Big Love

Spoiler Alert: If you haven't watched the latest episode of Big Love, you might not want to read this because it gives away plot, etc.

I watched the latest episode of Big Love tonight and was really struck by what a powerful story they spun into one hour. The family goes on a vacation together. Bill has planned a sort of holy pilgrimage of sorts for his family, going from one Mormon monument to another across the nation. Everything about the trip, from the station wagon to the afternoon sun slanting into the windows, to the cheap wood paneling on hotel or motel walls evokes what many of us, especially those of us with large families have experienced at least once before: the sacred family vacation.

The whole trip is planned to bring the family closer together by sharing an adventure on the road, and bonding along the way.

But like most perfectly planned family vacations, the Hendricks family vacation is full of disappointments, things gone awry and family not cooperating with the ideal family adventure.

First Margene announces to Bill that she wants to take a side trip to restore her mother's ashes held in an urn to her mother's relatives in Illinois. It's a 300 miles jag out of the way. And Margene discovers that Bill is taking Viagra. She promises that his secret is safe with her.

Barb thinks that Nicki and Margene are mad at her and insists on accompanying the on their side trip to Illinois to take Margene's mothers' ashes to relatives. On the drive, Barb is trying to suss what the other two are mad at her about and Nicki reveals that she (Nicki) isn't mad at Barb but at Margene. In defense, Margene accidentally tells the other wives that Bill is on Viagra.

By the time the wives reunite with the rest of the family, all three women are mad at Bill for taking Viagra and not telling them.

Nicki's crush on her boss continues as she buys a cardigan like the one he wears and gets Bill to wear it. Ben's crush from last season on Margene comes out again when they accidentally see each other nude.

Every stop along the way brings some new disappointment and Barb is upset because Sarah isn't including her in her plans for going to college. Of course Sarah can't tell Barb she's pregnant.

At one point, Bill gets angry because one of the children has left a sticky wrapper on top of the time capsule which is integral to his idea of the ideal family vacation.

Margene accidentally leaves her mother's ashes on top of the car and it falls off and breaks on the sun beaten boardwalk and Margene watches as the ashes simply blow away.

Barb is talking to Nicki and comes across Nicki's birth control pills. Barb thinks they're Sarah's. Nicki doesn't want to admit the truth but finally does to the other two wives and Bill. But this is the night of the special show they've come across the country to see together as a family, a Mormon re-enactment that Bill had hoped would be a special bonding experience for the entire family where they would bury a time capsule that their descendants would open some day to discover what their own ancestors were like.

But nothing has gone right on the perfectly planned vacation from the beginning. Bill is finally at his wits end and sends the others off to watch the re-enactment show without him. He kneels in the grass where he has buried the time capsule and talks to the lord. He tells him that he has looked for him all along the way and hasn't seen him anywhere. He expresses his doubts about keeping his family strong and safe and we see him in a vulnerable state as he mourns for the control he knows he has lost.

You can't help but feel bad for Bill in this scene. We've all had those vacations where nothing went right and we are left questioning how strong and close our families really are. It leaves us vulnerable. I thought this would be the end of the episode.

But then in the next scene, Nicki wakes up and looks to see that the other bed in her hotel room is empty. She hears weeping coming from the bathroom. It is Sarah. Nicki knocks and the door opens. We see Sarah sitting on the toilet in obvious distress and she says, "I'm losing my baby."

The next scene shows a distraught Sarah riding with Nicki in the car and Nicki trying to persuade her that they need to tell the others. Like any other 18 years old, Sarah is reluctant but finally agrees. It's the sort of catastrophe that is a blow to any family but especially one so steeped in religion.

They stop and Barb goes to her daughter and hugs her and Sarah clings to her weeping. She finally looks at her father and shrugs as if to say, 'it is what it is, I can't change it...' and her father goes to her and she really clings to him weeping and he comforts her.

So this is a little synopsis and I really hadn't meant to write one. But without it what I have to say wouldn't make any sense. The episode was powerful because of the nearly hour long tale of a woeful disappointing family vacation that leaves Bill doubting the bonds and closeness of his family. And it takes a tragedy, the tragedy that is Sarah, the young and innocent, being pregnant and having a miscarriage, to bring the family close again. It's really a story for the ages. It's been told before, but maybe not even as one story, but a series of vignettes that are disconnected and maybe you never reach the conclusion so expertly as this episode of Big Love did.