“These are families that are just like the rest of America. This is our diversity.” – Daniel
The Browns decide to hold a dinner party to thank their non-polygamous friends for sticking around as the police investigation (not to mention the show and its publicness) makes them more high-profile than anyone in their community ever is, usually. It’s very sweet, really. All the wives get together to plan a menu and go shopping, and it looks like a huge amount of fun.
Whatever the stresses of last season, they’ve all become good friends and know how to make anything entertaining… which is probably a good skill to have when there’s so much home-keeping to be done (Janelle claims they’re embarrassing to be around in public). In the three minutes devoted to the party itself, they go around and say what they think about the whole multiple-wives deal. Robyn’s best friend from middle school feels honored that she’d be confided in when everything had to be hidden from everyone else. Janelle’s friends at her office shared their own non-traditionalisms, and they bonded over it. Christine’s friend took every opportunity to introduce her as his token plyg friend. And everyone looked like they were having a good time.
The other half of the episode was not so happy. Meri’s sister died of colon cancer about six years ago, and she’s finally stopped putting off getting herself checked out; apparently, if your sibling has this particularly icky form of cancer, you’re way at the top of the risk list because of what doctor’s believe is a genetic link. Meri had a few polyps removed, and they came back clear, which is a fantastic note to end the episode on. The best part though was the way everyone pulled together around her and how they talked about the support system that’s built into complicated families like this one. If a mother or even mother and father dies, there are other mothers that can take over so the kids don’t have to be broken up.
No word on whether a polygamous family left without a father / husband would go out and find a new hubby, though. That would be a real test of a man’s fortitude: would he take on three or four wives and two dozen of someone else’s kids?
More thoughts on Sister Wives, “Polygamous Party”:
* The ad at the end says there’s only four episodes left! And they want to move out of Utah! And it might tear them apart! And other things that involve exclamation points!
* The new baby is still so bald. They showed pictures of when the bigger kids were new, and one of the babies there looked exactly the same as her, so I guess it’s just how Brown babies look.
* I am still overwhelmed by how much love there is in this family. It’s all coping mechanisms, unlike so many families on TV who are all problems.
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.