Bad Sisters S2E5: Boom

Angelica Muldoon is a piece of work. That much is clear. But it’s also clear that while she’s a needy, manipulative busybody, she isn’t the monster John Paul was, and she’s not someone we want to see the sisters murder, necessarily. Getting her out of their lives would suffice.

That’s easier said than done. Just as the first season showed JP wronging each of the sisters in turn, Angelica has managed to piss each of them off individually (although on a much milder scale thus far). We’ve seen her blackmail Ursula for a few hundred quid, sow marital tension between Bibi and Nora, and passive-aggressively provoke Ian into losing his temper with her at the end of last week.

Last week, she also got Becka arrested for breaking into her house (and given that Becka did, in fact, break into her house, that’s not unreasonable), and only agreed to drop the charges if the sisters let her scatter Grace’s ashes. Feeling they don’t have much of a choice, Eva and Ursula agree (but not before swapping out Grace’s actual earthly remains for fireplace ashes).

She’s also uncomfortably close with Blánaid, and while at least one sister accuses her of “grooming,” it’s never clear what her interest in Bla is, or how close they actually are. She has a bedroom in her house made up for the girl, but has Blánaid ever stayed there? She gives Bla spending money when she plays hooky from both home and school (and Angelica sends social services to Eva’s house, knowing Eva doesn’t know where Bla is). But is the relationship inappropriate? Or is she just showing kindness to an orphaned girl who isn’t entirely happy being raised by the awkward team of her aunt and her stepfather-of-two-weeks.

Things aren’t helped (for the viewer, at least), by the fact that Blánaid’s largely a blank slate. She’s believably teenage in that she rarely speaks to the adults and what she usually says is mean, but the effect of that is that we have no idea how she actually feels about any of this. In fairness, that’s also believably teenage. But given we get glimpses of the inner lives of virtually everyone else on the show, including Angelica, it feels like Sisters is deliberately keeping the viewer in the dark when it comes to Bla.

Is that because she’s central to the mystery? Or because she only exists as another way for Angelica to get under the family’s skin? Part of the mystery of season 2 has been what the mystery actually is, which works as well as it does because the Garveys are in the same position as the viewer. They also have no idea what Angelica’s after, they just don’t like it.

Dealing with Angelica, puzzling over Blánaid, and mourning Grace all have one thing in common — life relentlessly goes on no matter how badly you might want to press pause on everything else. So Eva grudgingly accepts a surprise 50th birthday costume party from the sisters, which does lead to a nice bonding moment with the surviving four and the karaoke machine Grace gifted “from beyond the grave.” Which in turn is interrupted by Becka announcing her pregnancy to the sisters (she still hasn’t told her boyfriend).

Unfortunately for the Garveys, the police investigation also goes on. Detective Houlihan now knows about money Grace took out, although the sisters aren’t lying when they say they don’t know what happened to it. It finally turns up in an unlikely place, which doesn’t resolve whether Grace was being blackmailed, or running away from something — in fact, it only raises more questions. Three episodes left, and we suspect the questions are going to keep piling up before we get any answers.

Stray thoughts:
• Angelica also accuses Eva of trying to seduce Ian in his hour of grief. She chafes at the idea, but then we get a full hour of Ian being charming and comforting and the two can’t help but grow closer (especially with a surly teenager as their common enemy)

• Eva complains that she’s gone, in Blánaid’s estimation, from “favorite aunt” to “basic bitch.”

• And now Roger’s hitting on Eva. He really never quits. Which is another way of saying, the character is a lot less nuanced than he was in season one. That being said, he does pretty well with karaoke.

• Bibi and Nora worked things out offscreen and are trying for a baby again. It’s a small thing, but last season it felt like the mystery was a pretext to explore the sister’s lives, whereas now it feels like their lives are being lived off-camera and we’re only seeing glimpses. Becka got a lot of the focus last week, but we still barely know the man who’s baby she’s carrying. 

• Loftus’ daughter doesn’t want to go to Australia when the divorce is settled; he resolves to fight for custody to keep her in Ireland. Thus far the storyline only seems to exist so he can be checked out on the job and Houlihan can take the lead, but that’s fine as Thaddea Graham’s a great addition to the cast.