Sharon Horgan unpacks the tragic “Bad Sisters” season 2 twist: 'I had to break them in order to build them up again'

Now that two episodes are out in the world, the series creator can finally share what season 2 is actually about.

Warning: This article contains spoilers from Bad Sisters season 2, episodes 1 and 2.

When Apple renewed Bad Sisters, the critically acclaimed drama about the five Garvey sisters who are always in really deep sh--, the show's triple threat, creator-writer-star Sharon Horgan (Catastrophe), had the germ of an idea of how to continue the story. But it wasn't until she assembled a writers' room that the team came up with their boldest move yet.

What if they killed off Grace (Anne-Marie Duff), one of the lead characters and the most tragic figure of the entire show?

Season 1 was structured between Ireland in the present, where two solicitors investigated the life insurance claim on Grace's abusive late husband, John Paul (Claes Bang), and the past, which showed each of the Garvey sisters trying to kill "the prick." The puzzle-box mystery eventually revealed Grace finally fought back and killed John Paul after he admitted to raping her eldest sibling, Eva (Horgan), years earlier. For all that bleak material, the show is, in essence, an uproarious dark comedy with so much levity and so many hijinks.

Related: Bad Sisters returns for season 2 this fall — Here's how the story continues

For season 2, Horgan tells Entertainment Weekly she "parked" the idea of killing Grace "because I was a bit worried. I wanted the series to feel very recognizable but also quite different. I wanted it to be something that was surprising to people, but for people to go, this is a show we loved. I thought if we killed Graced, will we be able to get it back on the tracks soon enough to feel like there's that joy and the caper and the fun and all that kind of thing?"

Then she realized how much serious subject matter was in season 1, and she changed her tune. Now, it would seem, there's a new prick in season 2: Fiona Shaw's Angelica, the religious sister of Roger (Michael Smiley), Grace's former next-door neighbor who helped cover up John Paul's murder.

When Bad Sisters returns — the two-episode premiere arrived Wednesday on Apple TV+ — Grace appears to be happily married to a new man, Ian (Owen McDonnell). However, Angelica, an awkward woman who's determined to break into the Garvey's inner circle by any means necessary, learns what Grace did. We see her contact Grace and seemingly blackmail her multiple times, which sends the Garvey gal into a panic. Grace tells Ian what she did to John Paul, which causes him to leave. And in a moment of desperation, she tries calling Eva for help as she's driving down a narrow road late at night and gets into a car crash that claims her life.

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"As much as I love the first season, it felt like more of a fairytale ending," Horgan explains. "She jumps into the sea, she's a free woman, when actually the reality behind being in an abusive relationship like that for so long, killing the father of your daughter, is that someone as good and kind and vulnerable as Grace isn't going to spring back. If she does, she's going to carry so much of the ongoing trauma of what happened. The reason why she dies is because she's carrying so much shame that she can't even turn to her family for help until it's too late. It was such a heartbreaking place to be. It makes my hair stand on end thinking about it. In actual fact, it was really hard to envisage the series with five sisters. I just couldn't visualize it. I had to break them in order to build them up again."

Now, the Garveys have a new mystery to solve as they band together to take care of Grace's daughter, Blánaid (Saise Quinn): What happened to their sister? "It gave them a whole new journey and reason," Horgan adds.

The team intentionally refrained from showing the aftermath of Grace's crash and the sight of a body in the car. Though, Horgan notes, "We shot it in case we changed our minds." It was all about the feeling of the moment. "You can't over-egg the emotion," she explains. "We had to be economical with what we showed and how we used emotion. The thing of people wondering, 'Is she dead? Is she not dead?' didn't even enter our heads."

Related: Sharon Horgan recalls the genuine terror she felt blowing up a house for Bad Sisters

Instead, episode 2 ends with a heartrending scene: Eva opens her front door to find the police and sees Blánaid in the backseat of a patrol car. The moment she clocks eyes with her niece, she knows what happened, and both women physically fold into themselves from across the driveway in tears. Horgan remembers being "in bits" when she filmed that scene.

"Sometimes I tap into stuff from my own life, which always hurts. You feel weird doing it, but you do it," she says. "On the night I saw the car pull up, it was too much seeing that little girl in the back. I remember that feeling from when I was young. We lived in a house at the top of a hill, never had any visitors. When a car would pull up, the panic...you'd feel like something's wrong. Phone calls at night? Something's wrong."

These feelings circle back to why Horgan was so worried about killing Grace in the first place: Will it make the show too depressing for the Bad Sisters audience? Fortunately, she recalls watching an early screening of the premiere the night before speaking with EW in October. There was so much laughter out of the theater, which came as a relief.

Related: Meet Your Maker: Bad Sisters creator Sharon Horgan on how Succession and Rosemary's Baby influence her work

Horgan shares a more personal note as she reflects on this balance between the dark and the comedy of dark comedies. "My father passed away mid filming of this season," she says. "It was obviously one of the worst things that ever happened to me, but I'd also experienced it in a weird f---ing way on set. After, when I was with my brothers and sisters, we were laughing at the worst moments in a way to pierce the tension, give ourselves a bit of a release, and then the next minute you're just on the floor again. But that's how it is. So that's why I felt safe in the knowledge that what we put on screen was real and that people will understand when they're watching it, that life continues. Also, I couldn't give people a show that was about grief. No one wants that."

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Bad Sisters season 2 will release new episodes on Apple TV+ every Wednesday.