Hulu recently released the well-awaited documentary on the Eight Passengers family, and more specifically, Ruby Franke. This documentary series was split into three 50 minute segments, and had viewers shocked and unable to stop watching. Focusing on this family, the docu-series dives into the love, pain, and regret that has occurred throughout the last ten years.
Senior Hannah Brown said, “I loved watching Eight Passengers as a kid. I want to watch the documentary to see what has happened since I stopped watching them.”
The first episode focuses on the past and allows viewers to learn about who the Franke family is and how such a tragedy started. Ruby and Kevin Franke are the parents to six kids, and raised them in Springville, Utah. The oldest daughter, Shari Franke, is currently 22-years-old. Followed by son, Chad Franke at 20-years-old. Abby Franke is 17-years-old, Julie Franke is 16-years-old, Russel Franke is 13-years-old, and the youngest Eve is 11-years-old.
For the beginning of the first five children’s lives, the family lived without screens. One of the first videos that caught a following, and was also shown twice within the documentary, was the gender reveal for the youngest daughter. The children can be seen gathered around the kitchen table while Ruby cut the cake and Kevin filmed.
This video and many others from the start showed that the family was a normal, kind, and loving group. Ruby loved to be a mom and wanted to start showing the world, so she began vlogging more of their daily lives. Kevin commented on this in the documentary, mentioning that he was shy in the beginning, and some days, Ruby would get upset when he wasn’t as interested to participate as she was. This was also similar with Chad, who at the time was a pre-teen.
At that age, many kids don’t want to be followed around by their parents, and Chad felt this way too. He explained in the documentary that he would purposefully act out and mess up so Ruby wouldn’t make him continue vlogging. Even though he would act up and get upset, he said that at the beginning of his life Ruby was an amazing mother. Some think this started to change when Ruby started vlogging more, and others think it all began when they moved neighborhoods.
As the family grew with members and money, the family needed more space. They moved into a new neighborhood in Springville, Utah, and many of the neighbors were introduced in the documentary. Many of them commented throughout the three episodes, but in the beginning, many made comments about Ruby not hosting parties or having people over and her focusing on vlogging over having an actual conversation with others.
This trend of focusing more on the online viewers and creating this perfect life was also being noticed by the family as well. Kevin commented that Ruby started getting mad if people were talking while she was filming, and she would have to refilm clips until it looked like the perfect life she wanted people to see. This transition from a kind, present mother to one that only listened to her kids to get content was a hard change for many of the kids.
Throughout the series, there was unreleased footage added in of bloopers and the takes it took for Ruby to film a video. In one of the unreleased clips, Ruby can be seen talking about planning with marbles, and when she hears her kids playing downstairs, she yells at them to stop talking. The sudden change in emotion shocked fans. Ruby can be seen flipping a switch from perfect mother to complete anger at the idea of one of her videos being ruined.
The documentary continues with comments from neighbors and the personal recollection of events from Kevin, Shari, and Chad. This is important because this was the first time Kevin has openly spoken about the events that he went through and his side of the story. This is also one of the first times that Chad has gone into detail about his childhood and the last few years.
The first episode began the story but really focused on the family’s past and the buildup to Ruby’s anger. The second episode was the start of the connection to Jodi Hildebrandt and her brand Connexions. Hildebrandt was first brought into the family as Chad’s therapist. Throughout his childhood, he would act up and would get punishments such as getting his bed taken away or getting sent to wilderness camp.
When these videos were revealed, many fans started commenting on the “strange” things happening. Many didn’t think it was ok for parents to be taking away a child’s bed for seven months, and some even started commenting about it being borderline abuse. This is when Ruby and the family started noticing fewer and fewer viewers on their page. Many fans missed watching the sweet family vloggers that they used to watch.
After seeing these comments, Ruby took it that Chad needed a grounding force, aka Hildebrandt. She was the top reviewed therapist in the area where they lived. He would do weekly Zoom sessions with her to learn more about why he was acting out, and to make him want to improve to please his mom. As these sessions continued, Ruby became close with Hildebrandt herself and started attending her Connexions classes.
Connexions was a relationship and business counseling service where Hildebrandt’s goal was to help connect relationships back together and remove the “sin”. It was revealed that the Eight Passengers’ family was Mormon and did many things in their life based on their faith. Hidebrandt was similar and ran her company the same way. There would be men’s sessions where she would help the men remove lust and other things to become better partners for their wives.
As Ruby and Kevin continued into Connexions, Ruby began to lead sessions and get closer with Jodi. This is when the family noticed a complete turn in their lives. Hildebrandt and Ruby began a plan to remove everyone from their life, so Kevin, Chad, and Shari were all kicked out of the house and out of the family. These three were forced into a no-contact phase with Ruby.
Kevin really struggled with this because he was forced to stop talking to and living with his wife. Ruby and Hildebrandt believed that there was evil in the world, and people, including Ruby’s own family, were demonic. The third episode dives into the youngest son Russell and his escape that saved his siblings’ lives. Russell rang doorbells of nearby houses until he found one to answer. This began the investigation of the cops and the capturing of Ruby and Hildebrandt.
While still believing everything Ruby was saying, Kevin didn’t believe she did wrong until visiting the house and seeing the damage that was created. Many fans don’t believe that he was unaware of the abuse throughout the year of no contact, but others believe that Ruby had brainwashed him along with Chad to not notice anything wrong.
Ruby and Hildebrandt were both convicted guilty with five counts of child abuse and neglect and are both serving up to 30 years in prison. While the four youngest kids haven’t given how they feel to the public, longtime and new time fans are worried for their safety and mental health in the coming years.
Chad and Kevin have admitted that they still love Ruby even after the abuse of their siblings/children was revealed. They claimed that you can’t remove all of the good memories even when the same woman that gave them an amazing life did something wrong. Shari, on the other hand, has written the book “The House of My Mother” and is publicly fighting against family vloggers and the things that occurred to her siblings.
Senior Lindsay Gershaw said, “I am extremely excited to watch the Ruby Franke documentary because I want to know what she did behind the camera, and I love watching true crime.”
The documentary ends with Kevin saying the documentary isn’t just about violence. It is also a story of love and happiness. While many viewers don’t agree that the documentary was happy, there is a clear representation shown of how easily Ruby Franke changed from loving mother to monster.
