I’ve never been so confused about motivation and machinations. Maybe there’s just too much going on – too many characters, too much plot.
I’m not sure I’ll watch next season.
Why did Margene bring Ana to the houses? Why did she tell Nicki about Ana dating Bill? Margene knows Nicki can’t keep a secret. Why the hints to Barb about Ana? Why does Bill make out with Ana after Barb’s told him there’ll be no more wives?
Why did Nicki tell Alby that Roman was coming back? Why did Nicki let Roman leave the house? Why did Bill send Roman back? He knows Roman’s not strong enough to deal with Alby. Or does he think they’ll kill each other? He forgets that Roman has Adaleen on his side.
Why does Sarah give up on Ben, and give up her virginity? Statutory rape, anyone?
None of it makes any sense to me. Ordinarily I’d be okay with that – people can be inconsistent. But in this case, I’m thinking sloppy writing.
I agree I got a little bit confused about exactly what was going on… BUT, I still found the episode incredibly entertaining. So many moments just made me crack up, including Sarah taunting Roman, and Lois giving Wanda a bottle of drano in a little fancy gift bag. Classic.
How is Albie going to possibly keep secret from the compound people that he had Roman arrested?
Why didn’t Bill have Adaleen and Roman go public with the information that Alby was trying to kill Roman? I mean, tell everyone at Juniper Creek that Alby tried to kill the Prophet-- that would be the end of him religiously. Then have him and his she-wolf of a wife ( ) prosecuted for attempted murder. That would have taken care of the Alby problem. I just could not grasp why Bill wanted to keep Roman a secret. He had much more to gain if he outed that whole thing.
Anyone think Ana is going to turn up pregnant next season, with Bill’s baby? Barb will lose her MIND. Though that would be a bit of a cliche, plotwise, something’s got to push Barb out the door, after her little commitment renewal with Bill. She’s going to be on the Board of Weber Gaming? So much for her moral objections to gambling, eh?
I actually thought Margene was kind of a bitch to Barb about Ana, and about the surrogate mother idea, which was also terrible. Why do they need a 4th wife? Marge was being selfish there-- she wants an ally, and a confidante, in the family. That’s understandable, but… adding another wife is just not what she thinks it’s going to be.
Sarah and Scot… ewww. She’s way too good for him. He’s a dirtbag for basically manipulating her into having sex with him. I’m sorry she fell for it, but it’s a pretty common occurrence for girls that age.
Nicki, again with the stupid, telling Alby that Roman was coming so Alby could be prepared. I also don’t understand how he’s going to get away with having Roman arrested. I hope it blows up in his face-- anything to wipe that smarmy smirk off it.
Wanda was hilarious. Lois is evil for trying to provoke her into future poisonings-- did we know that Lois put Wanda up to poisoning Frank and others?
Overall, I really liked the season, though Bill’s actions this ep were confusing to me too.
Sarah’s not 18 yet. When she first told her boyfriend that she lied about being a college student, I remember her saying she was a junior in highschool. Just one or two episodes ago Bill said to Sarah “Until you’re 18 and married you are my responsibility.” So, not 18 yet. I’m thinking she’s 17.
After all the build-up this season, I thought Barb’s confession to the neighbor and re-commitment to the family was anti-climactic and out of character.
I can’t tell where they’re going with Ana’s character, but I’m not a fan of that plotline either. I think Margene is making a mistake by assuming that everything will be peachy if they add a 4th. She’ll only lose her position as the newest and most sexually intriguing wife.
Exactly! And why didn’t Alby try harder to kill him? No one would have questioned Roman’s death. Why use the animal drug when she had access to the usual sedatives?
I didn’t understand all that voting either. If the UEB can have an election every day, and vote people on and off the board, then who cares who’s on the board? They can be gone the next day.
It was starting to feel like the show had no rules.
So, does anyone else think that they did a major setup for neighbor-woman (what was her name?) and her husband to become polygamists next season? I mean, the situation is almost a parallel to Bill and Barb: she can’t have kids, and they need a way to have children. I’m betting that the neighbors will tell no one about Barb’s revelation, and they’ll at least get started on setting up her husband (Carl was his name, right?) with a new wife. Seems obvious. And then there’s be two polygamist families on the same block.
I think Bill sent Roman back because Roman was the only one who could depose Alby, and while Roman is still an evil SOB, he’s not a psychotic and reckless evil SOB like Alby is. Better the evil you know, right?
I was kinda disappointed in the finale; I thought it would end with a bigger cymbal-crash, or something. It was certainly funnier than the last few episodes have been, but still. And is it just me, or was this season just one “who are they going to reveal their lifestyle to this week” after another? I mean, there was the Weber Gaming people, and then the gaming customers, Margene’s mom, the neighbors, Ana, Barb’s family…seriously, some different plotlines would be nice.
In combining Max Torque’s thoughts regarding Anna with my own, there is 3 different options for continuing story line for Anna.
She becomes 4th wife
She becomes surrogate mom for the neighbors
She becomes 2nd wife for the neighbors
The other option is she ends up being cast off by Bill again, but I don’t think they would have gone through the trouble to re-insert her into the story line to have that happen all over again.
I agree. I didn’t think this a very good season finale for that reason-- nothing really resolved, and we have more questions than answers.
Still, the show had it’s moments, like the one **Liberal **mentioned above-- hilarious. Barb sure knows when to play the polygamy card to her favor. She did it with Bryn and now with neighbor-lady. For someone who tries to project all sweetness and light, she can be a manipulative bitch when she wants to be!
The way it came across to me — and God knows, I’m probably not the norm — Barb had a cathartic moment when she realized that everything was slipping away. Ben doesn’t respect or love her. Bill doesn’t trust her. Nicki is falling apart. Margene has gone off into a world of her own. There’s a new woman around. The neighbors are onto them. All of this hit her at once, and with Bill’s kiss and assurance that she’s number one, along with Adaleen’s admonition for her to take charge before it’s too late, I think she just suddenly snapped it all together and made an ad hoc decision that, by God, this family needs her.
I agree. It was the combination of Bill & Adaleen that snapped her out of whatever alternate universe she had been trying to live in and back to reality.
I can’t remember if it was right before she went to the neighbors or before that, but you could almost physically see Barb “swallowing” it all at one point. Great acting there.
Speaking of great acting, it was good to see Harry Dean Stanton back up and around. He’s just plain fun to watch. There was one shot of him in bed where I was shocked at how much he looked like Alby, like he could really be his father.
I can’t see how calling the cops on the Prophet is going to make Alby any more popular in the compound. The whole thing seems pretty transparent, and the UEB can have him removed just as easily as they put him in. It also seems to me that if they’re going to put Roman away for transporting minors, there are bound to be other people on the compound that Roman could take down with him if he wanted to.
By the way, gradually increasing doses of sedatives and narcotics are a lousy way to kill somebody. It just builds the body’s resistance. It’s not a bad way to make someone look like he’s fading away, but you’ll still need a big push at the end. Of course, it’s totally in character for Alby not to know that.
I assumed that the drug Adelene gave him was a narcotic or benzo reversal agent like Flumazenil or Narcan, but in a veterinary preparation. (Reversing benzos (valium, etc.) like that can be very dangerous. Reversing narcotics won’t kill you, but you might wish it had.)
It seems inconsistent because you are expecting the characters to start acting normal or rational, but they never do. They have always been flawed, and will continue to make the same mistakes. I think that is what makes the show consistent, that the characters continue to repeat the same mistakes and rarely change. We had a small moment for Barb (as **Liberal **pointed out), and we have to wait to see if the new attitude takes or if she will go back to smuggling her kids into LDS churches.
That was the problem with The Sopranos, people expected Tony and crew to change, but they never did.
Margene is using Ana as leverage. By telling Nikki and Barb about her she is able to get them both to stop questioning her decision to become a surrogate mother. It is stupid and naive of her to want to become a surrogate mother, but Margene has is pretty good track record of doing naive things.
The idea was for the town to see Roman isn’t dead and then Roman can use his authority to deal with Alby.
As for Nicki, she was just being selfish. Unlike Barb, Nikki doesn’t have a problem forgetting about what her actions will do to her family. Barb was headed that way toward most of this season, with her desire to turn her kids away from polygamy, but she realized her mistake in this episode.
I don’t think she gave up on Ben, she did give up on her religion though. And without her religion, there is little reason for her to keep her virginity.
It was when Bill told her that he needs her on the board of Weber. As you describe it so well, she did at that moment “swallow” it all, and made her decision to commit. And I agree that it was a superb job by Jean Tripplehorn.
) prosecuted for attempted murder. That would have taken care of the Alby problem. I just could not grasp why Bill wanted to keep Roman a secret. He had much more to gain if he outed that whole thing.
