Who Dies in HBO's Big Little Lies?: Part 2

By Genevieve Burgess | TV | March 13, 2017 |

By Genevieve Burgess | TV | March 13, 2017 |

I’ve been enjoying HBO’s adaptation of Big Little Lies IMMENSELY. I think that the lead actresses are all doing phenomenal jobs with their roles, and even beyond that Laura Dern and Adam Scott are fleshing out characters that could very easily have been background noise. It’s a gorgeously shot show, their music budget must be through the roof or else David E. Kelly is calling in favors all over town for their soundtrack, and even the kids are holding up their ends of the story for the most part. It’s an amazing series.

But up until the last two episodes I’ve been annoyed at the way the story is being told, specifically the framing of it as a flashback from a mystery murder. So far I’ve felt like there’s not enough clues to really draw us into it, and the witness interviews just feel like interruptions into the story I actually want to watch. But towards the end of the third episode I started to feel some things were finally falling into place, and with the fourth episode I’ve become almost certain that I know where things are heading. (I haven’t read the book, so I swear I’m not cheating.)

Jane was raped by Perry, Celeste’s husband. Ziggy is Perry’s son, and the half-brother of Celeste and Perry’s twins. Given this, I suspect that the dead person is Perry. So far Jane and Perry haven’t interacted, but it seems like they’re setting him up to come to trivia night* and they she would see him. Jane has a gun. She’s fantasized about shooting her rapist. There are cliffs all over the dang place. Celeste herself seems to be waking up to the fact that what she wants for her life and what she’s acquiesced to for Perry are two very different things, and that she will never be able to give up enough to make him happy. Madeline will always fight on her friends’ behalf, but has no idea when to say enough is enough. I think the three women try to confront Perry and end up killing him.

I also have a suspicion that it’s the twins who are bullying Amabella. I have less proof for this, other than that kids absorb more than their parents realize and we know they’re being raised with violence in the home. If they are, then that’s more reason for Celeste to turn on Perry.

There’s a solid chance I’m way off base, but I’m feeling pretty good about this going forward. I know a few of you are too, from Dustin’s take on the topic last week. But are there any big clues we’re overlooking? Is this just TOO obvious? Book readers, I’ll ask you politely to sit this one out in exchange for telling us all how wrong we were when everything wraps up.

*Side note: how annoyed am I at everyone continuing to call this event “trivia night”? A lot more than I have any justifiable reason to be. It’s clearly a benefit, but I guess that part of this culture of fantastically wealthy people pretending they’re not fantastically wealthy is downplaying their wealthy people events.