Big Little Lies Review: Kill Me (Season 2 Episode 5)
On Big Little Lies Season 2 Episode 5, “Kill Me,” Bonnie’s abusive relationship with her mother comes to light, giving us one more unnecessarily damaged character.
Not everyone wanted or needed a Big Little Lies Season 2. There are plenty of us who were satisfied with the tidy Season 1 finale. Jane finally faces down her rapist, and thanks to a well-timed shove from Bonnie, she and Celeste are both free.
As those five women walk on the beach with their children, they seem … content. More importantly, they are empowered. Whatever grievances they had are squashed, and they are a newly-formed sisterhood. Bound by a secret that any other police detective would let go given the battered bodies of four of the women keeping it.
Thanks to series like Game of Thrones and The Handmaid’s Tale, we know a show that is critically and commercially successful can go on long after the source material runs out. If there’s the tiniest bit of plot to still be squeezed out of it — like toothpaste from a tube.
We don’t have to see the course of Celeste and Jane’s relationship. We don’t need to witness the “Monterey Five” brought to justice, nor do we need to see them definitively get off the hook. Big Little Lies Season 1 is a labor of love, but Big Little Lies Season 2 just feels like a vanity project.
Fans may be eating up Meryl Streep as the passive-aggressive Mary Louise, Laura Dern’s nouveau-poor Renata, or the flinchingly-fragile Celeste, but all three performances feel like they are for the benefit of those who begin handing out awards in a few months. Attach Meryl Streep to a project that already has cache, and it elevates it to an entirely new level.
I am not a fan of Big Little Lies Season 2. I recognize the importance of some of the messages the creative minds behind it are trying to convey, particularly about the ugliness of sexual, physical, mental, and emotional abuse.
Celeste’s conflicted, sometimes perverse, but deep love for her husband, and her attempts to extrapolate his good qualities for the sake of her children while being tormented by them herself.
It’s not just Celeste who is flailing, and having Mary Louise breathing down your neck is akin to being hunted down by the Terminator. But watching these women wallow feels voyeuristic. The message of season two is women must suffer. They lie, they cheat, they kill, they marry the wrong men, they trust the wrong men, and their emotions are a liability.
If there’s a feminist, pro-gynocentric message buried in Big Little Lies Season 2, I’m not seeing it. The series has transformed from a deeply-layered mystery to melodrama.
Now we know Bonnie’s rocky relationship with her mother doesn’t just stem from Elizabeth’s mystical beliefs and abrasive and overbearing manner, Elizabeth abused Bonnie. Beautiful, free-spirited, sexy, emotionally-centered Bonnie from Big Little Lies Season 1 has a mommy dearest in her closet.
Why is this a necessary twist? Does this mean Bonnie’s impulse to push Perry is more insidious than just a gut reaction? Does it let her off the hook? Does it make her more or less sympathetic?
Jail might prove to be a pleasant break for Madeline whose manic energy has hit a fever pitch as she tries to save her marriage. One of the most agonizing scenes of the entire series is listening to Madeline sing the lyrics to (“You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” to Ed on their way to marriage counseling.
Even Mary Louise is damaged goods. She doesn’t believe she could possibly have raised a monster, so she’ll torture everyone who gets in her way to prove otherwise. We know full well that if she ever fully accepts the truth, she’ll fall apart and blow away like dust.
We don’t want her to get her hands on those kids because she’ll just inadvertently nurture the same beasts growing inside them as the one that resided in Perry.
The Monterey Five should get away with the accidental killing of a man who would have beat them all bloody just to kill his wife. But they’re forced to lie because women are always somehow responsible when bad things happen to them.
The audience is supposed to buy a police detective is so hell bent on catching these women she’s hatching diabolical schemes involving the use of an informant-undercover cop to infiltrate the group via a rape victim?
No, we don’t know exactly what Corey is up to, but it can’t possibly be anything good, can it? The moment he walks out of the police station, his prior behavior becomes predatory. He’s not just some weird well-meaning guy anymore.
When viewers are obsessed with the fact that Reese Witherspoon’s character doesn’t toss an ice cream cone at Meryl Streep’s more than anything else occurring on an episode, there’s a problem.
As someone who was sad but satisfied to see Big Little Lies Season 1 come to an end, I can’t wait for this season to be over.
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 on HBO.
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Jennifer Lind-Westbrook
Jennifer has been working as a freelance writer for six years, contributing to BuddyTV, Screen Rant, TVRage, Hidden Remote, Gossip On This, and PopMatters. She prefers binge-watching old episodes of The Office (British and American versions) to long walks on the beach. She's still holding out hope that Happy Endings will get a revival.