BirthdayParty

(S02E16) Earl Hickey has done a lot of good things over the past year. But he's got an enormously long list of bad things to cross off his list, and we've seen him add things he's forgotten or accumulate more misdeeds along his way to karmic balance plenty of times. So it shouldn't be any surprise that if you gather the residents of Camden County into one room, you're going to learn about a lot of things Earl's done that he's now sorry for.

At first I thought this episode was going to be the old sit-com staple: the clip show. I'm glad I was wrong, but I'm not entirely convinced it was much better than a clip show.

Watching Big Love is like watching someone else's weirdest dream. As you see Bill Henrickson do his best to keep his family happy, you almost forget that he's got THREE families, and no one can do what he's attempting to do without going literally insane.

How can you not? Between his youngest wife Margene begging and pleading for a car before finally getting a van, his middle wife Nicki planning an expensive birthday party at the posh Monte Cristo Hotel for their son Wayne and over a hundred guests, and getting his first wife Barb to take care of the "neighbor problem," who wouldn't want to scream in anguish? Of course, Bill didn't have to put himself in this situation, but then we wouldn't have a show to discuss, either.

This episode focused on how cunning and evil Roman Grant is. He explains the benefits of polygamy to the press, and says that he truly loves all of his 31 children and 187 grandchildren. (It would have been funny if the reporter asked him to name them, but I bet you he would have been able to do it without flinching.) In addition, he is still after Bill to tithe over 15% of his new store's revenues to the Juniper Creek compound, and Bill is worried that Roman might do something to harm his family, hence the installation of alarm systems in all three of his houses.

After Bill explodes over Nicki's party plans and how expensive it will be, he orders her to have the party in their home. To make matters more complicated, one of his store employees is threatened by apparently someone connected to Roman, who gets the message across that the 15% tithe is due. (The signs are definitely pointing to more "messages" being sent to Bill as the weeks roll on.)