Last week, the girls reunited with their father Jonathan, even though they knew how much it hurt their mom Kathy’s feelings. This week, they up the ante, visiting him in Mexico, pushing Kathy to the edge. Will the Bella family survive this turn of events? Check out the full recap for all the details.
The girls, their brother JJ, and their mom Kathy all go to an aerial arts spa, where they hang in hammocks and meditate. JJ hates the experience, bails early, and heads to the bar across the street for some day-drinking. After the session, the rest join him, but the scene cuts before they get into Brie Mode.
That night, the girls and Kathy go out for dinner. The girls tell her that they’re going to visit their grandmother (Kathy’s mom), so Nikki can introduce Artem to granny. Kathy clearly thinks that Nikki is moving way too fast with this guy; she doesn’t quite call him a gold-digging unemployed dance show reject, but she’s obviously thinking it.
The girls then tell her that while they’re visiting granny, they’re also going to visit their dad, who Kathy hates. Kathy feels like they’re being hurtful and manipulative, and the girls trip over themselves trying to blame each other for the clumsy way they told Kathy. Honestly, if this doesn’t end with Kathy teaming with new hubby Johnny Ace against the twins and their dad in a handicap mixed tag match, this has been a wasted season.
We find out more about their dad, Jonathan. Apparently, he has a new family now with wife Ana and two young kids, Ezekiel and Alexia. Nikki has packed a ton of presents for the kids, and both Brie and Artem think she’s going overboard.
In the end, Kathy goes with them, so she can visit her own mother and take care of Birdie – though she’s not planning on joining the girls when they visit their dad. They take Artem on a tour of their childhood town, and they go visit their old babysitter, Mona. Mona says that Nikki looks fat on TV. Body-shaming… Mona’s the biggest heel on the show.
The trip down memory lane is hard for Kathy, as she’s reliving the hellish nightmare that is the twins. Actually, it’s just bringing up bad memories of her marriage to their dad. It doesn’t help that the girls insensitively keep talking about how much they loved their time there. Stomping on your mother’s heart. It’s like Mona said, “I’m a badass heel.” And they’re like, “Hold my beer.”
They go to visit Kathy’s mom who’s captioned as Nana. Not sure if that’s her real name, or just laziness by the production team. Artem assumes they’ll be staying there overnight, but the girls tell him that Nana’s old-school, and he won’t be allowed to until he and Nikki are engaged, and he’s clearly upset because that means he’ll have to pay for a hotel room.
The next morning, the girls and Artem head to Mexicali. On the way to the border, Nikki notes that she’s a bit concerned about bringing up the book chapter with Jonathan – obtaining his signoff was the whole point of reconnecting with him to begin with). Ana is only a year older than the twins and Jonathan notes that they could be triplets, which is part way to go, Jonathan, but also part that’s gross, Jonathan. The girls start fawning over Ana’s body, which also is kind of this is going to be awesome in an X-rated film kind of way, but also kind of gross.
At lunch, Jonathan teases Jonathan about needing to learn Spanish so he can communicate with him, as one day he could be Artem’s father-in-law. Artem gets all butt-hurt about Jonathan joking about it, because he’s hoping that one day it will be true and doesn’t appreciate the idea being seen as fodder for bad jokes.
Later, they go to a cafe, and Jonathan says that he’s done thinking about all the bad stuff he did in the past – that he’s changed, and never wants to revisit the bad times. Which the idiots think is the perfect time to bring up the fact that they’re writing a book which includes the chapter about all the bad stuff that he did in the past. But they quickly drop the subject before they can ask for him to sign off on the chapter.
The girls and Artem go explore some shops while Jonathan goes and gets Ezekiel and Alexia so they can meet their half-sisters and Artem the hanger-on. They get an extended-family picture, and everyone seems happy to get to know one another.
The family heads to a roofop terrace, and the girls give the toys to the kids, who are appreciative. Jonathan then asks a favour of the girls. He tells them that Alexia has been picked on at school by people who don’t believe that she’s the twins’ sister. He asks them to visit Alexia’s school and convince everyone. They agree to do it. Which is too bad. If they had declined, they totally would have dethroned Mona as the Queen Heel. Well, Nikki agrees to it. Brie says she wants to go back to Nana’s to take care of Birdie.
They call Kathy to let her know. Kathy wins the heel game hands down, first telling Artem that she had even forgotten he was with the girls (understandable, since he really is a black hole of personality), and then by dissing Nikki’s reason for staying in Mexicali and implying that Nikki is selfishly just looking to ingratiate herself to Jonathan’s family and treating Kathy as an afterthought.
The next day, Nikki and Artem get to Alexia’s school. They go to the cafeteria, where there’s a big dance party going on. Nikki confirms to the students that she and Brie are Alexia’s sister, and all the kids like Alexia now because her sisters are famous. So there’s a good life lesson for you kids out there.
After they get back to Nana’s, Kathy gets all frosty. She snarkily tells the girls to talk about how great their experience with Jonathan was and get it out of their system so she doesn’t have to hear about it again. The girls call her out on her tone, and they all get into a fight again. She tells them to put themselves in her shoes. But they’re like, too bad, so sad, we love our dad, so suck it up. They say that she is trying to suck out the enjoyment of having a relationship with Jonathan.
Then Nikki pulls out the sharp knife, saying that it’s Kathy’s fault that she stuck around with Jonathan so long, and if she wasn’t happy, she should have left him earlier, rather than live through the bad times. She says that if Kathy had left him when the girls were two years old, they wouldn’t have known him at all, so wouldn’t have had the need to search for a relationship with him now. Brie piles on, saying that Jonathan’s presence fills a void in her life.
Kathy calls them out, and says that they’re spouting BS. That she’s always been there for them and it’s only been a week that they want to know their father. That she was the one who guided them throughout their lives. But Nikki escalates and says it wasn’t really her, but rather Nana and their grandfather (Pop-Pop) that did. Ouch, that’s some shade. They come to a stalemate, and the drive home is chilly and filled with stony silence.
Back home, Kathy invites the girls and JJ for dinner to have a core family meeting. Kathy suggests that everyone hash out their feelings, and clear up anything they want to say about their childhood once and for all.
The kids reassure her that she’s a great mother, and was the one that held the family together. Moreover, they let her know that Jonathan thinks that as well, as he shared that with them, giving Kathy her due props. Brie says that that Kathy makes them feel as if they need to walk on eggshells whenever they want to talk with her about their father or their childhood.
For his part, though, JJ doesn’t feel the need to revisit his relationship with Jonathan – he never liked his dad growing up, and doesn’t want to reconnect with him now.
Nikki says she has some resentment towards Kathy for not changing things when they were young. She says that because she watched how Kathy had to live through a bad relationship, she was scared that all relationships could be toxic, so that she wasn’t able to form good strong relationships with me. Or worse, the only relationship she could have is with a dull loser like Artem. Okay, she didn’t say that, but it seems the only logical explanation.
In a talking head segment, Kathy says that she thought she was doing the right thing back then, staying with Jonathan for the kids’ sake. But she realizes now that she was wrong.
Kathy has prepared a letter that she wrote for the occasion. In it, she apologizes for not being able to get them out of a bad situation earlier. And that she wants them to know that she loves them and would do anything for them. After this, the air is cleared, and they get back to their normal inanity, but this time with a stronger-than-ever family bond.
Bob Kapur been to Mexico twice, and hated the experience. E-mail him your travel horror stories at bobkapur@hotmail.com.
