By Jennifer Larson

Family trouble abounds in tonight’s episode of BIG LOVE. When Barb (Jeanne Tripplehorn) finds out her estranged mother is about to remarry, she reaches out to her but gets the cold shoulder. Nicki (Chloe Sevigny) has her slimy brother to contend with, and Margene (Ginnifer Goodwin) is contemplating the idea of surrogacy.

It appears that Bill (Bill Paxton) has started to lose control of his family. His eldest son is beginning to experiment in the polygamist lifestyle for himself, by dating twin sisters from Juniper Creek. His daughter is dealing with a cheating boyfriend, and his first wife, Barb, is thinking about how harmful the life she’s chosen is for her and her children. Marriage is hard enough; God only knows why somebody would want to deal with all that pressure times three. Kids, in-laws and shady business deals, Bill has really bitten off more than he can chew, if you ask me. But, it’s a little odd to me that Bill went from being such a patient, loving man, to a demanding and controlling male chauvinist.

Maybe it’s the fact that he can tell how much Barb is questioning the choices she’s made for her family, that seems to have put Bill on edge. Of course, he still has the Greenes to contend with, and those people are crazy psychopaths. Then there’s his constant battle for power with Roman Grant (Harry Dean Stanton), which always has him on his toes. Whatever it is, Bill just doesn’t seem like his happy go lucky polygamist self these days. One has to wonder how he’ll deal with the fact that his second wife, Nicki, has become a bingo addict, or that Barb wants to get their children out of the house and away from the pluralist lifestyle. At least he can still count on his besotted third wife, Margene, to worship and adore him.

Being the baby sister-wife, Margene, is simply told what to do and how to do it, but it looks like she’s growing up. I mean, it takes a lot of guts to stand up to your older sister-wife and demand a more prominent role in your husband’s life. Considering that Margene is the least religious of the group, she sees nothing wrong with Bill getting involved in the video gaming business, and believes she’s the perfect one – of the three wives – to represent and support their husband in this venture. Meanwhile, Nicki – who’s feeling threatened by her older brother Alby – is beginning the rethink the whole thing, especially after she finds out that Bill stole the company from her father, Roman. Barb is still dead set against it, but she’s too busy trying to mend family fences of her own to get too pushy in the matter.


Watching her son slip further and further into a life she doesn’t want for him, has caused Barb to consider sending him off to stay with her estranged mother for the summer. But, I don’t know if that deal wasn’t more for Barb than her son. She broke her mother’s heart by taking on the polygamist tradition, and she wants nothing more than to get back in her good graces. This is looking like it may be the beginning of the end. With only one more episode left this season, I think we’re headed for a cliff hangar that will have us questioning whether or not the Henricksen family will remain in tacked. In fact, we may be left wondering whether or not Bill will survive at all.

Alby is slowly killing his own father, and it looks like Bill is his next target. So far, Alby has forced Joey (Shawn Doyle) and his family to go on the run, threatened Bill, and he’s trying to convince Nicki that it is her husband who’s trying to kill their father. This guy is off the hook freaky, and he may be the ruination of the whole group. All of this pressure is not only wreaking havoc between husband and wives, it’s causing a serious rift between the women themselves. With everything beginning to fall apart at the seams, I can only guess at what lies ahead in next week’s episode. The one thing I am sure of is that it won’t be boring.