‘Jill & Jessa: Counting On’ Episode 2 Recap: Barn Baby Shower & the Battle For Attention

Everyone's playing shower games while Sierra prays that she gets pregnant again immediately after delivering.
Everyone’s playing shower games while Sierra prays that she gets pregnant again immediately after delivering.

By Holly Rasmussen & The Ashley

It’s time to get down to the “good stuff” on Jill & Jessa: Counting On! This is the week we will finally hear Anna Duggar speak about all of the horrible things that her cheatin’ and grabby-handed husband, Josh, has done.

Anna admits that Josh has made “wrong choices” over the last few years. (Well, to be fair, over the course of his entire life). We learn that after Josh was shipped off to sex rehab, Anna moved in with Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar. She is living in the girls’ room at the Duggar compound with her children.

That’s pretty depressing, no? Ol’ Joshy can’t keep his hands to himself but it’s Anna that has to move in with her in-laws and live like a pre-teen at summer camp? They could have at least given her and the kids their own room at Duggar Manor. Geez…

"I love being crammed in a room with like 10 other people. Really. I do."
“I love being crammed in a room with like 10 other people. Really. I do.”

The producers ask Anna to discuss why she stayed with Josh after learning that he had molested four of his sisters and another young girl while in his teens.

“I knew about this long before,” she said, adding that Josh told her and her parents the first time she came to Arkansas to visit him. Um…why the hell didn’t she take the first Greyhound outta Duggarville and ditch the diddler?!

Anyway, after the molestation news came out, Anna had her fourth baby and things started to cool down….until the news that Josh had an affair broke.

“My first reaction was denial,” she said. “I really thought everything was okay and that we had a strong marriage.”

Seriously, did Michelle hypnotize Anna before she did this interview?
Seriously, did Michelle hypnotize Anna before she did this interview?

Since TLC is determined to make sure that we know this show is about Jessa and Jill and not Joshy and the rest of the Duggar gang, we have to listen to what Jill, Jessa and their bonehead husbands have to say about the scandal.

Jill breaks down in tears talking about how her heart broke for Anna when the news came out. They all said they were completely shocked. Anna said it all felt like a bad dream.

During her whole interview, Anna is giving off some very strong Michelle vibes. She is speaking in that overly hushed tone. It’s weird. Maybe spending all that time in the Duggar Dungeon has had an effect on Anna.

“How could this happen in our marriage? Josh was my first love. He was my one and only,” she said, adding that she clung to her faith in the aftermath of the scandal(s). “I was just praying that God would give us the help and the wisdom that we needed to know how to take the next step.”

Apparently that step was to ship off ol’ Grabby Paws to sex rehab. (Or as the Duggars prefer to call it “a Christian recovery program.”)

"You don't happen to know how to create a resume, do ya, kid?"
“You don’t happen to know how to create a resume, do ya, kid?”

Next, Anna addresses what we’ve all been wondering: Will she be leaving Josh?

Anna said that while her world was shattered by the news, she’s not leaving her husband.

“I vowed to God first and then to Joshua for better or worse, until death do us part. God has unconditional love for me and he’s loved me and forgiven me of so much,” she said. “I pray through all of this that I will be an extension of God’s love for Joshua. That I would love and forgive him. And that I would wait patiently and allow God to work in our hearts. My prayer and my heart’s desire is for our marriage to be restored.”

Seriously…did Michelle write that speech for Anna?

All of the Duggar girls go on and on about Anna’s strength.

Um…let’s be honest here. Anna has little choice but to stay with her husband. She has zero skills (aside from being a Fertile Myrtle), no work experience and four children to feed.

We’ve basically seen everything we wanted to see from this episode, but we still have to sit through a bunch of filler footage about Jill and Jessa. First, we have to pretend like we care about Jessa’s baby shower. It’s being put together by their manic wedding planner, Sierra.

"We got this, Michelle!"
“We got this, Michelle!”

Of course, Sierra is pregnant. Again. Sierra has been ready to shoot out a kid during every important Duggar milestone of the last five years. This woman is taking the reins from Michelle Duggar and single-handedly trying to double the population of Arkansas via her loins.

Sierra is due to have her own baby two weeks after Jessa. That doesn’t stop Jessa & Co. from working Sierra into the ground, however. They have 160 guests coming to the shower, and it’s being held in a barn.

You seriously can’t make this crap up.

Although Jessa is practically salivating at the chance to be the center of attention (and to collect all of that shower loot), she is acting kind of bratty. She hates cake, so there will be no cake for the shower guests.

That face Jessa makes when the attention is back on her...
That face Jessa makes when the attention is back on her…

Ben actually has a thought and comes up with a game to play at the party. He wants all of the men to attempt to make their own baby food. Men cooking food?! OMG- can you even imagine?!

“I’m not exactly sure what a baby can eat,” Ben says.

Derick, who actually is a father of a six-month-old baby, suggests queso and baked beans. Poor Israel.

When Jill realizes that she's not getting any attention because she doesn't have a baby in her tummy...
When Jill realizes that she’s not getting any attention because she doesn’t have a baby in her tummy…

Meanwhile, the girls are preparing for the baby shower and Anna is pretending like she doesn’t hate her life. Jill, eager to get the attention back on her, keeps talking about her upcoming mission trip. It’s surprising that she doesn’t force Derick to hump her in the utility closet during the shower prep, in hopes that she’ll get pregnant and can start the #BabyDilly countdown ASAP.

The barn baby shower goes off without a hitch and soon it’s back to Jillymuffin, as Jim Bob (creepily) calls her.

Jill, Derick and Israel are heading to the airport to leave for Central America for their mission trip. (Hopefully they packed an AK47 in Izzy’s diaper bag to ward off the gang members and drug lords!)

"Please come home pregnant...I mean safe."
“Please come home pregnant…I mean safe.”

When they arrive, Jill has a language tutor come to her house to teach her…but the teacher just ends up babysitting Israel the whole time. Derick, meanwhile, gets to go to an actual school for his class.

We then catch up with Ben and Jessa while they are speaking at the Southern Women’s Show in Alabama. Jessa tells the crowd that she and Bonehead Ben won’t be having 19 biological kids.

“We do love kids and are looking into adoption,” she says.

She mentions that she and Ben were looking into the process of adoption when they found out they were pregnant. So, they put the adoption process on hold. Jessa said they will pick that back up when the baby is 9 months old. (Because God forbid you go an entire year without a new baby! Jim Bob wouldn’t allow it!).

In the next episode, we get to see Jill and Derrick visit an orphanage and watch Jessa go into labor. We will get to witness the birth of The Spurge in Episode 3, apparently.

To read the recap of ‘Jill & Jessa’ Episode 1, click here!

(Photos: TLC, Twitter)

 

23 Comments

  1. Effin tards all of them. People dont be fooled by their appearances! Its a cult!!! They believe bs and destroy all the babies minds and souls from birth . Their lifestyle is pure devil. They are so blind and dont know it. If you care for them, help them get out of their religion


      1. Just because they only have one wife a piece and dress in more modernized clothes, doesn’t remove them that far from what Warren Jeff and his cohorts were up to. Do the research on their religion and affiliations like the ATI and IBLP. You’ll be horrified I am certain.


  2. When Anna said that she made a commitment “for better or worse” before God, does that mean Josh could do anything and she would still stay with him? What if he molested his own daughters? I mean there has to be a line somewhere, and the fact that he systematically and methodically cheated on her with prostitutes should be enough for her. This Christian camp is not going to change him.


    1. As if that is a question to ask. She married him knowing he molested his sister. She stayed married to him after finding out he cheated. Of course she’ll stay if he’ll go after their daughters. Remember, this group of Christians blame EVERYTHING on the females both young and old.


    1. So strange! I was thinking that maybe the Duggars have done some type of shock treatment to her to instill a Michelle clone personality and something went wrong with her facial muscles in the process.


    2. Kind of like what Drew Barrymore does. I wonder if that is some medical condition? Remember her first season on 19 Kids? When did her teeth get so straight?! (Anna’s not Drew Barrymore’s LOL.)


  3. The whole thing was terrible and heart wrenching but the worst part was when she said she felt that she had to forgive Josh because of all the times the Lord forgave her sins. What has this poor woman ever done that she needed to be forgiven for?! She has done everything right, she has done everything the Duggars have asked her to do and with a smile on her face. He needs to be begging her forgiveness every day for the rest of his life.

    Also, yes Anna should get that pool house that Jill and Derrick were staying in. She’d better get it when Josh comes back.


    1. I felt the same way when she said God forgave her. For what Anna? Things will never be the same, it’s incredibly hard to forgive such a huge betrayal.


  4. Why the hell didn’t Anna move in with her own parents. They might have been able to accommodate her better than that 20 person household.


    1. They live in a double wide in Northern Florida, they really can’t physically accommodate her any better.
      But I’m sure she could rent a decent place in their area.


  5. Lol best recap! I’ve sworn off watching anything Duggar related & any junk on TLC (Touching Little Children), so these recaps are great.
    Anna’s always sounded like Michelle, so I guess she’s added the whispery vocals now as well. After seeing clips on Instagram… why… um… does, like…um… Jill speak, like…. she’s low …on batteries?
    Seems like she’s carefully trying to watch what words she uses but takes 15 mins to shoot out one sentence. Jessa speaks exactly like Jim Boob does. Very preach but nothing of value. Very smug like The Boob too.
    Why does Derek look crazy? Looks nothing like before, poor guy.


  6. Did anyone else notice that the bed Anna and the kids were laying in had Jana’s name on it? Poor Jana. Enslaved Duggar girl forced to give up her own bed.


    1. Should Jana ever come across a contraband copy of “Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone” she’d probably be like “A closet under the stairs to yourself and slave-breakfasting for three? Bitch, please.”

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