Season 2 picks up two weeks after the end of season one, as Barb temporarily leaves home and then returns. Though the outing does not damage the family’s reputation or the Henrickson business, it causes Bill to decide to take steps to ensure his family’s financial security by trying to buy an electronic gambling company called Weber Gaming.

The second season also expands upon the political battles at Juniper Creek. When Roman and his wife inform Alby that they are willing to allow Wanda and Joey to get away with their attempt on his life in exchange for using them as leverage against Bill, Alby alerts outside authorities, who arrest Joey (who claims credit for poisoning Alby in order to protect Wanda), which ultimately leads to a raid of the compound.

Meanwhile, Roman’s newest intended bride, 15-year-old Rhonda Volmer, secretly leaves the compound to live with the Henricksons. The family is quick to take Rhonda in, thinking that she is an innocent trying to escape being forced to marry the elderly Roman. However, it is quickly revealed that Rhonda is a pathological liar and sociopath who left the compound only to exploit Roman’s legal troubles in order to get media coverage for her story in the newspaper and on TV.

Rhonda’s departure and Alby’s actions lead to Bill’s manipulating Roman and the Greenes (a renegade polygamist sect that operates on the fringes of society) against each other in order to claim Weber Gaming. Roman is shot by the Greenes when the police finally try to arrest the Greenes, forcing them to flee. With Roman hospitalized, Alby quickly seizes power, and—-thanks to Rhonda’s statements to the police—-Roman is arrested by the police for violating the Mann Act. Alby’s power is ultimately secured when he forces his mother to flee Juniper Creek (after realizing that she planned to use him as a puppet to secure her own power base at Juniper Creek) and by Bill’s refusal to challenge Alby’s claim of prophethood in order to claim the position for himself.

On the home front, Nicki struggles with Bill’s decision to send their son to a Catholic school (which is far enough out of the way for Bill to claim Nicki as his sole wife) while Margene and Barb wage war against each other for the “head wife” position. This is complicated when Margene befriends Ana, a Serbian waitress and dental hygienist, after witnessing Bill flirting with her at a diner. Margene encourages Bill to bring Ana into the family as a fourth wife in order to gain an ally against Barb and Nicki.

Barb, after a tearful reunion with her estranged mother and a pep talk with Roman’s wife, reasserts herself as first wife by outing the family as polygamist to her nosy neighbors and informing Bill that she will finally leave him once and for all if he tries to bring a fourth wife into the family.

Meanwhile, Sarah is seeking help in dealing with her family’s lifestyle through a support group for ex- Fundamentalist Mormons, leading to her falling for a man ten years her senior. While Sarah ultimately gives up her virginity to her new boyfriend (mainly to spite her father, who is indifferent towards Sarah’s growing disdain for him and polygamy), Ben gives himself over to his father’s views on polygamy. At the close of the season, Ben is dating twin girls from Juniper Creek whose goal is to marry one man between them, causing Barb to consider sending him away to live with her nonpolygamist mother.

All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License