“It’s a family dynamic… It’s very much a democracy.” – Janelle
It’s only a few weeks before the wedding, and the wives have to go choose flowers, a cake, a reception place, and dresses, and they manage to get that all in one half-hour episode (which takes place in one day, I believe). It must have been exhausting. They decide to get the flowers and dresses they all most want, so long as the colors are right, but cake-choosing gets a little tense. They all taste the cakes, and then do a blind vote, and Robyn winds up picking the same cake that Kody picked, which the wives assume she did because she thought she should, even though she insists that she didn’t know which one he voted on.
And then the dresses. They have a lovely time taking turn trying them on, and the first through third wives all find ones they like, but Robyn doesn’t — and in the Couch of Confession, Kody reveals that he chose a dress for her already. Which causes Christine to leave, because they spent all that time looking for a dress, and he just swoops in and picks one he likes, when he didn’t even seem to care what any of the previous wives wore at their weddings. Drama! Eventually it all gets ironed out, and Kody accepts that he’s kind of a jerk sometimes, and seems to really be upset about how upset all his wives are. Being a dude who says stupid things only gets worse when there are three wives to apologize to. As Christine points out, he’s capable of being a different sort of idiot to each of them at the same time.
This episode had more of that mix of enlightened and backward, but it’s mitigated by the fact that Kody knows he was stupid and he feels bad about it — and that Robyn was self-aware enough to have previously asked him not to say anything about it, because she knew the others wouldn’t want to hear it. She’s so seriously invested in having everyone feel like this is their wedding, too, that everyone is happy and comfortable, and no one feels left out.
And it was really good to see the five of them messing with people and joking around instead of being secretive and defensive. This is how it is, so it’s sort of amazing that they don’t tease people about their unusual relationship more often! And maybe they just didn’t show if there was any discrimination (which I’m sure they would, since this is about a family that isn’t ‘normal’), but it seemed like everyone they talked to was really open and nice about it. That said, the cake decorator looked like she had no idea what to make of them.
More thoughts on “A Fourth Wife To Be”:
* The commercial made the dress into the central drama of the episode, and I guess it was, but it made everything seem so much more dire by not mentioning the dress at all. I fully expected them to announce that Robyn was pregnant or something horrifyingly unmannerly like that! I think that might have ruined the whole thing, if it had been that!
* It would be nice to get more info on how all those kids feel about things. This episode — and, really, this whole second half of the season, seems to be covering too much time for one episode when it’s only got 30 minutes, minus commercial breaks, to fit it into. Also: how do their neighbors feel about their set up? Are their neighbors polygamists, too? How about extended family? Are they isolated from the rest of the community by their openness, since so many other polys don’t want to be exposed?
* There’s an interesting debate about how much time Robyn is allotted — Janelle thinks a fiancée is the same as wife and so she needs the same privileges, while Meri and Christine think she doesn’t yet, because she’s not a wife. It’s not resolved, but I have never seen anyone argue as nicely and caringly as these four.
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.