Christian Campbell- hubba hubba! (Maybe his TRICK co-star Miss Coco Peru will have a plot as Mrs. Henricksen Number 4B [counting Ana as 4A]). While he’s hardly a superstar he’s big enough that I don’t think they’d bring him on if he wasn’t to be a love interest, so I wonder if it’ll be for Nicky or Cara Lynn.
I’ve said for years I see him eventually becoming the Prophet of Juniper Creek. I think they might be moving in that direction. OTOH I think Bill could wind up a monogamist at the end of this season. It’s doubtful Nicky would leave him but the other two seem on the verge.
I liked the Polygamy Pow-Wow scene with the FLDS equivalent of “The Five Families” represented. Has the Juniper Creek breakaway sect been seen before? They seem a lot more progressive than the compound.
Any idea what Bill’s mother’s big news was? Or assume at first that Barb’s mom had been to the Betty Ford clinic?
Barb gets on my nerves with her “Cheese and Fries!” and “Heck that!” cursing substitutes and her continued Kool Aid drinking of the church that kicked her out, but I still hope she leaves Bill’s sorry ass and settles monogamously with some widowed suburban soccer coach or whatever.
Adaleen sleeping on the bed with Roman’s picture and clothes was somewhere between really creepy and kind of sad. Apparently, dysfunction and corruption and all, she really and truly loved the old fart. (Did you notice she gave herself a shot through the Temple garment? That can’t be hygienic.)
Last season generally irritated me because it was so insane and over-the-top. Too melodramatic. This season is just kind of … boring. I want to like it. But I just don’t care any more. I don’t know if last season fatigued me so much or if it’s just not redeemable to me any more or what.
And even though it’s boring, there is just too much going on. I think that’s actually why I am bored: I can’t get into it because something is on screen for 6 seconds, then something else, etc.
And we haven’t even SEEN Ben, Sara, Teenie, Joey, Wanda, Don’s wives (or whoever is left at his house), most of the compound, the casino people, Bill’s father, Barb’s sister. And we’ve only briefly seen Nikki’s family, Bill’s mother, the neighbors, any of the Hendrickson’s kids, Anna.
Too much going on and it’s not gripping, even if it should be.
I’m not giving up though. I’ll watch to the end and I hope it reminds me why I loved it so much for the first season(s), but if this wasn’t its last season, I think I’d give up watching entirely.
The actress who played Sarah left the show because her film career is taking off, so I’m sure we won’t see here again. And in the first episode of this season, the characters said that Teenie is staying with Sarah for some reason. I think that was meant as a way to write out her character as well. I don’t know about Ben or the other children, though, or Bill’s brother and sister-in-law.
BTW, what was up in the scene where Margene was really wired and playing music loudly? Was she high on something?
Amanda Seyfried and Aaron Paul (also on the rise due to his supporting role in Breaking Bad) will returnas Scott and Sarah for the finale. My guess is the episode will revolve around Teenie’s disapparance.
IANAM, but my understanding is that only men (members of the priesthood, which comprises basically all adult males) can bestow blessings, and this symbolizes another aspect of Barb’s rebellion.
He’s the son of Don, Bill’s business partner (who looks a lot less dorky now that he’s let his hair grow). Last year when Don took the fall for Bill regarding practicing polygamy (which ironically he isn’t even doing anymore since his two junior wives left him for each other) the kid got mad (understandably) and broke some of the Henricksen windows.
I think that’s meant to show she’s circling the drain down into a meltdown or nervous breakdown of some sort. I think that’s also why Bill told her (near the end of the episode) that she could leave the marriage, too, if she wanted. That last shot, with Margene watching Bill bathing the kids told me that she will not choose to leave. She will want that stable home with a daddy present and engaged, even if there are other wives. She wants the stability that she never had as a kid; that’s why she’s in this marriage in the first place.
John Mace is correct about the blessings and I will get into that a bit more. That’s what I came in to post about anyway.
For me, those scenes were :eek: off the hook, OMG, I can’t believe they are discussing that! There’s an exmormon on the writing staff and I suspect he at least lurks the postmormon and exmormon forums because a lot of the issues discussed there seem to creep into the show.
Anyway, remember that the title to this episode is “A seat at the table.” Every single character was trying to get exactly that.
In the early days of mormonism, women did have the priesthood and were able to give blessings to their children and perform other minor priesthoodly duties. However, that authority was taken away from the women and justified by telling women that, because we can (and should) have babies, we are more spiritual than men and therefore, we don’t need the priesthood. Men are such weak, pathetic creatures that they must be given the priesthood or else they will sin and fall away from the church. A mormon must hold the priesthood to preside over meetings, offer public prayers in meetings, minister to the congregation, bless the children (including naming babies – a bit like a Catholic baptism, only mormons just “bless” the baby and then baptize later at age 8), and a host of other rituals.
Currently, in the temple, there is a washing and anointing ritual. Men are separated from women so male temple workers perform the washing and anointing ritual for men and women do it for women. However, in order for anyone in a temple to perform a ritual for another, they must be given the priesthood. Therefore, women are given some limited power of priesthood in order to be able to perform that washing and anointing ceremony. *Citations below.
Couple that little tidbit of info with some other clues that Barb and her mom dropped in this episode. Barb talked about three things her mother participated in that were giant red flags to me and screamed “NEW ORDER MORMON!!!” To me, New Order Mormon is a term to describe mormons who are on the more liberal end of the belief spectrum; generally, the NOMs tend to abhor racism, misogyny, and homophobia and usually are aligned politically with the liberal end of the scale. In mormonism, that’s tantamount to heresy (being a registered Democrat :)). Barb said that her mom: 1) Was a member of Sunstone – that’s a liberal thinktank organization comprised of mormons (Or, as Nikki put it, “a hotbed of malcontents, freethinkers and doubters.” :D) and this organization will debate and discuss issues and concerns that are generally considered off the table in the church; 2) took a stand against the John Birch Society, which essentially means Barb’s mom is against bigotry and racism in general; and 3) is pro-ERA. Now Barb’s mom did reveal later that she chickened out with Betty Ford and it was clear she was maintaining this façade of being this rogue liberal mormon, when really, it turns out she toes the line just as much as any other woman.
So Barb took all this stuff from her mom and incorporated that into the rest of her belief paradigm and came up with “Well, why the hell shouldn’t I give Margene a blessing? Why do we need a man to do that?” This is heresy in mormonism, despite my references and quotes below, which are not really common knowledge; and that’s obviously why Nikki lost her damn mind when she realized what Barb was up to. In no mormon belief anywhere is Barb authorized nor does she have the authority to consecrate the olive oil and perform a blessing. Barb is trying to get a seat at the table by essentially reclaiming very old school mormon beliefs and practices.
Contrast that struggle for feminism within the family and Nikki drawing the line at Barb performing what should be a male-only priesthood ritual with Nikki’s daughter winning the Mathlete competition. Kid was home-schooled, apparently not on the compound because Nikki said the school had been closed. Who taught her the math? Nikki? Anyway, there is no way in hell that the kid would have the educational and economic opportunities on the compound that she will have access to living with the Henricksons. We haven’t quite yet seen Nikki compromise the two: at what point do you drop the old paradigm (women can’t give blessings) in order to provide equal opportunities for a productive, successful life to your girl children? Nikki’s kid, the Mathlete, gets a seat at the table, and Nikki has been fighting for that.
We then see Bill exercise his power of priesthood to offer a blessing. It’s clear that, to Bill, a blessing solves all problems. All you need is a blessing and everything will be right again. I can see the wheels turning with the women. If Bill can fix things with a blessing, then why can’t they?
It seemed to me that pretty much every single character was trying to get a seat at the table. Margene was trying to make sure everyone had a seat at the family table; she’s fighting the divorce and deportation of Ana and her baby & man. (So Bill blesses the baby in utero because that’s the same thing as being a father. :rolleyes:)
Alby had his seat at the table and used it to spin the wheels of discontent into motion. (Brilliant play on his part, blowing up that meeting with just one “innocent” comment.)
What other characters were trying to get their seat at the table?
Yeah that whole bit with Nikki’s daughter winning the math award was the show moving into the unbelievable territory again. Hasn’t it been less than one year since they took her from the compound? And then *Nikki *taught her enough at home for her to win a math award? Yeah right. :rolleyes: Was she the troublesome girl who had no idea what regular culture was and stole someone’s iPod last year, or was that another runaway girl? That one had dark hair…
Can someone remind me what happened with Adaleen and the eggs? Her new husband (Zejko Ivanek, who she then killed in a fire)'s son impregnated her with an egg fertilized by his father and from which woman? Was it Nikki’s? Or something like that?
No, that was the same girl. The very girl who felt nekkid and slutty wearing modest shorts on vacation… in the summertime. She’s now hot to trot for the blond kid at Home Plus and she’s now a math genius.
I believe it was Nikki’s eggs, but I’m not entirely sure about that. I’m actually not sure where the eggs came from, but JJ was Nikki’s ex, so that’s where the weird incestuous thing comes into play: Nikki’s little sister would also be her ex’s child.
For some reason I thought it was being implied that J.J. had tutored Cara Lynn (who knows why), but probably not. I don’t see how she could have possibly picked up those math skills, and while some of Cara Lynn’s feelings are understandable, the change in her character has been very dramatic. It’s weird. Almost as weird as Margene in that last scene with Ana and Goran. I thought she was high.
The girl who stole the iPod was Roman’s youngest wife, a truly spiteful character whose name I’ve forgotten for the moment. Rhonda, that’s it.
JJ was just weird enough that I can randomly believe he would have decided to obsessively tutor his daughter in math to make some weird point… but I wish they’d mentioned something like that earlier, as it does seem totally out of the blue.
JJ’s son/Cara Lynn’s half-brother is a doctor, so apparently the compound had some use for higher education.
Dogzilla: major thanks for the above. Barb at one point accuses her mother of only marrying her current husband because she wants a priesthood holder- is there stigma on widows in Mormonism?
Yes, on widows, divorcees, single women over age 25. The thing about the spectre of polygamy lurking in the historical shadows is: just because a guy is married doesn’t mean he isn’t going to go after some hottie MILF whose husband just apostacized and left the church.
In fact, you don’t even have to be divorced to be sexually suspect. Just have an inactive, apostate, or nonmormon husband.
Any woman who could be perceived as available can and will try to steal your husband. Woman cannot get to the highest level of the Celestial Kingdom without a husband. Therefore, it is imperative for a divorcee or widow to find another husband quick like a bunny before she dies. If you are unable to find a husband for yourself during your earthly life, one will be assigned to you in the afterlife. In the case of widows, if they were sealed to their husbands before the husband’s death, then they are good to go and not a threat, but they are still powerless within the social structure of the community. Check out my link at the bottom of my post about about the roles of women in mormonism. Everything you do and everything you are is dependent upon and wrapped up around the man you’re with. Rather, the man who accepts you as his wife.
Without a priesthood holder in the home, you are a second class citizen.