For all of the lethal barbs, snappy comebacks, and compliments dripping with poison condescension that first defined Big Little Lies, the show’s most powerful moments came when no one was speaking at all.
The seventh and final episode of HBO’s miniseries let snap all the tension that had coiled into knots over the weeks, somehow both suddenly and in excruciating slow motion. And no scene illustrated that simultaneous horror and release like the climactic one of the finale — and really, the entire series — when all the women stared at each other in silent urgency and immediately understood everything without saying a single word.
If my calculations are correct, there are approximately 10,000 things happening all at once in this scene. But the most obvious revelation is one that the entire series had been building to: Celeste and Jane share an abuser in Perry, Celeste’s violent husband who had, as it turns out, also raped Jane years earlier.
Jane’s eyes stretch wide with shock. Madeline, jaw setting with determined anger, urges Celeste to look at their friend and understand — which she immediately does. Just offscreen, their erstwhile rivals Renata and Bonnie connect the dots, their faces ashen and taut with alarm.
In seconds, and with the threatening man in question standing mere feet away, these women trust each other completely. It’s an unflinching instant of wordless recognition, an understanding so deep that speaking its underlying fear aloud is unnecessary.
It’s a feeling of awful, vital solidarity — one that I, and countless other women, know all too well.
Big Little Lies’ most riveting moments are the silent ones between women
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