The first time I’ve liked Bill in quite some while was when he punched Alby. I can understand and forgive plotting to kill your parents (especially if their Alby’s) or having a gay affair while leaving a bunch of clingy wives unfulfilled or faking divine revelations to consolidate your power over a backward and horrendously abused and misogynistic compound, but when you order dogs killed you’ve crossed a line. I was glad Lura (who is dangerous in her own right) didn’t buckle.
Poor Lois, the perfect cap to a miserable life.
And Bill always tells people to look on the bright side in a bad situation but doesn’t practice what he preaches. “DUDE! I totally nailed a 16 year old babysitter!” I’m increasingly convinced the Margene:Ben relationship is going to escalate, especially now that we know she’s only about 3 years older than he is.
Any thought on what’s up with the across the street neighbors and how it’s going to be significant?
Must agree guns aren’t a great Christmas present. Practical yes, perhaps, but not very romantic or thoughtful or 8 lb 2 oz Baby Jesus-y.
Could somebody refresh my memory: what happened to JJ’s son the fertility specialist, or has it said?
I was pretty horrified with Alby wanting the dogs all killed (did you catch the expression on the face of the little terrier when he said it? The terrier was all “whaaaat?” ok nevermind) but I just read a comment on the AV Club that having all of the animals killed was something that the infamous Warren Jeffs did. So, it’s not like the writers just decided to go dog killin’.
I really like the Margene plotline. Definitely something that we didn’t see coming, yet fits in perfectly with what we know of her and her history with the family. And definitely can lead to interesting places.
I’m really impressed by the actress playing Cara Lynn.
A lot of Alby is patterned after Jeffs (except at least Alby’s into men rather than adolescents and kids). When he succeeded his father Rulon as head of the Hildale/Colorado City compound they went from “very strict and backwards but bearably so” to “Jonestown waiting to happen”. He ultimately banned all TVs, music (other than religious), the color red from being worn on clothing, and women from working outside the house- even the ones who’d been nurses and teachers for many years and had nobody to replace them. I expect Alby to next start making incredibly racist comments about blacks being the spawn of Satan (which Jeffs did). There’s also a bit of Carolyn Jessop’s memoir ESCAPE in Lura’s plotline.
There’s a dentist in metro SLC named Dan Fischer who grew up FLDS and for a time had three wives. He became a millionaire through some dental patents and good investments and his successful practice and he’s long been mainstream LDS (he divorced his plural wives but provided financially for them and the kids) and dedicates much of his time and money to helping refugees from the compounds. There are very few women who refugee- either they’re truly Kool-Aid drinkers OR they’ve given up trying to get out once they have a house full of kids OR they don’t want to go to living a hand-to-mouth welfare & foodstamps existence (because most have less than a high school education and that from a very backwards education system)- Jessop’s one of the few women he’s helped- but he helps a lot of the Lost Boys. I think a fictionalization of him would be a good character.
A question for Dogzilla should she drop in: Do Mormons believe in transubstantiation or anything like it? The reason I was wondering was the scene last night where Bill asks Ben to bless the bread; I was wondering if this “blessing” was more literal (like consecrating bread) or more “Uncle Roy, would you say the blessing before we eat?”. If the latter, do women ever say the blessing if there’s a man present or is it always the priesthood holder?
I mean, if they hadn’t lost me already, this would have done so in its melodrama. I don’t care if it’s based on true events: it’s over the top for this show… or the first 3 seasons of this show.
There is just too much going on in any one episode. I liked the Ben-and-Sara’s-friend plot, but every character we see has his/her own storyline and it’s just messy instead of “zomg drama.”
And it’s sad because some of the stories coudl be compelling if focused on, like Bill’s mother. Margene having only been 16 will probably just fade away after a series of passive aggressive acts and words instead of being developed.
I know I should stop watching it if I am so displeased, but there are some good things left and there are so few episodes left and maybe if I gave up now, I’d miss something spectacular in the last few.
I blame the writers for this feeling, since just as the show started to really go wrong late in season 3 they busted out the best episode of the entire series: Come, Ye Saints.
This was the first time they’d ever shown Alby with his extended family. Apparently he’s got quite a few wives and a bunch of kids. They’d only ever shown Lura and a couple of the boys before; last night there were about half a dozen women and lots of rugrats.
How is he managing all those kids? Much of Lura’s complaint seems to be that he barely looks in her direction, much less does anything likely to bring on a baby.
Sex in those places is often very “wham bam thank you ma’am” and often synchronized to fertility cycles with little intimacy before or after the act. According to memoirs and testimonies of women and men who’ve left the compounds it’s not uncommon for couples who have a dozen or more children to have never seen each other naked or to have ever been naked during sex. To Alby it’s probably a bit like masturbation- sexual release with no real intimacy.
Not Dogzilla, but Mormons don’t believe in transubstantiation in either the sunday eucharist (called “the sacrament” by members of the LDS church, which can cause some confusion in discussions with some other faiths) or in prayers before meals. It is much more the “Uncle Roy” thing. Women and children say the blessings frequently, but it is generally the head of the household (usually the man) who requests who they would like to pray. In my house, if my father is there, I ask who I would like. In my father’s house, he chooses. If dad isn’t there, mom chooses. I’ve never seen it done differently in an active LDS household, though I have seen plenty of LDS families that skip the prayer.
Did anyone not know that Bill was going to ask Ben, and not Barb, to do the blessing? That was a very poor fake. And does anyone ever wonder, when they do something like show that elaborate scene at the end, with all the crazy shit going on, when the hell did they get time to do all that-- put together those costumes and lights and settings? I know they talked about it, but when would they have actually been able to do it?
My main issue is the storyline with Bill’s mom. It’s only supposed to be a month after the end of last season, and last season she was FINE. I can maybe write some of it off to the trauma of the whole Green debacle, but for her to be that far gone that fast seems terribly unrealistic. I could be wrong, though; thankfully I’ve never had to deal with that in a family member.
Mormons do not believe in anything like transubstantiation. The sacrament blessing prayer was only half of the prayer, but what you did hear was verbatim the exact sacrament blessing given in every mormon ward every Sunday. In fact, I hadn’t heard that in so long, it was actually trauma-triggering and I had to leave the room and cry a bit. I got myself together quickly and I’ll rewatch the episode and do commentary later this week.
It is a more literal meaning, just consecrating the bread and water. Women are forbidden from blessing the sacrament, always. Not even allowed to pass it.
To clarify what Reloy3 said: women say family prayers over meals all the time. Generally, the priesthood holder in the home directs who is to do this at a given meal. Women also give informal blessings, but for a woman to use the consecrated oil and lay hands on head (like Barb offered to Margene) or for a woman to bless and pass the sacrament? Heresy.
Actually, come to think of it, Barb is really going rogue. The other point that stands out in my mind from this episode is when she told Cara Lynn that women get to choose for themselves what they are going to believe. That’s not entirely accurate. I can’t remember her wording exactly, but what she said pretty much goes against anything I was ever taught in church. There is a Divine Plan and I should follow it and there are no choices. I don’t get to decide if it’s right or wrong for me. The prophet has spoken, the thinking has been done; now bow your head and say yes.
I think sometimes we’re supposed to assume that with so many hands in that house(s), things get done more quickly than in your typical two-parent, coupla-kids household. Four adults plus Ben plus Cara Lynn plus whatever kids are old enough to sew/glue…and all those people are well versed in teamwork and direction following. Viola - live nativity.
Thanks for the info. I was just curious why it was such a big deal to Barb when Bill asked Ben to say the blessing; she obviously thought he was going to ask her and was shattered when he didn’t so I wondered what the big deal was when it’s just a run-of-the-mill prayer.