Summary
“Missing” languishes in grief after the surprising tragedy in the premiere, blending humour and drama well, but it does risk feeling a little inert.
Season 2 of Bad Sisters got off to a slightly stunted start, so it’s a shame that Episode 3, “Missing”, doesn’t have much urgency either. But it does have a good excuse. The shocking development revealed at the end of the premiere turns out not to have been misdirection — Grace is dead, killed in a car crash on her way to God-knows-where, for God-kn0ws-what reason. And there needs to be some time to grieve.
For the Garvey sisters, “Missing” is an opportunity for that, but I’m not sure how enjoyable it is for the audience. Aside from a good balance of humor and drama and a pretty realistic depiction of grief, there’s little revealed here that we didn’t already know or couldn’t have intuited, and the person who’s emerging as the clear bad guy wasn’t exactly subtle about it in the first two episodes.
But it remains early days. My worry is that Grace’s death will be smoothly forgotten now that we’ve had an entire episode largely dedicated to its fallout since the remaining Garveys have plenty to keep them busy. At the top of the agenda is getting one over on Angelica, who seems to not only have all of them sussed out but is manipulating them to her own mysterious but no doubt nefarious ends.
Grace’s Funeral
Grace’s funeral takes up a good chunk of proceedings, and while it’s not the most eventful, there are some important bits worth going over.
First, I should highlight that the performances here — especially Sharon Horgan and Sarah Greene — are really good and the bit where Bibi starts laughing about the priest having recently had a stroke and conducting the service in one long incomprehensible mumble is great, especially when it descends into sobs of genuine heartache. Grief can be confusing like that.
It’s Blanaid who’s particularly struggling. She doesn’t even seem all that upset, which is generally a clue that she’s devastated. She doesn’t know whether to point the finger of blame at Grace herself for her behavior immediately preceding her death and doesn’t know where to look for support. She isn’t necessarily inclined to find solace in her aunts, but in a nice touch, she does go and sit with them in the middle of the service, showing that she can’t stiff-upper-lip her way through everything.
Also in attendance are Fergal and Houlihan, Matt — much to Becka’s shock — and Angelica and Roger. The latter leads the mourners in song which is another one of those funny moments that becomes quite moving, and the former is gracelessly making a show of her own grief and trying to insert herself into the Garvey group. Ian is nowhere to be seen, which doesn’t go unremarked upon.
Ian Returns
Ian turns up just after the funeral and explains himself to Grace’s sisters. He reveals what she told him, but it’s clear he hasn’t said anything to anyone about it, and I suspect he doesn’t intend to. When Fergal and Houlihan question him he gives nothing away, claiming to have been staying with a friend and denying any knowledge of Grace’s history with JP or his father.
I actually think Ian is going to be an ally. He now knows that the sisters helped Grace cover up JPs murder, they know he knows, and he has been nothing but a support system for Blanaid and even Eva. It’ll be quite a twist if he turns out to have some kind of ulterior motive, but I doubt it. He seems solid to me.
Fiona Shaw and Eva Birthistle in Bad Sisters | Image via Apple TV+
Ursula’s Dilemma
Ursula is taking Grace’s death especially hard in Bad Sisters Season 2, Episode 3, at least in part because she assumes she might have been responsible. Ursula’s own pill habit is one thing, but the fact she gave some to Grace might have doomed her. She awaits the police’s toxicology report to prove her theory that Grace was compromised because of her.
In the meantime she mistakenly turns to Angelica for support, telling her about the pills. And then Angelia ghosts her, probably to stress her out. By the time Ursula catches up and asks for some reassurance that she didn’t tell anyone else, Angelica starts lamenting how one of the clubhouse windows needs fixing and they don’t have the money to do it. The implication is pretty clear — if Ursula pays for the window, Angelica won’t rat her out.
She’s lying, of course. Angelica gets the money and then rats Ursula out to the hospital anyway. This isn’t expressly confirmed, but it’s strongly implied, and the outcome is the same either way — Ursula’s suspended, and it’s likely she’ll lose her job for being irresponsible with serious medication to satiate a drug habit.
Was Angelica Blackmailing Grace?
As it turns out, Grace’s toxicology report comes back clean. She wasn’t under the influence of anything when she crashed, which is reassuring for Ursula if nothing else. But it doesn’t answer any of the key questions, such as where she was going, why she was in such a hurry, and when she drew out 20,000 still-missing Euros just before.
Ursula’s theory, given her own experiences, is that Grace was being blackmailed by Angelica, who knew about JP. This seems pretty likely to me, and the Garvey sisters are now determined to get one step ahead of her. But a pretty significant complication in that plan seems to be Blanaid, who turns up to see Angelica at the end of the episode. What’s all that about?
