Scott and Sarah are back in action.
The Greene’s kidnap Kim Lee.
Everyone knows that Roman had a hand in Kathy’s death.
Barb is going to be excommunicated from the LDS Church.
Nicki may have to divorce the family.
Can they cram anymore into an episode?
I personally feel that way about every episode. I often comment to my husband that more happens in one episode of this show than happens in an entire season of others. That’s part of why I love it, though. Never a dull moment with these people.
We were anticipating seeing the secret endowment ceremony that had everyone talking last week. After seeing it, I don’t think it was that big of a deal. Sure, there was some weird stuff, but when you think about it, was it any stranger than the rituals that other religions take part in? Not really, IMO. It’s all about what you’re familiar with.
Once again I found myself actually feeling sorry for Nicki because of how Bill treated her. Sure, she did something terrible and I can’t say that I’d blame him for wanting to divorce her after all the stunts that she’s pulled. But then to have sex with her, making her think everything is going to be okay, and then proceeding to ask to be unsealed anyway was pretty low. (Though it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Bill continued to see her and sleep with her after they are unsealed. It also wouldn’t surprise me if Nicki ends up pregnant after last night’s romp.) Good for Nicki for calling Barb and Margene into it. Bill is always the one telling them that they need to work stuff out together as a family but when it comes to something major like this, he decides to leave Barb and Margene out of it? They are married to her, too, and should be in on the decision to cut her out of the family.
Then there was the other Nicki bombshell—she had a daughter with J.J. I want to know more about her reasons for leaving her daughter with him when they were unsealed. Was she forced to do this by her father so that she could marry Bill?
Interesting dynamic between Nicki and Alby this week as well, and it looks as though that will continue next week. I can’t wait, but I am sad that it’s the end of the season already. I’m not ready for it to be over and I’m not looking forward to waiting another year-and-a-half to see it again.
Someone please explain to me all the Barb stuff. I tried to follow but…
She met with her mom and sister and asked them to borrow one of their…what?
She took part in a ceremony that allowed her to…what?
Since Bill was born and raised on the compound, has he ever done any of this mainstream LDS stuff? The ceremonies?
If he hasn’t, and Barb has basically decided that Bill is her spiritual leader or something (isn’t that how polygamy works with them?) why is she so upset about being ex-communicated if she doesn’t really follow LDS anymore anyway?
I really liked this episode. I was especially interested in the endowment ceremony Barb took part of. The ceremony itself was already explained on the board somewhere, and it seemed to be pretty much what the poster said it would be. I didn’t understand what exactly the endowment is or why Barb wanted it before getting excommunicated though.
My heart broke for Barb (not usually a character I feel much sympathy for) when TPTB were reading her excommunication “sentence.” How awful to believe you are going to be cut off from your loved ones in the afterlife. And in addtion they cut off her ties to her ancestors. Outer darkness indeed.
I have to say I’m really enjoying this season. There is something different about the way each episode is filmed-they have more of a movie look, if that makes sense.
I may not have all the answers but I’ll do my best.
Barb wanted to borrow her mom’s or her sister’s temple recommend, so she could get into temple. In LDS, there’s a difference between going to church and going to temple; everyone is welcome at church but getting into temple is a special thing and you have to be in good standing with the church.
At temple, she went through the endowment ceremony. Here is a wikipedia article on it. There’s a bunch of other stuff online about it, too, including the complete text of what is said/done.
I, too, am a bit confused about Bill’s involvement in the church. It was my understanding that he and Barb, during their marriage before polygamy, were active members of the mainstream LDS church. I’m not sure how far he went or if he has ever been to temple, or for that matter why Barb is being excommunicated but Bill is not.
I think the reason that this is so upsetting to Barb is because, as she said in last night’s episode, her family has been in the church for 60 years. To her, her church and her family are the same thing. By cutting ties with the church, her ties to her ancestors are being cut as well. Not to mention the strained relationship that she has with her mother and sister, which will be further strained because of her excommunication from the church.
I realized last night that I was having a lot of trouble keeping track of all the characters on this show, despite having watched it for three years, so I made a bigass giant family tree. It has just about everyone on it, I think. Turns out just about everyone is related to each other somehow.
I think I’m probably missing a few people who have been seen/mentioned before, though. What was the name of Bill’s young half-brother who got kicked off the compound earlier in the season? He was around for a few episodes.
Ok, cool. Is it like a state ID card? What sort of identifying info does it have? I was both confused by the idea that such an…ID?..could be borrowed and used un-noticed AND by the fact that her mom and sister were already inside and she was able to get in using their recommend.
What am I not getting?
I can definitely see the emotional aspect of it, as you explain it. I am just confused that she didn’t go through all this already years ago when she entered into a marriage with Bill, or when they took on another wife. Seems like Barb sort of wants to have her cake and eat it too.
Friedo
Now you have to figure out how to add JJ and Nicki’s daughter into it. Isn’t JJ related to Wanda?
Doesn’t Laura(?) Alby’s wife just creep you out? She did not want Nicki to stay on the compound at all. My feeling is that she would have to share whatever power she had with Nicki if Nicki stayed. Alby trusts Nicki and would probably confide in her more than anyone.
Good call. Did we get the daughter’s name? I don’t remember.
The temple recommend is some sort of certificate, it seems. You can read more about it here. I, too, was confused that both Barb’s mom and her sister were there waiting for her. I have no idea how that worked if she used one of their temple recommends.
As far as Barb wanting her cake and eating it too … we have to consider that it wasn’t exactly Barb’s idea to enter into polygamy in the first place. She felt as though she had to accept another wife into their marriage because she could not bring any more children into it.
You missed a connection, friedo. Jodene Marqhart is married to Bill’s dad. Which means that Joey is not only fixating on the woman who looks just like his deceased fiancee, he’s also fixating on his mom. (In the way family relationships seem to be figured on the compound. I mean, Barb did refer to “my sons by Nikki.” At the very least, he’s fixating on his stepmother.) Also, the kid you’re thinking about is Frankie, though I can’t remember his mom’s name.
My guess on why the church went after Barb and not Bill is because they knew it would hit her harder. If you accept that her excommunication was motivated by the wrangling over the letter, as she seemed to think, then threatening him with being tossed out isn’t going to get you much leverage. His involvement with the church is the time from when he was kicked off the compound to when he married Nikki. That’s it. And if he truly believes he’s had a testimony to practice plural marriage, he’s made his spiritual and emotional break from the church anyhow. But when they asked Barb if she had a testimony, the ambivalence was palpable. Pretty clear indication she hasn’t made that sort of break. Besides, my understanding is that by Mormon theology Bill isn’t going to see his ancestors and siblings in the afterlife anyway, them being unrepentant sinners who have never been baptized into the mainstream church. When he entered the mainstream LDS, he had to make his peace with being separated from his loved ones in eternity. Barb has never had to cope with that prospect. Nikki, and AFAIK Margene, have never been members of the LDS church. So basically, if the church is looking for leverage, Barb’s the gimpy gazelle of the bunch.
Isn’t Bill a polygamist-type Mormon even before he married Niki? Or is it more like this…
-Bill grows up a polygamist-type Mormon
-Bill’s excommunicated from the polygamist-type Mormons
-Bill joins the LDS proper because he has nowhere else to turn, and is probably pissed at the polygamist-type Mormons at this point.
-Bill meets and marries Barb and they have a regular LDS relationship and marriage
-Barb gets cancer, can’t take care of Bill or the kids or have more kids (is having lots of kids part of the normal LDS way?)
-The answer to the above issue comes to Bill as a calling(?) telling him that it’s time to take on another wife - that can take care of Barb and give him more kids.
-Now everyone is a polygamist-type Mormon and there’s no more normal LDS for them.
OR, like I asked right at the beginning of my post, was Bill a polygamist-type Mormon the entire time? If he was, why would Barb need to be “talked into” polygamy, since marrying Bill would lead to polygamy?
So confused 
Thanks a lot for your help, though, everyone!
Zipper, you had it right the first time. There was even a line in last night’s episode where Barb says that Bill had been with the LDS church for 15 years. Presumably, that was the 15 years of their courtship/marriage before Nicki came along.
If you look at the Big Love thread on the domebo board, Dogzilla does an excellent job of explaining what the recommend is. Basically, it’s a passport into the Temple for holy rites such as baptism, sealing of marriage, etc. One can only get a recommend by proving that he/she has been doing good works and conforming to church directives. Dogzilla says that this ep was completely unrealistic in that Barb not only wouldn’t have gotten her mother or sister’s recommend IRL, but as a member in bad standing (no tithing, no praying, etc.) would not have gotten an inch inside the temple doors even if said recommend had been forthcoming from a relative.
BTW does anyone else think that Sara is a huge bitch because she didn’t make it clear to her folks that Scott did not rape her nor abandon her? You’d have thought she’d at least told Ben. Especially if she really still liked Scott enough to boink him again.
She’s just as nasty as the rest of the family.
Oh and RE: feeling sorry for Niki (in the OP) - I don’t feel so bad for Niki as much as I am further convinced that Bill is an absolute disgusting pig. After what he knows about her history, he still found the need to pump-and-dump her. Jesus…
Orson Scott Card has written a couple of articles on BIG LOVE this week, agreeing with other Mormons that it’s disrespectful, etc., but asking them to stop sending letters.
Franky (presumably Frank Jr.).
What program did you make that with, btw?
I made it with OmniGraffle, which for the longest time I thought was called OmniGiraffe.
I’ll make some more updates to it tonight. I’ve been combining information from the Big Love Wikipedia entry, the HBO site, IMDB, and the Dope threads to make it all come together.
OK, as promised, I made some updates. I added Brynne and Scott with dotted lines, and also added Ana with an X since she was married to them for a day.
I added J.J. with an X connected to Nicki, and their unnamed daughter. I don’t know how/if J.J. is related to the rest of the group at this point, though.
I also added Jodean’s marriage to Frank (resulting in a hilarious generational unevenness for the Marquardt family). And I added Frankie and his unnamed mother. I also added some gender symbols where people’s names are unknown.
For comparison: Version 1 and Version 2.
This is fun.
Frank has 3 wives, right? Bill’s mom Lois, the young Jodene, and the woman that hit Frank with a shovel. She’s the one who got sent to South America, and she’s Frankie’s mom.
According to this thread on the HBO message boards, her name is Nita.
Great job so far, friedo 
