'Big Love' Goes Out With a Big Fat Mess

*Warning, spoilers ahead from the season finale of Big Love.*

They were standing there. The four of them. In front of a gathering of supporters and the media at an election night acceptance speech. Their clothing reflecting the colors of the American flag, each wife in a single color, Bill in a combination of all three. But around them, shadows, disallusionment and disappointment . . . oh, and some salivating reporters who know a mega-juicy story when they see one.

The season finale of Big Love concluded with Bill winning his state senate race but losing his soul in order to get there. At the very least, he's lost the confidence and quite possibly the affections of his first wife Barb who begged and pleaded with him to refrain from outing the Henrickson family as polygamists if he won. She feared for their family, fears confirmed by poor Don Embry's son hurling a brick through the Henricksons' front window and cursing Bill for bringing scorn, mockery and humiliation down upon the Embry family by forcing Don to be the fall man at the beginning of Bill's campaign and pretend to be the only polygamist working at Home Plus. The Embry family living "in the light" and being open about their polygamy is a nightmare. Just look at Don's face and tell me he's happy to be living out in the open. Barb feared for her own family's well being while Bill was only concerned about transforming himself into some kind of transcendental leader who'll be forever remembered for moving polygamy into the American mainstream and to heck with the rest of his shortsighted family members. (See the video below.)

So desperate was Barb to grab hold of any rocks on the side of the cliff that she could, lest she and her family fall off it as Bill pushes them, that she was willing to embarass Bill by informing a local TV station on the eve of election day that Bill had fathered an out-of-wedlock child with Ana. She even handed over the results of a paternity test. She'd rather be the wife of a lying cheat (which she already is because Ana's baby was conceived before Ana and Bill were married for about 48 hours) than the first wife of a polygamist, pitied by the likes of Marilyn Densham who thought she was a pathetic sap for allowing her husband's sexual and political appetite run roughshod over her.

Ep. 43: Inside the Episode

But the vain, deluded Bill plodded forward, regardless of the hideous news that was breaking about members of a Kansas polygamist compound being indicted and charged with widespread incest, incest that he knew had ties to Nicki's first husband J.J. who ran the Kansas compound, ties that Bill knew could taint anyone who was publicly known as practicing polygamy.

Even after his wife Nicki was attacked and nearly forcibly inseminated by J.J., after Bill learned that his first wife called the TV station about his baby mama, after Bill's third wife didn't want to go public and had repeatedly asked him to, at the very least, delay publically announcing their polygamist practices, Bill went ahead and did it anyway. And there they stood, hand in hand, everyone looking miserable, Barb in particular.

With only nine episodes in this season, I felt as though we'd been forced to drink wine that hadn't had time to age properly and that hadn't been given time to breathe. The finale felt so rushed because they literally had run out of time to tell the story the writers wanted to tell. I think they could've done fine by using fewer major events and by just simplifying things.

An example of rushing through stories without giving them enough time or decent treatment is the dispensing of the Flutes. After two seasons of Bill courting the Flutes in order to build the casino, Bill summarily ditched them off screen on election day (how did he have time to do all he did on election day?) when they had a member of their family who was dealing drugs at the casino.

Bill has a brother who admitted to committing murder, parents who've tried to kill one another and have illegally transported guns and birds from Mexico, a mother who sliced off someone's arm, a sister-in-law who's tried multiple times to kill people, a mother-in-law who just burned alive two people in a building (Bill doesn't know about that yet), a wife who committed fraud when she stole someone else's identity in order to work at the D.A.'s office and obstruct her father's prosecution for compelling underaged girls to marry older men, and another wife who's in a sham marriage in order to keep the fiance of Bill's baby mama in the country. And the FLUTES are the ones who are the problems who need to be fired? Never mind the fact that Bill perpetrated fraud on the voters by parading Barb and their three kids around like they were his only family members. How long until the recall vote?

Based on the last few episodes, we knew the finale was going to be overstuffed with way too much story, no matter how much I wanted everything to slow down and stop being so over-the-top. Putting those criticisms aside, I found hope in Barb's response to Bill's lunacy. I hope that next season, she'll emerge stronger and wiser and not The Good Wife-polygamist style. And hopefully there'll be more episodes so the writers can slow down.

Your thoughts on the Big Love finale? What do you think will happen to the Henricksons now that their big secret is out?

Now a Contributing Writer at CliqueClack TV, Dishing on 'Big Love'

Whenever I talk to people about the pop culture work that I do on this blog and in my weekly columns at Mommy Tracked, I usually get asked, "How do you have time to watch all that TV?" My typical snarky response is, "I've given up sleep." (Hence my reliance on copious quantities of caffeine.)

Well now I've got one more reason to keep atuned to the TV landscape: I'm a contributing writer to the web site CliqueClack TV (CCTV), or, in the venacular of the site, I'm a "clacker." The web site creators describe CCTV this way:

"We're the clique that clacks about TV, so if you want to chatter about all things television, you've come to the right place . . . We like to think of CliqueClack TV as a playground for us writers to post about anything we want and to cover what excites us."

My current assignment there is to muse about HBO's fourth season of Big Love, among other subjects. My post about the recent episode of Big Love, "Sins of the Father," talks about how the eppy pursued two, parallel storylines this week: One about Bill Henrickson's public campaign to overcome the political baggage associated with his background as a "Lost Boy" who was exiled from the Juniper Creek polygamist compound when he was 14 and had to resort to some criminal behavior in order to survive (including being busted for assault). The second was about Bill attempting to handle the private fall-out from his recent decision to encourage his own teenaged son to leave the family home because Bill was threatened by the sexual attraction between Ben and Bill's third wife Margene, the one who kissed her step-son two episodes ago.

I found Bill's attempts to pretend he hadn't really asked Ben to leave the house utterly slimy, almost as slimy as asking Don Embry to take the fall for him and admit he's a polygamist in last week's episode. (Last week on CCTV I compared Bill to John Edwards.

For those of you who missed the latest episode, which was heavily centered around Bill's attempts to get his state Republican party's nomination for State Senate, here's HBO's brief recap:

Ep. 39: Sins of the Father - Recap

My favorite moments: The Ronald Reagan dance party, Nicki/Daphne/spy asking Bill why she's always asked to do the "morally ambigious" things (like spy on the rival GOP state senate candidate's campaign), Barb in the sweat lodge and Joey telling his brother that he's going down the wrong path. (What was up with Lois siding with and protecting Frank the Vicious? That puzzled me.)

What did you think of the recent installment of Big Love?

'Big Love' Implodes

*Warning, spoilers ahead from the recent episode of Big Love.*

There were so many stunning aspects to the latest episode of Big Love, "The Mighty and the Strong," that I can't decide which one took the cake as the weirdest, most over-the-top thread:

-- Margene and Ben (Margene confessed to Bill that she has non-maternal feelings for 18-year-old Ben, Bill agreed that his son should leave the family home -- which reminded me of the other boys who were sent away from Juniper Creek after they coveted older polygamist men's assigned spouses, plus Margene's painfully tearful rant on the home shopping channel about being "abandoned" by her husband which is CERTAIN to draw media attention, how could it not?)

-- Don the Doormat. (Poor Don Embry took the fall to preserve Bill's political career by outing himself and his family as polygamists so Bill's political rivals would back off claims that Home Plus was employing polygamists.)

Barb and the Casino. (She hit an Indian woman with her car, Barb's daughter Sarah was secretly caring for the woman's baby and was then reluctant to give the baby back to his meth-addicted mom on the reservation because she was still mourning her miscarriage from last season.)

J.J. and Adaleen. (*speechless*)

Love-struck Alby broke into a house and cooked dinner. (I cannot tell if Alby is playing this guy or wants to make a secret life with him, or both.)

What did you think was the weirdest element of the new installment of Big Love?

Ep. 38: The Mighty and Strong - Recap

Did Ya See 'Big Love'? Seriously . . .

* Warning . . . really big spoilers from the recent episode of Big Love ahead*

Ep. 37: Strange Bedfellows - Recap

That ending with Margene and Ben, her kissing him at the TV studio, the live TV camera shot of his stunned face as he was announced as "Mr. Margene Heffman." Well, in the words of the Henricksons, "Holy cow!" or, perhaps I'll invoke another one of their favorite exclamations, "Good night!"

After last season's declaration of Ben's love and desire for his step-mom Margene -- which she rebuffed out of hand during that family road trip from hell -- I thought that would be the end of the whole Ben-Margie flirtation. There was a bit of the flirtation way back in season one, when the two of them had a water fight in the pool and with the hose and Ben was staying over at her house and hanging around a lot. That all ended when Barb intervened and told Margie that Margie's behavior was inappropriate.

In the meantime, I've been waiting for Margie to act out in some fashion given that she has no friends, her two sister-wives are too preoccupied with other things and her husband's busy chasing down people to support his State Senate campaign. She has no one to talk to and was vulnerable. Remember the depression that plagued her at the end of last season after her mother died? That didn't just evaporate. And here she is, enjoying the most financial and career success of her life, and she's got no one to support her, cheer her on and say, "You go girl!"

Couple that with the fact that when she was physically threatened by Nicki's ex-husband J.J. -- when he pushed her aside and behaved menacingly -- it wasn't her husband or her sister-wives who rallied by her side, it was Ben who put himself between J.J. and Margie, and you've got a recipe for all sorts of drama.

Looking at those factors, it isn't totally shocking that this happened, that Margie stepped over that line as she reached out for an emotional connection with someone (and he happened to be there), although the way in which it happened, in public and with a TV camera, was jaw-dropping.

HBO hosts Margene's blog on its show's web site and on it the character said, in a post entitled, "I Messed Up. . .:"

"This all looks SO bad, I have to find a way to get them to understand the situation beyond the basic facts. The basic facts will make people's toes curl, mine included. But I promise it's not as world-ending as it sounds. It doesn't have to be, at least."

What did you think of the Margene/Ben twist on Big Love?

Getting Political on 'Big Love' and 'Brothers & Sisters'

*Warning, spoilers ahead from the recent episodes of Big Love and Brothers & Sisters.*

"I know we used to talk about public service, it was something we dreamed of, but Bill, that was three marriages ago," Barb Henrickson to her husband Bill who’s thinking of running for State Senate despite the fact that they’re married to two other women.

Caught up on some Sunday night TV – watched the first two hours of 24, but hours three and four are still sitting on my DVR – and noticed that election fever has not only gripped my home state of Massachusetts (Have you heard that there’s a Senate race today in the Bay State?), but has popped up as a big theme in the recent episodes of Big Love and Brothers & Sisters.

Bill Runs for State Senate

Big Love’s second episode of its fourth season was a substantial improvement over the premiere, which seemed too enamored of the idea of toting the Romansicle all around the southwest in his white hat (a la Weekend at Bernie’s) and was drowning in gallows humor. This fresh installment assuaded my concerns over the direction of the show in the wake of its stellar season last year, going a little deeper and providing more meaningful storylines.

In the new episode, “Greater Good,” everyone, it seemed, has grown very tired of hiding -- their lifestyle, their beliefs, their ambitions -- and are opting (in a few cases) to openly own their own choices and to live in the light, as Bill “Church of Me” Henrickson would say.

For Bill, living in the light means, somewhat incongruously, running for State Senate in order to improve the image of polygamist families and to protect their rights against other politicians who’d like polygamists to be rounded up and imprisoned. Though Bill’s initial campaign plan was to pretend as though he and Barb were going to return to the LDS church and deny that they were living in polygamy for the entirety of his term if he's elected, Bill had a change of heart, mostly because his eldest daughter Sarah decided not elope because her mother disapproved. Sarah opted to stand tall and own her decision, marrying, at age 18, in her family’s backyard with a justice of the peace. Bill’s current campaign plan is to hoodwink Utah voters into voting for him and, once he’s elected, come out of the polygamist closet. Politically, that sounds like a disaster, but it’ll make for great TV.

Kitty to Toss Hat Into Ring

As for Brothers & Sisters, there’s always been a political component from the get-go. In the pilot episode, Kitty Walker (now McCallister) was a conservative TV political pundit who, in short order, was hired by Senator Robert McCallister to work on his presidential campaign.

That seems like a long time ago. Look at all that's happened since then: Kitty and Robert got married, Kitty penned a controversial political book, the duo underwent infertility treatments and then the adoption process, Robert had a heart attack on the day of his son’s birth, the two become estranged to the brink of divorce when Robert decided to run for governor without consulting his wife, Kitty flirted with having an affair, then Kitty was diagnosed with cancer, had an experimental treatment and is now in remission. (Gotta love soapy nighttime dramas.)

In the latest episode, “Run Baby Run,” Robert cited his heart attack and his wife’s cancer (plus his own lack of political fire in his belly) as his reason to withdraw from politics altogether after his Senate term is completed. And just as he’s exiting the tough world of politics, Kitty, who’s still sporting a head scarf because she lost her hair from chemo treatments, is considering jumping into the fray, considering a seat in the U.S. Congress. Robert thinks she should aim higher, like for his own U.S. Senate seat.

This could provide ample dramatic material, watching a cancer survivor and mother of a baby run for office alongside her ex-pol husband. As we’ve seen from recent political books (Game Change immediately comes to mind), these kinds of campaigns can be brutal, especially on families. To see a fictional female candidate who has a baby campaign for office could be illuminating, if the writers choose to go the ripped-from-the-headlines route. And with the Henrickson family likely to come under intense scrutiny on Big Love, we could see fascinating dramatizations of the impact of political races on candidates and their loved ones. Can’t wait.

Image credit: Ron Tom/ABC.