Ethan and Moriah Plath.Photo:tlc
tlc
Warning: This post contains spoilers for the season 5 premiere of TLC’sWelcome to Plathville.
Ethan Plathis seriously over all the drama onWelcome to Plathville.
In Tuesday’s season 5 premiere, Ethan and his wifeOlivia Plath, both 25, returned from several months in Europe feeling refreshed after spending a summer away to recharge andwork on their marriage. Unfortunately, they came home to even more problems: Ethan discovered thatMoriah, his 21-year-old sister and Olivia’s former best friend, moved out of their shared home in Tampa in their absence.
Things have been tense between Olivia and the rest of the Plaths for a while now. She and Ethan’s 51-year-old mother,Kim, arenot on speaking terms. Moriahhit a “breaking point"with her former best friend last season when Olivia refused to get out of the car for theirlate brother Joshua’s memorial due to Kim being present.
Olivia and Ethan Plath in “Welcome to Plathville”.tlc
Additionally, Olivia accused Kim of using Ethan’s credit card in an interview at the end of season 4 ofPlathville. After that aired in August 2022, Moriah and her siblings Micah, Lydia and Isaac subsequently shared a public statement on social mediadefending their motherand claiming their sister-in-law was not telling “the full story.”
“I’m really disappointed in Moriah, disappointed in Micah for going along with it,” Ethan told Olivia as they discussed the post. “To say, ‘You can’t say X, Y, Z about my mom because I don’t like it.’ There’s two sides to a coin: She may not like it but it still doesn’t negate the fact that it happened.”
Toward the beginning of the episode, Moriah explained her reasons for moving out without telling anyone. She, Olivia, Ethan and Olivia’s brother, Nathan Meggs, previously rented a house together. She told producers that she felt her leaving was the “best” option.
Moriah Plath in “Welcome to Plathville”.tlc
When Ethan, who returned from Europe a week earlier than his wife, came home and discovered that his sister had moved out, he was blindsided. All of Moriah’s things were gone and she’d left only a note behind as an explanation.
“I am very frustrated and genuinely surprised,” he shared in a confessional interview. “Moriah had told me before we left for Europe that she was gonna stay a couple weeks after I got back. But then something happens that she doesn’t like, packs up all her stuff, that does feel a little bit theatrical, if you will.”
Ethan Plath in “Welcome to Plathville”.tlc
He also acknowledged that things were “sensitive” in his family at the moment withhis parents’ divorce. “I think that my siblings’ reaction to what Olivia said, you know, might just be a desperate attempt to keep some type of a sense of family and togetherness when it’s clearly being split hard right down the center,” he explained. “But the fact of the matter is, what Olivia said happened. There’s no disputing that, and it was a problem. And me and Olivia and my mom worked it out in a way that I felt made amends for what was wrong.”
Meanwhile, Olivia returned from Europe to find that none ofthe Plath siblingswould speak to her. She said that, while she had apologized for her actions and understood where her in-laws were coming from, she still felt like she was ultimately being “s— talked” no matter what she did.
“It’s also kind of crazy to me to kind of ask over and over again for someone’s reasons why they’ve chosen not to have a relationship in their life and then as soon as they share a story that relates to only them, it’s their story,” she said in an interview. “The immediate response is, ‘That’s a lie. It didn’t happen. Get over it and grow up.'”
Olivia Plath in “Welcome to Plathville”.tlc
“But at the end of the day, I know what I lived through,” she continued. “I know what I experienced, I know why I’ve chosen to have the boundaries I have.
Later, Moriah and Micahspoke to their parentsKim and Barry about their concerns over Olivia’s behavior. Moriah continued to believe her mother’s side of the credit card story and declared that she no longer wanted to maintain a relationship with her sister-in-law.
“I have had to choose. And I choose my family,” she said firmly.
At the end of the episode, Ethan and Olivia shared a hug as heprepared to travel to Cairo, Georgia to work on his cars for 2.5 months in preparation for their move to Minnesota. Olivia got emotional, crying that she didn’t want him to leave with all the family drama going on.
In the meantime, Ethan admitted to producers that he felt"caught in the middle"between his wife and the rest of his family.
“This whole thing is definitely extremely frustrating,” he shared. “I feel like I’m caught in the middle between Olivia and my family and I’m just so tired of all the nonsense. I almost can’t stand it.”
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Welcome to Plathvilleairs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on TLC.
source: people.com
