'Big Love': The heart of darkness

The end is near, "Big Love" fans. The penultimate episode of this season has come to pass, and it looks as though the family has gone the way of the McConkey barn: in shambles. Everybody has been cast into their own outer darkness. The Henricksons parted with Nicki, Joey parted with Bill and, most achingly, Barb parted with her beloved church. It was an hour filled with heartbreaking separation and uneasy alliances. (And one that received a lot of attention for depicting a sacred Mormon ceremony.)

Nicki, as we all know, had been banished from the Henrickson household and had taken refuge in her old room at the Big House. Alby, whose confidence had been growing in leaps and bounds, pampered her with fresh calico dresses, an offer of Adaleen’s Hummer and a chance to partner with him in his continued bid for compound power (much to spurned wife Lura’s dismay). And though Nicki demurred that she doesn’t belong at the compound anymore, she may not have anywhere else to go, as a refreshingly frank Barb, still stinging from the betrayal and her own worries of being excommunicated from the LDS church, wanted nothing to do with her (“You’ve just driven the love right out of me, and I’m detaching”). And Bill, either because of his feelings of being cuckolded or his own moral uncertainty, has come to the decision to have her unsealed. “There’s something in you that’s deeply broken, and I don’t know how to fix it,” he said gravely. Though if his unsettling fantasy sequences reveal any sort of truth, he loves Nicki more than he can say and feels more than a little complicit in this whole debacle. I can’t tell if his decision to be unsealed from Nicki is a result of his not wanting to deal with his own feelings of failure or if he really does feel that she is sowing unrest in his family.

(If unsealed, then Nicki will have an 0 for 2 record, as lurking J.J. reminded us at the Big House. And if his creepy mug — so effectively played by Zeljko Ivanek — weren't enough of a reminder of her first marriage, she had a daughter with him as well?)

Bill himself felt as though the heavenly Father was throwing every trial in the book at him. And there is no denying Bill is troubled, as was made clear on his haggard face. As Barb so astutely stated, “We’re just free-floating out here. ... We have no structure, we have no church.” Barb came to him in a moment of crisis and fear, and he hollowly told her to have faith. But in what? In him? What moral compass does he follow? Bill insisted on ending his marriage with Nicki but then slept with her anyway. He trades alliances as easily as he does his morals, and it’s as though his quest for power is stripping him from his true self, whoever that is. Does he really feel that strongly about the Woodruff document, or is it just his ballooning pride and hunger for power that made him insist that Ted get the church to admit of its existence? Bill quickly gave up his stake in the document and made a deal with the D.A. to lift Roman’s probation in order to get Hollis to give up Cindy and Ted’s kidnapped daughter.

So Bill operates without a church and without any accountability. And it was because he got back into bed with Roman that Joey severed his ties. “Maybe it’s the heavenly Father’s judgment,” Joey said of Bill’s trials. “Maybe it’s his retribution.” At the beginning of the episode, we heard the nagging sound of alarm, for Bill to finally wake up and really see what’s going on around him. And at the end, when he took his nasty tumble, I thought for a second that Bill's flippety-floppedness had caused him to buy the farm (talk about retribution!). But no, Bill rolled over and looked up through a hole in the ramshackle barn, and we were treated to gazing at a starry night sky, however framed in cobwebs, spread out above him. Though whether this is a clear-eyed revelation or another outer darkness remains to be seen.

This hour, however, belonged to Barb, as she faced losing her membership within the church. Barb has always been the moral center of the Henrickson family, so it was unsettling to see her flounder. (On the plus side, we got to witness an amazing Jeanne Tripplehorn take us through Barb’s faith-rattling, heart-wrenching journey, from fear to desperation to painful acceptance.) This is the church that Barb had been raised in all her life, that her family had been a part of for six generations. Detaching herself  was not easy, especially since it was not her decision to do so. And though she didn’t want to question Bill’s authority (“I didn’t feel I was allowed to miss it”), “I do miss it,” she said of the church. “I miss the ritual and the sense of purpose.” And faced with this potential separation, she begged to enter the temple one last time, to participate in an endowment ceremony and meet her mother and sister in an all-white celestial room that I’m assuming is like heaven. (It was this part of program that the Mormon church had criticized for depicting a religious rite that was considered sacred and private.)

All this time, Barb’s allegiance to the church was like her allegiance to her family; as she had so quickly stated to Margie, “there is no difference between the two.” But discovering that the church had possibly initiated this threat of excommunication because of Bill’s hubbub over the Woodruff letter forced Barb to grapple with whom she wanted to spend the rest of her time: her mother and sister in the LDS church, or Bill and her own family.

And if you thought Jeanne Tripplehorn was incredible in the episode so far, her stand in front of the disciplinary committee was absolutely riveting. And her speech touched upon some hot-button issues. “You openly disparage my family, but you hide the truth about our history,” stated Barb, the camera zooming in on her. “I love the church. I love it more than I can say, but I believe the church and its leaders are in grave error on polygamy, and on the kinds of marriages and families it creates. I can’t forsake my family.”

Though her delivery was firm, it was no less wrenching when the stake president, in a grimace of disappointment, proclaimed Barbara Dutton Henrickson to be taken off the record books and severed from her family, her ancestors and progenitors for all eternity. And as he uttered these words, the camera slowly panned back, detaching itself from a clearly devastated Barb, fighting tears and mustering all her courage to stay faithful to her convictions, no matter the cost. (Emmy voters, take note!)

What did you think of Barb's speech? Was Nicki’s arrival at the excommunication too little too late? Are Sarah and Scott getting back together? Will Bill and Nicki really become unsealed? Will they be prosecuted for obstruction of justice?

-- Allyssa Lee

Photo: Lacey Terrell / HBO

Comments

[CC]

I loved the scene with Roman watching Wheel of Fortune! 'more fun than a barrel of monkeys' moron!

[Richard]

In the second to last paragraph, the term is "stake president" versus "state president"

[M Romero]

An absolutely stunning episode. This series is at full stride, and I cannot wait until next Sunday to see the season finale! Big Love is gonna get some Emmy love soon!

[Paula Duffy]

The series has hit its peak with this season. Many of the threads started earlier have seamlessly come together and the action has been non-stop for weeks. Couldn't be better

[Sally]

I am so going to miss this show! I can't believe the season is almost over!!!!

Jeanne Tripplehorn is outstanding in this episodes (as with all episodes). Ellen Burnstyn as her mom is amazing. I've had nothing but praise for this show -- I wish the Television Academy would as well!!!

[miltchocklit]

barb has always been my favorite of all the wives, and for the first time, i am watching an epi of "big love" again. watching an epi more than once was always something i only did for the magnificent "battlestar galactica", but this show is absolutely fabulous and that episode was brilliant. brilliant. i had a mormon girlfriend in high school who was honest enough to tell me the only reason we were together was to anger her parents (i am black) and she told me about all the things she dispised about the mormon church, including that "sacred ceremony" from last night's show. she also told me about all the infighting about polygamy. this show makes it all come home for me. great writing. great acting. a joy to watch.

[seeker]

The title you're repeating from Bill's dialogue is Heavenly Father.

It's a key concept in Mormon worship. They believe he is the literal father (with a Heavenly Mother they acknowledge but don't speak about) of the souls they take from their time in the pre-existence as spirit children into this world when they get human bodies from their earthly parents. Meanwhile, Heavenly Father remains the parent they're ultimately responsible to for their salvation or "progression" toward "exhaltation".

[emanuel]

It is good Nicki and Bill are going to be unsealed. Nicki needs to get away from the family and maybe then she will find what she is looking for. The sex scene explained it all that Bill and Nicki are two people who never connected and even in intimacy they are so far apart. Nicki needs love and that is what Bill has never given her. Maybe she can find it in Ray Henry.

Barb really does not know what she wants. I think she acted out against Nicki because the main person she is mad with is herself. She let Bill start this prinicple and she is the one paying for it. I feel she has to make a true decision in what Barb wants as well.

Margene is so full of Zoloft she cannot feel anything. She was way too happy and her emotions are detached.

Bill is just Bill. Selfish and power hungry. Only when he is about to get caught does he finally do something. I believe even if Roman is removed Bill will be the person to be running the compound. Because the ultimate goal of Bill is to get power.

[Marc]

Does anyone know if there will be a season 4? I would hate for the show not to be renewed and leave things unresolved like this.

[nancy cunningham]

What is the name of the actress who plays Barbara Henricksons's (Jean Tripplehorn) mother?