Skip to Content

The Brown family was intent on impressing a team of anthropologists from UNLV on Sister Wives Season 5 Episode 16, but soon had bigger issues at hand.

The Hollywood Gossip Logo
Watch Sister Wives Season 5 Episode 16 Online

When Sister Wives Season 5 Episode 16 began, they were worried about how disciplining their teenage boys would make them look to strangers.

Keeping up appearances for academics might have seemed like cause for concern, but when Kody Brown’s daughter Madison dropped a bombshell?

All of a sudden, the UNLV anthropologists must have seemed invisible.

Janelle Brown and Kody’s daughter has decided to leave the family’s faith, a monumental decision she decided to inform them of … via text message.

That’s not typically the best way of breaking news such as that.

Technological faux pas aside, Kody, Janelle, and the rest of the wives had a meeting with Madison about her controversial choice to join another church.

If you watch Sister Wives online, you probably like and empathize with Kody’s family structure to a degree, however unconventional it may be.

Still, it’s not totally hard to understand why Madison would look for support outside of her family, to find that part of inner herself that’s been missing.

Madison told her family that her new church has helped her depression, form a stronger connection to God, and become more whole as an individual.

Pretty profound stuff, and obviously, Kody was taken aback.

Perhaps for this reason, their response seemed almost too measured, a chorus of "okays" rather than earnest feedback (be it positive or negative).

Maybe the anthropologists were in their heads a bit, too.

How do they really feel about the LDS church Madison is joining? Will their reactions, in addition to her decision, drive her further away from them?

Already this month, we’ve seen Kody Brown divorce one wife and marry another, so they have a lot on their collective plate these days, for sure.

Here’s hoping they work through this difficult and complex situation faithfully and constructively, and remain more unified – not divided – as a result.