The Televangelist: ‘Big Love’ season 4, episode 5

All members of the Henrickson clan should know by now that nothing stays under the rug long. Kissing your quasi-son, taking a Native American baby, killing and burning the prophet - you know, all of life’s little problems that are better left forgotten - the more any Henrickson attempts to conceal a truth, the bigger the fallout on the other end.

In last night’s exceptionally tense episode, aptly named “Sins of the Father,” Bill, who makes for one slick politician, continues to triumph politically while his family falls apart around him.  Though the plot held close to Bill and the wives, it can never drift too far from the shadows of Juniper Creek.  Last week, Bill more or less banished his own son - a nearly unforgivable transgression that he himself was subjected to as a young boy.  The issue was juxtaposed with another so-called “Lost Boy” from a compound who had recently been killed in a convenience store hold up after shooting at a police officer, helping to make Bill come to terms with his own past and the mistakes he more recently made with Ben.

This season, Bill has unquestionably become the biggest villain of “Big Love.”  His infinitely expanding hubris and struggle for increasing power on a hypocritically righteous platform has had regular viewers in fits.  As one message board commenter called out, “Kill Bill!”  This episode, for the first time, really delved into the complicated world Bill has constructed for himself, and the conflicting forces that drive him.