So, now can we have Ana get pregnant? Or… is this just it?
I have to say, I would have dumped Bill, et al., too after that lackluster, hillbilly backyard wedding and Bill running to a meeting directly afterwards. For something as serious as eternal marriage, nobody really seems to have explained to Ana how things were going to work afterwards, with daily wives meetings, tasks from Barb, and shared living spaces.
If you ask me, this marriage never had a chance. I felt kind of ripped off by the whole episode. What are the repercussions going to be for this divorce? Does this put anybody’s spiritual health in peril? Is Bill to blame for this, as the head of the family?
I think the episode also raises larger issues: What constitutes a marriage? I mean, it’s not like Ana can really get a divorce. They joined hands in an illegal backyard ceremony. It never seemed to me that Bill and Ana were actually married. And yet, I believe in his marriages to Margene and Nicki, though they are no more “real” or “legal” than Bill’s marriage to Ana.
No wonder Nicki always feels threatened about her position in the family. She has no protection at all. Granted, Bill has established trusts for all of his wives and children, it’s still difficult not to feel precariously perched.
I think the lesson to be learned from this is: Don’t marry outside your faith. In order for Ana to feel truly married, to feel that she couldn’t just run away the moment things were complicated, she had to really believe that she had married them in an eternal ceremony. Margene isn’t a true believer, but she truly believes in Bill, Barb, and Nicki. Ana was always — by her own admission — too independent for the family. She never believed in the principle: For her, it was more like joining a commune, but not really being an eternal member of the family.
This episode also re-raised Barb’s own misgivings about her lifestyle. She wanted Ana so she would have felt that she was making the right choice in this life. How much of Barb is really a facade, is really just faking it? Will this episode create permanent cracks in the family? Or will it test and then strengthen their faith as they move on?
Clacked by Jen Creer
on Feb 16, 2009 @ 17:00 EST5EDT
