Reese Witherspoon (Madeline MacKenzie), Nicole Kidman (Celeste Wright), Shailene Woodley (Jane Chapman), Laura Dern (Renata Klein), Zoë Kravitz (Bonnie Carlson), Meryl Streep (Mary Louise Wright), Adam Scott (Ed Mackenzie), James Tupper (Nathan Carlson), Gordon Klein (Jeffrey Nordling), Kathryn Newton (Abigail Carlson), Iain Armitage (Ziggy Chapman), Robin Weigert (Dr. Amanda Reisman), Merrin Dungey (Detective Adrienne Quinlan), Sarah Sokolovic (Tori Bachman), Becky Ann Baker (Judge Marylin Cipriani), Martin Donovan (Martin Howard), Merrin Dungey (Detective Adrienne Quinlan), Crystal Fox (Elizabeth Howard), Poorna Jagannathan (Katie Richmond), Denis O’Hare (Ira Farber), Douglas Smith (Corey Brockfield), Sarah Sokolovic (Tori Bachman), Christopher Backus (Joe), Nelly Buchet (Juliette), Chloe Coleman (Skye Carlson), Goreti Da Silva (Clerk), Grant Davis (Jason Raddick), Eve Gordon (Dr. Danielle Cortland), Lon Gowan (Robert Johannson), Mykal-Michelle Harris (Young Bonnie), Hartlyn Hilsman (Child), Harry Irby (Detective), Khalilah Joi (Young Elizabeth), John Marshall Jones (John Davidson), Chad Mountain (Bailiff), Duvier Poviones (Daniel), Amanda Reed (Diane), Davin Ringer (Bailiff), Travis Schuldt (Michael Something), Larry Sullivan (Oren Berg), James Trevena (Brad Gorcey)

It is noticeable that two of the characters who had the least exposure during Big Little Lies’ first season, Bonnie and Renata, have really come to the front of the story this time. Bonnie, naturally, because she was the one to push Perry down the steps and has been wrestling with her guilt since it happened. And Renata (Laura Dern) has turned into a brilliant outsider just circling the group, monstrous but sympathetic, losing everything at the same drip-drip pace as her grand mansion empties itself out. So far, Dern has been this season’s MVP. But this penultimate episode was all about having one’s day in court, and it seemed to play out as Perry’s murder trial, rather than the custody battle that it was. The Bad Mother balanced several “bad” mothers, across two key strands: Bonnie’s move towards confessing what she had done, and Celeste’s ordeal in court, where she was dismantled by an outstanding Denis O’Hare, trawling through her self-destructive behaviour with visual aids, thanks to Mary Louise paying for her daughter-in-law to be followed. In the same way that, say, Line of Duty’s interrogation scenes often go on long after they cease to be comfortable viewing, I found it excruciating to watch Celeste answer his increasingly intrusive questions, in front of the judge and in front of her friends. His repetition of, “Are you really over your sickness?” gave proceedings the ring of a nightmare.

Bonnie’s confession was a written one, at first, but she fantasised throughout the episode about the actions she thought about taking. This, too, has felt dream-like and uncertain, and her ambiguous mental state been one of the best parts of this season. She imagined smothering her mother, speaking to the detective, and standing up in court and simply saying: “I did it.” In the end, she spoke to her dying mother, and gave us a succinct overview of the struggles she had been through in her life. She told Elizabeth everything that she blamed her for, and said that her violence also inspired her to push Perry. Everything else seemed trivial by comparison, but I was pleased to see Ed and Madeline inching towards reconciliation, though surely she will break the Liars’ pact and tell him what truly happened in next week’s finale. Corey claims not to be an undercover cop – we’ll see – but he did sum up the situation for Jane, when he told her, via Detective Quinlan, that one of them will crack eventually. Perhaps they will, in the finale. It’s called “I Want to Know”, and don’t we all.