Big Love Recap

Hi! So, I'm at Conneaut Lake in upstate Pennsylvania for a week with my family and have run into two serious problems: few people here have HBO and even fewer people have internet access. I've been roughing it here. But my dedication to HBO recaps is such that I Macguyver-ed together some VHS tapes and an internet connection in Meadville, PA.

Anyway, Margene's mom is in town and is on a mission to make everyone miserable through the cunning use of blinking light shirts and Stoli. Not surprisingly, Nicki LOVES her.

The Henricksons decide that it would be best to slowly introduce Margene's mom, Ginger, to the whole polygamist thing. Apparently, Barb's family wasn't so open-minded and words like "harlot" were tossed in Nicki's general direction. I'm wondering how Barb got to be so nice and good when her family seems to be a bunch of jagoffs.

Lois is dipping into the laundromat cash when Frank comes sliming in and starts asking about the money and the new furniture that Lois has procured. Her fancy couches look pretty funny in her compound house. Frank points out that they are lawfully wedded and he is entitled to half of what she owns. Lois crumples up a few bills and tosses them out the door. Frank hilariously scampers after them allowing Lois to lock him out of the house. I love Lois.

Bill and Don are talking to the guy from Weber gaming and I'm a little confused. Bill calls Hollis and tells him that he tried to talk Roman out of the business deal but it was a no go. Oh my god, why is Bill even talking to this dude? Is Weber gaming really the only business that he can buy that wouldn't care about them being polygamists? Don speaks my mind but Bill is still stupidly convinced that he can pull this off.

At Margene's house, Bonnie Bedelia (yay!) is being led on a tour. They have separated the three yards with this really ridiculous bamboo stuff. I don't think they're fooling anyone but Ginger is probably a few sheets to the wind already. Margene tells Ginger that they're having dinner with the neighbors that night and yay! won't that be fun but no smoking, no drinking, no caffeine. Ginger turns pale and I totally feel for her. At dinner, Ginger makes some uncomfortable comments about how tough it must be for Bill to live between two such attractive women. Heh, not as tough as you think, doll. Ginger fawns over Nicki's hair and Nicki gets all squishy. Ginger also hands Bill and Margene a wedding present that she would have given to them sooner, you know, if she had been invited to the wedding. Passive-aggressive guilt trips for dessert anyone? Bill opens the gift which is a pizza stone and everyone is like, "Oh...thanks." Barb slips away to take a phone call from Joey who tells her that Wanda is being discharged but he's stuck in Idaho for work and needs Barb to pick her up. Barb agrees even though she's never been to the compound without Bill. Dooohhhh...can't Wanda chill at Barb's house until Joey can pick her up?

After dinner, Ginger congratulates Margene on how well her life is turning out complete with backhanded compliments like, "I didn't think you had it in you." Thanks, Mommy! Margene decides that they should wait to tell her. Up in her room, Ginger is busy laying out her fancy clothes and listening to disco when she decides to steal a smoke. As she exhales out the window, she spies Bill and Barb kissing over the fence. Morons. They couldn't wait for a few minutes so they could do that somewhere a little more private?

At the compound, Lois is cooing to Joey Jr. as she takes him into the house where she finds Frank ransacking the place in search of the loot. He tells her that Eddie fled Canada rather suspiciously. After Lois staunchly refuses to tell him where the money is, Frank threatens to beat Lois to kingdom come. Lois looks genuinely frightened and I hate Frank. You know who Frank should marry? RHONDA. They're both hateful and I bet they would manage to kill each other in a matter of hours. Two birds, one stone. Done.

The big wigs at Home Plus are watching coverage of Orlean Abbott's arrest and Don gets even more worried. Bill insists that the Weber deal is fine, but Don points out that the only people interested in the purchase are Roman, the Greenes, and Bill and what does that say about Bill? Bill ponders this as Don does an interpretive dance with giant red flags.

Ginger goes over to Nicki to whisper about Bill's indiscretion with Barb. Nicki does a horrible job of covering up and within 30 seconds has confessed that they're polygamists. Frankly, I'm disappointed in Nicki. She's tougher than that.

After scooping Wanda from the hospital, Barb takes her to Lois' house to get the baby. Frank of course shows up and does a really good job of making everyone feel extremely unsafe. Lois very calmly gets her shotgun out and Franks takes the hint. Barb scolds Lois but Lois points out that Frank is, uh, insane and dangerous.

Sarah's boyfriend Scott shows up at Bill's office and tells him about Sarah being stalked by Alby. Bill's a little perturbed that Sarah has a "friend" of the male and older persuasion but puts that aside for the moment after Scott hands Bill Alby's location. Yay Scott!

Ginger saunters into Margene's house and starts berating Margene for not being so perfect. Margene insists that Ginger leave but she instead goes over to Nicki's house. Margene tries to tell Nicki about Ginger's issues, but Nicki barfs up a bunch of mommy issues and whines that Ginger is the only mother they have left.

Bill goes to Alby's motel and surprisingly does not interrupt a gay escapade (what happened to that plot line?) but instead busts his way into the room and proceeds to beat the crap out of Alby. Awesome. After emptying his can of whoop-ass, Bill goes home to question Sarah about Scott and Alby. Sarah insists that
Bill can't protect them from who they are, but I still don't really understand why she would not tell Bill about Alby stalking her. What is going on with Sarah?

While Barb is attempting to make Wanda's house livable again, Frank shows up and gets really creepy in Barb's face, talking about how in their religion God gave men the power. Ewwww go play on some train tracks, Frank! You're despicable! Barb calls Bill to tell him where she is and when Nicki and Margene find out she's on the phone they get into this hilarious hand-slapping fight in an attempt to gain control of the phone and complain about the Ginger situation. Bill goes over to Nicki's house where Ginger is sitting on the couch and staring at a rather tacky portrait of Nicki's sons. As an aside, the decor of Nicki's house has always really baffled me. Bill sets Ginger straight about Margene's security, both financially and emotionally, and Ginger seems genuinely impressed.

At Wanda's house, Barba and Wanda are listening to the shortwave radio for entertainment since they're not allowed to watch TV anymore. Yikes. Kathy shows up with a pie and suddenly the power goes out. Wanda is freaked out since it's not the fuse box and the lights are on across the way. Certain that Frank is about to attack, the three women start screaming only to be interrupted by a confused Joey. He hugs Wanda and Kathy while Barb breaks down in tears. Frank sneaks around outside. HATE.

Ginger drunkenly stumbles over to Barb's house and starts flirting with Bill. It's quite pathetic, especially since she has her blinking light shirt on. Margene shows Nicki Ginger's performance and Nicki realizes that Ginger might not be the best mother for them as she passes out in the living room in front of Wayne. Classy.

As Barb gets ready to leave Juniper Creek, she asks Joey why they stay there. Joey calmly explains that there was a time before Roman and there will be a time after. I guess. Well, Roman is 80 some years old so I guess it won't be too long, but who will succeed him? Alby? Augh!

Roman finds Adaleen hogtied in the UEB offices and realizes that the Greenes have paid them a visit. He calls a mandatory UEB meeting. The road out of Juniper Creek is blockaded by the authorities who are checking every car for evidence of the Greenes. Barb sees Roman ride past in the JC Hummer and decides to turn around and follow him. At his office, Barb demands to speak with Roman. Barb tells him off for exposing her and demands that he leave her family alone. Roman creepily replies that Barb is his family.

After Ginger comes to, she and Margene start to reconcile. Margene happily says that she loves her family and looks forward to expanding it with wives (Ana!) and children. Ginger insists that she needs to hold on to her position as the young, pretty wife. Ginger, I'm sorry you have issues with men, but back off. Seriously.

At the UEB meeting, Bill and Frank face off, with Bill telling Frank that if he could open a vein and drain the half of his blood that came from Frank, he would happily do it. Oh, snap! Roman and a beat up Alby show up and interestingly no one is shocked to see Alby even though he pretty much disappeared a few weeks ago. The members watch the video sent by Hollis in which he proclaims to rule over all that follow the Principle. Roman states that all contacts with the Greenes are to cease. Anyone caught in communications with them will be excommunicated and subject to blood atonement. WHAT?!?!

Comments

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It took me 40 minutes to figure out that Ginger was Bonnie Bedilia. I knew she looked familiar, but I must say, IMO she's had a ton of 'work' done, pretty well, though.

Posted by: Eleanor | July 26, 2007 at 04:22 PM

Pretty good episode, but I was hoping for a Rhonda smack down. It's not looking very good for Bill and I hope he cuts his losses next week, I'm right there with Don doing the red flag dance!

Posted by: Shelly | July 26, 2007 at 05:48 PM

Did anyone notice the shirt Alby was wearing when he opened his hotel room door to Bill? There's that dangling plotline right there: shiny green homo shirts!

And THANK YOU for identifying Margene's mom. It was driving us crazy the whole time.

Posted by: Amalah | July 26, 2007 at 06:14 PM