"We all do bad things sometimes."
You Get What You Need
First, we hear the violence and then we see Celeste on the floor, squirming, pulling away from Perry's touch. After that she goes straight to the therapist's office, Amanda seems distraught seeing Celeste so broken for once. Celeste says she'll leave him after the school gala. Amanda says she should consider there are children involved but Celeste gets defensive again, saying he'd never hurt the boys, and leaves.
Madeline seems on edge about the whole thing with Tori and her suspicions, when she confronts Joseph he calls her on her act of not wanting him at all. Madeline also talks to Nathan who tells her he and Bonnie went to see a counselor about Abigail and he said the whole project is probably a scream for attention because of the divorce.
Madeline: Oh so splitting up can negatively affect the kids? I wish I'd known that before I walked out. Wait, did I?
Ouch. This dialogue can be so sharp. Later, Madeline confides in Abigail about her conversation with Joseph, which is nice, though it's a bit weird that that's what they bond over. Abigail asks why she wanted to blow up her life but Madeline doesn't know, she says maybe it has to do with this perfection mask she tries to hold up and just can't. Abigail admits she decided not to go through with her project, that she just wanted it to be a publicity stunt to raise awareness for the cause and that she'll find a different way to do it without burying it in controversy.
Ziggy's playing sick and doesn't want to go to school, Jane knows there's something else going on and she asks him about Amabella, she realizes he knows who's hurting her but he's been told she'll die if someone tells. Creepy ass kids. So, it looks like Ziggy had been protecting her this whole time and taking the blame, thinking he was doing the right thing, how sweet is this kid? It looks like that's what the psychologist sensed he was hiding. He still refuses to tell who it was so Jane finds a loophole and says he just has to pint and that won't count as saying anything. This seems to work and Ziggy points to Max and only Max, not Josh.
Jane tells Madeline the new development and she urges her to tell Celeste the truth. While they're talking at Tom's cafe, Gordon Kline, Renata's husband, comes in to threaten Jane for hurting his wife, which seems like a bit too late since both women seem to be okay by now. Luckily Tom stands up for her and kicks him out, though Gordon threatens to boycott him. I like Tom, he's always on the background but always so sweet, he tells Jane he's been looking for a chance to impress her for a while, but her gut reaction is asking if he's straight. Ouch. Still, he ends up being her date to the party.
As Celeste arranges the new house she see has flashbacks to what Perry did to her that morning, choking her, throwing her across the room and finally gut-punching her which was what took all the fight (and air) out of her. In that moment, Jane calls to tell her about Max, she says she believes Ziggy but recognizes she doesn't know what's true and that violence might be in his DNA, and I'm sure that resonates with Celeste deeper than Jane realized. Finally Celeste seems to recognize the possibility that somehow Perry's violence affected Max, even if he didn't see the violence full on. Jane says kids bully sometimes and eventually they grow out of it, but Celeste says sometimes they don't, thinking of course of Perry. She goes straight home and hugs Max and asks him to tell her the truth, she says it will all be fine, that everyone does bad things sometimes but that he has to tell the truth.
Getting ready for the part we see Renata way too concerned with what everybody else thinks, but she tells Gordon he shouldn't have confronted Jane like that and she even says Jane is probably the only mom she likes, which is interesting and clearly points to Renata being redeemed soon. As Celeste and Perry are getting ready for the party as well, he tells her she got a message from a property manager. Celeste freaks out realizing what he knows, you can see the horror in her face, and he's so calm playing with the kids, pretending there's not a sea of rage right underneath that moderate tone. It's creepy and impressive how good at acting he is, this can only be attributed to Alexander Skarsgard, the fact that he can show this calm exterior and still let us see such rage through his eyes, he's so damn creepy. Celeste is also pretending everything's fine but she looks terrified of having to leave anywhere with him.
In the car he seems calmer than I though he would be, he says he'll get help, but she says it's too late. When they're about to park and he decides to accelerate and take her farther away, he stops the car and locks the car doors so she can't leave. She tells him about Max, he doesn't want to believe her but she says he confessed to her, he argues he's his father and he should talk to Max, but she asks him if he'll tell Max men should never hit women, she says even if they don't see the violence, they hear it.
Perry admits he knows he has demons but he's fighting them. He tries to sell her on the commitment of marriage but she tells him their vows were about something else altogether, he says she's been violent too, but she argues it was only in reaction to him, which shows great improvement from her frame of mind, giver her conversations with the therapist. She tells him she always told herself she was staying for the kids but now she realizes it's for them she has to leave. In that moment, Renata and Gordon Kline interrupt, it seems like the worst timing ever, but Celeste takes advantage of the distraction and leaves the car, though I don't know how she could if the doors were locked.
At the party things seem tense and everyone is getting drunk, Ed seems suspicious of Joseph but then he gets on stage and sings a very romantic song, Madeline's proud but she flips out and runs away, Jane follows her and tries to calm her down until Madeline confesses the affair to her and how guilty she's been feeling.
Jane: You're an amazing person, and you're not perfect, welcome to the club. We're all f*cked up.
Celeste hides in the party's crowd and tells Renata Max was the aggressor before Perry catches up to her and almost gets violent in public, Bonnie catches this and when Perry follows Celeste, she follows them. Renata also takes the same direction and looks for Jane to apologize for her past behavior, and for a moment everything looks fine. Then Celeste comes along followed by Perry who asks to talk to her in private but the women see the look on fear on her face and they stand in his way, that's the moment when Jane realizes Perry's the guy, and the other two piece that together from the sheer horror in her face. I know we all knew this was going to happen, but it was still well done enough to make my hear stand on end.
Now we know Perry's the one that died, which is no surprise. The women are telling the investigators he fell, but Detective Quinlan says it's clear they're all lying, what's not clear is the reason, since self defense wouldn't be too hard to prove, it's clear Perry got violent with Celeste again by the look on her face alone. Arienne Quinlan is told to let it go and let these women live their lives.
After that we see Perry's funeral where Jane and Celeste hug lovingly, and later we see the five women with their kids playing on the beach, enjoying a day together, with lies they all share weighing on the tone (which is masterfully done, by the way), but still keeps them in a certain peace, since there's a new safety for some.
We get to see what really happened, we see images of Perry going after Celeste and her friends fighting to get her out of his claws. We see him overpower all of them violently until Bonnie, who's been watching the whole time, charging at him and pushing him down the stairs. I have to say it's a bit funny, and I'm sure they were going for ironic, since they had Mrs. peace-and-love be the killer. Later we see Madeline embrace and reassure Bonnie, that she did the right thing, and then both hug their respective husbands, probably having agreed they need to keep it a secret, since I think Bonnie pushing Perry does not really count as self defense.
All of this, of course, with a cover of The Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want" on the background.
The final image is of the five women being watched on the beach, and by the sound of the lighter (something Detective Quinlan was always playing with), I'm guessing it's her, trying to figure out what happened, and probably imagining she's onto something, given that she knew how tense relationships were with this women that are now so closely bonded together. I think this final image has to mean they're planning another season. I'm sure it was thought as a mini series, but that hasn't stopped any show with good enough ratings and acclaim, both of which Big Little Lies has in spades. So I'm guessing, if this continues, Detective Adrienne Quinlan (Merrin Dungey) will play a big part of what's next. And I have to say, I'm not completely sure how a second season would be, but given how brilliant this one was, I would not mind seeing that at all.
What did you guys think of the finale? And what did you think of the show in general? Would you like to see more of this story? I'd love to read your thoughts.
