6 Questions the 'Big Little Lies' Finale Needs to Answer
When asked about the show's much-anticipated ending, the party line from the Big Little Lies team has been to expect something "satisfying." Perhaps partly to temper interest in a third season, they've iterated over and over that at the end of season two, the series will reach a natural conclusion.
Endings are hard, though; not everything can be tied up in a neat bow. Some questions—like why there is only one therapist in Monterey, or what Otter Bay Elementary should tell Amabella about climate change—will probably be left unanswered. But if Big Little Lies has any chance of sticking the landing, these six plot lines need to be resolved.
1. Will Renata finally kick her husband to the curb?
Gordon has single-handedly plunged the Klein family into bankruptcy with his shady business dealings (Despite Renata's best efforts to not not be rich.) And if that wasn't bad enough, episode six revealed that Gordon had been paying their nanny for sex. Renata isn't only the family's breadwinner, but its only functioning adult—and she can't afford to clean up after Gordon's toy train-collecting butt anymore. Let him have it, Renata.
2. Can Ben really forgive Madeline?
After a whole season of marital distress, Ben and Madeline appeared to have a breakthrough in the last episode. Seeing his wife dressed in her wedding gown, dancing to one of their wedding songs, just may have been the "magic wand," Ben needed to mend his broken heart. Still, it seems strange for Big Little Lies to go through the trouble of reintroducing Tori, the wife of Madeline's onetime lover, only to have Ben turn down her indecent proposal.
3. Will Bonnie's mother recover from her stroke?
Sadly, Elizabeth Howard's prognosis is not looking good. And in the trailer for the season finale, Bonnie is shown watching her mother's hospital bed be rushed away by a team of doctors—not exactly a positive sign.
4. Can Jane trust Corey again, after he spoke to the police?
Jane has been struggling all season to overcome her past trauma and let Corey in—but just when she was making progress, she was given a reason to rescind her trust. Bonnie spotted the affable aquarium employee leaving the police station, and for a second there, the show let viewers believe that Corey might be a double agent. After Jane went looking for answers, though, he provided a very reasonable explanation: the investigator looking into Perry Wright's death had asked him in for questioning, and he'd participated without giving her any new information.
Corey is set on winning her back, but Jane will have to decide if she can forgive him.
5. Who will win the custody battle?
The verdict in Celeste and Mary Louise's court battle will undoubtedly be a plot point in the finale. Big Little Lies has gone to great lengths to make the judge appear to be on the fence. She's sympathetic to Celeste as a widow and fellow mother, but seems woefully uninformed about the dynamics of domestic abuse, and possibly swayed by Mary Louise's lawyer's slut-shaming evidence.
The episode trailer does show Mary Louise embracing the twins in the courtroom, but who knows? She could be saying goodbye.
6. Will Bonnie reveal the truth about Perry's death?
She's been inching toward coming clean all season long, and for good reason. Keeping the secret has prevented Bonnie from assuaging her guilt with a confession, and her mental distress has begun to wreak havoc on her life and family. Last episode, she practiced her admission on her unconscious mother, and was this close to standing up during Celeste's custody trial and laying it all out.
Even if Bonnie keeps her lips sealed, though, there could be consequences. The police seem to be narrowing in on Jane as a suspect, and Madeline knows that if she's going to fix her marriage, she needs to tell Ben the truth. The Monterey Five seem to be stuck between a coastal rock and a hard place.
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