Bad Sisters episode 2.06 "Who by Water"
I enjoyed season one- and I mean that as lukewarm as it sounds. I found it campy, the way I find a lot of UK content to be. I liked the premise and the characters and enjoyed its silliness, but at the same time, that slapstick nature took away from some of its heart. But I will say, I’ve been enamored with the Bad Sisters title sequence from the start. I love the song. I love the visuals. I’m a title sequence fiend and this was an instant top 3 for me, rivaled only by Shameless and The Office.
Season two of Bad Sisters rose to meet the quality of its title sequence (which changed its visuals to match the clues of this season’s mystery). I was wary of this show getting a second season. However I felt about it, season one wrapped itself up in a nice little bow. It’s hard not to compare this show to Big Little Lies: an adaptation of a self-contained, women-led ensemble unraveling the suspicious death of an objectively terrible man. And I was nervous about Big Little Lies’ second season as well- they had exhausted their source material and already told a complete story. When they managed to pull off something that genuinely enhanced the characters, it felt to me like a one-in-a-million success.
Sharon Horgan was trying to capture that same lightning in a bottle with this addition to Bad Sisters, and she did it without any creative input from the minds behind the original story (season one is based on a Belgian series; the season two storyline came from her alone). Having seen it all now, I can’t imagine the show ending without it. Everything that happened in these eight episodes was an incredible service to every one of its characters. Where season one was one-dimensional, season two was nuanced and surprising. Where season one was silly, season two was emotional and hard-hitting. Yet I still laughed in all the right places.
But episode 6, “Who by Water” (an ode to my beloved title sequence), is where I decided to go so far as to say that Bad Sisters is the best mystery I’ve ever seen. I was hooked by Grace’s unexpected death earlier on- truthfully, I never really liked her, and I love when a show is bold enough to abruptly kill off a main character. You don’t see that much anymore. But things got even more complicated from there.
The complete lack of dimension to The Prick served to get us on Team Garvey in season one. He looked, acted, and was exactly as terrible as they thought he was. Every new development somehow just made him even more awful. I literally could not stand him. And at the time, the show was silly enough that I didn’t have to think too hard about ethics before saying yeah! Let’s kill The Prick.
In season two, none of the new players are quite what they seem. When we first met Angelica, I thought here we go, someone new meddling in the Garvey’s lives. And she was truly obnoxious: putting her nose into Ursula’s life and Bibi’s family where it didn’t at all belong. And those unlikable qualities made the sisters- and me- completely discount her suspicion of Ian, who has seemed a perfect angel up to this point.
“Who by Water” finds the Garvey’s in the aftermath of Angelica’s fall off the boat and presumed death. It’s not sad exactly- this lady shows up and invites herself to the spreading of Grace’s ashes? Blackmailing the girls into letting her tag along? Who does she think she is? But it was genuinely an accident, and the girls are in a panic trying to figure out what to do. At the start of the episode, Ian seems level-headed and helpful. He convinces them not to go to the guards (it sounds reasonable at the time, but in retrospect- why not? It was an accident, after all). He lays out a plan: he’ll scout out the area and handle any potential footage of the girls going out on the water with Angelica and returning without her while the girls go clean Angelica’s blood off the boat.
It was around this time that I had this thought: Ian sure seems to be rolling with the punches of all this crime, despite being scared off to the point of fleeing when Grace told him about JP. I kid you not, seconds later Houlihan confronts Ian about the friend he “claimed” to have been staying with when Grace died. I was honestly floored by this. I’ve always thought that a good mystery makes you say “oh shit” when presented by twists you didn’t- but should’ve- seen coming. I’ve never before seen a mystery so perfectly and gently paced that I think I’m coming up with things on my own, when I’m really following a trail of narrative breadcrumbs so perfect that it’s imperceptible. I felt proud of myself for being suspicious of Ian, like I had thought of something no one had yet, when that was where this episode had been heading from the start.
Yet somehow, Bad Sisters lets me be a half-step ahead without ever falling behind itself. It’s Ian who suggests that Bibi move Angelica’s car out of the marina, and when the guards show up at the exact same time, she and I are now wondering in sync if Ian didn’t send her there with the intention of getting her caught. The episode closes on Bibi confronting Ian with this very suspicion, turning the whole mystery on its head and decisively acting on thoughts that for me, were still only inklings.
The Prick did some pretty calculated things but compared to Ian’s (or should I say Cormac’s) long con, he was just a small-town douchebag. Under the surface, Ian was everything he didn’t appear to be. And as we- and the Garveys- start to realize, so was Angelica. In the beginning, she’s more comparable to The Prick than anyone. Snooping, meddling, generally making problems worse. But looking back on it now, there’s a glaring difference. Where The Prick would lie and flat-out fabricate things out of thin air, Angelica only ever got in the way by being inconveniently correct. Being nosey isn’t a crime, and ultimately, her massive concussion even serves to make her endearingly silly.
Season one’s twist was who committed the crime- and it was a good one, I didn’t foresee it being Grace just like I didn’t foresee her death. But the characters didn’t change from start to finish. Everyone was who they always were and appeared to be. By season two’s finale, Ian and Angelica both had become people I wouldn’t have believed from the beginning. And it happened both shockingly and believably- a tough combo to pull off. They were exactly what this show needed as their nuance forced that same depth on the Garveys. Eva, the protector, was forced to reckon with making a massive mistake. Becka was forced to grow up in love and in life- she can’t be ‘the kid’ anymore if she’s having one. And while murdering The Prick was a no-brainer, season two forced the Garveys to actually consider the implications of being killers. Not just in terms of prison sentences and consequences, but in terms of right and wrong and the people they wanted to be.
Lastly, I’d be remiss not to mention Houlihan and Loftus. One of season one’s greatest strengths was the Claffins, and season two managed once again to create such compelling adversaries to the Garveys that I wasn’t always exactly sure whose side I was on. Focusing on the police rather than insurance raised the stakes, and Houlihan’s parallel journey mirrored the show’s eventual takeaways of doing the right thing. It wouldn’t have felt like a ‘happy’ ending if one side simply beat the other, and their eventual coming together felt narratively and emotionally sound. Some may see this season finale as a deus ex machina moment with both Loftus and Houlihan suddenly giving the girls their unconditional support, but I see it as a recognition that they all ultimately want the same thing: to be good people.
At this time, Apple hasn’t canceled or renewed Bad Sisters, but Sharon Horgan has suggested that this is the end. I’ve seen so many successful shows ruined by a network stretching it beyond its expiration date, unwilling to let go of the paycheck, so I can only hope Horgan stays strong. But hey, that’s what I said last season.
