Plathville 2: The Whole Family Needs Therapy

[QuiverFullofBooks]

Season 6, Episode 11 – “I Grew Up Under a Rock”

We open at Ken’s house, where Moriah, Lydia, and Kim are playing music together. Kim is playing her own bass guitar and wearing leopard print. Moriah says she’s starting a band with professional musicians, and she hopes her family members will sit in sometimes. Kim wants to have the family band play a show “just once.” (We get clips of their long-ago performances with a voiceover of Kim saying those were some of the happiest days of her life.) They agree that Amber and Ethan should sing solos. Moriah says she’s not going to sing gospel. In a TH, Lydia says she would like to only sing worship music, but she knows Moriah won’t go for that, and she’s not going to say anything because “if you mess with her, she will write a song about you.” In her TH, Kim talks about Moriah and Lydia preferring different genres, and adds that Ethan’s preference is old-school country. They sing a new song of Moriah’s called “I’m a Monster.”

Ethan’s in Uptown Minneapolis with his friend Andres to go line dancing and try to meet women. He looks very cute in a tight black T-shirt and jeans. In his TH, he says that it’s different from his experience of dating Olivia. There’s a blonde at the bar who he thinks is beautiful (she is) and he buys her a drink. They talk about how he moved to Minnesota to hang out with his grandparents, and his love of old cars. She says, “cars are definitely not what they used to be.” The conversation flows nicely. She gets a TH where she’s identified as “Lily, Bar Patron.” She says he’s nice and earnest. He tells her “I grew up on a rock, literally” and she makes a Spongebob reference (because that’s what you do when someone tells you they grew up in isolation). They line dance together. In the THs, Ethan and Lily and their respective wingpersons all say they might have something going on. He asks for her number and saves it in his phone with a photo of them together.

Now we’re off to Sedona to check on his ex’s new relationship. Olivia doesn’t like calling Brendan her boyfriend, but can’t think of anything better. They’re getting “aura photos.” She’s exploring the woo-woo; he isn’t into it, but wants her to enjoy it. She feels stressed about traveling a lot for work and this new long-distance relationship.

We interrupt to visit Micah and Veronica in Florida. He says that her favorite things are going shopping and going for ice cream, the latter of which they are doing. She corrects his pronunciation of “pecan” [though he’s from Georgia, which grows more pecans than any other state]. Then she tells him that he has “old man taste” in ice cream (banana). He asks her to go to the family band concert and she agrees. They get up from their ice cream break to go jewelry shopping.

Back to Sedona. They have a yellow aura, which means fast, total, positive, transformation. The aura lady suggests that they might be moving in together. There’s also green over their heads, which means that they’re going to have clarity about it. There’s also energy in [her?] heart area that “needs to be let go.”

Back in Florida, they’re at the Anna Zuckerman store in Boca Raton – and she’s trying on engagement rings! She says that she might be too type A to be surprised by a ring. [I feel you, Veronica. The very understanding Mr. QuiverfullofBooks proposed with earrings.] In Micah’s TH, he feels like he’s “not ready to put a ring on it.” Don’t tell us, tell her! He finally asks what the rings cost and they average under $500, because they’re not really diamonds. He buys her a ring “as a cocktail ring, for now.” She’s happy. He reminds her that he’s only 23. The producer asks her if she would say yes to a proposal and she says she would.

Back in Sedona, Lydia Grace arrives and hugs Brendan. (They met briefly once before.) She calls him Brendy. Olivia’s estranged from the rest of their family, so Lydia is the only one who can make him feel welcome. Brendan has to leave to make his flight. He cries a little in his goodbye TH. He says “if you love someone, set them free,” and “I’m not necessarily the best thing to come back to.” Lydia’s worried about Olivia’s tendency to jump into things.

Back to Minnesota, for a TH with Ethan about Lily. They’ve been texting. He doesn’t know how to tell when a girl likes him. He asked what she likes to do, and she said, “Ride around in old cars.” She likes you, Ethan! He doesn’t want to take her out in his antique Plymouth, because he took Olivia out on their first date in it, and proposed in it, and drove away from their wedding in it. [No doubt a lot of other firsts too, though they were probably too fundie to have had sex for the first time anywhere other than in a hotel on their wedding night.] Luckily he has other old cars – you can’t say you weren’t warned, Lily!

Next time: Drama in the lead-up to the family concert. Micah looks for Moriah, who has run off. (A teaser earlier in the season revealed that her ex-boyfriend showed up.)