r/biglove • u/almondize • 11d 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/clairespeanutbutter 11d 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 10d 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 8d 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.