‘Counting On’ Season 11 Episode 3 Recap: Traumatized Babies, a Twin-Bed-Filled Bachelor Pad & Trekking Through a Corn Maze

Me, making sure the Duggars have stopped rocking their pelvises before I sit down to watch this episode…

Wipe the pumpkin face-mask residue off your mug and take a break from all that pelvic rocking… it’s time for another episode of Counting On! 

While every episode of this show could be considered a catastrophe in its own right, this week’s episode gives viewers an up-close look at an actual catastrophe in the form of Hurricane Dorian, the Category 5 storm that wreaked total havoc on the Bahamas last year. 

Always down to help out (and even more down to fly his beloved airplane as often as possible) is John-David, who heads down to lend a hand along with some of the other Duggars.

“Duggar boys, this is Pilot John speaking. I just want to remind y’all that lending a hand doesn’t require actually touching one. Flying aircrafts at the age of 18: Perfectly acceptable. Touching palms with the opposite sex: Mayday! Mayday!”

Duggar kids load up supplies to be transported to those in need and arrange for injured Bahamians to get medical assistance.

How generous of Michelle to let Jana clean out the family’s pantry for a good cause…

Inside, Abbie, Jana and some other Dug girls organize supplies and clean (of course), or as Jana puts it, they help “assist the guys who are working hard out on the ground.” 

Jana should really consider snagging that sign for The Compound before she leaves. I think her family could benefit from a reminder to ‘help yourself!’

Back in Arkansas, we head to Ben and Jessa’s house where we find Jessa lining up her trio of blessings to perform diaper checks, aka the best footage TLC could come up with for the Seewalds this week. 

It was either this or Ben’s Adventures in Facial Grooming Part 2…

After the riveting diaper duty scene, Jessa and Ben (and Ben’s bag of travel snacks/coloring books) load the kids up in the junior-sized Fundie mobile minivan and prepare for a road trip to Kansas City to visit friends. Jessa says the drive will take a little over three hours, but it’s the first time the family is hitting the road with three kids, so she’s uneasy. 

Ben on the other hand, seems to have his mind focused on other things…shiny things…

Pretty sure those apple slices and character fruit snacks are for the little ones, Ben…

After keeping Henry and The Spurge occupied with sing-a-longs and toys, the Seewalds arrive at an apple orchard to meet their friends Brandon and Jenna Chapman. 

Like Jessa and Ben, the Chapmans also have a gaggle of kids, though none of their spawn were blessed with a moniker as unique as ‘Spurgeon.’ 

“Hey Spurgey, will you ever forgive your parents for doing you dirty like that?”

While the group stomps around the orchard noting how dirty the apples are — and making zero forbidden fruit jokes, much to our disappointment — homeschool-teacher Ben pats himself on the back for “discovering” that the best apples are located up high and not on the ground. He proceeds to use the kids’ wagon, Henry, Brandon and what little athletic ability he possesses to snag some red apples… just don’t ask him how many, because he later tells Jessa he can’t count them.

No, really. 

“Perfect! I can use this to teach the kids about Sir Issac Fig Newton!”

Next up we make like the lenses on Ben’s glasses and transition over to Los Angeles where Jinger and Jeremy are taking Felicity to her first swimming lesson.

Jinger says it’s important for Felicity to know how to swim because, now that they’re living that Beverly Hills Life, a lot of their friends have pools. That “movie stars…swimmin’ pools” living is sure different from the life Jinger grew up in. After all “swimming” basically meant piling as many yungins as possible into some sort of feeding trough and filling it with hose water until it was time to come inside and pray (and/or wash off the waterborne bacteria).

.Is it even swimming if you’re not fully dressed?

Jinger decides Jeremy is best suited to hop in the pool with Felicity and the swim instructor, because unlike Jinger, Jeremy doesn’t require any swimming instruction himself. Jeremy, Felicity and the swim pro dive right in (not literally), first getting Felicity comfortable with the water and the idea of moving her arms and legs around. While she doesn’t seem entirely chill during this activity, Felicity manages to keep it together. 

“Well, you look nothing like Grandpa Jim Bob, so that’s comforting in itself.”

Unfortunately, when the instructor calls for Felicity to take a quick dip underwater, things take a turn… 

Where is Michelle and her cool, calm and completely nightmare-inducing voice when ya need it?!

While hiding behind a pole, Jinger listens to her daughter scream in the pool until the swimming lesson is complete, while reminding viewers (and Felicity/Felicity’s future trauma counselor) that they did this for her safety/a storyline for a reality TV show.  

#ComeOnSeason12

In other traumatic Duggar happenings, we check in with Jedidiah and Jeremiah next, who have just escaped The Compound and moved into their very own bro-chelor pad. What happens next may very well be one of the best gifts ‘Counting On’ editors have ever given viewers: a hilarious tour of Jed and Jer’s new digs, complete with tunes, fades and cuts ripped straight from an early 2000s episode of MTV Cribs.

I mean, the tour kicks off with the boys’ “ping pong room” …what more could you ask for?! 

…Besides actual living room furniture, that is.

The real standout moment of this tour happens when Jed and Jer open a bedroom to reveal two twin beds. Yes, folks… these two grown men moved out of their parents’ home just so they could live it up in a shared bedroom. (There’s no word if each twin bed is made up with freshly washed–by Jana– cartoon Jesus sheets, though…)

“And this is where the magic doesn’t happen!”

Oh, and if you’re thinking these two bunked up due to lack of space, think again. These knuckleheads go on to reveal a home office — one that could have easily been used as a second bedroom.

But wait, there’s more!

We then see a third room, directly across the hall from Jed and Jer’s cave of co-dependence, complete with bunkbeds and random nightstand. 

“Ahh, feels like home!”

If this tomfoolery didn’t get you heated like Michelle and Jim Bob’s bedroom for the last three decades, we’re then forced to hear said-Fundie fornicators lie claim that each of their children has a right to move out whenever they turn 18, but most choose not to (until marriage) because they’re able to save money. 

“Just don’t tell Jana, OK?”

Sure, Jan Jim Bob. 

Because Jed and Jer’s house was furnished using assorted leftover Duggar finds, Joe and Josiah drop by with some gifts to make things even worse. 

Single ladies: these men and these chairs could be yours!

To thank their bros for the generous gifts, Jer and Jed throw together a meal of hamburgers, frozen fries, potato chips and pickles (always a Duggar must!). They then sit down at the ping-pong table in the still-dirty-as-hell chairs to shovel down their feast. (We can assume that each plate was completely licked clean because…Duggars.)

While the boys realize their cooking skills are seriously lacking, they both admit they won’t have to worry about it once they’re married because they’ll have womenfolk to cook whatever they’ll be licking off their plates.

I think that’s nice…

When we check back in with Jessa and Ben, they’re with the Chapmans again, but this time, the group is heading to the zoo. (No, not The Compound, an actual zoo.) Ben is particularly pumped for the lorikeet exhibit, despite his sketchy track record with birds. 

“I mean, do ya blame them?”

Unlike her father, Ivy seems to have a way with the feathered friends, but the feeling doesn’t appear to be mutual. If you’re keeping count, this is the second traumatized Duggar-spawn featured this episode… 

“You have got to be kidding me right now.”

The group then heads inside where the toddlers proceed to dip their germy hands (and ultimately 40 percent of their bodies) into a stingray tank. Jessa marvels over the water being wet. (Um…girl? You’ve obviously been spending way too much time with Ben…)

During all the hubub over the wet water, the Seewalds manage to lose track of Henry. Oh, but don’t worry! Ben soon finds him… wandering alone outside of the building, playing in a random sink. 

“I understand the attraction to shiny things, son, but sometimes we have to resist or Jessa is gonna get mad at us!”

Back in Arkansas, it’s Family Fundie Night for the Duggars and this time, the crew has bussed themselves to the nearest corn maze. As you do.

Jim Bob splits the group into six teams and each is instructed to keep track of how long it takes them to navigate through the corn maze. Joe and Kendra are salty from the jump due to their disadvantage of having a pregnant person on the team (Kendra). Anna, however, seems to somehow harvest the energy from her own unborn blessing as she runs through the finish line like a teen mom at a high school track meet. 

“I’ve been picturing myself running away from Josh and this crapheap of a family for years, y’all! I’ve got this!”

Joy and Austin are among the last of the teams to hit the maze and the first to get completely lost, while Jim Bob and Michelle struggled to stay on task. 

Will you two please keep it in your dad jeans/modest denim skirt until the end of the family outing? Thanks.

In the end, Ben and Jessa’s team is named the winner but, as with all Duggar outings, there are no winners here…because you’re Duggars… 

That’s all for this week!

On the next episode of ‘Counting On,’ it’s time for the Duggar Dash… so get your team brackets ready and prepare for a throw down at The Compound. (Hot tip: whatever you’re imagining as the Duggar Dash, we assure you it’s even worse than that.)  

To read The Ashley’s previous ‘Counting On’ recap, click here!

(Photos: TLC)

24 Comments

  1. Did anyone else see that apartment and have flashbacks to going back to a guy’s place in their early 20s? (With the exception of sharing a room with his brother, of course, yikes) Just me?


  2. Where do all of these assumptions come from? The Duggars only make the mistake of living different lives than the way culture has everyone thinking we should live. I don’t personally think it’s a mistake. By thinking two adult men should have the desire to sleep in their own rooms just makes you a dumb sheep. How do you come up with so many mean things to say about a nice well-meaning family? They have so many less issues the average American. Why do you think Jim Bob keeps them at home into adulthood? I know plenty of families who love each other and each other’s company to exist in the same house until marriage. I’m sorry if you’re not that close to your family.


    1. Yeah. Who wouldn’t be over the moon at the prospect of having a witless manchild/state rep candidate, who bunks with with his bro to avoid masturbation temptation, regulating the lives of people he’s too sheltered to have ever met.

      What could possibly go wrong?


    2. “They have many less issues”… did you also go to school at the Duggar Dining Room Table Academy?

      Your right, they only have issues like:
      1. A pedophile son who molested their daughters
      2. Covering up said pedophile son molesting their daughters
      3. The same pedophile son then committing adultery with women who report he was sexually violent and perverse.
      4. Raising 18 children with no education so that they cannot have the tools to think differently or even live independent lives
      5. Banishing any children who DO stray from their families bigoted, dangerous beliefs.
      6. Blatant sexism at every turn despite the fact that they are raising many girls
      7. Sending their children to Christian correction camps to correct any “deviant” behavior
      8. Continuing to amass children regardless of the fact that they didnt have enough money to raise them (they openly admitted this). Their older children also reported food insecurity before the reality TV money came about and would hide food because they didn’t get enough to eat

      You could go on and on and on… the Duggars are trash. Their parents are a disgusting, perverse representation of Christianity that should never exist. The children are (mostly) continuing this same trend. They have many more problems than the typical American family.


  3. [* Shield plugin marked this comment as “Trash”. Reason: Failed Bot Test (expired) *]
    This is the best recap omg I laughed so hard


  4. I hate this show but ngl, I grew up not far from the Duggars’ neck of the woods and stock tank kiddie pools are common. They’re available everywhere, don’t have to be put up when it freezes, and can’t catch a leak on the rocky, uneven ground. It might’ve been something they grew up with and considered more practical than a little rubber pool.

    Everything else was cringe as usual.


  5. You just know there are cameras EVERYWHERE in the bachelor pad, so Jim Boob can sit in a “Mission Control” room and watch them for “safety reasons”.
    I used to feel very bad for them, but now…When youre halfway to 30 and can’t go find a real job and move out(like the rest of us mere mortals), then YOU are also the problem. Unlike the Bates, the Duggars didnt seem to learn social cues or any independence, and when someone can tell you that you have to still have a TWIN bed actually NEXT to your actual TWIN…um no. Privacy is essential for 2am Ice cream and stress relief….
    I bet the only one with a key to that house, is Jim.


  6. In other news, I cannot believe Briana is pregnant again. So irresponsible! (Wanna bet it’s Luis’ again? She does keep on shacking up with him anyway.)


  7. [* Shield plugin marked this comment as “Trash”. Reason: Failed Bot Test (expired) *]
    What kind of a sad human are you to write this article? Are you jealous? Did you have a bad childhood? What compelled you to sit back and judge other people’s lives like this? From the sound of your writing, and especially the title, I have gathered enough info and learn that your words are not worth my time and you need to reevaluate your self.


  8. It’s so strange Jed and Jer didnt choose to move into their own rooms in the apartment since they have the extra space. At least they moved out though prior to marriage, the independence will be good for them.


    1. They will only become dependent of each other. And I think we know why they share a room…no guy should be tempted to “help himself” or even GASP! bring a girl home! (Alone, with no chaperone) It’s their decision, my ass, JB&Michelle! Why is Jana still there then?! Also I’m terrified how they have no cooking skills whatsoever. But it shouldn’t surprised me because they were taught that is “women’s work” anyway.


      1. I guarantee there is a strict double standard when it comes to the kids moving out. The boys are allowed to when they turn 18, but the girls aren’t allowed until they are married.


      2. Jana is a free maid/ nanny/ decorater/ builder/ wedding organiser. That saves Michelle and Jimbo a lot of time.

        From whatever she makes, she still has to pay some of it to Jimbo I read somewhere.
        That’s not unusual for living in adult kids but the girl is working her ass off for free. The whole family uses her and calls it ‘doing service’.


    2. They have been taught to check their siblings so they won’t sin. And when they do slightly sin, report it to Jimbo.

      As their hand could cheat on their future wife when they sleep alone, they have to sleep in one room.


    3. It’s not real. Jim Bob wants his pawn in politics. He chose to move the boy into that district because the incumbent there is a female Democrat that was running unopposed. He figures it’s an easy win.


  9. [* Shield plugin marked this comment as “Trash”. Reason: Failed Bot Test (expired) *]
    I love that the Duggar parents willfully admitted the middle third of their kids probably can’t swim…
    What irresponsible people!


    1. Shut the front door! That couch surfing ho is pregnant again?? WTF?! Ever hear if birth control?

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