Teen Mom: Triple Update on our Four Families

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

The girls are back! Well, kinda. Amber's not with her family, as she's stuck in rehab in California, but we're welcomed back to the lives of the others, more or less right where we left off. Catelynn and Tyler graduate high school and visit Carly again, Maci hanging out with Kyle and dealing with Ryan not always spending time with Bentley, and Farrah moves to Fort Lauderdale (with Sophia!) to continue her education. I wonder what else Catelynn and Tyler will do this season, but everyone else seems kinda blatant already... Farrah will get accustomed to Florida, Maci will deal with Bentley preparing to attend preschool, and Amber will try to get well enough to see Leah on a regular basis. What do you guys predict?

Teen Mom "Separation Anxiety" (S04E01):
Maci: Maci and Kyle take Bentley for a swim lesson, but the poor kid is terrified to be with someone he doesn't know. [Maci has some attachment issues with her son... she also looks pretty broken out for some reason.] Maci wants to try taking Bentley to daycare again, in preparation for starting preschool in the fall. Kyle takes in Bentley and introduces him to the other kids, and Maci is surprised that Bentley is fine this time. [some kids need baby steps!]

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Catelynn: They send their daughter gifts for her second birthday. [how normal is this? that you'd send presents to a child who isn't in your custody any longer?] Brandon and Teresa invite them to New York City to meet up and see Carly. [um, who pays for Tyler and Catelynn to travel?] They call Carly on her birthday, then have a cake and celebrate for her. [I liked that they made wishes for her, that was cute!]
Farrah: She's not looking forward to leaving Sophia behind when she moves to Florida. After talking to her therapist, however, she's decided to take Sophia with her. [good.] She tells her sister, then her parents, who aren't sure that Farrah can do it on her own down there. [while I agree that there's some room for concern, they're harsh.]
Amber: Amber's headed to rehab and is worried that Leah will forget her. [those are some nails!] Her cousin is pregnant again. [is this going to play a role later?] She calls the rehab to request a single room so that she doesn't hit anybody, but they tell her that she needs to socialize. [hahaha.]

Teen Mom "Letting Go" (S04E02): It's early May when Farrah moves and late May or early June when Catelynn and Tyler go to NY.
Amber: Gary calls 911 because Amber mentioned that she might hang herself. She winds up in the hospital and on suicide watch for 72 hours, then shipped off to California for rehab. [this girl has been so unbalanced for so long!] 12 days in, she finally gets to call Leah, but the little girl doesn't want to talk and does nothing but whine and push away the phone. [kids will be kids!] She tells her therapist about how much her parents fought when she was a child and how much pain they put her through. We learn that she's newly sober, and that she illegally self-medicated from ages 14-16. [can't say I'm all that surprised, really.] She doesn't think that she's going to be ready to leave after 30 days are up, but at least Gary and Leah are invited out to her rehab center.
Maci: Maci and Kyle try to teach Bentley to ride a bike. Maci asks Ryan to come by for Bentley early so she can take a flight to do a speaking engagement out-of-state, but he's upset that she only told him the day before. [well, yeah, that WAS wrong of her.] Ryan has lunch with some friends and talks about going back to school. Kyle and Maci get into a fight and he leaves, planning to stay with his mother in Nashville. Maci has Bentley leave him a message saying that they miss him and that he should come back. [cute!] Maci wimps out of dropping off Bentley at daycare, so she brings him to her mother's. [cute of Bentley to think that's "cool."] Kyle and Maci talk when she returns from her trip.
Farrah: Farrah's working on moving and asks Michael to help her pack the U-Haul and then drive it for five days, then she'll fly out and meet him in FL with Sophia. [Farrah is b!tchy to Michael as he moves stuff for her!] He hauls a MiniCooper as well. [but we also see her drive one the day before she allegedly leaves, so maybe they have multiple in the family?] Farrah's mother acts like she'll never see them again. [such a drama queen!] The day before they leave is Derek's birthday, so Farrah and Sophia go to see his gravesite. We hear Farrah say things to Derek.
Catelynn: The plan is to meet Brandon, Teresa, and Carly for breakfast on Saturday in NYC. Catelynn and Tyler stay at the Affinia Manhattan and meet the others at a Hilton. We see some photos of the visit, though no video. [in reality, Carly is already 3, by the way.] After they say goodbye, the duo cry, missing their little girl. 

Teen Mom "The Places You'll Go" (S04E03):
Maci: Ryan and his family are taking Bentley on vacation to Florida for a week, and Maci is sad that she'll be away from him for that long. Maci suggests to Kyle that they go, but he has plans already. Maci doesn't want to intrude, so she asks Ryan about it. He says that as long as they don't have to hang out, it's fine. She can babysit if needed. She's surprised that his girlfriend is going on the family vacation, as they haven't been dating for very long. She checks with Ryan's parents, too, who hope that she can spend some time with Ryan and Bentley while they're all down there. [his parents were super-nice this episode.] A bunch of Maci's friends are excited about coming, so it's more of a girls' trip. [I don't remember her having oodles of friends, but whatever.]
Farrah: Michael wants to move to FL to be part of Sophia's life. They all go to the beach and out to eat, then Farrah interviews some nannies. She'll be taking Art Appreciation for three hours on Mondays, Modern & Post-Modern Civilizations and Principles of Public Speaking on Wednesdays, and Fairytales & Archetypes and Psychology of Personal Effectiveness on Thursdays. [wow, all three-hour classes! hope she has that kind of attention span! I know that it was a shock for me in graduate school. it did amuse me, though, that Farrah didn't know how to pronounce "archetypes."] Her mom says that those are pre-reqs and she could have taken them anywhere. [kinda.] Her mom begins to lecture her about not letting Sophia out of her sight, so Farrah gets off the phone. They gave away the dog before they moved, but Farrah wants Sophia to have a pet, so they go to look at fish. But, after looking at a French bulldog, Farrah ignores Sophia's repeated pleas for a fish by buying the puppy and naming it "Stitch." It isn't trained yet, so it "goes" on the carpet. [let's all hope this one is better trained than the previous dog!] 

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Amber: Gary goes to his lawyer to let him know that some paperwork might need to be done to get himself and Leah out to California to see Amber. Amber calls her brother to ask him his opinion on where she is in life and what might be her challenges. [ha!] Gary calls to tell Amber that he and Leah and his friend, Andrew, will be heading out there the next day.
Catelynn: Her dad and little brother are coming up from Florida for graduation, and Butch is still in jail. Catelynn's brother is a paraplegic so they try to make him and his wheelchair comfortable in their home. [his name is River, by the way...] Butch calls and says that he's getting out Monday, the day after graduation. [poor Tyler. he did look a little sad.] Catelynn shows her mother the pictures from their visit with Carly. [I liked Catelynn's graduation dress.]

Teen Mom "A Closer Look" (Special): [what's the background on this hostess?]
Maci: She's not jealous of Dallas (Ryan's girlfriend) and doesn't want Dallas to be jealous of her. Maci likes that there are pictures of her up at Ryan's parents' house, but she does think that his parents want them to get back together. She says that Farrah has a lot more drive than she does.
Farrah: She mentions that it would have been nice to have Michael around in Florida, even though she wasn't thrilled with the idea of him moving down. She didn't miss her parents for about three months, but now, a year later, she calls her mother like three times a day. [interesting. This is about as close as I've heard to someone like me - I don't really "miss" people, ever. but, I'd also kill myself if I had to talk to my mother three times a day, haha!] Farrah insisted on the puppy because it was so cute and she wanted a pet that Sophia could actually play with, which doesn't work well with a fish. Sometimes she's bitter that Catelynn and Tyler are still together.
Catelynn: She's the first person in her family to graduate high school, and she's reminded that she likely wouldn't have done that if she had kept Carly.
Amber: not present because of personal and legal issues. The girls all say that they encourage Amber to keep her head up.