Bad Sisters S2E8: Cliffhanger
The first season of Bad Sisters laid its cards on the table almost immediately: John Paul Williams was dead, all of the Garvey sisters had reason to want him dead. One of them probably made him dead. All that remained was to see who, how, and why.
Season two has kept its cards quite a bit closer to the vest. It’s not clear what the season is even about until Grace’s death at the end of episode 2. It’s not clear who she was fleeing from or why, which is to say, who the villain of this season is, until the penultimate episode. Wry, easygoing, supportive Ian is only revealed at this late stage to be a monster.
This is the episode where Sharon Horgan (who, besides playing Eva, created the series and wrote this episode) lays her cards on the table. Ian was already married when he married Grace. He’s a con artist named Cormac, who joined Angelica’s grief counseling group under false pretenses to target a wealthy widow he could scam, and Grace fit the bill. She pieced this together, he threatened to blackmail her over John Paul’s death, she fled, and crashed the car.
He seduced Eva, stole Blanaid’s inheritance, and openly dares the Garveys to do anything about it. They were all involved in covering up a murder, and he can hold that over them. Besides which, the manipulative abuser is an ex-cop (it’s always the first person you expect), so he’s confident his word will win out against theirs no matter what.
And there’s no reason to think he’s wrong. The show expertly puts together a “how are the sisters going to get out of this one,” before throwing in one more surprising act of violence that both gets them out of trouble, and into more trouble. Which leads us back to the cold open that started the season — the four surviving sisters, in a strange car, with something or someone in the trunk that they’re prepared to throw over a cliff. We won’t spoil any of the denouncement, other than to say that the climax of the episode comes fairly early, as there’s a lot to untangle.
But amidst that untangling, we get some great moments. Angelica returns, and is once again not quite what she seems. Loftus and Houlihan get a nice moment of reconciliation. And in the end, the Garveys scatter Grace’s real ashes in moving fashion, with the extended family all together. It’s a warm note to end a dark comedy on, enough to make us want a third season, but not if it means another of these selfish, impulsive, dishonest, and utterly relatable characters has to die to make it happen.
Stray thoughts:
• One quibble with the murder investigation: surely as observant as Houlihan is, she would have noticed Grace was driving home, not fleeing. We even see her looking at the tire tracks.
• There’s been no mention of a third season or what’s next for Horgan, but at this point we’ll follow her wherever her muse takes her.
• Between Sisters, Severance, Silo, Slow Horses, and Shrinking, Apple TV has more good shows that start with S than most streamers have good shows. In keeping with that, we’re looking forward to The Studio, the Seth Rogan-starring Hollywood satire that debuts in March. (We also quite enjoyed one season under-the-radar sci-fi show Sunny, and are hoping Apple steps up to save Sesame Street.)
