When Kody Brown visited Meri at her house to discuss what was going on with Mariah and Audrey, things took a turn when Kody made an insensitive joke that triggered memories from their troubled past in this week’s episode of Sister Wives.
Meri admitted that she hadn’t yet told Kody that Mariah and Audrey left to tend the bed and breakfast nor that her mom Bonnie was staying with her. She broke the news to him in person when he showed up at her house.
The two sat in the driveway to discuss things while filming on their cell phones. Camera crews were still not allowed to film due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Kody was taken off guard after he asked Meri how Mariah and Audrey were doing
Kody commented that it was almost time that he would be able to see Mariah and Audrey after their quarantine.
Meri surprised him when she said, “Well, they’re actually not here,” then laughed.
Kody gazed silently at Meri, apparently irritated that she withheld that information from him. He asked if they had changed their minds, and Meri explained that Bonnie was staying with her while the girls run the bed and breakfast.
On the confessional couch, Kody admitted that he was “really disappointed” that Meri didn’t tell him sooner.
“I really was looking forward to seeing them,” Kody said, calling the situation a “bummer” but noting that it was probably best for Grandma Bonnie.
Did Meri deliberately string Kody along?
Meri was questioned by producers when they told her, “Okay, you were teasing. Don’t deny it… you were stringing him out.”
Meri laughed and disagreed. She got serious when she told cameras, “Kody and I don’t talk.”
She admitted that she wasn’t sure how to word that without making him “look like a jerk” for not calling her and not make herself “look like a jerk” for not calling him.
She reiterated sternly, “We do not communicate.”
Kody got an incoming Facetime call from his fourth wife Robyn so he stopped recording. Meri continued to film from her phone.
Kody brought his phone over to Meri so she could see Robyn on his phone screen and when he got close to her, he quickly jumped back. He told Meri that they should be social distancing from each other.
Meri disagreed, given that she hasn’t been around anyone who was exposed and that they’re “still family.” Kody justified his actions by telling the confessional camera that he was socially distancing from Meri because she “had three new people in her home.”
Meri and Kody’s joking turned serious
Meri jokingly told Kody, “Just stay away from me. Stay away from me, Kody,” while Robyn watched from Kody’s phone. Kody paused for a few seconds, with a serious look on his face, before laughing.
Kody responded to Meri, “You know that didn’t work out very well for you the last time around. I don’t think you should say that to me anymore.”
Robyn looked visibly awkward, witnessing the conversation, threw her head back and said, “Oh, wow.”
Kody took to the confessional couch to explain his joke. He said, “I was joking about Meri during the catfish. She basically, during that experience, umm, I mean it’s a sore subject… it was an uncool joke of me, but I figure if you can’t laugh at the mistakes from your past, whatever, you know?”
Cameras flashed back to Alaska in 2015 when Kody and his four wives were on a vacation together. It was during that trip that Meri mentioned she may leave the family after the catfishing incident.
Kody claimed that Meri told him to stop coming over to see her, about five years ago during her catfish ordeal. As more flashbacks showed Meri explaining being catfishing, Kody called the ordeal “abusive” and “exploitative.”
Kody says he and Meri saw their marriage ‘just sort of dissolve’ after the catfishing incident
Meri’s side of the story is that Kody was “more distant than I wanted him to be.”
She was on the verge of tears when she disclosed, “at night, I just wanted him to put his arm around me and I couldn’t sleep because I felt the coldness coming from him. At the same time, I couldn’t sleep because of this outside situation.”
Meri felt that she did not manage the situation well. She was obviously hurting from the distance between her and Kody, and just wanted to be feel loved.
So Meri told him, “can you just not stay here for a while? Can we just take a break for a minute?”
Meri continued, “He took it as, ‘go away and don’t ever come back’ because that’s what he’s done and that’s not what I meant.”
Meri claimed she just wanted a break to get “through some stuff.”
Kody’s insensitive joke in the driveway brought up past hurt and once again, Meri felt misunderstood.
She confessed, “We’ve never come back together from that.”
Robyn weighed in on the catfishing ordeal
For her turn on the confessional couch, Robyn disclosed that she thought that Kody has a little “PTSD” from the experience of “Meri telling him to, um, move out of the house.”
Kody confessed to the cameras, “Whatever happened, it just got flippin’ ugly” during the catfish situation and the year leading up to it. Even after a year in flagstaff, Kody was “still dealing with a lot of bitterness about our past.”
Kody claimed in the last few months, he’s really been able to “let that go” for himself and feels more friendly with Meri than he’s felt in “six or more years” but sadly he admitted that it doesn’t mean he’s got any “romantic inclinations within our marriage.”
It seems now, with so much drama between Meri and Kody, that the couple of 31 years might be past the point of repair.
Sister Wives airs on Sundays at 10/9c on TLC.
Six years have passed since the year of the catfishing story, and close to 100 episodes (not including current ones), and viewers are still being tormented and bored out their minds with the continuing saga of Meri and Kody on the rocks… I guess it’s the only storyline that they think brings drama to the show, so they’re keeping it going forever…