Good for Barb for finally saying, in plain language, what she wants, or at least a portion of what she wants out of her life: To no longer be bound to follow Bill’s dictates because his religious teachings tell him that only men can serve as the heads of their families, the priesthood holders. I, for one, think Barb would be a superior priesthood holder for the Henricksons rather than the megalomaniac to whom she’s married … or married to for now.
As Barb and Bill tussle over who should spiritually lead the family, it struck me as fascinating that Barb’s insistence that she’s just as capable as Bill of leading the family could be the thing that breaks up this family. Not Bill’s cheating with Ana. Not Nicki’s duplicity with the district attorney’s office and dating the DA. Not Margene kissing Ben or lying about her age. But Barb’s feminist assertions, those could be the last straw?
“I can’t give you what you’re asking me,” Bill told Barb as they sat on the bench on the college campus where he proposed marriage to her two decades ago — when it was just the two of them — denying that he could afford her equal status as a leader of the family.
Her response to his denial initially confounded me: “We need to get divorced.”
The pressure Bill and Nicki had been applying to Barb to divorce Bill so Bill and Nicki could legally wed and then legally adopt Cara Lynn was outrageous. This woman has gone through enough, has caved in to and been bullied by Bill and his demands too many times to be expected to just toss her legal marriage asunder. The fact that Bill would hope that Barb would make it easy on him, as she usually does, by just consenting to a divorce so he could check this off his list and move on to one of the bazillion other things he’s got going on, shows how calloused to other’s feelings he’s become.
When Barb suddenly proclaimed that they needed to get a divorce, I was surprised until I thought about it a bit more, nurturing the hope that this might be a power play for her to gain more independence, more authority not just in the Henrickson family, but in the larger world. I’d seriously love to have the series end this way.
As for the rest of the episode, I have the same complaint that I had for most of last season: The very basics of what’s going on in the day-to-day lives of the Henrickson family is more than enough drama to keep all the characters busy. The Big Love writers didn’t need to liven things up with a thousand other side stories to add more tension. Simplicity, fewer things going on would greatly improve the show which is starting to feel as though it’s going to fall into last season’s trap of making it seem like everything in the world is coming directly at the Henricksons, them against the world.
If they just stuck with Bill trying to adjust to being a new, openly polygamist state senator, the family coping with being “outed,” Barb’s feminist awakening, Cara Lynn’s culture clash, Lois’ dementia and Margene’s Goji Blast pyramid scheme, that’s more than ample material from which to wring compelling drama.
It’s not necessary to have Alby, who was working with Bill at one point last season, go on an insane vendetta against Bill and trying to off Don Embry and his new haircut. (The whole ice fishing attack reminded me, in some strange way, of Fargo.) It’s not necessary to have Alby call that vermin Verlan an “Alby-ite.” Do we need a budding “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” teacher-student relationship, given the whole underage girl issue with the polygamist compounds? The Mormon church is now after Bill and telling him to stop calling himself a Mormon? And Rhonda’s back?
I’m hoping that the remainder of this season isn’t going to be all masked, creepy people hitting others over the head trying to slay them, Mormon church heavyweights threatening people and Alby acting like even more of a lunatic than his dead father. What I do want to see, a priesthood holder off between Barb and Bill. That would be interesting.
Clacked by Meredith O'Brien 
on Feb 14, 2011 @ 12:40 EST5EDT
I hope Barb divorces Bill and heads for the hills. We are heading towards my prediction that Bill would be alone at the end. Something terrible is going to happen to Nikki..hmm..maybe Alby or an Alby-ite will do her in..and Margene will end up with a much younger man than Bill, someone that will look at her while they are having sex.
I think Barb has lost her mind. The time to put her foot down and stand up for herself was when her husband suggested a second wife. She just wants to be the boss, to be able to give the other wives orders, how is that a ‘spiritual calling’?
I don’t think being priesthood holder is about wanting to give other people orders. It’s about recognizing that she is as much a spiritual authority as Bill is, and that her children and sister-wives should look to her, as much as to Bill, for guidance, spiritual support, and stability. It’s not about giving orders, it’s about giving advice from the perspective of someone who understands what polygamy is like from the wife’s perspective, and from the perspective of someone who’s raised children and taken care of the home, AND worked outside the home. Of the people under that roof, Barb has the most knowledge and experience, the most education, the deepest understanding of their faith, and the most compassionate and spiritual personality. She’s in the best position to care for them spiritually.
It’s a calling that Barb has. It’s something bigger than her will. She has a testimony, and is in awe that the men in her family don’t recognize it, much less welcome it, unless of course they have never REALLY felt this type of stirring in their souls. Unless, they are just faking it, and Barb has ways been the one with the gift. Ben in particular seems just alittle too self assured and full of himself. Yet he has not fulfilled the typical mission or anything to be a worthy priesthood holder. On another note, I think it would be wild if Barb ended up having a fling with the young intern after the divorce.
Not
On
I, too, am so hoping to see Barb come into her own and move on from the family. I love the independence I’m seeing in her, and I believe she may be a real inspiration to Margene. I’m also hoping to see her grab onto a bit of independence. An ideal ending for me would be to see Bill end up with one wife — Nikki. He and Nikki are one of a kind!