Keeping Up With The Kardashians Episode 20 Recap: Legacy

This week’s Keeping Up With The Kardashians deals with bigger issues than most of the rest of the season. Kim is considering having another baby and exploring the idea of using a surrogate. Kendall is looking to make a difference and have a voice in the gun violence conversation, and Kris wants her mother to shoot a legacy video. At Khloé’s house, Kim, Khloé, and Jonathan engage in some baby talk. Khloé jokes about wanting one of Kim and Kanye’s frozen embryos to have and to raise as her own. “We could raise them all like a little pack,” she says. Kim isn’t into Khloé’s wolf pack idea, but she is thinking of growing her family. She tells them that she has been considering having a third child, but she is concerned about going through another pregnancy. The #BlackLivesMatter movement inspired Will.I.Am to remix “Where Is The Love?” and he asks Kendall to be in the video. She is excited to get involved, and it gets her thinking about what else she could add to the gun control conversation. She wants to do more, but she is unsure of what to do. Kris has a project for her mother and her kids. She wants M.J. to be interviewed on camera talking about her life and her memories. “Give us a little bit of history that we can hang on to,” Kris explains. Khloé gets M.J. on the phone, and M.J. agrees to film a legacy video. Khloé wants her mom to do the interview. “I’d rather not,” Kris says. Speaking of legacy, albeit a different kind, Kim and Kris visit Kim’s Ob/Gyn to talk pregnancy and baby number three. Kris asks the doctor if Kim’s body could handle another pregnancy. The doctor doesn’t sugar coat the problems Kim had with North and Saint. They were serious, and they could redevelop with another pregnancy. “We’re always worried about the next serious complication,” he says. You’re always taking a little bit of a chance, he tells Kim and Kris. Kendall picks Khloé’s brain about the gun violence issue and getting involved. “It makes me feel like the world is ending,” Kendall says about the spate of gun violence and police shootings. Khloé agrees and suggests that as you get older, you get more aware of things. The conversation is well-meaning, but cringe worthy. “I think gun laws forever have needed to be changed,” Khloé says. Kendall, wise like Spiderman’s Uncle Ben, knows that with a big platform comes big responsibility. Khloé suggests they focus on one issue as a family. Kim and Kourtney meet with another doctor, looking for a second opinion and more information about surrogacy as an option. “You getting pregnant again would be a high-risk pregnancy,” Dr. Huang tells Kim. He emphasizes the safety for her that a surrogacy would represent. “Doing what’s safe is the best thing,” he says. On the ride home, Kourtney asks Kim what’s she’s thinking. Kim is honest in that she doesn’t think her body could handle another pregnancy. Kourtney suggests talking to someone who has used a surrogate. Kourtney also highlights another potential advantage of using a surrogate: privacy. “You could have a baby for like a year, and no one would know,” she says.

Kendall approaches Rob next about her plan to speak up about gun control. No surprise here, but Rob, the shut-in who disappears for days on end, is wary. He reminds Kendall that there will be lots of people that don’t share her views. “You’re gonna get a lot of hate,” he says. It is endearing when he refers to his sister as a “young, powerful woman” even though, well, she is clearly those things. Kendall is concerned about distracting from the issue and doing more harm than good. Her next stop is to talk with Kim. Kim is involved with Everytown, an advocacy group that works with victims of gun violence for gun law reform. Kim tells Kendall that she is going to set up a lunch for them to meet with representatives from the organization. Kendall admits to Kim that she is nervous. Kim shakes it off. “I feel like, in life, I’ve gotten a lot of backlash and a lot of hate, so I’m just going to do what I believe in,” she says.

Meanwhile, the M.J. legacy project rolls on. Kris’s latest idea is to have Anderson Cooper interview M.J. Kris’s kids think she has lost her mind. Kim straight-up asks her mom what the problem is with doing the interview herself. “I know that I’m going to be an emotional wreck,” Kris admits. Khloé warns her mom that she would regret it later if she didn’t ask M.J. questions herself. Dr. Huang arranges for Kim to meet with one of his patients who utilized a surrogate. She comes to have a chat with Kim and Kourtney. Kim is worried about surrogacy. She went through so much with her kids and her pregnancies; she is concerned that it would be too different using a surrogate. “My bond with my kids is so strong,” she says. “My biggest fear is that if I had a surrogate, would I love them the same?” She is scared. Natalie, Dr. Huang’s other patient, reassures Kim that she would love the baby just as much as her other two children. Kim is also worried that she would be taking the easy way out, which Natalie dismisses completely. Kim tells her mom about the meeting. Kim wants her children to have the support system that she had with her siblings, but she’s come to the conclusion that she can’t carry another one. Kris says that surrogacy scares her for Kim. The day of the lunch with Everytown has arrived. Kim has brought along Kris, Kourtney, and Khloé. Kendall is conspicuously absent. Kim worries that her younger sister’s concerns about backlash have kept her away from the meeting. Kim is adamant that if you’re passionate about something, you need to get involved, no matter the backlash. It turns out that Kendall is just late, not a no-show. The Everytown lunch deserves special note. Think what you will about Kim and company, being involved with Everytown and, as Kendall was saying, mobilizing the Kardashian platform, means something. It is impossible to hear the stories of Jordan Davis’s mother, or the daughter of the principal from Sandy Hook Elementary, or the daughter of one of the San Bernadino victims and not be moved. Keeping Up With The Kardashians is a reality show. These stories are, sadly for all of us, reality. The lunch energizes Kendall. Before leaving she and her sisters post their support for the organization’s “Not One More” initiative. “It would be irresponsible for me to take this platform for granted,” Kendall says. The episode ends with the shoot for the legacy video. Kris decides to ask the questions. It starts out on a light note, with Kris asking her mother about her mother’s first marriage. “We were only married two months,” M.J. says. “Less than Kimmy!” (Go M.J.) The laughter quickly turns to tears when M.J. asks Kris what she fears the most. Kris breaks down thinking of losing her mother.

Kim, Kourtney, Kylie, and Kendall all take turns asking their grandmother questions about her life. Khloé steps in with Kris, pointing out that most people don’t have an opportunity to do something like this. “Like with my dad,” Khloé says, with a matter-of-fact poignancy. Kris gives it another shot.