Season finale tonight!
That was a long hour, or 55 minutes. I was looking at the clock 30 minutes in, wondering when it was going to be over.
I’m sorry, but the Bill-Roman story line isn’t all that interesting to me. The stakes are financial, and I can’t get worked up over businessmen trying to protect their interests. Why didn’t Bill leave Roman alone? I thought they’d reached an accommodation.
I’m excited. I had only seen a few episodes during the regular season, but I caught up with the repeats HBO did over the last few days. This show is good! Sort of a weird cross between Desparate Housewives and The Sopranos. Lot’s of actors from Napolian Dynomite, too.
I have to wonder if they’re ever going to fill in the missing pieces of Barb’s past. Where does she come from? Is her family LDS? I think the writers are playing a bit too fast and lose with how Bill and his family could really pull off hiding their polygamy in that neighborhood (even if they didn’t have obviously polygamist relatives visiting all the time).
Well, they pretty much blew the cover off the whole thing tonight. It’s kind of tough to go back into the shadows when you were outed as a polygamist at the Governor’s mansion. I’m assuming that the press at the event are going to want some sort of explanation as to why a prominent businessman’s wife was yanked off stage in the middle of the ceremony. I’ll be disappointed in the writers next season if they try to have the whole thing hushed up so that it can be life as usual in the Hendrickson household(s) – even if it’s just the First Lady’s staff that’s privy to the reason why Barb was disqualified, this kind of revelation would leak so fast it would make your head spin.
Bingo. Heads are gonna roll - oh wait, that was the Sopranos 
I don’t think there will be any way to put the lid back on the box. Even if Alby lives, he won’t have functioning kidneys. Antifreeze does nasty things to internal organs.
Rhonda is still in denial of what her life has become.
And another thing . . . 
I don’t like what it says about Barb’s character, that she’d risk outing the family for a bogus award. The guy even told her that having cancer was what made her a front-runner.
What’s this “Beehive” thing? Is it a business or a charitable organization or what? It looks like they sponsored the Mother of the Year award, and it was also an item on the agenda at the UEB Council meeting.
How did Bill’s assistant get tickets to the event, yet Barb couldn’t get two extras? Why did she attend? Was she going to speak up? Red herring. Cheap trick.
Why did Barb think for a second that Rhonda would be allowed to stay with them? Roman’s next wife, in that environment? The writers didn’t need to manufacture a reason for her to be angry at Barb. We’ve seen that she’s dishonest and vindictive, and confused. She could just as easily have told Roman in exchange for an X-Box.
I’m laying 5 to 1 that Big Love gets picked up for a second season…
After the second (or so) episode I said I wouldn’t be watching any more, but I was wrong.
Great first season.
It seemed so, but Roman was still harrassing him, as Bill realized when the land deal fell through for his new store. As the guy who Bill bought out for the council seat confirmed, the council was still talking about him, and wanted to out him.
Her sister was on a couple of episodes ago–they’re very LDS, and she has pretty much fallen out with them.
It can, but not always. The amount she gave him was not all that much, and he did eventually get medical treatment, so he’ll probably be OK.
The beehive is the state emblem of Utah, so there’s no connection between the mine and the woman’s group other than being located in Utah (not unlike there being numerous businesses and groups in Wisconsin that use “Badger” in their name). One of Utah’s nicknames is the “Beehive State” and their highway sign is a beehive too.
HBO has already announced that Big Love is coming back for another season. I read that in one of the numerous stories about Deadwood probably not coming back after the upcoming season.
In the scene at the end of the eppy when Barb is in the bedroom crying, did Nicki tell her that she got what she deserved?
No – Barb said it.
Wow. That was an interesting way to end things. Alby is going to remember where he was last and that Wanda gave him something to drink. They’re in deep shit. And it won’t take the press long to figure out why Barb was disqualified-- several people in the audience heard the “take it up with your other wives” comment. Anyway, it was pretty damn stoooopid to try for that award anyway. Nikkie looks even hotter when she’s all tarted up!
She’s not perfect. She let ego get in the way of common sense. That’s one thing that’s so good about the show… the characters are human. Nickie’s a bitch… but she’s also strong and principled. Margene’s a ditz… but also hard working and friendly. And so forth.
I thoroughly enjoyed the episode, although there did seem to be (as others have pointed out) one very large flaw in Bill’s plan re Albie, namely, what Albie himself will say. Does Bill somehow believe that Albie will have short-term memory loss?
The scene at the end with Barb breaking down was extremely well done.
Does Bill somehow believe that Albie will have short-term memory loss?
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I think he’s hoping it won’t matter since he will expose the books he got at the meeting if Roman tries to go after him for what happened to Albie. I don’t know why it matter so much though if Albie lives (Bill was hoping he would live)- either he hopes Roman won’t be as vengeful with a living son as a dead son or he just hasn’t gotten ruthless enough yet to wish death on someone. It doesn’t seem Roman is too worried about Bill’s handle on the books since he took a drastic step to out Bill and his wives.
Did they ever explain why Wanda poisoned Bill’s father? All I heard was vague suggestions of poisoning people who were “mean” to them.
I was surprised when Barb made the overture to Rhonda to stay- I wondering if that was a response to her feeling like mother of the year and wanting to share the joy? I can see offering Rhonda an escape option or contact with a group that helps girls like her, but have that sneaky brat in your house? No way!!
I have had mixed feelings abou this show from Day 1, but have watched and enjoyed… it is a strange show, and an “uncomfortable” one for me for some reason, but it has remained true to itself.
However, this whole “Mother of the Year” plot line was not believable or realistic. This is a family in hiding with major problems (Prophet, the stores, their future). To enter a public competition which involves public appearances and stature, especialy when the mother entering is the first wife is crazy. Not a few episodes ago, she was ranting about the credit card debt and the need to be honest and all that, for the sake of the family, and now she hides details and risks their livelihood?
But Chloe sure looked gooooooood!
clarification: (entering the contest is crazy, the mother is not)
During the Thanksgiving episode, they showed Bill’s father cruelly teasing Bill’s brother about dropping the ball during a big football game (perhaps the Superbowl?). I gathered that the humiliation of that failure is what drove Bill’s brother to drink.
Another thing about Bill’s brother (whose name, I think, is Joey). He seems almost a broken man. Notice his lack of confidence when Bill asked him to sit in on the board meeting on his behalf. You can imagine that this was a big personality change for him; you’d expect a former pro football player to be much more confident, even cocky (even the ones like Lawrence Taylor who were also addicted to drugs). Given that change, you can see how Wanda would blame her father-in-law for breaking him.
I wonder if the family will have to retreat to The Compound in Season 2 in order to maintain their lifestyle. That would make for a few interesting episodes!
I still want more backstory on Bill and Barb and how they were convinced to go the polygamous route. I know it has to do with them getting money from Roman for Barb’s cancer treatment, but they obviously are completely into that lifestyle now. Or, at least Bill is and Barb tries to make it work rather than tries to undermine it. Did Roman force Bill to take in Nickkie so that he’d have some pull on him? I just have a lot of questions about how that family got to where they are. Seems like the writers are filling in bits and pieces, so perhaps they’ll flesh out all the details next season.
The scene where the family had to walk out of the auditorium was great. I really felt for the family. It would’ve been even more powerful if Nicky and Margene were there. I wonder why the writers decided to exclude them. Any thoughts?