Tonight, viewers got more insight into the long, sad story that is the dissolution of the Gosselin marriage, as TLC ran two half-hour episodes of “Jon & Kate Plus Eight.”
These were the first new episodes to air since the June 22 show, in which Jon and Kate announced that they were divorcing. Tonight’s shows contained footage shot before the rumors of Jon’s infidelity began to make tabloid headlines, as well as footage shot during the height of that coverage. The second episode took place after the couple officially began living separate lives.
In the first of tonight’s episodes, titled “Renovations & Vacations,” Jon and Kate decided to accept an offer from a remodeling company to redo their kitchen, which probably looked pretty nice to most viewers already. “It’s kinda strange that we’re remodeling our kitchen in the middle of our separation and stuff like that,” said Jon to the camera.
Indeed, the opening sequence included shots of them glaring at each other in slow motion, in those bleached-out colors that reality TV uses to indicate that something happened a while ago. “The official decisions have been made,” said Kate in voice-over. “It’s kind of strangely more a sense of peace.”
But the process of renovating the kitchen apparently began in January, four months before the stories of Jon’s infidelity first surfaced. The scenes of the Gosselins sitting down with the representatives from the renovation company brought back old times. For example, when Jon quietly suggested installing a below-the-counter refrigerator, Kate said contemptuously, “What planet do you live on?” At least they were talking to each other, and in the same room.
Eventually the renovators talked Kate into getting the under-the-counter refrigerator; she seemed to jump at every other possible kitchen feature without any prodding. It was the kind of bridal-registry-style feeding frenzy that saddles most married couples with a waffle iron.
But as usually happens with renovations, the actual work took place months later, probably in May and June. After spending a full day unpacking the cabinets and hearing that she would have to wash the dishes in the bathtub, Kate decided to let Jon handle the contractors and to take the kids to the beach. (School could wait, apparently.)
“I think Kate and I needed a break from each other,” Jon told the camera. “It also gave us a break to think about what we needed to do as parents for our kids.”
Kate and the eight children headed down to Bald Head Island, N.C., leaving at 4 a.m. in order to avoid the paparazzi, who were following them nonstop by this point. According to Kate, the photographers showed up on the beach within two and a half days.
The resulting bikini shots of the paparazzi’s favorite MILPh (Mom I Love to Photograph) graced the covers of numerous supermarket weeklies, including the sixth of the record seven consecutive Us Weekly covers devoted to the Gosselins.
Despite the cover line of that Us issue (“Mommy, You Are Mean!”), Kate and the kids seemed to have a wonderful time splashing around in the ocean and the pool and digging in the sand. As usual, there was a sad irony to the sight of the young ones playing happily as their family fell apart.
Talking to the camera, Kate (seated alone in an armchair rather than in the couple’s famous couch) said that the kids repeatedly said they wished that Jon could be there but that she needed to take them somewhere where they could be stress-free. She also said that she wasn’t worried about how the renovation was going: “The bigger stresses in life—it makes the ones you thought were big seem small.”
Jon didn’t have much to say this episode, except for occasional comments about how the renovation was going and how happy he was that the kids were far away from all the dangerous tools.
But viewers didn’t learn how the renovation turned out. The second half of this episode will air next week, probably because TLC wants to spread out the mid-breakup footage over as many episodes as possible, in the hope that it will prove to be ratings gold.
Tonight’s second episode, titled “Camping Out,” lacked the dramatic tension of the first, not only because it was shot after the divorce announcement but also because Jon was completely absent.
Kate decided to camp out in the backyard with the children. “It is not their fault that what has transpired has transpired,” she said. “My main goal is to make this transition as painless for these kids as possible.”
So Kate took on two jobs that would have been Jon’s: pitching a tent (she confessed that the show’s production assistants pitched the second one) and building a fire for s’mores.
Kate was quite pleased with her tent-building skills. “I can do things that I have never done before,” she said. The kids were less impressed. “She did a terrible job,” said one of the eight-year-old girls.
After a dip in the pool (the cutest point being where one of the 5-year-old boys proudly showed the camera how badly he was shivering), the kids announced they were going to have “breakfast”: s’mores.
Kate had an absurdly hard time getting the fire to start in the fire pit. (“Mom’s not naturish,” said one of the 8-year-olds.) And then Kate worried that the kids might injure themselves with the sharp sticks and fire and melting marshmallows, most of which were burned to a crisp. (Fortunately, Ashley, a friend’s daughter, was there to help, as she had been for the trip to North Carolina.)
Showing her control-freak side, Kate insisted that the children shower before going to bed. “God forbid they wake up stuck to their sleeping bags,” she said.
The night passed uneventfully. “It was nice to be surrounded by my babies,” said Kate. Asked by the interviewer if she would camp out again, she replied, “I’ll do it again for my kids. I’ll do anything for my kids.”
Whether viewers would watch this kind of episode a second time is another question. Since it’s obvious how much support Kate has, her single-supermom act is a little unconvincing. The kids are reliably adorable, but their cuteness has always been the icing on the cake, with the show’s real appeal being the dysfunctional byplay between Kate and Jon.
Viewers will probably tune in next week to see how Kate manages to find fault with Jon’s handling of the kitchen renovation. But judging by the second of tonight’s episodes, “Jon or Kate Plus Eight” won’t do. Tom Conroy reporting with FoxNews.