Episode Overview: Alby closes in on Bill and his family after discovering the details of the gaming business.  Barb's mother is getting married, and they try to work out the rift over Barb's choice to pursue polygamy.  Nikki dispenses sex advice.


Ben outed Nikki's party, and Bill looks panic stricken when Nikki lets him know that she told Alby about the gaming business.  Bill goes to Alby and gets read a list of the wrongs the Henrickson's have done to him, mainly that whole ordeal with Wanda trying to poison him.  Bill offers to sell Alby his seat on the UEB to end this cycle of intimidation.

Barb reads about her mother getting married in the paper, so she stops by.  Her mom is played by Ellen Burstyn, so the Big Love producers must have seen her brilliant 15-second Emmy nominated performance in the HBO TV movie Mrs. Harris.

Bill wants Barb to invite some of the gaming people over, as he starts plotting some devious scheme to get rid of Alby without giving up his seat on the UEB.  Barb wants nothing to do with it.  Later her life gets even more complicated with the nosy neighbor who thinks Margene is a surrogate gets it in her head to hire out Margene's uterus for her own baby.  When Nikki finds out, she's against it because their purpose isn't to give children to "every barren Sue, Jane and Sally on the block."  I do love some of the expressions that come out of Nikki's mouth.

Alby spends his time split between blackmailing Nikki into helping him get the gaming business back and medicating Roman to keep him unconscious and out of power.  Nikki tries to convince Bill to give it up, but fails.  Wanda, Joey and his potential second wife Kathy flee when they discover Alby is after them, but not before Wanda shows signs of insanity and the possibility of poisoning Kathy.  Alby stops by and intimidates Lois.

Sarah's creepy older boyfriend is sleeping around, and she finds out.  He needs sex, and more or less pressures her into either sleeping with him or else he's going to get the milk elsewhere.  Of all her mothers, Sarah has a heart-to-heart with Nikki about it, and she advises her to "Hold on to your chastity, but show him what he's missing."  Taking out my Polygamist-English dictionary, I think she's saying "BJs don't count."  Bill has a man-to-man talk with Scott, and he tries to break up with her, but she wants to make it work, saying t's OK for him to sleep around.  Poor girl.
Those weird twins from Juniper Creek that hit on Ben last week show up, and Ben introduces them as his girlfriends.  Yikes!  Even though Barb won't leave Bill, she goes to her mother to complain about Ben's newfound acceptance of polygamy.  She wants her mother to take him on weekends to instill some values in him.  Ben's invited to the wedding, and the crazy mom invites him along on the honeymoon to surround him by exceptional people.  Later that night, Barb finally gets fed up and agrees to let Ben move in with her mom.

At the wedding, Barb finds out only her children were invited, not her.  Barb being Barb, she doesn't accept it and attends anyway.  Ben figures out what's happening and calls his daddy to come save him.  We meet Barb's new father-in-law, and he's played by Philip Baker Hall.  Awesome.  The reception gets awkward when Ben starts talking about his twin girlfriends, and everyone seems to think Barb is leaving her polygamist ways.  Barb and her mom have it out about compromise in a marriage, and Burstyn is about 20 times better of an actor than most of the people on this show, so it rules.

Bill shows up at the wedding, and Barb;s mom doesn't even try to hide her disgust.  He tries to calm down Ben and manage the situation, though Margene gets teed off at waiting in the car, sidelined again for Barb's problems.  Lois calls him to rant about how she knows Alby murdered Joey and Wanda.  Alby stops by Nikki's place for more ominous threats against her family.  Bill dances with Sarah, and she is brutally honest about how she can never listen to anything he has to say about relationships or life because of his polygamy.  Ouch.

Nikki shows up, and the Henrickson's have a verbal throwdown in the parking lot.  Margene accuses Barb of leaving them, Nikki accuses Bill of plotting to kill her father, and they all make one huge scene, ruining Barb's chances at reconciling with her family.  Barb and her mother share one final tearful moment about how she wants to keep in touch with her mom, even though they have all this baggage about polygamy.

Bakc home,Bill and Barb head up the bedroom.  While he's in the bathroom, she notices something wrong with the bed, pulls off the covers to reveal snakes!  She jumps, he rushes in, and they cut to black.  OK, that moment was damn scary.  Next week, we get the season finale.


-John Kubicek, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image courtesy of HBO)