‘Big Little Lies’ Season 2, Episode 5 ‘Kill Me’ Recap: Certain Sins Are Inescapable

Big Little Lies turned up the heat with this season’s new episode on Sunday, entitled “Kill Me.”

Many key characters have been secretly — or not so secretly — hoping this final act would happen to them. Unfortunately, crafty, shifty and creepy Mary Louise (Meryl Streep) isn’t one of those characters.

Bonnie (Zoe Kravitz) is. She has been sitting by her mom Elizabeth’s hospital bedside for what feels like forever. Apparently, this adult child has been seeking affection from a woman who has suffered a severe stroke. Not only that, but this week’s episode reveals that this parent was not exactly a role model. Hints abound that Bonnie’s mama was an abuser and that her only daughter was the target when she was just a little girl.

Reduced to tears, Celeste (Nicole Kidman) has had more than enough of her mother-in-law, but Mary Louise isn’t going anywhere except to court to get custody of her grandchildren. The recent widow refused a plea deal in which she and her dead husband’s mother would share the kids. Consequently, an inevitable court battle is brewing on Big Little Lies.

As for those grandchildren, the two who live with Celeste (at least for now) helped the one who lives with her mom, Jane (Shailene Woodley), fight a school bully who called Ziggy “a mistake” and strongly suggested that his dad is “a rapist.”

The brawl that ensued because of these nasty — but true — accusations was brutal, although nobody died because of that fight. However, the bully did end up in the hospital with broken bones. Oh well.

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Amabella’s mother, Renata (Laura Dern), is still reeling about being bankrupt. Mary Louise made an uninvited visit to the once-wealthy executive, asking if they can have tea. The real reason she’s there, though, is to try to get dirt on Celeste while putting down the reluctant hostess — no surprises there.

Renata is in an even gloomier mood than usual because the magazine in which she was supposed to be featured pulled the plug on her part of a piece on successful women in business. They did so because she is broke. Nobody was killed over this offensive action — at least not in this episode.

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Madeline (Reese Witherspoon) is still remorseful about her extramarital affair, even though she keeps dreaming about that lover. She tried to make Ed (Adam Scott) believe in her by suggesting they take on a couple’s retreat, which turns out to be a little too woo-woo, even for Maddy. Again, no killing of either party in that couple — but there’s definitely a lot of animosity between them.

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Finally, at the end of the episode, the title of the episode is realized when Elizabeth proves to Bonnie that she has regained her speaking ability — or, at least enough of that ability to spit out the words, “Kill me.” And there you have it — sad as it is, the one person nobody expected to utter that painful little sentence on Big Little Lies belied her real truth.