If you've got seven or so spare hours, it might be worth re-watching Big Little Lies just to see how things in sunny (but actually dark AF) Monterey unfold in retrospect now that the series has reached its bittersweet ending. (Finale spoilers ahead.) Armed with the knowledge of what actually goes down in the bonkers finale, reviewing the six episodes preceding would be a fascinating study in slow-burning storytelling, clever red herrings, and subtle foreshadowing. A pair of seemingly random lines of dialogue, for example, actually take on a whole new meaning knowing the true identity of Perry (Alexander Skarsgard).
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In episode four, Jane (Shailene Woodley) takes Ziggy (budding theater critic Iain Armitage) to see a child psychologist in an attempt to prove to the school and Renata (Laura Dern) that her son is not the one abusing Renata's daughter Amabella (Ivy George). The psychologist emerges from her session with Ziggy to confirm to Jane that her son is indeed a sweet and docile little boy who is almost surely not bullying anybody. She does note, however, that Ziggy has some major confusion surrounding the identity of his father, something Jane never talks about with him in order to avoid the revelation that Ziggy was conceived as the result of a sexual assault. He even suggests to the therapist that his dad could be Darth Vader. She explains to Jane that sometimes children's overactive imaginations can lead them to fill in the blanks in their lives rather creatively.
The tie-in comes in during a session between Celeste (Nicole Kidman) and her therapist (Robin Weigert), who starts as a marriage counselor for her and Perry but begins to see Celeste by herself. As she learns more about the physical violence between the couple, she asks if there are any weapons in the house. Celeste, always trying to lighten things up and laugh things off in an effort to obscure the ugly nature of the abusive relationship she is in, jokes in response that the twin boys have a couple of lightsabers.
The sneaky connection is Star Wars. Who'd have guessed? It's a tiny but smart detail that becomes eerie looking back. And we have the feeling that if we binged through the whole series again tonight, we'd pick up on a whole lot more examples of under-the-radar foreshadowing like that.
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