'Big Little Lies' S02E03 Discussion Thread

Second episode thread.

Who else is excited?!

Can someone from California tell us what courthouse that is? It looks so imposing and monumental. Love how she aligns completely with the centermost portal at the very end.

I'm excited! I'll be watching Euphoria afterward too... thought they had a strong pilot.

Does anyone know what time west coasters can tune in ? TIA

It will air on HBO at 9pm in the west coast time zone. But it drops on HBO Go and HBO Now when it is released on the east coast, so just set up your HBOGo account and you can watch it at 6pm west coast time.

The Old Man & the Gun airing right now. I actually recall making a thread about it on DL when the trailer dropped. No one cared, even though Redford insisted it was his last acting job. You bitches are heartless.

That film made little to no splash at all. I don't think anyone really cared.

I thought they made the annoying mom go way.

She's the only shrink in town?

Nice intergenerational bonding to open the episode.

Reese and Robin Weigert squaring off! This is not a drill!

Shit, Robin is taking her head on. She isn't afraid of Madeline AT ALL.

Didn't Adam Scott say they're over? So why are they now at a therapist together?

lol the little boy wearing a grandpa sweater

Meryl and Shailene finally together.

Shailene holding her ground like a pro.

lol Renata mocking that doctor.

Thank you, R5 😻

Dern rocking the "Give my daughter the SHOOOOT !!!1!!!" vibe right now.

The Aspie guy is annoying. Watch Jane make the mistake of telling him about Ziggy being a product of rape and then the Aspie will go and blab it to the public.

Oh how cute lesbian detective has a bike in her office.

r20 The aspie guy is starting to seriously piss me off.

The scenes with the Aspie guy remind me of that episode of Roseanne where she invites that annoying guy Donald from the mall to dinner.

Worst show on tv

Meryl is totally in love with Perry, isn't she? Gorgeous shot of the clouds there.

R25 I agree. I'm thinking they're going the mother/son incest route with the storyline.

It's just unbelievable that no one, not even Jane while she is being accused by Mary Louise of [italic]asking[/italic] to be raped, will tell Mary Louise off.

Bonnie does indeed look brighter. Has her mom's juju worked?

Ugh another Renata vs. the school scene

Why is Madeleine chiding Adam Scott right now? She's the one who cheated on him!

Laura Dern's hair is AMAZING. And she's going to start fucking that teacher.

Meryl and Laura in a scene together, finally!

R30 Nothing is ever Madeline's fault.

Ugh shut up Celeste and leave Ed alone.

Another short episode. This was pretty much filler.

Can't believe Celeste is still masturbaitng to Perry. I've never seen that depicted on TV before.

Renata is the Medusa of Monterey!

I feel like they keep treading water. It's obvious Meryl is going to try to get Nicole Kidman declared an unfit mother for lashing out at her son physically last week; in the meantime, we still see Zoe Kravitz moping and Laura Dern screaming at people poorer than she is (or was).

Nicole in her KMart wig OOZES sexuality. Let’s have her masturbate on screen at 50.

r38 Yeah, this felt like episode 2.2.

I think Mary Louise will drug Celeste and then Celeste will do something stupid around the boys and then CPS comes in.

In the previews for the next episodes it looked like Renata was pawning jewelry. I bet she will go home and cry afterwards.

The preview also showed Bonnie in a hospital and the detective lurking around and in another scene Mary Louise stares Bonnie down.

I can't stop watching the Robin Weigert scenes. It's honestly magic, what she's doing on this show. Observe how differently she behaves around Madeline than she does around Celeste. She knows she can't be weak with Madeline so she's more confrontational.

R36 There were several female masturbation scenes on Sex and the City.

r44 To dead people?

Wow, props to Shailene for holding her own with Meryl. And I would kill to have a Mary Louise/Renata confrontation.

I hope wicked Mary Louise get's a showdown with each of these women. Ed is so bitchy but Madeline deserves it. By the looks of it Bonnie tries to kill herself any other day. Renata's Calvin Klein dress was quite nice.

Can someone please explain the "Dr. Peep" thing. I thought I had hit the remote or perhaps I was having a stroke. If an adult dressed like that had come in my childhood bedroom, I would have jumped out the window.

r48 It made me think of the aunt in Sleepaway Camp. I had to pause and tell my partner why I had the church giggles and show him. It was a good laugh.

For reference.

Newsflash: that therapist is the worst therapist in human history. She is either working for ML or the Detectives (state).

R51 I am a doctor!

That therapist literally talks to her clients the way an unemphatic acquaintance thinks they would conduct a therapy session.

Thanks R49. That clip is even creepier than Peep.

Some advice: STOP Speaking to Mary Louise Streep.

The therapist was aggressive. She wasn't like that at all during the first season. She was direct with Celeste, but never mean spirited. I have no idea if it's the writing, direction, or acting. She just seems cruel.

The therapist was unethical season one too,

I love the therapist.

I think she was aggressive with Madeline because Madeline is pretty strong and aggressive herself — much stronger a personality than Celeste. What was unethical about her?

She is very confrontational, loyal to one side for couple therapist, and judgemental. I think she function more as narrator device for the show.

The crazy quotient has been turned up past the believable point this season. Ed and Jane and the 2nd grade teacher seem to be the only functioning adults left in town.

If a therapist came to my room dressed like Peep when I was 8. I'd scream bloody murder.

e3 was not very tried It tried and failed at comedy...

r58 I agree. Madeline is very Type A personality and the therapist would never get through to her by being gentle. Imagine a construction worker coming to therapy - how would you deal with him? You most likely wouldn't whisper and coddle him like the therapist does with Celeste, now would you?

She also confronted Adam Scott, basically saying he's being destructive to their relationship by not engaging. That was as rough and direct as anything she said to Madeline.

Laura Dern is going to get it on with the second grade teacher! Calling it now

r64 Yeah, I called it during the first episode already when she first told him to take special care of Amabella. Would be shocked if it doesn't happen after this latest episode.

Psycho Ed.

R26

There's the issue of Perry's brother who died at age 5, either Perry or Mary Louise killed him, or was the very least responsible/involved, and the cover up/lies about it created their special bond

r66 He seems totally normal to me this season. They probably toned him down to make that aspie guy stand out more in his weirdness.

Sorry Meryl! You're never going to wrest that Emmy away from LAURA DERN! Not while she draws breath, at least!

Shailene did will in her scene too.

This episode made me clap and laugh out loud! Renata with the doctor, Renata with the principal, Renata with Mary Louise...BLL is completely self-aware, verging on satire. Enjoyed this episode the most.

Also love the way they work in climate change and sustainability, etc. Great messaging.

[quote] Imagine a construction worker coming to therapy - how would you deal with him? You most likely wouldn't whisper and coddle him like the therapist does with Celeste, now would you?

You know the old saying of "Don't judge a book by its cover"? The issue isn't how imposing a person looks. It's about the patient's mental state and how open minded he arrives at the therapy sesson. And with that I mean how closed up and defensive a patient can be at first. You know, the "I don't need this therapy bullshit, but I am doing it to do someone else a favor!" putting up all kinds of emotional walls and being all paranoid of the therapist setting all kinds of traps to make you look like a totally unhinged crazy person who needs to me committed in a mental ward.

A good therapist can read people (through their body language and what they say and how they say it) and knows which buttons to push at that moment to get results.

Say with Madeline. The therapist clealy struck gold when she observed Madeline's low self esteem issues coming from not having a college degree and she projects that onto her daughter. It seriously rattled Madeline. That's what a good therapist does. He or she guides you to the truth whether you like it or not. Sometimes that guidance is soft and sometimes it feels like being dragged kicking and screaming to face it. Though in real life the therapist would have blown Madeline off and said something like she's isn't ready to really give (couple's) therapy a chance and just saying the things she believes Ed wants to hear from her in order to come back to her.

r70 I knew someone would take issue with what I said. You clearly misunderstood; I didn't mean to imply those people are brutes. Most of them just need a more direct, plain, and simpler approach. Some people are just more pragmatic (or "grounded") than others and don't do well with that "How does that make you feel?" talk.

Do we think Celeste is talking about Jane in the preview for next week? ("I trusted her!")

[quote] [R70] I knew someone would take issue with what I said.

So you wrote it deliberately that way to "trap" someone? On an anonymous message board? That is so sad. Does that response at r71 feel good to you, because you caught someone in your trap?

LOVE Renata freaking out once again over her daughter and playing the blame game while being hysterical.

"I will be rich again. I will rise up. I will buy a fucking polar bear for every kid in the school! And then I will squish you like the bug you are!"

R72 I got the impression that Celeste was referring to Mary Louise when she said, “I trusted her”

R69

Why would they be in the same category: Nicole = lead actress, Laura D = supporting actress category, Meryl = guest star category

[quote] "I will be rich again. I will rise up. I will buy a fucking polar bear for every kid in the school! And then I will squish you like the bug you are!"

They could probably throw Annabel out of school for that in real life since it's a private school.

R76 They changed the rules recently. Meryl appears in too any episodes to qualify as a guest star. She will definitely be submitted as Best Support Actress.

I can't help it but I half like Madeline. She is a bit of an emotional bully about some things. And then she turns around and is very caring. Frankly, I think both of her husbands are a bit of a bore. Deep down she regrets almost all of the big decisions of her life. She just starting to deal with that.

[quote]They could probably throw Annabel out of school for that in real life since it's a private school.

Her name is Amabella, and it's a public school.

Anyone else disappointed we didn't get any merylisms this week, like in the previous two episodes? On the other hand, I'm glad because people were complaining that she's always resorting to gimmicks.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Meryl in the lead actress category, because she’s Meryl.

She'll be lead at The SAGs. Remember when Sara din was nominated for lead for playing Marilyn Monroe's mom? The actress playing Marilyn got nothing! Insane, she was much better than saggy Suze

This episode was increasingly about sucky marriages and I'm losing interest.

Susan Sarandon!

R84 I felt the same way. I thought this was the worst episode so far.

Definitely the worst episode to date. I wonder if everyone tip toes around Mary Louise because of her creepy, unstable manner and what she may be capable of. Celeste should have sent her packing after that “scream”

I think it's the sense of guilt that's compelled them to put up with Mary Louise. Celeste especially wants to play nice with her so she'll stop snooping around.

Yeah, I think Celeste is hoping ML will stop snooping around and trying to find out what really happened to Perry. But, she's not going to stop. The female detective is going to stop either. The women are probably going to try and figure out ways to throw off ML and the detective. I wouldn't be surprised if there is some scene of the detective following Renata around and Renata mouths off and there ends up being more problems.

I will need testosterone supplementation to make it through this season.

Many plot points seem to be the public airing out of Hollywood limousine liberal culture's self-loathing. I feel that it should go further. Someone like John Waters would tell them to cut deeper into themselves with the self-satire.

Divine as Renata

All the actresses are capable of cutting deeper but their and the writers' vanity prevents. Maybe only Laura Dern and Meryl Streep are being given script that is truly over the top and self-lacerating.

There's not much to lacerate with Jane and Madaline certainly takes her share of hits from her ex, her daughter, Ed and Meryl. Celeste, Nicole Kidman's character has been getting the easy, patient sympathetic treatment but I think that's going to end shortly and started with "oh, and you left that out too, didn't you?".

Anybody know the song at the end? It sounded like Margo Timmins (Cowboy Junkies).

It was the Cowboy Junkies

I think Meryl’s acting in this blows. So there.

Zoe’s acting is good. She’s haunted, doesn’t overplay it.

I agree, R97, with both thoughts.

Bonnie's mom called it mope-a-dope; great description.

The Nicole character misses making cumsies with her late mate. I can’t believe she won’t turn on the Zoe character eventually.

I was thinking Cowboy Junkies too. They really have a niche sound.

How is it that Amabella is in a private school, or the twins for that matter? I don't buy it.

I meant public school. I don't see Renata sending her kid to a PUBLIC school. Maybe now, S2, but not S1 Renata.

In the first season Madeline says that the allure of the school is that it's basically private at a public cost, so perhaps Renata's putting finance over status in that instance?

Most Monterey public schools are probably good. I doubt they would ever pull that freak show brain washing about sustainability but what do I know.

"Freak show brainwashing" about sustainability? That was part of mandatory curriculum in my primary school back in the '90s already. The only thing that's bizarre is that it took so long to start getting taught everywhere.

American public school teachers make grade school students chant about not eating meat because of sustainability? I mean yeah, in Earth Science you could teach sustainability. You do not get involved in what parents feed their children, I would presume.

R105

Certainly sustainability has been part of Common Core for a decades - However, the idea that Charlotte wanted to save Wilbur b/c of the amount of water it takes to make sausage/ham is far beyond the norm.

I don't think Amabella is actually a name. I think one of these rich witches will kill Mary Louise.

It’s peaked.

Join us here for the next episode.

[quote]I think one of these rich witches will kill Mary Louise.

That's probably going to happen. She'll probably try to kill one of them (probably Bonnie) and they will probably drown her in the ocean or she'll get knocked out on rock. I can see Madeline being the one who ends up doing the deed.