'Bad Sisters' Recap, Season Two, Episode Two: 'Penance'

Grace was losing it: her peace, her grip, her ability to stand upright after spending so long hunched over and terrified. After JP died, she almost managed to find herself the semblance of a normal life, but all it took was one tug at a loose thread and it all came unraveled before she knew what happened. In the days after Ian’s disappearance, every sentence she says — whether to her sisters, to the Guards, to Angelica, or to her daughter — is less convincing than the last. It makes sense that Grace would eventually get too overwhelmed by it all to function, but I still gasped (out loud and everything!) at the episode’s final reveal.

(This is a recap so obviously there are spoilers ahead, but really, truly, SPOILERS AHEAD.)

Spiraling out from whatever happened the night she came clean to Ian about JP’s death, caught poorly lying to the police, and unwilling and/or unable to keep her sisters in the loop, Grace tries to remove herself from the situation entirely by skipping town with cash and a desperate call to Eva for help. When she loses an earring in the car, though, she loses control and swerves off the road; the last view we get of Grace is of her smashed car as Eva and Blanaid sob.

It’s an unbearably sad ending for a character that’s already been through so much and only had the briefest taste of a happy home life before it all went back to shit. Anne-Marie Duff’s done such an astonishing job portraying Grace that my first reaction after getting over the initial shock of the crash was disappointment that her part on this show is coming to an end (I’m assuming/hoping she’ll at least be in some explanatory flashbacks later on). It’s also a huge swing for Bad Sisters to take, but one that undeniably sets up this second season to be something quite different from the first. After spending their whole lives doing everything possible to keep each other safe, one of the Garveys is gone for good — and again, just like their parents, lost to an absolutely senseless car crash.

Grace’s death also ensures that the rest of her sisters will have to figure out what the hell actually happened between her and Ian. As Bibi puts it even before Ursula discovers bloody clothes in the washer: “I’m starting to have thoughts I don’t want to have about my sister.” Grace couldn’t (wouldn’t) tell them where Ian went, why all his things are still at the house (or hidden in the bathroom), or what she was doing with a bloody bandage on her hand. Her almost casual reveal that Roger helped her deal with JP’s body also has the sisters shook, and not just because Roger’s a clear weak link who could bring them all down if he lets his guilt get to him. No, Grace’s decisions to both trust Roger over her sisters and then keep that secret from them for over two years might signal that there’s more she still hasn’t told them, either. By the time Grace dies, she dies with secrets they’ll have to discover if they want to keep themselves out of trouble — and with a bit more subtlety than they’re used to deploying, preferably. For all their strengths, the Garvey sisters’ tactic of questioning people as a foursome doesn’t strike me as a particularly useful way of doing things, but what do I know, maybe Roger loved getting the tensest drink of all time at an otherwise lovely pub.

It doesn’t help, too, that the police have decided to actually do their jobs, even if they’re years late. Of course, it’s the intrepid Houlihan (Thaddea Graham, a great addition) who’s actually clocking all the inconsistencies in Grace’s stories, whether or not her undermining bosses want to give her the credit. (The highest up boss has already basically called her a “DEI hire,” which is the quickest way for me to dismiss someone’s judgment altogether.) Also, Detective Loftus got badly embarrassed at getting caught out for doing lazy work, and you can never underestimate the determination of a man embarrassed by his own incompetence.

Elsewhere, Fiona Shaw’s Angelica is already proving to be a formidable menace. Armed with the truth Roger told her about Grace’s part in JP’s death, she goes about this episode trying to insert her opinion and “help” where no one wants it. She interrupts Grace both whilst praying at church and at Blanaid’s field-hockey match, offering her guidance for “peace, or maybe penance” in that righteous kind of way that lets you know she’s really just looking for more reasons to judge you. Grace can’t take it, finally exploding at her in public that Angelica is “suffocating” her.

Briefly chastened, Angelica retreats to the bathroom, where Bibi’s wife, Nora, is washing her hands and offering up a sympathetic smile to a woman she only knows as a devoted community member. It’s here that Angelica carefully spills the information she overheard while poking around Eva’s house at Grace’s wedding: that Bibi, having had a harder time than she’s proud of to truly feel like Ruben’s mother, is nervous about having another kid whose DNA would neither be hers nor Nora’s. It’s an ugly thought that Bibi confessed to her sister in a moment of nerves, but nonetheless a hard truth that proves a slap in the face for Nora. I’m sure it doesn’t escape her (while hoping it doesn’t escape Bad Sisters) that she and Ruben are the only two Garveys who aren’t white, and here comes yet another reminder that they are, and will always be, different. I was hoping Bibi would have more of a significant storyline this season, but not like this! Let my lesbians eat shakshouka in peace!

As far as Angelica’s part in it all … well, she sure seems manipulative in a way that reeks of JP’s meddling, if in a far more self-flagellating Catholic way. Whatever she called Grace about on her last night alive clearly freaked her out to a whole new level, and for that, we can only assume the Garveys will be on her tail before too long.

• Anne-Marie Duff’s performance will be so missed, exhibit #4353124: the way her wretched panic at her sisters’ questioning made her drop her voice an octave. Absolutely chilling, in the most pristine way.

• Ursula appears to have developed something of a Nurse Jackie drug habit, which is very bad news indeed.

• Loftus and Ursula meeting at a speed dating event before stumbling upon each other at a potential crime scene is a very funny bit of backstory. That’s gotta feel like seeing someone you met at a nightclub in broad daylight and trying to figure out if they’re still fit. (I’ll help them out: They both are! It would be extremely messy, but I am pro for the plot, go on, then.)

• Unfortunately, Loftus explaining that his golf nickname is “Adolf” for “two shots in a bunker” is one of the funniest jokes I’ve heard in a minute; thank you as always for the deeply inappropriate laugh, Sharon Horgan!

• Angelica having a mug that says “S+ressed & Blessed” is some excellent attention to props detail.

• Another Angelica thought I’m not proud of, but here we are: That chain cilice on her thigh was pretty hot. Sorry! I’m so sorry, bless me, Father, for I have sinned, etc.

• I do not like the sounds Grace’s shovel was making in her new planter box, and am really hoping I’m not right when I ask if Ian might be in there, but …