Now, in the second to last episode of the season, the drama behind The Secret Lives Of Mormon Wives is escalating within the friend group, and now some relationships seem like they may be permanently threatened. The reality TV series shows the fallout of the women’s trip to Vegas, and things get more than messy.
In what was supposed to be a liberating birthday trip for Layla, the outing seems anything but free. The two men who have forced themselves onto the trip continue to show toxic and controlling behavior.
The Chippendales Drama Continues For Jen and Taylor
The episode opens with the women at the Chippendales show, where Jen remains in tears because Zac is “questioning her character” for attending a male stripper show that she wasn’t even aware she was going to. Taylor understands what Jen is going through, noting that Dakota is equally protective. She leaves the show with Mikayla and Jen, heading home so as not to upset their husbands.
Jen doesn’t like how Zac is making her feel like she’s cheating on him, and that he isn’t considering the content of her character that she’s demonstrated throughout their marriage. Meanwhile, the other women have “the time of their lives” at the show, screaming as the men reveal nearly everything on the stage. Layla gets pulled onto stage and danced on by one of the men, fully embracing her newly single life.
Back at the house, Jen gets a cryptic text from Zac saying he “can’t do this” with her anymore, making her fear about their long-term relationship. He refuses to text her anymore and instead goes to gamble at the casino. Eventually, the rest of the women return home, with Jessi saying they’re going to check on their friends whose husbands wanted to “lock them away for the night.”
When the women see Jen crying, fearful that Zac might be threatening divorce over the evening’s events, Demi grows enraged. She speaks up about how unfair the situation is:
He has no right to be saying those things and threatening your marriage. That’s really weird to me. Someone who carried two of your freaking children and has been nothing but supportive and bending over backwards to try to support him through medical school and everything, that’s gross. Sorry, there’s no other way to put it. That’s gross.
When Demi asks whether Taylor and Jen aren’t “miserable” from this kind of treatment, Taylor admits that she actually is. Now even closer to her due date, she worries about how poor their communication really is.
Jen Goes Missing From The Girls Trip
The next morning, Jen is missing from their rental house. Demi shares with the group that Jen left at two in the morning to meet Zac after a slew of texts claiming he didn’t love her, shocking the rest of the women. It comes to light just how manipulative and controlling he can be, and it saddens Jen’s friends to see how he “dims her light.”
Dakota calls Taylor and accidentally lets slip that Zac was out gambling until 12:30 or 1:00 in the morning. Apparently, Zac previously gambled away the money his family had given him for medical school, so this is especially concerning to hear. When Dakota discovers the women actually met the Chippendale dancers in person, he grows angry again, and Taylor winds up hanging up on him.
Back home, Conner tells Whitney about the Chippendales drama, including that Zac called Jen a “terrible mother.” Whitney says she doesn’t know if Zac’s threat of divorce is serious, and that she doesn’t care. Hearing this solidifies for Whitney that she made the right decision not to go to Vegas.
To blow off some steam, the women try playing some pickleball, but it’s hard to get Jen being MIA off their minds. Finally, Jen texts Demi saying that she and Zac were up all night talking. Next, Dakota shows up to the house to apologize to Taylor for the way he overreacted. Taylor sobs in bed, noting that the conflict runs so much deeper for them:
I just think this would be the time that you could be patient with me, and I feel bad because we’re seventeen days away from having our baby, and we’re so bad.
Meanwhile, Mayci sweats over telling Taylor about the anonymous tip about Dakota hooking up with another woman, feeling like she can’t pile onto the stress Taylor is going through. That said, she does need to find a time to tell her friend, as it doesn’t feel fair to hold onto the secret much longer, so she vows to tell Taylor on their last night in Vegas.
Later at dinner, the women call Jen, who responds in a cheery tone on the phone saying that things between her and Zac are “great.” Her friends suspect that she’s actually on speakerphone and is being forced to sound chipper instead of being honest, and it frustrates and worries them.
Mayci Drops The Dakota Bombshell On Taylor
The group goes out to bar hop, except for Mayci and Taylor, hanging back because of how pregnant Taylor is. It gives Mayci her chance to come clean about her Dakota secret. Upon telling Taylor what she learned through an anonymous social media tip—that a woman “accidentally” slept with Dakota before she realized he was dating Taylor—Taylor says this is exactly what she was worried about. If it turns out this is true, Taylor says, she’d leave him even though she’s having his baby.
Meanwhile, Jen reappears at the bar with the others, saying she worked everything out with her husband. She explains that Zac understands that the way he treated her wasn’t okay, and that even though he has narcissistic flare-ups every few months, who’s to say another marriage wouldn’t be worse?
Her friends are skeptical of this report, reaffirming that they want to support Jen and point out that Zac could be hypocritical in his expectations of her. Jessi even goes so far as to say that they’re all “disgusted” with his behavior and that they’re Team Jen, not Team Zac. Even though it’s validating for Jen to hear, it does make her wonder whether remaining in her marriage is a deal breaker.
