Everything to Remember from ‘Bad Sisters’ Season 1
It’s been two years since audiences were introduced to the Garvey sisters in Apple’s “Bad Sisters,” created by Sharon Horgan, Dave Finkel, and Brett Baer — two years since Eva (Horgan), Ursula (Eva Birthistle), Bibi (Sarah Greene), and Becka (Eve Hewson) conspired to kill their sister Grace’s (Anne-Marie Duff) husband, only for him to turn up dead under mysterious and unplanned circumstances.
Season 2 premieres November 13 with two episodes, to answer burning questions as well as to raise new ones. How much does Grace’s daughter really know? How have the sisters healed since the death of “the prick”? Will the police get involved this time and actually uncover the murder? Are Becka and Matt (Daryl McCormack) still together?
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But before all that, let’s review the key plot points in “Bad Sisters” Season 1.
The Man
John Paul Williams (Claes Bang), a successful career man, father, husband — prick. J.P. wears most of his day-to-day awfulness on his sleeve; casual misogyny, condescension, emotional manipulation, homophobia — hiding it all behind an oily, pleasant smile and getting away with treating other people like crap.
But as the Garvey sisters plot his murder, the show reveals deeper, worse layers. We’ll go more into his specific attacks on Grace’s sisters, but remember when he didn’t like the neighbor being friendly with Grace? J.P. called the police and anonymously accused the man of being a child molester! After an argument with his father, J.P. stood by to watch the man choke to death and then locked him in a freezer for years. After finding his mother dead in the same freezer, he took her body upstairs, thawed it out, and staged it so that she looked like she died in her sleep. He’s smart, and he’s calculated.
And he’s a prick.
The Method
Hlaf of “Bad Sisters” Season 1 recounts the sisters’ failed attempts to kill J.P. Eva and Bibi set fire to his cabin, but fail to confirm that he’s inside. Ursula suggests poisoning his dinner, but he doesn’t end up eating it. Bibi’s plan to shoot him with a frozen pellet goes horribly awry when Becka pushes her, and Becka’s plan to lock J.P. in the freezer with his father instead leads to his mother Minna (Nina Norén) dying while locked inside.
But while each attempt shakes the sisters’ confidence, it also makes J.P. more outwardly hostile toward them and everyone else — including Grace. This ends up strengthening their resolve and resilience to try and try again.
The Motives
Where to begin? Well, the show begins with J.P.’s emotional abuse of Grace, as witnessed by their entire family. It’s clear that the marriage has worn Grace down to a shell of herself, and though she finds joy in her daughter and sisters and other aspects of life, her confidence is shattered.
The treatment of Grace is what finally pushes the sisters to pursue murder, but they all have individual personal conflicts with J.P. He and Eva work together and he beats her out for a big promotion, revealing her history of addiction to the hiring manager and then threatening her work pal Gabriel (Assaad Bouab). He tricks Ursula into taking and sending an explicit photo of herself that he uses to blackmail her about her affair, which is actual cyber crime. He agrees to loan Becka money, only to rescind the offer immediately and make Grace tell her the news.
Before the timeline of the show, J.P. gave Bibi a ride in his car and began to drive erratically, saying caring things to her in an objectively sinister tone of voice while speeding along through the rain and dark. The car crashes, permanently injuring Bibi’s eye — a grudge she claims not to hold, but she and Eva are the first to band together and start planning the murder. As the Season 1 finale revealed, John Paul raped Eva years ago, shortly before she had a miscarriage for which she then blamed herself. She never told anyone, but when J.P. finally tells Grace and tries to blame her sister, Grace snaps. She strangles him in the bedroom and then stages the body to look like his scarf got caught in the wheels while driving.
The Money
Police are scarce in “Bad Sisters”; the real force threatening to expose the Garvey sisters is Matthew and Thomas Claflin (Brian Gleeson), two brothers and business partners trying to avoid paying out Grace’s claim to John Paul’s life insurance. It’s complicated enough with the brothers’ financial troubles and sisters’ secrecy, and then Becka and Matt start seeing each other (and just can’t stop!). When Matt figures out the truth, Becka almost kills him, but changes her mind at the last minute. Grace withdraws the claim, releasing the brothers from their investigation just in time for the birth of Thomas’s son. Everything wraps up with a nice little bow… or did it?
“Bad Sisters” Season 2 premieres November 13 on Apple TV+.
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