The cast of Bad Sisters breaks down the (literal) season 2 finale of Cliffhanger

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains major spoilers from Season 2, Episode 8 of “Bad Sisters,” streaming now on Apple TV+.

Trust ‘Bad Sisters’ showrunner and actor Sharon Horgan to end the second season of the hit Apple TV+ series with a literal cliffhanger (which also happens to be titled ‘Cliff Hanger’).

In the eighth and final episode of the season, the surviving Garvey sisters – Eva (Horgan), Bibi (Sarah Greene), Ursula (Eva Birthistle) and Becka (Eve Hewson) – are once again confronted with a dead body after Angelica (Fiona Shaw ) delivers a blow to the head of abusive con man Ian (Owen McDonnell), seemingly killing him in a pool of blood.

Deciding to dispose of Ian’s corpse, the sisters load him into the trunk of their car and plan to throw him off the edge of the cliff – but when they reach their destination, it turns out he isn’t as dead as they thought. Bleeding and disoriented, Ian escapes the trunk and manages to accidentally throw himself himself off the edge of the cliff, although even that doesn’t finish him. Which leaves the Garvey girls in a dilemma: let Ian die on a cliff, or call an ambulance?

After some bickering, they ultimately decide to do the latter, ending the season with a mirror image of Season 1 (where Grace survived while her abusive first husband JP, aka The Prick, played by Claes Bang, was murdered.)

Ahead of the season 2 finale arriving on Apple TV+, the cast and lead director Dearbhla Walsh spoke with Variety to discuss the cliff edge shooting, why the sisters decide to pardon Ian – and if there are any plans for Season 3 yet.

Sharon, how did you land on Ian’s storyline?

Sharon Horgan: The idea of ​​“Can lightning strike twice?” was the first idea, because women who have been in that kind of situation – been in an abusive relationship – don’t necessarily end up in a healthy relationship. They can also be goal-oriented. I was nervous in case it was a crazy idea to jump into that right away, but everything else that built around it, like what happens with Grace, came out of the writers’ room, and again, it felt a little bold On. We wanted to show the collateral damage of having a man like that [JP] in your life, and just because he’s dead doesn’t mean the pain goes away, nor does her guilt and her conscience. She’s a very good person who’s been put in a horrible situation – and could she ever just move on with life?

Dearbhla Walsh: That was such a shock, the success of The Prick in TV terms, and how much people loved to hate him. And then by doing this [second season]and I don’t just want to say, “Here’s Prick, Generation 2.”

Anne-Marie, what were your thoughts on Grace’s relationship, and how she ended up with an abuser twice?

Anne-Marie Duff: Unfortunately, I think many women and men who are in unhealthy romantic relationships are repeat offenders until they figure out why they’re doing it. There’s a terrible inevitability to it, and that’s what makes it so tragic, because he seems like the ideal man. I mean, Owen is so handsome and so charming, it’s perfect casting, so you feel devastated, the audience. And then Eva gets a little involved with him and her to make the discovery, that’s so complex and smart. But unfortunately, I think there’s a sad inevitability to it, right?

Have you worked on a backstory for Grace and why she tends toward abusive relationships?

Duff: I think we’ve all talked about the fact that we [the Garvey sisters] lost our parents very young. Trauma evolves differently for everyone. Some people wear it like a fedora hat. Some people just do everything they can to heal themselves. Some people are collapses. And I think she was trying to find safety in someone else’s spine, and that never works.

That last scene at the edge of the cliff was shot on location in the middle of winter. How close to the edge were you actually photographing?

Horgan: We were up right away [to the edge]but we all had armor. Terrifying. We also all had safety buddies with us. But it was there. You get a weird confidence feeling from having the armor on, and you really shouldn’t lean against it or the fear goes away and we look way too comfortable.

Walsh: I remember giving you the note, “Okay, can we do that again, and this time can you look like it’s really dangerous?”

Sarah Greene: Dearbhla had to remind us that something like that is actually quite scary. But the weather that evening was absolutely chaotic. Every time we went to set it rained, so we spent most of the night together in our trailer, napping in bed. It was a very nice time. The crew was soaked. But yeah, it was a real cliff, it’s not CGI, it’s not a studio somewhere. Dearbhla really wanted to put us on the edge of the cliff.

Eva Hewson: It was several, several, several evenings and several cliffs. And then there were two or three nights where they literally restrained us, and we climbed off a cliff and had to do the scenes hanging from a cliff. Those scenes were hilarious and miserable at the same time, because it rained every time. They’d say, ‘Okay, we’re going to have a twenty-minute drought here. Let’s get the girls out, get them in their armor, ready to go. As soon as they put us in those harnesses, which took about 10 minutes, it started raining again. So you could just laugh and go crazy, but those nights are the nights where we really bonded. So it will be a lot of fun, but at the end you will be really cold and exhausted.

Eva Birth List: Yes, that weather was terrible. We were hanging on the side of the mountain in the middle of the night, wearing harnesses. The ground was very slippery because it was so wet. It happened every time, by the time they left us and we were about to roll, it just started raining again. And health and safety is just like, “Cut! No. Get up again.” And all night long we just try to grab something. Meanwhile, poor Owen is literally lying on a rock in the sea as the waves actually crash over him.

Horgan: Poor Owen’s condition. Whenever he came in, whenever we got a little bit of time, like 10 minutes or whatever, to relax, he would just sit there, he wouldn’t even leave. [the harness].

Birth list: [Eventually] he just made the decision, “I’m not going to keep going up and down.” Because he actually – literally – climbed the mountain. So he just said, “I’m actually great, I’m great.” And he lay on that rock splashed by the ocean for a good six hours, I would say.

Walsh: But everyone wanted to do their own stunts. There was no one who said, “I won’t do that.”

Ultimately, the sisters decide to save Ian. Sharon, why do you think Eva is calling?

Horgan: Because of everything that happened, and they’re not murderers. They react a lot, the sisters – I mean, obviously not in the first season, that’s all a big choice – but for me it was almost more like, ‘How can I make it believable that they’re taking Ian’s shit post-Angelica? ‘ But really, I think there’s a survival mechanism in it. They already have the feeling that they are being watched very closely. There is protection for Angelica, even in that moment, but the choice to save him – I think it’s simply that they’re not bad people. All these things happened to them, and this is one thing they can reclaim. And it’s a big risk, and they’re taking a risk, and God knows what will happen, but deep down Eva knew it was the right thing to do, and it was.

Walsh: And I also think Blanaid is a big part of this series.

Horgan: Yes, [Eva] wanted to make the right choices for her.

Walsh: And I think it’s very difficult for ordinary people to kill someone in real life. It remained very grounded in that.

Horgan: There’s a huge difference between putting someone in the trunk of a car and actually pushing them off the edge of a cliff and watching them die. There was nothing in them where that would have felt like a natural choice or the right choice. And once you cross that line, there’s no turning back.

Becka has been one of the most vocal about letting Ian live. Eve, did you think this was the right decision?

Hewson: I thought it was very clever. And it also showed the reality of who they were. It’s very smart. No one actually gets killed in season 2, and in season 1 they don’t actually kill anyone, it’s Grace who does it. And they end up in places where you think, “Oh, they’re murderers. They try to kill people,” but they never actually figure it out, whether because of their poor attempts to do so or because something morally holds them back. I think Mina was an accidental murder. But I just think at that moment [on the cliff] — Becka is the youngest, and she is said to be the most innocent. And I think it made her get to the root of the problem. They all realize that no matter how much they hate this man, they are not going to kill him.

Sarah, what does Bebe think about letting Ian live?

Green: Becka is right: we are not murderers. And I think it’s brilliant, just very clever of Sharon that they never actually kill anyone. People have died, but it’s not really their fault. I think yes, she would want him to live.

Birth list: I like it when things aren’t stuck. It just gives you opportunities.

Speaking of which, Sharon, do you have any thoughts for a storyline for the third season?

Horgan: I mean, you know, we talk about it all the time.

These interviews have been edited and condensed.