We kick this episode off in Indiana where Jade and Sean have officially– and, let’s be honest, fortunately– decided to throw in the towel on the whole homeschooling thing and send Cloughie Kloie off to be educated by adults who aren’t completely annoyed to be in the presence of children. 

After giving their daughter an almost inspiring pep-talk, Jade and Sean whip through the drop-off line quicker than Christy whips through an entire 64 oz. Big Gulp, and send Klo off for a day of education that won’t include a front row seat to a mid-day argument. 

Over in California, Cheyenne also takes in some kid-free time as she throws back some tacos and margaritas with her friend Zaina and fills her in on the racism Ryder was recently exposed to at the indoor play center. After recounting what went down, Cheyenne tells Zaina that, even though she grew up in a “very pro-Black home,” she wasn’t sure how to react to the situation in the moment and wants to educate herself on how to talk to her kids about race issues going forward. Cheyenne says she’s found an organization that can provide some insight and she wants to include Zach, Cory and Taylor in the conversation so they can all be on the same page, especially given that the four of them have very different backgrounds.

Next up, we head to the West Virginia holler where Leah is picking up Addie from school. During the drive home, Addie asks Leah if she can go with her “sissies” to their dad’s house that weekend, to which Leah gives her a “we’ll see.” The following day, Leah’s tour-guide lovin’ sister Victoria stops by to “check in” on her, which we soon realize is code for “talk sh*t about one or more of our baby daddies.”  

After chatting about custody, Leah tells Victoria about Addie asking to go with her sisters to their dad Corey’s house, claiming that when Ali and Aleeah are off hanging out in another holler, Addie “becomes an only child and gets bored.” Leah also notes that, unlike Addie’s dad Jeremy, Corey actually attends events for his kids and, occasionally, even puts on a semi-fresh ball cap for the festivities. 

Leah and Victoria agree that Addie is probably dealing with a lot of emotions as a result of her dad’s sporadic presence. Leah tells her sister she thinks she should take Addie to speak to a counselor who can help her learn to stand in her power “healthy coping mechanisms.” 

Next we head to Tennessee where a heavily-filtered individual claiming to be Maci tells “The Gals” how busy she’s been hauling the Oopsie Babies to and from various wrestling tournaments. 

Later that day, Maci and Beer Taylor are hanging out in their on-property child training facility when Maci gets a text from someone offering her a job coaching girls wrestling at the local high school. Shockingly, the mere mention of the word “job” doesn’t cause Maci and/or Beer Taylor to spontaneously combust all over the Oopsie Babies’ practice mats. Instead, Maci does a blink-and-you-miss-it celebratory dance before telling Beer Taylor that before she accepts the position, she needs to consider how being a contributing member of society will affect not only herself, but the rest of the family. 

Speaking of people who are seemingly allergic to employment, next we head to Las Vegas where Jenelle is enjoying a romantic totally platonic helicopter ride with her pierced-lip Prince Charming manager August. 

Jenelle tells viewers that while she’s “digging the vibe” of Sin City, she’s unsure how her estranged husband David will react if she ends up officially moving there. 

Jenelle also reveals that her super busy schedule includes an upcoming court date back in North Carolina, where she will try to get a restraining order for her and her kids to prevent David from…well, being David. 

The following day, Jenelle and August “talk business” over mid-day beers at Jenelle’s rental home. August tells Jenelle he has some homes for her to look at possibly renting long-term, all of which he claims are in a safe part of town with good schools– factors Jenelle should at least have some interest in, given that Jace has already attended four different high schools.

Jenelle feigns concern over the type of crowd Jace will end up hanging around, though she pats herself on the back for getting him out of a bad situation and into a place where he doesn’t feel like he’s “walking on eggshells anymore.” 

Later on, August and Jenelle head out to look at the potential rental homes, the first of which Jenelle quickly shuts down because it’s a single-story and won’t allow everyone– aka her damn self– to have their “own space.” Jenelle ends up liking the second option and is advised by the hustling realtor to act fast before another d-list reality star with a sus looking “manager” comes and snatches it up. 

Back in Los Angeles, Cory stops by Cheyenne’s house to talk about what happened to Ryder. Cory– who is biracial and was raised by his mom, who is white– and Cheyenne discuss the different ways they experienced racism growing up and how they handled the situations differently. Cory tells Cheyenne she’s lucky that she grew up in a family that openly discussed race, and they both agree that learning how to talk to their kids about it would be beneficial.

Later we see Cory and Taylor go to Cheyenne and Zach’s house so that the four of them can get on a video call together with Brittany Hogan, the founder of the BtheGrowth organization. During the chat, Brittany suggests using books as a way to talk to children about race and teach them Black stories, which Cheyenne and Cory decide is a good idea, given Ryder’s love of reading.   

Speaking of reading, or rather the lack thereof, next we head back to Indiana at the house formerly (and briefly) known as Sean & Jade’s Academy of Subpar Learning, where Jade keeps herself busy with real estate “work” until it’s time for her to feed her financially-dependent husband. 

With Kloie still at school, Jade and perpetually-unemployed Sean go out to lunch where Sean reveals to Jade that he’s finally ready to start looking for a new job “and a career path.” We’re then treated to a shady as hell montage of Sean’s half-assed career attempts, dating all the way back to 2018. Given Sean’s “experience,” Jade suggests he look into becoming a home inspector, which is the exact opposite of what Sean was hoping Jade would suggest. 

Jade gives Sean some words of encouragement and shares her vision of the two of them one day becoming “a little dream team.” She also seems very much in favor of Sean being his own boss, despite Sean never actually having one of his own.  

Meanwhile, back in West Virginia, Leah’s twin girlseses join their dad for a meal at “Blanch’s Family Diner.” While digging into what we can only assume is a special featuring biscuits and gravy, the girlses talk to Corey about Addie wanting to join them for some of their visits to his house and Corey says he’ll consider it, so long as “all parties” are on board. Aleeah tells Corey that Addie looks up to the relationship she and Ali have with him, and, while turning as red as the picnic-table plaid accents at Blanch’s, Corey tells the girlses that having a good relationship with them is something he’s “strived to do” since they made their debut on 16 and Pregnant were born. 

Aleeah tells her dad that she knows Addie just wants a “father figure” and she feels bad because she doesn’t know how to help her sister, as it’s a situation she can’t relate to. Corey tells the girlses the best thing they can do is just be there for Addie when she wants to talk. 

While the girlses are still with Corey, Leah sits down with Addie and tells her the visits to her sissies’ dad’s house won’t be happening anytime soon, but it’s something they can talk about in the future. She also suggests the counseling idea to Addie, and after asking a few questions, Addie says she’s down to give it a shot. Unfortunately, Leah later reveals that Jeremy won’t sign the consent form to allow Addie to go to counseling, which is required per their custody agreement. Leah says her next step is to contact her attorney, though she predicts things with Jeremy are going to get “more and more dysfunctional.” 

Down in Tennessee, a still-filtered Maci tells “The Gals” about her job offer, claiming she’s currently too focused on Jayde and Maverick’s wrestling weekend extravaganza to decide whether or not she’s going to accept the position. 

Cut to some shaky clips of children wrestling in funny looking outfits, Maci shouting “wrestle, wrestle, wrestle,” Maverick having a full meltdown and, for once, not a beer in sight. After arriving home, Bentley escorts the exhausted Oopsie Babies into the house while Maci pours herself a beer out of the car and Beer Taylor unpacks the trunk and attempts to unpack the events of the day. Unfortunately for Beer Taylor, Maci is too tired to have a conversation, claiming her brain is just “too mushy.” 

Clearly (and rightfully) offended, Beer Taylor call out Mushy Maci for shutting him down, something she apparently does quite often. Maci argues that their lives are busy and hectic, but Beer Taylor says he just wants her to listen. After remember the Things That Matter– aka the case of beer she has waiting for her inside the house– Maci tells Beer Taylor she’ll try her best to not be so miserable and mushy-brained in the future.

Following her exhausting weekend of watching the Oopsie Babies physically exert themselves, Maci hits up “The Gals” and tells them she thinks the stress of yelling “wrestle, wrestle, wrestle” on a full-time basis may be too much for her marriage and mushy brain to handle. Before officially making a decision, she talks to her mom about the job offer. Ultimately, Maci and her mom agree that, with Maci’s kids being so young, now isn’t the best time for her to accept the position.

Over in Las Vegas, Jenelle and her latest soulmate manager sit down for some MTV-funded food and adult beverages as Jenelle calls her realtor to officially lock down a place to live and film TikTok videos. While sipping their comped cocktails, Jenelle and August make awkward eye contact and toast to new beginnings that, given Jenelle’s history, will eventually involve law enforcement and require legal representation. 

Case in point, before Jenelle is able to move into her Las Vegas love shack, she heads home to North Carolina to deal with the pending restraining order she filed against David. Jenelle says she doesn’t feel safe being back in North Carolina because she’s worried she’ll run into her estranged swampmate. A few days later, her court date is finally here so she hops on camera– presumably around 1 p.m. as she claims to have just woken up– insisting that she’s anxious and having panic attacks. She then starts bawling her eyes out at the top of her lungs getting emotional over the fact that she has to take the stand in court. 

Later that day, Jenelle swaps her court room heels for something more classier casual and dials up Briana, who we hope is getting a hefty bonus from the show for pretending to be Jenelle’s BFF this season. During the call, Jenelle tells Briana that her restraining order against David was granted and that she’s officially moving to Las Vegas. Briana tells Jenelle she’s happy for her, but we’re sure she’s even happier for herself that Jenelle opted not to move to Florida. 

After picking up Kloie from school, Jade and Sean welcome her into the car by firing off a litany of questions about her first day. Jade then reminds viewers just how much she nor Sean had any business ever cosplaying as educators when she asks Kloie if her new school is “funner” than homeschool. 

We then see the tables turn as Kloie, who has entertained Sean and Jade’s yapping for most of the ride home, reaches her breaking point and politely requests that her parents shut the hell up stop talking.   

That night, Sean fires up the Google machine and figures out what he needs to do in order to become a licensed home inspector. Jade tells Sean that whatever he decides to pursue, he needs to make sure he sees it through and “puts 100 percent into it.” She notes that she’s proud of Sean and wants to support him the same way he’s “always” supported her. (Obviously she doesn’t mean financially.)

That’s all for this episode of ‘Teen Mom: The Next Chapter!’ To read more of The Ashley’s recaps, click here! 

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(Photos: MTV)