“It’s personal now, I own the story.” – Kody
Now that the family is back from their vacation, they have ten days remaining and Robyn and Meri go with Kody to find somewhere in Vegas where they can all live as a family. Ideally, they’d live all in one huge house to keep the point that they’re moving to avoid breaking up the family, but Vegas isn’t like that. The populace is different — less big families in general, and not a polygamist community in sight — so they wind up looking for four homes side-by-side. Kody wants, say, all the houses on a cul-de-sac, and a pool to help gloss over the change for the kids. They find four that they like and make an offer… and they get turned down. So they have to move in less than a week, and they’ve still got to tell the younger kids, and they don’t have anywhere to move to.
Meanwhile, Christine is convinced that it’ll tear the family apart and is still against the move, but she’s putting it aside to help organize a surprise birthday party for Meri. They theme it to the ’70s and manage to get props, costumes, and decorations on the moderately-cheap, considering how many people they’re buying for, and a friend caters the whole thing, so that when they get home, everyone can be waiting. It’s notoriously hard to surprise Meri, but they manage to do it!
This episode brings into focus one of those things you don’t really think about, but that’s really important to alternative families: usually these days, houses come with all this living space and a set number of bedrooms, but a massive family like this requires more bedrooms and less living space, and maybe a big kitchen. They couldn’t find any ideal houses. Kody says under an ideal situation, they’d special-build a house to match their specific needs, but that’s not an option just now. I couldn’t help thinking about the Duggars and their self-built home. Would it be entirely inappropriate for them to talk about how they did it? How they continue to do it? One big TLC family to another?
Really, this is just accelerating what would have needed to happen anyway — Robyn’s already living in a separate house and the kids are all filling all available space in the Big House, so what if there’s another wife or some more babies coming along? They already mentioned eventually having to move last season. The investigation just means they have to do it now. I just don’t get how leaving the state during an investigation, especially while filming a nationally-broadcast show so they can track you, is a good idea. Aren’t you supposed to stay in town during criminal investigations? And I don’t get Vegas, because I know there are other polygamist communities out there that would likely be more suitable to the conditions they require.
Until then, they don’t have a Plan B and it’s more than a little alarming…
More thoughts on “No Place For Home”:
* The subdivision they were looking at had nice, brand-new homes, but they were so very cookie-cutter. Al four looked just like all the other houses in the neighborhood, and there was so little character to any of them. And Vegas has no grass. I’d miss grass.
* It’s lovely how Robyn is so in tune with how the other wives think, and how she takes it upon herself to make a video for Christine to see the houses they’re looking at.
* It was simply adorable how the kids made all the little reminders to stick all over the house to keep everyone positive. That was their idea, and so cute.
* I bet there are all sorts of unusual families out in Vegas that could take them under their wings, but how will a good religious family handle their kids and teens growing up in “sin city”? How sinful is it really, when you live there? Is it like any other touristy place, and if you avoid certain districts, you can avoid all the traps and mess?
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.