We’re only two episodes into Season 2 of Hulu‘s The Kardashians, and though the storylines are engaging enough, the timeline is an absolute mess.
The Season 2 premiere kicks off with an episode centered on Khloé Kardashian and Tristan Thompson’s rocky relationship. It offers fans some much-needed clarity on the difficult situation, and even leaps forward to show the birth of Khloé’s son. Ultimately it’s a jam-packed, thoroughly entertaining season debut with a flash forward that makes perfect sense, until Episode 2 begins with a majorly mind-boggling rewind.
When the premiere opens, viewers have no real sense of what month or year it is. It’s easy to assume the show is picking up right where Season 1 left off, until Khloé sits down for a confessional and tells the camera crew she has to talk about something.
“That day when you guys were shooting with Kim about Tristan,” Khloé says, referencing the Season 1 finale, “there was just something I wasn’t ready to talk about. Tristan and I…I am having another baby, and obviously it’s really private and I don’t want this to get out right now because I want to protect my mental wellbeing as well as the surrogate’s and all that.” OK! So far, so good. Everything’s still making sense. But it won’t be for long…
The Season 2 premiere shows Khloé unpacking her feelings about Thompson’s latest betrayal and finding comfort in her family members, who throw her a baby shower. For the first 40ish minutes, it feels like we’ve effortlessly transitioned back into the Kardashians’ world. But then a title card that reads “July 28, 2022” flashes on screen and we jump forward. From when? We still have no idea, so the leap doesn’t mean much. But Kim explains Khloé’s surrogate is going into labor early, and the last 10 minutes of the premiere shows the sisters at the hospital welcoming Khloé’s son.
During a FaceTime call with Khloé, Kris says hello to her 12th grandchild, which is weird, because we know Kylie gave birth to her 11th grandchild — a storyline we have yet to see. So did the show just skip over Kylie’s pregnancy? Nope! They filmed it, but some extremely chaotic editing choices bumped that footage to Episode 2.
Season 2’s second episode, “Prada You!”, begins with a black screen and flashes the following message: “THE REMAINDER OF SEASON 2 WAS FILMED 6 MONTHS BEFORE THE PREVIOUS EPISODE.” Then a slate — which reads “The Kardashians Season 2, 1 of 1” — claps shut and we’re taken back to a Khloé confessional, in which she explains, “I’ve shot all of Season 2, you know, with not talking about this event that’s happening in my life, simply because I wanted to keep it private and I just wasn’t ready to share it.” The producer replies, “OK, so we’re basically going back in time now,” and a cheesy rewind sequence ends with a “February 2, 2022” title card. WHAT!!!!! WHY?
To kick off Episode 2, Corey tells Kris to wake up because KYLIE just went into labor. Is this show freaking kidding me? (Reader: The show is not kidding. Everyone really thought this was a good idea.) Essentially, Episode 1 shows the birth of Kardashian Baby 12 in July 2022, then Episode 2 shows the birth of Kardashian Baby 11 in February 2022. Forgive me for being so very annoyed by this, but it seems like UNNECESSARY CONFUSION to me. My brain is tired, Kardashians. I don’t watch this show to do mental gymnastics! And while I fully understand why Khloé kept an intimate part of her life away from cameras for so long, what I don’t understand is why Season 2 had to air the episode where she finally talks about her and Tristan’s baby first.
My dream Kardashians Season 2 would have aired chronologically. The premiere would have shown Kylie giving birth in February, we would have worked our way up to Khloé’s emotional surrogate reveal, and then ended with the birth of her son. Sure, it was a juicy episode to start the season, but now whenever Khloé talks about Tristan in the season’s remaining episodes we have to remember that she’s just talking about a fragment of his betrayal — just the affair, not the added insult and manipulation of him encouraging her to grow their family while he was cheating on her and expecting a baby with another woman. OY!
I personally would have preferred a more organic chronological reveal to overly dramatic flash forwards and flashbacks. And unless Khloé really wanted to get her side of the story out as soon as possible, which is understandable, I don’t really love the choice. Please, Kardashians Season 2. Let that be the last of the time jumps for a while. I can barely…keep up.