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Episode Recap: "Take Me As I Am"
I’ve read articles claiming seeing yourself through your children’s eyes can cause an unexpected identity crisis, especially if you don’t like what they see. When Barb and Bill start to comprehend the impact of their choices on the lives of their families and children, their true nature is called into question in a multitude of ways. As Season 2 wraps up, the snakes hiding in the bed are much less dangerous than the ones hiding in the family.
As Barb continued to grapple with giving up one family to preserve another, her children got caught in the crossfire. Ben, so confident that he is being called to a polygamist lifestyle, was bartered for a chance at redeeming both himself and Barb in her family’s eyes. Meanwhile, Sarah’s strong will was weakened at the thought of losing Scott. The conversation during her dance at the wedding with Bill heartbreakingly summed up the extent of the damage — Bill’s attempts at fatherly advice were meaningless to Sarah because they were steeped in hypocrisy. In a sense, Bill exposes his children to infidelity on a daily basis. How are they supposed to take him seriously when he claims to wish better for them?
In other family matters, Ellyn Burstyn was spot-on as Barb’s conflicted mother. In one episode, she portrayed all the bitterness and heartache that comes when a child rebels in unimaginable and polarizing ways. It was also interesting to see Bill's role in that situation as less of an interloper and more as someone who was equally disappointing to Barb’s family. That was an angle I hadn’t really expected.
Also eye-opening was Barb’s conciliatory familial maneuvering played against Alby’s effort to sway Nicki with claims of Bill’s involvement in Roman’s shooting spurred by the sinister Hollis Greene. While Barb’s family is seen as socially acceptable, politically correct even, the Grants are seen as subversive and unlawful. Yet the tactics employed are chillingly similar: separate the prey from the herd with promises of security and inclusion. On the surface, Nicki and Margene seem so committed to the Principle and to the family they've made. However, Margene's budding rebellion (witnessed in the discussion about surrogate motherhood) and Nicki's own doubts about the losses she has incurred threaten their foundation to a far greater extent than Barb's family does.
These final episodes seem to be building to a final showdown between Bill, Alby and the Greenes, with Roman's life hanging in the balance. However, for me, the bigger battle is heating up right in that gigantic backyard that links the Henricksons' homes and lives. Right now, a week seems an awfully long time to wait. I can't imagine how I'll feel next Sunday.
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Aug 19, 2007 11:25 PM
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The teenage love plotlines went from lame to downright creepy in one episode. (Especially Scott's Boob Grab (TM) and almost-statutory rape. I always wonder how the actors consent to such story lines...)
All hell appears to be breaking loose. But what will be the big reveal in the finale? Someone will likely die...and I bet it'll be Roman killing Alby, or something dramatic like that.
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Aug 20, 2007 12:33 AM
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I love "Big Love", but I'm still not getting Barb. She seems so unhappy. She was not raised in a polygamous lifestyle; she was apparently in a monogamous marriage for many years, yet she "accepted" and "embraced" a world where she has to share her role as wife AND mother. She is clearly miserable; her children are miserable, her mother is miserable.
Maybe I'm dense, but I need more of this decision explained to me. Barb does not seem to be a weak woman, and she's certainly the most intellectual of the wives...how did she get involved in this? And more to the point: why she stays.
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Aug 20, 2007 7:53 AM
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While I agree that the show has not come out with a very clear motivation for Barb's agreeing to the poligamist lifestyle, there have been some subtle references. Maybe I'm reading too closely, but several times, characters have mentioned how disappointed Barb is at not being able to have more children. The characters always state this in a way that makes you think this is very important to Barb. She needs to be the mother. Even last night, her mother pointed to the table where Bill and the three kids were seated and asked Barb why that wasn't enough. In Barb's mind, perhaps the arrangement was, what she thought, her way to be mother to Nikki, Margene, and their children.
Favorite parts last night: loved the Sarah/Bill conversation while dancing. Sarah's calm tone conveyed that she wasn't saying this from anger, but that it was a well-thought-out fact that she's accepted. And when Bill told Barb's niece to shut-up - well, I'm still laughing at that as I type this.
And Ellyn Burstyn could not have been any better.
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Aug 20, 2007 8:45 AM
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What a great episode, how exactly am i supposed to wait another week? I must say that I do enjoy it when the teens get a bit more time as I find how they adjust to the situation they've been put in most interesting. If only the show was longer than I could all the characters in that I want. There was so little Margene this episode! Anyways, now I'm really excited for the finale, and I'm hoping Heather makes one final appearance this season as her and Rhonda didn't appear at all.
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Aug 20, 2007 9:02 AM
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My favorite part wasn't explicitly stated but dealt with the hypocrisy of the non-polygamists looking down upon the polygamists like the Hendricksons by showing the shortcomings of monogamist dating and the ecclesiastical exclusion of family members in a Mormon afterlife.
I noticed an obvious parallel between the nonpolygamists world and the Hendricksons last night. The Hendricksons are polygamists, but they are married to each other in this life and the next- totally committed. Scott is antipolygamy but is open to 'playing the field'- essentially having relationships with multiple women at the same time. Sarah is degrading herself by essentially "becoming one of the harem"- an unofficial polygamist- by continuing to see Scott but knowing she is not the only one in his life and that she will share him with other women. The only difference in what Scott is proposing is that the relationships have no longterm commitment. Just because there is no legal or spiritual contract between Scott and the women he is seeing does not mean that he is any different from Bill for being married to three women. In fact, in comparison Bill is actually more noble in committing for eternity to the women he has sexual relationships with- where as there's no guarantee but "a good time" with Scott.
The other glaring parallel was Barb's mom- she got unsealed from the marriage she had with Barb's father in order to be sealed to her new husband in eternity- essentially having to make the choice between the man she was married to for years and years and the one she will be married to for what will most likely be a shorter period of time (to the end of her life presumably). So- her children will go to heaven with their father but not their mother or be in heaven with their mother and not their father but their mother's new husband and family? What a existential crisis! Even though I don't believe what they believe myself it did seem that the polygamist Principle at least believes in family in this life and eternity, together.
The only thing that didn't gel with all these interesting points is that the Hendricksons were essentially being pulled apart by the seams- Weber gaming, Albie's threats, Barb's family, and Bill really taking his wives and family for granted because he's been so consumed by playing a gangster, albeit one that doesn't drink or smoke or swear. Ha ha! Double irony!
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Aug 20, 2007 3:01 PM
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This episode was so good and it had so much going on. I just loved it. It was amazing and I also can not wait until next week to see what happens. It seems like they need two hours to fit all the ends into it.
Karma
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Aug 21, 2007 5:59 PM
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Fantastic casting in making Ellen Burstyn Barb's mother. They almost looked like real mother and daughter to me.
Did anyone else wonder why Bill went to bed (or home) that night with Barb instead of Margene? It was Margene's night, after all.
And lastly, if the Compound is presumably an hour or two away, as they make it seem, how do the underaged twins show up so easily on Ben's doorstep? Would their elders allow them to be dating off the Compound like that?
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Aug 21, 2007 9:50 PM
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