‘Teen Mom: The Next Chapter’: Catelynn Lowell and Tyler Baltierra Shocked After Being Blocked by Carly’s Adoptive Parents

Things are getting intense on Teen Mom: The Next Chapter! Catelynn Lowell and Tyler Baltierra are devastated to be blocked by biological daughter Carly’s adoptive parents, Mackenzie McKee’s dad almost dies, Cheyenne Floyd and Ashley Jones are meeting up, and Amber Portwood is having a pregnancy scare? There’s so much to get into. Spoiler-filled recap ahead for Season 2, Episode 17 of Teen Mom: The Next Chapter “Two Steps Forward Ten Steps Back.”

Catelynn and Tyler Get Blocked

Let’s start with Catelynn Lowell and Tyler Baltierra because this is a mess, sorry to say. After Cate took to social media to vent about Carly’s adoptive parents, Brandon and Teresa Davis, not responding to her messages, Teresa did respond, telling her, “The way that you speak about us online was very hurtful, so we’re not going to be responding.”

Tyler insists he’s never gonna stop expressing himself online, but Teresa is serious — she even reached out to their adoption counselor Dawn to tell her Catelynn and Tyler’s biweekly updates and all the gifts they’ve been sending to their house are “so out of control and inappropriate.”

Even with this all seemingly spiraling out of control, Catelynn has been continuing to text Teresa about Carly until she figures out that her messages have stopped being delivered — she’s officially been blocked. “You are closing the adoption. You are closing an open adoption with no explanation why!” exclaimed Tyler.

Catelynn and Tyler are at a loss at this point, so they meet up with Dawn to get her insight. And it might not be what they expected, as Dawn tells them of Brandon and Teresa’s decision to block them, “If their opinion is different than yours and they’ve asked for space and they’ve asked for things to chill and it hasn’t happened, then is it the only alternative they can see?”

Dawn points out that Catelynn and Tyler have “a lot of power” as reality TV stars, so when they’re talking about Brandon, Teresa, and Carly online, it can cause a lot of pain for them. “A lot of hurt happens when we live our life out on social media,” she explained.

Catelynn then explains that she would “100% step back” if she felt it was something Carly wanted, but Dawn hints it might not be “fair” to “put that kind of pressure” on a young girl. Dawn then tells Catelynn and Tyler that maybe taking a step back, just for now, would be best for their relationship with Carly, even if it’s tough.

“That’s not fair, Dawn,” Cate responds, breaking down in tears as she says, “I chose wanting to know information … when it comes to something I gave them, that is overly hurtful. I don’t think they understand what it does. You never had to give a child to somebody and live with that for the rest of your life. It’s just not fair.”

I was hopeful to have a positive update to share with everyone, but when I talked to Catelynn ahead of the premiere, she told me she’s still blocked.

Amber Portwood Fakes a Pregnancy Scare

Amber Portwood had a tough episode this week too! While her daughter Leah is turning 16 and getting a car from dad Gary Shirley and his wife Kristina, they reveal Amber has kind of disappeared from their lives. “I want Leah to have a relationship with her mother … but at this point, it’s really not even enough to feel like it’s worth it,” Gary explains.

Amber’s camera crew is left in the dark too, as when they show up to film, she won’t open the door until they bring her a pregnancy test, telling one crew member she’s “scared” she might be pregnant after a fling with an ex. At first, I was like what is going on here? But when the crew returns the next day, Amber admits she made the whole thing up to get out of filming.

“There’s been many times in my life where I’ve had to lie in order to get out of doing things because I’m not able to get ready, get dressed, move around, do anything,” she tells her producer. “You just lie to people and say, ‘I’m busy, I have this sickness,’ you want to make up something to where they’re like, ‘We’re not going to do anything,’ ‘You don’t have to film.”

When asked whether she was pregnant, she shakes her head no, explaining, “When you start lying in order to be alone, that’s me in the darkest.” Amber says she’s still reeling from the whole incident with her ex-fiancé, Gary Wayt, going missing. Amber says that having that relationship end so abruptly, in addition to people’s suspicions that she killed him, really put her in a dark place. Yikes.

Mackenzie McKee’s Dad Has a Near-Fatal Accident

In another brutal storyline, Mackenzie McKee’s dad accidentally shot himself with an arrow in the arm in a freak accident with his hunting equipment. Luckily, her sister was there to tourniquet the arm with a belt, because EMTs said he would have been dead in minutes if she hadn’t been, but he was still dealing with some serious nerve damage. And Mackenzie was totally shaken.

Cheyenne Floyd and Ashley Jones Make Up

Let’s end on a high note, please. Ashley Jones and Cheyenne Floyd meet up, and after all of their back-and-forth over the years, they really seem to get along! Ashley opened up about her ex, Bar Smith, who is facing domestic violence charges, saying she’s still trying to grapple with the fact that she’s not responsible for his jail time, and Cheyenne offered to support her through it.

I guess that’s somewhat of a high note? As positive as this episode was gonna get!

This article was adapted from the latest episode of PopCulture Social Call, streaming weekdays on PopCulture.com’s YouTube channel. You can now watch this episode, which is embedded in the above article.