Bill faces last-minute threats to his candidacy; the three wives feel the strain as Election Day arrives.

“‘Nicki wow’ what? [...] What, Barb? Don’t you wanna put your two cents in?”
- Nicolette “Nicki” Grant

As always, we hope you were able to tune in last Sunday to the season’s second-to-last 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, 4.08 “Next Ticket Out” (under the cut), please mouseover to read:

A Henrickson family dinner proves surprisingly eventful when not only does Nicki surprise the others with a new, sexier look, Sarah announces her and Scott’s plans to move to Portland. Bill and Teenie are particularly displeased, if for different reasons. Later, Barb reveals to Bill not only that it was Marilyn Densham who hired the anti-casino organization to recently target the Henricksons’ casino, but also finally confesses that Marilyn is actually now employed by the casino, as hired without Bill’s consent by a mislead Barb. Bill is furious and tells Barb she’s fired, but as he’ll soon find out, Barb refuses to have any of it.

Nicki also has her own confession to make when she finally tells Bill she’s having trouble conceiving. Bill, who is still trying to find the appropriate time to break to Nicki the news of his brother Joey being Roman’s murderer, finds himself yet again unable to do so. Later, it’s Margie’s turn to make a confession when she informs Bill of her faux marriage to Ana’s fiancé, Goran. Unsurprisingly, Bill is furious and questions Margie’s true motives, at which Margie feels incensed. Ubeknownst to the two, Marilyn accidentally overhears some of the argument, and makes conclusions of her own. Bill and Barb at a board meeting then confront Marilyn about her connections to the casino opposition, which ends in Bill firing Marilyn. A bitter Marilyn complies, but not before an attempt to disgrace Bill in Barb’s eyes by claiming she knows of an affair between Bill and a certain Margene Heffman, the information of which she plans to take to the press, at which Bill decides to put Margie’s unfortunate but all the more legal marriage to Goran to new use. Margie, now disillusioned with Goran, and Barb both object.

At the compound, the newly wedded JJ and Adaleen stumble upon an embarrassed Nicki getting fertility treatment at JJ’s son’s clinic. Adaleen, though on the surface comfortable in her new marriage, begins to increasingly suspect there’s something rotten about JJ, and when he catches Adaleen snooping around some documents, he overtakes her violently. What he eventually does to her remains to be seen. Elsewhere, Alby struggles to keep his cool during a questioning regarding the death of Dale Tomasson, as he struggles with Dale’s suicide overall. Knowing the true extent of Alby’s pain, Nicki tries to reconnect with her brother, but he is too wowen into his grief and upbringing to listen to her pleas to start a new life with her. Driven by his mad hallucinations of the dead Roman, he angrily drives Nicki away and calls her an “indecent whore.” At her brother’s harsh words, Nicki quickly returns to her old prairie chic style, but which look eventually sticks remains to be seen.

At the Henricksons, Barb’s many frustrations regarding Bill and his various aspirations clearly begin to take a toll on her mentally when she lets it slip at a public event that she disapproves of the supposed “happy pill” abuse by Utah women. The statement is quickly blown out of proportion in the media to Bill’s disadvantage, and he compels Barb to retract her statement. But when Barb is later set to do so during a televised talk show interview with the Henricksons, Bill unexpectedly backs her up instead, and the family appears unified on camera.

Back at the compound, Nicki, to whom Barb had earlier inadvertently blurted out the truth about Joey’s involvement in her father’s death, tries to confront Joey on the matter at his and Wanda’s house, but finds only Wanda, for whatever reason unable to speak. JJ then unexpectedly appears and tells Nicki “Joey has made her do horrible things,” and Nicki leaves the compound with Wanda and her baby in tow. Where Joey is and what JJ’s part in all this is remains to be revealed. Later at the house, Nicki and Bill calmly discuss the business with Joey and Roman, and Nicki ends up making an unexpected confession; she not only tells Bill that she loves him, but that part of her wishes she no longer had to share him with the other wives. Bill is amazed.

Later in the evening, Marilyn makes a surprise call to Barb to confront her about about knowing of Margie and Bill’s “affair”. Barb goes along with the affair-story, but tells Marilyn she and her are nothing alike and that Marilyn knows nothing about her, to which Marilyn quietly replies she’s only getting started with them. This, as it turns out, is far from an empty threat when Tommy Flute comes to Bill the following day with big news regarding Marilyn’s various businesses. It is revealed that Marilyn’s treachery runs far deeper than either of them expected, and that she is clearly on a personal crusade to destroy Bill. The episode concludes with the Henricksons holding a farewell party for Sarah.

Well, last Sunday’s episode certainly raised a lot more questions than it answered! To me, personally, a particularly burning question is JJ’s role in the various disasters that have been or are unfolding. Loved Nicki’s new look, however (even if I secretly wish she doesn’t at least wholly abandon the prairie dresses), and Chloë Sevigny was once again simply great in her role. “Sit!”

Media-wise, we’ve updated the site with 475 HD screen captures of Chloë on the show as well as nine site-exclusive video clips from last Sunday’s episode. Stay tuned for more Big LoveSeason 2 DVD replacement caps next week, and of course, a recap of the Season 4 finale airing later tonight on HBO.

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.

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Listen to and/or download Chloë’s full “Fresh Air” interview via NPR.org! The interview is about 21 minutes long.

Interview excerpts from NPR.org:

How her role on Big Love is different from her roles in movies:
“I’m kind of intimidated by the big screen — I often keep my performances much smaller and much more natural and subtle — and of course on Big Love, it’s so big, the stakes are always really high, and it’s always very dramatic, and there’s always so much going on that I can’t imagine what they saw in earlier performances that they would think, ‘Oh, Chloe can really run with this [Big Love role].’ “

On wearing prairie dresses:
“It was always a fantasy of mine growing up — my favorite program was always Little House on the Prairie — so I always wanted to wear those looks. When I was a child, I wouldn’t let my mom put me in anything but calico dresses and now … whaddaya know, every day I’m in a calico dress, basically, so it’s kind of funny.”

On getting started in acting:
“I had always wanted to be an actress. I went to summer theater camp from kindergarten on up until high school, and always had the leads in all the plays — even though they were at the YMCA — but it was something I always wanted to do. I had done some commercial work in junior high and stuff — my mother would bring me into the city, and we’d go on these crazy castings … Acting was something I always dreamed of doing … it was my passion when I was young.”

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Please remember to refresh your browser for the updated thumbnails/intermediate pictures if you have any of the below albums recently, as you are otherwise likely to see the old ones. All thumbnails/intermediate pictures in the below listed gallery albums have been updated with new ones as a result of the cap replacements. Thank you. Without further ado, enjoy the new caps, and stay tuned for more!

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Big Love is the critically acclaimed polygamist drama series from HBO, starring Chloë Sevigny in her Golden Globe-winning role as second wife Nicolette “Nicki” Grant opposite Bill Paxton, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Ginnifer Goodwin.

Big Love Episode 4.08 “Next Ticket Out”
Barb becomes a lightning rod for Bill’s campaign; Nicki tries a new look.

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.

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• Photos > Television Work > ‘Big Love’ Episode 4.07 Screen Captures
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All clips are in .MOV format, which is playable in e.g. VLC and QuickTime. 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.

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