These days, Jay Smith is facing deportation and multiple heinous accusations.
But on 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After?, Ashley is still at the stage of trying to divorce Jay.
Another star with a terrible husband, Elizabeth, is in labor in a mostly empty delivery room because Andrei insists on keeping her family at bay.
Paola has already given birth, but postpartum emotional issues are making her insist that no one — not even family — hold baby Axel. Yikes.
And after ages of fights and simmering tensions, Debbie explodes at Larissa, pulling over and forcing her daughter-in-law out of the car.
Things with Larissa and Debbie reached a breaking point
Normally, Colt is there to silently observe as his sister-wives … sorry, his mother and wife, argue. This time, they were in the car together, and Larissa’s attempts to talk things out with Debbie backfired catastrophically.
Larissa knows how important this is
She knows that Debbie is angry with her for not speaking to her about her court case’s results and that she’s still angry about Colt having been in danger when the police broke down the door.
In the car, she tries to talk about it
Larissa has noticed what she describes as passive-aggressive behavior on Debbie’s part, noting things like the slamming of doors.
Debbie’s definitely mad
She says to the camera, without mincing words, that she thinks that the best thing at this point would be for Colt and Larissa to just get a divorce and be done with it.
But she doesn’t say that to Larissa … yet
Larissa tries to get her to talk about why she’s angry with her, but it doesn’t not go well at all
Debbie blows up and it’s kind of hilarious at first
We wonder if she realized how funny she was being when she yelled: “I’M NOT MAD ABOUT ANYTHING!!”
This is when Debbie pulls over
She orders Larissa out of the car. Producers come over to ask what’s wrong, and she says that she can’t even share a car with her DIL. This is after she yelled “STOP TALKING TO ME.” Debbie does not mince words about Larissa even a little.
Don’t worry — Larissa got a ride
Remember, she can’t order a ride on her phone because she doesn’t have the money to back it up because she’s not allowed to work and she doesn’t have her own debit card. The producers gave her a ride.
Russ and Paola
There was a lot of fear and anxiety about Paola’s pregnancy, but she gave birth to baby Axel just minutes into 2019 and he’s healthy. But there are real concerns that Paola, though physically recovering from childbirth, is suffering emotionally and mentally.
She’s just a little nuts, and we mean that lovingly
Paola is, at this point, not letting other people hold Axel. And while no one is suggesting that she pass around her newborn like a hot potato, it is customary to let your immediate family hold the baby so long as they’re trustworthy.
Paola has other ideas
She tells Russ in no uncertain terms that, as his mother comes to visit, she’s welcome to help out around the house, but she doesn’t need to worry herself with holding Axel. Pao comes across like a mother bear, refusing to part from her baby for even a few minutes.
There’s an explanation for her madness
Axel is their rainbow baby. The previous miscarriage was traumatic for both of them (Russ reminds her that it was a big deal for him, too), and it seems to have triggered some obsessive tendencies in Pao. From her insistence on a home birth to refusing to release Axel to her recent expressions of vaccine hesitancy on social media, this all seems to stem from that trauma.
Russ is being VERY patient
We’ve been critical of Russ in the past over his hangups over Paola’s career, but we’ve really come around on the guy. Now, he’s terrified of making his wife’s mental state worse while he’s at a loss for how to get his wife to trust him and his mom enough to hold Axel.
Even Pao’s mom is at a loss
She admits to the camera that she cannot wrap her head around why Paola is afraid to let Mama Mayfield hold Axel.
Russ formulates a plan
He confides to the camera that he’s going to encourage his mother to hold baby Axel, even if he has to do it in secret. This … does not sound healthy and it sounds like setting up the family for an explosion of drama. Paola just needs therapy. THERAPY!
Elizabeth and Andrei
In the mean time, Paola isn’t the only 90 Day Fiance star who refuses to be reasonable or rational about a newborn, because Andrei has gone Full Clown about the birth of his and Elizabeth’s child.
Elizabeth is in labor!
It started at 6am that morning and, at one point, Andrei tells the camera that it’s been going for 16 hours. SIXTEEN hours of agony.
Yes, Andrei is there with her
Andrei and only Andrei is there by Elizabeth’s side
Elizabeth explains that she told her mom she was in labor
She also told her that she wasn’t invited to the delivery room. Elizabeth knows that her mother was hurt and upset. And Elizabeth even admits that she would have liked to have them there, but that she banished them to please her terrible husband.
Elizabeth’s mom handles it gracefully
But she’s not happy about it. As she correctly points out, everyone she knows who has a relationship with their mom has the mom in the delivery room. Andrei’s insistence on breaking up the family is … a little sickening.
Nobody’s happy about this — nobody but Andrei
Pamela and her daughters speak about Elizabeth delivering alone. Honestly, a lot of this season has been about viewers falling head-over-heels for Elizabeth’s family. They just seem like reasonable, lovely people.
Ashley and Jay
Speaking of terrible husbands, Jay’s barbershop bathroom bang is having (gasp!) consequences for Jay Smith, who was booted out of the house.
Last time, he barged in using his key
So now, Ashley is changing the locks while she receives emotional support from her friend.
Ashley goes to meet with her attorney
She doesn’t just want advice — she wants a divorce. Her attorney explains that no-fault divorce is faster than fault divorce, which would include accusing Jay of adultery in writing. Ashley opts for no-fault divorce, which is faster.
Jay doesn’t want that at all
He doesn’t want to be cast adrift from Ashley. He doesn’t want to risk prison or deportation. He wants to keep living in her house and enjoying legal residency in the US — but didn’t want that enough to prevent him from banging random women left and right.
He tells Ashley that he doesn’t want a divorce
Ashley comes by and wants him to sign papers. He tells her that he’ll sign them in the car, but she insists that he do it then and there.
Jay doesn’t like that at all
She’s offered to take him to the bank and pay him money just to sign the divorce papers right then. Jay asks why he has to do it on camera, and she explains that she doesn’t want to risk him claiming that she has forged his signature on the docs. Wow. What a toxic marriage. Jay ends up walking off,
Chantel and Pedro
Chantel’s tumultuous trip to the DR to save her marriage seems to actually be working, if you can imagine.
Pedro actually listens
She tells him about her concerns about his mother and sister. Remember, Obed told Chantel that the two of them met as part of a scheme by Pedro’s family to get him papers, all done without his knowledge.
Pedro insists that they work as a team
He jokes about dropping to his knees, but then they speak seriously about working on their marriage … and they prepare to speak to Pedro’s mom and sister about the things that they have heard.