90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After? Season 6, Episode 10 showcased major issues of communication and childcare, plus some househunting.
Natalie nervously waited to tell Mike that she was scheduled for surgery until dinner at a friend’s house, fearing his reaction.
Ronald forgot to buy groceries for Tiffany and the kids (or for himself), and that was just the beginning of their troubles.
Michael’s friends celebrated his divorce news, but Angela was already beginning to reconsider.
Eager to move away from her monster-in-law, Julia and Brandon go apartment hunting, but quickly realize that they’ll need two incomes.
The Potthast family RV trip from hell resumes, but it’s not long before Andrei and Libby are clashing over a very important topic.
Yara learns that Jovi won’t be back for weeks longer than planned, so she has to pick their new home herself.
Mike Youngquist and Natalie Mordovtseva
Natalie notes that it has been a few weeks since their disastrous trip to see Trish, where she apologized to Mike and dropped the subject just to keep the peace — because discussing it was impossible and Mike always wants to move on.
Fortunately, Natalie has made a friend
Juliana also lives in Washington. She is Russian, and while Natalie is from Ukraine, this means that they share a common language and a lot of cultural overlap. This also means that Juliana is well aware of many of Natalie and Mike’s marital issues. Tonight, Mike and Natalie are having dinner with Juliana.
Also, Natalie needs surgery
She has needed nasal surgery for a while. Unfortunately, she is in the United States, where our healthcare system is a nightmare. Natalie is perplexed at the idea of health insurance, specifically because it doesn’t actually cover everything. So she’s nervous.
She’s nervous to tell Mike
Mike is not the world’s most expressive person, but Natalie has perceived that he has been balking at the expense of her surgery. Mike is in debt because he purchased this family land in rural Sequim, so Natalie notes that he worries about money.
Mike arrives for the dinner
While they are preparing food together, Natalie gives Mike the news that her doctor scheduled an appointment for the operation.
Mike is calm about it
He asks her which day it will be and tells her that he will take off work that day.
Dinner is lovely
The presentation is amazing. Natalie prepared a traditional Ukrainian dish and Juliana prepared a traditional Russian dish.
Juliana makes some observations
She notes that a lack of real communication is (as it has always been) a real source of tension between Mike and Natalie.
Back home in Sequim …
Mike is insisting upon showing Natalie how the truck works. In his mind, this is both necessary knowledge and his idea of a good time. He also presents this as if it’s some sort of universal American thing, which it is not. Mike and his mother may be accustomed to rural living but it’s not universal.
Natalie speaks for all of us
Natalie is not always the most relatable person on the show (okay, that’s an understatement … she often makes strange choices and statements), but in this moment, I felt a rare sort of kinship with her as she looks down in disinterest at the mess of wires and cables under a car hood.
However, they’re fixing more than just a car engine
Mike talks to Natalie about something that’s been bothering him — the way that she ambushed him with the surgery announcement at Juliana’s house instead of one-on-one (or one-on-one with the cameras). He feels like Natalie left him out of the conversation.
Natalie feels ignored
She feels like he’s not giving her love, respect, or help, and like he takes her presence for granted. She also feels like he picks on her and she feels completely alone.
“You’re fine! You’re healthy!”
Mike then tells Natalie that she’s wrong about how she feels because she’s totally fine. Apparently wearing clothes and being under a roof means that all of her needs are met. However, after they exchange outbursts, they do have a calmer conversation.
Tiffany Franco and Ronald Smith
Apparently Ronald had six eggs and one beer in his fridge, like what you might see in a sitcom about a single guy who suddenly has a family but is totally, disastrously unprepared for this.
Whoops
The guy built a whole new bedroom in his house but forgot to have food for his wife and both of their children. He doesn’t see it as a big deal, because they can just go shopping together, but taking two kids to go grocery shopping during a pandemic isn’t really a walk in a park.
Also, what is this?
Sometimes there are just fun, goofy little differences between how different foods are prepared or packaged or branded or sold in different countries. Like this bubblegum pink bologna.
Tiffany says that he’s getting too much for their stay
But Ronald is once again ignoring what she’s telling him, saying that because her tickets are open-ended, she can stay indefinitely.
Also … Tiffany had to help him pay for it
Apparently he came up short at the cash register. This is a nightmare for many people who are living in poverty, but it’s unfortunate that Ronald — knowing that he was going to buy groceries with his newly arrived family and do so on camera — didn’t budget a little more carefully just to avoid the embarrassment. Tiffany was able to spot him but it’s not exactly the reassurance that she wanted.
While Ronald puts away the groceries …
Tiffany is worn out, which is pretty standard for parents dealing with a small child. (Carely was probably about 17 months old when this was filmed, and that age is a perfect storm of being extremely ambulatory and energetic while also not being coordinated, not having much impulse control, and generally not being toilet-trained) She wants Ronald to take over, but he tells her that he’s too busy putting away the groceries and mopping. Tiffany notes that she is accustomed to doing both at the same time.
OH NO
Ronald shows that he is perhaps not the best babysitter when he hands Carley a plastic bag to “play with.” Plastic bags are right up there with dishwashing detergent and grown-up scissors for things that should be off-limits for babies, which SURELY everyone knows … everyone except Ronald.
Later, Carley has a full diaper
Ronald refuses to help, on the grounds that he is unwilling to change diapers full of excrement. We get it, it’s gross … but you don’t get to pass on that job when you have a kid. If you don’t want to ever change a soiled diaper, your best bet is to never have kids.
“No, that’s your job”
Telling Tiffany that it’s her job alone to change Carley’s diaper is unacceptable, pure and simple. That’s not how this works.
Tiffany and Ronald take it outside
Tiffany talks to Ronald about how she feels like, despite the visual efforts that he’s made in terms of having his home in order, he’s not stepping up when it comes to childcare, and it makes her feel like she’s doing it alone — even though they’re together now. Meanwhile, Ronald feels like she’s not giving him a chance and he storms off.
Things calm down
Ronald expresses that his feelings are hurt because he feels like he’s trying really hard and Tiffany isn’t seeing it. Meanwhile, Tiffany isn’t doing this for fun — she needs to make sure that he can be trusted to help care for their kids as an equal partner.
Angela Deem and Michael Ilesanmi
We catch up with Michael in Nigeria, who recaps how Angela dumped him after their big fight, so he’s focusing on living his life and trying to lose some of his pandemic weight.
BIG MOOD
Michael says that he’s so tired of Angela yelling at him all of the time, and that’s very fair. Angela’s vicious verbal and emotional abuse of Michael has not gone unnoticed by many fans, who are pressuring TLC to stop neutrally filming Angela as if what she’s doing is somehow okay.
Michael meets up with some friends, who never liked Angela
In a flashback, we see more of Angela’s bad behavior after one of those friends accurately described her. She threw her drink on the man and stormed off at the time. She cannot behave, and it’s not funny or cute just because she’s a grandma and she’s loud. So suffice it to say that everyone is happy for Michael and hopes that Angela is out of his life for good.
Meanwhile, in Georgia
Angela meets up with her attorney, Lew, and tells him that she’s “done” (for the billionth time) and wants to divorce Michael. While this would be a godsend for Michael’s emotional well-being, it sounds too good to be true.
Lew has his doubts
He knows that Angela is an insufferable, miserable person who inflicts emotional turmoil and suffering upon others — though he says this very diplomatically. He also notes that Michael comes from a different cultural background. He even adds that he’s unsure of Michael’s motivations but does wonder if at least part of it is simply a desire to come to the US.
The sunk cost fallacy
Lew walks Angela through how much time and money she has put into the marriage, and adds that not only would she have to restart paperwork if she and Michael divorce now but later get back together, but she would also have to marry him again. Angela finds that prospect a little daunting and reconsiders her divorce.
Brandon Gibbs and Julia Trubkina
En route to look at an apartment that is certainly beyond their price range, Julia reveals that she and Brandon picked out each other’s outfits. That’s why Brandon looks like an Eastern European assassin, apparently. It’s really cute, though Brandon of course is hot because turtlenecks are miserable garments.
The apartment is VERY nice
Literally it’s too nice. Three bedrooms with marble everything?
It’s out of their price range
The monthly rent would be $1,800. Now, Julia has to calculate this because rent in Russia is much lower than even a normal American apartment (she talked about a roommate paying her $100 a month back home). Honestly, given how nice the apartment is, it’s almost shocking that the price is under $2,000, but location may be a factor. But they would need two incomes to make this work.
So that apartment’s too nice
(Honestly, touring it was clearly for the camera’s benefit, because you don’t look at the price AFTER touring the apartment unless you’re on TV) Julia points out that moving out is important, even if it’s not here, because any apartment won’t include dirty animals or a controlling narcissist. Julia didn’t say that last part, but we all know what Betty is.
It’s miserable
Many 90 Day Fiance viewers have remarked that they would have left the farm much earlier, even if it meant returning to Russia, because Betty and Ron are even more intolerable than farm labor. All things considered, Julia is extremely patient … and poor Brandon, who is so firmly under Betty’s thumb that he’s scared to imagine living life for himself, hasn’t moved quickly enough.
So, Julia wants employment ASAP
She applies to become a dance instructor at a gym. Brandon worries that Julia’s go-go dancing will mean that she’s a little “too sexy” for what the gym is looking for.
Brandon is right
Julia’s dance is not what anyone was expecting because, well, it’s how you’d dance in a skimpy outfit at a nightclub, not how you’d dance as a fitness instructor.
Also, Julia would need qualifications
You have to be certified to be a dance instructor, which blows Julia away — it’s not, she reasons, like she’s trying to go into a medical field. She is eager to be able to work and earn money, but there’s a lot of red tape in her way even though she now has a visa that allows her to work.
Elizabeth Potthast and Andrei Castravet
Apparently not only is Andrei clashing with Becky, but he is blaming the Potthast family for getting lost despite the GPS. Anyway, last time, he ordered Becky to get off of the bus and go talk with him after she called him out for manipulating her dad.
Chuck weighs in
After protesting that they’re both adults and don’t need him to referee, Chuck goes out and reminds everyone that this whole trip is supposed to be, you know, a bonding activity. He also vows that there will be no more work talk.
Andrei agrees
After the disastrous conflict on the boat turned physical, everyone is dreading a repeat of that (which is foreshadowing … but not of this episode)
They stop at an AirBnB in North Carolina
Having reached a halfway point on their trip, they spend the night at a rented house. While it’s horrifying that entire houses are rented on AirBnB and thus further inflates housing prices and contributes to the housing crisis, it’s a nice place. Clearly, the ONE thing that everyone on the RV can agree upon is that they all hate being stuck in an RV together.
Oh no!
We then hear the aftermath of something that happened off-camera and before the arrival of producers the next morning.
Ellie fell
Ellie was climbing the stairs alone and began to fall backwards. Libby caught her daughter, so Ellie is okay, but it was scary. The real issue is that Andrei was supposed to be watching her and just went to go use the bathroom, leaving Ellie unsupervised.
Fortunately, Ellie was okay
Jenn does give Libby some genuinely good parenting advice, which is to remind her that sometimes your child will look to you for how to respond to something, so if you’re calm and say “whoops! don’t worry; mommy’s got you,” your kid won’t worry as much as if their mom is visibly upset.
Jovi Dufren and Yara Zaya
Yara is staying with Gwen, easily one of if not THE best mother-in-laws to ever appear on the franchise.
Gwen is loving the grandma time
She and baby Mylah are so cute together. Also when Yara is holding Mylah to her chest, Mylah and Gwen are about at eye height with each other.
Jovi has been out of the country for two months
Meanwhile, Yara has been COVID-free for two weeks.
Gwen has helped her out a lot
And Yara is deeply, vocally grateful to Gwen. They have an amazing bond.
Jovi has bad news
He calls Yara and shares that he won’t be back for a few more weeks … until December 26, most likely.
Why???
Jovi’s extremely specialized job involves a lot of world travel and diving. COVID-19 means adding weeks to the schedule, and also rearranging when and where repairs are made. We can only guess at the logistics behind the changes to his schedule, but the pandemic has clearly thrown everyone for a loop. This means that Yara has to choose their new home herself. That’s fair, since Jovi chose their current one himself.
Gwen does not blame her at all
She says that Yara is probably making the right call for herself and for Mylah, but notes that Jovi is accustomed to city living … and this will be a major adjustment.
Gwen and Barbara show up to help
Things are packed up, of course, and Yara hired professional movers, but Gwen and Barbara help to drive Yara and Mylah and to load up the car.
It’s a long drive
Yara picked a new home 45 minutes outside of the city, which Jovi is not going to like.
It’s a family-oriented suburban community
This means, of course, that Yara does not expect for anyone to vomit onto her shoes, something that she experienced very early into her New Orleans residency. She wants Mylah to feel safe, and she wants to feel safe.
Gwen Eymard and Barbara show up to help Yara Zaya move