Summary of this week’s episode (spoilers after the page break):

Margene (Ginnifer Goodwin) comes up with a plan to keep Ana (Branka Katic), pregnant with Bill’s child, from leaving the country with her fiance, who is about to be deported.  Her plan?  Marrying him, of course.  To fool the INS, they set about creating a fictional courtship, complete with fake Christmas pictures.  After Barb’s (Jeanne Tripplehorn) suggestion that her business may not survive the public outing of the family as polygamists, Margene appears to decide she needs to take steps to protect herself.  Nicki (Chloe Sevigny) recognizes this when she walks in on the picture taking.

Meanwhile, Nicki discovers she has fertility issues, and her mother Adaleen (Mary Kay Place) is suddenly pregnant with JJ’s child.  Where’s that going?

At the casino, Barb and Tommy dealt with evangelical protesters and a bomb hoax.  Surprise! Barb realizes that Marilyn Densham (Sissy Spacek) appears to be in some sort of conspiracy with with the evangelicals and Congressman Paley.  To what end?  I’m sure we’ll find out soon.

The majority of tonight’s episode was given over to Bill and Joey’s excellent adventure in Mexico.  When Bill is unable to convince the police to assist, he and Joey drive to the Greene compound to rescue Frank, Lois, Ben and Jodean.  Knowing Joey wanted to kill Hollis Greene over the death of his former fiancee Kathy (Jodean’s twin sister), Bill insisted (at the point of a gun) that Joey stay behind while he infiltrated the compound.  Bill freed his family, but Joey showed up at the last minute waving a gun and drawing attention.  Bill offers himself to the Greenes in exchange for his family’s freedom, but Lois finds a machete laying around and chops off Hollis’s arm.  While Selma and the Greene clan get Hollis to the hospital, Bill and his family make their escape.

Overall the episode had its moments.  I like how Margene is becoming increasingly independent, and the scene in her office with Barb shows how far she’s come and what she has to lose.  Still, her judgment is seriously suspect.  The marriage to Goran is going to lead to trouble.  I also generally like the involvement of the Greene clan as antagonists, but something about this storyline seems flat.  Not sure what it is though.  Finally, this episode, as well as the episode in DC when Bill had his initial run-in with Marilyn Densham, show what an unlikeable character Bill can be.  Bill has many good qualities, but when under stress he comes off as a demanding jerk who feels he’s entitled to whatever it is he wants.  I’m wondering if I’ve been overlooking this for a while, or if the writers have been deliberately building this up for payoff later in the plot?  There’s only a couple of episodes left this season, so we’ll see.