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), Ivy George (Amabella Klein), Crystal Fox (Elizabeth Howard), Poorna Jagannathan (Katie Richmond), Denis O’Hare (Ira Farber), Douglas Smith (Corey Brockfield), Teddy Blum (Young Perry), Chloe Coleman (Skye Carlson), Adam Cropper (Cashier), Goreti Da Silva (Clerk), Eve Gordon (Dr. Danielle Cortland), Mykal-Michelle Harris (Young Bonnie), Khalilah Joi (Young Elizabeth), Asher McDonell (3-Year-Old Max), Brayden McDonell (3-Year-Old Josh), Chad Mountain (Bailiff), Maverick Thompson (Raymond), James Trevena (Brad Gorcey), Taylor Treadwell (Young Mary Louise)

“This is not some put a ribbon on it, bygones be bygones ending, OK?” Ed may have been talking about the renewal of his and Madeline’s vows, but this finale (and perhaps the last ever Big Little Lies) was a put-a-ribbon-on-it send-off. Bathed in blue light, it was an episode dedicated to tying up what few loose ends there really were, and to its characters realising they would tell no more lies. Not even big little ones. The teaser had set up a disintegration of the group, sneakily taking Celeste’s “the friendship is the lie” line and making it seem as if it would all fall apart for the Monterey Five. Ultimately, though, solidarity prevailed, and as Bonnie made her way to the station to hand herself in, they were right there with her. It was no beach picnic, but it was, in its own way, warm nonetheless. And it was fine, as endings go.

The much anticipated courtroom showdown did not play out with the fireworks I expected, though to watch Kidman and Streep go at it with relative restraint, at least at first, was one of the more elegant turns this season. Celeste was clean, quick and efficient – professional, even – in her questioning of her mother-in-law, until she brought up the death of Raymond, and Perry’s account of the tragedy, which placed the blame squarely on Mary Louise’s temper. Once again, the stress of a cross-examination so horrible and so intrusive made it difficult to watch; topping it off with a clip of Perry beating Celeste, filmed by one of their young sons, did little to alleviate the tension.

The judge said last week that she had made her decision, and when it came to it, it was as expected: there would be conditions, but taking the boys from their mother would only make their lives more difficult. Celeste won. There have been a lot of these narrative cul de sacs this season, and it’s a shame the big custody battle storyline didn’t avoid it either. It left me with the sense that none of this had been particularly necessary (a criticism that could have been levelled at the whole season). I have loved watching actors of this calibre share the screen, and there have been moments of true glory – thank god for Laura Dern, whose Starbucks meltdown and trainset massacre were the only moments to really quicken the pulse. But it has felt more slight than the first outing, a showcase of strong performances in need of a plot to match them. There were no twists, no shocks, no cruelties, just the story wrapping itself up with a ribbon.

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.