Who cares about the baby? Loose women having babies, old women having babies. Babies, babies, babies! I’m sick of it, I don’t wanna hear it!
- Nicolette “Nicki” Grant
As always, we hope you were able to tune in last Sunday to the season’s seventh episode of Big Love, the critically acclaimed HBO polygamist drama series starring Chloë Sevigny in her Golden Globe-winning role of Nicolette “Nicki” Grant opposite Bill Paxton, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Ginnifer Goodwin. Here’s our recap of last Sunday’s episode, 4.07 “Blood Atonement” (under the cut), please mouseover to read:
Unbeknownst to the wives, Bill, as the newly appointed acting UEB funds trustee (as a result of Dale Tomasson’s suicide), and his brother Joey have gone looking for Ben and their parents in Mexico, where they’re being held by the infamous Greenes. Local police is brought in, but ultimately prove uncooperative, and Joey, Bill and Frank’s second wife Jodean, as the only one to have eluded the Greenes, decide to carry out their own rescue mission. Barb is therefore left to deal with the casino and its problems on her own, much to her dismay.
Back in Utah, Ana, who has now been confirmed as carrying Bill’s child, tells Barb her fiancé’s visa has expired and they are moving out of the country, at which Barb threatens her with legal proceedings. When Margene tries to act as the mediator between the two, Ana tells her that if Barb takes the legal route they will go public with everything, potentially ruining Bill’s prospects of a career in politics. Margie then offers an unusual compromise solution to Ana and her fiancé Goran — marriage; if Goran were married to Margie, he would be allowed to stay in the country, solving the entire crisis regarding the child. Unsurprisingly, Barb is not pleased, but she has other things on her mind when an anti-casino organization is getting increasingly violent with them, while she and Tommy Flute begin to suspect that their newly acquired “asset” Marilyn Densham is actually hustling them with the aforementioned organization and Congressman Paley.
Elsewhere, Nicki’s mother Adaleen apologizes to Nicki for having allowed her to be sealed at such a tender age. Nicki, however, having recently been told by a doctor that she has secondary infertility, is only briefly able to soak in the apology. Adding to the painfulness of the news is not only the situation with Ana, but also the news that Adaleen, recently sealed to Nicki’s ex-husband JJ, is pregnant with his child, as unlikely as this initially seems. Nicki then lets the infertility news slip to Margie, when the latter accuses her of wilfully not “doing her part” in the family. Adaleen, guessing at Nicki’s pregnancy difficulties at her many temper tantrums on the subject, instructs her to seek medical advice from JJ’s son, a doctor at the compound. Nicki silently complies. The consequences of this remain to be seen.
Meanwhile in Mexico, things are about to get very heated. When Jodean reveals to Joey something of a small arsenal of guns under the trunk of her car which Frank had planned to smuggle and sell, Joey tells her he wants to use them to get back at the Greenes, who also had a hand in Jodean’s sister Kathy Marquart’s untimely death last season. Jodean tells him it’s not what Kathy would want, but it’s obvious Joey isn’t listening. Jodean then disappears, and is revealed to have infiltrated the Greenes’ compound. She is able to relay the precise location of the imprisoned Henricksons to Bill, before being caught herself. At the Greenes compound, Frank, Lois et al. are put “on trial” by the Greenes regarding their bird poaching. Although the situation seems close to farcical, they all soon realize how serious the Greenes are when Selma Greene shoots their duplicitous bird dealer to death when he is found to be “in contempt” of the “court”.
While making their way to the compound, Bill, who has been warned about Joey’s intentions by Jodean, suddenly pulls a gun on Joey and tells him he’ll do the rescue mission alone. They then confront one another about whether Bill walked out on their family or was thrown out, but it is nevertheless Bill who leaves with their car. In the evening, Frank, Lois, Jodean and Ben all stand to be “sentenced” to death, but Ben manages to buy them an additional hour. In the wake of their execution, Frank makes an unexpected confession of guilt to Lois about why he threw Bill out, saying that he was told by Roman Grant that Bill would eventually take everything from him; “I was a selfish coward.” Bill then arrives to their rescue, but as the party try to make their escape, Joey sneaks onto the premises with the intention to kill Hollis Greene. When he is intercepted by Bill, an infuriated Joey reveals to him it was he who killed Roman. When the situation turns into a stand-off between the fleeing Henricksons and the Greenes, Bill bravely offers himself to the Greenes to save the others, but when Hollis lays his hand on Bill’s shoulder, about to accept his sacrifice, Lois suddenly snaps and slices Hollis’s arm clean off. This unexpected turn of events gives Bill new leverage on Selma, who needs to decide whether to save Hollis and his arm or let him die alongside the Henricksons. Selma lets the Henricksons go. After a crazy adventure, Ben is finally reunited with his family.
Another great episode, that was! Though it did raise a lot of new questions, I thought. Nicki seeking help from JJ’s doctor-son in particular seems ominous to me, as does Adaleen’s unusually euphoric state. Overall, there wasn’t a lot of Chloë Sevigny in this episode, but I hope you enjoyed her exploding at Margie about babies as much as I did. Priceless!
Media coverage-wise, we’ve updated the gallery with 312 HD screen captures of Chloë as Nicki in last Sunday’s episode, while six site-exclusive video clips have been uploaded to the media archive. Enjoy, and don’t forget to tune in again next Sunday for the newest episode. Only two more to go this season!
All clips are in .MOV format, which is playable in e.g. VLC and QuickTime. Although our photo gallery is open for everyone, please remember you must be a registered and logged in media archive user to access our collection of video clips; unlogged users will not be able to view said material. Registration at our media archive is free and only takes a moment. Thank you.
New Media Albums:
• Photos > Television Work > ‘Big Love’ Episode 4.07 Screen Captures
• Videos > Television Work > ‘Big Love’ Episode 4.07 Video Clips
