Which Woman Is The Medusa of Monterey On Big Little Lies?

Dynamics grew more complicated this week on last night’s installment of Big Little Lies. Here are the developments that unfolded among the Monterey Five, their family members, and associates in the episode titled The End Of The World.

Perry On
Celeste (Nicole Kidman) and Mary Louise (Meryl Streep) can’t let go of the late Perry (Alexander Skarsgård). Perry’s widow is unable to forget the good times that she shared with her abusive husband and, frankly, she doesn’t want to – especially when she’s in bed (watching a video message from him in bed)!

Mary Louise confronted Jane (Shailene Woodley), asking her if she’ll have Ziggy (Ian Armitage) take a paternity test. Jane wants nothing from Mary Louise so she doesn’t understand the point and since her son raped her and was the only man she’d been with, she refuses.

Later, Jane starts to have some happiness when Corey (Douglas Smith) teaches Ziggy how to surf. She and Corey share a slow dance instead of a good night kiss after a date since he knows she wants to take things slow.

Seeking Therapy
Madeline (Reese Witherspoon) and Ed (Adam Scott) enter therapy with Dr. Amanda Reisman (Robin Weigert) to deal with her affair. In counseling, Amanda tries to get Madeline to face why she strayed in her marriage. Later, Madeline shared with Celeste that her father had been unfaithful to her mother.

Meanwhile, another therapist, dressed as Little Bo Peep, tells Renata (Laura Dern) and Gordon (Jeffrey Nordling) that Amabella (Ivy George), who had a panic attack in school, is afraid of the world ending, her dad going to jail, and more!

Penalty Box
Madeline comes upon Ed having coffee with Bonnie (Zoë Kravitz), who keeps thinking about the ocean. She wants to know how long he’s going to punish her for the affair, and he tells her as long as it takes. When she points out he’s not usually like this, Ed reminds her that his past behavior hasn’t yielded the right results so why not mix it up?

Celesta asked Mary Louise to move out after she caught her going through her pill drawer. When Mary Louise made a dig about her having Vicodin, Celeste pointedly said she needed the pain killer after Perry kicked her. That certainly shut his mother up fast.

Hurricane Renata
Renata goes on a rampage at Amabella’s school after her daughter has a panic attack because she’s scared the world is about to end (they’d been learning about global warming).

Dern continues to have amazing zingers, but this episode’s best lines went to P.J. Byrne (Principal Warren Nippal), who told Amabella’s teacher after Renata blasted them: “I told you these second-grade mothers – they are Shakespearean. That woman? She’s the [expletive] Medusa of Monterey!” Big Little Lies airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO.