Iyanla learns Matilda’s hiding two of her daughters.
Iyanla’s surprised to learn Matilda’s been hiding her two youngest daughters. While meeting with Keashia, Iyanla discovers she’s the 11th of 12 children and that Matilda’s been to prison before for child abuse charges for 5 years.
Despite this, Keashia says their relationship is getting better. She tells Iyanla that she wants their relationship to be healthy. But, she hates her mother for leaving her when she went to prison. Iyanla suspects she’s behaving the same way her mother treated her when Matilda was younger.
She tells Keashia that Matilda isn’t sure who she really is, and her daughter needs to move on from that notion.
Iyanla and Matilda clash.
Next, Iyanla heads over to Matilda to reveal everything she learned, and to check on her assignment given. As a result, Iyanla asks her if she’s serious about healing.
She hands a sheet of paper of all 12 of Matilda’s kids. Matilda doesn’t want to talk about it, because she lost custody of them after being s*xually assaulted.
However, Iyanla presses Matilda on this, and an argument ensues.
“That’s not a part of my life anymore; I refuse to let it be a part of who I am.” – Matilda
“Miss Matilda, you are a liar. When you get ready to honor who you are as a woman—every experience, every pain, every tear—when you get ready to stand in the fullness of your truth as a woman, without judging it, without hiding it, without lying about it, when you get ready to stand for yourself the way nobody else ever has, you give me a call.”
“I will, God. Since you God, I will.” – Matilda
Iyanla breaks down Taii.
Next, Iyanla checks in on Taii. She’s hoping to break the chains holding her back. To demonstrate this, Iyanla has Taii close her eyes, asking, “Tell me what you see?” while repeatedly dropping an actual chain.
This exercise appears to break her down, especially after she places the chain on her shoulders. Iyanla broke Taii down so much, she sobs as she cries out for help.
As she cries out, Iyanla notes Taii finally has someone around her that’s listening to her.
Iyanla realizes Matilda passed down her generational curse.
Later on, Iyanla meets with Matilda’s youngest daughter Nicole. Nicole says she only saw Matilda 5 or 6 times growing up. Nicole, like Matilda, had a child at 15.
At this point, Iyanla tells Nicole she’s repeating a pattern of behavior and she needs to break it. Iyanla also tells Nicole she needs to move on without Matilda in order to break the pattern.
Matilda asks why.
“Your mom had a child at 15 with a 25 year-old man. She was never there.” – Iyanla
To help do this, Iyanla has Keashia and Nicole meet Brandi and Taii. During this exercise, Brandi and Taii learn Matilda had 12 children. While sitting with them, Brandi and Taii learn the extent of Matilda’s neglect on them.
Keashia tells them Matilda missed important times and milestones in her life. It got really sad when Nicole spoke. Nicole revealed she got pregnant at 15, and like Matilda, didn’t have a mother there for support. It got so bad, Nicole contemplated suicide.
“I wanted to kill myself.” – Nicole
Keashia caught Nicole trying to really harm herself at their home.
“I caught her beating herself in the stomach.” – Keashia
Brandi and Taii said they did the same thing to their children. Brandi mentioned she missed milestones in her son’s life being locked up and it hurt them.
Matilda stands trial.
Today is the mental and spiritual trial of Matilda, with Iyana serving as “judge.” Iyanla present her numerous charges at the beginning of the trial. She wants Matilda to be completely truthful.
Taking the stand first is Nicole. Nicole says she needs healing, because she feels stuck at the age of six, when Matilda went to prison.
“I thought I was gonna get away with it, and I was gonna be fine.” – Matilda
“You didn’t have to have 12 kids.” – Iyanla
Matilda and Iyanla begin to have another back and forth when Iyanla tells her she should’ve use better decision-making skills when making as many kids.
Despite this, Iyanla tells Matilda she wants the best for her. When Nicole says she just wants support from Matilda, Iyanla says Matilda can’t give her that. This angers Matilda even more.
Brandi speaks up and tries to explain that both Matilda and Nicole are so broken, Matilda can’t go back and be the mother Nicole needed when she was younger. However, Matilda remains defiant and starts shouting at Brandi.
Eventually, Iyanla gets control of everything once more, and gets Matilda to tell Nicole that she was negligent as a mother and asks for forgiveness.
After Nicole embraces Matilda, Keashia takes the stand. Nicole’s words breaks Matilda down. Matilda than tells Nicole she passed down her story to Nicole and asked for forgiveness.
After the show, Brandi has been working on her relationship with her family, using tools learned from Iyanla.
Taii started a non-profit after learning how to address her issues head-on. Lastly, Matilda is building a relationship with Keashia and Nicole.
What are your thoughts on the episode?
