“No one can take away your Christmas.” – Robyn
As the investigation heats up and causes everyone to become increasingly afraid, the family decides to move out of the state. This doesn’t seem like a really smart idea to me, but what can you do? They’ve only told the oldest kids, and Madison declared that she isn’t going, while everyone else is more than a little shell-shocked. But they haven’t told the younger kids because they don’t want to ruin what could be their last Christmas all together if everything goes poorly. And while they’re at the cabin, they’ve decided to focus on being just a family and enjoying their vacation. The kids play in the hot-tub, Kody dislodges piles of snow from the roof, and everyone sleds down the hill leading to the house. Kody decides they need a ramp in the snow at the end to see how much air they can get, and Meri goes right over the top, which worries everyone for a moment, but she’s totally unhurt and actually had a great time.
They share their blended traditions for the holiday: All the oldest daughters make breakfast for everyone; Meri makes new pajamas for everyone and they wear them for Christmas morning, Kody decorates the tree and the house with the kids. Robyn decides she needs to assert herself more because it was very much a Christine-show, and Jennele feels like she isn’t domestic enough to contribute, but it all runs pretty smoothly and everyone looks fantastically happy… when they’re not talking about how soon they need to move and how upset the kids are.
You know, holidays are rough at the best of times. There’s a lot of stress and a lot of expectation, and it just seems like having extra parents would make the whole thing go better! Maybe it was just that there was already so much stress and sadness outside the holiday that everyone was on their best behavior, but this just looks like the happiest and best-run Christmas I’ve ever seen.
And once it’s over, everything gets sad again. Christine doesn’t like change, as we’ve seen before, and she’s resistant to the idea that they have to uproot their entire family out of fear… but what else are they supposed to do? Kody’s made the decision and the other three wives agree that it’s better than getting forcibly broken up, and she just has to come around to everyone else’s point of view. As a general enemy of drastic change, I can’t help feeling for her: this is a big change and there are so many lives involved, and so little time to deal with it before it has to happen, and who knows what the future holds?
And in the end, it’s inspiring again how everyone pulls together. All the unhappy emotions just get mastered and put aside so that the family can stay a family. There are so many grouchy small families on TV that this is a really nice thing to see, especially since it’s so consistent. Twenty-odd people and everyone always pulls together.
More thoughts onSister Wives, “Sister Wives in Holiday Crisis”:
* Awkward moment of the episode: When Kody asks if there’s ever a time when they feel closer to each other than they do to him and all four are super-quiet for a little too long before one of them says no and then they all agree that it never happens. Oh, his poor fragile male ego.
* Sweetest moment of the week: When Christine realizes that it’s not that Kody is so hell-bent on moving, it’s that he’s decided it’s the best he can do and he has to be excited and optimistic so the kids won’t be scared. You can sort of see, there, why she fell in love with him, because it looks like she’s remembering why.
* It’s nice that we got to talk to more of the kids this week–the show is about Kody and his four wives, yes, but it’s also about all these sixteen babies and kids they have produced, and whatever happens to them also happens to their kids. They have voices too.
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.