Seeking Sister Wife‘s Garrick Merrifield is revealing his “wild boy” younger years running a gang while attempting to woo potential new sister wife Mariam. In a PopCulture.com exclusive sneak peek of Monday’s season finale of the TLC show, Garrick and Mariam open up to one another about their own paths with religion as Garrick and his wife Dannielle attempt to add a new wife to their family ahead of the birth of their new baby.
“How would you feel if I was to put the hijab on, the scarf?” Mariam asks Garrick, who seems taken aback by the question at first. “I’d say, ‘Where’s my beautiful wife at?’” he responds, trying to seem playful. “I’d be trying to pull it off. ‘Where are you at in here?’” Mariam’s reply is a bit more serious, though, as she warns him she does plan on “putting it on someday.”
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Garrick struggles to react, telling Mariam, “I mean, I don’t think it’s bad,” as she cuts in to ask, “You don’t like it?” He attempts to clarify, “I don’t know if it’s I don’t like it,” adding, “I think you’re beautiful.” Garrick’s attitude changes, however, when Mariam informs him she could take off the hijab while at home if they were married. “Oh, well that’s fine,” he says. “As long as I get to see you.”
In a confessional, Garrick admits he’s not that educated about his potential new wife’s religious beliefs. “The Muslim faith to her is really important,” he says. “And it’s intrigued me to see what it’s about so I can meet people where they’re at because I don’t know what I’m talking about.”
It’s then that Garrick launches into his own personal backstory with faith. “I didn’t love God or live for God when I was younger,” he tells Mariam. “I was pretty bad. I was a playboy – wild boy.” When Mariam asks him to “define bad” when it comes to his past, Garrick shockingly reveals he “started a gang in town” called the Always Thugging Krew.
A skeptical Mariam responds, “What?” as Garrick insists he was a “tough guy, cool guy” who “made people pay me cash for protection.” Despite Garrick’s declaration that he was “pretty bad,” Mariam still doesn’t believe him. “You’re lying,” she says, as Garrick promises, “No. I had decals on the trucks of the gang. We made them get on their trucks.”
Mariam still isn’t convinced when it comes to Garrick’s tough guy past, however. “He was telling me about some gang he created when he was younger,” she tells the camera later. “Which I found funny because Garrick grew up in this town, and he’s like six generations in, so it’s like, were you spoiled and just a little rebel doing what you wanted to do in the city? It was kind of funny.”
Seeking Sister Wife airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on TLC.
