‘Big Love’: Big questions

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Is it possible for a polygamist to cheat on his wives? Or does the polygamy part take all the fun out of it?

Just how much damage will Rhonda Volmer (Daveigh Chase) inflict on the Henricksons? And how will she be stopped?

Who is the mysterious Hollis Greene (Luke Askew)? And is that aggressively butch woman his wife?

And, more important, is there any way we, as viewers, can appeal to the show’s creators to keep the charming Serbian waitress Ana around for a few more episodes?

Last week, the show’s direction seemed to be meandering, but this week’s episode brought everything back onto stable ground. It also expanded the bizarre cast of characters that inhabit the parallel universe of polygamist Utahans. (Is that even a word?)

Gone this week were Roman, Alby, Lois and the rest of Bill’s extended family at Juniper Creek. Strangely, they weren’t missed. Maybe it’s their dusty, drab lifestyle or Roman’s constant pontificating, but without them ‘Big Love’ took on a lighter feeling, and the whole episode felt a little zippier.

It helped that, for the first time, the show’s creators introduced a true outsider into the mix in Ana, a Serbian waitress who caught Bill’s eye. This week, we followed their courtship and eventual breakup, brought about, oddly, by Margene’s overeagerness at the whole affair. Bill is such a control freak that all it took was Margene’s blessing to kill the mood of naughty fun.

Finally, after weeks of clean-cut suburbanites and ankle-skirt-loving compound-dwellers, we were given a character completely unmotivated by religion or complex family loyalties. It’s almost too bad that her final scene, backlit by the fluorescent glow of the diner where she works, seemed designed to say goodbye to her character for good. Though an outsider within the confines of ‘Big Love,’ she was by far the most mainstream character the show has seen.

As sad as it was to see Ana go, it was even more thrilling to discover Hollis Greene, a polygamist Godfather who goes Roman’s villainy one better and seems to guide his wives like they are henchmen in a Steven Seagal movie. Instead of a desert compound, the Greenes inhabit a murky warehouse, complete with hungry dogs and a lead wife whose clothes could have come from the Baby Face Nelson collection. His preferred calling card is a cattle brand on the rear end of those who have crossed him. If that isn’t a great character introduction, I don’t know what is.

With the Greenes now lurking on the sidelines, Bill’s and Roman’s inter-family squabbles seem less important. How can Roman possibly compete with a guy who treats his rivals like beef?

And let’s not forget Rhonda, who now seeks to get her way through media manipulation. Given the chance to talk to the local newspaper, she spilled her guts and in the process implicated Nicki (Chloe Sevigny) in a cross-border child-russling scheme. She also implied that abuse was happening in the Henrickson household. Her payback is coming, you just know it is. But hopefully it won’t happen too soon. Working in a little more Rhonda-hate can only make the justice sweeter. Maybe they’ll marry her off to the Greenes. Is it wrong to want a little girl to get branded?

-- Patrick Day