Spoiler alert: This piece contains spoilers for the ending Bad sisters Season 2.
Despite the beginning of the second season of Bad sisters Viewers may have been convinced that another body would be disposed of by the final episode, but that wasn't the case this time.
The second season of the Apple TV+ series, co-created by Sharon Horgan and based on the Belgian series clanfollows the five Garvey sisters as they deal with the aftermath of the life choices of Grace's (Anne-Marie Duff) deceased husband John Paul Williams (Claes Bang). As the body of John Paul's father turns up in a suitcase from the pond of the family home, the secrets that Grace and her sisters worked so hard to bury with John Paul begin to emerge once again. The peace Grace finds when she marries Ian Reilly (Owen McDonnell) is short-lived as she dies a tragic death in episode two, adding more layers and questions to the mystery of the next installment for Eva (Horgan) and Ursula (Eva Birthistle). Baby (Sarah Greene) and Becca (Eve Hewson) Garvey to move in. This brings Fergal Loftus (Barry Ward) back onto the scene with his new assignment, Detective Oona Houlihan (Thaddea Graham).
As teased in the trailer and in the first episode, the four remaining Garvey sisters can be seen planning to throw someone's body into the sea off the cliffs. Horgan knew who his body was from the beginning.
“I liked the idea of having it stick in people's minds a little bit, like they were wondering, because it could have been a lot of people. It could have been Angelica, but it could have been Roger,” Horgan told Deadline. It could have been Loftus, it could have been Houlihan, it could have been Ian in the end.” “I just love the idea of it being there and the nod to the two timelines of the first season. He gave her a different intention. “It was fun to start with something so silly.”
At first, Grace's new husband, Ian, appears to be on the sisters' side against Angelica Collins (Fiona Shaw), Roger's (Michael Smiley) cart for the sister who they suspect of blackmailing Grace. The end of Episode 5 suggests that the body may be Angelica's, as does the title of Episode 6 – “Who By Water”, but in a crazy turn of events, the old woman, who had formed a suffocating attachment to Grace, turns up alive.
Fiona Shaw as Angelica Collins in the second season of Bad Sisters
“All the decisions those characters had to make would have seemed a lot harder and a lot less satisfying if there was another body, and Angelica couldn't die,” Horgan said. “I really wanted her to be the heroine. I wasn't the only heroine, but I wanted to show her strength and power, but I needed the sisters to think they were in a lot of trouble, and it would build and build and build.”
Unfortunately for Grace and her sisters, as Becca's lover Joe (Peter Claffey) notes, they really know “how to pick a prick.” It turns out that Ian was not who he said he was, but Cormac, a former police officer who has several allegations of abuse against him. The relentless Houlihan (Thadea Graham) connected those dots before the sisters did. What started out as helpful advice about avoiding guards turned into his own game for the system to catch the Garvey sisters, but fortunately, Houlihan – with the help of the retired Loftus – changed course and assured justice for him.
“With Ian, I wanted that final moment, that fuck-you moment. I love the dark comedy of it, and I love having Eva look him in the eye. I would love for Houlihan to get one of his own,” Horgan said. “I didn’t see what was to be gained from The determination couldn't have been more satisfying to see him take a punch from Loftus on his broken leg. It felt more fun. As I said, “options”. Houlihan, what she did to them at the end, I think I would have found it really hard to believe that choice if there had been a body.
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“It's very practical when you break it down that way, when you start talking about the story and how you kind of got there, and the paths you take,” she added. “I want it to be magical, and a lot of times there are practical reasons, which is not always a bad thing. Necessity is the mother of invention and all that, you always get to unexpected places in the end.”
Horgan sees season two as the end of the Garvey sisters' story. The similarity between the final scene of Season 2 and the first scene, with water involved in both, was intentional.
“There's a connection for sure, and it's a very sad connection, but I think what I wanted to show in the end is that they're all together, and they're still a family and life is going on. We hope that Becca and her baby know that Blonde is going to be okay because she's got that wonderful mother that she's thinking about,” she said. And she knows so much, as it were, but she has such a head on her shoulders. “She's so smart and so strong, and I wanted people to feel like she's going to be OK,” Horgan said. “She has these amazing women around her, and they're saying goodbye, but when… She kind of drifts out to sea, she has this feeling of life going on. There's something beautifully poetic about that, and there's no escaping it. The happy ending at the end of the part was that I loved it in many ways. I loved it, but I've said this before, but it was kind of a fairy tale. Life isn't usually tied up in a bow like this.
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