Bad Sisters (Season 1), Episode 10 – Finale ‘Saving Grace’: With the tenth episode, ‘Bad Sisters’ comes to an end. A look at women’s injustices from crimes that remain unseen and unheard, ‘Bad Sisters’ is a document of the post-#MeToo world about the abuse of power and what post-truth entails. The finale brings the story of JP’s murder to a most satisfactory ending. It’s a triumph for creator Sharon Horgan (also playing Eva), who shows an innate eye for comedy and the rare skill of being able to use it as a device for harrowing critique. For a plot-driven show, it’s hard to conjure a better ending where the timid and marginalized are finally empowered, and poetic justice is eventually delivered for those who deserve it.
Bad Sisters (Season 1 Finale), Episode 10 Recap:
On the night of Grace’s birthday, she and JP are about to have sex, but his impotence becomes an obstacle. To cover his shame, he blames it on the ‘pressure’ she supposedly puts on him to be intimate. A fight soon breaks out in which JP blames Eva for his impotence, as ten years ago, she seduced him while they were all drunk and passed out on Grace’s birthday. He continues to accuse her sisters of being a toxic influence, then blames Eva for having caused her miscarriage because of her drinking. During this, Grace realizes that JP is lying, and when she slaps him for saying that women like Eva are not worth raping, he hits her in the belly. The violence completely desensitizes Grace and makes her realize that on her birthday ten years ago, what happened was that he raped Eva.
She chokes and kills JP with his pajama, then goes downstairs and starts knitting while watching Karel Reisz’s 1968 film, ‘Isadora.’ The final scene, where Vanessa Redgrave playing Isadora, is strangled by her scarf getting caught in the car’s rear wheel, provides her with the solution she needs. She makes JP’s death appear to be an accident where his scarf got caught in the rear wheel of his quad-bike, choking and killing him. She then takes care of the rest of the evidence. The following morning, Grace tells her sisters that when she asked for an early night on her birthday, JP got angry and left to watch a football match at the pub, and she went to bed. The sisters are secretly elated at fate, having done what they couldn’t.
In the present day, Becka goes to Matt’s office, where he acts weird, then reveals to her that he knows she wasn’t with her sister on the night of JP’s death. Becka says the barmaid got it wrong and leaves, goes to her sisters and tells them their alibi has been invalidated. Matt goes to Roger’s place after finding a note for it on Thomas’s table. Angrily, Roger reveals how JP accused him of pedophilia, ruining his life completely, before hinting at JP’s unusual interest in his sisters-in-law and his presence near the cabin on the night of JP’s death. Matt goes across the street to talk with Grace again, inadvertently revealing to her that JP is the one who got Roger arrested. Matt goes to JP’s cabin in the woods to get conclusive answers. He breaks in and rummages through the trash (as Thomas taught him), where he finds out from the newspaper that JP lied about going to the pub to watch the match. As he looks for more clues, he comes across the DVD of Isadora, sees the similarity of the titular character’s death with JP’s, and finally figures out who killed him.
The sisters convene for a discussion where they ask Ursula to go and get the pentobarbital back, which she left at Ben’s place on Grace’s birthday. Ben and Ursula have not been in touch since that night, and he’s been acting distant. As it turns out, Ben felt that Ursula was asking her to murder JP, which reviled him. He breaks it off with her. At Eva’s place, Ursula arrives with the pentobarbital, and the sisters are fighting to figure out who went ahead and murdered JP secretly. Just then, Grace walks in.
Following her meeting with Matt, Grace went up to JP’s room in the attic, where she discovered his secret stash of porn and the chat where he tried to bait Roger. She also received a letter informing her about JP’s autopsy. When she reveals this piece of information to her sisters, their reaction gives away that they knew about it. This leads to their confession about their attempts at trying to kill JP, and the postmortem was therefore done to double check if JP was indeed murdered by one of them. Grace then tells all about how she is the one who murdered JP. She also tells Eva that she knew about the rape, and at that moment, they’re purged of the devil’s influence that ruined their lives.
Matt calls Becka to meet with her and tell her about what he’s found out at the cabin. She goes after updating her sisters about his snooping around. They’re panic-stricken about what’s coming, and Grace leaves to be with Blanaid. Eva, Bibi, and Ursula find the pentobarbital to be missing and realize that Becka’s taken it, so they rush to try and stop her from doing something terrible to Matt. Becka tries to take the blame for the murder, but Matt sees through her as he now has evidence of what transpired. Becka asks him to leave after confessing her love for him, which he doesn’t reciprocate. When the sisters arrive, Becka is about to kill herself with the pentobarbital out of her guilt of killing Minna, but they manage to prevent that.
Bad Sisters (Season 1 Finale), Episode 10 Ending, Explained
@VultureAs the sisters prepare themselves for the consequences of having covered up a murder, Matt hears Bibi talk about how they only tried to kill JP. He is entirely sympathetic, realizing that they were defending themselves and their sister against a monstrous being who was an abuser, a rapist, and a hoodwinker that terribly damaged their and other people’s lives. After struggling with who to save, them or his brother, he finally burns the Garvey claim file. Meeting Thomas at the hospital, who’s now a father to a daughter and whose wife is doing well, he tells him that Grace withdrew her claim. Thomas is overjoyed and asks why but Matt claims it to be a secret he deserves to keep, for Thomas’s good, much like Thomas kept their father’s crimes and death a secret for Matt’s welfare.
A while later, Grace gives up JP’s house and moves in with Eva and Blanaid. Blanaid is now a happy girl who isn’t ashamed of her mother and can dress up without slut-shaming by her father. As she goes and talks to Roger, we find out that she called him to help her make JP’s death appear to be an accident. She knew he was in the vicinity, having found out that it was him at the door when JP answered it earlier in the evening. He tearfully asks Grace not to forget about him.
In the final scene, all five Garvey sisters are at the Forty Foot for a swim. Bibi reaffirms Eva’s maternal prowess, and Grace is no longer shackled by her marriage and JP but a free spirit, living it up with her sisters.
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BAD SISTERS (SEASON 1 Finale), EPISODE 10 LINKS – IMDB, WIKIPEDIA
CAST – SHARON HORGAN, ANNE-MARIE DUFF, EVA BIRTHISTLE, SARAH GREENE, EVE HEWSON, CLAES BANG
Where to watch Bad Sister (Season 1), Episode 10
