Mama June desperately tries to regain a relationship with her daughters

Mama June Shannon struggles to regain her children’s trust, even after completing rehab, on the season premiere of Mama June: Road to Redemption. 

After more than a year without seeing her daughters, the 41-year-old reality star stated she hoped her sobriety would mend her relationships, which fractured after she was arrested on drug charges in 2019. 

Her daughter Lauryn ‘Pumpkin’ Shannon, 21, explained on the show that being arrested wasn’t enough to stop her mother and boyfriend Geno Doak from ‘doing drugs, acting like fools, and blowing all of Mama’s money.’ 

‘We all hated Geno because Mama picked him and drugs over us, so we had an intervention and brought in Dr. Ish to help,’ Pumpkin recalled. ‘Her and Geno fled the intervention and completely dropped us from their lives.’

The episode begins with  Pumpkin struggling to keep a happy home, while caring for her teenage sister Alana ‘Honey Boo Boo’ Thompson and three-year-old daughter Ella Grace. 

Testing her mother’s patience, little Ella Grace can be seen cracking a pop tart all over the kitchen floor, to Pumpkin’s dismay.   

‘You know, I love being a mom, but with these, like, terrible twos, about to be three, I’m about to pull my hair out,’ the mom-of-one admits in a confessional. ‘I need a f**king break.’

Meanwhile, 15-year-old Alana can be seen texting in bed, before Pumpkin comes into her room to ask why she isn’t in one of her Zoom classes. 

‘I can explain. Okay, I’m not in my Zoom class because I have nothing to do right this second,’ her sister explains.   

In her own confessional, the former pageant star spoke about how hard navigating a new school amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been. 

‘I just moved to a new school not too long ago,’ she told viewers. ‘Because of this whole Corona thing, I have to do Zoom now, so now I can’t even make no friends. It’s kinda lonely.’ 

While speaking to her younger sibling, Pumpkin reminds Alana she isn’t her ‘maid’ and is only 20 years old.

‘I should be out enjoying myself, having lunch with my friends,’ Pumpkin tells her sister as she scrambles to clean their home before husband Josh Efird comes home. 

Speaking of her relationship, she noted Josh works a construction job in South Carolina, three hours away, and comes home on the weekends. 

‘I know Pumpkin and Josh love each other, but it’s like, as soon as Josh walks through the door, they start to fussing and hollering. It’s kinda like sometimes I’m the only adult in this house,’ Alana quipped to the cameras. 

While doing laundry, Pumpkin receives a call from Mama June, which she purposely ignores. 

‘Like I have time for that,’ Pumpkin says dismissively. ‘Mama keeps trying to contact me ever since she got out of rehab, and I’ve seen on social media that she’s telling everybody that she’s sober, but then again, I don’t believe her because you’re still with Geno, so that probably means still underneath Geno’s control, and until she gets that out of the way, then she’s not really allowed around me and my family.’

Footage then pans to Mama June, who says she and Geno are ‘now seven- months sober.’ 

‘Look, we have put on a little couple extra pounds. I’ve put on about 60. He’s put on about 100. We’ve put on a whole ‘nother person. But I’m gonna blame it on healthy Covid weight,’ Mama June said, while making a milkshake. 

The couple, then, explained they’re staying in a house, right by the beach and their rehab center.

‘We’re not around the people, places, and things that are our triggers,’ Mama said as they took a dip in a pool. ‘I really miss Pumpkin and Alana and Dee. They would love it here.’ 

Mama went on to express why she was confused her children won’t speak to her, even after competing rehab. 

‘Pumpkin wouldn’t call me back. I mean, think about it. I’m doing everything they wanted me to do,’ she told Geno. 

Geno encouraged Mama to give them time, but she tried giving Pumpkin another call and ended up leaving a voicemail. 

‘Hey, Pumpkin, it’s just me. I just wanted to let y’all know that we’re thinking about y’all. We love y’all, and I wish that you would pick up your phone. Me and Geno, we went to rehab. We’re clean, you know what I’m saying? We’re doing the right things. I mean, I really do love and miss y’all. But anyway, bye, b**ch,’ she said. 

Later, as Pumpkin and Alana cook pasta in the kitchen together they begin to talk about their mother. 

‘Mama lives in her own reality where she has no consequences when it comes to picking Geno and drugs over us every time,’ Pumpkin says. 

Alana replies: ‘But she is our only mom. I just kinda wish you’d just let me see her.’ 

In response, Pumpkin assures her sister that she is only trying to protect her, but Alana looks frustrated. 

Pumpkin’s marital problems are put on full display after her husband comes home late. 

‘I’ve been busting my a** cleaning this house, making sure dinner was perfect for him when he got here, and he’s late, so it’s super frustrating because I know he’s trying to keep the household afloat, but I’m sinking back home,’ she complained.  

Josh asks why she is in such a bad mood and, later, says in a confessional that while he really does miss his family, he isn’t returning ‘home to the same sweet, loving old lady’ he married. 

Just like Pumpkin, Mama June is struggling. 

‘The girls would love it here. I mean, they haven’t answered my texts or calls in months,’ she lamented. 

In another voicemail, she tells Pumpkin: ‘It’s your mama again. I just wanted to text you to say I love you and I miss y’all. I’m even at the beach damn meditating, so I’m a totally changed person.’ 

Mama tells Geno if they don’t call back soon she is going to take a trip from Florida to Georgia to find them. 

On a car ride with little Ella in the backseat, Pumpkin and Alana discuss Josh walking out on them and not answering any of his wife’s calls.

‘You did make him sleep outside,’ Alana reminded her, to which Pumpkin said she didn’t want to catch any ‘coochy-cooties.’ 

Her sister concluded: ‘Enough about Josh. If he wanted to go back to South Carolina and didn’t want to spend time with his family, that’s on him, you know?’ 

They were on their way to visit their sister, Jessica, who ‘lost about 100 pounds,’ according to Pumpkin.    

Pumpkin, Alana and Ella all watched Jessica do a photo shoot to show off her slimmer frame. 

‘I was just tired of being overweight, so I just decided to get the balloon surgery as well as a tummy tuck, and I mean, I feel 100% better. Gina, my mama’s manager, said that she would get me all these endorsement deals, but first I have to do this professional photo shoot to get some head shots,’ Jessica explained. 

After teasing Jessica about wearing a crop top, Pumpkin admitted she was ‘a little jealous’ of her sister, who doesn’t have to worry about any kids or men.’   

Following the photo shoot, Jessica asks if she can crash at Pumpkin’s house. 

‘I’ve really been just smiling for the camera, but I’ve been so stressed out. My landlord raised my rent, and I just can’t afford it. I’ll help with Alana. I’ll help with Ella,’ she pleads with her sister. 

Pumpkin says she could really use to help, but reminds her that she doesn’t have an extra ‘bedroom or nothing.’   

‘I already know that Josh is gonna be pissed off and aggravated that I let Jessica move in here,’ she says during a confessional. ‘I mean, I’ll tell him when he finally decides to drag his ass home, and I mean, at this point, that’s probably never.’ 

In a surprising move, Josh calls Pumpkin to apologize for coming home late the other night and not picking up her calls. 

‘I just hope my apology works so when I get home, the possibility of Daddy getting a little loving might happen,’ he says during a confessional after chatting with Pumpkin. 

While on a Zoom call with a counselor from rehab, Mama June talked about feeling frustrated.

‘Their walls are up, right? Because they’ve seen this before. They’ve seen the relapse, and they’re scared,’ her counselor gently reminded her. 

Leaving a Pumpkin an update on her voicemail again, Mama June said her ‘therapist said to kinda back off y’all for a little bit.’ 

When Josh comes home and finds out Jessica is living in their house, he doesn’t take the news well. 

‘How are you supposed to fix your marriage if everybody in the house is Team Pumpkin? This is ridiculous. Well, you know, hon, the last time I checked, old Jessica-poo here didn’t have a job,’ he asks. 

Jessica reminds him she can help with Ella, but Josh is still furious Pumpkin didn’t consult him.

Talking to a pal, Josh says, ‘My marriage is falling apart, and then I almost made out with her sister.’

‘I come home to think it was my wife laying on the couch, so of course, like, I just, like, rolled over the couch and wrapped my arm around her, ‘Hey, girl, what’s up, doll?’ And f**k Jessica bursts out. I was like, ‘Ahh!’ 

‘Oh, no, dude. Why the hell was Jessica there?’ Josh’s friend asks. ‘I hate to hear that, like, ’cause man, y’all used to be the coolest couple out there.’

Josh reflects on their marriage and how he and Pumpkin both come  from families that ‘really held their feelings in and just kinda bickered and argued and split.’

‘I don’t want that for me and Pumpkin, and I just want what’s best for my family and doing my part. I can tell you one thing. Alana and Ella do not need to see us fighting all the time,’ he said. 

Ultimately the spouses have a one-on-one chat about how to work on their relationship as they don’t want their little girl to grow up in a ‘broken home.’

Their conversation ends with a sweet kiss and a promise to work on communicating more effectively. 

‘I know it’s not gonna be easy getting back to where me and Pumpkin originally were, but knowing that both of us are willing to put in 100% to fix things is taking a step in the right direction,’ Josh says in his confessional. 

Meanwhile, Mama June’s day takes a turn for the worst as her lawyer notifies her she is expected to be in court first thing in the morning. 

Geno is furious when he finds out and questions why they didn’t receive any advanced notice. 

‘I mean, it seems actually kinda fishy to me. I mean, are they trying to pull some [bleep] To get us over there to lock us up? Because less than 24 hours’ notice, that’s not how sh*t normally works,’ he comments. 

Talking to the cameras, Mama says: ‘I’m facing a couple years. Geno’s facing ten years. We may not even get to see each other. I’m kinda, like, freaking the hell out.’ 

As they try to figure out what to do if they’re detained, Mama asks producers: ‘Will you please call Pumpkin if, like, something happens so she can come get our stuff, or y’all can send somebody?’ 

‘Our whole lives could be over tomorrow. I don’t know what to expect. I don’t know what they’ve got against us. We have no paperwork even ready. I mean, I guess this is worst-case scenario,’ Mama fears in the episode’s final moments.