Teen Mom 2 offered a glimmer of hope to viewers that the young mothers were on their ways to better lives on the Sept. 3 episode. Kailyn Lowry and ex Jo Rivera seemed to be living peacefully in the same neighborhood, Jenelle Evans was listing Nathan Griffith’s many cons, Leah Messer was off to get help, and Chelsea Houska‘s new boyfriend was nothing but wonderful.
But this is Teen Mom we’re talking about, and things very quickly went downhill for each woman (okay, Chelsea didn’t have it all that bad — you go, girl!).
Here’s what happened this week:
Leah Messer
Just when it seemed like Leah was on the path to recovering from problems stemming from depression and anxiety, her plans to get out-of-state treatment for a month hit a major roadblock.
While at a hotel the day before she was to check in to the treatment center, Leah received a troublesome call from her mother, Dawn, about her twins with ex-husband Corey Simms. “I don’t think he’s going to give you your girls when you come home!” Dawn cried after Corey told her he wouldn’t let the girls visit Leah because he didn’t know where the treatment center was. And after a chat with her lawyer, Leah decided that getting help wasn’t the priority, and hopped on the next plane back to Charleston, W.Va.
“I’m gonna get home, get my banies secured, and nothing’s gonna stop me … from coming back here and getting therapy,” she told a friend. Once she was back there, Corey gave the the girls back without hesitation.
But when talking to his dad, Corey was clearly upset — but not at Leah. “Not only did [Dawn] screw Leah’s life up, but she also screwed with my kids’ lives,” he fumed. “They love their mom. I understand that, that’s great. She wants to get help, let her get help so she can be a better mom to my kids!”
Though getting treatment didn’t happen on Leah’s first attempt, perhaps the second time will pan out. After all, her lawyer has set it up so that she won’t lose custody when she does finally go away to get help, which Leah insisted she wants to do.
“I chose to leave to do better, I didn’t choose to leave to be punished,” she explained to Corey of her decision to come back instead of go to treatment as planned. “If I didn’t think it was in the best interest of them, I wouldn’t do it. … Like I said, going away, I’m doing it for them.”
And that’s all Corey wanted to hear. “They want what’s best for you,” he told his ex-wife. “We want what’s best for them. And you getting better is what’s best for them.”
Jenelle Evans
Domestic violence charges, be gone! Things were looking up for Jenelle and ex-fiance Nathan with their legal troubles out of the way — until she found out that he met another woman during their court-ordered separation and didn’t want to get back together.
Cue another dramatic Jenelle meltdown, complete with tears, declarations of love for Nathan, and name-calling her new rival — all during a public lunch with her friend Krista. Her pal tried to get her to see how bad the relationship was by having Jenelle list his pros and cons.
Among the cons the young mom of two listed? “He’s controlling, there’s no trust between the both of us, he’s mean to me, sometimes he’s verbally abusive, puts me down, saying I’m classless, that I’m trash.”
That should’ve been enough to convince any reasonable person to get out of the relationship, but hey, we’re talking about the young woman who stuck with Kiefer through too many arrests to count. “But he’s a great father!” she added of Nathan. “I thought we could settle down and work together as a team and we did — we were doing great!”
Yes, so great that when Nathan couldn’t get a hold of Jenelle to bring their son, Kaiser, to her for the night, he decided to go to her house. Sounds pretty innocent, right? But just as he was pulling up, she was pulling out of her driveway, so he proceeded to follow her, weaving dangerously in and out of traffic, calling her over and over again, as she drove around town.
When she finally picked up after realizing Nathan was tailing her, he put her on full blast for not taking their son back. “My gym time is my gym time,” he screamed. “I just wasted a hundred miles of gas! … Now I can’t go to the gym because Jenelle wants to pin Kaiser on me!”
What’s that, Jenelle? “He’s a great father” and you “want one stable relationship”? Okay, then.
Chelsea Houska
Little Aubree is clearly growing up. Chelsea asked her little girl to reveal who’d be attending her big pre-school graduation ceremony, and the 5-year-old immediately started listing her loved ones: “[Gran]papa, Mama, Cole, Paisley, my dad … if he remembers.” Oh, snap! No doubt, Aubree has reached the age where she can see who’s there for her consistently, because even Chelsea’s boyfriend of 10 months, Cole DeBauer, got a solid mention, while dad Adam Lind was a tentative in her young eyes.
But it didn’t end there. Later, when Chelsea met with her friends Landon and Callie, the aesthetician revealed Cole is about to usurp her ex’s place in their little girl’s life. “She’s decided that she wants to call [Cole] dad when he moves in. I asked her why, and she says ‘cause he plays with you and stuff,” Chelsea said. “She said she thinks he’s a better dad, which I didn’t tell her that. And she said something, that her dad was in jail.”
“Two times,” Aubree piped in to innocently remind her mother.
Of course, Adam didn’t do much to make himself look any better. The day before his daughter’s graduation, he angrily texted Chelsea to complain that she hadn’t shared the date or time of the ceremony with him. Chelsea’s response? To scroll back one screen, take a screen grab of all the information she had already texted to him well ahead of time, and sent it over.
With no excuse to miss seeing Aubree in her adorable cap and gown, Adam showed up empty-handed. Another point to Cole, who had pretty flowers for the little graduate. Better step up your daddy game, Adam.
Kailyn Lowry
Awww, it’s not just the kids on Teen Mom 2 who are growing up! With Jo now living just blocks away, he and Kail have found that co-parenting is much easier. But that didn’t mean everything was working perfectly. The exes agreed to sit down like the adults that they now are to hash out their son Isaac’s schedule for the summer and child-support issues.
Last summer, with Jo living three hours away with his girlfriend, Vee, the exes each took turns having their little boy for six weeks straight. This year, it was going to be different, if Kail got her way.
“Even when he’s done with preschool, I think we should continue with our schedule,” Kail suggested as she and Jo sat on her porch. “I don’t want to do the six weeks on, six weeks off.”
“Thank god! Last summer was a disaster!” Jo exclaimed, giving her a high-five. “After the six weeks was over, I just got used to having him every day — and boom, he’s gone.”
With that settled, they moved on to the topic of money. “Your child support’s not even making a dent in the actual expenses!” Kail pointed out.
But Jo was ready to discuss that calmly too. “If you want to sit down and talk about expenses, we can do it ourselves,” he suggested. “I’m afraid of going to domestic relations again. You just don’t know what’s going to happen when you get there.”
All’s well that end’s well, right? Not exactly. Though things with her ex seemed to be resolved, it was a different matter with Kail’s husband, Javi Marroquin, who was less than happy to hear that Jo was at their house to discuss a legitimately important subject.
“I just don’t want him at my house when I’m not there,” he said angrily, once again displaying the jealousy and lack of trust that has led to so many fights with his wife this season. It didn’t matter that Kail had sat out in the open on the porch with her ex, her husband just wasn’t having it. “I don’t want him at my house if I’m not there! Point blank, it’s my house!”
Guess someone still has some growing up to do.
Tell Us: Which Teen Mom had it worst this week?
Teen Mom 2 airs Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET on MTV.
