On last weekend’s episode of 90 Day Fiance, Ariela had one final clash with Biniyam’s sisters before the couple left Ethiopia.
This time, the conflict was indirect, but it still looked like Ari was giving them the cold shoulder, and Bini’s sisters were sobbing.
But Wish says that the reason that they were crying was different than what viewers may assume.
And Ariela has her own piece of the puzzle to add.
On Season 9, Episode 4 of 90 Day Fiance, Ariela Weinberg and Biniyam Shibre set off for New Jersey.
Viewers have followed the engaged couple on two seasons of 90 Day Fiance: The Other Way, witnessing the birth of baby Aviel, their engagement, and a whole lot of problems.
While this trip is almost indisputably the best thing for Bini and Ari’s relationship, his sisters fear that it is the worst thing for him.
Even before Bini headed to the airport, he met with concerned family.
His sisters, Mimi and Wish, encouraged him to be smart and to not be “naive” or foolish.
They fear that he will get his heart broken, as he was once before, when a different American woman had his baby but later divorced him.
His family hopes, however, that Biniyam’s trip to the United States will do more than just save his relationship with Ariela.
(Biniyam’s time in Ethiopia, both with and without Ari, was filled with so many incidents of alleged cheating and otherwise bad partnership that a split seemed almost inevitable)
Bini’s ex-wife, Bria, lives in the United States with their son, Simon.
There have been a lot of claims made on social media about the truth of Simon’s custody situation.
Some believe that Bria all but kidnapped their son. Others have claimed to know for a fact that Bini signed away his own parental rights.
All that we know for certain is that Biniyam has not seen his firstborn in years, and has been deeply affected by losing his family.
At the airport, we saw Wish and Mimi arrive with other family.
Biniyam’s niblings hugged and kissed him goodbye.
And his sisters were eager to say goodbye to little Avi.
Ariela remained in the van with Avi during that farewell, largely because her last encounter with the sisters had ended with a face full of wine.
Wish and Mimi asked if they could kiss Avi goodbye.
While Ariela privately told Bini that Avi was settled into his car seat, she didn’t deny the sisters permission to kiss him goodbye.
Instead, as we oh-so-briefly heard Ariela say, the sisters could come kiss Avi goodbye while he remained seated in the van.
She acknowledged that their behavior had been over-the-top, but affirmed that they could kiss him goodbye.
(Again, we’re talking like 24 hours at the most since the wine-throwing incident)
Based upon what we saw, it doesn’t look like Biniyam relayed the full message to his sisters.
Maybe he was trying to avoid further conflict. We don’t know what he was thinking.
All that we do know is that Bini told them that Avi was sleeping … which they interpreted as Ariela denying them a farewell with baby Avi.
Mimi did not mince words when speaking to the camera about how she feels.
“We feel she is evil,” she declared.
Those are harsh words — even from the women who spoke repeatedly about their newborn nephew being condemned to literal eternal hellfire.
The sisters continued to express serious concerns about Biniyam’s happiness and overall well-being.
While Ariela has caved to Bini on most disagreements while in Ethiopia, clearly his siblings worry that the opposite will be true in New Jersey.
Instead of being surrounded by his family, he’ll be surrounded by hers. He knows them, but how will he adapt?
Those are all fair questions, but to hear a couple of the cast members themselves tell it, we’re not getting the full story.
Ariela took to Instagram to emphasize that she did not deny Wish and Mimi a chance to say goodbye to Avi.
She knows that the show’s editing tries to present her in a certain way, but she’s horrified by family being cut off from each other and would never do that.
Then, Wish had her own side of things to share on her own Instagram Story.
Wish explained that her tears, and Mimi’s, were partially taken out of context.
They weren’t just sad to see Bini and Avi go — they were also tearful because of a parting gift to their brother.
“We were not crying over a grown man moving somewhere else,” Wish wrote.
“We had kept his first son’s [Simon] shoes from when he was [little],” she explained, “and we decided to surprise gift it to him as a leaving gift.”
That sounds heartbreaking. Whatever the true circumstances of how Biniyam came to part ways with Simon, that is emotionally devastating.
