Counting On - Part 9: Even the Flashbacks Have Flashbacks

[JMO]

I think Josh not only looks thinner but tired and haggard, more so than before.  Seems like a father son outing and I assume the two young boys were Michael and Marcus.  He's only 28 but aged so much in the last few years. I guess Satan building a fortress in your heart will do that. 

[doubleT]

8 minutes ago, LittleSpouseOnThePrairie said:

They should have called this series Jill & Jessa: Nothing Going On.

 

Just now watching my tape of the show and just watched Jinger say that she doesn't have to travel across the world to meet anyone.  I definitely think she has met someone and they are in the "talking" phase.  Jimboob isn't ready for that relationship to be announced yet so that is why he is wheelin' and dealin' for another season. 

[Snarkylark]

4 hours ago, slickcat79 said:

 

I actually thought Jill sounded fairly decent when she actually did speak to them. She has a reasonable vocabulary and her diction is not terrible. But if she expects fluency in a period of months, she really should have been learning foreign languages since childhood. Obviously there's no end to the ways JB&M have failed their kids, but considering that they've made many trips to Central America as a family and Jill had a passion for one day moving there, it's too bad she couldn't have been learning Spanish for years at this point. And too bad she couldn't have taken any of her own initiative in that area. Even if she never left the US, learning Spanish within the context of a midwifery education could be extremely useful. 

Wasn't Marjorie's mom their Spanish tutor    at one time?

[Fundie Bunny]

10 minutes ago, Snarkylark said:

Wasn't Marjorie's mom their Spanish tutor    at one time?

They learnt how to say pantry and that's it

[ksgranola1]

I don't think Josh looks any different. Not even thinner; maybe a little. He doesn't look contrite & JB doesn't look like he'd like to take  him out. Not at all what I was expecting.

[lascuba]

12 hours ago, silverspoons said:

It is hard to believe that they didn't have more footage from the mission trip. This just goes to show they are not doing real mission work. If they were doing real mission work and living a non-American lifestyle there would have been plenty of interest to film. So in between the flashbacks, all they could show was a soccer game and a visit to an orphanage? I can't believe they could not fake an episode of Jill at a local market learning about new foods and cooking them for her siblings?

I've thought for a while now that TLC must have a LOT of interesting footage, they just can't show it because they know the nice, wholesome family image will die a permanent death. Think about how Ben and Jessa are (used to be?) on social media, with the fire brimstone stuff. That's how they must all be IRL, when they're with acquaintances, or on the SOS trips. Jill and Derrick probably spend a lot of their preaching time telling people they'll go to hell if they stay Catholic, and maybe even going to harass people who left the fundie fold to cajole them back like scientologists do. But TLC won't let us see that.

3 hours ago, ljohnson2006 said:

Jill and Jessa want to be pregnant at the same time. Are they going to coordinate their sexual moments via FaceTime? Also, none of them will adopt. No matter how much they research it. Please don't bore us with another season, TLC. Take these clowns off of TV completely.

 

I think the life changing moment is these idiots realizing how much this show sucked.

I'm being paranoid with this, but I have this fear that the more people say that the Duggars won't adopt, the more likely some of them will be to do so, if only to prove us haters wrong.

[Ungodly Grandma]

1 hour ago, JMO said:

I think Josh not only looks thinner but tired and haggard, more so than before.  Seems like a father son outing and I assume the two young boys were Michael and Marcus.  He's only 28 but aged so much in the last few years. I guess Satan building a fortress in your heart will do that. 

I don't know about a fortress in his heart, but given Josh's hairline he should be wishing Satan would plant a garden on his head.

[anotherone]

15 hours ago, Purrl said:

One of my favorite parts was when Jessa was describing how Jill behaved when she got engaged. Mocking much?

Wish I could remember the correct words, but something like "I'm engaged! I can't believe I'm engaged! Have you seen this ring?" All in that high, cheesy, mocking voice.  

I think it's weird to "can't believe I'm engaged."  Normal people actually believe it, since they probably dated a while, discussed the concept of marriage and what would be expected of each (would you both work, what city to live in, how many children, how to spend/save, would you still work after the children, etc.)  So even if the ring and the time and place were a surprise, usually you kind of knew it was coming or not.

[C.DarwinDuggar]

Two things. 

1. Wouldn't TlC need permission/pay for filming i.e conducting business in c.a and hence that's why we get c.a instead of elSalvador/Gatemala (why would they want to invest in production when their actors can't act?).

So instead of paying the country TLC makes Jill make home videos. 

 

2. I know they are snowflakes, but do they really think they can convert c. Americans? The Catholic church wasn't able to to remove all of their believes (even though they used force) but somehow the dullards are going to convert them to gothard and the c.Americas are going to magically forsake catholic + indigenous traditions/believes. 

[anotherone]

16 hours ago, PecanThief said:

So basically TLC is now just straight up lying for views saying there will be "a life changing announcement" and then there is none. WTF get these losers off tv!

PecanThief, your avatar and my avatar should get together. Maybe they're laughing at the same joke or something.

[slickcat79]

21 minutes ago, anotherone said:

PecanThief, your avatar and my avatar should get together. Maybe they're laughing at the same joke or something.

Or...something else  

[anotherone]

7 hours ago, JenniferJuniper said:

Only momentarily.  In about 20 years they'll run into each other amongst a few hundred other Duggar first cousins at a wedding and Izzy will say, "Hey, you're Sperling, right?  Or is it Sturgeon?  Stirling?"   And Spurge will say, "Call me Steve."

 

When he says, Call me Sally, then I'll watch the show again.

[IReallyAmHopewell]

2 hours ago, Snarkylark said:

Wasn't Marjorie's mom their Spanish tutor    at one time?

Learning languages young would be ideal, but to be fair, almost no Americans achieve fluency in another language unless born to a bi-lingual family or a family whose first language isn't English. I'll give them a pass on it. At least, no matter how badly, they are trying to learn and arent saying "Back-o away-o"

They showed them having Spanish lessons that were like Spanish 1 in my school district. No one will get fluent because it's not immersion. Watching Spanish language tv would actually have helped, but we know they can't do that! Maybe they watched their so-called "Creation videos" with the Spanish turned on? lol

Marjorie's Mom was show as their Spanish teacher.

 

52 minutes ago, C.DarwinDuggar said:

2. I know they are snowflakes, but do they really think they can convert c. Americans? The Catholic church wasn't able to to remove all of their believes (even though they used force) but somehow the dullards are going to convert them to gothard and the c.Americas are going to magically forsake catholic + indigenous traditions/believes. 

Highest bidder wins. If they provide good services like medical care, school, food bank, they'll get converts. Sorry if I'm cynical. Most missionary work today is about services like that. Yes, there is preaching and teaching, but they also bring things that the area needs---wells for clean water, baby clinics, that sort of thing. Not just preaching.

[C.DarwinDuggar]

15 minutes ago, IReallyAmHopewell said:

Learning languages young would be ideal, but to be fair, almost no Americans achieve fluency in another language unless born to a bi-lingual family or a family whose first language isn't English. I'll give them a pass on it. At least, no matter how badly, they are trying to learn and arent saying "Back-o away-o"

They showed them having Spanish lessons that were like Spanish 1 in my school district. No one will get fluent because it's not immersion. Watching Spanish language tv would actually have helped, but we know they can't do that! Maybe they watched their so-called "Creation videos" with the Spanish turned on? lol

Marjorie's Mom was show as their Spanish teacher.

 

Highest bidder wins. If they provide good services like medical care, school, food bank, they'll get converts. Sorry if I'm cynical. Most missionary work today is about services like that. Yes, there is preaching and teaching, but they also bring things that the area needs---wells for clean water, baby clinics, that sort of thing. Not just preaching.

 

Clearly they aim to convert one crayon at a time. 

[BabyBottlePop]

1 hour ago, anotherone said:

I think it's weird to "can't believe I'm engaged."  Normal people actually believe it, since they probably dated a while, discussed the concept of marriage and what would be expected of each (would you both work, what city to live in, how many children, how to spend/save, would you still work after the children, etc.)  So even if the ring and the time and place were a surprise, usually you kind of knew it was coming or not.

Exactly! If you don't know the choices you'd make and whether your potential partner would agree with you on important things, getting engaged is not something I would do. The relationship should be basically engagement without the name before the actual engagement IMO.

But Jill probably couldn't believe it because her father had picked her mate, finally! Considering how JB seems to favor Jill I would have thought he'd kept Jill at home like Jana and marry off Jana, Jessa, et al. 

[ljohnson2006]

i bet Jessa and Jill couldn't believe such morons proposed to them. Well, not so much Derrick, but Bin for sure.

[ChickenettiLuvr]

I realize I'm arriving late to the felching party conversation.  But here's something for ya:

My hubby worked on a Big Ten university campus in the 1980s. His co-worker, Jack, moonlighted as a paramedic. Jack told this story:
One night on a call, Jack & his partner responded for "patient not breathing." When they arrived, they were greeted by an hysterical roommate, Stephen. All they could understand Stephen to say was, "Ohmygod. Ohmygod. I killed Manny! I killed Manny!"
When they questioned Stephen on what happened, he replied: "We were having sex. And Manny was felching. And I passed gas. Manny went out cold."
After the patient was revived but before hospital transport, Jack & the other paramedic had to step outside because they were laughing so hard they couldn't breathe. 
....
There are no words.

[Snarkylark]

32 minutes ago, IReallyAmHopewell said:

Learning languages young would be ideal, but to be fair, almost no Americans achieve fluency in another language unless born to a bi-lingual family or a family whose first language isn't English. I'll give them a pass on it. At least, no matter how badly, they are trying to learn and arent saying "Back-o away-o"

They showed them having Spanish lessons that were like Spanish 1 in my school district. No one will get fluent because it's not immersion. Watching Spanish language tv would actually have helped, but we know they can't do that! Maybe they watched their so-called "Creation videos" with the Spanish turned on? lol

Marjorie's Mom was show as their Spanish teacher.

 

Right, I totally agree. Just saying that they seemed to make an effort at one point to learn, even if not enough. 

[Snickles]

OMG so boring and so much footage from the past.  But I loved Jessa mocking Jill "I'm engaged, meh meh meh" made me grin.

The flashbacks of Jill's wedding reminded me that I learned how to make a wedding bouquet when they went to the flower shop and I used that knowledge for my bouquet for my big fat lesbian wedding.  

Thanks Duggers! lol

[HereticHick]

2 hours ago, C.DarwinDuggar said:

Two things. 

1. Wouldn't TlC need permission/pay for filming i.e conducting business in c.a and hence that's why we get c.a instead of elSalvador/Gatemala (why would they want to invest in production when their actors can't act?).

So instead of paying the country TLC makes Jill make home videos. 

 

Discovery Communications (parent company of TLC) has a large Latin American division: http://www.latam.discovery.com/ so it is unlikely that they couldn't negotiate the proper permissions.

However, I don't see the Duggars, past or present, listed as a show en Espanol: http://www.latam.discovery.com/shows/

Perhaps our southern neighbors have no interest in "Diecinueve idiotas y contando"

[ksgranola1]

There is privacy to be respected as far as the ppl Derrick & Jill 'minister' to. You can't just film anybody, especially children, w/o releases & agreements, etc. Not to mention there might be ppl who don't want to be "found."

I don't think it's so strange that Jill & Jessa want to share their pregnancies. My daughters did, too. Then the cousins will be around the same age.

[punkiepie]

I know these thoughts of mine are super late to the conversation; my apologies!  

Besides the boringness of the episode, the main thing that stuck out to me was a compare/contrast of Jill/Derrick to Jessa/Bin.  Jill and Derrick may be incredibly boring, but it's clear to anyone watching that they are still very much in love and have a happy marriage.  They way Derrick spoke of Jill and their courtship, marriage, and parenthood- it was clear that he loved her and loved their life together; and the same with Jill.  Now compare that to Bin in last week's retrospective of their relationship, and the difference between the two couples is glaringly obvious.  Bin now looks like he wants to get the hell out of dodge and Jessa appears over-emotive and slightly clingy.  I felt sad for Jessa last night, and she's not someone I usually feel that way about...  Usually Jill is the one crying, not Jessa, and Jill seemed as happy as she could be and Jessa, well, she didn't look that way at all.  

[patsymae]

1 hour ago, Snarkylark said:

Right, I totally agree. Just saying that they seemed to make an effort at one point to learn, even if not enough. 

Well, that would be okay if 1) you weren't a "missionary" who does nothing but go out and preach supposedly about brain-heavy concepts like critical analysis of two thousand years of Christian theology, and the nature of love, two days a week, and 2) they hadn't stayed in Guatemala for however long before going to El Salvador for language lessons and proudly posed and posted, for all the world to see, with their two-week certificates. Seriously, who would congratulate themselves on passing a two-week course in the language of the country where you not just want to live (okay, we know how to buy a mango) but want to "engage" and "encourage" the local population? Any US toddler who has watched Dora or Diego has as much Spanish as they got in two weeks. But to them, it is an accomplishment.

[chris]

Dropped 10 spots to #25! And lost about 200,000 viewers.

Not a good night when you get less viewers than the 11:30 am showing of Paw Patrol......

[Handmaiden of Dog]

So here is a thought that just occurred to me, if Gothard teaches that adoption is a bad idea because the sins of the father are visited upon the children what does that mean for Josh's children?  Do you think they are regarded as lesser beings than Izzy and Spurge?  I've noticed in the past that Michelle and JB seem less infatuated than most grandparents but I chalked that up to them still having young children of their own.  Now I am thinking about the way Spurge and Izzy are talked about as if they-- rather than the grandchildren with the Duggar name-- are the important offspring.

So to sum up this entire season:

Jessa loves her baby very much but her marriage is not in great shape.

Bin is having trouble connecting with his child and his wife.

Jill and Derek aren't doing much for the locals but are growing together as a couple.

Nobody admits to a courtship.

Nobody admits to being pregnant.

All the talk about adoption is just that-- talk.

The girls can't do much other than the usual housework/child rearing without the assistance of their brothers.

Anna is sticking by her man.

The show can survive without the presence of JB, Michelle, or Josh, however there isn't much to work worth because their lives are insanely mundane.

Are we taking bets on the show being renewed?