So this episode starts with Bill and Joey driving down to Mexico to rescue Benny. Barb calls Bill up and he says that he’s off to Seattle to deal with a lumber distributor. Back on the home front, Nicki finds out she can no longer get pregnant, but that her mom, newly sealed to her creepy ex husband who is the polygamist version of the creepy governor he played on Oz and the creepy black ops guy he played on Heroes. She is none too pleased about it, and there is apparently something sinister afoot because Crazy Wanda has a scene of crazy face acting with her creepy brother who threatens her with exposing Joey for killing Roman.

Margene realizes that Bill’s plan to out them as a polygamous family is going to kill her business and sees a way to keep her business safe while keeping Ana from leaving the country with Bill’s new unborn baby by marrying Ana’s boyfriend to keep him from being deported and to give herself a legal marriage on paper. Barb is not happy about this.

And then we’ve got the loonie evangelical crowd picketing the casino, led by a character obviously supposed to real life theocrat douchebag Ralph Reed, using the excuse of free speech to torment and intimidate anyone who gets in the way of his theocratic plans. Barb has the line of the night when she says that at least Mormons would be polite about it. And it looks like their new lobbyist might be playing both sides.

So back in Mexico, Bill can’t get the local authorities to do a thing against the Greens, who make the Juniper Creek compound look like a bunch of peace loving hippies. Hollis Green is staging a kangaroo court for Bill’s mom, dad and innocent bystander Ben, and to show he means business, he has Selma take out the illegal bird seller and shoot him.

Bill and Joey are on their way to the compound when Joey shows Bill the arsenal in the trunk and tries to get him on board with his plan of going in with guns blazing. As the captives are about to be executed, Ben asks if there is an appeals process and Hollis allows them to file an appeal out of some twisted idea that he is some kind of legitimate ruler. And then his whole compound starts having a wild Mexican fiesta allowing Bill a chance to sneak in and free them. They almost get out when Joey shows up with a shotgun looking for Hollis and bringing all the attention on him and his escaping family.

Bill offers himself in trade for his family and just before Hollis can order him killed, Bill’s mom grabs a machete, hacks off Hollis’ arm and says “don’t you lay a hand on my boy” with her face splattered in blood and the craziest look she’s given yet. Between her and Crazy Wanda, there’s some of the finest crazy face acting I’ve ever seen!

So they get away and return home to let us wait for next week to see the fallout from Margene’s new marriage, the ongoing feud with the Greens, Creepy Albie and his dead gay trustee lover, and their lobbyist screw over.

I don’t know how they manage to keep ratcheting up the intensity on this show, but it keeps getting more and more intense as it goes on. I’m bummed to see Amanda Seyfried leaving at the end of the season, but she’s on to bigger and better things I suppose, and her TV hubby needs to get back to his job as a meth cook on Breaking Bad. I’m even more bummed at the lack of Harry Dean Stanton, though the version of Roman that lives in Albie’s head to taunt him occasionally is fun to see.