'Big Little Lies' Wows with Its Finale
by EG
“Big Little Lies,” HBO’s seven-part adaptation of the Liane Moriarty best seller, was an unusual sort of murder mystery. The mini-series devoted so much time to developing its rich cast of characters — and seemed so uninterested in advancing the central criminal investigation — that, by the end of its penultimate episode, the identities of both the killer and the victim remained unknown.
Sunday’s finale supplied answers to those questions and more. And, while plenty of viewers correctly guessed who would die, the revelation of who murdered that character was a genuine surprise (unless, of course, you’d already read the Moriarty novel). If you’ve finished “Big Little Lies,” read on for a spoiler-packed selection of the best post-finale analyses and interviews.
‘Guilty, Guilty, Guilty: “Big Little Lies” and the Art of Empathy’ (The New York Times)
James Poniewozik sees “Big Little Lies” as a meditation on guilt and judgment, noting that the finale implies “that kids are the world’s greatest font of guilt, an opportunity to relive your childhood anxieties in miniature and see their problems as repudiations of your own life choices.”
‘“Big Little Lies” Finale: That Puzzling Ending, Explained’ (Vanity Fair)
In case you’re still confused about why Bonnie (Zoë Kravitz) fatally shoves Celeste’s (Nicole Kidman) abusive husband, Perry (Alexander Skarsgard), down a flight of stairs, Hillary Busis provides some crucial context from the book that never made it to the screen. “Bonnie’s blood lust comes basically out of nowhere in Moriarty’s novel, just as it does in the TV series,” she explains. “But unlike HBO’s ‘Big Little Lies’ — which also artfully neglects to let us hear the argument that precedes Perry’s fall — the book does at least attempt to explain it: Before she pushes Perry, Bonnie flies into a furor upon realizing that he hits his wife.”
‘Let’s Talk About the Ending of “Big Little Lies”’ (Vulture)
In Jen Chaney’s estimation: “The most deft shift the finale pulls off is the way it leads us to believe, initially, that Celeste must have killed Perry, then, with the jolt of Jane’s realization that Perry raped her (I love how both Woodley and Kidman physically jump at two different Perry-related moments), turns our attention to ‘Janie, who’s probably got a gun.’ But then the finale says: Nope. Someone else did this.
Read more at The New York Times.