The rules fit inside a little pouch. At a tantra yoga speed dating event, Meri Brown told Rebekah, each woman got a bag of beads. If she wanted to know a man better, she dropped a bead into his pouch — and touched his chest. Rebekah’s response was two words: “Oh my gosh.”
That was the story Meri carried into San Francisco on Sunday’s Sister Wives, back where she was born and raised. She came to see if it could be her future home — and walk into another speed dating event, this one with a tantra yoga twist.
Chowder by the Golden Gate
First the quiet part: Meri and Rebekah by the Golden Gate Bridge, eating clam chowder in sourdough bowls. Asked if she could see San Francisco as her future home, Meri didn’t sugarcoat it. “I definitely like city and people and stuff, [but] this has been a little bit chaotic for me,” she said.
Then the real question: “I don’t know maybe I’ll meet somebody in a place that is really settled in a place and I will like the place. Or maybe I’ll find my place and get settled and then meet my person.”
The Bead Pouch, Explained
Rebekah had questions. “What are you doing? We’ve only talked about it. I’ve never heard of it before, so like what do you do?” she whispered. Meri laughed, but at first she hadn’t. “I thought it was really, really, really super inappropriate at first,” she said.
She spelled out why: “When I think of tantra yoga, I think of very sexualized yoga, and positions and closeness. And I’m like, yeah, no, I’m not going to do that with a speed dating event when I very first meet somebody.” Her punchline: “This is why the men don’t do it, because women have boobies and that would be awkward.”
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Then came the episode’s most serious moment. “I feel like I’ve spent so much of my life in the shadows,” Meri said. In Utah, her mother homeschooled the children when that was frowned on — and the family hid twice, “because of the homeschool” and “because of the polygamy.” “Even into my adulthood, I didn’t tell people who I was. I was just always hiding.”
Four years after her 32-year marriage to Kody ended in December 2022, the 55-year-old wants to put herself out there, even when it is “awkward and uncomfortable.” She has had the hard conversations this season, including her apology to Christine.
Find the Place First, or Find the Person?
Meri loves speed dating and meeting people, and her 36-year road here has been anything but straight. As PEOPLE previously reported, she met Ron speed dating in season 20: “He likes dogs, he likes to travel, and he’s 6 feet tall and he’s handsome.”
Rebekah asked: “Is it weird to break into that scene again?” “It is so weird,” Meri said. “It took me a bit, like after I left, to decide if I wanted to get into dating again.” Dating is almost new territory: “To be fair, I didn’t really date when I was younger. That was not something that was really promoted in our church. Like, you date with the intention of getting married.” Janelle’s first date with Pete drew the same attention.
The episode ended at the door — to be continued next week. The question she left hanging: find her place first, then meet her person — or meet her person first and let the place follow? After the bead pouch, the chowder and the sunset, do you think next week’s event is where she finally finds him?
