‘Jill & Jessa: Counting On’ Season 1 Episode 4 Recap: Baking, Building & the Bug-Eyed Baby Shower Planner

"Did somebody say BABY shower?!"
“Did somebody say BABY shower?!”

By Holly & The Ashley

It’s time to head on over to Arkansas to check in with the Duggar clan! This week on Jill & Jessa: Counting On, we get to watch the girls and their trusty friend, the ever-fertile Sierra, organize a baby shower for their friend, Kristen. (Since no one in the Duggar family is currently knocked up—the horror!—they had to find some rando pregnant person to throw a shower for. Otherwise, we’d have to watch the girls grocery shop again…)

The previous episodes of this show have focused on one of the “other” Duggar girls (aka the ones who don’t get much attention because they aren’t married and pregnant). Episode 2 focused on Jana, while last week’s episode centered on Jinger. This week the focus will be on Joy Anna. Just as they did in the previous two episodes, the producers gather the older kids up and ask them awkward questions about whichever sister is in the spotlight that week.

"Must have taken you forever to come up with that description of me, huh, guys?"
“Must have taken you forever to come up with that description of me, huh, guys?”

When asked to describe their sister Joy Anna, nearly every Duggar says that Joy is “joyful.”

Wouldn’t it have been awesome if they named her Joy and she turned out to just be totally rotten? Or if she was extremely self-centered and vain? (Well…then they could have named her Jessa….)

Anyway, Joy Anna and Sierra go to someone’s house to bake sugar cookies for the baby shower they’re throwing. Oh, and we also found out that Kristen and her husband own the taco restaurant we saw Ben and Jessa stuffing their faces at in the last episode.

I keep expecting them to do the "AWOOOOGA!" sound effect when she pops out her eyes like this...
I keep expecting them to do the “AWOOOOGA!” sound effect when she pops out her eyes like this…

Sierra is giving off some weird wanna-be Michelle vibes with her super-sweet voice and earnest looks. (In between said earnest looks, however, Sierra keeps bugging out her eyes to cartoonish levels. It’s enough to frighten small children.)

We spend about 10 minutes watching Sierra and Joy Anna bake cookies at some random person’s house. Sierra and Joy Anna are supposed to be friends with the cookie lady, but they don’t even know where she lives and go to the wrong house. Is TLC paying these people to pretend to be friends with the Duggars? She doesn’t even act like she likes them. Cookie Lady keeps throwing some serious shade at them.

"Bless you heart, you better focusing on making babies, darlin'!"
“Bless you heart, you better focusing on making babies, darlin’!”

“I guess there could be some concern about giving away some of my ingredients and tips and tricks. But after watching them attempt to make some cookies, I’m not too threatened,” she tells the cameras.

We learn that Sierra and Joy Anna are best friends, despite their age difference.

“She’s a mentor and a role model and a huge encouragement to me,” Joy Anna says.

Next we head back to the Duggar compound to watch John David and the rest of the J boys build this playhouse thing for the little kids.

“Looking at the structure, it is like Fort Knox,” Anna says.

Raise your hand if you’re a little surprised that Anna actually knows what Fort Knox is? She learned something other than biblical stories during her homeschooling. Ben, of course, learned nothing. He keeps referring to it as a tree house…. even though it is not on a tree. It’s on the ground.

Um?!?!?!
Um…?

The boys are busy building and Ben is busy being the goober that we’ve come to expect him to be. He’s literally running across the boards like an escaped mental patient while his brothers-in-law are attempting to work on them.

Seriously, why is Ben allowed near big equipment? Or power tools? Or anything that isn’t rubber with soft edges?

John David says something could go wrong because they’re dealing with “big poles.” (That joke kind of makes itself, doesn’t it?) He even recognizes that Ben should be nowhere near the building site.

“We don’t have insurance for stupidity,” he says.

"Another day of taking care of other peoples' kids..."
“Another day of taking care of other peoples’ kids…”

Inside the house, Ma and Pa Duggar are nowhere to be seen (as per usual), so it appears that Joy and Anna are in charge of the litter. We learn that the ever-frowning Jenny (who is still our favorite Duggar kid by a landslide, due to her obvious hate for her family), has “misplaced” her glasses, which she hates. Joy Anna and Anna split the kids up into two teams and search the house for Jenny’s lost glasses.

Really? This is what made the cut for the episode? Looking for lost glasses?

That's the best smile Jenny could muster. God, I love her...
That’s the best smile Jenny could muster. God, I love her…

After much suspense, they find the glasses. You can all let out that breath you were surely holding in during this riveting scene.

Next, the women load up and take an exciting trip the local thrift store to find stuff to make a play kitchen for the playhouse (which, by now, is starting to shape up to be bigger than the houses that most of this show’s viewers live in.)

I see Derick is still trying to make that Unabomber beard work...
I see Derick is still trying to make that Unabomber beard work…

Finally, we check in with Jill and Derick. We see that Jim Bob and Michelle have braved the jungles of Central America and are surprising Jill and Derick with a visit. It sure is lucky that roundtrip tickets to Central America are so cheap so the Duggars can keep going down there for visits! Oh…wait…

After seeing a little footage of Jill, Derick, Jim Bob and Michelle preaching to the native heathens, we check back in with Joy and Sierra while they make treats for the surprise baby shower. It’s so obvious that Sierra is gunning for her own spinoff show. “The Perpetually Pregnant Party Planner”: coming to TLC this fall!

During the sit-down interviews, the producers ask the brothers what a guy who wanted to court Joy Anna would have to do and they give some pretty creepy answers. Josiah says he would have to “get through a few a guys-I’m talking about me and Joseph.” Joseph said the guy would have to be a “perfect guy” to date Joy and that he would have to go through a lot of testing.

Um…why do they get to decide who she dates?

It’s finally time for the shower. Sierra is about to have a breakdown, again. She and Jessa have taken Kristen to get a pedicure but it ran over and now they are late for the shower. Meanwhile, Joy Anna has been left in charge to direct everything and everyone in setting up the shower.

"I got my good vest on and I'm ready to party, y'all!"
“I got my good vest on and I’m ready to party, y’all!”

Kristen’s husband shows up…and he’s wearing vest. In the words of “Mean Girls’” Regina George, “That vest was hideous.”

Kristen shows up and pretends to be surprised.

“I have no idea what’s going on. This is wonderful,” Kristen says.

Why do I feel like that’s exactly what Ben said on his wedding night?

That face you make when they say Ben is going to rap...
That face you make when they say Ben is going to rap…

Next week’s episode will be very exciting because…Ben is going to rap? (By “exciting” we mean “horrific,” of course…) Ben is heading to St. Louis to meet with a Christian rapper and he’s going to lay down some tracks. Since this man-child can barely string a complete sentence together while he’s talking, it will surely be entertaining to watch him attempt to rap.

To read our recap of the previous episode of ‘Jill & Jessa: Counting On,’ click here!

(Photos: TLC)

 

10 Comments

  1. I just found your website and I’m in love with your recaps of ‘Counting On’ and I don’t even watch the show. (I’m not too good for reality TV bc there isn’t a RH franchise I won’t watch.)


  2. Yeah I guess some people that used to know Anna pre-Duggar said that she has completely changed. They said her mannerisms are almost a copy of Michelle’s and she is a lot more submissive now. They said she used to be really up beat and happy and now she is like a robot. This was pre “confirmation Josh is a scumbag” too.


  3. I can’t stand looking at Sierra’s buggy eyes and the way she’s always tilting her head back. Did anyone else notice she goes through Duggar girls? First she was BFFs with Anna, then Sierra and Jessa were besties while pregnant and now she’s Joy’s best friend too? Girl what? I feel like Jenny will be the one to break free and write a tell all, her faces are priceless.


  4. Perhaps if they had allowed Ben around some rubber recently those two idiots could have realized that marrying because you’re horny wasn’t a good idea before dragging a poor baby with a horrendous name into the mix.


  5. I find it soooooooo creepy that they have almost the same voice tone and facial expressions when they speak. Anna is morphing into MEchelle. Scrary.

    Plus, they sound uneducated with the overuse of the word : precious, kiddos, sweet, and, exciting/excited, new season of life, like, etc.


  6. I think the Ashley is the only person alive who can make these people bareable. Good job, gurl!

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