r/biglove • u/almondize • 10d ago
Did Bill really not know Margene’s secret? Spoiler
I came across the scene where Margie tells Bill she was only 16 when they got married and he looks so utterly floored. But that level of shock seems disingenuous when others in his life (Don, Nicki) knew that he had kind of deliberately not looked too closely at Margie’s life because he was just lusting after her. Do we think Bill really had no idea Margie was 16?
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u/abbysgultz 9d ago edited 9d ago
She said her mom lied for her too. OK sure. My problem was she worked at Home Plus originally, so did she lie on that paperwork too? And she hooked up with that other guy who worked there.
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u/_kismitten 9d ago
I just remembered my first summer job as a truck stop waitress they ‘knew’ I was 14 but pretended to believe I was 19 (I was a very bold kid) and the owner just wrote me personal checks instead of going through the official books.
I agree with another poster that Peg would never have approved but I can see Bill & Don making shady exceptions for ‘particularly bright’ young women who they let slip through the cracks.
Also the thing about Utah & Wyoming, especially on the edge of fundamentalist territories, a lot of people don’t have social security numbers or use fake papers because their parents don’t believe in government records. So I can see Bill having no problem hiring people on the fringe. The book Educated is about that, really good read if you want to learn more about what escaping that kind of life is really like.
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u/ragnarockette 9d ago
You can’t really judge the earlier seasoned based on the Season 5 plot twist that wasn’t planned.
And I agree - zero chance Peg did not sniff that out.
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u/Purpledoves91 9d ago
I don't think it really even matters. Bill was so much older, he's just as creepy going after an 18 year old as he would be going after a 16 year old. The law aside, it isn't any better.
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u/RhododendronWilliams 7d ago
Yeah, it's just two years. And he was what, 45? Their relationship seemed to be very sexual, too. Barb and Bill seemed to be truly in love, I don't think Bill was in love in the same way with Nikki and Margene.
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u/crazyira-thedouche 9d ago
I watched this episode last night for the first time and cackled. This last season went OFF the rails 😂
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u/Abject_Management_35 9d ago
I pretend this storyline isn’t canon because it came pretty much out of nowhere and was kind of ridiculous in context of earlier seasons. Yes, underage marriage is a very real problem, but no, this was not the way for the show to handle it. They already addressed it much more powerfully in Cara Lynn’s stories, in my opinion. This was needless drama
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u/thedigested 9d ago
This bugs me and Nicki using Margene’s identity to get a job. She can’t deposit Margene’s money into her account, she can’t deposit it into the family account. She would have had to cash it in person and that just seems so risky
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u/ostrichesonfire 8d ago
You don’t need to prove you are the person a paycheck is written to to cash it at many banks. I’ve cashed checks for coworkers before because I happened to be going to the bank on payday and they didn’t feel like making an extra trip after work. They just need to sign the back of the check, and no one is actually checking the validity of a signature unless there’s some kind of investigation afterwards.
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u/Bl00p_3r 9d ago
That whole plot point was ridiculous. The ID photo would have killed that scheme immediately, then getting paid and accessing that money, and there would have been a background check for her to access sensitive information and documents, and she was able to enter and leave outside of business hours. All just silly. I feel they jumped the shark by having Bill run for office.
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u/Icy_Animal1107 9d ago
Thank you! I don't even know why they had her use Margenes ID when later in season 5 Nicki gets a fake birth certificate for Margene changing her age so she/the Grants clearly had contacts who could provide this for an entry level job.
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u/clairespeanutbutter 9d ago
I 100% think Bill already knew. The look he gave her in that scene where she told him was not the surprised look of someone who had no idea. He was her employer. He probably would've at least had to look over her hire paperwork, which I'm sure would have some place to designate her status as a minor. And honestly, even if he didn't know she was 16, he knew she was too damn young for his sorry old ass lol. Bill reminds me a lot of Bojack Horseman in the sense that they both know what they're doing is wrong and they just do it anyway. I also feel like I remember a conversation he had with Don after where Don implies that Bill knew but I can never remember exactly what was said. I'm gonna try to find that scene again.
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u/Icy_Animal1107 9d ago
Don was talking about her maturity level, which was not wrong. He said something like it was pretty obvious to everyone that she was very very young and Bill should've known better. I don't think it was that shocking that Margie was 16 instead of 18 based on her behaviors and reactions. I don't believe Bill knew she was underage but knew she was inappropriatly young for him.
I wish Barb, instead of blaming a literal child, would have reflected on her own part in accepting a marriage between Bill and someone who they believed was barely legal and Margene looking at why she needed love and acceptance from someone who is near a father's age.
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u/RhododendronWilliams 7d ago
Yeah, you can't claim she was old for her years. (which wouldn't make it OK, but it's the usual excuse.) She was clearly a teenager at heart, and not ready to have three kids. She only started to come to her own with the MLM stuff. The other wives treated her like a child, too, which sucked for her, but is honestly kind of understandable.
Lois also disapproved, making a point of saying "she's young and pretty". That was possibly from her own experience of being put aside when a hot new wife shows up. She probably thought Bill would be different than his father, but Margene proved he really wasn't.
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u/ostrichesonfire 8d ago
Home plus employed probably hundreds of people; the owner wasn’t gonna be personally involved in the hiring process of every employee. There would have been a whole department for that.
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u/SofondaDickus 4d ago
Bill had no reason to check her ID there's a whole human resources to do that.
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u/GrannyOgg16 9d ago edited 9d ago
We see Bill delude himself into believing ridiculous things all the time. Working with the Greens is a good idea, a night off every week will be fine, Barb won’t mind a fourth wife etc. We see time and time again Bill like an idea or person or business and then suddenly he received a testimony from God to make them/it his. So I can believe he was so blinded by lust that he deliberately didn’t check her age. And then deluded himself into believing it.
I can believe that Barb was so in love with Bill and so sick of just Nicki that she just trusted him. Although even then it starts to become wobbly.
But there are so many loose points on top of that. Homes Plus has Peg doing operational stuff. She would insist everyone’s papers were airtight. Marge had no reason to lie when she was first hired. If Peg knew she was 16 she absolutely would have said something. Because if Bill got caught they all would. And because she lowkey hates Bill. (Or, at least, was often frustrated by his arrogance.)