Big Little Lies: Top Moments from The End of the World (Season 2 Episode 3)

Everyone in Monterey is suffering from an existential crisis on Big Little Lies Season 2 Episode 3, “The End of The World.” While there are several standout moments throughout, “The End of The World” is overall a filler episode. Many of the season’s overarching plots take a pause for each of the characters to practice some uncomfortable introspection. 

From Renata’s iconic one-liners to Jane’s important character development, here are our favorite moments from Big Little Lies Season 2 Episode 3:

RENATA’S FACE JOURNEYS 

Renata is being featured more and more on Season 2 of Big Little Lies and I am eternally grateful for it. She’s the most chaotic mother in Monterey and every single time she is on screen she delivers yet another instantly iconic moment.

From repeatedly telling Gordon not to talk to Amabella and her ability to destroy every man in a twenty-mile radius to her one-liners and incredible face journeys at any given moment Laura Dern steals every scene that she’s in. 

Renata: Make sure they know my daughter is in a coma.

Dern makes Renata’s idiosyncrasies feel absolutely effortless as the audience can’t help stare at her in awe as she brings the principal to his knees, openly mocks a doctor to his face, and delivers extremely meme-able lines and facial expressions in rapid succession. Her over-exaggeration of literally everything that happens to her is the level of extra that I aspire to be. 

DR. REISMAN CALLING OUT ED’S BETRAYAL

Ed is very reasonably angry and upset with Madeline in the wake of finding out that she had an affair. However, he completely fails to see where he is also at fault for the problems in their relationship. Dr. Reisman takes the time to call out his indifference and point out that while Madeline’s sins are definitely bigger and more obvious, Ed has to claim responsibility for his behavior as well. 

Dr. Reisman: Infedelity is one form of adultery, indifference is another. You describe yourself as a go-along-get-along-don’t make waves kind of guy, that makes you either wonderfully accomodating or profoundly disengaged. Could it be Madeline was just trying to get your attention?

If the ultimate endgame for Big Little Lies is that all of the women in the Monterey Five end up getting therapy from Dr. Reisman, I am completely okay with that. They certainly all need it and watching her see straight to the heart of Celeste and Madeline in mere minutes never gets old. 

Madeline shares part of her history with Celeste and faces some uncomfortable things in her past that have informed how she treats marriage now. Big Little Lies does an incredible job of accurately portraying so many of the painful things that women experience with the perfect amount of honesty and difficulty that accompanies talking about those experiences.

MADELINE’S PANIC ATTACK

At the school assembly to address the way that the school handles teaching the children about social issues and the rise of anxiety, Madeline has a panic attack of her own while in the spotlight. She gets on stage and immediately begins to unravel as she conflates the problems that the kids are having with her current marital issues and her complicated past with her parents. 

Madeline is usually so much more on top of her game, especially in the public eye. Watching her spin out of control is somehow both entertaining and heartbreaking. Wherever Big Little Lies is taking Madeline on Season 2, I don’t think it’s going to be pretty. 

AMABELLA IS WORRIED ABOUT THE END OF THE WORLD

After she suffers an anxiety attack at school, Gordon and Renata are very reasonably afraid that Amabella is being bullied again but a very strange child therapist discovers that it’s not bullies plaguing Amabella this year, it’s the end of the world. 

With climate change being a very real issue that we as a society are facing, the administration at Otter Bay Elementary has taken up the mantle of explaining the crisis to the children and needless to say it’s backfired in a big way. All I can say is that Amabella’s reaction a whole mood. 

YOU TELL ME

It feels like we know so much about each of these women without really knowing anything about them at all. A prime example of that is Renata. We know very little about where she came from and which skeletons in her closet are responsible for turning her into the chaotic human being she is today.

With each new episode we get just a little taste of what makes her tick, and on “The End of the World” we learn that while she seems like the most put together in a post-Perry Wright world, she isn’t unaffected by that experience. 

Gordon: When I first met you, you had your guard rails up to your earlobes. Penetrating you was like piercing a cement wall. It took some time but I eventually chipped through, you know? The last twelve months or so the guard rails are back up. I mean you are here, you’re there, you’re everywhere, but you are never present. And I feel it, and Amabella feels it. 

Renata loves her walls, her image, the armor that she uses to protect herself and present a very particular version of herself to the world. I love seeing through the cracks in this illusion to Renata’s vulnerabilities, and I hope we continue to get more of that this season. 

JANE STANDS HER GROUND WITH MARY LOUISE

Mary Louise is desperate to hang on to the idea that her son was the perfect angel that she made him out to be. On “The End of the World,” she goes to extremely inappropriate lengths to get the answers that she wants even though they are unattainable. From begging for a paternity test to literally stalking Jane and Ziggy, Mary Louise is almost terrifyingly out of control in how far she’ll go to defend her son’s memory. 

At first, Jane doesn’t give Mary Louise the time of day. Even during their second meeting where Jane displays an immense amount of patience she does not back down at all in her account of Perry’s abusive and violent behavior. 

Mary Louise has no qualms about using her power to make these women uncomfortable in ways that no one sees coming. It is poison covered in sugary sweetness that is delivered with an impressive combination of subtlety and bluntness all at once.

It is absolutely brutal to see Jane have to face her assault over and over, and Mary Louise’s victim blaming is both incredibly accurate and almost unbearable to watch. Jane doesn’t let Mary Louise gaslight her though. She is visibly hurt by the things that Mary Louise says to her and her manipulation tactic of comparing Ziggy and Perry, but she doesn’t hold back the truth about what Perry did to her. 

Mary Louise: I don’t think there was a gentler or more tender little boy than Perry. He was so sweet and gentle.  

Jane: He grew up to be neither. 

ZIGGY AND CHLOE’S REACTIONS TO CHARLOTTE’S WEB

Ziggy: It makes her a grownup. Lying to protect someone she loves, that’s what grownups do. 

Chloe: I think she’s just rebranding Wilbur. 

These reactions so perfectly highlight who each of these children is; Ziggy and Chloe are both incredibly mature for their age.

Ziggy’s understanding of grownups comes primarily from Jane and because she has raised him with a healthy balance of honesty and protection he views her in a very favorable way. He knows that every time she has kept something from him it has been because she loves him and wants to keep him safe. Meanwhile, Chloe is on her way to rule Monterey with even more power than Madeline and I could not be more proud. 

MADELINE AND ABIGAIL’S RELATIONSHIP

Madeline’s relationship with her eldest daughter has been tumultuous over the first season and a half of Big Little Lies, but on this episode, they are more aligned than ever. It’s so satisfying to see these two in a good place after everything that they’ve been through. It’s also wonderful to see Abigail be there for her mother as every other aspect of her life blows up in her face. 

Abigail: I heard about your speech tonight. 

Madeline: Can you get me a glass of wine?

JANE’S GOODNIGHT HUG

While I still don’t really care for the burgeoning romance between Jane and her co-worker, I do think this scene is incredibly important. Jane hasn’t been able to even begin moving past the trauma of being raped until now. Being able to go out with someone who respects her boundaries must feel like coming up for air for the first time in so long. 

Allowing herself to just be held for a moment and to enjoy that point of contact and comfort is such a huge step forward for Jane. 

HONORABLE MENTIONS: 

• Mary Louise is so utterly chaotic. Her teaming up with Officer Quinlan is going to blow up in all our faces for sure. 
• Complicating Celeste’s relationship with abuse and with Perry’s memory is a very good choice for the show. Abuse is so complicated and what it does to the people that go through it is never ever black and white. I’m glad that Big Little Lies is putting in the work to show those complexities instead of taking the easy way out. 
• Renata’s unadulterated hatred for Gordon is so fun to watch. Again I say, can they kill him next?
• Bonnie’s flashback to the night of Perry’s death is brief and silent, but incredibly fascinating. Each of those women immediately rallied around her, to protect her, and I still desperately want to know exactly what happened in those moments. 
• We’ve gotten official word of Amabella’s birthday party! I cannot WAIT for this extravaganza. 

 

What did you think of this episode of Big Little Lies? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Big Little Lies airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO.

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