Sister Wives Season 17 has all built on this.
For the last few episodes, we’ve watched Christine Brown and Kody Brown sit down to discuss the past and future of their relationship.
Past? It’s been one-sided, painful and sex-free for Christine.
Future? Kody tried to make it as complicated as possible.
On Sunday, meanwhile, Christine and Kody finished analyzing their marriage and finalizing their solo conversation.
It was time to tell the other wife sisters that Christine would be moving back to Utah.
“It’s no secret that Kody and I have been in a tough spot for a long time,” Christine told the women.
“I have decided to leave Kody. It’s a tough decision. I have to make a choice for happiness. I needed to make a choice to have joy in my life and peace and there wasn’t much hope at all until I decided to leave.
“I feel very confident this is the best choice for me.”
Whoa, huh? There it is.
“I was shocked,” Robyn admitted in confession, adding:
“I don’t know what to say here. I don’t know what to say to him. It’s not really computational. It doesn’t make sense now.
“I’ve been through a divorce. I know what this means. We’re not just talking about three kids and husband and wife.
“We’re talking about 18 children, spouses, grandchildren and five of us who are all connected and committed to each other and are technically married.”
For her part, Meri then told the camera:
“This is just a big announcement. I’m just processing at this point. I’m not happy now. I am not happy with the situation. It made me angry.
“Come on you guys, can’t we all get our heads out of our ass?”
Given all that Meri has been through, you’d think she would understand Christine’s decision much better.
Janelle, meanwhile, remains closest to Christine…. already had the idea that a major change was imminent, even before Christine finally came clean.
“I intellectually knew this was coming,” he said on air. “But here we are today. It’s hard to know something and then actually make it happen.”
Then, of course, there’s Kody.
You won’t believe this – but he made Christine’s monumental choices about himself.
“I think our relationship that was so bad all along was specifically for Christine’s change of heart about plural marriage,” he said, putting all the blame elsewhere.
“I think I’m scattered, so think about it and he needs a certain level of attention that gets us to where we are.
“Plural marriage didn’t work for him for years.”
Later, Kody wondered if Christine had any other reason for wanting to get out of Arizona.
“I never understood his need to move.
“I don’t understand at all unless there’s a guy she wants to date there,” the father of 18 said in his confession.
“Or he wants to stay away from me so my smell doesn’t bother him so he can date.”
In the end, Kody explained that this whole romantic arrangement was about he…and the other best women came to the same conclusion.
Kody asked the other sister’s wife to “adjust to the patriarchy again,” saying she felt bitter that the family wasn’t what she had “planned.”
The terrible leader of the Brown family concludes:
“I am disappointed with the way I have managed this. I feel all your independence is more important [and] because [thought process] we kind of lost some kind of community.
“I guess I’m just sorry we failed.”