Like a well-trained CIA agent, Nicki just denied, denied, denied when Alby confronted her about the missing funds and the Weber Gaming situation. But if there's one thing that can get her to crack, it's the threat of her father waking up and being told that she's a greedy, amoral ''tithe stealer.'' No wonder she changed her tune about Weber and fast (too bad ''the polls are closed''). Who knows what will happen to Roman, though — by the looks of it, Alby and his wife are riding this one out while heavily medicating the wounded Grant patriarch.
But Nicki did get a couple things right in this episode, making astute observations about Barb and Margene's roles in the family (Margie's getting aggressive, while Barb's ''out to pasture'') and the need to ''unload'' Weber Gaming or ''we're all doomed.'' And she showed some compassion for Sarah, who's also struggling to get a handle on her own relationships, namely with Scott and Bill. Wasn't it nice to see Nicki actually embrace someone with seemingly no ulterior motives? And, dare I say, what she explained to Sarah made sense (I loved Nicki's blunt take on Scott's ex as ''a used-up old hag'').
Men do like the chase, but can Scott — who, at 28, has obviously had a lot more experience than Sarah — wait? And how long? It seems they'd have to get married in order to consummate the relationship, but what about now — is he expected to be 100 percent monogamous? Where does he see their future, if at all, now that Sarah's offered to share him with girls who will go all the way? And after Bill's confrontation with his daughter's boyfriend, is it over for good? Well, at least he had the balls to tell Bill how miserable Sarah's been because of her father.
Speaking of misery, Nancy's wedding was the epitome of it. First, Barb had to deal with her mom's insinuation that the kids should come alone, then her cousin's insistence that she not preach about her fundamentalist culture, then her obnoxious sister Cindy's comments (though that line about Barb's ''little polygamist meltdown'' did make me chuckle). It all came to a head with the whole family fighting outside in the driveway, where Barb finally spilled out all her years of pent-up resentment and sadness, and made a heartfelt request to her mother: ''I just want to see you in this life.'' And even though Nancy had presumptuously declared to her guests that Barb had left Bill and was returning to the Church, mother and daughter seemed to make headway in their relationship. It's her one big test, Barb is told. We'll see how she does...if the rattlesnakes don't get her. Yikes!
Souls, blood atonement, eternal salvation: This episode went way heavy on Mormon doctrine and history, which is why I thought it would be interesting to talk to one of the country's foremost polygamy experts, Salt Lake Tribune reporter Brooke Adams, whose beat is the plural life. In addition to covering the Warren Jeffs trial, Adams interviews Big Love-like families all over Utah and the border states and constantly updates the paper's polygamy blog. In our interview, we talked about correlations between the plots on Big Love and real-life news stories. Check out our chat over at The Experts Corner in PopWatch, here.
Finally, some lingering questions about some loose ends: Will Wanda go crazier now that Alby has reassigned Kathy to Frank? Is Margene really willing to consider being a surrogate for neighbor Pam? And did you root for Sarah when she flat-out told Bill she would never, ever listen to any advice he had to give about relationships? Post your comments below.
