Big Love

Nicolette Eugenia "Nicki" Grant is a character on Big Love, the fictional HBO television series set among contemporary polygamists in Utah. The role is played by Chloë Sevigny. The show focuses on the family of Bill Henrickson; Nicki is the second of Henrickson's three wives, and the biological mother to two of Henrickson's children, Wayne and Raymond.

Biography

Nicki is the daughter of Roman Grant, patriarch of the compound of polygamous Mormon fundamentalists on which Henrickson was also raised. On the compound, Grant is revered as "The Prophet." Nicki's mother is Adaleen Grant née Hallstrom, the sixth of Roman Grant's fourteen wives. Nicki retains a strong belief in "the principle" of polygamy, as well as modesty in dress and a deep suspicion of the world at large, outside of the compound.

The program has often focused on Nicki's internal conflicts of sexuality, particularly as she regards her mixed loyalties between her father and her husband, who themselves are frequently in conflict.

A season one plotline, reprised in the end of season two, showed her to be a compulsive shopper who incurred nearly $60,000 in credit card debt, unbeknownst to her husband or sister wives.

She is also ostracized from the Grant family before her father is shot and she steals from them to get revenge. Though it goes against their rules of morality, Nicki starts gambling at a gaming entertainment establishment that Bill (in an effort to share his new business venture with his wives) introduced her to. She soon begins gambling online at home as well.

Although Nicki is frequently portrayed as cold and unsympathetic, there are many instances where she is shown to be quite passionate about her beliefs and towards those she cares most about. Even though she has a strained relationship with her family at the Juniper Creek Compound, she is fiercely loyal to them. She has been shown going to some lengths to be a part of their lives and keep them a part of hers, much to the dismay of Bill and Barb.

Nicki is also very handy - she re-roofs her own home without assistance, and is able to nimbly move large appliances from one area of a home to another. In season two, Bill gives Nicki a power tool as an anniversary gift.

In the first season of the show Nicki is shown to be a favorite of her father's. So much so that it upsets her husband Bill. At one point during a birthday party that Nicki throws for her eldest son, Wayne, Bill is disturbed by Nicki's relationship with her father when he walks in on her and Roman on her bed together close, laughing, and holding hands.

Nicki has a tense relationship with her mother Adaleen. Adaleen, for her part, seems to both love and resent Nicki.

In season one, unbeknownst to the family, it was revealed to the viewers that she is taking birth control, and this is also shown in season 3. Bill, Barb and Margie become concerned about the fact that Nicki has not conceived and question her. Barb and Margie go along with her to the fertility clinic because they think it is a medical issue, it has been 4 years since the birth of her last son and it's technically her turn to have another baby for the family. At the doctor, she then gets a new prescription for more birth control pills.

During season three Barb finds Nicki's birth control pills on a family vacation and assumes they are her daughter Sarah's. Nicki decides to tell Barb that they are hers. Bill, Barb and Margene are very upset by this. Nicki tells them she has been on the pills for four years. Bill tells her this is the worst thing she could have ever done to him. Nicki refuses to stop taking the birth control pills.

Also during season three with Nicki's father Roman in jail and awaiting his trial she is working as a temp at the District Attorney's office. She is using the alias "Margene Heffmen." The family believes she is working there part-time to help pay off all of her debts. She is really working there to gain inside information on her father's trial to help her family on the compound. During this time she has caught the eye of her boss and the Assistant District Attorney that is set to go up against her father. Nicki grows very conflicted on the inside while working there. She learns things about herself when she sees in evidence that she was in the "Joy Book." Having always assumed that being the Prophet's daughter made her above most of the women on the compound, she is crushed to find out that her beloved father willingly put her in a book that essentially auctioned off her virginity. As she's looking at the "Joy Book" at the DA's office she rips out the pictures of herself so that the attorneys do not realize who she is. She later quits the job and upon leaving the office is kissed by her former boss the DA.

Nicki goes on a date with the DA but fails to tell him her real identity. It remains to be seen whether or not Ray Henry will press charges against Nicki for tampering, since he discovered her deception after tracking her down at the Henrickson homes in an effort to declare his romantic feelings for her.

It is also revealed during season three that Nicki had been previously married off to an older man named J.J. (Wanda's brother) when she was fifteen and living on the compound. Wanda reminds Nicki of this and how when they were girls Nicki would tell Wanda how she "hated" J.J. and that the thought of him "made her skin crawl." Nicki and J.J. had a daughter named Cara Lynn but eventually chooses to leave her behind with J.J. after Roman finally allows her to become "unsealed". Although she initially doesn't want to see Cara Lynn, in the season 3 finale, Nicki, with the encouragment of Barb, brings Cara Lynn back with her to the Henrickson's to live.

In the Season 3 finale, Bill was helping Nicki pack her belongings in the car as she prepares to move her and the kids to an apartment owned by Bill's business associate and friend, Don. She pleads to Barb and Margene to save her from the unsealing ceremony which Bill has announced he wants to be divorced from her due to the danger she inflicts on their marriage but finds both Barb and Margene unwilling to help her and agree with Bill's decision. The finale also shows Alby and Nicki plotting jokingly to kill Roman.