Big Love: Here's to You, Benny Henrickson

 How many different ways is Bill Henrickson's run for public office a bad idea?

 He's married to three different women. His oldest daughter kidnapped a baby. His parents are involved in a smuggling operation and his brother killed a man, then dug up and burned the body.

 That's enough baggage to destroy several candidates. 

 But let's put that aside for now. The real problem is that Bill's ultimate goal -- win the state senate seat, then come out as a polygamist -- was more or less derailed by his actions at the end of the episode.

 Think about it: now that he's thrown Don to the wolves, making him the public face of polygamy at Home Plus, it's much, much harder for Bill to to reveal his only plural marriage down the road.
 
 It makes what happens to Don all the more painful, and raises Bill's unlikability this season to new levels. (Great shot during the interview scene: their partnership dissolving as the "Build with Bill" sign blinks in the background.)

 Updated from earlier: Of course, there's some giant hypocrisy on Bill's part at work re: Ben and Margene. How many times have we heard how Bill was banished from the compound as part of a standard practice of getting rid of younger men because the older men saw them as sexual rivals? 
 
 Some other thoughts:
 

•  Anyone else think of The Graduate during the scene with Ben floating in the pool? And where is Ben supposed to live during his self/Bill-imposed exile?
• Speaking of that scene, do Bill and Barb know there was a "reaper" at Tennie's camp?
• Normally when someone goes out of their way not to curse by saying things like "sugar" instead of "shit," it gets on my nerves. But when the Henricksons do it, it's actually kind of charming.
• Steve Hammond, an occasional correspondent/reader, called the smuggled parrots plot twist weeks ago. And I loved the look on JoDean's face when the birds flew away to freedom.
• I'm so glad the writers avoided having the log cabin collapse as a metaphor for Bill's troubles. 
• Is it safe to assume this is the end of Margene's home shopping career?
• It was neat seeing Thomas F. Wilson (best known as Biff in the Back to the Future movies, although he was quite good as the gym teacher on Freaks & Geeks) playing the talk radio host in the episode's first scene.
• And then of course, there's Alby, who managed to be both loathsome (pawning his mother off on J.J.) and sort of likable (his awkward attempt at wooing Dale) this week. Plus, its neat that his guilt and daddy issues give the writers a way to keep Harry Dean Stanton employed, albeit in hallucination form.
• Next week: more Sissy Spacek.

 Tom Coombe

Comments

[Joshua]

I was really worried Roman's murder spelled the end of HDS on the show. The scene of him playing Wheel at the prison home was classic. With everything on his plate, Roman Grant was still a Wheel Watcher.

I think the storyline with Adaleen, J.J., and Nicki was a Jeff Foxworthy bit. I'm not sure.

What gets me on this show is it always seems like the "sugar will hit the fan" but now there are too many fans and not enough sugar. We're only getting clips of this kidnapped baby thing, and the show's only an hour, so less time is dedicated to more stories. They're all captivating but I need to see more.

[Tom Coombe]

Yeah, that's been one of my problems with this show since the season began: far too many storylines.

And everything with Bill's parents seems like a Jeff Foxworthy joke. They've become cartoons, which is too bad. I've been rewatching the first season with my girlfriend, and they were much more believable characters back then.