Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for the Bad Sisters Season 2 premiere.

Now that the Garvey sisters have finally found themselves free from the evil John Paul (Claes Bang), they can all move forward with their lives, right? Well, with the first episode of Season 2 of Apple TV+’s Bad Sisters, it has become clear that the darkness that JP, aka “The Prick,” inserted into the family is likely here to stay. Because secrets don’t ever stay completely buried forever. With an intriguing mystery right out of the gate and the continued charm of these strong Irish women, this twisty series remains a must-watch.

What’s in the Trunk in the ‘Bad Sisters’ Season 2 Premiere?

It’s nighttime, pitch black, and ocean waves are crashing. A single car winds through a twisty road, and Eva (Sharon Horgan), Ursula (Eva Birthistle), Bibi (Sarah Greene), and Becka (Eve Hewson) are its inhabitants. It’s evident that Becka has been assaulted in some way; when she faces the camera, she clearly has a black eye. Eva is driving, and accidentally almost backs the car off the cliff, but corrects, and then calmly tells her sisters, “We have it covered.” They get out of the car and slowly go to open the trunk, but when the lid pops open, the sisters scatter, screaming into the night. This sets up the major mystery for Season 2: what (or who) is in that trunk?

After that shocking moment, the credits roll. It’s the same song as Season 1, a haunting version of Leonard Cohen’s “Who By Fire,” and it’s another Rube Goldberg set-up, with subsequent objects moving through an obstacle course. But the items in this season’s credits are completely different than Season 1 and seem to set up many brand-new clues that will be fun to dissect as the season progresses. All we know at this point is that items such as golf clubs and a turtle somehow play a part in the mystery.

Grace Is Getting Married in ‘Bad Sisters’ Season 2 Episode 1
Image via Apple TV+

The episode then flashes back to before the trunk scene, where we learn that some time has passed since the murder of John Paul. Grace (Anne-Marie Duff) is lying in bed with a new man and has a ring on her finger. At first, it seems like a loving moment between the two, until Grace starts choking him! She is somehow still sleeping when she does it, but her fiancé, Ian (Owen McDonnell), laughs it off. However, this does seem like a bit of a bad omen.

The Garvey sisters then hold a bachelorette celebration for Grace at the horse races. Ursula is now single and seems to be having a good time chatting up jockeys. But there are signs that the sisters are not all living it up. Becka notes that she’s “waiting for something to go wrong.” And that’s right when Roger (Michael Smiley), the neighbor who helped her stage John Paul’s Death to look like an accident, shows up. His sister, Angelica (Fiona Shaw, in some inspired casting) has tagged along, and is now living with Roger. She’s pretty aggressive and also really awkward, especially when she tells Grace that she should be putting Roger out of his misery and finally admitting there’s no future romantically with him.

Grace ends up inviting Roger to the wedding, but there’s definitely something strange about Angelica. She has some connection to Grace that we don’t fully know about yet (except that Grace calls her “suffocating”), and then she also places a bet on the horses and wins, but lies to Roger and says she forgot to place the bet in the first place. At the end of this scene, Angelica’s name appears on-screen, with the title “The Wagon.”

A ‘Bad Sisters’ Body Gets Discovered in Season 2 Episode 1
Image via Apple TV+

Back at John Paul’s mother’s house, the new residents discover a suitcase that had been tossed in the pond. When they open it, they find skeletal remains (of John Paul’s father, George). John Paul had dumped his father’s body there in Episode 9 of Season 1, but unfortunately, now the police have been dispatched to start looking once again at John Paul’s family. A detective inspector named Fergal Loftus (Barry Ward) is assigned to the case, along with his young detective-in-training named Una Houlihan (Thaddea Graham).

Back at Garda headquarters, Loftus is nearing retirement, but his boss tells him that he’s still in trouble for exhuming John Paul’s body. In fact, the other cops call him “Snatcher.” His boss thinks he’s incompetent for not being able to definitively call John Paul’s death a murder, especially now that there’s another dead body linked to that family. He tells him he needs to solve this case no matter what, or there will be “no retiring with glory.” This is certainly an incentive for Loftus to uncover every secret he can (which does not bode well for the Garvey sisters).

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‘Bad Sisters’ Season 2 Episode 1 Features a Garvey Wedding
The Garveys are all gathered for Grace’s wedding. It’s revealed that Becka is dating someone new, a man named Joe (Peter Claffey), who the other sisters have not exactly embraced, and Bibi and her wife have chosen an egg donor in order to have another child. Eva is working with a menopause coach, and Ursula is doing her best to remain cordial with her ex-husband. The sisters have moved on with their lives in some ways, but are still affected by their past (such as when Joe notes that they jump every time someone rings the doorbell). Grace gets married in a beautiful ceremony (and is walked down the aisle by Eva), and the sisters hold hands in a touching moment that illustrates how united they still are.

But the wedding quickly devolves into chaos (as is predictable for a Garvey event). Becka drinks too much and vomits in a potted plant, and Angelica ends up body-checking Eva to the ground just to catch the bouquet. But it’s Roger’s dance with Grace towards the end of the night that really spells trouble. He asks Grace if she ever thinks about what they did, adding that he carries it with him every day, and although Grace apologizes profusely, it’s clear that Roger is being eaten away by guilt.

Everything Comes To a Head in the ‘Bad Sisters’ Season 2 Premiere
Grace seems to be settling into married life when Loftus and Houlihan arrive at her home to inform her of George’s body being found. Grace is surprised, since she thought that George had abandoned his family more than a decade before. Loftus presses Grace to inquire why she withdrew the insurance claim for John Paul after his death. She claims that John Paul took his own life and that she wanted to spare her daughter, Blanaid (Saise Quinn), from that pain. Houlihan is convinced she’s lying. This conversation leads to Loftus texting Thomas Claffin (Brian Gleeson) with the ominous message: “We need to talk about the Garvey sisters.”

Grace tries to shake off the visit when Roger shows up at her house. Distraught, he tells her that he’s thinking of going to the police. He tells Grace that it will be better for both of them if they unburden themselves. At first, Grace does not seem to feel the same way Roger does about the need to confess. She pleads with him to change his mind, but he leaves her there. The problem is that Ian overhears Grace. In a later scene, Angelica pushes Roger to tell her what’s going on, because she can tell he’s hiding something. She says, “I’m a woman of the church. I’m in the guilt industry. I know guilt when I see it.”

Grace, steadfast in the love she thinks is between her and Ian, decides to share the truth with her new husband. She explains to Ian that her first husband raped Eva and was abusive to her their whole marriage. Ian has so much compassion for her and hugs her tightly. But then Grace says three fateful words: “I killed him,” and Ian slowly backs away from her. It’s obvious that he’s horrified by this admission. He says he needs time to think and leaves, and Blanaid overhears her mother sobbing hysterically.

The next morning, Blanaid runs to Eva’s house to tell her aunts that Ian is gone and that Grace isn’t okay. The worry on the sisters’ faces says everything; the trouble they thought they had outrun has caught up with them. The Garvey sisters have plenty of people in Season 2 who can take them down: Loftus and Houlihan are hot on their trails, Roger and Angelica could pose a danger to them, and Grace herself is threatening to undo all the work they’ve done to hide their secrets. Will the Garveys have to resort to murder once again to keep their family intact? There’s no telling what these bad sisters will do to protect their own.

New episodes of Bad Sisters Season 2 are available to stream every Wednesday on Apple TV+ in the U.S.

Bad Sisters Season 2 Episode 1 hits the ground running with a new mystery and plenty of high-stakes drama.ProsThe very first scene presents a new mystery to heighten the intrigue.Each of the sisters gets a full update with that time jump.Anne-Marie Duff’s acting is stellar (and heartwrenching) in those last few scenes. ConsIt would have been helpful to have a little more clarity about exactly how much time has passed since the important events of last season.

Release Date August 19, 2022 Seasons 1 Story By brett baer Writers Malin-Sarah Gozin , Brett Baer , Dave Finkel Expand

Watch on Apple TV+