‘Big Little Lies’ Part Three Recap: Emotions Run High Between The Mothers

In Part Two of HBO‘s Big Little Lies, Madeline (Reese Witherspoon) fights with Renata (Laura Dern) and plans an outing on the same day as Renata’s daughter’s birthday. Jane (Shailene Woodley) has to deal with her son being accused of abuse at school. Celeste (Nicole Kidman) faces more physical abuse from her husband.

‘Big Little Lies’ Part Three Recap: “Living The Dream”

In the opening scene, Jane is seen staring at the ocean, remembering a time when she stripped from her clothes and walked into the ocean, It is presumed that Jane goes into the ocean to kill herself but not explicitly stated. She is then woken from her daydream by her son calling her to make dinner.

Renata talks with her daughter Amabelle (Ivy George) about her upcoming birthday, explaining that some of the children will be going to Disney’s Frozen on Ice instead of the birthday party. When Amabelle seems visibly upset about Chloe (Darby Camp) not coming, Renata takes it into her own hands to try and convince Madeline to bring Chloe to the party and cancel the whole Disney trip. Renata’s pleads do nothing for Madeline and Renata screams as she throws her phone into the pool.

Celeste and her husband Perry (Alexander Skarsgård) begin arguing again over a decision she made about the boys. When Perry doesn’t like what she is saying, he once again uses physical violence to try and scare her. He grabs her by the neck and begins choking her. She pushes him off and says “If you ever touch me like that again, I will leave you.”

When Abigail (Kathryn Newton) begins acting out at school, Madeline is called in for a meeting between the three of them. Abigail explains her dislike of her home life and says that she wants to go live with her dad and Bonnie. A visibly upset Madeline is forced to agree, trying not to argue with her daughter anymore.

Perry returns to Celeste with a diamond necklace for her neck, apologizing for his actions. The two of them agree to go to therapy where they discuss their marital problems. While the subject of physical abuse is lied about at first, it comes up as the session progresses.

At her husbands office, Renata talks about her need to be a perfect parent. As she complains about her downward spiral as both a woman and a mother, her husband shows general interest in her for the first time in a long time. The two of them have very loud sex on his desk.

At Jane’s house, Madeline comes over to help Jane make Ziggy’s (Iain Armitage) family tree for a school project. When Ziggy begins asking about his father’s name, Jane can’t give him an answer. Ziggy acts out in rage and slams a chair across the room. Jane sits Madeline down and reveals that she met a nice man by the name of Mr. Banks one night and when they got back to her hotel room, he raped her and then left. This reveals the night from the beginning where Jane remembers running into the ocean, this time letting us know that it was an attempt to cleanse herself of her rape many years ago.

In her car, Madeline begins crying over the story she just heard from Jane. This is one of the first real emotional outbreaks we see from Madeline that doesn’t result in ager.

In the closing scenes, Renata and her husband seem to have found real connection, Celeste and Perry look hopeful about working out their differences, Jane hallucinates about someone breaking in and shooting them and Madeline sits in Abigail’s empty room crying.

Check out a sneak preview of next week’s episode below: