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Big Love’s Bill Henrickson = John Edwards

- Season 4, Episode 4 - "The Mighty and the Strong"

While watching the tail-end of the latest episode of Big Love, “The Mighty and the Strong,” all I could think about was John Edwards.

Maybe it’s just that Edwards has been in the news a lot lately, given that he and his long-suffering wife Elizabeth have separated and a once-doggedly loyal political aide, who was willing to destroy his own reputation in order to help promote Edwards’ political career, has just released a tell-all book.

Or maybe it’s just that, in the span of a handful of episodes, Bill Henrickson has seamlessly morphed into a slimy politician even before he even officially announced his candidacy for the state Senate.

Just how far into the ethically muddy waters has Bill waded?

First, he told his second and third wives — Nicki and Margene, along with the children he had with them — that they have to be kept out of the spotlight while he runs for elected office, a bid he naively thinks will eventually lead to polygamist families such as his own to live openly. Um . . . sure, Bill.

After a political rival tipped off federal immigration officials that Bill’s home improvement stores were employing illegal aliens (they weren’t) and the feds started reviewing Home Plus’ books, Bill decided to boot from the company’s health insurance roster not only Nicki and Margene and their kids, but Don Embry’s estranged second and third wives and their children so as not to raise any red flags and open himself up to more scrutiny because his and Don’s additional wives were listed as employees.

Lastly, when Bill heard that his chief political opponent was going to push the story that there were polygamists working at Home Plus, Bill asked the big-hearted Don to fall onto the public relations grenade and publicly out himself and his wife as polygamists, then resign from Home Plus. “We have to give them something or we’re all going down,” Bill said. Dutifully, Don told a TV reporter that he had manipulated Home Plus’ books to put four of his five wives (he included Nicki and Margene) on the payroll in order to get them health insurance and apologized for leading a double life. The look on Don’s face as he stood behind the cheering crowd while Bill launched his Senate campaign was heartbreaking; he was a symbol of someone who’d been brutally run over in the name of political ambition.

Throw in the fact that the self proclaimed “proud family man” Bill is turning his first-born son Ben into a “lost boy” by agreeing he should leave the Henrickson home because Ben and Margene are attracted to one another (Bill himself was “run off” from Juniper Creek, as was his half-brother for coveting a girl designated for an older man), Bill seems as though he’s willing to do anything to prevail, and not just in the political arena.

Pitching aside his values, his friends and his family and exploiting their loyalty and affections will be Bill’s undoing. When it eventually comes out that Bill’s a polygamist — and you KNOW it will — wh0 let his friend just hang out there on a hook, shamed, just like John Edwards’ aide who claimed to have fathered a baby out of wedlock who was actually Edwards’ child, the label of “hypocrite” is going to weigh heavily around Bill’s neck. Isn’t that the take-away from seamy political tales like Edwards’, that if you sacrifice the people closest to you in order to climb to the top, you’ll eventually fall? (By the way, loved the visual of the “elephant” in the room with Margene literally dressed as a GOP elephant.)

I’ve never been a big fan of Bill’s character, but this episode made me dislike him even more.

Do you think Bill will pay a price for tossing Don overboard? And what’s the over-under for how long until Bill’s outed as a polygamist?


Photo Credit: HBO

2 Responses to “Big Love’s Bill Henrickson = John Edwards”

February 2, 2010 at 2:20 PM

Oh this is a funny post.

They are both bigots. While the one promotoes marriage the catholic way and betrays his wife, the other one lives in a polygamous marriage and pretends he doesn’t.

So what you are basically saying is that having a polygamous marriage in the first place and then going back on it to be a successful politician is what’s to be condemned here or what exactly is the point?

All I get is: politicians are bigots.

February 3, 2010 at 1:48 PM

There were so many people talking about John Edwards on Twitter that it was one of the top trending topics for a while – check out the video at https://www.joshrimer.com/john-edwards-fatthoughts-supreme-court/ to see some of the more entertaining ones in a funny video. :-)

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