“This might be our last holiday all together.” – Jannelle
At Christmas time last year, the Browns decided to pile everyone into four cars packed for the apocalypse and head up into the mountains for a good, old-fashioned Brown family Christmas. The investigation into their polygamy is bringing up scary old family stories: Christine’s grandfather and all his wives went to jail and all the kids were separated by states and never saw each other again, and Kody doesn’t want that to happen to his family.
Most of the episode concentrates on the road trip as they’re basically a small army. It takes them hours longer than the plan to get everyone packed, into the cars and on the road, and this winter is a bad one — there’s storms all over and they have to get there before the next one hits. Once there, they have to stop all but one of the cars short of the cabin because the trail is too iced over, so then they have to go back in trips for everyone else and all the supplies, then back again for the snow mobiles they’ve rented for the duration. But everyone gets there safely and they pack into that one little cabin and have a really sweet and loving “classic” sort of Christmas.
It’s a bit weird that they waited so long to air these eps — it’s about six months after Christmas, and it has sort of a disconnect with what we’re experiencing now, but they had to see what was going to happen with that investigation, I suppose. But as it gets so flippin’ hot here in Florida where I’m watching from, it’s really kind of nice to have a reminder that most of the world doesn’t burst into flames in March and then broil for the next nine months. And it looks like everyone is having just piles of fun once they get everyone there.
After all these months getting to know this family, it’s rough seeing them all so scared about the investigation. They weren’t even told about it — they found out when a friend sent them a news report. No one was informing them of how the investigation was going, and cops were lurking around their home, and the only context they had was family members getting sent to jail and kids never getting to see each other again. How terrible is that? Sure, take down the creepy families that are little more than baby-making cults and child-selling rings, but these guys are just a family like any other, only bigger.
More thoughts on “Brown Family Decision”:
* The wives looking for the tree and flirting with the tree guy — it was just adorable. Meri was just smitten.
* Christine’s story about the cops coming in the middle of the night and shattering their world was just chilling. It’s so Fascist really, something you’d expect in wartime Germany or something, not here in the modern US.
* I can’t get over how practical these guys are. There are so many kids that I guess they really just have to be, but it’s everywhere. Everyone gets a gift buddy so they aren’t bankrupting the family and taking all day to open presents. How smart!
* Best part: Kody saying all the teens want to go and are very excited, and then the teens saying the exact opposite.
* Second best part: All the wives pulling together to support Kody as he tries to steer this family-ship through all this unknown stuff and to protect all the kids. And Kody showing just how much he really does love this family and this life, even though sometimes he comes across a little misogynistic.
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.