Are Polygamists Republicans or Democrats?
By Melissa McKimmey | Posted Under Trailers | Comments (9)
Big Love news! First, congrats to Chloe Sevigny on her Golden Globe win for tearing it up last season as Nicki. She deserved the win. Second, I’ve heard reports that this is going to be a short season, nine episodes. I haven’t decided what I think of that, but I’m leaning toward thinking it won’t have a huge effect. “Big Love” is a pretty packed show, but I think at times it could benefit from some streamlining. The main arc for the season seems to be Bill running for office and the restructuring of the compound. I think a focus on those two things will make for a really interesting, thoughtful season. Discuss.
This episode felt like a groundwork episode to start the major arcs. The A plot is Bill deciding if he wants to run for Senate. The B plot is Sarah getting married. They were equally interesting and annoying to me.
A plot: Bill’s at the State Capital at a hearing about the UEB trust. State Rep Roy Coburn is not pro-polygamy. In fact, he’d like to prosecute them all and bulldoze the compound. Bill seems to be less than thrilled with this plan. FYI — Rep. Coburn is played by Tom Amandes, a hey-it’s-that-one-guy and fabulous actor from the show “Everwood,” which if you haven’t seen, do. Ahem.
All this polygamy bashing has convinced Bill to run for Senate. Yes, you read that right. The man with multiple stores, a casino, his own church, three wives and nine children thinks he’s got the time and energy to run for Senate. He also thinks he’d be good at it, which is questionable. Bill tells the wives and says he’s ‘struggling with this’. I have to say, I’m always skeptical when Bill claims to be unsure about his direction. It’s probably because he always decides in favor of what he wants and ignores the needs of everyone else. So he may seriously be conflicted, but I’m not giving him the benefit of the doubt.
As for the wives, Barb thinks it’s a bad idea, but she’s always suckered in by Bill. Margie shows the most sense by saying it’s a stupid idea and that Bill isn’t really interested in their opinions. Nicki supports Bill’s idea for the most part, but then says he probably won’t have time, as he should be the next prophet of Juniper Creek. Yeah, it goes over as badly as you think. Barb says that she doesn’t want to spend her life in hiding. Bill says it’s for the greater good of the principle. Of course it is.
Bill decides to explore his idea further, since he doesn’t care what his wives think. He talks to Ted and Cindy and takes Barb to their old bishop to talk about getting back with the mainstream church. Bill’s not a total fool; he knows that the Mormon vote in SLC is a big block.
Joey! He’s back from Arizona, apparently. Joey says he is at peace, what with Roman being dead and all. He conveniently forgets to mention that he killed him. With all the trouble Bill causes when he has any information, I don’t really blame him. Bill tries to blab about his Senate ‘calling’ but Joey tells him that his real calling is to be the new Juniper Creek prophet. Huh. Well, at least he has support for that calling and no one supports the Senate idea. I missed Joey. His hair is shorter and he looks a bit older to me. Not to mention, he got a kind of hot.
Don! Don gets his two minutes in this show to present Bill with a campaign hat he had made. It’s …very Americana. White hat with a red, white and blue band and Hendrickson for Senate on it (or something like that, I missed it.) It’s so sweet that Don has such faith in Bill. Misguided, but sweet. I’m curious if Don’s going to stay by Bill forever, or is Bill eventually going to screw up so much that even Don calls him on it? My money is on the latter. Bill tells Don he’s still not sure what he is going to do.
Finally Bill and the wives have another meeting. Bill tells them that he is not going run for Senate and keep their lives covered up. Then, because he is a complete ass who can’t read a room, he tells them that he’s going to run for Senate and then come out as a polygamist. After all, it’s only a misdemeanor to be a polygamist in Utah, right?
What gets me about this whole thing is that Bill doesn’t think about things like, oh, his kids? How is going to be when his kids are in school and their parents come out as polygamists?
B plot. Sarah and Scott decide they want to get married quietly, just with the justice of the peace. Sarah goes to find Heather and apologizes for being a terrible, selfish friend. Finally. Heather’s accepts, but gives Sarah the cold shoulder until she caves and agrees to be a witness/maid of honor at the wedding. Ben agrees to be the other witness, although he is hesitant when Sarah admits she isn’t telling Bill and Barb. That’s where I lose a little of my liking for Sarah. I get wanting to be your own person, but Barb has done nothing to deserve being treated so coldly by her daughter and you know when she finds out it will crush her. And we get confirmation of that when Sarah and Heather get busted coming down the stairs dressed up and talking about the impending nuptials. Barb tearfully talks to Sarah about marriage in the temple and being sealed and such and she loses me a little, but Jeanne Triplehorn sells it as a mom who just wants her daughter to make the right choice.
Right before the ceremony, Sarah gets cold feet and the wedding party waits in the car for her to make up her mind. Scott reaffirms my dislike of him (thanks Scott!) by trying to pressure her into the ceremony. She goes to talk to Bill first and they have a pretty sweet talk. Later in the evening, Bill has the family come to the backyard and he has set it up so Scott and Sarah get married by the justice of the peace in the backyard. It’s sweet because the family is happy, but I wasn’t as moved as I thought I’d be. Hey, at least Faith +1 didn’t play.
There were a lot of small scenes in this episode that weren’t part of the main plot(s).
Alby stalks the lawyer from the last episode, who we now know is Dale. He really doesn’t look like a Dale. Dale is, awesomely and awfully, running a counseling group to ‘pray the gay away’. How’s that working out for you, Dale? Apparently not so well, because outside Alby kisses him and Dale’s not pushing away. Kissing. Running away. Longing looks. Alby’s-got-a-boyfriend.
Nicki decides to nose through Margie’s trash because she’s a bitch sometimes. She finds a bank statement and shows it to Barb. Bill chats up Margie about the QVC business. Turns out Margie’s side job they all mocked is bringing in $9,400 a month. I bet Nicki tries to get a hand in that pot. Bill is shocked (serves him right) and says it should be going into the communal pot. Margie says that her projected income for the year is $134,000 and they need to talk about accountants, financial advisers and lawyers. Bill, for once, is speechless. Good for Margie. I think she deserves their respect and has proven herself quite a bit in the past season.
JJ wanders around scaring and vaguely threatening people. He seems sick. I mean, physically ill, not just mentally.
Nicki goes to talk to the DA, who’s leaving Salt Lake. He tells her to beat feet and that she ruined his life. She acts like she still likes him.
Nicki balks at going to Roman’s funeral/viewing. It’s on the news in Salt Lake, which is pretty realistic. Alby and Adalene arrange for security. I want security at my funeral. Nicki’s not going to go, then Adalene guilts her into it even after Nicki calls him a false prophet! Adalene doesn’t seem very surprised at the false prophet thing. She asks if Nicki is doing this to try and kill her. Adalene, if both of your kids are trying to kill you, you might want to check out a parenting book. Even Dr. Phil knows that’s a bad sign. Nicki goes to the funeral and looks sad; Adalene cries; Alby tries not to look like a sociopath and fails.
The best stuff in this episode was Alby’s lust for Dale and Joey’s return. I can’t imagine Bill going all the way to the Senate. He’s so smug and smarmy. I suppose that makes him a perfect candidate, but it’s just so obvious that he’s not thinking things through and it’s going to backfire. I’m not sure I want to watch him screw everything up. Of course, he seems to get damn lucky a lot, so it may work out for him.
Thanks for reading everybody, and we’ll see you next week.
Melissa McKimmey is a mom, wife and grocery merchandiser who spends too much time on the internet and has a Chai tea addiction. She spends most of her time on the internet as TWoP Fan and can be emailed at here.
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Comments
Posted by: Dave at January 21, 2010 12:20 PM
I thought the most interesting part about JJ is the fact that he doesn't have fingernails. Possibly a side effect of inbreeding? He also said he has a lot of allergies (the foods they were eating) and was weary of the potato salad that Nikki made. I think she tried to kill him before by putting something she knows he's allergic to in his food (while they were married.)
Anyone else creeped out by JJ's harrassment of Wanda as well? Is the thing that JJ has that Wanda doesn't want to get out the fact that they are both the product of incest?
Things seem to be getting pretty interesting.