Regardless of what we thought about Bill

[corajack]

I know that many people had negative notions about Bill.

However, the end scene with the song "God Only Knows" and the houses being shown in the background says it all.

Sure, the women did so much to build the families by having children and running the household, however, without Bill it would never have happened.

I think not only is Bill's death tragic, but also the life he tried to build. Even though that "life" was not the "best" for all of his wives (save Nikki maybe) he did the best he could with his beliefs.

Isn't that what we all do?

I guess it explains the intro now. The wives are falling and Bill is trying to catch them.....Reason? He dies. He is trying to hold onto them. Does he? I guess that depends on your own religion to determine what happens after we die.

Still....the ending just about killed me too. I can't decide yet if it was good or bad that Bill is gone. But I guess that's what the writers intended.

[Dee]

I couldn't agree more, corajack!

I was so proud of Bill in the Senate Chamber. He insisted that this whole group of people finally be seen. It is a really complicated legal mess, but we're supposed to have religious freedom. Bill's dream was to reform polygamy by eliminating the underage "marriages" and the abuse of women and children. At least he brought attention to the plight of a significant portion of Utah's population.

I wish there had been someone in the very end of the episode that had chosen to pick up Bill's cause and continue with it.

[writerwannabe]

Mar 21, 2011 9:18:54 GMT -5 betheaz said:

Mar 21, 2011 9:10:35 GMT -5 @Dee said:

I couldn't agree more, corajack!

I was so proud of Bill in the Senate Chamber. He insisted that this whole group of people finally be seen. It is a really complicated legal mess, but we're supposed to have religious freedom. Bill's dream was to reform polygamy by eliminating the underage "marriages" and the abuse of women and children. At least he brought attention to the plight of a significant portion of Utah's population.

I wish there had been someone in the very end of the episode that had chosen to pick up Bill's cause and continue with it.

Bill is standing in the great tradition of leaders who don't live to see the fulfillment of their vision, Moses, Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Lincoln, Joseph Smith. In real life and in literature it's the hero's fate to die on the path, not at the end.

I agree that the Bill character in the Senate Chamber was a great scene, especially when he said it may not happen in his lifetime but this is where the conversation starts.....that was great and showed I think, Bill accomplishing a big part of his mission on earth, to get the conversation started......as the story goes, since the Bill character was killed, I would assume the conversation he started would actually have a pretty good chance of continuing......a martyr has power...

[kikis2]

I really loved the ending. Bill spent two seasons pissing me off to no end, then in the finale I spend ten straight minutes crying for the guy. I think that's a well made ending.

The senate scene was perfect. I think, like Bill said, he didn't need any particular person to carry on his work, because he'd opened up the conversation for everyone, LDS and non-LDS. Not to mention the press his death would stir--he becomes a martyr for the cause.

For me, at least, I don't think any ending would have felt as satisfying as the one they gave us. If there were still loose-ends, everything still felt resolved.

[kathy36610]

:-/I really did not like the way it ended. In fact, I feel a bit robbed. I remember when I first started watching Big Love, there were times when it was sort of like Boston Legal in that it was part comedy and part drama. There was a light heartedness to the series but it became darker and darker.

I didn't like the way Bill was portrayed as some kind of heroic figure. The way it ended with the wives in a sort of limbo was just wrong. One of the main characters the viewers (at least IMO) were invested in was the loyal character of Don Embry. We never got a sense of how the loss of the Home Plus stores affected him.

I keep thinking of how Don wanted to sell and get out while the getting was good, only to have Bill thwart him. He was going to go ahead and sell his stock for twice the value to Alby and Bill went behind his back and put the kibosh on it. All the things Don feared came to pass and he was pretty much left holding the bag because instead of dealing with the aftermath of all of his terrible decisions and "visions", Bill gets to go to the Celestial Kingdom.

In an earlier episode Barbara and the wives discuss what would happen to them if the stores went belly up. We never got to see how they managed to keep going after that happened. Also, the way they skirted around Teeny was not right either. They could have let one of the girls reprise her role.

The only thing I can think of is that maybe Barb's church has begun to thrive and with tithes and offerings they are able to stay afloat. This treatment should have had at least two episodes - but que sera sera.

[kikis2]

There was a light heartedness to the series but it became darker and darker.

Agree. I think it lost most of its funny after season 3. Nicki's abrasiveness used to be far more witty, and I miss that--Sevigny deadpanned hilariously.

There were a lot of threads left loose--Wanda, Alby, and Don for a few, but I think the ending left it open for hopeful interpretations.

(I certainly know that Adaleen will get her own way when it comes to Alby's imprisonment. )

[marigoldmama]

We all got sick of Bill and his self centered ways.

We all got sick of Nicki who just got more and more mean and yucky.

We all got sick of Margene, who was childish and impulsive.

I personally got sick of Barb with all that whining and inability to actually DO anything about Bill or anything ever.

We all hated Frank and wanted him to be killed.

And in the end, they all loved eachother.

Joke is on us.