Big Love Recap: "A Man Has To Know His Woman Is His"

On last night’s penultimate episode of the season, Adaleen discovered JJ’s fertility secret, Barb implied that the women of Utah are depressed drug addicts, and Bill continued to prove that his logic on polygamy is flawed and sexist.

So Nicki is going ahead with her fertility treatments at the Sunshine Clinic. The way that JJ spoke to his son seemed to imply that he’s actually the puppet master of whatever scam they have going, which they are masking as miracles. Also, as Adaleen was saying in the hall before seeing Nicki, rumor has it around the compound that before Roman died, he had been planning on censuring JJ for some kind of infraction. Could it have to do with JJ’s “miracles”?

Whatever is going on with JJ’s interest in breeding, it’s creepy, by the looks of his family. When toasting to Adaleen’s pregnancy, JJ’s mother muttered “mongrel,” clearly implying that she’s crossbred. It would seem that the Walkers believe incest is best, for keeping their lineage pure. My guess is that he used Roman’s murder as leverage to harvest some of Wanda’s eggs, which he fertilized with his own semen, and then implanted into Adaleen.

Using some of the recon skills she learned while being married to Roman, Adaleen started poking her nose around in JJ’s files, and learned something that both deeply disturbed and confirmed for her that the censuring rumors were actually true. It’ll be interesting to see where this storyline is going. Will the show approach the topic of abortion?

In other brother and sister news, Alby was grieving for his dead boyfriend by dancing around to Nancy Sinatra. It’s probably the gayest thing he’s done since he last had sex with a man. Nicki visits him, and now that she’s found herself (among the racks of Urban Outfitters, apparently), she wants to help Alby shed some of the horrible stuff from their shared childhood that’s been haunting them. However, Alby finds he is unable to do this, since he is literally being haunted by his dead father, right in the middle of his conversation with Nicki. It makes him lash out at her and call her a whore, which then causes Nicki to question her new wardrobe, and switch back to prairie clothes for about a day.

Meanwhile, Barb left the reservation casino and, well, went off the reservation. She kind of lost it in front of the Eagle Forum, and implied that she—and other women of Utah—are dependent on meds to help them cope with the pressures of their lives and “serving” their husbands, children, and faith. She was actually giving her genuine opinion on the subject, but Bill insisted that she retract her statements, and she agreed, telling him that she “has no voice.” Seriously, a lot of the characters on this show are assholes, but Bill really takes the taco on that.

I’m glad that the writers have finally created a situation that allowed someone to point out just how ridiculously sexist Bill’s bag of bullshit is.

And as much as Marilyn is kind of a dick, it’s interesting to see her call Barb out on the kind of example she’s setting for her daughters.

And speaking of her daughters, the Henricksons bid farewell to Sarah—who has been written off the show to pursue a film career—shipping her off with $5k and her very own freak flag to remind her how fucked up her family is.