The Moth Chase

Season 4 Begins!

Where to begin?! I am so excited about the return of the Henricksons and the melodrama of Big Love – and the premier did not disappoint. It took us squarely back into the lives of our favorite characters, bringing us up to speed, and advancing new plot lines, while promising some explosive new possibilities for the season: Alby’s illicit woodland encounters with the high powered lawyer in charge of the Juniper Creek trust fund committee; Nicki’s continued machinations and paranoid backlash from her traumatic upbringing; Barb struggling to live life with the promise of eternal outer darkness hanging over her head; Sarah’s looming marriage; and let’s not forget, Roman Grant’s death! But to back up a minute, let’s talk opening credits.

In general, I’m not a huge fan of shows switching opening credits for a new season. There is something ritually attractive about the regularity of the credits framing each new experience. The one show I appreciated diversity on was The Wire – and even there they kept some images throughout, just bringing in new pieces of the widening puzzle with each season. So realizing that that bizarro teaser I posted this weekend is the actual credits, albeit with a slightly more upbeat musical background, took me by surprise. It also signaled that the show’s creators/writers think they are up to something pretty damn new this season, and I am intrigued to see if they can deliver. Of course, there are continuities too – Bill and his wives coming together around the image of hand-holding, only to find that their bonds break. In the original credits, the ice cracks and the family is divided, only to be re-found as Bill pulls each wife through the veils of eternal life to a happily ever-after on their own eternal planet (this is a pretty basic take on traditional Mormon theology of the afterlife). We get the same premise here, but without the promise of eternal perfection. Now the family is floating through outer darkness, unable to reconnect, potentially sundered forever.

What I love about Big Love is the ability to weave the mundane, earthly affairs of a complicated family structure with the seriousness of theological and religious commitments. The potential fracturing of the Henricksons, is, on one level, a story we can all relate to. The polygamous nature of the family only heightens many of the problems all nuclear families face: how to balance individual needs against the family collective, how to cling to each other despite pressures to disintegrate, how to effectively communicate without jealously or rage, how to seek first both financial security and success and familial unity and peace. That the Henricksons also struggle with the theological doubt that their way of life might lead to an eternal kind of fracturing, raises the stakes of their earthly endeavors. And Big Love might be one of the few shows on television that takes the religious beliefs of its characters seriously enough to assume they are actually motivated by them, even if at the same time, we can see all the other concerns, doubts, and petty selfishness that motivate them also.

The more I’ve thought about it, the more I think these new credits are fantastic – and a great way to set the stage for heart of the drama: how will this family survive as the family they want to be?

Their odds of making it seem to improve radically now that Roman Grant is dead and his dead body has been found and confirmed (not just for the Henricksons, but for all of us. I have to admit, I was waiting for the proof like anyone else). As Bill says so poignantly at the end of the episode: the family has been plagued by the ghost presence of Roman Grant hovering over all their endeavors for so long. Of course, the final image of Bill holding Roman’s old white hat, suggests that this ghost has a bit more haunting to do, and I am interested to know just how much damage Roman can do from the grave.

If we’ve learned anything about the compound, it is that this way of life – secretive, manipulative, patriarchical to an extreme – exacts a toll on its members that leaves them pretty much traumatized for life. Nicki being the case in point: how much therapy would she need to ever really let go of the patterns of jealousy, fear, rage, and abuse that prevent her from embracing her new life? When Adaleen sends her into the cellar for bacon, I was convinced that JJ or Alby or some other thug doing their bidding would be waiting to intimidate or kidnap  her. Not that finding her dead father was that much kinder, pyschically speaking, but I realized just how sick this world is, if I am convinced that mothers will so easily sell their children out of fear. Much like the trauma-drama we see repeating, with some level of humor, between Lois and Frank. I loved it when she pulled the gun on him in the car! To watch them play each other in circles of manipulation and one-up-mans-ship was both hilarious and oh so disturbing.

Nicki is not the only wife caught in old patterns. A lot of this season seems to center around Margene’s comment at the wifely weekly check-in: they are not falling apart, she insists, they are just changing. How each of these women will change in response to the new pressures and the threat of potential exposure is the question of the season. I love each of these wives in my own way, but I am especially interested to see if and how Barb will make the transition fully into her new life. By confessing her polygamy and accepting excommunication at the end of the last season, she is in limbo – does she really believe the Principle and the new church of her husband’s leading? We’ve watched Barb struggle to accept or reject the fruits of her actions since the beginning. Can she actually find peace? Do we want her to?

There is so much more to say, but this has gone on ridiculously long. In closing, I will say my favorite line of the episode was probably Barb saying: Mormons don’t eat salmon. Indeed.

I can’t wait for next week, a big plate of crab legs, and another hour of clean family entertainment.

Kathryn

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Season 4: Episode 2

Well, we are fully back in the world of polygamist melodrama and dasterdly plots! In case last week’s premier left any doubt, the Henrickson’s roller coaster ride with exposure and persecution is far from over, even with the death of Roman. This time, Bill is bringing the danger to their door step with a (probably) ill-advised campaign to run for state senate. Of course, having a creepy, crazy compound relative like JJ (he has no fingernails!!!) is sure to complicate what is already likely to be a long, drawn out, complicated campaign trail. And now the danger isn’t getting exposed, it is getting exposed by other people before Bill can publicly expose them during his Great Reveal after he wins the hearts and minds of his fellow citizens by pretending to be an upstanding, if repentant, member of the LDS church.

Let’s talk for a moment about what this is whole campaign is all about. Bill claims he is following a revelation from Heavenly Father and acts as flabbergasted as the next wife that he (little old Bill Henrickson) has been chosen for such a monumental task as “putting a new face on the Principle.” But do we really believe for a second that Bill is that humble? One of the things I’ve always loved about this show is the way they show characters acting out of their religious convictions, while at the same time suggesting other, less noble, motivations are still in play, without reducing religious conviction to a bevvy of other unconscious desires. In this case, Roman’s death and Bill’s own feelings of impotence in the face of a law that criminalizes his life, are clearly motivating his actions and to some degree have to lend “that inner peace” Don talks about to his revelation. Not to mention we’ve watched Bill aggrandize his image and material gain at great costs to his family and always with the blessing of Heavenly Father. At the same time, he has one wife and a brother insisting that he is called to assume public leadership under the mantle of his true life, just as the Prophet of Juniper Creek, not a state senator. When Bill comes to his final revelation – not only is he supposed to run for office, he is supposed to reveal his plural marriage after election – he does so with his grandfather’s copy of the Mormon “Doctrines and Covenants” on his knee. The message seems pretty clear – Bill is accepting his call as a new Prophet, but his church will extend beyond the compound. It will, in fact, extend to the whole Mormon world and beyond as the ambassador for the Principle in a new middle class guise.

If Bill is a new kind of Prophet, what are we to make of his three wives and their various reactions to the news? Barb still seems to be embracing a new kind of submission to Bill and the Principle, even as she pulls the wool over the eyes of the same church that just excommunicated her to such emotionally devastating results. Did it seem just a bit implausible that she would go through with that whole charade, especially when she is doubtful of the campaign anyway? The only possible explanation is that she is giving herself over to her husband’s priesthood/headship so fully she has stopped thinking for herself. Not Margie, however. Margie is only growing more independent and I love it! Not only  is she projecting a six-figure salary for her jewelry business, she is not above using sex to question Bill’s actions and then still demanding more action when he breaks off early. But, as is often the case, Nicki is still the most twisted, vexed, and uncertain – and the most fascinating to me. She clearly wants Bill to go back to the compound and run her slimy brother off, but she seems potentially open to the idea of sticking it out for the big public exposure. And of course she is still confused about her feelings for the DA. The most fascinating Nicki scene for me was her open weeping at Sarah’s wedding. Every fiber of Nicki’s being seemed to long for that expression of romantic love, despite her diatribe against the falseness of a non-celestial marriage. What storehouse of emotions, sentimental though they may be, will we discover next?

Speaking of celestial marriage – I am totally excited to see this aspect of the Henrickson’s theology come to the fore: the belief that true eternal happiness depends upon one’s family and that the ties of one’s family last for eternity. The exchange between Sarah and Barb went straight to the heart of the matter – Barb employing Sarah not to buy the cheap lie that commitment for this life alone is all that matters and Sarah saying that perhaps that is exactly the point. I’ve drawn comparisons between the doctrine of eternal marriage in Big Love and the theological background of the Twilight series and I look forward to seeing this trend in Mormon romance continue.

There is so much more to say about Sarah’s marriage and the return of Heather (yay!), but I will wait for another episode.

Then we have Alby finally seeming to embrace his sexual identity, eternal marriage be damned. Or is this just part of an elaborate power play? Is there a big difference for Alby?

Finally, I never noticed before that the Henrickson’s pray with their arms crossed – you learn a fun new tidbit every day!

Kathryn.

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Big Love Season 4, Episode 3: Strange Bedfellows

What a packed episode! Alby starts a potentially blackmailing, potential soul-making relationship with Dan, complete with breakfast in bed and a brewing business deal. Barbara steps on more than just toes on the reservation, bringing a frustrating level of cultural insensitivity to her sensitivity training with the casino employees. Nicki’s near arrest for carrying a concealed weapon gets in the way of the sex reunion she and Bill have planned for DC. Sarah takes home an Indian meth addict and her baby. Bill secures the near-endorsement of his state senator, and Margene kisses Ben (and not the way a mother kisses a son) right before her prime-time TV appearance, during which Ben is identified to the whole world as her husband.

Let’s start with this last little “what the what?!” moment. I love Margene. I love her impulsiveness, her struggle (which is often not really much of a struggle) to discipline her instincts to her will, her warm heart and eternal optimism. On one level, I totally get why she did it: Ben was there for her when no one else was. She felt a surge of love for him and translated that love into a tender physical expression (very Margie). She also knew it was something he really wanted, and in her impulsive, generous way she loves to give people what they want, especially as a gesture of thanks. The consequences of this impulse should keep us occupied for a good while. I’m less worried about the kiss itself (Margene is just as likely to rationalize it away and/or confess it to the whole family and move on as anything else). It is that damn television coverage. When Bill made his big speech at the end of the last episode about how they absolutely, positively couldn’t be exposed in the next six weeks, the clock started ticking toward one or several PR disasters. Ben and Margene being linked as husband and wife on prime-time television sped up that clock, as did Bill announcing that Nicki was his wife when he tried to get her out of policy custody, and Joey and Wanda exhuming Roman Grant’s body. Alby’s cell phone photos aren’t the only thing that promise to reappear and make trouble.

My next favorite moment of the episode was Bill’s triumphant gaze over DC as the sun began to set. Having just landed an almost-endorsement from the senator he thought he would never meet, his chest puffs out with pride, his eyes blaze in victory, and if it weren’t for the DC insiders swirling around him, I am sure he would have started thanking Heavenly Father right then and there on bended knee. Of course, we know that the providence he feels has so graced his actions and affirmed his path is not the work of an omniscient God as much as a fast-talking Nicki in the ladies room with Sissy Spacek. This scene was a magnificent illustration of the way the show does not demean Bill’s faith, while also suggesting that the complex web of human actions and motives that are always somewhat mysterious to everyone else play a much bigger role in the sum of a life than any one character can see. Bill is so selfish sometimes (what is he thinking suggesting Nicki get pregnant?!), and so frustratingly self-righteous, there was something beautiful in knowing what was really going on as he offered his silent, victorious benediction.

Speaking of self-righteousness, Barb got on my last nerve this episode. At every turn she is saying the wrong thing and all the while assuming her own superiority. I took far too much pleasure in watching Dolores tell her off. That said, I am pretty intrigued by her relationship with the whole casino world, especially the attractive son. I’d love to see Barb really embrace her passion for bridging the differences between cultures…

As usual, the wife I wanted to watch the most was Nicki. We’ve seen a lot of Nicki’s bad side lately and I am sure there is more to come, but I really loved the speech she gives to Cara Lynn – wanting her not to be afraid of herself and of the world. It was one of the most self-reflective moments we’ve seen the entire series for Nicki, and a sign that she is more aware than she lets on of just how twisted up she is inside. We’ve watched the wives grow and regress in relationship to the patriarchal marriage they’ve chosen and while I have always appreciated that they’ve let us see the cost of the compound’s devastating treatment of women in Nicki, I keep rooting for her and I find her to be more interesting the more vexed and uncertain she is.

Final thoughts: Alby and Dan! And just plain Alby! Can anyone else make a simple gesture like breathing through the mouth seem so creepy, so alien, and so ominous? I am not sure what to make of the appearance of Roman Grant’s beligerant ghost – a la Six Feet Under or Dexter – but watching Alby’s face reassume the mask of fear and self-loathing we’ve come to see so often was absolutely chilling, and brilliant. And what about JJ? Did he really suggest that he performs his own biopsies on his wife? He totally terrifies me and he has so little screen time. I’m not entirely sure what his end game is with Joey and Wanda, but we can be pretty sure that this fingernail-less freak will give Roman and Alby a run for their money in the freaky nemesis department.

Looking forward to see how the mighty and strong rise and fall next week.

Posted by Kathryn.

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Episode 4: The Lost Boys

As far as disturbing episodes go, this one really took it up a notch for me. I know, I know, we’ve seen worse in terms of physical violence and even double-crossing manipulation. But in terms of showing us the dark underbelly of the patriarchal theological, moral, and social universe our characters inhabit, this episode went straight for the jugular. It was as if all the strange neuroses of our characters could be summed up in two distinct moments of this episode: Alby telling his mother that she is the property of the priesthood before he marries her off to her former son-in-law and Bill basically kicking Ben out of the house out of jealousy and fear of competition.

The title of the episode – “The Lost Boys” – is clearly meant to highlight the latter moment. And the “next on” promises to pick up this theme next week as Bill political opponent goes after lost boys and polygamy more generally. While there are plenty of non-polygamous family arrangements where sons can fall for their father’s wives, set in the context of this family and this storyline, the hardening of both of their faces as they recognize each other as sexual competition was  particularly heart-wrenching. Even more so, because Ben leaving his father’s house was just one example of the consequences of a system where women and children are the property of men who are themselves so screwed up by their fathers no one stands a chance at “normal”.

We also have the demented (have to agree with you there, Nicki) plot of Adaleen’s marriage to JJ. Did anyone else really think that Adaleen was “practicing the art of perfect obedience” – what does JJ have on her that is keeping her in line? The scene where Alby and JJ are haggling over her fate was perhaps one of the most disturbing moments of the episode. We’ve seen this power play through woman-trading before, but those two men trading on the language of the priesthood as they both weave plots of manipulation and control was pretty damn creepy. Even the one moment of subversion -  Jodeen releasing the parakeets and smiling as Lois and Frank scramble to recover them – seemed a shallow act of revenge for a woman about to have to honeymoon with Frank at a Holiday Inn Express.

Bill’s entire scheme to run for senate is also implicated in the system of male control, and might just be his most hair-brained expression of self-righteous self-determination yet – covered over by the language of revelation and divine mission. As every aspect of their life begins to unravel – Don taking the bullet and outing himself and his family, Barb rushing to the basement to search the grain for weevils, Margene realizing she has feeling for Ben, Sarah trying to keep an Indian baby to compensate for her miscarriage – Bill just keeps on pressing forward, convinced that it will all lead to the happy open polygamous life. But hasn’t he thought, for even one moment, about what will happen if they are exposed before he is elected. Not to mention, the emotional fallout of self-exposure, even if he is a senator, to say nothing of economic or political reprisals. The real question for me at this point is not will this destroy the family? but how can it not help but destroy the family and on what grounds can the writers possibly expect us to believe they can keep it together? If the show is really headed for an end (can anyone confirm this?), maybe they are going to take the bleak way out…

I know I sound like I am bashing the show. The strange thing is – I’m not. I think it is brilliant and I am still totally addicted. It is just that somehow this episode made clear to me that no matter how fantastic these characters are, no matter how compelling, no matter how over the top and addictive the drama – it is compelling precisely because it doesn’t look away from the dark consequences of a whole system that rests on the continued subjugation of women, and the consequences that extend to children and to men because of it (and let’s just take a good hard look at Alby to see how women aren’t the only ones screwed by this system).

As for favorite moments that actually made me laugh, despite the darkness: I loved the scene of Lois stuffing an empty hair-spray bottle and her own socks with cash as she congratulates Bill on his political bid. And I so want to know what JJ has enlisted Joey to do. Speaking of JJ – he is coming into his own as a villain and wow, what a nasty piece of work he continues to prove himself. Anyone want to take bets whether he’ll end up on the bad side of one of Wanda’s acts of hospitality? Sadly, that would be far too easy.

If other people had more positive takes of the episode, I’d love to hear them. And I can’t wait for Sissy Spacek’s return next week!

Kathryn

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Episode 5: The Sins of the Father

I’m aware, even as I upload this photo, how much of this season and my commentary on it have revolved around Bill. Bill the megalomaniacal father, husband, businessman, prophet, potential senator. Bill, who runs roughshod over his entire family, his friends, his business partners to get what he wants, believing all the while that such calloused behavior is part of the lord’s plan to elevate his priesthood over an increasing circle of loyal followers (as though he is doing such a good job with those whose priesthood he supposedly already holds). This episode was no different – Bill continues to clutch at straws of control even as his family continues to implode, his son leaves home, his political scheming with Marilyn backfires – except that perhaps, finally, we, along with Bill are going to see some consequences to his actions.Ben has left home and refuses to brush over the clear intentions of his father’s alpha male move. Bil might insist he didn’t exile Ben out of sexual competition, but Ben and the rest of his family clearly don’t see it that way. I have to say, I was mighty relieved that Ben didn’t come back and the two men make some sort of shuffling apologies. I can’t say I like his chances for happiness on the road with Lois and Frank’s bird show, but I am glad that we are finally seeing repercussions of actions that last longer than the time it makes to cobble together an apology and start trying to make a baby (though, total digression, I loved the scene between Nicki and Bill when she asks him, so honestly, why she is always the one called upon to do the morally ambiguous things for the good of the family and he answers “to each according to his gifts”. Thanks Bill, that really makes a girl feel good).

Of course, even as Bill’s family harmony is upset, his hairbrained political aspirations continue to move forward. Maybe politics really are different in Utah, but it was a bit hard to believe that such a short personal confession of his own morally ambiguous past and a call to Utah “to move beyond its past” by embracing the so-called Lost Boys would yield a Republican nomination. I couldn’t help but think how shocked and betrayed the good conservatives of Utah will be when they learn that their Ronald Reagan dance-party throwing senator wants to move beyond Utah’s polygamous past by reinvigorating the institution with some good middle class values and transparent multi-home living arrangements.

As should be pretty clear, I’m not a huge Bill fan right now. Nor do I forgive him everything just because of the anguish on this face when he realizes Ben isn’t coming counts as redemption. He still hasn’t actually admitted what he did or his own complicity in the system that destroyed his life. That said, I was actually moved by the sad defeat on his face as he looks out toward the blank space he created in exiling his son at the same time when the jubilant crowd tries to pull him into a political celebration. The fact that, for once, he can’t quite switch gears, he can’t quite get his arms in the air on his own, or turn his face into the mask of confident success at least convinced me that Bill might have the makings of repentance in him, even though we’ve never seen them on display.

Of course, this episode wasn’t all about Bill and the various layers of father trauma that haunt all the men on this show. We also saw the wives in full bloom, each of them according to her own. Margene’s bizarre bid for forgiveness, showing up to hawk her jewelry at the convention, only to become Senator Paley’s date for the day when he shows her a modicum of kindness her entire family denies her (couldn’t you see how, for one moment, she might actually kiss the senator too, just out of sheer gratitude?) was so unlikely to work, so endearing and so desperate, only Margie could have thought of it. It might not be flattering, but  Bill is right – there is no one like Nicki for the morally ambiguous work of playing multiple roles. While such work might drive her to eat sundaes in the backroom of the casino, it also clearly gets her libido going, and as a sign of new subservience and committment to the family game, she and Bill are actively trying to get pregnant – and endeavor, as she informs Margene, to which she is an active party!

The real surprise/non-surprise was Barb’s own spiritual/sexual confusion as she is drawn into the swirling steam of Tommy’s sweat lodge. We’ve seen Barb question a lot about her life, but never her attraction to Bill. Tommy might just be the only kind of man who could draw her eye – authoritarian with a soft center, committed to family, but suffering the anguish of loss in a way that only suggests he would be that much more caring and committed a second time round. Perhaps what I love most about this developing tension is the way her own potential attraction to Tommy is tied up in her spiritual seeking. Who knows exactly what she is thinking about/longing for as she sits her own make-shift steam room, but I like to think it is more than Tommy’s bare chest; that she is also searching for some spiritual anchor to hold the confusion, frustration, and mounting despair that seem to govern Barb this season.

So much more to say about Joey’s wonderful righteous anger, the absence of Alby and J.J. and all that might follow next week, the thought of Margie diligently studying her scriptures. But I will end on one last question: why is Bill so nasty to Marilyn? Is it just fear of early exposure? I just don’t get why he dropped her like a moldy sock the moment he got out of Washington, unless it is supposed to illustrate his political unsavvy and hypocritical values. Any thoughts?

Posted by Kathryn.

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Episode 6: Fixing Something Broken…But For Us or For You?

Last night’s episode of Big Love dealt head on with a question I’ve had since this show first started: are the Hendricksons creating a family unit that truly benefits the hopes and desires of all players, or are they performing some twisted version of Bill’s own confused desire?  Each time my anger at this patriarchal form of polygamy reared up in the first three seasons, it was quickly challenged by the beautiful love shared by the sister-wives and the strong network of female support they bore to one another.  Sure, it’s not a life I would choose for myself, but I could see how it worked and how it brought satisfaction and joy – even blessing – to each member.  But as this season has delved deeper and deeper into the ugly side of this patriarchal practice, the sympathetic picture of polygamy Big Love initially worked so hard to create has crumbled more and more.  And as Bill treads further and further down his own path of destruction, I’m struck by how this patriarchal system doesn’t just rely on the figure of ‘woman’ as it’s other, but that the male sees himself as able to take advantage of everyone other to him – in terms of gender (spouses and all women, typified in Bill’s ferociously irrational mistreatment of Marilyn), in terms of race (typified in Bill’s refusal to treat Jerry and Tommy like the true business partners they are), in terms of economic and social class (typified in Bill’s horrid treatment of Don – 2 weeks with no movement on that story…I’m starting to wonder), and in terms of parental responsibility (typified in Bill’s not-quite-expulsion-but-still-really-mean-kicking-out-of Ben).

Indeed, I can’t help but see Bill’s ongoing battle with how to time his ‘coming out’ to illustrate a nice version of what the show itself is doing.  His tactic of “Just let them see how nice we all are before we tell the truth” surely parallels this shift in how their story is told over these four seasons – from (problematic yet) benevolent patriarchy to borderline abusive patriarchal control, I’m not sure if Bill has strayed from the path of Heavenly Father (whatever that might be?) or whether he was never on it to begin with.

Anna is such an interesting character to me for this reason.  She attempted to keep an open mind and enter the family.  She experimented with loving the sister wives as an extension of her love for Bill. But once she recognized the control exercised over her own life and body, she was (wisely) out!  What the sister wives saw as selfishness in Anna was actually a wisdom.  I recall Anna’s true moment of anger rising when Bill insisted she would need to share her waitressing tips with the family – and perhaps the shared desire for economic independence added in some way to Margene and Anna’s bond.

The other big reveal for what Anna and Margene share was, of course, Bill’s pre-marital sex with both.  And this is what leads Barb to finally question whether or not Bill’s pursuit of plural marriage – indeed, all his visions to which she so wonderfully alluded at the wives’ meeting – are products of Heavenly Father’s will, or whether they are Bill’s attempts to fix something deep and broken within his own psyche.  The argument for ‘damaged psyche’ built last night as Bill and Nicki sat on the couch watching strange black and white footage of war-reel bombs. Nicki alluded to their shared past and the notion that she is more damaged than he…the implicit question remaining, is she really?  Through Barb’s realizations and (beautifully) willful moments of coming into her own power we get to see how damaged Bill really is! (Who like me wanted to cheer as she crossed out Bill’s name on that contract to sign her own…stepping into the authority she has but rarely exercises?!).

So speaking of Nicki – I’m not entirely sure why she had to do that crazy ‘80’s miniskirt, devastating side-ponytail get-up.  She remains the most complicated character on the show in terms of motivations!  The more she tries to protect her daughter, the more I long to know more about her.  She has always envied Margene, but tonight we really got a glimpse of why…to her, that’s how Margie dresses and, given that she yelled at Margie that she wishes she could have had the childhood and the ‘in between’, I’m left wondering what further mischief she will get up to this season…unlike previous seasons, though, my sense is that her mischief will serve the liberation of Cara Lynn rather than her own selfishness as the season moves on.

Oof, so much more to say for this episode – Dale’s death was so, so sad.  Not that I thought he and Alby really had a shot at it, but he was a lovely character who I really liked and for whom I hoped the best.  What his death will do to Alby, I don’t know – perhaps we’ll get to see him as a ghostly guide as happens with Alby’s visions of Roman?  But his shared moments with Bill, especially, were quite chilling as we drew connections not only between Dale’s sexual secrets and Bill’s polygamy, but also to Bill’s pre-marital relations.  We do well to remember that Bill’s secrets run deep.  (particularly in regards to sexuality – remember his admission last week that while a “lost boy” he did things he ‘wasn’t proud of’ to earn a buck?).  And as Barb and Margene both come into their own as enterprising business –women (who nevertheless are staunchly not feminists), I’m excited to see what type of independence Nicki might also take on (how long will Nicki be content to remain one of the women behind the woman behind the man?) .  We learned that Marilyn also has some sort of patriarchally stained past as she continually referred to a controlling first marriage.  And what was up with Wanda’s mumbling about being in the nursery with the ponies?  And what, what is going to happen with that giant house on the hill?

Did anyone cheer with me when Marilyn asked Bill why he’s being such a douchbag?  Finally!  Someone who calls it like it is!

Lastly, as Bill, Nicki and Margene have all now had some form of sexual indiscretion with regards to this marriage…how long will it be before Barb gets hers?  My money (and, I’ll admit, my hopes) are pinned on deliciously sweat-lodging Tommy for this one!

Posted by Natalie.

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This might just be the longest post on Big Love ever. I wasn’t sure I would have a chance to reply, but I just can’t resist, since I loved this episode! Your analysis is fantastic, Natalie, and I agree with all your musings, reflections, and wise insights into the way the series has progressed. Last night represented a real shift for me – Bill isn’t any less of the douche bag Marilyn accuses him of being, but the show did lay off promoting this side of him in order to spend some serious quality time with the wives. And that was really the theme of the episode to me: the relationships between women and the feminist, prot0-feminist forms of empowerment these women are exploring.

Starting with Margene’s fantastic speech: “I’m not a feminist or anything” followed by an account of a world where women’s autonomous flourishing is affirmed while also acknowledging their deep connections with and dependence on other women – a pretty awesome definition of feminism, in at least one of its guises! As you point out, we watch Barb and Margene each struggle to define their own economic liberty and take control of some of the economic decisions for the whole family. And we have that crazy scene with Nicki, where in some twisted, confused way, she is actually beginning to work through the trauma of her childhood and try to learn to live past it (I was so touched by her confession to Bill that she gets so angry at things she can’t control – and the whole twisted compound dynamics could be explained as struggles to exert control in small, underhanded ways in the face of an overwhelming patriarchal power – and her speech to Alby when she tries to assure them they are both screwed up). We also see one of my favorite themes of the show – the idea that the sister wives are married to each other, not just each of them to Bill – played out in Barb’s insistence that Anna’s baby is “our” baby, not just hers and Bill’s. Of course, this is a problematic relationship, but the most interesting part of the polygamous arrangement – what does it mean to continually submit oneself to the larger good of the family unit, when that family unit encompasses multiple spouses, children, etc?

In the mix of all these women-centered stories, we also have Adaleen. What, oh what, is going on there? It is so hard for me to believe she really has assented to her new marriage and the scene with her and JJ on their wedding night took creepy to a whole new level. I’m not saying Adaleen is not a believer, but has she really capitulated to the Principle as enacted by Alby and JJ? Where is the spunky, fighting spirit she embodied when married to Roman? If her submission really does represent her intentions, this development might just be the saddest example of how detrimental the polygamous system of the compound can be.

OK – enough for the moment! I loved the episode and hope the season keeps sticking close to home and mining these relationships for all the gold they contain. I worry that the sudden return of the Greens in Mexico represents a turn away from family drama to melodrama, but we’ll have to wait and see…

Posted by Kathryn.

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Episode 7: Is the grand gesture enough?

In an episode where Ben, Lois, Frank, and Jodeen are almost shot by the demented Green clan and Joey goes off on a holy vendetta and a bomb is found outside the casino and Margene marries Ana’s fiance (“in comparison with eternity, Barb, it is just a blink of the eye”), it seems silly to say that this seemed like a calmer episode. Maybe it just means that the story lines were fewer and tighter, though there were still plenty of them. Or maybe it is a sign of just how little I love the return of the Green’s and the outlandish prospect of watching Bill once again swoop in and outsmart them, though not without some bloody help from Lois, who levels Hollis single-handedly (sorry, I couldn’t resist!).

I have always endured the presence of the Green’s as a necessary evil. If the compound exists partially to remind us that the Henricksons happy suburban polygamous experiment exists against a background of patriarchical excess, corruption, and control, the Greens exist to remind us just how far down this corruption can go, when all law is abdicated except the law of the Father and the cross-dressing Mother. The melodrama both the compound, and especially the Greens, add, is always more than I can handle, especially when it seems to be recycled – oh wait, once again Bill has to rescue a child from the evil clutches of Hollis and Selma!

But there were two new developments in this “haven’t we seen it before” story: 1) Bill is given a chance at genuine self-sacrifice and 2) he and Joey finally begin to have it out. Taking the second first, I’ve really enjoyed watching the grown children of the compound (Bill, Joey, Nicki, Alby) begin to work through their demons and actually acknowledging that they have demons. Nicki has by far been the most fascinating in this regard (and this episode gave her fair game to keep probing her past wounds), but watching Bill and Joey square off drove home how much damage the lost boys of the compound have inflicted on each other and are carrying around as motivation, examined and unexamined, for their sometimes improbable actions. You have to think, with Roman and Hollis Green as models of authority, one is bound to be pretty screwed up.

Which is perhaps why Bill’s moment of potential sacrifice was both moving and totally annoying. We have seen his self-centered egoism pushed to an extreme this season and it felt a bit cheap to imagine that all of that might be erased by one grand gesture. On the other hand, it was a real reminder that this family – indeed, this whole way of life? – depends on the grand gesture and assumes that the grand gesture can, does, and will replace the daily routine of actions, words, and intentions. And while we see on every level how the aggregate of a lifetime of behaviors influences our characters more than any one grand gesture, we have also seen time and again that in these particular family structures, the gesture isn’t empty – it is in fact the bedrock of the institution and time and again it saves. Even if the habits that it is meant to displace return to undermine it again and again, there is always another moment of renunciation, of declaration, of intent to start again.

Given the power (both real and impotent) of these grand gestures, I am especially intrigued by Margene’s slow and steady bid for freedom. The deeper she gets into the family structures, the more she realizes that her only hope at power is to work subversively from any angle she can leverage. I love the mixture of innocence and calculation in her plot to become the legal Mrs. Petrovik – it reminds me of Nicki’s earlier machinations and I wonder where it is going to lead.

Much like I wonder where the tension between Tommy and Barb is going to lead. Oh, yeah, and the whole casino is imploding and Marilyn is in bed with the same evangelicals that are behind the protests. See what I mean about the superfluous nature of that escape and rescue mission in Mexico? His businesses in jeopardy, his campaign set aside, his marriages in various states of disarray, and Bill has to leave it all to go to Mexico and lay down his life. It is clear that this grand gesture is going to carry a lot of weight, at least with Ben, at least for a while, but I am excited to get back to the hard scrabble of politics and to see a little more of Marilyn vs. Barb in the last two episodes of the season!

Posted by Kathryn.

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Episode 8: Next Ticket Out

I am sorry that this post is getting up so late in the day. I wish I could say it was because I was trying to sort out an international evangelical extortionist ring or devoting myself to my newly found lover/husband in between creepy fertility injections. Sadly, nothing of the sort. Though it did take me most of the morning to get my head around the many different plot lines that are brewing to collide next week during the season finale: Marilyn’s vendetta against the casino and the Henricksons more personally; Nicki’s infertility woes and whatever it was Adaleen discovered that got her knocked out by JJ; Sarah’s move to Portland and the rise of creepy Teensie and her tap-dancing mania; the potential affects/retaliation for the disarmament of Hollis Green; Alby’s slow slide into permanent insanity; Bill’s difficulty keeping the UEB Trust in line; the consequences of Roman’s murder and Joey’s exposure; Wanda’s devolution into silent suffering; Margene’s second marriage to hunky Goran; Ana’s baby; and of course, Bill’s melomanical run for public office and the potential self-exposure that is supposed to follow.

How is any one season finale going to wrap that up?! I am thrilled to hear that HBO has agreed to a fifth season, and my own personal prediction is that we are going to see Bill elected at the end of next week and the big question mark for season 6 will be whether or not they walk in the light of revelation and exposure and if so, what consequences it has for the family.

Saving my predictions for the moment, let’s talk about last night. After having saved his son from the Green’s clutches and offered his grand gesture of self-sacrifice, he is right back to his power-hungry, ego-driven masculine control. He fires Barb for hiring Marilyn. After all the hair-brained decisions Bill has made, there was pretty much no logic to this decision except the explanation he gave himself: “you defied me.” And there, in a nutshell, is pretty much how Bill sees himself: the lord of the manner, the master of the brood, who is constantly fixing problems created by his slightly irrational and unruly wives. This vision is only reinforced when we realize that he actually feels threatened by Marge’s paper marriage. I was pretty pleased that this marriage is actually posing some sort of threat, since the question of plural marriage with multiple men is something the show has never taken on directly. Hearing Bill so baldly denounce the idea of a woman having more than one husband for basically sexist and patriarchal reasons – a man has to know a woman is his – helped clarify even more soundly just how this system works against the women caught in it. In other words, Barb’s whole rant about Utah women having a predilection for pharmacy enhanced perfection, which seemed a bit random when it first happened, was the perfect parallel to Bill’s boorish behavior, reinforcing the cost to women of being “Utah’s most precious natural resource.”

As did Barb’s whole turn against Bill this episode, which is definitely something I hope to see revisited next week and into whatever happens next season. In fact, the way the wives are each changing – the theme of the season – is the best part of the season for me and I hope the show wises up to preciousness of the wives as a natural resource for the show. Nicki’s story continues to intrigue me, though her metamorphosis into a potentially monogamous short-skirt wearing “normal woman” has seemed a bit rushed. On the one hand, I like that her revelation of her love for Bill came fast and furiously. On the other hand, I would have liked to be inside that change, especially since her self-exploration is the culmination of the relationship between the compound and the suburban versions of polygamy developed over all four seasons. But Barb’s righteous anger and her brewing unwillingness to cave to Bill’s appetites (in Marilyn’s prescient words) are also things we’ve seen brewing for several seasons. The threat of infidelity was raised with Nicki last season and again with Marg this season, but I have to hope that Barb and Tommy’s tender, tension-filled hug might be the start of Barb testing the hypocrisy of her husband. Just as Margene’s dangerous game of putting Goran and Bill up to the thetherball test is a sign of just how far she’s come. Of all the wives, Margene might be the one learning the most about her own appetites and desires. Even though I hate to see her give up her ill-thought-out safety plan, reading Bill’s adolescent jealousy and protectionism when she invited Goran over for family time made her the most grown-up person in that backyard playground. For a family that talks so much about the value of self-sacrifice and putting the family first, Margie actually seems to grasp what might be involved in that process and is trying to do the right thing. And for all its ridiculous over-the-top antics, that tetherball scene was one of the most amazing incarnations of Bill the Caveman – sweaty face screwed up in childish sexual protection.

I don’t see how the season finale will do it, but I can’t wait to see them take these many threads and weave them into some kind of temporary finale, all, I hope without losing the momentum of probing the dark underbelly of the world our characters inhabit.

I’d love to hear predictions for the finale. Will Bill win? Will Marilyn expose the family before Bill gets his day in the light of truth? Will Nicki get her wish and not have to share her husband? Will Teensie self-destruct and drag the family down with her in a sparkle filled haze?

Onward to the faster culmination ever, and let’s hope a ticket into something totally unexpected.

Posted by Kathryn.

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THE NEW AMERICAN FAMILY

Episode 9: The End of Days

Let’s just cut to the chase and to the poignant last image of a roller coaster fast and furious season: the Henricksons, arrayed in red, white, and blue coming out on the steps of the state capitol as a new public incarnation of the American family. There is a lot that is over the top about this show, and there are some plot choices I could do without. But at heart, this is what I have always loved most about Big Love: the idea that the Henricksons, far from being some bizarre outsiders, are really one take on the nuclear family with all its commitments to marriage and children and values and hard work, stretched to its breaking point, but maybe not breaking. For all its unsavory, creepy, and downright destructive aspects, the show reveals just how much we expect of monogamous marriages by showing us the creaking and straining of this polygamous one. The same for family values in general or living the suburban dream. So seeing the Henricksons take that stage felt like a culmination of all four seasons so far.And of course, it really raised the bar for next season, but more about that in a moment.

This episode also really drove home the paradox of Bill in a way that made him far more interesting to me. On the one hand we have Marilyn’s insightful speech. I loved when she called out Bill’s delusions of grandeur and acceptance calling him a sad, stupid man. When she retorts that at least her sins are her own and that she doesn’t hide behind the cover of God to justify her shortcomings, I thought she pretty much had Bill’s number. But Bill’s speech to Barb about seeing the darkness in himself (with Don, with Ben, with her) also had the ring of truth. Despite the fact that it does seem delusional, there is a real logic to Bill’s hope that by coming into the light he will be forced to live a more honest life, a life of more integrity with his principles and values. It doesn’t take a complicated theological or psychological doctrine to agree that honesty and transparency, even at a cost, carry more promise of virtue than a life lived in secrecy and lies.

This is the gamble, at least, that the show is taking. What will become of the Henricksons when the drama of their double or triple lives is replaced with the drama of living openly? It is an interesting question: how much are these characters defined by their lying, hiding, secret identities? Who will they be when they are forced to examine their own lives in the light of openness?

Of course, there is no guarantee that the family as we know it will be the same by next season. As Barb says, they aren’t the same polygamists they started out to be: Margene has half a marriage which looks startling like a new polygamist arrangement in the making, Nicki doesn’t want to share anymore, and Barb is no longer sure she needs Bill (or the family?).

There is so much more to say about this fire-cracking finale – Adaleen’s fiery revenge, JJ’s creepy eugenics experiments, Cara Lynn’s shifting loyalties, Don’s sweet face and vindicated smile as the Henricksons join in the public infamy he has been suffering alone. What about Joey – will he ever come back from his truncated rampage in Mexico? Will Wanda and Joey, Jr. be alright? And Alby – poor, confused, dysfunctional, teetering on the edge of insanity Alby. Has he finally gone off the deep end, tearing up the blue sky and clouds wall paper that represents heaven even as he brings his life down around him (not to mention his utterly disturbing cutting of Lura)? I can’t wait to hear what the rest of you thought about this ending and about the prospects for season 5. Are you excited about the prospect of public polygamy? Is Bill right – will the truth finally set them free, spiritually if not materially? Is this the face of another American family or just one more example of patriarchy’s excessive dreams?

Thanks for all your comments along the way. See you next season!

Posted by Kathryn.