‘Big Love’: Barb the bomb

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To prime-time TV’s all-time great mysteries -- a list which includes ‘How did no one figure out Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari were really dudes?’ and ‘How did the landlords never figure out John Ritter wasn’t gay?’ -- we can safely add one more: ‘How have the Henricksons been married this long and not have everyone know they’re polygamists?’

Last season ended with Barb being outed in front of Utah’s governor. Their polygamist lifestyle was publicly mocked on a high-profile billboard. And don’t forget Barb’s sticky encounters with the child welfare officers over her teenage in-law Rhonda. The family has had so many close calls and awkwardly staged excuses, we have to start wondering if they’re only fooling themselves when they try to put on a front. Yet they continue to encounter people who aren’t in on the secret, and the charade continues.

With his move into the casino gaming business, Bill has been saying that this is the family’s chance to come out into the open a little more. Last night, he tried his best. And he succeeded to some degree: The poker-loving proprietors of some of the West’s swingingest bars certainly seemed to get a kick out of Bill’s clean-but-not-so-squeaky image. But when he ran into old friends from his and Barb’s church-going days, Bill screwed up again. Stumbling on his own sense of secrecy, he introduced Margene as his secretary.

Although he may tout the high and noble goals of ‘the principle’ at home, it’s apparent that to the world at large, Bill’s wives are nothing more than a way to help him maintain his comfortable lifestyle. How else to explain his marriage to second wife Nicki, the daughter of Bill’s nemesis Roman Grant, who loaned Bill the money to start his home supply store. As Bill has worked to move away from Roman’s influence in his business dealings, he’s put his most politically motivated marriage off to the side. When Barb refused to accompany Bill to the bar owners convention, he balked at inviting Nicki. Poor Nicki, meanwhile, is becoming more and more alienated from not only her husband but her family back at Juniper Creek. Her confrontation with her brother Alby, in which she let slip Bill’s acquisition of the hotly pursued Weber Gaming, will only lead to a harsher form of conflict than we’ve seen before. Is it possible the lethally violent Greene family will make a reappearance?

And what of Barb? With each episode, the look of concern on her normally passive face grows deeper and deeper. After Bill specifically went against her wishes to buy into Weber Gaming, the rift between them appeared to grow. It looks like the sad divorce drama playing out between Bill’s mom, Lois, and his father is a foreshadowing of Bill and Barb’s eventual fate.

There’s just two episodes left in the season, and my money’s on Alby committing some violence and Barb leaving Bill. Just a head’s up, however: Next week, ‘Big Love’ is moving back to Sunday nights, for two episodes only. Remember back in the days when we were told it wasn’t TV, it’s HBO? With goofy schedule changes like this, it seems HBO is sadly becoming TV after all.

-- Patrick Day