BIG LOVE “The Noose Tightens” Review

BIG LOVE "The Noose Tightens"

BIG LOVE “The Noose Tightens” Season 5 Episode 8 - The noose sure is tightening for everyone on Big Love. How does it end though? Does the noose finally snap or is everyone left hanging? It is probably better to go issue by issue of this latest episode of Big Love.

First we have the Margene investigation. The police really ramped it up, not only by interviewing Barb, but by making her a person of interest. A procurer. From what I can tell, it does not sound at all like Barb tried to procure Margene. If anything, it sounded like she had a hard time with it. Heck, she had a hard time with Nicki. It was only the fact that Nicki helped her through her health troubles that I think led Barb to believe she owed Nicki something back. That something was sharing her husband. It was interesting, though, that both Margene and Nicki brought up the fact that it was Barb that tried to recruit Anna because she needed a friend. I remember it that way too. So how does this investigation end? I think that Bill will resign from the Senate in order to save his family. The problem is that the family is so broken, not even just over the Margene issue.

That leads us to Cara Lynn. I have never been so proud of Margene as I was when she dealt with finding Cara Lynn and Mr. Ivey in his apartment. Cara Lynn needs more of that type of parenting, or even the semi parenting she is receiving from Ben, than Nicki’s sweep it under the rug plan. Nicki of all people should know the dangers in that. It just goes to show that Nicki has not progressed as much as she would like to believe. She has different clothes, a legal husband and material things, but the most important thing to her is not being shamed, even if it will detrimentally affect her daughter.

I was also quite proud of Nicki standing up to Alby and not backing down. That was until he kidnapped her and almost killed her. When that took a turn for the worse, I remembered Verlan warning her. Poor Verlan. I think he really was just trying to do better for Rhonda. Now who will save her? Will Ben step up to care for a newly widowed Rhonda and lose Heather in the process? We all know Heather will probably not be welcome in the Henrickson household for quite some time.

This epsiode was very exciting. As usual, the last scene was haunting with Nicki showing up in compound garb, dirty and looking very much like the old Nicki. However, it feels that the show itself is hurtling out of control. We only have two episodes left and instead of getting answers, we get more insane storylines. Bill finds someone from Alby’s past to blackmail him. Don goes off the deep end and considers selling his shares in Home Plus to Alby. Alby tries to kill Nicolette and ends up killing Verlan. Cara Lynn is almost shacking up with a 38 year old former virgin that waited his entire devout life for a 15 year old. Everyone is ganging up on Margene. Everyone is ganging up on Barb. There is absolutely no cohesion to the family structure. Is this even a family anymore? How do you calm this rising hurricane of plots and characters, secrets and issues? Do you just end it one day? I just cannot imagine how this show will end and I am almost fearful it will go the route of The Sopranos.

What do you think? Was this episode good? Do you see a direction that the writers are headed in to wrap everything up? Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.

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By Dani Bradford | March 6, 2011 | 6 Comments

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Mpstruglia

It seems to me that the writers will not end this show happily and the biggest message is that all of this is wrong, They cannot be a happy family as Bill would have you beleive, though this family is not the compound type, still what they did is very wrong not to mention illegal and I think in the end that’s the way this will come out. This is another case of a religion dictating their lives and has gotten them all in trouble, not to mention also that the whole idea really puts women down. Would like to see the wives all get better lives for themselves but there is not enough time left, still I think the message is clear that this is a terrible way of life and hope everyone gets that!!

Anonymous

I agree that the show is currently portraying the family as not in the happiest of times, however, I am not sure the writers’ intent is to end a five year running show by saying “See? None of this should have happened.” The Henrickson family has been taken to the extreme. The problems they are facing go beyond just their basic way of life and beliefs (with the exception of Margene). There was the Senate run, Alby’s insanity, attempted murders, their decision to come out as a family, and the list goes on. Typically maybe one of those things might happen, but not all. You are right though that there is not enough time for the wives to go off and get better lives unless they all decide to leave at the last minute. Right now, not one of their lives would I consider good.

Mikeyz4

Did anyone else notice the “out” Margene may have inadvertently given Bill during her deposition on the statutory rape investigation?

When Margene asked her mom what she should do about the relationship, her mom said something to the effect of “Priscilla Presley was fifteen when she married Elvis. You should ‘go for the gusto.’” Margene was sixteen at the time.

She lied about her age as a convenience to the family she was going to marry, and out of fear that she would be rejected by them for being underage, but she was *not* compelled by fear of legal reprisal: her mother *knew* she was underage, and endorsed her daughter’s path anyway.

And that, folks, is parental consent.

This point is reinforced when Nicki went to confront Mr. Ivey. Cara Lynn said that when she turns sixteen, that she wanted her mother to give permission for Cara Lynn and Mr. Ivey to marry. That means there is at least some statute, legal, in Utah by which a sixteen-year-old can have sex with an adult without reprisal.

Yes, there are some holes in the argument, particularly surrounding the application of statutes to marriage versus non-marriage, the nature of what constitutes “consent”, whether Margene’s mother’s testimony to that end would be considered useful or reliable (assuming she’s still as jacked up as ever), etc. But Nicky’s intervention seems to have more significance to the show than merely a stand-alone intervention: it foreshadows a realization by some member of the family, probably Bill, that he may not have committed a crime after all.

So for that I’m pretty sure Bill has an “out”. He’ll slip through the noose as always.

Anonymous

Mike, I thought of that as well. I think the sticking point will be that parental consent probably requires some sort of written agreement or document. Of course, Margene’s mother is no longer alive to testify as to whether she gave consent or not. Despite that, I think you are correct that Bill will manage to wiggle his way out of this predictament. “Slipping through the noose” is something he does often, isn’t it?

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_5O3JRMVTEBDPSEUDXW3DCGRIGE geoffk

i do love how everything is coming apart at the seams…as well it should

i hope that ivey goes to prison for a very long time

margene grew up before my eyes in that scene…nicky stayed a child

ivey does not love cara lynn…ivey was not a virgin before this incident…ivey is a perverted rapist bastard, who preys on weak innocent mormon girls

however, i hope that cara lynn doesnt catch on before ivey turns her into a singing mormon stripper…i wanna hear her and rhonda do a duet….the actress who plays cara lynn has a few youtube vids and she sings really purty

funniest scene of the epi had to be the cult book scene

oh…and the guy who plays alby almost doesnt make me miss harry dean stanton….almost

Anonymous

Geoffk – Wasn’t Margene’s transformation amazing? Nicki will never have that, I am afraid. The compound life is so deeply ingrained in her, it doesn’t matter how far away she runs or how she cuts her hair. You can see it in her treatment of Cara Lynn and her ignorance of real world problems such as Mr. Ivey.

I agree about Alby. Roman was great, but Alby is a different kind of great and so entertaining.