Alana ‘Honey Boo Boo’ Thompson fights to stay with Mama June in Florida on Road To Redemption

Alana ‘Honey Boo Boo’ Thompson and her sister Lauryn ‘Pumpkin’ Shannon travel down to Florida to visit Mama June on this week’s episode of Mama June: Road To Redemption.

And though the daughters are working to repair their fractured relationship with June after her perpetual lying and past drug addiction, more damage is seemingly done when Alana entertains the idea of staying longer with her mom than Pumpkin would like.

Things come to a head when June leads with bribery as she and boyfriend Geno Doak take Alana apartment hunting in the hopes to entice her to kiss her life in Georgia goodbye.

The episode picks up from last week’s episode’s tense family dinner. A protective Pumpkin — who has become Alana’s caretaker — pushes back on June’s attempts to build a life for Alana in Florida.  

‘I’m the one who knows what’s best for Alana now. Like, I have worked the last two years getting Alana to talk to me. Now, you wanna come back in and basically, like, get her hopes up,’ Pumpkin says. 

She slams June for leaving them years ago telling her that she was the one left to pick up the pieces. But Alana seems to be forgiving of her mother as she says in a confessional she wishes Pumpkin would ‘lighten up.’

In a confessional, Pumpkin fears June will pit Honey Boo Boo against she and her husband Josh after Alana seems to be buying June’s rehabilitated character and continues to be charmed by life in the sunshine state.   

Though June continues to apologize for ‘not being there,’ and thanks Pumpkin for stepping in as guardian, she asserts that she is and will always be her ‘mama.’ 

She continues to urge that she’s turning a new page after rehab. ‘When I was in rehab, I mean, I realized that, you know, I wanted y’all back. So now I’m taking steps to do that, and I want y’all around to see those steps,’ she says. 

Things seem to be going well despite underlying tension as Alana and Geno engaged in a friendly game of foosball and work on the grill. And June continues to enjoy spending time with her granddaughter Ella who had been barred from seeing her at first. 

Mama June expresses gratitude for their continued family growth. ‘I’m just so glad to have y’all back in our life. You know, like, I feel like we’ve came a long way, and, like, we can continue to stay on the path,’ she says. 

And meanwhile Geno is doing his own damage control as he makes an attempt to get some quality one on one time with Alana by inviting her to dinner. 

June tees up a special treat for her kids to prove how serious she is about sobriety as she plans to take them to the Banyan treatment center — the place she says ‘saved her life.’ 

But back in Georgia, Josh is stewing with stress. Not only has he been sheltering Alana’s dad Sugar Bear in the backyard but he’s quit his job. 

Pumpkin however also has a bombshell to drop, revealing via phone call that Alana likes being in Florida which sets Josh off. 

As Alana and Geno’s dinner commences, he continues to subtly make bids to get Alana to live with them in Florida. ‘I want things to get back like they were before, you know?,’ he says, adding that her staying would make them ‘really happy.’ 

Though Alana maintains that the pair’s past drug issues had made things ‘really hard,’ while citing that a year of time without them ‘hurt [her] a lot,’ she contemplates staying with them. 

And meanwhile June and Pumpkin dine at their Florida rental where she also tries to plant seeds of Alana staying in Florida for longer, as she paints a picture of a rosy future.

But Pumpkin swiftly brings her back to reality. ‘You still have a court date. You still have legal issues that y’all have to work through.I just don’t want Alana thinking, like, it’s gonna be all fine and dandy,’ she says.

When Alana and Geno return from dinner she seems to solidify plans to stay to Mama June, adding that she’ll break the news to Pumpkin in the morning.  

The family takes a trip to Banyan the next day where June’s daughters are given reassurance from a facility member that June has come really far and is actively working hard at sobriety.

Her daughters look on as June gives a testimonial of her time in treatment as part of the facility’s marketing push by highlighting real stories. And the testimony continues to put her in Alana’s good graces, despite Pumpkin maintaining hesitance. 

As she and Pumpkin are set to return home to Georgia, Alana reveals she wants to stay for a little bit longer while conveying that mama is back to her ‘old self.’  

‘I want to be around her and she’s back sober — her and Geno both,’ Alana says, before Pumpkin reminds her that their family therapist said they are ‘statistically’ set to relapse as they’ve been clean for less than a year.  

After Pumpkin’s hesitation over Alana’s extended getaway she obliges, but requests she keep in contact and keep up her schooling. 

And as Pumpkin makes her trek back home, Alana seems to be letting loose under her mom’s watch as she takes selfies by the pool and dreams of a life there. 

 Though June cracks the whip on Alana’s schooling as she continues to flex a newfound parental muscle, she says above all she aims to get out of the ‘dark spot,’ they’ve been in.   

‘I have missed out on a lot of y’all’s life.I mean, look, I mean, you’re almost, like, grown. So now I’m looking forward,and I know that I want to be here for y’all, and I want to be the best mom I can be,’ she tells her. 

With Pumpkin on her way back to Georgia Josh scrambles to fix the situation at home between Sugar Bear and his unemployment. But she has her own explaining to do when she walks in without Alana which angers Josh as he was not consulted on the decision. 

The next day in Florida Geno and June take Alana to look at a new more permanent residence — the pair even keeping Alana in mind by finding an apartment with an extra bedroom so she can spend more time there. 

Bribery seems to be working for Alana as she freaks out over the place and the huge closet space. ‘I think I could get used to this Florida life,’ she says, as she confesses its way nicer than her room in Georgia. 

When she checks in with Pumpkin and reveals they have been looking at places, Pumpkin starts to worry that Alana is slipping away and buying into false promises. 

Josh decides to take action and says he’s gonna go to Florida to get Alana himself. He then reveals he has quit his job so has the bandwidth to drive down there, but Pumpkin is angered and begins to worry about their future.   

After a tense conversation about money and stability, they focus their attention back to Alana. Josh continues to slam the ‘pipe dreams’ June is feeding her, maintaining that legally they have custody over her. 

‘Alana is our child, and now your mother’s doing some slithery, snaky s**t trying to get her to stay down there,’ he retorts, adding that June has let Alana down ‘so many times.’  

Josh then embarks on the car ride down to get Alana back, and the episode ends with a boiling exchange as he comes face to face with June and they war over Alana staying.