HBO's Big Love Season 3 - Episode 3, Prom Queen
Bill Paxton, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloe Sevigny, and Ginnifer Goodwin
Feb 3, 2009
Last episode the family started dating Ana (Branka Katic), Barb (Jeanne Tripplehorn) had a cancer scare, Bill’s mom, Lois (Grace Zabriskie), has Bill’s dad, Frank (Bruce Dern), tied up in the shed, and it was revealed that Nicki (Chloe Sevigny) is taking birth control pills and Sarah (Amanda Seyfried) is pregnant.
Sarah Henrickson
Sarah decides she wants to go to prom. She and her friend Heather Tuttle (Tina Majorino) enlist Ben Henrickson (Douglas Smith), her brother, and Franky, her uncle, to take them. Because Franky and Rhonda Volmer (Daveigh Chase) are somewhat dating Sarah has to beg her to let Frankie take her to the prom. Reluctantly, Rhonda agrees. As the limo was leaving the Henrickson home headed for the prom, Rhonda is standing in the middle of the street begging Franky not to leave her. Franky gets drunk at the prom and later ends up hanging with Heather. While watching the sunrise, Sarah tells Ben about the baby.
Joey Henrickson (Shawn Doyle)
Joey and his wives pack up to leave the compound and go to a motel for safety. Wanda (Melora Walters), however, suspecting something wasn’t right went to Nicki’s house instead. The next day Joey and Kathy Marquart (Mireille Enos), the trial second wife, go to the Henrickson’s to get Wanda. Bill (Bill Paxton) insists that they stay at Nicki’s instead of at a motel. In the meantime, Nicki gets pulled in to help on the Roman Grant (Harry Dean Stanton) case and finds out that Kathy is the last witness. She leaves work abruptly, goes to Wanda, and tells her to get Joey to stop Kathy from testifying. Later Kathy’s picture is shown on the news and Wanda tries to drown herself in the pool. They rescue Wanda and while arguing about Roman’s allegations, Wanda reveals that Nicki was once sealed (married) to a man that she didn’t like when she was fifteen and was forced to consummate the union.
The Possible Fourth Wife – Ana
Ana admits to Bill that she was seeing someone else when they first started dating. She says that the guy was out of town for a while and now that he’s back she plans on telling him it’s over. Later she has dinner with the guy at her house and ends up sleeping with him. The next morning Bill and Barb show up to bring her jell-o and find Ana and the other man in pajamas. When Ana calls Bill to apologize, he blows up at her. Barb tries to talk to Ana more calmly, but Ana hangs up in her face.
Days later Ana brings Barb her cooler that they brought the jell-o in, apologizes, and tells Barb that she is in love with Bill. Barb relays this information to Bill and asks him to go to her. He does.
Other Big Love Characters
Bill convinces Rhonda to leave town and not testify – or at least he thought he did because she didn’t actually leave. Rhonda ends up going to Roman and demanding money not to testify. He tells her he loves her and can give her many riches. She puts her hand in his. At the end of the episode Bill tells Barb that they must stand up and testify against Roman.
Barb’s mom shows up and tells her that Barb’s sister is back in town and she is planning an eagle forum meeting to support an anti-gaming resolution, which would kill Bill’s plans for Weber Gaming. Barb shows up at the meeting and later tells Bill about it. Bill goes to see Cindy’s husband to try to talk to him about it and both couple’s even sit down together to discuss the matter. However, Cindy’s jealousy of Barb would not let her give in.
A man comes to Margene’s (Ginnifer Goodwin) house and tells her that her mother fell down a flight of stairs at her apartment complex laundry room and died. He gives Margene her mother’s cremated remains. Later the family tries to have a memorial service for her, but Margene didn’t seem really into it. She spent the rest of the episode obsessively cleaning her house.
Lois (Grace Zabriske) still has Frank (Bruce Dern) tied up in the shed. She decides to suffocate him with a bag over his head. The episode ends with him struggling to breath inside the plastic bag.
HBO's Big Love Commentary
Barb seems to keep going back and forth about a fourth wife. It was wierd that she supported Ana after they caught her cheating on them, but that must just be her growing in polygamy. Also, it seems like there is a real possibility this season for a fourth wife.
Bill's decision for the family to testify against Roman was a bold move. He's spent so much time trying to protect his family any way he could and now to make the decision to step out against Roman...wow! This could potentially kill his Home Plus business and make his family an outcast in his community. And will Nicki testify against her own father? She just got back in her mother's good graces by helping to sabotage the case. This will definately crush any hope she had of fully reuniting with her family on the compound.
HBO's Big Love airs sunday nights at 9pm eastern.
Previous Episode Summaries: Episode 1, Episode 2
