‘Welcome to Plathville’ Season 2 Episode 9 Recap: An (Almost) Father/Son Fist Fight & (Almost) Exposed Fundie Funbags

Ethan, summing up the most exciting thing to happen on this show all season.

The season finale of Welcome to Plathville has arrived and we have no time for a quippy intro because Ethan has stormed Plath Compound. This is not a drill! 

Let’s suffer through Micah’s non-storyline and naïve Moriah’s studio sesh so we can break down the Great Battle at Plathville – aka the part where our favorite blondtourage goes out with a bang. (Probably more of a spark if we’re being honest.) 

Micah, still making up in muscles what he lacks in storylines, lands in Miami to sign with a modeling agency. Big stuff!

Micah tried to sign with his biceps, but the notary wouldn’t go for it.

Micah has been crazy boring to watch this season, but much respect to him for using those abs and pretty face to further his career/distance from his parents. Keep flexin’ Micah! 

Meanwhile, sweet little song bird Moriah has hit the studio to record for the first time. Moriah’s confidence is to growing and she seems genuinely proud of her work. Hell, we’re proud of her, too! Imagine going from singing in your family Christian band to recording your own music in a lime green crop top, all in the span of two years. Get it girl! 

” … and like, I hated every minute of it.”

Dressed in her finest neon green, one-armed shirt (straight from a Party City “80s Gal” costume kit), Moriah goes to the studio to work on her latest bop. The producer tries his best to be positive about her singing but…in the words of Randy Jackson, “it’s a no from me, dawg.” 

Over at Ethan and Olivia’s house, Ethan takes a stroll down the world’s saddest memory lane after discovering some photos and notes from his siblings. Ethan is all in his feelings and his anger is more than justified after everything Kim and Barry have pulled. 

Ethan getting pumped for the compound showdown! Backdown? Smackdown?! We shall see!

Olivia is crying in the dining room, giving her undoubtedly water-damaged kitchen counter a much needed break. At one point last year, Ethan and Olivia were able to see the Plath kids, but after just one unsupervised visit with Isaac, they were cut off. Looking back at the clip from last season, it’s obvious that Ethan and Olivia were corrupting young Isaac, what with all that playing with trains, giggling and whatnot. 

Umm, can we talk about this GLOW-UP?! Thank the good lord above Plathville for facial hair and real haircuts.

Ethan is done. DONE! He’s ready to tell his parents it’s over so he heads to the compound to let Kim and Barry know he will no longer tolerate them bad-mouthing Olivia, and that the two of them are planning to move away and that they want to tell the Plath youngins goodbye. Which part of all of that do you think Dictator Kim will flip out about first?

“I’m a-comin’ kids!” 

Ethan parks the car far enough down the Plath family driveway so that no one can see Olivia. He. is. FIRED. UP.

“Preferably to two years ago before I married into your wacky a** family.”

Barry answers the door with his creepy grin and says “been awhile.” Kim and Barry walk outside to chat with their son and Ethan lets them know immediately that this isn’t a debate or discussion. He and Olivia are moving away soon, he wants to say goodbye to his siblings and then get back to having zero contact with Kim and Barry. Ethan is spitting fire at Ma and Pa Plath and we are living for it. 

“You don’t accept Olivia, you don’t get me either,” Ethan tells them. 

Kim wants to speak up with her thought and says there has been a lot of hurt. Our boy Ethan is still on it. He turns right around to let Kim know that’s all on her. Barry makes a half-assed attempt to apologize and lets Ethan know he will always love him. Ethan’s response does NOT disappoint. 

“That’s nice of you to say … in front of everyone … on-camera,” he tells Barry. 

BAHAHAHA ZINGER! He got Barry right in his Dockers-covered gut! 

Cue the slow clap.

Ethan is given permission to see his siblings and the kids are even allowed to follow him to the car to say goodbye to Olivia – for a whole 6 seconds.

“You may have been sprung from our loins but we’d like to go back to acting like you don’t exist, if that’s OK?”

Kim quickly realizes she’s given up control by allowing the kids to walk 50 feet to the car without her and that simply cannot happen… especially not for Evil Olivia, who has ruined Kim’s “perfect family.” So now it’s all about control, Kim playing the victim and Barry smiling like a creeper, all while Ethan tries to stand up for himself and his wife. Not gonna lie, we expected Ethan to back down, but instead he doubles down. 

And just like that, Ethan the Man-Child grew up.

In response, Barry inflicts upon us a mental picture that we never asked for. 

Thanks a whole bunch, Barry. This image will be haunting our nightmares for years to come…

Oh, bondage! We almost forgot! The last time Barry and Ethan spoke, Barry wished Ethan a happy life “living in bondage” – aka living with Olivia. Ouch. But also, gross.

Barry is the worst. 

While Barry laments on bondage and such, Kim has full-on lost it. The idea of her children seeing Olivia’s face for 45 seconds is simply too much. She tells Ethan, “They are my children! My property!” 

Someone needs a nap and/or a Xanax.

You’d think her children were being removed by Child Protective Services or something. Nope, just in the driveway, trying to see their sister-in-law.

Kim wants to protect her children from the evilness that is Ethan and Olivia, yet has zero problem losing her crap in front of them as they literally beg her to stop. 

#FreeIsaac

Next up, it’s Barry’s turn to “help.” His idea? To head over to the car to confront Olivia, against her wishes. Once again, Ethan does not disappoint, stepping in to put Papa Plath in his place. 

Nevertheless, she persisted he smiled creepily.

Barry tells the gang that they’re going to go “say hello to Olivia” and Ethan sprints over to Daddy Dearest, gets all up in his face, whips him around and tells him hell no. For a second it appears that Ethan and Barry may get into a physical fight and we are HERE FOR IT.

Hopefully one of the producers starts chanting “Jerry! Jerry!” since we know the Plath kids won’t…

Ethan asks his parents again if his siblings can walk to the car to hug Olivia and Kim surprisingly says it’s Barry’s call, to which Ethan – freshly filled with rage and grown man boundaries – replies, “You’re the neck that turns his head.” 

Ultimately the kids are not permitted to see Olivia and Ethan tells them he will see them when they are 18. Cue all of the sad faces. Poor Sweet Lydia, she doesn’t deserve any of this. It’s just too bad that Ethan didn’t think to throw her in the car and drive off. Olivia could have helped her find a good conditioner to control that frizz and maybe she could finally get some time away from the prayer closet. 

When we #FreeIsaac, can Lydia come along?

Everyone is crying. Kim is beside herself, once again due to her own actions and lack of parenting skills. Barry is smiling (because he knows this is making for some great TV and will probably help the fam secure another season of this dumpster-fire-of-a-show). Everyone begins to group-hug. ..all while Barry keeps that horrorshow-of-a-smile on his creepy face. 

Y’all wouldn’t have to do all that crying and huddling if you would just listen to Isaac. (By the way, have we mentioned #FreeIsaac?)

Sweet Lydia feels that Ethan is making a choice to distance himself from the family as well as her and that he’s choosing Olivia over the Plaths. Just when we start to lose faith in Lydia, she redeems herself and says she admires Ethan’s dedication and protection of Olivia. 

The next day, Ethan is working on his old Chevy at Moriah and Micah’s house and uses the opportunity to fill them in on the events of the night before. 

Way to undersell it, Ethan.

Moriah shares that she really looks up to Ethan and Olivia for everything they have accomplished and how they have stuck it out together. Both Micah and Moriah are “thankful” for the path their older brother has laid out and believe it has made Kim and Barry more open parents to them because Kim and Barry know how much they screwed up with Ethan. It’s a sweet idea, but we’re not going to praise Ma and Pa Plath for turning over a new leaf when they still hold their youngest kids hostage.

Ethan asks them to please let the kids know he’s sorry how everything went down and that he loves and misses them very much. The three oldest escapees pinky promise to never let anything get between them. 

Later on, Micah and Moriah head to the compound for a visit and to make good on their promise to Ethan to tell the kids how he feels. When they get there, Kim seems to be a new woman as she’s ecstatic about Micah’s modeling contract and over the moon about Moriah’s new recording adventure. It’s giving off some weird vibes… who is this woman and what did she do with the real dictator Kim?

Moriah nearly falls out of her spandex party dress off her chair when she learns that Kim would love to hear her music and would even be willing to watch her play in a bar. A BAR! Hail Mary, full of grace, is that pride on Kim’s face?! 

Kim wouldn’t go to Ethan and Olivia’s wedding if they had booze, yet she’s down to bar hop with Moriah. Make it make sense.

Micah and Moriah pass out hugs to all of the kids “from Ethan and Olivia” and Kim looks as though she might throw up. Good.

Barry babbles about rebuilding relationships and then they group hug. Again. 

“They couldn’t deliver the hugs themselves because mom thinks it might make you want to wear jeans and listen to Taylor Swift.”

Once Barry is alone, he admits he probably made a mistake and that there likely wasn’t any harm in the kids seeing Olivia.

Oh Barry, always a year too late and an “I’m sorry” too short. But it’s all OK, because Barry believes in miracles. 

After being put through the wringer this season, Kim (aka the producers) wants to go out on a fun note. She instructs the kids to put on their fancy clothes and proceeds to serve them shrimp and black olives (um?), followed by a surprise pie-in-the-face prank. She sits there, with her fundie funbags on full display in a low-cut dress (WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL?), grinning creepily.

“Man, it’s gonna suck for Lydia to have to scrub all this pie filling out of those clothes!”

We would have probably enjoyed this fun family moment, but Kim is still the worst and one evening of silly fun doesn’t make up for being a terrible person to your adult children.

TLC has yet to renew ‘Welcome to Plathville’ for another season, BUT THEY BETTER. We can’t go out like this. Olivia still hasn’t gotten “distance!” Moriah hasn’t found the other half of her shirts! Barry hasn’t figured out how to not smile at inappropriate times! And we know Micah isn’t done flexing! So go do a dance, hold a séance, whatever it takes, Plathheads, so we can do this all again for another season. It’s what we all want! I think? Isn’t it? We do want that, right??

To read The Ashley’s previous ‘Welcome to Plathville’ recap, click here! 

(Photos: TLC) 

9 Comments

  1. Barry reminds me a lot of Warren Jeffs, who was the leader of the FLDS church (Not Mormons—FLDS is Uber-fundamentalist religions that practices polygamy and gives women ZERO power/control/value as anything other than a baby producer. Women are denied education and are given by their fathers to the old man leaders of the church to gain favor for the family).

    Barry and Kim are the parents. It’s on them to repair the relationship with their children and with Olivia. I find Kim to be extremely immature and domineering. It’s possible the death of her child lead her to hold on extra tight to the remaining children. I feel badly for her that she accidentally killed her child. No one should ever have to experience that kind of pain. But I don’t think she realizes that she is basically killing any hope of a relationship with any of her children (aside from that daughter we have never seen—who Kim called “practically perfect in every way”). Kim and Barry will probably never get to spend time with their grandchildren and the blame will lay solely with them.


  2. They are creepier than The Duggar’s. The dad is so odd, that 😏 The mum is like some weird, robotic cult leader with zero emotions. I feel like all the kids will leave, apart from doting Lydia. Micah is just like his Dad, in that he thinks he’s superior to everyone. I genuinely think the scene where the parents attempt to storm to get the Olivia was real. The way Ethan reacted towards his Dad showed real hatred, and I don’t believe it could have been faked xx


  3. My husband made it about 15 minutes into this episode with me before he threw the remote and yelled “I HATE those monster parents!”

    Lydia crying broke my heart. Kim is the definition of narcissistic and hysterical.


  4. I think Ethan’s balls finally dropped the other night during this episode. I’m so glad he stood up to Kim and Barry. I literally despise them. I love the children though. I feel so sorry for those poor kids. Also, Kim is such a fake person and it’s painfully obvious. Especially the little stunt she pulled with the pie fight. I also can’t believe she ran over their baby, how does that happen and I find it disturbing that she’s totally emotionless when they talk about the baby. I have never once seen her she’d a year. I just can’t stand those people, Kim and Barry that is, like I said I love the kids. Hopefully they will all get away from Kim and Barry one day and actually have a life.


  5. I can’t even imagine how much toner shampoo this family goes thru in a month!

    Love this show, TLC should put their money into this show and cancel the boring Duggars(Can’t you just picture Derick and Jill confronting JimBoob and Michelle Duggar in the big house like Ethan did? Me either.).


    1. Well Jinger made it to LA, wears PANTS(!!!), and encourages her daughter to play soccer… Free Jinger worked, on to FREE LYDIA!!!


  6. Thank you for approaching this without any rose-colored glasses around Barry and Kim’s behavior. As an adult in a similar position to Olivia, with controlling and narcissistic in-laws, I was CHEERING for Ethan as he stood up to his parents. Watching him grow from silently looking on while they attacked his wife and her character to literally getting in Barry’s face to tell him to leave his wife alone was amazing! Wishing Ethan, Olivia, Micah, and Moriah happy memories and many more opportunities for learning and growth now that they’re out from under the thumb. Also wishing the remaining Plath kids the courage to stand up to Barry and Kim and make their own path as they get older.


    1. Same!! My MIL is straight from the depths of hell. My hubby finally grew a set, and we haven’t seen them in 6 glorious years. It saved my marriage. I route for Ethan and Olivia every time I watch this

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