The Kardashians Season 6 wastes no time diving into what viewers want to see. The premiere episode devotes its final 15 minutes to Khloé Kardashian‘s emotional and bittersweet reunion with her ex-husband Lamar Odom, putting longtime fans right back in their feels.
Kardashian was 24 when she married the former NBA star only 30 days after they first met. Their fairytale wedding was documented in the Season 4 premiere of E!’s Keeping Up with the Kardashians, which, along with spinoff show Khloe & Lamar, showcased their whirlwind romance for a handful of years.
But after months of alleged substance abuse and infidelity rumors, Kardashian filed for divorce in 2013.
Two years later, Odom overdosed in a Las Vegas brothel and suffered 12 seizures, six strokes, collapsed his lungs and ruptured his kidneys. The reality star nursed him back to health and once he was stable enough, she refiled for divorce and it was finalized in 2016.
As a montage of loving flashbacks plays of the former couple in The Kardashians Season 6 premiere, Kardashian describes Odom as the “purest love” she’s ever had. “Although there was so much darkness in that marriage, there was the brightest of the bright times and I love it and I cherish it,” she says in her confessional, painfully reminding viewers of the version of her heart that had not yet been ravaged by an addict husband and a cheating baby daddy.
The Good American founder ultimately decides that she wants to meet up with her ex-husband to return some of his belongings, including his NBA Sixth Man of the Year trophy, his late mother’s driver’s license, and an angel-wing necklace she had custom-made that represented his mom, his grandmother, and his son who passed away as a baby.
After showing up to their meeting at Malika Haqq’s house nearly one hour late, Odom appears to be a shell of his former self, hardly able to look his ex-wife in the eyes. Kardashian describes him as “visibly uncomfortable” and seemingly “scared.” But after some time, the former athlete attempts to break the ice by assuming Kardashian’s younger brother Rob would be living with Haqq, which is a callback to the brief fling they had while filming Khloe & Lamar.
“I don’t have a lot of emotion for this meeting,” Kardashian says in her confessional. “I have dealt with so much trauma in this relationship for years and this was such the love of my life that to learn how to un-love someone, to have to go through all of that, it’s like a death.”
The most heartbreaking part of their meeting is when we can clearly see Odom realizing that Kardashian is the one who got away.
“He looks like you a lot. Your little boy looks like you a lot,” he says, pointing to the screensaver of Kardashian and Tristan Thompson’s two children True, 6, and Tatum, 2.
“I took you through a lot, huh,” Odom finally adds, before acknowledging that he “fucked up” with Kardashian. “I love you for trying your hardest with me. And that love, I don’t think it will ever go away. I know it won’t.”
New episodes of The Kardashians air on Thursdays on Hulu.
