# "Big Love" - 3/12/06 (Spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 13, 2006, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-love-3-12-06-spoilers/348141 "2006-03-13T04:59:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-love-3-12-06-spoilers/348141/41 "2006-03-14T22:10:54Z")
> [@Push You Down](#): > > First episodes are tricky. Deadwood is my favorite show but I’ll freely admit the first episode is pretty mediocre. You gotta be kidding. We had a showdown in the street, a hanging, Doc taking care of the guy Trixie shot, Wild Bill and Calamity Jane coming to town, Bill and Jack McCall playing cards, Al and E.B. fleecing Brom Garrett. We met Rev. Smith, Seth and Sol got their bidness started, the Metz family was massacred and then we had another showdown in the street, Dan kills Tim Driscoll, and Alma takes dope. All spiced with the most wonderful dialogue ever. Back to the OP: Is this the first time we’ve seen a woman going to the bathroom on TV? I can’t think of any others. It’s rare even in movies. Another threshold crossed? I don’t care to see it again, but it does add realism. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2006, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-love-3-12-06-spoilers/348141/42 "2006-03-14T22:17:35Z")
I liked it. I’ve always liked Bill Paxton for some reason. He’s not a great actor, but he brings a sense of realness to his characters that I like. I felt sort of sorry for the writers. They had a great gag in the opening scene, with the hundred dollar bill and the appearance of prostitution until the polygamy reveal. Alas, its balloon was busted by a whole lotta pre-show hype, not to mention the opening credits which clearly show all concerned sitting happily together at the table holding hands. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-love-3-12-06-spoilers/348141/43 "2006-03-15T00:16:25Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > You gotta be kidding. > > _snip_ > > All spiced with the most wonderful dialogue ever. Watch the first episode again. The dialogue isn’t nearly as good as it is even in the second episode (Which was filmed nearly a year later so Milch had a lot of time to refine the style). It’s just meandering, not poetic. You can also tell that they hadn’t really built the Deadwood set yet (it being a pilot and all) The town seems like a tv show town not the bustling real live town in later episodes. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-love-3-12-06-spoilers/348141/44 "2006-03-15T00:46:31Z")
True, we don’t have any of the wonderful monologues that Al did later, and it was an episode or two later where we got E.B.'s soliloquy as he was cleaning Driscoll’s blood of the floor, but we had Ellsworth’s “fucked up flatter than hammered shit” intro. Enough for me. I love the pilot. ---
**Author:** ![minty\_green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@minty\_green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minty_green)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-love-3-12-06-spoilers/348141/45 "2006-03-15T01:50:39Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > You know, it just occurred to me: Although polygamy is illegal, Bill is probably not committing any crime by keeping three “wives” in separate households, if he only purports to be legally married to one of them. Not so. Given that _every_ marriage after the first one (excepting cases of divorce) is null and void in every state in the union, the crime of bigamy is typically defined by _purporting_ to marry more than person at a time. Utah’s bigamy statute (Utah Code section 76-7-101) does this explicitly, and also throws in cohabitation to close that potential loophole as well. To wit: “A person is guilty of bigamy when, knowing he has a husband or wife or knowing the other person has a husband or wife, the person purports to marry another person or cohabits with another person.” ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-love-3-12-06-spoilers/348141/46 "2006-03-15T02:56:03Z")
(This had to be pointed out to me.) Did you notice the name of the fast food place the girl who played “Deb” from “Napoleon Dynamite” worked at? This is going to be like “All the President’s Men” and what Deepthroat said: “Follow the money.” Conjecture 1: Bill had to marry Nicki in order to get the stake from her dad. He really just wanted Margene. Prediction 1:Nicki’s spending will drive Bill into borrowing more from her dad, with evil consequences. Nicki crying after making that huge buy over the phone may be remorse over knowing that this will happen. I.e., it was a setup all along. Either her dad knew she couldn’t control her spending or is ordering her to spend like mad. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-love-3-12-06-spoilers/348141/47 "2006-03-15T13:49:55Z")
> [@minty green](#): > > Not so. Given that _every_ marriage after the first one (excepting cases of divorce) is null and void in every state in the union, the crime of bigamy is typically defined by _purporting_ to marry more than person at a time. Utah’s bigamy statute (Utah Code section 76-7-101) does this explicitly, and also throws in cohabitation to close that potential loophole as well. To wit: “A person is guilty of bigamy when, knowing he has a husband or wife or knowing the other person has a husband or wife, the person purports to marry another person or cohabits with another person.” But, what does “purport” mean in that statute? If Bill tells one of his junior wives, “We’re going to go through a ceremony and we’ll be married in the eyes of God, but we won’t have any marriage license and you know as well as I do we won’t be married in the eyes of the law, because I’m already married to Barbara” – is he “purporting” to marry her or not? And is it “cohabiting” if he stays at her house one night in three? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-love-3-12-06-spoilers/348141/48 "2006-03-15T14:35:28Z")
> [@Maureen](#): > > The whole compound situation was really…squicky. How do you explain to a 14y.o. girl who thinks she’s queen because some nasty old perv married her that cancer is not God’s punishment for moving away from your family and having babies til your uterus falls out isn’t necessarily the plan? Actually, according to this – [http://www.hbo.com/biglove/cast/character/rhonda\_volmer.html](http://www.hbo.com/biglove/cast/character/rhonda_volmer.html) – Rhonda Volmer is still Roman Grant’s “bride-in-waiting” or “bride-to-be.” Presumably she’s betrothed to him and will marry him when she reaches . . . whatever is the lowest permissible age for marriage in this sect. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-love-3-12-06-spoilers/348141/49 "2006-03-15T14:38:45Z")
> [@Push You Down](#): > > Margie (3rd wife) is not, as far as we know, from the compound. They mentioned that they got her from Colorado. Why the third wife remains to be seen. From [http://www.hbo.com/biglove/cast/character/margene\_heffman.html:](http://www.hbo.com/biglove/cast/character/margene_heffman.html:) > [@](#): > > At 21, Margene is the third Henrickson wife. She grew up with a single mom in small town Colorado; her father divorced her mother when Margene was just 3 years old. A few years ago, Margene’s mother picked up and moved to Salt Lake City, dragging Margene along with her. > > After graduating from high school in Salt Lake, Margene began working for Bill in his original Henrickson Home Plus store as a customer service representative. Seeing that Margene was not exactly adept at her job, Bill hired her to babysit his children back home. Gradually, Margene began to fall in with the family, recognizing a love and stability she couldn’t find growing up. Eventually Bill, Barb and Nicki brought Margene into the family as third sister-wife. Less complicated than Nicki and more pliant than Barb, Margene has been a safe harbor for Bill. She is also the most sexual of the three wives, despite recently giving birth to two babies of her own: Aaron, 1 1/2, and Lester, 3 months old. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-love-3-12-06-spoilers/348141/50 "2006-03-15T15:12:19Z")
Towards the beginning of the show, did the oldest daughter tell Bill she’d caught him misbehaving this morning? What did she mean? ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2006, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-love-3-12-06-spoilers/348141/51 "2006-03-15T16:07:50Z")
> [@Eleanor of Aquitaine](#): > > Towards the beginning of the show, did the oldest daughter tell Bill she’d caught him misbehaving this morning? What did she mean? He came out the front door of the 2nd house. To keep up the appearances of normalcy, he should have cut through the backyard to the first house and gone out the front door there. ---
**Author:** ![marymargaret](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@marymargaret](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marymargaret)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-love-3-12-06-spoilers/348141/52 "2006-03-17T18:32:30Z")
Does just his first wife work? ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-love-3-12-06-spoilers/348141/53 "2006-03-17T21:00:06Z")
I thought it an interesting set-up that had to do more work than it had time for. IMO the show picked way up about the halfway mark. (Plus – Lily Kane bonding with Mac! **head spins** ) It’s interesting to see Amanda Seyfried in that role – anyone who looks like that is going to have plenty of temptation to forsake her moral code. One think I’m not sure will come off is Bill’s fud with Roman. Maybe Roman can make some trouble for him, but Roman’s married to a fourteen year old. Mutally assured destruction. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2006, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-love-3-12-06-spoilers/348141/54 "2006-03-17T21:26:57Z")
> [@Cliffy](#): > > One think I’m not sure will come off is Bill’s fud with Roman. Maybe Roman can make some trouble for him, but Roman’s married to a fourteen year old. Mutally assured destruction. But Bill is just as afraid as Roman is of attracting the authorities’ attention. More, as he live in the 'burbs and is maintaining a facade of non-polygamous family life, and has more to lose by public exposure. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-love-3-12-06-spoilers/348141.md?page=2)