[narrator] Previously on Sister Wives...
Okay, so guys, Hunter is coming home tomorrow.
I'm about ready to psychologically lose it
if we don't start getting together soon.
You know, CDC is telling you not to get into groups bigger than, like,
10 or eight something?
I don't know what the answer is here.
The conversations with the five of us, I go home with a stomach ache.
This pandemic has sort of underscored this breakdown
in how we communicate with each other as adults.
More than anything with Kody is, I don't feel like I'm very important to him.
Some of the difficulties we have in plural marriage may be unreconcilable.
I just don't know what this means for our future.
Meri, I have a very difficult time, like, visualizing us in the future.
Dude, you've got four wives and 18 kids.
You're just gonna pick and choose who you're gonna keep?
Ever since COVID-19 hit, we lost our film crew
because they can't afford to be exposed.
It's all backwards 'cause I'm filming backwards.
So, first there... Mm-hmm.
We are now using our little phones.
And our, uh, tripods.
And we are trying to record ourselves.
We don't know what we're doin'.
Well, the pandemic's been goin' on for about seven weeks.
[Kody] The numbers are climbing.
I'm the only one that's going from home to home.
So today, I'm meeting with my wives.
Outta Coyote Pass.
Today, we're getting together and having a socially distant picnic.
[Kody] Hopefully, this works.
Um, Hunter's home now and he's gonna be coming with Janelle.
[Janelle] Hunter has come home from Air Force Academy. He's graduated.
Gathering as a family and being around the family is a big deal to Hunter.
And it's really sad because right now, we don't know
how that's gonna go.
- [Kody] Hi! - [Janelle] Hi!
Hi, Hunter!
[Janelle] We sort of figured we would set up our lawn chairs...
and visit. But stay socially distanced.
- Well, I'm hungry. - Can I, uh...
I'm not ready to, like, melt down.
I brought myself a sandwich.
I made salmon patties.
- That sounds fantastic. - ...you have to get 'em off the ground.
- You want one? - Yeah, I'll try it.
- It's thousands of dollars. - Six feet!
- Six feet. - I'm really not worried about it.
- I know. - I tested negative, so...
[Meri] I absolutely think that we need to keep our distance from each other.
I'm kinda following the guidance of Kody.
I'm good to just stay home.
And I'm good to just sit out six feet apart on the property.
I know that Kody wants everybody to stay apart.
Hunter's gonna come over anyway.
Okay, so if you're not worried about it,
who's not worried about it?
I wouldn't go home if, like, don't come within six-feet of me mom,
like, we're all in the same house, 'cause at that point it doesn't matter.
So, my doctor told me...
"Do you want to have a child or not?"
The only pure prevention from having a child
is not having sex.
So, if you don't want to get the disease, you cannot interact
with other people.
I think what he's saying is a absolutely perfect analogy.
Wearing a mask, wearing gloves,
- you know, she used... - That won't prevent pregnancy, wearing a mask.
- [Kody] Well, I will say... - [speaking]
- [indistinct chatter] - [Kody] It's an analogy.
If you want to cheat a little bit, you need to take the precautions.
It's a perfect analogy.
I don't have a problem at all with everybody getting together.
- The family getting together at all. - It's the psychology.
Well, I don't mind. I don't mind at all. And I would love it. I would love it.
But I think that we do need to look out. You don't want to at all?
It's not that I want to.
I'm still struggling with the fact that we're not taking advantage of this time.
I'm not saying I don't want to get together.
If lives are at stake here, that's gotta be the most important thing, right?
[Kody] But if Hunter, you wanted to see everybody after your two weeks,
you going from house to house now increases that risk by double
what the risk was with just me going.
To me, it's like if we're all quarantined
we assume that nobody has the disease.
So I don't get why that increases the risk.
If everybody's home, there's no exposure.
Janelle's got Garrison working,
and involved in a social life.
And Gabriel is also involved in a social life.
I believe he's got a girlfriend.
I do not think the family should get together.
You're saying that we're gonna have to stay this way the whole summer?
I'm not saying that. You're jumping to conclusions.
Some of the attitudes I'm getting from the family don't give me peace
about their behavior when I'm not around.
I'm sitting here questioning whether I should even be going from house to house.
[Janelle] Then what the hell are you saying?
That there's no way that we could ever be safe?
With more than one person moving around?
Well, he's saying that we will live the way that we're living now
for indefinitely until this thing is over.
Me going from house to house is the...
one safe thing.
I've had pneumonia. I'm a high risk because I've had pneumonia.
I actually believe that there are other members of our family
that are high risks too.
I don't know if it's my place to say it.
If you do get it, and if you do get a heavy case of the,
uh, strong case of it...
It will change your life forever.
- Okay, I'm just trying to... - That's so Will.
That's so Will.
He's turned into his father here,
he was always like...
Yeah. I just was like wow!
Look, I get all the facts, Kody.
But I want you to hear this one thing.
[Janelle] No, you've been telling me over and over again.
This sickness, if you get the heavy duty one,
it's like a concussion.
It will change who you are.
It's not gonna change who you are.
Like, it could... can you imagine me not being able to work out,
not being able to exercise?
[overlapping chatter]
...you're making it sound like, Dad, I'm gonna be
a schizophrenic for the rest of my life.
I don't know what the virus is about.
I don't know how deadly it is going to be.
So you're talking about no summer, no holidays,
no Christmas, nothing together?
You're jumping to the end, and we don't know.
Why don't we just wait two weeks and then have the discussion again?
"Well, we'll get together when it's safe."
We'll be lucky if we have a family at the end of that time.
I... just feel this is my whole freaking life.
The BS of plural marriage is "you love her more, so you're over there."
[Kody] I love everybody, and so I'm not spreading the disease.
You're making choices that make it so that I'm not coming over.
I think polygamy is making COVID harder just because Kody has to stay separate.
Like, we have to have separate family groups right now,
which is something that none of us ever wanted.
I think that whatever issues might be happening
between him and any of his wives,
um,
my guess is that...
COVID is just expounding on those issues.
I absolutely cannot do this.
I might as well pack up and go to Maddy in North Carolina for the summer.
[Robyn] We could lose a family member, is that gonna be worth a couple of parties
that we have?
Okay, so we reconvene again in a couple of weeks?
Yeah.
Ideally, Hunter would like to see everybody all together.
He feels like the differences between where he and Kody are on precautions
about COVID are so far apart that
I think he feels this push to see his siblings
before he goes back on to his next duty station
and probably doesn't come home again for a long time.
Those two. "Oh, Dad. You know. You're so stupid, Dad.
I'd rather be around the kids than you anyway."
This is how it feels to me.
[Kody] I'm just gonna do what I'm gonna do.
And you guys all choose.
And if you don't choose my standards,
then I won't be around you.
I think there's gonna be tolls higher than any risk of virus.
[Janelle] We've spent our whole family life
trying to build a one family culture.
And this could tear that apart.
[Christine] So, all of us adults just went out onto the property... the property.
About COVID and what we're gonna do.
And basically, what we're gonna do is the same
as what we're doing and Janelle is really struggling with it,
Meri is struggling with it, my girls are struggling with it.
More than anything, I just don't like going to the property.
I just really want to move back to Utah.
I think that we need the support of being around a plural community
now more than ever.
Um, with our family being separated like it is,
with Kody going super dark about polygamy in general,
I think us living in Utah right now,
just makes a lot more sense.
So yeah, I mean, I think right now is a perfect time to talk about moving back to Utah.
All right, we are driving to graduation.
Christine's taking the kids to Utah,
because she wants to celebrate the graduation.
I don't understand why she feels like this is okay.
A little bit of distance for Kody and I is okay.
Things are just hard at home when he's there.
Okay, two cups flour. Baking powder.
So, while Mom is here, we have decided we're gonna
kind of try out and perfect some recipes
that we've been playing around with for the bed and breakfast.
- Say hi, Mom. - Hi.
Mom's been here with me for a couple of weeks,
while Mariah and Audrey are at the bed and breakfast.
Kind of running that for us.
[Meri] You should probably film me as I walk around doing stuff, Mom.
Just...[chuckling]
I am the star, Mom.
You know, COVID has basically changed everything in our lives.
Including how we document everything in our lives.
We're not necessarily the best camera people in the world, so...
it's kind of interesting.
They look kind of amazing
So, we're going to let these biscuits cool
but in the meantime, we're just going to call
Mariah and Audrey and just kind of check up with them
and see how things are going.
[call ringing]
Hi!
- Hi, there. How's it going? - Hi.
I'm Face Timing me, holding an Iphone.
[chuckling] I guess that's what we're supposed to be doing, huh.
Let's just be real.
I am technologically illiterate.
That's the wrong angle and I have to hold it this way.
[exhales] Freaking "A," man.
[exhales] This is stressing me out.
I don't know half of the time what I'm doing with my phone.
Freaking "A," man. I didn't push "start" again.
- My gosh. - Or does it stop by itself?
It shouldn't stop by itself.
You push it one time.
"Stop." "Start." Wait, which one is it? [chuckles]
How's everything going at the bed and breakfast?
It's pretty good. It's pretty chill.
I mean, you could easily just stay there.
-[chuckling] -Until you moved in. I'm just saying.
I did not want to stay there forever.
I mean, I do love it, It's really exciting to be in a place
that is so in my family.
- Yeah. - Um, but she wants us
to stay here forever.
Well, I did just apply for a job the other day,
- so I can't stay for... - [Meri] Oh, yeah?
We don't know for sure how long they're going
to be there but they will be going up to Salt Lake,
Mariah will be finishing up her degree in social work and social justice,
and then she plans on getting a job in that field.
That just makes me happy that you're enjoying it.
- Yeah. - It's like being stuck in paradise
it's fine, I'm enjoying it.
Right before everything started,
we went and looked at some wedding venues.
But we kind of haven't really been able to make a decision.
We're not sure whatever-- What's going on,
like, there's a pandemic, like, everyone's moving
their weddings till next year, so we're just
still floating around trying to figure it out.
- All right, I love you. - Love you.
- Love you, guys. - Bye.
[Mariah] Bye.
It's always good to check in with Mariah and Audrey
and I'm glad that they're enjoying it.
So I've talked to Christine and Robyn individually
about my thoughts that we need to communicate better
What we've been doing, hasn't been working
so I'd like to try something different.
And I guess the communication is the biggest piece of it.
- So... - I think so too.
I mean, you're talking about changing the way we communicate.
I would love to change it dramatically.
So today, I'm going to go talk to Meri about
what I've been thinking and then the next step
will be to get us all together.
So, I'm actually going around, talking to everybody
just because I think
we need to figure out ground rules for conversation.
Because we don't do conversations very well.
No, we don't.
What is, um...
driving this conversation for you?
I don't think we make progress when we have conversations.
And I think that's why it takes us so long,
because we don't ever really make progress,
we just keep talking, talking, talking, talking, talking.
Meri always gives these answers that are sort of like,
non-committal.
So I'm just trying to take her temperature
and make sure she's understanding what I'm asking her.
I mean, do you see kind of, my idea?
Do you think it has value?
Yeah, I think that it does.
I think our, um...
tendency is, if it gets hard, we just don't talk about it
- or we just never talk about it. - No, right.
And it's, everybody else will talk about it,
about me, or we'll all talk about it,
- about you, or whatever the case is... - No, right.
But people don't talk
to who needs to be talked to.
If there was more conversations happening,
With the people involved rather than behind backs,
I think relationships could heal.
So, that's why I think I fundamentally want to work,
I want to propose that we work on.
It's not me saying that we have to work on it.
I want to propose that we work on this.
Mmm-hmm. I'm cool with that.
So, what I'm proposing is that we all five get together
and we talk about rules for when we sit down
and actually try to talk about something.
All right, well, it'll be [sighs]
an interesting conversation.
I appreciate Janelle's interest in starting this conversation
It's kind of hard for me to speak to this at this point
because I am not in really
a husband-wife relationship with Kody.
You know, we don't talk about things.
It's just where we are.
The whole family is just, you know, been through a lot.
I just feel very cautious.
All right, we are driving to graduation.
Christine's already there with her kids for Gwendlyn.
So, today is Aurora and Gwendlyn's high school graduation.
Are you nervous?
I mean, well, it's my graduation,
- so, there's definitely butterflies. - [child chattering]
Christine is driving Gwendlyn and I'll be driving Aurora.
We're super excited. Super excited.
They have the most awesome graduation.
It's a parade in our cars.
[Robyn] It's really important to me to make sure
that we make this graduation just kind of big as it can possibly be.
Because it's not the normal thing.
[Christine] She loved her graduation.
As soon as we turned on to the road
where it all went down, she just had a great time.
[Kody] Are next.
- Congratulations! - [giggles]
[Kody] Aurora has an ear to ear grin.
But this might be the first and only class
that ever graduated in their cars.
It's cool.
Well, it's the end of graduation day.
[Christen] I asked Gwendlyn what she wanted to do for graduation.
She says she just wanted to leave town.
So, we're just going to go and have a good time.
We'll be super, super careful though.
- Graduations' over. Cool. - [Aurora] Whoo!
- We made it! - [Gwendlyn] We made it.
[Kody] Christine's taking the kids to Utah
because she wants to celebrate the graduation
with people I told not to come
because I didn't want to be spreading,
you know, the risk of COVID.
And it's a frustration to me that I feel a little bit undermined,
because Christine is doing it anyway.
[Robyn] That means that Kody won't be able to see her for a couple of weeks.
It was a shock to me, 'cause I was like,
"Wait, we're not... we're not supposed to be travelling."
She's gonna go do it.
I don't understand why she feels
like this is okay to basically separate our family.
[stutters] Keep our family separated.
[Christen] So things with Kody and I are hard.
It's been really hard between us.
Um, in Flagstaff and here.
And it's been hard for years. Okay, that's not even true.
It's been hard for Kody and I for years.
[indistinct chatter]
[Christine] A little bit of distance for Kody and I is okay.
Just seeing him for a couple of hours a week isn't enough.
Things are just hard at home when he's there.
And I don't know what to do. I don't know how to fix it.
And Aspyn and Mich and Mykelti
and Tony and Paedon really want to be around us.
And right now I really just want to be around people
that want to be around me and my girls.
So, that's why we're going.
I've just stopped trying to get the family united
and get us all going in the same direction.
I don't care. You know, sometimes...
[Christine] So, he doesn't care?
Like, it's taking all of my self-control to just stay.
That's ridiculous.
We don't share the same values.
I'm not taking about morals.
Or I'm not talking about religion,
I'm talking about just basic values.
I am in the depths of frustration.
I am in polygamy hell.
So, over the past a little bit
I've had conversations with my Sister Wives
about the effectiveness of our conversation as a family.
So now I'm bringing everybody together
to see if we can figure out
some sort of rules for conversation as a family.
I think that it would be a really good thing to establish some ground rules
because I'm tired of going into conversations
and leaving not feeling like I matter.
I think if we are honest and talk to each other for real
and we're kind and easy,
I think this could help us a lot.
[Meri] I feel like I'm going into this conversation
open and yet slightly guarded.
'Cause you just never know who's going to be kind of in a pissy mood.
Who's going to be on attack,
who's going to be defensive.
You just never know how people are going to be going into a conversation.
Um, well, I don't really have a plan.
I just have gone around and talked to you guys all
individually about what my thoughts were.
Like, what is...
I mean, my idea was to write down
what we all bottom line need from a conversation.
I am not someone who's trained in this.
I have no idea what I'm doing.
So, I just feel like if we all sort of talked about how we communicate.
We need rules for how to have conversations.
I guess I still don't get what we're talking about.
Well, me neither really.
Are we going to talk about our feelings?
- No. - [woman laughing]
[Christine] Communication.
I'm coming to this whole conversation very cynical
'cause I'm extremely discouraged that I can't get my wives to all agree
on one simple thing, preventing the spread of COVID in our family.
And, so, it's pissing me off.
Okay, there's kind of mine I think. I think...
When I boil it down, I need to make sure I'm heard.
I think we've had communication problems for a long time.
You know, my life slowed down a lot
when the COVID shutdown started to happen.
And I had time to do a lot of reflecting
on my own personal communication styles.
And I just began to see a bigger picture, a bigger pattern.
[Christen] So, I need to feel important at the end of a conversation.
I feel like sometimes my ideas,
it's just kind of like,
I don't feel like I'm important.
I don't really even have a say. So...
[Janelle] You don't feel heard, but it's also more like
we hear you, but we, sort of, discount your ideas.
Yeah. And everyone just, I mean, assumes
I'm just being a princess,
because I'm not expressing myself well.
I'm not intending to ever be a princess,
but I think I'm seen that way, and it's frustrating.
For the most part in our conversations,
I really do try to speak authentically.
And maybe I'm over dramatic,
or flipping my hair, or something like that,
but it doesn't mean that I don't want to be heard.
I feel like everybody feels that same way.
Like, like, it's a fight constantly
to, like, have an idea even heard, so, you know...
What's your... What are you gonna write down, Kody?
[Kody] Oh, nothing. [Robyn] Yes, you are.
You have to play.
[Kody] Um...
My problem is, I don't want to write anything down there,
'cause I don't give a [bleep] any more.
You know, we've moved here,
we're going through the struggles.
I've been arguing about COVID now
for so long with these ladies.
That's the reason I don't care any more.
I don't enjoy the relationship any more
because it feels like a constant fight.
- I don't. - What do you mean?
Well, every time we get together,
and I try to, or you try to,
or somebody tries to express themselves,
we end up in these really, really bad places.
I think Kody is in, sort of, a darker place today,
but I know he has expressed to me
that he's... He's tired.
He's tired of having to be the middle guy.
He's tired of having to facilitate the conversations.
Well, it feels like most of the times when we meet at home,
or whatever, there's always this
lack of, um, respect for the values of others, so...
Um, and I'm just as guilty as everybody else.
Sometimes I don't want to hear an idea.
I don't care, you know, sometimes.
Then why are we here? Why are we doing this?
So, he doesn't care? So, he doesn't care?
He doesn't think that we need to.
He doesn't care about what?
What does he not give a [bleep] about?
Like, it's taking all of my self-control to just stay.
That's ridiculous.
Yeah, I'm cynical, because, um, I'm...
I have just stopped trying.
I've just stopped trying to get the family united,
and get us all going in the same direction.
Uh, being sensitive.
And I've just gotten cynical.
I am in the depths of frustration.
I am in polygamy hell.
Because we don't respect each other's values,
or value each other's values,
and realizing the place we're at.
We don't share the same values.
I'm not talking about morals,
or I'm not talking about religion,
I'm talking about just basic values.
We don't share 'em.
Maybe it's my own communication skill.
Maybe it's just crap.
I mean, we've been sitting here,
arguing about this over and over,
and I'm just done with it.
It's scary, because I look at Kody as the head of our family.
And to have the leader just be like,
"Mmm. I don't care any more."
Like, where does that leave us?
I need to do what I can to hold this family together.
And I feel like this is why Janelle is, kind of, coming to these conversations,
because she feels like she needs to do what she can
to hold the family together,
'cause it's falling apart.
[sighs] I just feel like the family's falling apart,
and, and it's really, really scary to me.
Honestly, I'm at a point now where I see the family
as an obstacle to, to my own goals.
We're not happy. The five of us are not happy.
My wives say, you know, "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 [bleep]
for so many years that I can't take it any more.
My problem is I don't want to write anything down there,
'cause I don't give a [bleep] any more.
It's like, if everybody's happy where they're living, great.
We could sell this property, you know?
We are not one family any more.
And in all of our years in Vegas,
we struggled, we struggled to be this one family thing.
And as I go through that process,
I learn how vastly different each part of my family is
and, kind of, has their own values.
Then we get to Flagstaff,
and I feel like I'm not having to struggle with it as much,
because we're not as close together.
I don't see Team Brown any more.
[Janelle] I actually think that we're right on the cusp
of being separate or being together.
In theory, in name, we're all together, one team,
but we're really not working as a team.
Um, I'm going to read you something.
"The Kody Brown family."
[exhales deeply]
Our family is forever joined
with the purpose of developing our own divine energy
and raising righteous children.
As sister wives and husband,
we embrace one another
with the covenant of an eternal nature.
We enjoy being together as a family,
because we have developed a safe, peaceful,
"and pleasant atmosphere, where we love and respect one another."
[sniffles]
-Well-- -[Janelle] Our mission statement.
That's our mission statement.
[Meri] I love that.
It, um...
reminds me of better times.
I just want our family to get back to that.
[sniffles]
And I get really scared that we're not going to.
We worked really hard on that. Took us months, and months, and months, and months.
And I think it's easier to forget about it.
I think it's easier to do our own thing.
Is it so much work to come back together again
and want to be with each other again?
Is it just too hard?
Our relationships are optional.
I have the family mission statement on purpose.
I brought it on purpose, hoping to inspire everybody.
And I...
I don't know where everybody's at.
Also, I was, kind of, hoping if we could figure out
how to really communicate,
we might, sort of, not seem so hard.
Because, right now, what I'm hearing is that nobody listens,
which, I think, we probably knew.
[Christine] Yeah. Because, like, at the end of a conversation,
I, usually, am nauseous,
and I can't even take care of the girls.
And I just have to go to my room and completely shut down
at the end of most conversations.
This is the first time I'm hearing that it completely wrecks her.
Like, it's been very easy for me to be like, "Whatever.
Grow up. Grow a pair. Whatever."
But I have to really acknowledge that she feels like this.
Kody, you're using the word "values,"
and I thought we had the same values,
so that's new for me.
We... For years, we tried doing things together.
In the end, we... I think we just determined
that working together for us wasn't even safe.
And, honestly, I am at a point now
where I see the family, in many ways,
as an obstacle to, to my own goals.
We're not happy. The five of us are not happy.
My wives say, you know,
"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 [bleep]
for so many years that I can't take it any more.
[Janelle] I'm just looking at Kody like,
"What the hell planet did you come from?"
We're in this plural marriage. You have agreed to this.
Like, but considering your family
an obstacle to his own goals,
well, that's about the most selfish thing I've ever heard.
But... Okay.
In the spirit of communication,
I have to hear him and realize that's where he's at.
Well, we have this, this guidebook,
our family mission statement,
and that is our beacon, so to speak.
That is our goal. This is what we want to accomplish.
But we're so far from it.
It, it feels like hypocrisy.
You know, the children are getting older.
What do I want to do with the rest of my life?
It scares me when Kody talks like that
'cause it makes me feel very alone.
But his attitude is very much like,
"Well, you guys are all making your own decisions."
You're all independent, obviously.
'Cause you're not listening to me,
and you don't want to work as a team any more,
so, then, that frees me of the responsibility
of being captain, I guess you could say,
"and rallying the troops."
It's no fun. And it's scary to me.
I don't like it.
I talk to my mom once a week,
and she has such a great relationship with her sister wife.
That... That's her social group, you know?
And I thought, "Okay. So I can see us."
Like, we're the social group.
This is the social group I want.
But, you know, I don't know what it looks like, guys.
Because without the kids to focus on,
we have to, kind of, rethink what we look like.
You know, I have been feeling very strongly
for the last year, or maybe two,
that with the kids starting to be older and moving out,
that there would be a paradigm shift
in what was the focus of our family.
But we need to all thoughtfully craft
what that group looks like.
You know, my mother with her sister wife, they live on the ranch.
They chose that community.
They felt united in that community.
And I think that was a conscious choice.
And so I want to make that conscious choice,
and I'm hoping everybody else will, too.
Okay. All right.
That, kind of, hit everybody's stuff.
Should I e-mail these all out to you guys before I laminate them?
[Robyn] I think we need to take them,
put them in a little thing in our wallet.
That's exactly... I'm gonna make a little foldable...
Like, you know, sometimes people carry little prayers.
You know, I'm gonna...
I'm gonna do these as a laminated thing.
I love this conversation. I love it so much.
I 100% believe that we've got a good list
of things to follow and remember.
I think, you know, if we just stick to it, we can't go wrong.
I will say that a lot of times when we have conversations,
we start something, but we never finish it.
I would propose that we make a plan to continue it.
I have a specific idea I will bring to you in two weeks.
- Okay. - And we will use these skills.
'Cause it's been a conversation I haven't wanted to have.
I really want to talk to them about moving back to Utah.
I first need to talk to Kody about moving back to Utah.
But before we do anything else on this property,
I really want to ask them how they feel about moving back.
The laws have changed.
One, two, three, four wives said,
"No, we're never moving back to Utah."
She's simply talking about something
that I don't believe works for the whole family.
Not even close.
It's about living with the community again,
living with like-minded people again.
We're living as monogamous in a monogamous world now.
We swore we never would.
[Christine] Five years ago, we sued the state of Utah.
And then, we won for a bit.
And it was decriminalized.
And then, a year later, it wasn't.
Then two years ago, Kody wanted to move back to Utah,
and we were like, "Oh, it's not safe."
The governor of Utah just signed the bill
that makes polygamy decriminalized.
All right.
Okay.
When I heard about the law,
immediately, my first thought was,
"Well, if the law passes, why wouldn't we move back to Utah?"
So I want to talk to Cody about it, too.
Remember when we looked at the property at Coyote Pass
and we heard, like, angels singing.
It was awesome. Fell in love with the place.
I remember saying specifically
that I would definitely move to Flagstaff
unless the laws in Utah changed.
The laws have changed.
- Does that mean anything? - Not to me.
You wouldn't move back?
Christine, my... I have four homes
that shared a backyard in St. George
that I was ready to put an offer on.
This was just a month before I made the presentation to my wives
that we should move out of Las Vegas,
so that we, if we are in agreement,
can make an offer on those four homes that I'd found.
Everybody killed that.
One, two, three, four wives said,
"No, we're never moving back to Utah."
Christine was the most adamant of the four wives
that we were not going to move to Utah.
She was the most dramatic about it.
I thought the reason that my four wives
didn't want to go to Utah was for the sake
of our children's social safety.
That was part of it. I feel like Utah's changed a bit.
You don't?
No, I thought it had, too,
but you guys weren't listening to me.
When we were in Vegas,
the idea of Utah was very scary still
because of the law.
The fear that I was raised with
was what I didn't want to perpetuate in my children.
You know, the fear of the police were not the people
you wanted to ever go to if you were in danger.
Because if the police found out that you lived a plural marriage,
they could come and arrest you.
It was all because of the law.
As soon as the governor signed it, my first thought was,
"We can finally move back home."
- And where would we move to? - And then,
when we went there to look at wedding venues,
- with Mariah and Audrey... - Yeah.
...did you hear the conversation in the car?
It was all about "I miss it here.
I miss the mountains. I miss being here.
Utah's always going to be home."
That was everybody. All the wives mentioned that.
I think Christine was mistaking my nostalgia
for a desire to move back.
But I don't necessarily think that means that my other wives
want to move back to Utah.
Man, I don't want to move again,
and I don't want to leave Flagstaff.
I mean, this is the neatest place
I've ever lived, I feel like.
[Christine] Family's there. Everybody has family in Utah.
My dad's there. I don't know how long my dad's gonna be around.
You know, my dad's super sick.
He's super sick.
And I would love to be there the last few years of my dad's life.
My kids need to get to know him better.
My dad being there is a really big pull.
My mom's there, sister's there, Aspyn's there.
- Mykelti's there. - Mykelti's there, Paedon's there.
Mariah and Audrey are moving there.
It's about living with the community again,
living with like-minded people again.
It felt so good to go see the Dargers.
How would it be to associate with like-minded people
on a regular basis?
We are living as monogamous in a monogamous world now.
We swore we never would, but we are.
When we went to visit the Dargers,
I felt so normal again.
It made me feel like we weren't so broken.
We haven't done anything on the property.
To me, I'm like, "Let's not. Let's hold it.
Sell it, use that money in a couple of years.
No one wants to move now."
I just...
I, I think she's smoking something.
Unless I'm totally up in the night,
and she's the one that's right,
nobody in this family,
not anybody, not even the kids,
are going to want to move to Utah.
- I don't think-- - I don't think anyone's
going to want to move. I'm not naive in this.
I'm not... What? Stop.
I'm laughing at you very specifically
because I think that I, I just...
I'm like, "Yes, please present this."
Make me look better.
"Uh, get crucified for saying, 'Let's move.'"
I really want to see how the family reacts to this idea
of moving back to Utah.
And I don't want to be the one
getting the rash and the crap for, you know, saying,
"Hey, what about moving back to Utah?"
And just get, "What? Are you nuts?" You know.
I'd rather Christine do that,
and me sit back and watch and see what happens.
I don't think Janelle sees value in St. George.
Meri doesn't see value in St. George.
St. George is as far North as I want to go.
She's simply asking or talking about
something that I don't believe works for the whole family.
Not even close.
I think Robyn, because of her family being there,
you could probably convince her
even though swears, she made me promise
she was never going to move again, you know.
I think he's
entertaining the thought. I think I could sway him.
I think I could sway him to move to Utah.
That's just him.
But I think he would be interested in moving.
I really do.
Gosh.
I am so frustrated by this, Christine.
You're talking about something that I want
that I just refused to even entertain now.
It's an exciting thought, just 'cause
all my friends are in St. George.
I don't think Christine will be able to convince
any of us but it's a roller coaster
that I am more than willing to join.
I hate the idea of moving,
but I love the idea of living in St. George.
I mean, and I'm just not shutting her down, because
I'm not going to sit here and say "your idea is dumb,"
especially when I like it.
I just know that it's not possible.
Man...
I feel like I sacrifice so much coming here.
When my whole plan, for four years,
four years, I was planning on moving to St. George.
And you guys all knew it.
[Christine] My plan, my plan now is to talk to the wives.
I want to do it face to face.
I don't want to do this over a video chat, it's too big.
So, I'm hoping that when we talk about it,
he like, talks about how he's got family there,
he has friends there, he would love to retire there.
I don't know if I want to get my hopes up that much, right?
[exhales]
It's a bitter pill. Should I use a marriage metaphor?
She wasn't the best looking,
but, I was in love with her
and I wanted to
make that marriage happen
and that's what I would call St. George.
I asked my family,
let's pretend that we're not polygamous, that it's just a family,
What so you think about me marrying St. George?
And they're all, "Ew! Hell no."
So they're like, "Pick another woman!"
So I pick a beautiful woman,
that I wasn't quite as in love with,
and that was Flagstaff.
And I married Flagstaff.
Now, St. George is available again
and the family's like,
"Oh, we misjudged St. George,
you should have married her."
Well, I'm already married, damn it!
It's too late.
[Kody] Next time on "Sister Wives"...
Ysabel was diagnosed with scoliosis
when she was, like, 13.
Her curve is over 50 degrees now,
so it's just time to get the surgery.
Do we send Ysabel by herself?
I'm not going to get surgery by myself.
I shouldn't have said that.
I'm feeling a little emotional about it today.
[sighs]
The idea that I'm not gonna see Kody
for two months, really, you know, I will miss Kody.
I'm just worried about my sanity and our relationship.
Well, the state of my family is anarchy right now.
It's like everybody for themselves, I guess.
Meri, I can't do 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.