Bad Sisters Season 2 Finale Recap: Did the Garveys Get Justice for Grace? Plus, Grade It!
Despite several fake-outs, Bad Sisters‘ Season 2 wraps without upping the Garvey family’s body count. Way to go, girls!
Apple TV+ made the episode available earlier than normal, ahead of the Christmas holiday. So let’s unwrap it together — read on for the highlights of “Cliff Hanger.” (Then make sure to hear what series star/executive producer Sharon Horgan has to say about how the episode might’ve ended differently.)
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THE TRUTH ABOUT THAT NIGHT | The hour opens with a flashback to the night Grace told Ian she killed John Paul. When he tried to leave, she hit him with her injured hand — leaving the blood on his shirt — and he swiftly shoved her, knocking her to the ground. When she called him the next day, begging him to come back, he tells her “you turned my life upside down. I have to start over again now.” Then he said that if she wanted him to keep her secret and not go to law enforcemen, “then you need to make it worth my while.”
At home, Grace looked at the recent calls on Ian’s now-charged phone and rang one of the frequently-dialed numbers. A woman picked up, wondering who’s calling her husband, Cormac, but then Ian grabbed the phone away. Grace was livid. “Are you demanding answers from me? In your position?” he sneered, instructing her to bring the money to him at a bar.
Instead, she wrapped the cash in a plastic bag and buried it in the yard. Then she confronted Ian, who threatened to take everything and to tell Blánaid what her mother had done to her father. “Did you never love us at all?” she asked, in tears. He shrugged. “You were just a mark, Grace. Nothing personal.” This made her so angry that she said he’d get nothing from her, then she hopped in the car and drove away. She made the call to Eva, then hung up and realized that she’d lost one of her earrings. In Grace’s distracted and highly upset state, she tried to find it, taking her eyes off the road. A moment later, she had to swerve to avoid being hit by an oncoming car; then there was another near-miss, and Grace skidded off the road and to her death.
HE’S BAAAAACK | In the present, a shaken Eva comes home to find Ian in her kitchen and Blánaid chilling in the living room. After the teen leaves to hang out with a friend, Ian acts like nothing’s wrong. He says he regrets what’s happened. “Which bit: being a thieving scam artist, or killing my sister?” she wonders. She demands that he return Blánaid’s money, but he’s unbothered, putting on a pot of tea because he knows the other Garvey ladies will be there soon.
Meanwhile, at the precinct, Houlihan has figured out that Ian is really a disgraced former cop named Cormac Sweeney who was accused of sexual harassment but went free, likely after he intimidated his accuser into retracting her statement. She brings it to her boss, who warns her not to risk her career by going after him.
Ursula, Bibi and Becka show up; it’s not long before he’s insinuating that Eva was lusting after him, which upset Grace, and that’s the catalyst for Becka launching herself at him. He tosses her into the countertop, giving her a nasty gash on her eyebrow; he then cockily assures them that the police would believe his story over theirs, given that he’s a cop himself. He’s going on and on about how anyone could ever love “a murdering nutjob” like Grace when someone out of frame cracks him over the head; he hits his noggin on the table, hard, as he falls. The sisters are shocked, and his blood is rapidly pooling on the kitchen floor, as his assailant steps into the kitchen: It’s Angelica, holding Blánaid’s lacrosse stick. “I didn’t like what he said about Grace,” she says. “You killed him!” Bibi shouts. Just then, Houlihan shows up at the house, looking for Ian. Eva manages to get her to leave pretty quickly, but then there’s the matter of Ian’s dead body. There’s a lot of yelling, but then Becka points out something that may be of great importance: Ian isn’t dead, because there is no Ian Reilly. “It’s Cormac Sweeney who’s dead, and we’ve never even met him.” Then Bibi comes up with the idea to throw his body over the cliffs, making it look like an accident. “Good plan,” an in-shock Angela observes.
A STROLL BY THE SEA | Then we’re back on the night we saw at the very start of the season. The Garveys get Ian’s body to the cliffs. The trunk pops open. They freak and hide. Turns out: Ian’s not actually dead! Though he is in VERY bad shape, and as he sees Eva, Becka, Bibi and Ursula, he stumbles backward and falls… but lands on an outcropping above the water, still alive, and wearing Becka’s robe.
The sisters argue about what to do. Bibi tries to climb down and knock him into the waves. The others talk her out of it. Becka points out that they’re not murderers. And Eva decides that they’re going to call an ambulance, because the madness has to stop. So after they do, they hop back into the car and get out of there.
When they get home, Angelica is there — she was supposed to have moved Ian’s car, but she was intercepted by Houlihan. Houlihan is there with her, and she’s ready to arrest the sisters and Angelica, who’s already confessed to Ian’s murder. The very frustrated detective brings them all inside; they realize that she knows Ian is really Cormac, and they accuse her of covering for Loftus’ lying about where he found the money. “What they did has nothing to do with me,” she says, asserting that she wants to help them. After Houlihan gets confirmation that Ian/Cormac is alive, Eva asks her: “Our sister’s dead. What more punishment do we need?”
ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WITH A THREAT OF PHYSICAL VIOLENCE? | So Houlihan calls in a favor and visits Ian/Cormac in the hospital. He wants to press charges, and he gets all creepy and intimidating when she says that perhaps they’ll press charges, as well. Then Loftus, now retired, enters (aka the favor) and baldly lies that the Garveys were nowhere near Ian the night he fell off the cliff. “I will contradict every word you say. I will destroy evidence, if I have to. I’m dodgy like that — a bit like you,” Loftus explains. They tell him to give the money back to the Garveys, Loftus causes Ian/Cormac a little physical pain, and they walk out of there, triumphant. (Side note: Given that Ian/Cormac has proven he doesn’t follow rules and/or care about doing what’s right, is anyone else highly doubtful that Eva will see any of the money he stole?) On the way out, Loftus encourages his former partner to stick with the guards, even though she’s discouraged, because she’s a really good cop.
In an episode-ending flash-forward, the entire family — including Becka and Joe’s baby as well as Bibi’s pregnant wife Nora — walk down to say a final goodbye to Grace. On the way, Blánaid tells Eva that she knows John Paul “wasn’t a good person” but she knows how good Grace was, so that’s what she focuses on, “not the other stuff.” Eva quickly tears up. “Jesus, Blá, you haven’t even had any therapy yet!” she says, hugging her niece. At the water’s edge, they cry, blow kisses and yell their love to Grace as the hour ends.
Now it’s your turn. What did you think of the finale? Grade it — and the season as a whole — via the polls below, then hit the comments with your thoughts!
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