By Holly & The Ashley
This week on Jill & Jessa: Counting On, the Duggar family has some exciting things planned for us to watch them do. One of the Duggar girls will get glasses (Ooooh!) A few others will install lights in a bedroom (Ahhh!) and we’ll even get to see some Duggars eat tacos! (Ohhhh! Ahhhh!)
Let’s get this party started!
The episode starts off with Jessa and Ben talking about their son, Spurgeon. The Spurge is now six weeks old, so this is (of course) the perfect time for Ben and Jessa to begin thinking about having more kids. They are beginning to look into adoption, despite the fact that Jessa keeps complaining about being solely responsible for Spurge.
“When it’s your own child and you’re responsible 24/7 it’s hard,” she said.
She decides to head over to her friend (and wedding/party planner) Sierra’s house. Sierra has five kids under five years old. She just had her fifth baby, and this is actually probably the first time we’ve ever seen Sierra without a “blessing” in her belly.
“I’m just tired thinking about that,” Jessa says, who seems to clearly not want to have a lot of kids. However, she then mentions that she could be in that position soon, especially if they end up adopting a bunch of kids. The brainwashing is strong in this one.
Meanwhile, the rest of the kids are at the Duggar compound packing up to go on a mission trip/vacation to Central America. They plan to stay there for two weeks and will be visiting Jill and Derick while they’re down there.
Jana doesn’t get to go, however. As per usual, poor Jana is told to stay home and mind her siblings while her parents, Jim Bob and Michelle gallivant the globe and have all the fun.
“I’ve been on these trips before so I’m staying back home to help with the little kids,” Jana says.
Although trekking through the jungles of Central America handing out mini Bibles doesn’t exactly sound like a good time, it would be the closest thing Jana would ever see to a vacation!
Anna says she isn’t going either. Although she says she would love to go on one of the trips, she has been able to because she always has a blessing in her belly or at her breast. #FundieProblems
The next day, Jessa decides that she doesn’t like the lighting in her (rent-free) house so she makes Jana come over and figure out a way to make the rooms in her house brighter. Of course, Jessa isn’t talking about buying a few extra floor lamps, no sir! She is expecting Jana to completely rewire the lighting system in her house!
“She’s just so good at that,” Jessa says.
Next, we get a little insight into the Life of Jana. The siblings all say that Jana used to have a really outgoing and dominate personality, but now she is much more subdued.
Jessa tells us that, as she got older, she basically smothered Jana’s outgoing personality with her own, which is why Jana is so meek these days. Something tells us that there’s a lot more to Jana’s story than what we see on the family’s shows….
A producer decides to sit Jana down and grill her. Even before they begin peppering with questions, Jana sighs. It’s almost like she already knows the questions he’s going to ask.
They ask her what she thinks her life will be like in 5 years. She says she’s not sure, and it’s almost sad because she seems to want to say more but stops herself. They ask her why she isn’t courting. She said she hasn’t met the right guy.
“I’m not just out to get married to the first guy who comes along,” she says.
Yeah, go Jana! Maybe she realizes that, just because she’s a Duggar, she doesn’t have to become a permanent baby chute.
Next, John David throws some shade at Jessa and says she’s really good at telling people what to do. Jana piles on the shade and says, “Jessa likes to be in charge. Most of us don’t mind most of the time.”
Basically, we can gather that Jessa likes to order everyone around, but not actually do much herself. We got to witness this firsthand during the last episode, when Jessa was, um, “supervising” her sisters as they slaved away making a fall feast for Jessa to take credit for.
The show really starts to pick up here! Joy Anna tells us that she’s on her way to buy some glasses and—guess what?!—we get to go with her to the eye doctor! And we thought it was exciting watching the girls go grocery shopping last episode!
Joy Anna tries on a bunch of frames, but can’t seem to decide which ones to get. Jenny (who is only about 10 or so but has seemed to be over being a Duggar for years) gets dragged along for no apparent reason, and she keeps rolling her eyes as Joy Anna tries on pair after pair.
Joy Anna tells us that she has to call up her sister Jill so that she can help her decide which pair to get.
We are talking about glasses people! Joy Anna is not choosing an orphan to take home and raise as her own. The lady working at the glasses store is giving Joy Anna a really strange look as she watches her dial up Jill.
Even though Jill is half a world away in Central America, she stops preaching to heathens long enough to help Joy Anna make that life-altering decision of what frames to get. (Surely all the other Duggars were praying back at home for Joy Anna to make the right decision.)
Once Joy Anna finally chooses a pair of glasses, we head back to Duggar Central, where most of the family is leaving to go to Central America. Jim Bob and Michelle, as well as 10 of the kids, leave for HeathenVille, leaving Jana, Anna and Grandma to wrangle the kids. Somehow, however, Jana manages to escape long enough to trudge over to Jessa’s to finish her home repair project.
Ben tries to tell us how they’re going to rewire the lights, but he stumbles over every word and sounds like he has no idea what he’s talking about. This man barely seems mentally equipped to be able to dress himself; surely no one is going to trust him with power tools?!
Joe and Jana go to work, along with one of their friends. (Being friends with the Duggars kind of sounds like being their free servants. Planning their parties, remodeling their house. Do you have to sign up for a task before you’re allowed to be their friend?)
They give Ben a mask to play with, so he can feel like he’s “helping” the big boys. He’s literally just goobering around the room as Jana and Joe are blasting holes in the walls and drilling stuff into place. Ben marvels at how big one of the holes is and gives us his thoughts on big holes.
“You could make a really big hole, and then you’d just, like, have a gaping hole,” he tells us.
Um…did someone accidentally hit Ben on the head with a power saw or something? He seems especially brain-dead this episode. Jessa is just standing there, trying to pretend that her husband’s jokes are actually funny, but we know she’s crying silently inside. Even with those horrific bangs of hers, she could have married someone so much better.
Jana and her crew are almost done with the job. Every so often, Ben pipes in with some new stupid comment.
“Crawl spaces don’t really have a lot of space, huhuhuh,” he tells us at one point.
Beavis! Jessa married Beavis!
Once Queen Jessa has her castle lit the way she wanted, she allows her servant siblings to go back home for the night.
The next day, Ben and Jessa go on a date night (with The Spurge) to talk about when they are going to be adding more babies to their family. They go to a taco fast food place and spend several minutes talking about how they love tacos. While this is happening, the camera keeps shooting extreme close-ups of them eating.
This is so weird. Do we really need to watch Ben snarf carne asada in high definition!? Ugh.
As she’s slopping down her paid-for-by-TLC tacos, Jessa says that the adoption company they want to work with won’t let you adopt when your baby is less than nine months old. So, they are waiting for Spurge to turn 9 months and then they will apply.
She says they are going to start off doing a domestic adoption, but they also have plans to adopt internationally later. (Queen Jessa seems to be realizing that having to go through labor and delivery for 10+ babies isn’t going to be very fun. Maybe she just now realized that she can’t make Jana have her babies for her?)
Next week, we get to watch the Duggars buy and sell some used cars. They will also be building a tree house. These people need actual jobs.
To read our recap of last week’s episode of ‘Jill & Jessa: Counting On,’ click here!
(Photos: TLC)
39 Responses
I like how Janna is refusing to have a so-called “arranged” marriage. I think she is trying to defy them and it is really driving them crazy. I could see her just to defy her parents date and African American. Wouldn’t that just stir the pot with their family? You know her parents would flip and send her away to on a “missionary Trip” if she did that. I think something like that happened she met a very well rounded, genuinely Christian guy (perfect in that aspect) but he isn’t White so her dad put the kabosh on that.
Jessa married Ben to have sex and because Ben has no personality and she can boss him around for the rest of her life. He is the biggest goober ever. I think she fits in with Josh and her parents as the most obnoxious Duggar. Did anyone else notice that the bedrooms in her house were full of junk? Your house is on tv, make the bed girl!
I say good for Jana on waiting on the right guy instead of marrying the first man you meet (cough Jill/Jessa cough).
Love the recap!
So she doesn’t declutter, clean or cook. What on earth does she do all day?
Okay, she is taking care of an infant but I remember sitting on the couch feeling pretty bored when my first was asleep and my husband is working full time, hers doesn’t I think.
That’s what I want to know! I get so much stuff done when my baby naps, otherwise I would go nuts! Maybe she just reads the bible and call Jana to complain?
“Jana! The print is really small and there’s words I don’t know. Can you help me.”
*Jana sighs deeply and defeatedly packs up a magnifying glass and dictionary.”
I watch this show (and like it) but “I’m Jana’s special helper” had me cracking up!
Same, I was dying!
Wasn’t this episode 2?
Also if you’re interested in more giant house hole awkwardness you should check out David “Pecan Smuggler” Waller’s fixer upper.
I bet it really stinks to go from taking care of all your siblings right into having your own kids. I don’t blame Jana one bit.
Shame on you people for showing such negativism. What happened to your parents telling you ” If you have noting nice to say….then say nothing.” You don’t have to watch it if you you don’t like it/them. Find something else to do with your time…..like reading the best book around.
if they didn’t want us to talk about them they wouldn’t have sold their souls to TLC.
I’ve read a lot — and I do mean a lot — of books but could never find an explanation as to why knuckledraggers like Ben appear to need to turn their heads to meet the angle of the taco being devoured instead of just using his wrist to steer it into home base. Might be a good theme for episode 5.
BTW Susan, since you had nothing nice to say about us, why did you post and show your Duggar-like hypocrisy? Did your mama not teach you that?
You must be new here.
Oh, you’re new at TheAshley. Welcome 🙂
When you say best book around, you are referring to Harry Potter right?
Negativism? What?
I just had to comment… Michelle DID NOT go to Central America. She STAYED BEHIND. If you actually watched the episode you would see that she headed to the airport with Jana and some others to pick up the rest of the family. Get your facts straight. But besides that… Funny retelling of the episode ??
Genuine question: Why is she in some of the pictures of them in CA? Was there a second trip?
Jessa married Ben because that is what Michelle and Jim Bob planned for her to do. I wonder how long it will take for Jessa to get tired of Ben’s stupidity. Poor Spurgeon. He didn’t luck out with this gene pool. And, by the way, when are any of these highly uneducated people going to get REAL JOBS
I heard it will be on the 12th … of never!
Oh god I know. Frankly I got the sense Jessa just wanted to get laid and be able to leave the compound so she married Ben.
I think a few of the older sons have actual jobs. John David (who I think is a genuinely good guy, why someone hasn’t snatched him up is beyond me) is a police officer. I think Josiah has a towing business. Joseph is going to college kind of by where the Bates live.So the guys have jobs I know. Thats just in their way of life that the boys work and the girls keep up the home. But still Ben is a piece of work I think he used the Duggars as a meal ticket. At least Jill’s husband has or had a real job and a decent one too. How does Jill and Derrick have such a nice huge house and Jessa and Ben have the tiny hand me down house?
Let’s be real, Jana is successfully installing electrical outlets and avoiding marriage- she’s most likely gay but can’t admit it. She’d rather live at home and babysit rather than fake a marriage with a dumdum like Ben. Jenny is hilarious, I’m have high hopes she will be the Duggar that gets caught making out with boys or knocked up as a teen. Jessa needs to get off of this adoption kick- explain yourself girl. You two are unemployed and you can obviously squeeze one out yourself, so why would you take away the opportunity to be parents for a deserving infertile couple? Nobody is going to give their baby to you when you give your own a name like Spurgeon
Ya know, just because Jana doesnt want to jump on the married with 20 babies train it does not make her gay!!!!
Seriously
I love kids, but have no desire to have them, most likely because I grew up with 5 brothers and sisters.
Give the girl a break!!!
There was a commentator who was gay who came on these boards the last time the dugger episode got recapped. She basically said that before she came out and realized she was gay, she could see a ton of similarities between herself and Jana.
It wouldn’t surprise anyone if Jana is gay.
How much you bet Jessa adopts an older kid to just be the babysitter/cleaner??!!!
So being able to repair things and having interests other than getting married makes you gay. Good to know.
Not saying she is, because being handy and not wanting to be married in your 20s does NOT make you gay. And if she was, then so what? It’s 2016, get over it. But I find it interesting that they have 19 kids and not a single one of them is gay? I think if any of them were…they would probably be way too afraid to ever come out, since we know how open minded their parents are. God what an awful family….
I agree with Jenny and I think the icing on the cake would be she would get knocked up with a black guy. NO I am not saying that as a stab at Afircan Americans. I am saying that as a stab at the Duggars. You all know that they would just die if one of their kids came home with an African American. They always say that they want true genuine Christians for their kids. Well the south is full of Afircan American genuine Christians (they are more actual Christians then the Duggars). I think they are secretly racist. Too so to have one of their kids come home with one would be the icing on the cake.
Well… I too try on every pair of glasses before I purchase. Its your face!
Jessa made a huge mistake marrying Derick. He is Bevis, and with their combined brainpower they will likely raise a Butthead or two.
Arguably Butthead would have been a less cruel name than The Spurge
She married Ben not Derick. But I agree, that she could have done much better had she taken her time and not married the first guy who asked. I feel a little sad that she thinks life is a bowl of babies! So much more out there to experience.
I honestly think that if she weren’t born in this family and brain washed, she wouldn’t have a crap load of kids.
She’s going back and forth on having babies based on what she said in this episode. I think she’s way too vain to want to keep having kids too. Being pregnant does crazy things to your body, not to mention she seems so lazy. Children are a lot of work.
Can one of the Breaking Amish kids come get Jana? Maybe *gasp* let her go to college or something? I know it’s radical to think of a woman who does something besides squat out babies and not cook or clean (Not naming any JESSA names…) Just kidding! Can you imagine?