[man] Previously onSister Wives...
For three years now, I've been trying to
explain to my wives that we're going to leave Las Vegas.
We just got to Flagstaff. We've invested everything.
Basically, we're paying five mortgages with our land.
This is where we need to have a drink
of something alcohol related.
Like, we're in this fix, we're in this mess.
[Madison moaning]
It's time for the baby to be born.
[Janelle] Honey, she's so beautiful!
What in the world is going on with my daughter?
[monitor beeping]
[Caleb] What is really wrong with her?
You know, I've got a million questions going through my mind.
All I can do is sit and watch.
And here we go. There's the house.
[Christine] Holy cow, he's trying to get us into one house.
I don't want to live together again.
You and Christine are leaving on a hot date.
-And everybody gets to line up. -Everybody gets to watch?
Everybody gets to line up and watch.
Don't look out the damn door if you don't want to see
someone clearly being with another wife on a date.
I really want to get down to some real answers here.
What's killing this dream?
No privacy for you.
[Kody] She's saying my privacy
because she doesn't want to see me with another wife.
[Christine] Coyote Pass is property that we bought in Flagstaff.
It's beautiful.
It's a bunch of acres where we can finally build
and be all together again.
I suggested a place for you.
[Meri] Uh-huh.
You suggested that you were into that.
So, somebody else said, "Well, I would like to be there."
So, I've gone to Meri and said,
"We could build the house right here," you know.
And Meri, at that point, went,
"I don't want to build a house right there anymore."
[Robyn] No, but you told me Meri doesn't want to be back here--
[Meri] Which he relayed the conversation a while, FYI.
Can I talk for a second?
I feel like I'm being jerked around a little bit.
Stop defending Meri.
Stop acting like you're not getting the [bleep]
-end of the stick here. -I'm not.
I'm in trouble for trying to accommodate Meri.
Meri is my sister wife, and I'm always going to try
and work stuff out with her, even if it's not easy.
For me, right now, I don't feel like a family.
[Kody] We moved to Flagstaff over a year ago
and the family's been separate, we've been apart.
In different houses. We're about 5, 10,
15 miles from each other in different directions.
[Robyn] I'm currently renting the home that I'm trying to buy.
[Christine] I have bought my home, so I'm, like, secure.
[Meri] And Janelle and I are both renting at this point.
Yeah. So, at this point, Kody is driving
between the houses every day.
[Christine] So, he's just constantly on the go.
And then, that means that when he's at each wife's house,
he has to stay like super present
and attentive and everything.
He's exhausted.
'Cause he's going from house to house to house again.
[Kody] When we moved to Flagstaff,
we bought property and we had goals of actually building,
hopes of making things happen.
But we end up in four different rentals,
pretty far from each other.
And, to make things worse,
the family doesn't feel like they're connected in any way.
You know, everything is kind of falling apart, all of our plans.
You know, we figured we'd sell our property
in a couple of months in Las Vegas.
Then we would all have money
to be able to start building homes in Flagstaff.
We get to Flagstaff, the homes don't sell in Las Vegas.
They just take forever.
You know, and it just goes on and on and on.
I mean, we're just strung out.
Like, I'm... I'm verging on the point of just
mental exhaustion 'cause there's constant grind.
[Christine] It's not just that we're geographically different,
because I expected geographically different.
But what I didn't expect was to feel isolated and feel separate.
It just feels separate. It feels lonely.
Because of the distance, it's also...
It's making it really, really easy for us to
just start living our separate lives.
It's really starting to affect our culture as a family.
[woman] Aurora, come here!
[Kody] So, the house we're currently living in
is a short-term rental,
but it's also the house we're trying to buy.
We expected to close, like, in a week,
but it's been now a month.
-[Robyn] Is that dad? -[Aurora] Yes.
[Robyn] Okay, he's going to basically turn around
and back up to this.
Make sure the kids are out of his way, okay?
-It's crazy. -[Kody] Yeah.
Well, it's taking away money that we need to live on.
So, here's the truck. This is the last stuff.
What... What were we looking for when we went out there
a few weeks ago?
Just anything for the kids.
Like, we're just looking for--
Well, I can see the clothes.
-[Robyn] Okay. -Yeah. So...
[Kody] We're renting trucks.
We didn't realize that we'd have them out this long,
but we're renting trucks. They're costing us
a lot of money,
and we have to renew that every week that we don't close.
[kid] Hey, Lars.
It looks weird.
Well, Aurora, stacking them neatly.
Since when are you unloading stuff?
[Robyn] Kody's wanting to, like, bring stuff into the house.
No, no, no. We're not unloading these trucks
until this is a for sure thing.
Everything stays on the truck,
except for the couple things we're needing.
[Kody] Just think of it as a positive affirmation...
[Robyn] Okay.
...that we're going to be unloading.
[Robyn] You don't know what the situation is.
I don't want to haul this stuff back out if this doesn't work.
I don't know what else to do.
This is kind of a weird situation.
We're just trying to get some of you guy's clothes.
[Kody] This underwriting situation with us
financing this house is very unusual.
No, I don't think so.
Well, for... for most people.
-It's not unusual for us. -Not for us.
What we've discovered is that, um, because I'm so intertwined
financially with all the wives, and interconnected,
that any time I'm involved in financing something,
it... it's...
Very confusing for anybody who looks at our finances.
Just... And the reason isn't that we're doing bad finances.
-No. -It's because our family
tax return is 50 pages.
And I think it's also because we're a plural family,
and our paperwork is complicated
because Kody is connected to all of his wives
financially in different ways.
So, they keep asking for more stuff, and more stuff,
and more stuff, and it's starting to spread
into the other wives as well, like Janelle, and Meri,
and Christine. Everybody is just...
I think, after this experience,
I'm finally going to say,
"Wives, you each finance your own home alone,
-and keep me off of it." -That'd be a good idea.
It's a little bit harder for us right now in Flagstaff
'cause Kody's name is on so many of the properties.
Our finances just all are this big spider web with each other.
So, yeah, it makes it a little bit difficult.
I assume it adds to it if Kody's name is on several houses,
it's going to complicate things.
I keep looking for rentals every day just in case.
I keep thinking maybe God has another plan,
but Kody gets mad every time I do because...
Well, the funny thing is I'm doing it.
To be honest with you, we're at this point now
where we've gone so long,
that if we found a house that was better,
that we could rent, we might jump on it.
[Janelle] You know, when we were in Vegas, we didn't know how
it was going to work out, and it was hard.
It was really hard.
And now it's easy to look back at Vegas
and say, "Oh, it was awesome."
We were forced to Las Vegas.
We chose to move here.
It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.
So here we are, we made a decision.
It's like, it's hard. Yeah, it is,
but why are we being so wussy about it?
I'm sorry, guys, let's buckle up and make it work.
If we don't close,
we're going to have to load everything back up,
and go somewhere else.
I'm... I'm stuck in the middle.
We know we can't go back to our old house.
We're daily rent on the house we're trying to buy,
but I don't know if it's one week, two weeks, three weeks.
It's been so much longer than I thought it'd be,
that I don't know where my breaking point will be
where I just say to Robyn, or Robyn says to me,
"Let's just take our stuff, go somewhere else."
We've been up in the air for so long
that we are unable to make a commitment
to what our goal is.
No, we're committed to this house
if this is what God wants us to do.
Uh...
I don't think God's working with us very well that way.
I don't think we're working with him.
I think he wants us to decide,
and commit to it.
-Well, I kind of did. -And our indecision
is sort of wishy-washiness.
I wasn't undecided until I didn't have a decision, so...
Aurora, take that to Mom's room.
[Janelle] You know, we have this whole idea,
"We've got to get in the property,
we are getting on the property,"
and I don't think that's the right goal.
But I think the situation really is
that we've sort of become lackluster
about our relationship.
We need to fix things now.
You know, I just get really frustrated
'cause I feel like we signed up for something
when we decided to be a plural family,
and it just seems like we're all sort of like,
"Whatever, let's just let it happen.
We're going to just roll with it," and I don't like that,
so, I'm going to have a conversation with my family.
[Christine] You know, Janelle told me that she wanted to
get everybody together to have a conversation,
and she was going to ask some tough questions.
That's what she freaking told me.
My eye's twitching, I'm so nervous about...
[Kody] About... Whoa!
So, am I looking forward to this conversation? No.
So, I've been thinking, how do I start this?
'Cause I need to communicate where I'm coming from.
[Christine] It has been a long time
since the five of us got together.
It might have been, I think... I don't know how long.
Months?
We don't really get together a whole lot.
[Robyn] Janelle's invited us to go to lunch today.
It makes me think that she wants to just,
like, just catch up with us,
or there might be something going on
that she wants to talk to us about.
I do have something to say.
And now I've been praying the whole way over here,
trying to make sure I can communicate
what I have to say right.
My eye's twitching, I'm so nervous about...
[Kody] About... Whoa!
Like my eye's been twitching all day.
Now, Janelle, the question is,
-should we be nervous too? -No, no, no!
I don't know why Janelle's asked us all to join her
for lunch other than she just wants to get together.
We just finished this whole one home discussion,
and maybe she just wants to pick the pieces back up
and talk about family things.
So, I've been thinking, how do I start this?
'Cause I need to communicate where I'm coming from.
And I guess what I want to say is,
why did you enter the principle?
Whoa.
I wonder where she's going with this.
[Janelle] "The principle," for us, is the real term for plural marriage.
It's the principle of plural marriage.
I mean, it's really a gospel principle for us
so, in our community, it's shortened to "the principle."
[Christine] No, I am surprised. I did not know
what her questions would be.
Wow. Okay.
I mean, I did it because I love the whole idea
of the whole family, and this whole group synergy,
and I really felt like we would get progression, right?
The whole idea is that we overcome our crap.
-[Robyn] Yeah. -The whole purpose,
we truly believe, of living a plural marriage
is that you have to learn how to not be selfish.
[Meri] I mean, I don't know.
I guess, for me, it's just, like,
being raised in it.
My dad took his first plural wife
when I was like 11-years-old.
I had a lot of years with other moms,
and other siblings that weren't just from my mom.
So, it wasn't out of the ordinary for me.
I like the example of how my grandmas were, for sure.
They were just really close and, after my grandpa died,
they just stayed together. So, I like the sisterhood.
To me, that's what family was. It was a lot of grandmas.
Then I had two moms and, so,
that's what a normal family was to me, was a lot of moms.
[Robyn] The big family thing was always really cool to me.
I loved when I first met you guys,
how you guys functioned.
I loved it.
Hmm.
You know, when I saw you guys at the house in Lehi.
We seemed so functional.
[Robyn] See?
Boy, we pulled the wool over your eyes.
Oh, my Gosh. Wow.
I never said that!
I still think that still... That still exists.
I've thought about this a lot lately
because I've told friends recently
that I didn't want to be an advocate
of plural marriage anymore,
because I am more aware now than I ever was before
of the apparent
and obvious unfairness in the relationship.
Some are up, some are down, but it's, you know,
-it's always changing. -[Kody] I know I have
all the love I want,
and you guys sometimes feel like you're pining
constantly for me to, you know, give you some.
I mean, the other day I was having dinner with Logan
and I was like going, "I've really messed this up."
We came into this by way of commandment.
We felt like we were supposed to live it
and we had an ideal, that it was a better way,
and then come to a stark reality
of the struggle that it is.
In that vein, I want to go to my wives and say,
"Did you marry me because you thought
you would have a good life and a loving husband,
and a good relationship with me?
Or did you marry me because your religion commanded it?"
Plural marriage, what I know about it,
I wonder if I would do it again, knowing what I know,
knowing how I think it's hard on all of you.
There's no such thing as "Should've done something different."
It just doesn't work. It doesn't...
You can't say, "I don't know if I would've done it different,"
'cause here we are. It's a hard one to hear.
That's super hard to hear.
I do not like the idea
that you guys are in a plural marriage with me
because you were commanded to.
I like the idea that we were in plural marriage together
because we were in love
and we chose to build a family together.
[Meri] He seems a little bit more, dare I say negative
about plural marriage right now, and that's really hard to hear.
When I... When we're doing good, I get idealistic
and I go, "Wow, we're doing a good job."
And when I'm ideal and we're not doing a good job,
I get really grouchy and say,
"I can't believe I've done this to me and to you."
[Robyn] Like, saying that right here,
I don't know necessarily if that's helpful,
other than just making us all feel a little bit,
you know, discouraged.
So, it's like a two-edged sword.
I like... Don't get me wrong, I like my life.
If you guys complain to me very much,
it sticks in my head and I wonder if you like yours.
[Janelle] This is, like, pointless.
What was the point of this? Did I screw everybody up?
I think it's because he feels all the pressure right now
of everybody talking to him
because he's the only common denominator.
He's the only one I can talk to.
But maybe the next question is, do you think our family
feels like it used to?
Like when you first met us, Robyn.
Does it feel like that in our family now?
We're not doing anything together.
Then it's super stressful, when we do do stuff together, it's not easy.
I mean, it's obvious, you know? Janelle sees too
that we do things separately.
I mean, just getting us together again
for a simple dinner took months.
I feel like it changed when we moved to Vegas.
I was pretty lonely in the cul-de-sac.
I was pretty lonely.
That feeling of being separate really started in Vegas.
I've never been so depressed.
There wasn't the day-to-day rub.
You know, all sitting down to dinner together.
There wasn't some of those things happening and it changed.
All of a sudden, it became the same family, but living separate.
My thoughts were more about the family as a whole.
There was a desperation in our lives that forced us
to be connected.
Up until we moved to Las Vegas,
we had this culture within our family,
and it was something that we started out.
This was the one thing that Kody was
always so firm about, "we're going to be one family."
And when we moved to Vegas, it was like our older kids
already had that bond because they were together all the time.
And then I started seeing things kind of change
because now we're in four separate homes,
and that next group of kids
didn't have that same type of bonding.
Because we don't need each other as much, we've lost something.
And I don't know what the solution is.
Of course, I'm an advocate of the one home,
but I'm not saying that is the answer here. I'm not.
Because I think it can work but, of course,
it's not going to work unless...
So, please know that this is not a conversation
about "let's have one home."
I think the whole one house discussion is,
um, sort of stimulating some thought in Janelle's mind.
And I get where she's coming from
because I have the same struggle.
How do we quantify ourselves as a family
when we don't live in one home?
So, and here we go. There's the house.
Holy cow, he's trying to get us into one house.
I'm so not interested.
[Christine] Uncomfortable.
It's uncomfortable. It's an uncomfortable topic.
But there's something fundamentally going wrong,
and I feel like... I feel like we have tribalism going in in our family.
Like, we're breaking into the Christine tribe,
the Robyn tribe, the Meri tribe,
the Janelle tribe, where you are the chief.
And, in a way, it's like we're not... We are unified
but there's still a lot of agendas going on, a lot of...
Like, for me. I know this about me.
If I really look at myself,
I have to be aware that I'm not always thinking about family first
like I used to.
It wasn't like it was all, like, fairytales and ice cream
when we were all living together, but we were committed.
Hey, Meri, I need you to chime in here
'cause I know that you used to have thoughts here, about this.
Come on, Meri, don't leave me hanging now
'cause you said the same thing to me.
I'm having a hard time remembering this conversation
that I had with Janelle, but I do agree with her.
When did we talk?
We were on the couch, actually.
And you commented that you thought it felt different.
Gosh, why do I not remember this conversation?
It's weird to me that she doesn't remember.
-Don't leave me hanging, man. -I'm not.
-You're my wingman. -I'm not.
I'm not doing it on purpose, I'm just trying to remember.
Janelle's placing herself in a very vulnerable position
asking everybody to participate,
and I think Meri is just afraid to be vulnerable with this.
Let's open up the problem, let's discuss it
because we've been ignoring it for a long time.
Um, I think, in our family, that everybody should feel
like they should be able to bring this up.
So why are we afraid of even bringing something like this up?
[Meri] Because we are in four separate homes,
we just started escaping.
It was easy.
I don't get a phone call from Kody
except for if it's business.
Like, we're not putting just that tiny little effort in.
We're not sending a text to a sister wife.
We have to take those steps to just be friends.
And we're not doing that with each other.
You don't think we feel the same?
I don't feel like we feel the same.
What do you think is changing, though?
What do you think... You think it's distance.
[Janelle] 'Cause I'm not gonna let you get away from it.
Oh, no. It feels different to me.
But you guys all know how I feel.
I don't feel like I have the family community
like we had in Las Vegas.
I also don't have friends here.
So, I don't have a community here.
I've realized I think our family started feeling different
the minute we moved to Vegas and we were more separated.
Okay. So, can I address the pink elephant
I think that's in the room?
Are you trying to say this is because of me
-coming into the family? -[Janelle] No. Oh, no.
-Mm-mm. -I'm sorry if you think
that's the pink elephant that's in the room right now.
So, in Vegas, when Kody was there, it was all...
It got super stressful, and that's like how it is now.
We only see him like once or twice a week. It's just stressful.
[Kody] The complaint about Vegas was that I wasn't settling.
-Do you feel like you settled? -Yeah.
I guess I wouldn't know 'cause you're always holding your phone.
I'm always just looking for a fight, apparently.
I've realized I think our family started feeling different
the minute we moved to Vegas and we were more separated.
Okay. So, can I address the pink elephant
I think that's in the room? Are you guys trying to say
it's because of me coming into the family?
-Oh, no, no, no. No. Mm-mm. -I'm sorry if you think
that's the pink elephant that's in the room right now.
[Janelle] No. Oh, no. No, Robyn. No.
No, I think that Vegas is what happened.
No, no, no, no. No, it's not you! No!
No, that was not my intention of this conversation.
No.
How's it going?
[Robyn] When I came into the family,
there was a lot of things that happened all at once.
We got you a little welcome-to-the-club gift.
[Maddie] They're announcing to the world
that they're polygamists, and it's pretty scary.
Monday night we got word that the police department,
um, is due to investigation into the family.
[Maddie] Somebody's asking me
if my mother is going to jail today.
We need to get all the rest of Robyn's stuff in.
[Robyn] I never know if it was these other things
that were going on, or if it was me.
And it kills me.
You don't... You don't have a complete perspective,
and I feel so bad. No.
Oh, my God, that was never my intention.
Here's the thing.
Why I can see what you would think that,
it's because all that change happened at the same time,
but it wasn't because you came in the family.
We went public, the state came after us,
and we left, like, all within the same year.
This has nothing to do with her coming into the family.
We should have been able to absorb her, and I think we could have.
That would've been easy.
Having a wife coming to the family is like a new team member,
and I think we would've rubbed up against each other,
but we would've eventually found our normal
and it would've looked a lot like what we had.
When we started, I think we all shared a feeling
like we were single moms in Vegas.
I mean, I remember feeling like a single mom
in Vegas, but I thought that was what it was.
I thought that's what plural marriage kind of entailed a little bit.
It was the first time I ever really felt like a single mom.
Yeah, me, too.
I don't really know what to do with this conversation.
I'm realizing I wasn't there and never experienced
what it is she's talking about.
I don't... I don't even know what to say here and I don't know what to do,
and it's really hard to hear 'cause it means
I was never a part of whatever it is
she's talking about they had.
So, in Vegas, it was like... When Kody was there,
it was all... It got super stressful
if he was coming over. It was super, super stressful.
And that's like how it is now, again.
It's stressful when he's coming over
because we only see him like once or twice a week,
and he's just there in the evenings
and we don't see him any other time.
So, when he comes over,
he disrupts the entire schedule that we have.
He disrupts everything that we have,
and partially because we don't even know when he's coming over.
You didn't say you were coming and now you're here,
you're only here at night, and there's so much
to cram into a few hours, that it's just stressful.
And that's what Vegas felt like.
When I was in Vegas,
I would come in and check on the kids,
but the complaint about Vegas was that I was not always...
that I wasn't settling.
And now you're... Now the thing is I'm disrupting,
but I'm settling.
Do you feel like you settled?
Yeah.
You know, if I really get honest with myself,
it might be this world where it's either/or.
It's like I'm just going to have to be happy
with however it is because it'll never be normal.
Plural marriage isn't normal.
I guess I wouldn't know 'cause you're always holding your phone.
[Christine laughs]
I'm always just looking for a fight, apparently.
[Kody] Christine's speaking her truth.
And when I am on my phone, it's 'cause, um,
I don't feel like engaging.
So, it's not an addiction to the phone,
it's an excuse to separate
from the angst in our relationship.
Before we go comparing it to the past,
you all need to think about how you view the past.
Oh, it was hard.
I mean, think about it--
-I can say... -Don't let me make...
-...any assumptions. -...it was rough,
but I liked the outcome that it got us.
Christine, you and I fought over the kitchen or whatever, but guess what?
We had to get up the next day and figure our [bleep] out
because we had to, you know what I mean?
-Yes. -So, I mean, like,
we don't have to. We go back to our own little houses,
and I sit and I check out with my work or whatever.
And it goes weeks and months, and I'm making up stories
in my head about you. I'm like, "I'm never gonna do
anything with Christine, she's so controlling in the kitchen."
And that's probably what you are thinking of me.
-It's fine. -And it would've festered.
because we didn't have to work it out.
Yeah. No, you're right.
And maybe that is part of it now too,
is that we don't have to work it out.
I do come up with...
"Yeah, I'm sure everybody hates me, all the time."
-[Robyn] What? -I feel like I'm on the outside
-looking in all the time. -[Robyn] Really?
Yes. And then, when I get together for family gatherings,
I'm like, "Why would I want to go?
'Cause it's just gonna be a hostile environment
and no one there even likes me."
I think life's gotten really easy for us.
We all go home to our little houses and we complain about somebody.
The easier it gets, the more we get away
from the ultimate goal I'd envisioned.
[Kody] We all have to decide what we really want.
If this is what we really want, or are we forcing it
upon ourselves because this is the way it's supposed to be?
Our religion taught us all these other things.
This is a new level of commitment,
and maybe, and this would be heart-breaking,
there are some of us who are like,
"Look, I don't want it anymore."
[Robyn] We're here having lunch together.
There's a lot that has already been said.
A lot of it is pretty intense. I mean, it's not easy right now.
Yeah, I'm sure everybody hates me, all the time.
-[Robyn] What? -I feel like I'm on the outside
-looking in all the time. -[Robyn] Really?
Yes. And then, when I get together for family gatherings,
I'm like, "Why would I want to go?
'Cause it's just gonna be a hostile environment
and no one there likes me."
Uh... I don't know why Christine is saying this,
that she feels like she's hated. Like, that's... That's scary.
[Meri] I mean, I totally understand.
I mean, going into a family function
and just, like, not knowing where you stand.
Wow. Wow.
I mean, it's a shame that she feels like that.
See, I think this is the danger
of spending too much time separate.
I think life's gotten really easy for us.
We all go home to our little houses
and we complain about somebody.
The easier it gets, the more we get away
from the ultimate goal I'd envisioned
when I came into this family.
[Kody] We all have to decide what we really want.
If this is what we really want,
or are we forcing it upon ourselves
because this is the way it's supposed to be?
Our religion taught us all these other things.
Do you want to have a relationship
with your sister wife?
I think maybe that's why I started to think about this,
'cause I want something different than what we have.
We've been saying "do more, spend more time together"
for years. But this is different.
This is a new level of commitment,
and maybe, and this would be heart-breaking,
there are some of us who are like, "Look, I don't want it anymore."
I'm really sorry I still get jealous. Just saying.
I still get super, super, super jealous
and I'm really, really, really sorry.
It makes getting together hard.
Really, really hard.
Maybe I don't like me either.
I'm not really strong on my own,
and it's surprising and it's hard.
I thought I'd be stronger on my own, but I'm not.
And it's really hard to just feel like
I can contribute anything.
It's hard to find that balance of being strong and not being a bitch.
It would definitely be easier to just do what we're doing now,
and to just let it be.
It would be easier,
and there's a lot of plural families
that are just like this.
I just want to add, Christine,
that it's not that I just don't not hate...
It's not that I just don't hate you.
How do I say this?
It's not only that I don't hate you,
I love you too.
So please don't ever feel that way...
I'll try not to, I promise.
-When it comes to me. -[Christine] Okay.
[Robyn] If Kody is struggling with a wife,
that doesn't mean that I'm struggling.
-We're hurt too. -You guys...
[Robyn] Please, let me speak for myself here, okay?
But I really just want to have...
...relationships that are separate from whatever's going on
with you and Kody.
[Robyn sniffles]
[Kody] For years, I saw purpose in my life,
in plural marriage, in my family.
But, right now, it looks like this is...
It's not something that we are enjoying.
It's not something that we're even respecting.
Ladies, why aren't you happy?
If I... If I have got a great relationship with one wife
and not with another,
is it plural marriage that's the problem?
We've been waiting to close now for a month.
I'm just tired of just sitting here waiting for it to close.
[cell phone vibrating]
That's our lender.
Okay. Let's take this... Let's go out here.
-Let's go. -Okay.
-This way. Follow me, husband. -Oh, gosh.
-[Kelly] Hi, Kody. -Hi, Kelly. How are you?
[Kelly] I have some really exciting news.
We were able to fund a loan today.
So, do you guys know what that actually means?
It means we own the house, right?
[Kelly] You absolutely own the house.
-Congratulations. -Wow.
Thank you very much.
I've been fighting Kody like crazy on this idea of buying
because I don't want to delay getting out on the property.
We're struggling, our family culture is struggling,
and I don't see how us buying a home
is really a part of God's plan for us.
-I just don't see it. -That's hard
because I want to celebrate with somebody.
[call ends]
Hey, we're done! I'm so relieved!
Oh, my goodness.
The happiest part about it for me
is just being able to go tell the kids.
That phone call was with our lender.
[Aurora] What's up?
You can come home to your new home!
Oh, my God!
-You... -They funded...
-[Aurora] You guys are just... -We own this place.
It's our property now.
I'm going to let the kids be happy and relieved,
and let them express their joy from now on
about being in this house
so that I don't have to sit here and keep selling it to Robyn.
You don't have to sell it to me anymore. It's sold.
-We bought it. -We bought it.
But I want you to be happy about it.
-I'm... -Let's find some joy here.
Okay.
Today, Axel and Evie,
and Maddie and Caleb, you know, are coming.
I need my wives to stop complaining
about this divide that we've got in the family.
-Hi! -Hi!
Stop putting it on me.
One, two, three.
This is your granddaughter.
[Kody] Look at that wide-eyed little baby!
Today, Axel and Evie,
and Maddie and Caleb, you know, are coming.
And so, Janelle is picking them at the airport right now,
and everyone's going to be here in just a few minutes.
Unfortunately, I already had some business plans
for out of town, so I wasn't able to be around
and meet the baby, and I was super bummed about it.
Yeah, that's too bad.
My baby! Hi! I missed you.
[Kody] Hi, girls.
It has been a crazy summer.
Things have been a challenge,
and they kind of all came to a head
just before Robyn closed on her house.
I'm trying to identify how we're really kind of
not a united family,
so I'm really excited that Maddie and Caleb are coming
because there's nothing like our kids and grandkids
to get us feeling like we're a family.
[Kody chuckles] Hi!
[Maddie] Hi!
-How's it going? -[Maddie] Good.
Hey. Hi.
-Holy, what? Who are you? -Solomon.
You're Solomon? Are you sure?
I think Solomon's shorter than this.
-[Solomon] No. -[Maddie] No?
[Kody kissing baby]
[kid screaming]
Look at all the...
All the family excited!
[Christine] The party has arrived!
I'm sure, like, Axel's been living in this little house
with just Maddie and Caleb...
And now all the noise.
Alright.
-[Maddie] You ready? -Alright. You ready?
One, two, three.
This is your granddaughter.
[Kody] Look at that wide-eyed little baby!
-[Kody] Evie Karen. Look at her! -Granddaughter/niece.
[Kody] She's bright-eyed, man. She's really bright-eyed.
[Robyn] This is... This is Evie in a nutshell.
She is very alert.
She looks like she's just, "Hey, guys. What's up?"
[Christine] Oh, my Gosh!
[people speaking indistinctly]
Come here, Evie K.
[Kody] You know there's just some people who you know
are going to charm the world and not take any crap from it,
and that's the energy I get from this little one.
She's just... She's going to own it.
I think she is just darling.
[Maddie] Oh, if anyone doesn't know,
she has a syndrome called FATCO syndrome.
She is missing bones.
Aww.
And fingers. And toes.
[Maddie] Bones. Bones.
So, Evie K. was born with a genetic
grouping of symptoms that, basically, is called FATCO,
and it just means that there are limb differences.
She's got limb differences on her right hand and her left leg.
She's not breathing on her own very well,
so they're going to probably take her to UNC.
[woman] At this time, some babies,
they kind of start to go downhill.
We don't know which way this baby is going.
[Christine] There's been few times in my life
where I've been genuinely scared,
and seeing the ambulance pull up
and knowing it was for Evie...
It was awful, to be honest.
-I didn't see it. I needed to-- -It was awful.
And I know that it's there to save her, which was so stupid
that it was awful 'cause I know it's there to save her.
[Janelle] So, after three days, they released her
and she's healthy perfectly healthy,
her lungs are working great.
-[Christine] Rub her belly. -Her belly.
Rub her belly.
[Madison] Something that we knew about early on
is that Evie is missing fingers
and she's missing a couple bones throughout her body,
and it has now been diagnosed as FATCO syndrome.
I don't want her to ever feel like it's a limitation.
I don't want her to ever feel like it's a crutch.
She's going to be a fierce fighter.
Hello. Hi, you, blue eyes.
[Caleb] She is big, guys.
[Robyn] You are so pretty.
[Janelle] You know, in the future,
probably close to her first birthday,
they're going to have to do surgery
to either get her ready for a prosthetic,
or straighten the limb.
I think it's always in the back of my mind
that she has to have this surgery
and there's risks with surgery,
but I guess I'm just hopeful and optimistic that her little,
strong body and strong mind are going to prevail here.
Oh, she is looking over.
Hi, Evie girl.
-Hi, baby girl. -[Kody] She's so cute. Goodness!
-[Kody] She's so cute. -I'm your bubby.
-That's what I am. -[Janelle] Oh, Bubby.
-[Janelle] That's good. -I'm your Bubby.
[Caleb] Bubby.
Janelle is "grandma," I am "bubby."
That is the Czechoslovakian name for grandma.
To me, "grandma" is my mom but a, I think,
generation shift and I'm just going to be "grandma."
[Meri] I haven't chosen anything,
and I'm not really prone to, you know,
come up with a title for myself.
Where did your bubby go?
[Christine] I'm "oma." It's a German grandma.
So, Maddie and Caleb asked me
when she was pregnant with Axel if I could be "oma."
I'm like, "Yeah. Yeah."
You guys make such cute babies. Oh, my Gosh.
Thank you. Thank you.
Hey! Maddie! Maddie!
Yzzie just said we make cute babies,
so we're going to continue.
-We'll see how. -[Caleb] We'll see nothing.
You married the wrong person for babies
'cause I want to have a good-sized family.
Well, you know what? Then you can have the babies.
Okay.
[Caleb] We're going to make some more cute babies.
That's what we do.
[Kody] I'm glad the grandkids were here.
I'm glad Caleb and Madison were here,
it was so nice to see them.
They make us feel like we're a family again.
But I need my wives to stop complaining
about this sort of gulf or divide
that we've got in the family.
You guys start to fix those relationships.
Stop putting it on me.
So, if you need something fixed, ladies, fix it.
[man] This season onSister Wives...
I'm about ready to psychologically lose it.
This thing is getting really frustrating, to be honest with you.
I'm just going to be frank here. I'm like a stepmom.
I think this sunset's going to be good.
...and I had one wife...
I don't know, maybe it's a fantasy on my part.
Let's just go.
[Christine] Wow. We've been ready for an hour.
I feel like the only adult sometimes, you know?
Come on.
[Christine] What the hell is he doing?
Our family's been feeling really challenged
since we came to Flagstaff.
I'm very worried 'cause it looks like
it's going even be more separation.
[Robyn] We're really acting like four separate families.
We had a pandemic breakout of Covid-19 in the United States.
I'm the only one that's going from home to home.
I suggested to dad that he maybe not come over.
How can we work our relationships
if we can't even see each other to talk to?
You know, what kind of exposure we having...
He would rather we just stay home. And we're not.
I'm dealing with the stubbornest people I've ever known.
We don't have to do anything together.
[Robyn] If you know that she is actually trying to sabotage
your relationship with Kody, you can't trust her.
Kody and Meri's relationship is really sad.
I can't make him love me.
So if I were to lean over and just kiss you right now,
would you push me away?
[Kody] Romance and sex are saved for people who are in love.
If Meri and I really wanted to be together, we would.
[Christine] Next time I see Kody,
I'm going to tell him I freaking want to move back to Utah,
even though the girls don't want to.
One, two, three, four wives said no.
We're never moving back to Utah.
Maybe the drama problem in our lives is me.
Meri, I can't be in a marriage with Kody anymore.
I don't want to...
You don't get to give up like that.
I don't want to do it anymore.