two months and is facing many dilemmas — her lot permit expires soon and winter is fast approaching. Flagstaff winters are brutal, especially with no electricity in an RV. Janelle feels alone in her situation.
“Kody has never been engaged in my housing since we moved here.” Janelle says in a talking head confessional.
Janelle wants a house built by her daughter, Savanah’s senior year of high school. However, Kody says they can’t build homes on Coyote Pass until they pay off the loan for the land. But she’s determined to make this work because she’s gotten herself into a “stupid position.”
She admits that as an “independent woman,” she no assets of her own — so essentially she’s stuck and can’t leave Kody.
Janelle explains in a talking head, “I have gotten myself into a very stupid position as far as an independent woman.” She says. “If I were to leave, or want to leave right now, I would have no estate. I have nothing to leave to my kids. My hands are completely tied.”
She adds, “Cause everything I have asset-wise has everybody else’s name on it too.”
She continues, “He was mad when I went from my first rental to my second rental, even though the second rental was much bigger, he was mad because it wasn’t as nice. But you know what, he has a house that he lives in up on the hill with Robyn and it’s really nice, and I have NOTHING, so I’m trying hard to build myself something here.”
Janelle explains that when she sold her Vegas home, she gave half of the proceeds to Robyn, towards the purchase of Robyn and Kody’s house in Flagstaff.
“Honestly, I gave half the proceeds from my house in Vegas to Robyn to help purchase this house that she’s in currently. We also, at this time, pooled a lot of money from the joint family account to help get her into that house.” Janelle tells the camera.
“We have a family account and the same amount of money is in it, as when we bought Robyn’s house and it was okay to deplete at that point to pay for Robyn’s house. And I’m like, we did it for Robyn… we did it for Christine, why can it not be my turn?” Janelle ask herself in a talking head confessional.
Kody’s bottom line is they just don’t have the money.
Sister Wives: Robyn’s Kids Go Back To School
Robyn and Kody’s youngest kids, Ariella and Solomon, return to in-person school for the first time since the pandemic, and the parents are emotional.
The kids return home from school and Kody greets them with the biggest smile and hugs. He questions the kids about their first day and celebrates little Ari helping a fellow classmate who was shy.
Robyn comments this was the hardest drop off she’s ever done. Kody’s emotional because Ari is his 18th child, and likely his last kindergartener.
Scenes are shown of Kody with his older kids when they were young, and he was present in their lives. Janelle and Christine give Kody credit for being a loving and present dad when their children was young.
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Sister Wives airs Sundays, at 10 p.m. ET, on TLC.
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Nancy Zhāng is an Entertainment Blogger for All About The Tea. Nancy covers hot topics, recaps and celeb news. She loves to multi-task as a writer and a private chef. She received a B.S. in Mass Communications from LSU. Nancy’s married and the proud mom of 2 German Shepherds.