Utah is known for its nature, skiing and large population of Mormons. Hulu recently released its second season of the “Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” also known as SLOMW, a reality TV show filled with drama, betrayal and tears. The drama on this show includes cheating, trash-talking, pregnancy trouble and toxic partners, among others. The show follows a group of creators from “MomTok”; a group of TikTok moms sharing their points of view on motherhood. They hit it big after one of their members, Taylor Frankie Paul, exposed a huge cheating scandal within the group. The first season of SLOMW follows Taylor Frankie Paul trying to clean up her life after the whole scandal came out, while domestic violence charges are pressed, pregnancies are announced and frenemies are created. 

This second season is a whole different rodeo, with new cast members like Miranda, Chase, and Marciano stirring up the drama. One member left the group, one gave birth, two are now pregnant, and several friendships were created and destroyed. 

This season was long, with many uncomfortable or inappropriate scenes. While the show does have an MA (mature audience) rating, some explicit scenes didn’t need to make the cut, and the cast was ruthless. There were some odd episodes. 

But the stories behind these episodes raised awareness about topics like sexual abuse, infertility, loss of partners and depression in a very real way. While the show seems to thrive off of all the drama, the members have some complex and interesting life stories to tell. 

Here are the best and worst moments for each cast member: 

Taylor Frankie Paul 

Taylor Frankie Paul is known as the Queen Bee of the show, as her exposure of the huge cheating scandal was allegedly the main reason these women got the show. Many online claim that “without Taylor, the show would be nothing.” This is debatable, but Taylor is undoubtedly the main character. She’s easy to love or hate, but for me, I’m somewhere inbetween. I can see her developing into a more mature person, but her childish antics are ridiculous. During this season Taylor got invited to the wonderful Country Music Awards, and while all the ladies on “MomTok”  congratulated her privately, she felt like that wasn’t enough and started calling them fake and unsupportive. This is a super petty drama for a 30-year-old woman to start and it is reminiscent of childish, high school drama. Even though Taylor eventually decided to apologize for the damage, it was already done. However, something great Taylor did do this season was finally break it off with her toxic, manipulative, evil baby daddy Dakota and for that, the fan base is proud. I’d give her a 7/10 overall. 

Demi Engemann

Demi Engemann was super unproblematic last season, but in this season, she’s a mean girl For Macyis book publishing party, you can see that Demi is not only jealous of her friend’s success, but also money-hungry, as she was willing to kick her best friend Jessi off the show for some extra cash. Demi’s behavior was unacceptable and straight-up disrespectful this season. She told Taylor not to go to Jessi’s hair salon, which was such a stab in Jessi’s back, considering Jessii feels super unappreciated, doing everyone’s hair for free. During this season, her fellow cast member Jen is going through a hard time, but instead of giving her grace or the benefit of the doubt, Demi decides to call Jen a liar and a narcissist. Hopefully, Demi will be  humbled next season, as her trying to kick Taylor off of “MomTok” is crazy.  3/10. 

Mayci Neeley

Mayci Neeley was one of the best characters in this season. Her openness about grief and struggling as a single mom made her very relatable. Mayci is easily the most genuine and level-headed person in the group. Her book release sent a genius self-marketing message, as she could separate herself from the group and create her own brand image. Out of all the girls on “MomTok,” Macyi is the most relatable and the kindest: she’s always there to support her friends and be loyal. Her growth this season was big, and she did an amazing job at being mature and respectful. As of right now, it seems like many fans love her and predict her to be the most successful. 10/10. 

Whitney Leavitt

In the first season, Whitney Leavitt went through hell. She  left “MomTok,” her husband publicly cheated on her and she faced a hard pregnancy. This season, many people weren’t happy about Whitney slithering back into the group. Surprisingly, Taylor had Whitney’s back, even though Whiney betrayed her. This season, Whitney seemed to own up to her mistakes, but she was very unloyal, especially when it came to kicking Taylor off of “MomTok.” She has some problems that need to be solved, and she is good at being a people pleaser to try to fit in. She’s sometimes nice and can own up to her mistakes and apologize, but she needs to learn some loyalty. 5/10.

Miranda McWhorter

Miranda McWhorter was a new character this season, and many members were hesitant about her true intentions. However, Miranda was a great addition to the group: she didn’t start any drama, she was supportive and she owned up to her past mistakes. Though she is not perfect, her supportiveness at the party with Chase where his girlfriend was crying showed that she is a real “girl’s girl.” Even though she initially wanted to join “MomTok” for the money and fame, it seems more genuine than that. Hopefully, the women of “MomTok” will let her in, as in this season, she has been nothing but a girl’s girl. 8/10. 

Mikayla Matthews

Besides not getting along with Whitney, Mikayla Matthews wasn’t the most interesting. She was pregnant and talked openly about her skin struggles, but besides her pregnancy, she wasn’t very involved in this season, which is nice as it kept her away from drama and in her lane. Something monumental that Mikayla did was speak up about her sexual assault as a child. It was a very personal season for her that possibly got overshadowed by all the other petty drama. Her bravery this season is admirable, and her ability to stay out of drama is impeccable. Mikayla is easily the least evil person on “MomTok.” 10/10. 

Jen Affleck

Jen Affleck had a rough season with her awful toxic husband Zach, along with her friends accusing her of being a liar and playing the victim. All Jen needed was support, but instead, she was betrayed by the people she loved most. The girls of “MomTok” throw her under the bus and easily flip out on her. Sadly, she departed in the middle of the season, which left many viewers concerned for her mental health. Her emotional state was very concerning this season, as some fan pages said that they could allegedly see narcissistic and abusive traits in her husband, Zach. With her semi-recent pregnancy and the drama with Jessi and Demi, Jen had a beyond-rough season. Many are hoping she’s okay and can figure things out. 6/10. 

Jessi Ngatikaura

Jessi Ngatikaura is known as the “hair girl,” living off a multimillion-dollar hair empire. This season, many things happened to her. Her supposed “best friend” Demi was willing to cut her out of the show to make money, and Demi told Taylor not to go to Jessi’s salon because she “doesn’t know how to do hair.” Not only did Jessi experience betrayal from her friend, but she supposedly also betrayed her husband with a guy named Marciano. The scandal is still ongoing, so nobody knows what truly happened. It is speculated that she and Demi could just be creating drama for the show to get more views and fame, but nothing is confirmed. 4/10. 

Layla Taylor

Layla Taylor is easily forgettable, as she didn’t involve herself too much in this season. All the viewers got to know is that she’s divorced, has a new boyfriend and got more plastic surgery. Layla is not super problamtic  at all and is sort of a follower, as she is easily influenced by others and scared of Demi. She seems to be mostly supportive, and her involvement in the group makes her easily likeable. 7/10. 

As “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” continues to grow, more thoughts and opinions are formed about these women. Because it’s reality TV, it has been cut and trimmed to fit a certain narrative. Nobody is perfect, so maybe some of these women aren’t as perfect or nice as they want to come off as.