Sins of Our Mother review: The Netflix docuseries is a slow-paced spine-chilling account of Lori and Chad's beliefs gone wrong

Netflix’s true crime documentary Sins of Our Mother dropped on the streaming platform on Wednesday, September 14. While the subject has garnered immense media coverage, the three-episode series just struck the death knell for Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell.

Directed by Skye Borgman, Sins of Our Mother follows the history of Lori Vallow’s life as a Mormon Christian, becoming a mother at 22 and going through four marriages before meeting doomsday author Daybell and turning her life upside down in the name of belief.

Both Lori and Chad are accused of killing two of Lori's children, Joshua "jj" Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 17, and taking their social security payments in 2019.

The couple married a few months after the demise of Chad's ex-wife, Tammy, in Hawaii, where they were also apprehended for failing to present their children.

Subsequently, the burnt remains of both children were discovered in a temporary burial close to Vallow's rural Idaho house. Both Lori and Chad will go on trial in 2023.

The docuseries features interviews with Vallow’s son, Colby Ryan; her mother, Janis Cox; former sister-in-law, Annie Cushing; former friend, April Raymond; reporter Justin Lum; and Colby’s wife, Kelsee Ryan, among others. It comes a week after Colby Ryan was charged with s*xual assault.

Read on for a detailed review of Sins of Our Mother on Netflix.

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Sins of Our Mother review: A slow but chilling account of delusion, murder and abuse

Sins of Our Mother begins with Lori’s biological son and the only surviving child, Colby Ryan, saying,

“Belief will really take you to a different place.”

Ryan’s words summarize the events that transpire in the documentary.

Staying true to form, Sins of Our Mother traces Lori’s background as having been born and raised into a Mormon Christian family that was a regular at the Latter-Day Saints (LDS) church. Her mother, Janis Cox, appeared in the documentary and testified that Lori had taken to the scriptures quite seriously.

But it was not her upbringing that paved the way for her future actions. This is what Sins of Our Mother explores.

Lori has been through five marriages, and her husband from the fourth marriage, Joseph Ryan, had s*xually abused Colby when he was a child. Colby testified to it in the first episode of the docuseries and said that this was the breaking point for Lori.

In a voice recording, Lori is heard saying,

“There’s a turning point in my life that turned me to the temple. I was married to someone who was very awful, who r*ped my children, and I was going to murder him.”

While this statement feels validated given the circumstances, not for once did Sins of Our Mother try to paint an innocent picture of Lori. Her background and her history with abuse are not used as arguments to excuse her from her actions.

Colby also revealed that while the LDS’ presence was ubiquitous in their lives, it continued to grow to the point where Lori’s beliefs took over. The docuseries comes with a few recordings of Lori talking about encountering angels in real life, to being sent on “missions.”

Several people who Lori came across in her life, appeared in the docuseries and confirmed that she had a tendency to super-spiritualize everything despite running for Mrs. Texas pageant and appearing on Wheels of Fortune.

Lori, according to one of her friends from the LDS churches, believed that Jesus Christ was gathering his army for the doomsday, and that she was one of the 144,000 individuals who would be saved and inducted into the post-apocalypse city called New Jerusalem. Lori would also buy essentials in bulk to prepare ahead of the impending doomsday.

It was based on such common beliefs that Lori met and connected with Chad Daybell, the doomsday author and her alleged accomplice in the murders of Tylee and JJ. Her beliefs also created friction between her and Kelsee, who took Colby to a Christian church, which left Lori in splits.

It wasn’t until Lori joined the podcast called Feel the Fire and started going to conferences where Daybell delivered lectures on his books and Mormonism that things started spiraling downward.

The best part about Sins of Our Mother is that despite the title being worded as one that is directed toward Lori, the docuseries dissects Chad’s missionary background as well. As per Chad’s claims, he has had two life-threatening situations that enabled him to “look beyond the veil and bring back visions from the future.”

Both Chad and Lori believed themselves to be equal to God, and even created Light and Dark points for their family members. The documentary revealed that those with more Dark points were also the ones that Lori was not on good terms with. It was these people who needed to be removed.

The series does not present anything in terms of facts that have not been covered by the media already.

Sins of Our Mother is still a spin-chilling docuseries that covers one of the most talked about crime scenes in the US at a slow pace. It is also credited with touching upon the nitty-gritties that make it a balanced piece.

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Sins of Our Mother is currently streaming on Netflix.