As I was relaxing from a long night's aggravating work, I flipped on the idiot box (appropriately) and began watching the program which was already on, called "Bones".

It's another one of those forensic cop dramas. It stars Emily Deschanel, which is why I kept watching (she's almost as cute as her sister Zooey) and has Tamara Taylor, who's also cute and further incentive to watch (plus she was the evil teacher in "Serenity":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-alzyvT...).

Enough about my love life (or lack thereof)...

So, anyway, they've discovered a rotted corpse in a corn field with a bullet hole in it. They go to interview the farmer's wife, and her two sisters are hanging out.
During the interview, it's revealed that she has 11 children. Long before this point I guess "Mormons"... meaning polygamists. (Who here predicted that the 'gay marriage' issue would lead to the promotion of other "alternative" forms of "marriage"? Give yourself a cookie...). As I repeat, "mormons... MORMONS", the oblivious main characters continue questioning her, and the titular "Bones" eventually notices a picture with 3 kids about the same age, and predicts birth defects because the gestation period between wasn't long enough... for one woman.
Eventually they find wedding photos and are all shocked to discover that these are indeed polygamists.

Now, my question... Was this a case of bad writing, as was my original conclusion, or was it a case of 'writing down' to the audience, to give them a chance to feel smarter than the protagonists? The clues to polygamy were so many and so obvious, that it had to be one of the two. I mean one, obvious question would have made the reveal. In fact, the way I would have written it, and kept expecting them to do, would be to have one of the other wives make a reference to being his wife, or, preferably, I'd have asked the other two women to leave so they can interview his wife, and having the reveal come about as a result of their objection.

Do any of you consciously "write-down" to your audience in this way, on purpose, to either misdirect them or get them to feeling smarter than you and/or the protagonists so you can set the reader up for a plot twist later?

I have to add... later there's a scene where Dr Saroyan (the aforementioned Tamara Taylor) sets up a bullet-capture device in the offices so she can test guns because the FBI lab is backed up...

As the other characters, while wearing earplugs, try to discuss evidence in the case, they can periodically hear gunshots.

On character asks, "Who let Dr. Saroyan shoot a gun?"
To which another quickly replies, "The second amendment."