Speculation-y!

I speculate that Nicki will be the first wife to go out of the marriage to have an affair. Barb seems way too busy and invested in her marriage, and having it be Margene, the young one, seems too 'easy.'

I'm assuming that one of them will by the end of the season. This is HBO, after all.

I'd wonder about the other wives trying to undermine/overthrow/ or even kill? Barb. I wouldn't put it past Nicki. However, that might cross over into Soap Opera territory.

But I'll bet that Nicki will do her best to make Barb look bad whenever possible.

Margene's just cute.

Deleted because it was already being talked about in the episode thread.

I speculate that there's something going on between Margene and the oldest son, Ben. From things I've seen in the promos, something is pointing me in that direction.

Yes! I imagine it'll start off as unconscious, on both their parts. And Bill may begin to understand why he was driven off the Compound as a young teen.

I think Nicki and Margene will be presented to the rest of the neighborhood as single moms and some new man will move into the neighborhood and become interested in dating them-and they will be interested right back.

I also think if there is a cliffhanger at the end of the season, it will involve Tina Majorino's character's dad closing in on Roman and his child bride.

And the trooper will no doubt use Bill and his "situation" (i.e. the threat of jail time, breaking up the happy home, etc.) in order to get to Roman, which will mean Nicki will have to choose between her father and her husband.

I might even go further than that; I think Margene and Ben will cross a line somehow possibly up to kissing or more, and he'll throw him out of the house. This will happen sometime around the season finale.

This is speculation regarding backstory, so maybe it's not appropriate here, but after last night's episode, I'm speculating that when Barb got cancer, she and Bill didn't have the money for treatment. Roman stepped in with the funds, and in exchange for the money, Bill had to marry one of Roman's daughters. It seems like Nikki perhaps didn't choose this situation as willingly as Margene did.

I thought Ben was 17. Ben being 15 makes it a bit different for me. Bill should kick Margene out of the house if something happens between them - she's the adult. Theoretically. She seems more like a slow middle-schooler at this point.

Nikki would never have the choice to marry who she wanted. Wouldn't it be funny if there was someone at the compound she had been desperately in love with, but Roman and her mom put the foot down about it? It would explain why she was older when she married.

Since a number of people on the episode threads have pointed out that it's dangerous to have a combination of a pool without a large fence around it and small children, I will speculate that this is exactly what TPTB intended. My theory is that one of the small children will end up drowning in the pool somewhere around episode 9 or 10 and that this event will be the catalyst that brings us to the season's end. (I don't know if it will be Nicki's or Margene's child that perishes, (or possibly Teeny) but whichever way it goes it will change the family dynamic.)

I wouldn't doubt if it were BILL she was in love with. They grew up on the com pound together, share the same background, and she may have had a huge crush/feelings for him when she was a girl and he was a handsome older teenager. Maybe Nicki influenced Roman into making her part of the "package deal" (in addition to 15% profits from his business).

Bill got dumped at fourteen, so Nicki would have been a child.

Of course, we don't know at what point he would have been allowed to come back and see his mother.

Sadly, I don't know how much Love has to do with it. (on the compound, at least). In Under the Banner of Heaven, I read about how some of these children are born to mothers with the preplanned purpose of that child becoming a spouse to her father. There are situations where the families are so in-bred, that one can become her own grandmother.

There are so many arranged marriages, just like what we consider "primitive" when we see them in other cultures.

In the more "relaxed" type of Polygamy like Don and Bill practice, there at least seems to be some choice based on mutual attraction and love.

The fence was present in tonight's episode. Its presence or absence doesn't seem predictable. I can certainly see that the death of one of the children could be a possibility in a future episode. Not Teeny, though. She's old enough to know better.

My speculation is the Bill and Barb agreed to marry Nicki in exchange for Roman's paying the bills for Barb's cancer treatment. Maybe she was getting a little old for the polygamy marriage market or was spending Roman out of house and home too.

I am speculating that the new next door neighbors are actually government agents sent to watch Bill and his family. They are going to let Bill know about his family arrangements and threaten to destroy him with it unless he helps them get Roman, who is their actual target. Bill will agree but Nicki will find out about Bill's arrangement with the government and betray him to her father.

I think that the whole polygamy thing is going to unravel for Bill thanks to the nosey neighbors. Not in the way you would think (Margene's big mouth) but because the neighbor guy works for Delloitte and Touche which will be called into to audit the books of HHPlus for Juniper Creek. He'll see that Bill and his strange tenants and babysitters have an affiliation with Roman and the jig will be up.

With Nikki's money trouble and the way Bill's been throwing the stuff around (third store lot, his Homes Plus, Margene's new car, bribes to his father and Roman...) I suspect they're setting up a cliffhanger where Roman accepts Bill's settlement, but Bill only has enough money to either sever ties with Roman or bail Nikki out.

People on the episode thread keep speculating that Rhonda will run off to New York in the near future. I think that would be too happy of an ending for a character who has been solely introduced to show the tragic side of the polygyny thing. And who single-handedly turned Roman from greedy Prophet into "creepy".

I have no doubt that Rhonda will try to run away, but I believe that won't turn out well. Rhonda seems to be bound to be a tragic figure and her final fate could turn Roman from "creepy" into "evil." Which I believe they're definitely seem to be going for. For now, the Prophet and his right hand men are creepy, but don't seem to be all that threatening, actually. I don't get a sense of danger from them. Killing Rhonda for running away, would establish them as life-threatening nutters and would definitely make the conflict between Bill and Roman a hundred times more interesting.

Seeing those two empty chairs in the opening credits always made me wonder if TPTB wouldn't eventually add another couple wives to the family. With everything going on already, I didn't see how they could fit that in -- but then the Bill/Wanda scene at the end of this week's episode got me thinking:

If poor, stupid Joey found a way to get himself killed, do you suppose Bill would pull a Seth Bullock? That is, take Wanda as his fourth wife and raise his brother's child as his own?

I agree! I could really see that happening. I also think Ben may do whatever he does with Margene because one of his friends (Jason) is gay and that makes him question his own sexuality.



I think it will be Nicki's younger child (I can't remember his name but not Wayne). Nicki's lack of attentivenss has already been foreshadowed with the lipstick thing. Also Margene's character's whole childlike personality would probably be lost if she were to loose a child.

I think if this show keeps going on for multiple seasons then they will add another wife (and a few babies).

Could part of the plot of this show really be about Roman planning for his replacement as the next prophet and the continuation of the church? Whether it's Bill or one of his children with Nicki?

Bill is decended from the original prophet. Nicki is decended from Roman. As Roman keeps messing with him Bill has become more and more involed with the compound. Plus he's acting in ways that I can picture Roman thinking would be necessary (deviousness, legal and financial gymnastics) to keep the church going with the outside world being hostile towards them.

To me this also helps explain why Nicki would be with Bill. I'm not sure if she's aware of what Roman has planned but she had to recognize that any situation with Bill would be better than what she'd get staying at the compound. Plus, it certainly wouldn't hurt her children's futures to be decended from both prophet lines. I think Barb surviving her cancer has thrown the plans off a little because it would have been easier to make Bill the next prophet with Nicki as his first wife. Plus I can't see Barb being as enthusiastic about Bill being in charge of the church as Nicki would be.

I do think it helps that Bill appears to really believe in the principle so if he were to be the next church leader it wouldn't be for money, power or underage girls. It would be because of his faith. I may be overestimating Bill's smarts but other than Roman does he seem a bit sharper than the other men from the church?

It's interesting that Nicki had two boys with Bill and then at some point started taking birth control pills. An heir and a spare? It might not mean anything other than she needed to take a break from having children, but unless I'm missing something I would have thought bc wouldn't exactly be "kosher" with the beliefs that she and Bill are supposed to have.

I should also add that I have no idea either way whether Nicki is knowingly involved or not. Going with Bill could have been her idea and then Roman just capitalized on it or the whole thing could be her idea. With her financial issues I'm not quite ready to believe that Nicki could plot something that devious but then she didn't exactly have that much experience handling money or finances when on the compound. If only her accountant father didn't have to spread his attention around to so many others.

I rewatched some of the later episodes last weekend and now I'm wondering if, given the family's outing at the ceremony, some of the more vulnerable members of the family will be approached by some of the support organizations that exist for wives and children of polygamist families. The show has done a pretty good job of representing various portions of the debate, and it seems like at some point they would want to show people who have come out of the lifestyle.

I could see them targeting Margene as the youngest and the third wife, but somehow I don't think she's the most vulnerable one anymore. Amanda would be a good target, probably, but I'm sort of hoping Nikki or Barb explore their doubts some more.

Is there such a thing as a polygamous union between a woman with multiple husbands? I think that'd be something interesting to explore. Maybe they could be an off-shoot that bumps up against the Henricksons somehow.

I like your thinking Tsyroc.
I guess Alby would assume that he would become the next prophet as Roman's oldest(?) son. But even though Alby has a bunch of wives, if Roman knows about his gay proclivities, Roman might think it would make Alby susceptible to blackmail.

But wouldn't there be some power struggle among Roman's other sons or the elders? I doubt the compund folks would accept an outsider like Bill or one of his sons as the prophet, even if he does adhere to the principle, there's just too much culture clash.

Bumping this thread because...I think the show is going Animal Farm on us.

We started out with Bill, the escaped son of a polygynist compound, who had a perfect middle-class nuclear family and speaking out against both polygyny and the compound life. When Barb is diagnosed with cancer, he innocently brings a "helper" into the house. One thing leads to another, and he chooses plural marriage, with the reasonings that at least we're living in the real world and she isn't an underage girl. He may be a polygynist, but hey, he's nothing like Roman Grant!

Cut ahead a few years. Margene is brought in as another "helper" who becomes another wife. She's a lot younger--twenty years younger, to be exact. But still legal age! Nothing like Roman Grant!

Bill needs cash for his business to grow. A ready source of cash? The compound and...Roman Grant. Business only. I'm still in the real world. This brings us to the pilot.

The season continues. Bill finds himself favoring one wife over the others. As the business grows, Bill's head starts to swell and he stops listening to Don and Peg's advice. The family isolates itself from the real world more and more. Bill takes a giant leap back to the life he used to speak out against by buying himself a spot on the UEB Council. And from what we can divine from next week's previews, he not only takes part in the Council meetings, but he openly challenges Roman on a morals platform ("approving liquor in our own UEB Council?" or something like that). We see similarities to a certain Prophet we all know.

So here's my prediction. Bill will be spending more and more time at the compound, possibly with Ben at his side. He'll become convinced that his own lineage to the original Prophet gives him direct connection to God, and he'll earn followers. After a while, he might make the decision to get himself a house there...and of course Nicki would immediately join him. As his following grows, he'll convince them that they've lived under Roman's thumb long enough, and it is through him, grandson of the original Prophet, that both salvation and modernity lie. He'll give the people hope, and he'll be able to run Roman off the compound for good and become the new Prophet, much to Barb's dismay.

As the new leader, he'll start out with some remnants of his original anti-compound convictions intact--no young wives, all children get a real education, stick to pure religious principles, and no running young boys off the compound. Then...he'll take a 19-year-old wife. "Barb, she's very mature! And you know I won't mistreat her! Taking her in here is better than assigning her to a middle-aged sicko!" He'll assign Ben a wife his own age at first, then younger and younger. He starts censoring music, movies, television...anything from the outside. His power grows along with his ego...finally, having taken a dozen more wives, thrown Nicki's sons off the compound, assigned 14-year-old Teeny to a 40-year-old man, having taken to wearing a cowboy hat and learned to play the guitar...one of Nicki's sons will come back and seek vengeance for the overthrow of his grandfather Roman, the one true Prophet (as told by Nicki).

The cycle continues...

Interesting theory Meghan Jill, but there is the matter of the stores, and of course Sarah. Barb would never go along with that, in fact she reminded Bill that they both said they would never go back there (although they since have.)

I came to speculate on Bill taking another wife. I'm really hoping Ana does not become number four. I feel like we are just getting to know the three women already there and I don't want their storys cut to make room for someone I don't care about. Barb, Sarah, Nicki, and Margene are just barely developing to the point that we care.

With so many storylines I don't want any more time spent on Ana. We've got Lois and Eddie, Rhonda, Weaver Gambling (which is going to be big big trouble, I just know it) Sarah and Heather, and Ben and Brynn. Speaking of Brynn, I predict a pregnancy or some other way Ben gets caught with his pants down.

Whether Margene is for or against taking a fourth wife, I've got to believe that she'll blurt out the news long before Bill wants it known.

Nothing has been said about whether Brynn and Ben are using contraception. That makes me nervous, too.

I would be soo funny if this happened and Margie got them out of it b/c Chad (remember him?) cleans the books a little.

After thinking a while about Nicki's and Wanda's friendship and that both seem to have been way beyond the normal compound marrying age when they married Joey and Bill respectively, I begin to suspect that the reason why Nicki (despite her two sister wives and her bazillion actual sisters and cousins) is friends with Wanda might be that they're ex-sister wives.

It makes perfect sense. It explains why Wanda and Nicki married so late, it explains why they're still friends and it would perhaps explain Wanda's damage. And possibly why she thinks poison is a solution to all of life's problems. Probably because once upon a time it did work and freed her from a possibly abusive situation and allowed her to marry Joey.

What I want to know is this: if Bill does take a fourth (or fifth) wife, where are the new wives gonna stay? Will he buy them each their own house? Although, I could see Margie being happy with a new friend who's not either talking down to her or manipulating her. And being OK with said new wife living with her, for company. I can picture her trying to be all girly-chatty about how Bill is in bed. Ewwwww. I gotta stop that nonsense. And, I guess Barb would put up with another wife in her home for a while. Didn't they all live together at first anyway? But Nicki is the only one who would probably ALWAYS be on her own. Unless the new wife was from Juniper Creek. Then she'd know that the new wife's values wouldn't clash with her own. And I'm sure there are some unspoken rules of how sister-wives have to act to get along, that only Nicki and the JP wife would understand. Geez, I wonder if poor Bill has put as much thought into this as I evidently have.

One problem with this is that neither one had children until Bill/Joey. The whole point is to procreate, remember Nicki's postpartum crying in the five year flashback? If they were married before for any length of time they would have other kids. I think it's the actresses happen to be a certain age, and therefore Nicki and Wanda are as well - besides they are sisters-in-law married to brothers and that can make friends out of women that might not be friends otherwise. I know it did in my family.

Okay, so Sara's at her wits' end, wondering what Rhonda's going to pull next . . .

And Sara knows Alby's off the reservation . . .

And there's no place for Alby in the outside world, but to go back on his own terms he needs a bargaining chip . . .

And Rhonda shouldn't trust anyone, but she'd probably make an exception for someone she considered a patsy -- uh, friend . . .

And Sara has access to Nicki's phone, which might have Alby on speed-dial . . .

See where I'm going with this?

Ooooohhhh, good thinking Conralto! I like this idea. But I don't know that Sarah would really pull the trigger do you? Maybe she would just fill Nicki in that Alby is in town and let Nicki take it from there.

Well, Sara wouldn't pull the trigger yet, but suppose Rhonda wanted one more thing from her? (Bonus points for irony if it was something innocuous.) She could call Sara and demand a meeting at a particular time and place and when Sara balks, she defaults to threatening the Henricksons.

I like the way you think Conralto!

I love that analogy!! And I've been thinking the same thing (although I wasn't quick enough to make the Animal Farm analogy) Every week Bill becomes more like Roman. And while I don't think all your predictions will come true (the series would have to run for many, many years to get there) I do think there will be some sort of ultimate power struggle between Bill and Roman which will result in Bill's going back to the compound in some capacity and throwing his family into even more turmoil than they have now.

Unless their husband was infertile or too old.

Right -- Lois mentioned one impotent old man who'd been given an eighteen-year-old bride.

Now that we've had Sarah mention it, maybe a pregnancy storyline is even more likely? I do wish Ben could get a bit of come uppance (sp?) that didn't involve brynn being the one to bear most of the punishment and/or a blanket moral message about the dangers of teen sex (been there, SOOOOOOO done that). If they do go the pregnancy route though, my thought is that the two of them will have completely different responses, with Ben immediately wanting to get married/begin his life with the principle, and Brynn wanting to get an abortion.

If Brynn got an abortion, which may be quite likely based on what we know about her, I think that would make a FANTASTIC Ben storyline, just to see how he deals with the guilt and fallout from that. It would give both the writers and the actors a chance to really shine.

That would be a good Ben storyline.

I kinda want him to get an STD but that would mean that Brynn was cheating and therefore (a nasty ho) and been there done that.

Though I think Barb just finding out that Ben is having sex is enough to cause massive drama.

Joey and his arm around Kathy question.

Can Joey choose who he will marry, or is that something Roman has a say over, since Joey and Wanda still live on the compound?

I believe that Joey can choose but that Roman would have to approve the choice. Roman could assign Joey a wife, but Joey could would have veto rights. Of course, the putative wife would get no say.

Does anyone think that Frank's diatribe against Barb, saying that in this rleigion the men have all the power, is a telegraph of something huge and dire??? Because I do.

I was just on the HBO boards, (Gosh what a mess) and someone suggested that perhaps Scott was a cop. Which I don't agree with but it got me thinking.

I wonder if in his stalking Alby found out something about Scott and now after the beating he won't be sharing this info.

I'm not trying to make a Scott a bad guy cause of the age thing or him looking like a serial killer I just think it would be more dramatic and interesting if there was more to Scott then just simple nice guy.

Wouldn't it be ironic if he was already married?

Considering Rhonda stayed with him overnight and Sarah's obviously been to his apartment a few times, I'd say he's NOT married....

So . . . three episodes to find out why Nicki got a gun. I'm betting one of the Greenes shows up.

That could be some reconciliation . . . "Mama! Come quick and bring the bone saw!" Chris and Furio at Satriale's would have nothing on those two.