Those 'Bad Sisters' Find Themselves in Even Deeper Hot Water in Season Two

The Garvey sisters are back — and in even deeper hot water. Bad Sisters season two begins with an opening scene that indicates they will be covering something up again, and just like the first season, we won’t know how the show’s events fully play out until the very end. It’s unfortunate that Bad Sisters is on Apple TV+ because it feels like most shows on that streamer go unnoticed, but if there’s one to sink into, it’s this one. Season two, much like the first, has many unexpected, shocking surprises as the lives of the Garvey sisters are overcome with more secrets and lies. They have to unravel an even bigger mystery that tests their relationship more than ever and takes the audience on an emotional rollercoaster. Any other show would make a second season that feels ridiculous in its continual gimmick of bad luck, but the brilliant cast of characters at the show’s center creates such a compelling narrative that you can’t get enough of it.

It’s been two years since the events of last season, which saw Grace (Anne-Marie Duff) murdering her abusive husband John Paul (Claes Bang), and the rest of the Garvey sisters keeping it a secret. Now, it seems that Grace has bounced back, blossoming into a much more radiant woman as she gets ready to marry her new beau, Ian (Owen McDonnell). The ever-protective eldest sister, Eva (Sharon Horgan, who co-developed the series and wrote some of its episodes), is apprehensive of the marriage, thinking Grace is moving on too fast, but she’ll walk Grace down the aisle all the same. Unlike Grace, Eva has been in a relationship with her couch and remote these last couple of years and is having a bit of a crisis about turning 50. Putting everyone first, she’s unable to hunt for her own happiness, something that this season, unfortunately, doesn’t allow her to do once again. Meanwhile, Becka (Eve Hewson) is over the dreamy eyes of Matt Claffin (Daryl McCormack) and has moved on to a new guy named Joe (Peter Claffey). Ursula (Eva Birthistle) is now divorced and addicted to pills that she steals from work, while Bibi (Sarah Greene) is not very enthusiastic about having a new baby with her wife Nora (Yasmine Akram).

Three key players will ruin these two drama-free years. The first is Grace’s ex-father-in-law, George Williams. The past is dug up when George’s dismembered corpse is found in a suitcase at the bottom of the pond at the childhood home of John Paul. We already know that John Paul murdered his father years ago, but the police don’t. Enter the second key player, Inspector Loftus (Barry Ward), who is called on the case and isn’t very thrilled that he has to deal with the Garvey sisters again right before his retirement. This time around he has a partner in the ambitious, young Detective Houlihan (Thaddea Graham). The season feels to focus a lot more on the detectives than it should, especially Loftus, and the show feels to want to sympathize with this crooked cop by going over his problems with his wife and young daughter when we really just want to get back to the Garveys. However, this completely mismatched pairing is entertaining to watch butt heads, with Houlihan having to grapple with the corruption she sees around her and the decision between doing what’s right and what she’s told. The honeymoon for the newlyweds, Grace and Ian, looks to be cut short when Loftus and Houlihan show up on their doorstep. Suspicions are soon reignited over John Paul’s death when the detectives agree that it may not have been a suicide like Grace said.

Houlihan continuously pops up everywhere, to the annoyance of the Garvey sisters, but the third key player is even worse when it comes to being snoopy. Roger (Michael Smiley), who’s going through it watching his crush, Grace, get re-married to a man who’s not him, introduces the Garveys to his sister, Angelica (Fiona Shaw), who had an off-screen friendship with Grace that ended badly. Throughout the season, it feels Angelica could cause more harm to the Garveys than their past ever could as she leeches onto them, especially Grace’s teenage daughter Blanaid (Saise Quinn). She sticks her nose where she shouldn’t and becomes suspicious that Roger knows something about John Paul’s murder. Her aggression about finding out the truth means that the Garveys have to try to be one step ahead of her - but it won’t be easy.

Regret hangs over this new season as the sisters feel the cause and effect of their actions from season one. Roger and Grace, especially, are feeling the immense weight of their actions in John Paul’s death; the latter for having strangled him and the former for helping it look like a suicide. Tensions rise as it seems the pair could snap at any moment and tell the cops. While Roger is a shell of himself, rarely getting out of his armchair, Grace is falling apart. “She’s going to land us all in jail,” Ursula says, as Grace can’t control her emotions, throwing outbursts of anger towards everyone and straining her relationship with her daughter. Guilt, anger, and regret consume all the sisters in many ways as the season unfolds and new revelations and conflicts hit them at all sides, seeing them have to deal with something much worse than the reexamination of John Paul’s death.

The second season of Bad Sisters has a much sadder tone, with the titular group having to grapple with grief on top of everything else. It’s a great examination of grief too, as each sister deals with it differently, proving just how well-written each of them are in their individuality. The all-Irish cast continues to be tremendous all around, but especially the leads as their characters are challenged greatly this season, with moments where you truly don’t know if they’ll be able to make it. The show itself this go-round may prove itself to be challenged in the development of its characters and some filler, but despite that and all the drama that surrounds its narrative, the series continues to find its strength in its portrait of sisterhood; the strength and difficulties of that bond. But it’s also just so fun to have them throw smack at each other every episode. The season ends beautifully, retaining the impact of the first, but if there is a season three, let’s see the Garveys grow without the turmoil.