A freak accident, a bit of bad luck, a butterfly flapping its wings in Thailand. Some drunk guy had skipped a curb, launched his car into the air, and went crashing through a wall, partially destroying the home that the Downses paid $215,000 to renovate. As reported by Kristin Hoppa in the Waco Tribune-Herald, the Downses were sleeping in their Gaines-blessed home on Saturday night when a dang car came flying into their living room. It’s one that’s made plain by the story of Ken and Kelly Downs, who were featured on Season 3 of the show. Well, as is true of most things that seem like unmitigated positives, there is a darker side to this whole Fixer Upper phenomenon. They’ve remade many beautiful homes in Waco, all done with a cheery, family-focused energy that springs from deep Christian roots. The couple guides other couples as they purchase a home in the city-usually one that needs a little T.LC.-and then does a renovation, putting in nice floors and new kitchens and opening up spaces and all that.

The easy assumption about HGTV’s smash-hit show is that it’s been a boon for Waco, TX, the small-ish city some 90 miles south of Dallas that is the staging ground for Fixer Upper hosts Chip and Joanna Gaines to practice their restorative art. It is, of course, a story of Fixer Upper. Of a burnished patina of progress that masks a slow-roiling unrest, a conflict in bloom in the heartland. But it’s also a tale of a town changed, of a deceptive civic shift. It’s a tale of one couple whose life took a difficult turn. Here is a story that seems small but gradually reveals itself to be rather large.

Kristin hoppa