1 hour ago, Twopper said:

I am too lazy to figure out which episode thread this belongs with so I will ask it here:

at what point did Robyn make Kody make the solemn vow not to string her along if things got bad with their relationship?

@Twopper, I brought this over from the Robyn thread, because they reviewed that "My sacred covenant to you" scene in the Talk Back Part 2, and I wanted to mention some of the "talk back" about it, that we got from Janelle, Jenn, and Meri.

To answer your question, we can't really know, but from how Kody phrased it to Robyn, it sounds like Kody had to promise that to Robyn, before she would even agree to marry him, so it would have happened sometime during their courtship/engagement.

I found it interesting that, in Talk Back Part 2, Janelle said she didn't think Kody was telling "the whole thing."

After Janelle finished her thoughts, they cut right to Jenn (who was with Meri) who also felt like something was missing.

Jenn said, "I feel like something else had to have happened. Like — was [Kody] already complaining to [Robyn], pre-marriage, about his relationship with like you, or Janelle, or Christine? And that was like -- and Robyn's like, 'Well, if this happens with us', like --."

When she said that, Meri's face registered palpable shock and recognition. 

Jenn continued (speculating as though she were Robyn) "'Promise me you won't just'--"

Meri interrupted. "Oh my gosh. Are you serious? I never --"

In a quiet voice, Jenn said, "Maybe I'm overthinking?"

In my opinion, Jenn was not overthinking, and for whatever reason, Meri needed to hear Jenn say that, to get another piece of whatever puzzle she's trying to assemble out of the ashes of her marriage to Kody.

Here's a tidbit we know from either the early years of the show, or perhaps the book:

Although Meri supposedly spotted Robyn first and encouraged Kody to pursue her, after Kody and Robyn started courting, Meri had enough trouble adjusting to it, that they went to therapy (at least Kody, Meri, and Robyn — I'm not sure about the other wives), even before Kody and Robyn married. Part of me wonders if Meri didn't object to the possibility of a marriage after all, and if Kody didn't bully her into therapy to make her change her mind, but that's just speculation.

In the Version of the Show that Lives Only in My Head

Here's what I think could have happened.

1. Meri had whatever trouble adjusting to the Kody/Robyn relationship, and they got some therapy to get past it.

2. Kody melted down the wedding ring Meri gave him, to prove (to himself? to Robyn? to Meri? to all the wives?) that Meri no longer had any claim on him.

3. Kody told Robyn what he did, and that he didn't even love Meri or didn't love Meri any more (and maybe he threw in bits about having never been in love with Christine, and how he and Janelle were more like guy friends), thinking it would prove to Robyn how true his love for her was.

4. Robyn (who was coming out of a failed marriage herself) was not as impressed by Kody's fickle heart as he thought she would be, so she said something like, "How can I marry you, when you fell out of love with/never loved [Meri, Christine, Janelle -- take your pick]? I don't want to be stuck in a loveless marriage. I just left one."

5. Kody swore up and down he would always love her, but if the impossible happened, and he didn't, he wouldn't keep stringing her along.

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