One of my favorite plotlines throughout the third season of HBO’s Big Love (and there was a lot to enjoy there, from Adeline’s public-bathroom attempt on Albie’s life to Nikki’s not-quite-affair with that guy from The Office) was Sarah’s pregnancy. Amanda Seyfried is surprisingly lovely as Bill and Barb Henrickson’s eldest daughter, perpetually torn between her loyalty to her unusual family and dismay at the idea that they’re just so yucky, and I thought the writers did a really nice job of playing the story out in a thoughtful, realistic way. We watched as Sarah’s relationships with her boyfriend Scott, brother Ben, best friend Heather, and especially her mom all changed and deepened and felt the strain of the secret, and I found myself really invested in the fate of Unborn Baby Henrickson: would Sarah have him in secret at ASU, like she and Heather were planning? Would she give him up to the creepy adoptive parents she found online? Or would she choose to end the pregnancy altogether, like her friend in the low-cut tank top (so we know she’s Kind Of Slutty) suggested? All of these options seemed like really fertile ground for storytelling, which is why I was so surprised when I got up to pee and by the time I got back, bam: convenient miscarriage, crisis averted.
My first thought was crap, I should have asked Boyfriend to pause the dvd, but my second thought was real annoyance: for a season that focused so much on Sarah’s coming to terms with her mother’s decisions and the idea that it’s time for her to start making choices of her own, to just magically remove the baby from the equation with no action either way on Sarah’s part–jk, guys, we’re not really gonna go there and give this chick some agency–felt like the laziest, cheapest kind of deus ex machina. Barb spends the last chunk of the season worried Sarah doesn’t understand that her actions have consequences–which is funny, because it kind of felt like the writers forgot that, too.
...Which Was Completely Delightful 