(Season 3, Episode 1 – “Block Party” – Season Premiere)
They’re baaaaaaaack! If you’re like me, you’re delighted to be back in the Henrickson/Grant/Heffman home(s) with the premiere of the third season of Big Love. Roman Grant is still in jail, and it was hilarious when the lawyers were explaining that the charge was basically rape of underage girls without using the word “rape.” Of course, he doesn’t like that word; it comes with a heftier prison sentence.
Once again, the family is dealing with potential publicity; Alby’s antics, Nicki’s lies, and multiple secrets. For an open and close-knit family, these people never tell each other anything except what time to show up for dinner. But that is one of the beautiful characteristics of the show. Usually Nicki is the one with the worst secrets, but this season, I think Barb might beat her.
I was happy to see Ana back again. It never occurred to me, though — not once for two seasons — that Barb’s cancer might return. That was disturbing and shocking. Perhaps I thought it wouldn’t happen because the family made such a big deal about Barb being healed by Roman. Barb is supposed to be alive because she accepted Nicki into the marriage and embraced the principles of polygamy. Now, her thinking is that if she accepts Ana, maybe she can beat her cancer again. Either that, or she thinks Ana is going to be one hell of a mother.
What did you think of the fact that Bill finally slept with Ana? Inevitable? Or is Bill starting to slip in his faithfulness to his religion? I think, knowing Bill, he’ll deal with it by saying the ends justified the means, especially if Ana joins the family. It was this episode before I really understood what their eternal beliefs are about polygamy, about having a larger family to better serve God. I was glad that Barb explained it, too, because I have never really understood why she went along with this.
I’m not surprised that Sarah feels like she needs to leave Utah — she could get into all kinds of trouble in college! But I was absolutely gobsmacked that the reason why the neighbors the O’Hares didn’t want Teenie to play with their sons was that she was charging $0.50/picture for glances at Playboy. That was brilliant, and really showed the Henricksons that hoofprints (being ostracized by the neighbors) don’t always mean there are horses (anti-polygamy sentiment) coming; sometimes there are zebras (lush entrepreneurism).
Some great humorous moments: When Nicki tells her boss that her name is Margene Heffman. For one thing, she was pretending to be an airhead, which made the remark funny to me, rather than just evasive about her true identity. Adaleen is always hilarious, especially when she is telling Nicki that she knows Alby is gay, “with that Tap, Tap, Tap.” Another one was the look on Alby’s face when he drove past Adaleen and started to figure out that maybe it wasn’t Bill who tried to have him killed in the bathroom.
Finally, I’m getting a little sick of the Henricksons always harboring someone from The Compound who is being mistreated or needs their help and intervention. It’s just getting a little old, like the show is laboring for subplots in order to try to keep The Compound in the show. It seems forced. Especially when I really want to get back to whether Barb has cancer and whether Ana is going to date the family.
Clacked by Jen Creer
on Jan 18, 2009 @ 23:23 EST5EDT
except that they can’t keep the Compound out of their lives, not as long as they continue to practice polygamy. and this refugee from the Compound was especially important, as we’ve heard in each season how traumatic it was for Bill to be thrown out of the compound and abandoned that way. In fact, it was that situation that he used in his testimony for why he WASN’T active in the LDS anymore. Add in that it’s his stepbrother from one of his father’s younger wives and it’s even more important. Remember that Bill and Barb’s son decided that he wanted to take up polygamy last season — I can see this other boy being used as a parallel to that decision.