This all-over-the-map Big Love installment was packed with such emotional punch that it sent Barb to retreat into the shadows of her darkened kitchen to get drunk on Christmas night, right before the Henricksons were supposed to don costumes and form a living nativity scene outside their home.
But as they stood outside, play-acting the roles of shepherds, kings and the holy family, inside, the adults were still roiling from Margene’s bombshell admission.
The fact that Margene was only 16 — two years under the age of legal consent — when she married Bill, that could put Bill at risk of statutory rape charges. Nicki and Barb, who “married” her as well, could be considered willing accomplices. Should Margene’s true age become public, it would be easy to lump Bill in with the other sinister, compound polygamists who coerce underaged girls into plural marriage and turn them into baby-making machines, not allowing them to continue their education. Bill Henrickson would be, business-wise and politically, finished, no matter how much Margene might say that she wanted to join the family and it was her idea.
The horror of this revelation, and the awful possibilities it holds, almost seemed to overshadow Cara Lynn’s own personal hell when she learned that her father is dead. Nicki not only lied about her father’s whereabouts, but, even as she was hugging Cara Lynn after finally admitting the truth, told the girl that her father had been a very bad man. How Nicki could’ve then marched her crushed child to go participate in the nativity scene instead of letting her mourn and process her feelings, seemed beyond me.
But then again, Nicki wasn’t exactly raised with warmth. The prickly strangeness that is Adaleen continued to confound me during this episode. She has seemed as though she’s been in a cloud of mourning since Roman died and her evil son Alby let Adaleen’s former son-in-law claim her as his new wife. Following the revelation of J.J.’s horrendous reproductive practices and his subsequent death by fire, Adaleen was held captive in a hole in the ground by Alby’s wife Lura. Once Adaleen was freed, she laid in bed next to a photo of and clothing from Roman. Clearly all is not right. It seemed like there might be a glimmer of hope in the fact that pregnant Adaleen was booted from the compound and went to Nicki’s. Maybe there, at the crazy Henrickson compound, she could heal.
However it was the choice to have Adaleen retreat back to the compound, after she stopped taking hormone therapy — thus allowing the pregnancy to miscarry — after Alby’s wife Lura fled the compound with her children, struck me as delusional and creepy. Maybe the next time the Henricksons bring Lois to the doctor to discuss her dementia, they should bring Adaleen along with them to see if they can get a group discount.
Other odd moments from this Christmas-themed episode:
I’m intrigued by Barb’s growing feminist awakening — her suppressed disappointment when Bill asked Ben to bless the Christmas sacrament instead of her — and her growing disillusionment with her entire life. I’m still willing to wager that, by season’s end, she’ll be living on her own because she won’t be able to put up with the things that are eating away at her.
Clacked by Meredith O'Brien 
on Jan 31, 2011 @ 11:55 EST5EDT
Margene’s revelation was amazing. I was saying to my wife earlier in the episode that Margene’s funk was really starting to annoy me — okay, you lost your “business.” Suck it up. But I totally wasn’t expecting that news. Great twist!