SPOILERS for last night’s finale of Big Little Lies.
Well, the finale for the second season of BLL2 was basically what I thought it was going to be, but once again… we’re not actually getting a full, hour-long episode and I really feel like they could afford to tell us what f–king happened after the five women went to the police station. But the rest of it was what I expected! We finally got to see Nicole Kidman’s Celeste cross-examine Meryl Streep’s Mary Louise, and we got a better idea of what happened to Perry Wright’s brother, the one who died when Perry was just five years old. Yeah, trauma begets trauma, and Mary Louise judges those mothers who send their kids into therapy after trauma. It seems that Mary Louise blamed Perry for “distracting” her while driving and Perry, like, carried that around all of his life. Emotional abuse begets physical abuse, and Mary Louise was all “HOW DARE YOU!” like she didn’t full-on hire a private investigator to trail Celeste and document Celeste’s habit of banging complete strangers.
A few shocking moments… Celeste finding the video of Perry beating her – which was recorded by one of her sons – and using that video as evidence to discredit Mary Louise, who absolutely lived in her own little bubble of denial about Perry. The moment that made me gasp was when Mary Louise turned up at Celeste’s house and proceeded to UNLOCK THE DOOR and try to enter without knocking. RUDE. Mary Louise needs her head examined.
As for the rest of it… Bonnie didn’t kill her mom, which I thought she would, but her mom did die of natural causes (or did she??). Bonnie also tells her husband that she doesn’t love him, which was a very well-acted scene from both (and I also agree with Bonnie that he is a good father). Renata went apesh-t on her loser husband and used a baseball bat to destroy his train set and then she hit him in the chest with the bat, because she’s a character out of a Spanish-language soap opera. Madeline and Ed renewed their vows. And Jane decides to go all-in with her weird little boyfriend. And then at the end, all women join up at the police station to presumably come clean about everything and that’s it.
It’s just the kind of dumb cliffhanger which would beget a third season, right? Last week, HBO president Casey Bloys said that he didn’t think there would be a third season, mainly because it would be too difficult to get all of the ladies to clear up their schedules for the amount of time it would take to film another season. Well, someone should have told the BLL cast and writers, because they totally set it up for a third season, and even Nicole Kidman said she wants another season:
Speaking to News Corp Australia in a recent interview, Nicole Kidman said that she would “love” to continue working on the hit HBO show. “I think we would love to do a season three because there is certainly ideas,” Kidman said, adding, “But we would not do it without all of the same people involved … even the kids.”
Kidman also talked about working with Meryl Streep, who joined the second season as the mother-in-law of Kidman’s character.
“[Filming with her] was intimidating, which is good, it should be,” the actress revealed. “I mean, Meryl is the Great One and she’s just so professional.”
“I’m so glad the show has found its way because there really is nothing on TV with six female leads,” she said. “I don’t know where that show is, so to have the support now has been incredible. It’s never going to be perfect, but by gosh, it’s so great there’s six lead roles for women in one show.”
I mean… they had enough space and time to finish the f–king story properly in this season, they just not to because I guess the writers wanted to leave it open for a potential third season. Which sucks for viewers. I mean, I’d like to know what those women said in the police station too, but I’m not sure I’ll invest another eight hours of my life just to see it. This show is so heavy, y’all.
Name a more iconic duo, I'll wait #BigLittleLies pic.twitter.com/znAzaFn58N
— khoi cries during The Farewell | A24 fan boy (@MlDSOMM4R) July 22, 2019
Serving pink lawyer realness while absolutely OBLITERATING the prosecution we stan #BigLittleLies pic.twitter.com/yTWQJyURsW
— Cameron Klein (@camruhn) July 22, 2019
Rule: every season of #biglittlelies should end in the murder of a husband pic.twitter.com/j45l9e2SGs
— Elena Nicolaou (@elenawonders) July 22, 2019
Photos courtesy of HBO.
I wasn’t a fan of the show but I loved the ending of this season. At custody trial they already painted Perry as an abuser that he was, and Celeste getting her kids back was a confirmation of that, so when they walk in I’m pretty sure that it would result in what we expected it to be at the end of the last season. So I’m fine with it staying there. And looooved Kidman in this episode so much. She even looked natural 🙂 Anyway, it was fine.
Nicole Kidman was great yet again. she’s the only one that I actually thought did an absolutely amazing job this season. Laura Dern came close though. The other three women didn’t really get much of an opportunity to do anything for most of the season. Meryl Streep was terrible in my opinion last night. She was over acting and it was way too much.
Bonnie’s entire storyline was terrible the whole time, and the multiple fake outs about her smothering her mom were way too much. plus they hinted at all that magic crap and then it went absolutely nowhere. same as Ed potentially cheating on Madeline. they included that shot of the theater director guy while his wife hitting on him, but it never went anywhere did anything. I can’t help but think that there’s an entirely different show that was originally created and then was edited to pieces. it came across while watching.
I think you’re right–I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that there were creative differences and the show was changed up a bit. Like, was there a scene in the commercials of madeline throwing an ice cream cone? That apparently wasn’t in the show (although that happens with movies all the time. ) I’ll see if I can find the link
ETA: I can’t find the exact article I read, but if you google “Big little lies creative control” or “big little lies ice cream throw” (w/o the quotes) there has been a lot written. Apparently there was some editing after wrap up to take the director’s “style” out of the production
The scene with Reese and the ice cream cone generated a lot of immediate buzz on social media of how she should have thrown the ice cream cone at Meryl. Reese saw it and responded that they had shot it that way but decided not to include the actual throwing of the ice cream but she thought people should see it so she released the ice cream throwing clip on Twitter.
Yeah, basically they hired a different director from season one and then hired the direction from season one to edit and reshoot a bunch so that it would be closer to how he directed and edited the first season. There are a lot of rumors that a bunch was left out. That seemed to come out loud and clear in the show, which was disjointed and had a lot of things come up that went absolutely nowhere and were never mentioned again.
@Lightpurple she talked about it on Twitter and it’s supposedly going to be a DVD extra. the clip hasn’t been released yet.
Yeah, the female director was pushed out and the whole thing edited to pieces.
I enjoy the show in very small doses, I’ll probably watch season 3 just to see more of Zoe Kravitz.
There were a bunch of articles about this a week or two ago, they hired the director, and then the writer and previous director basically edited all of her stuff out to make it look like season 1.
I disagree, I think it wrapped up pretty well. All of them got some sort of resolution, and then joined forces to go in and end the lie that was destroying all of them. If they were to try to continue, they would need a whole new storyline.
I agree with you. If anything, I thought they tied it up too neatly in a nice little bow for all the characters. I wouldn’t have minded it being a little more open-ended and a little less “oh, we’re all fixed now; let’s go unburden ourselves to the police.”
It was a good ending in itself, especially given that Perry was killed in self-defense to begin with: there was no reason to lie to the cops anyway. Of course had they done that, there wouldn’t have been any story but I fail to see why we’d need a season 3 since they all stopped with the lies
It wasn’t really self-defense since Bonnie came running in out of nowhere and pushed him, more like she was protecting Celeste and the others. Would a person be charged for defending another person being attacked? Unlikely, I’m guessing. But it’s not exactly self-defense, as it would have been if Celeste had pushed him.
The courtroom scene was way too over dramatic for me. Although, Kidman and Streep were both fantastic.
I didn’t hate this season, but it felt so disjointed. I just wish they let Andrea Arnold have full control. I would’ve liked to have watched her version.
At least I can cancel HBO now.
I loved Celeste’s cross examination of Mary Luise. Though it must have been difficult, she remained poised and in control. Totally in her element and something tells me she will go back to practicing law. I was happy for Jane and I saw Renata’s outburst coming because I too was like what, mf? You made me sell my ish and you get to keep your toys? And you slept with the nanny? I knew she was about to Jazmín Sullivan his train set lol. I’m glad Bonnie got to unburden herself and try to heal.
I think practicing law would be a great, healthy way to use her energy and maybe dull that desire for self-destructive stuff.
I was so happy that Celeste finally got Mary Louise stammering and looking for help. OMG that scene was so satisfying. Did Meryl Streep wear fake teeth or something, she looked kind of different, and her smile was just sooo creepy this season. I also think she looked like she could have been Alexander Skarsgard’s mom, it works, IMO.
Renata had better leave her husband! I’m assuming that is happening. What a POS! Smashing that stuff must have been so satisfying.
I feel bad for Bonnie’s husband, I’ve already forgotten his name. Hopefully he finds happiness.
Meryl wore a set of false teeth.
ok, thank you! Amazing how much of a difference that can make
And the model of the fake teeth was made off of Alexander skarsgaard so that way she would look like his mom
omg, @ Steph, is that true? Because that is where I saw the resemblance. So funny!
Renata should have dumped him ages ago! I think she really was done now. I loved her smashing his toys (though I hope they weren’t real collector pieces because those are expensive!).
Bonnie’s husband Nathan was the one character I really despised through the whole 2 seasons, him and his stupidity and temper. I’m glad he didn’t blow up at Bonnie when she finally admitted she didn’t love him.
I didn’t think Nathan was actually that bad! He was dumb and definitely had a short temper, but I don’t think he was a bad guy or husband to Bonnie. I think they just weren’t a match, and I think she’s pretty awful for marrying and having a child with someone she never loved.
He wasn’t Perry levels of awful, but he was just such an ass all the time. Definitely a mismatch.
I don’t think Bonnie set out to deceive him, she had a lot of trauma she stuffed down, and probably tried to convince herself she did love him, but after all the other lies couldn’t keep telling herself that one.
I loooove this show and really thought they set up a way to expand the series into a 3rd and even 4th season!
There WAS a husband killed by one of the “Monterey Five” this season…
It was Nathan…Bonnie MORTALLY WOUNDED Nathan…
I enjoyed this season as MUCH as I enjoyed last season…perhaps even more…
Each show presented you with some of the finest actors of all ages….wading through this messiness that is life….
I STAN!!!!!!!
Yes! Bonnie annihilated Nathan. I think the performances by Zoe and James Tupper were incredible in that scene. In fact, if Zoe isn’t nominated for an Emmy this season, no one should be.
I stan Laura Dern too. I only hoped she would’ve taken the bat to her husband’s head too!
I agree with everything you said Lala! I felt SO BAD for Nathan and Bonnie too actually. I have been on both sides of that conversation, let me tell you. No one feels good in that situation.
It reminded me of that first season conversation between Ed and Madeleine when she’s talking about how Nathan won and was never punished for what he did to her.
@ Kebbie, Oh yes! I had forgotten that….
Bonnie’s character is a perfect illustration of why you need diversity in the writer’s room, her character was grossly underdeveloped. They really could’ve delved deeper into the last effects of physical abuse and why it’s so previlant in the black community while being treated as a normal way to punish your child.
I’m sure there was an inclination to give the bigger stars more to do, but a lot of times it felt like Bonnie had nothing to bring to the show.
Honestly, they didn’t know what to do with the majority of the characters.. The screen time went to Streep.
I adored the book, but had absolutely no interest in watching the show. Not sorry.
https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/just-because-you-can-doesn-t-mean-you-should-big-little-lies-whimpers-out-20190722-p529nj.html
You didn’t miss much. The first season was interesting and ok, although at times annoying. But the second season was awful. Just dreadful. After the third or fourth episode, I couldn’t it watch anymore. None of what the characters did or said made sense, and Meryl Streep, whom I normally adore, was out of place. I felt I could see her acting. I hope they decide to end it and forgo a Season 3.
I loved the ending. Thought it was perfect. No need for another season.
Weird little boyfriend. Snort! 🤣
I think that character had Aspergers actuallly.
It would be more believable if Madeline and Ed broke up. They repeatedly showed her flashing back to hot sex with the theater director, to me implying that she wasn’t fufilled by Ed. She should have taken time alone to find out what she wanted and needed – Ed wasn’t it.
Agreed! Ed deserves better than madeleines bs and her not understanding why she was sleeping with that douchey Director.
He knows this, he said something along the likes that she wanted stability and he checked all the boxes.. I believe that they both are too connected, too old and share kids..
If Ed’s looking for a new start, I don’t live too far from Monterey. (I’m very happily partnered IRL, but he’s a fictional character.)
Renata did not hit him in the chest on purpose he threw himself in front of the back to try and protect his toys.
Mary Louise is the most despicable character I’ve ever seen Meryl Streep play. But of course I’m also tainted by her real life not all men’s stance. I feel like she is more like ML than one would originally believe. .
I didn’t love Streep in this, but her character reminds me of the one she played in Doubt, a similar sense of a woman being rocked to her core by the reality of abuse around her, and of her own role in it…
Loved the use of the song “have you ever seen the rain” too…
I don’t think they set it up for another season, I would love another season. Just give Nicole all the Emmys and Globes, please!
Completely agree, Nicole was fantastic
Can someone explain what exactly happened to Perry’s brother? I watched it at work on my phone and I think I missed it!
Perry and his brother were riding in the back seat when Mary Louise had a car accident which killed Perry’s brother. They showed a scene of her shaking Perry at the scene of the accident and saying “look what you made me do”.
I did see that but I must have missed that the accident killed the kid. Wow.
Thanks!
I really hated that Willie Nelson cover of John Fogerty. I love Willie, but Fogerty’s version is one of my all time favorite songs, and I play it *loud*.
Whether or not it comes back for season 3, just one shout out to my favorite line of all time:
Meryl to Reese (who I have more or less the same build as): “You’re very short . . . I find little people to be untrustworthy.”
Me: Dead.
Lol I’m 5’1 but the way she referred to “little people” just killed me. Maybe I’m in the minority, but I LOVED Meryl as Mary Louise. What a lunatic she was!
IKR? If anything, I find being short people underestimate us, think we’re naive as children. I’ve never experienced “distrust” on the basis of being short, but I laughed so hard at that.
I don’t see how the finale sets up another season. It was perfectly wrapped up, bow on top, IMO. They were coming clean about the lie, end of show. Though I’d be totally game for another season. Just watching a show with so many powerhouse actresses is fun for me.
I didn’t realize it was the finale till I read that here, but if it is, I think they’ve set up a really good courtroom drama for next season. Nicole Kidman rocked it as an attorney this season, and now is the time to take rape and domestic abuse to trial
The second season was unwatchably bad, I only did it because my mother loves it. I found Mary Louise’ character so odd, evil for no reason with barely any character development other than the death of her younger son. Not a well written role for her. If there’s a third season I’m not watching, I don’t care about any of the characters anymore.
It was really good but disjointed. Very engaging throughout. I think the disjointed and dreamlike nature of timelines and events jumping from past, present and future highlighted how trauma affects people and how they process information.
Nicole Kidman was excellent and Renata needs a spin off!
Release the ARNOLD CUT plzzzzz!
Once I learnt how the men making this show erased the work of director Andrea Arnold I couldn’t stop watching with a huge phantom sense of *what was missing*.
In between the gif-able moments of Laura Dern and Meryl Streep, I found the narratives of S2 quite underwhelming, and the editing didn’t serve me the story I was expecting -the shrink, the detective, the kids’ teacher…all fizzled out and amounted to nothing. I’m surprised I missed the talking heads of S1 too.
I liked S2 but it wasn’t very satisfying and I absolutely will watch an S3 even though we shouldn’t get one.