(Isabella Vosmikova)
Will “Big Love” go out with a big bang? If the final season’s opener is any indication, the answer is a big “yes.”
And that couldn’t be better news for fans of the show.
Let’s face it, last season, the show had veered so off track with such a gigantic number of outlandish plot threads, it was like watching “A Thousand and One Mormonian Nights.”
Think about it. Bill simultaneously ran for state senate, opened a casino, pondered an offer to become the next prophet, built his own church with his own hands, took over sole control of Home Plus, and dealt with Roman’s murder as well as his mother’s and father’s attempts to murder one another.
Then, there was his parents’ illegal bird-smuggling operation and the subsequent kidnapping of his son, Ben, by the mean Greenes after the kid had run away because of a near-sexual encounter with dad’s third wife, Margene, whose own superstardom as a TV jewelry hawker was threatening the family’s stability.
Then, there was Barb’s growing independence as a casino (I swear!) operator, and the news that his estranged fourth wife, Ana, was carrying his baby.
And, oh yeah, then, there was his election-night announcement of their giant, secret life as polygamists.
If all of that drama wasn’t enough, the biggest trauma was yet to come.
A real-life Henrickson family — the polygamist Browns — debuted on TLC in a reality show called “Sister Wives.” That seemed to underscore the fictional Henricksons’ biggest problem: Nobody seems to object all that much to polygamy after all.
So, if you’re a fan of “Big Love,” you’re going to have to pretend that “Sister Wives” never happened — or this season’s “Big Love” just won’t make sense because most of it hinges on the horror wrought by their public exposure.
This season finds Bill’s Home Plus of cards collapsing around his head.
The opening scene, in fact, finds the whole family out of the house and out in the cold — but only because they’re on a camping trip. They had to get away from the publicity nightmare that the polygamy announcement had brought down on them.
When they return, one of their kids is beaten up at school, and Bill’s fellow state senators want nothing to do with him and even try to legislate him out of the senate.
Margene is having a nervous breakdown after losing her gig on the shopping network and Barb is (gasp!) starting to drink the casino’s profits, while the ever-disgruntled Nicki takes in her 60-something — and pregnant! — mother.
Instead of Superman, Bill has turned back into a mere human who must deal with his Superman complex.
And the complexities are a wonder to behold.