There's an inherent issue shows face with finales. It is the only time they are faced with the finality of what they are doing. I'm not talking about the fact that it's going away but finality in that the choices they make can never be altered or addressed again. If you take your characters in a direction or make choices you're unhappy with in a season finale, you can fix it before the opening credits role on the new season. Hell, Dallas erased an entire season by writing it off as a dream. But the choices you make in your series finale will live with that show forever. BJ will always tell Hawkeye goodbye in his own way. Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer will never not go to jail. Tony will always play Journey in the cafe. Good, bad or ambivalent these are the images we'll forever be left with.
These images and resolutions or the lack there of, make up the core of the issues I have with the Big Love finale. I felt like in many ways the writers/producers took the lazy or easy way out. They spent an entire season building tensions within the family, the government and the community only to take the easy rout by killing Bill. But before we discuss how the death of Bill was the laziest of all solutions for the series' creators, let's talk about the good and bad of the events leading up to Bill's fateful end.
Barb's resolve to seek out a church that would allow her to become a priest holder has been an essential part of this season. Even though her marriage was fractured and her family disintegrating around her the one thing Barb had to cling to was her faith and her calling to the priesthood. For those of us who are Barb fans, this was the light out of the tunnel of darkness Bill had taken them through. It was exciting to see her continuing down the path of joining the reformed church even though it was causing a greater chasm in her relationship with Bill. At this point, Bill had become far removed from the outcast of Juniper Creek seeking to reform the principle. He had become a self righteous blow hard, who was difficult to like and much more difficult to root for. The terrific scene in which he moves out of Barb's house should have been the final straw for that relationship. If Barb had completely broken with the family at that point, I think we all would have been happier.
The maturation of Margene was another key element to the final season. She had finally had a taste of the outside world and found there was a place for her beyond the walls of the Henrickson's home. I don't think the show ever really painted her as a devout Mormon but she did have a charitable heart and the desire to reach out to those in need. Therefore, her desire seek a mission to those less fortunate seemed like a natural progression for her character. My only question would have been her willingness to leave her three children to be be raised by her sister wives. A question Nicki was quick to ask, although in a selfish Nicki manner. We saw the completion of Margene's maturation process when she finally stood up to Nicki about her desire to go on a mission. She knows her responsibilities at home will prevent her from going but Nicki has no right to call her hopes and dreams ridiculous.
If the second half of the finale had kept the same tone and trajectory as the first half then we may be talking about one of the great finales in television history. The climax of the series was Bill's speech on the floor of the State Senate. The speech at it's climatic moment actually gave me chills. This only goes to show how powerful Bill's character and Big Love itself could be when everything was right. I was sure we they were going to use the momentum of that moment to propel us to a great and satisfying ending. Instead the writers used Bill's outstanding speech to the state assembly as a launching point to resolve the family's issues with the least possible resistance.
From that moment on, we saw the characters we've spent five years getting to know start to do thing completely out of line with who they are. The writers tried to soften Nicki to harbor compassion from the audience. A softening that seemed to happen out of nowhere. Wouldn't Nicki have been more interesting and real if the cracks forming in the family had only hardened her resolve to be the lead sister wife? Instead we were left with a character in flux who we aren't sure how to take. Barb, who had spent the entire season chasing her calling, finally reaches her moment to step outside the family and create her own path and she does a 180 without any real reason. The lame "my family is here" reasoning didn't hold water. She had gone down this path on her own without there support and with the knowledge that it might ultimately lead to her separation from them. I found it incredibly unbelievable that she would get cold fee at that moment.
Now let's talk about Bill's death, why it was a lazy solution and the problems it causes. The writers spent an entire season building story lines including the reformation of the compounds, the fracturing of the Henricksons, Barb's calling and the ascension of Nicki as the head of the Henrickson sister wives and the writers decided to cheat us of any resolutions by killing off Bill. At the time of Bill's death, not a single plot line we had been following had been resolved. Barb still sought to become a priest holder, polygamy was still illegal, the compound rife with corruption and Bill was still facing felony charges. So instead of facing the struggle still ahead for the Henricksons the writers/producers decided let's kill Bill jump ahead a year and the audience will assume everything was resolved. Except, what they really did is open up a whole new set of questions. The only thing this really resolved was the rape charges. You can't put a dead man in jail. But are we supposed to believe that Bill's death solved the problems between the sister wives? Don't you think Nicki being in charge of things actually created more problems? Are we to believe the fundamentalist polygamist sects who had come to Bill's church were now going to accept a woman, Barb as a priest holder? I guess Bill dying made it OK with Heather that Ben slept with Rhonda because it sure as hell wasn't that hokey ass star thing. Apparently, Bill being gone made it easier on the family for Margene to leave whenever she wanted on missions.
Ultimately, the ending left too much unresolved and a bad taste in my mouth. I'm not going to argue with whether or not Bill deserved to die. By the end of the series I wanted him and Nicki to die together in a fiery car crash. I just thought the way it was done was a big cop out instead of having to address the issues still facing the family and the series.
Final Random Thoughts:
- That was a sweet fem mullet Barb grew after becoming a priest.
- Teeny was and still is the dumbest name on television.
- I guess your husband dying gives you a license to cut your hair like a 6 year old boy.
- What happens when one of the wives finds a new husband?
- What in Carl's character even hinted that he was capable of shooting someone? He was a coward for most of the series.
- This episode only strengthened my resolve to never re-sod my neighbors lawn.
- Every week Barb was surprising me with her musical selections.
- With everything going on with her daughter was it too much to ask to have a final scene with Ellen Burstyn?
