Dead to Me Season 2: The 5 most bonkers plot twists
By Erin Qualey
Dead to Me Season 2: Come for the complex friendships and stunning kitchen porn, stay for the jaw-dropping plot twists that turn the series on a dime. Caution: SPOILERS.
Anchored by the dynamic duo of Linda Cardellini and Christina Applegate, Dead to Me Season 2 is back and more compelling than ever. The series picks up right where it left off, with the scandalous image of Jen (Applegate) and Judy (Cardellini) presiding above a dead Steve (James Marsden) floating in Jen’s otherwise pristine inground pool. After an entire season of Judy hiding the fact that she killed Jen’s husband Ted in a freak car accident, the series came full circle as Jen inadvertently delivered some karmic retribution by offing the man that Judy loved in the Season 1 finale.
While many critics praised the first season, they also stated that a second season would be unnecessary overkill. However, so far, Season 2 has mostly been received with open arms. In this writer’s opinion, the new season does get off to a bit of a slow start plot-wise, but simply being back in the presence of these two dynamic, screwed up women is more than half the fun of this particular series. Then, as the season ramps up and the secrets become too much to bear, relationships begin to bend and fracture, and things really get cookin’.
Dead to Me Season 2 captures many things that were so great about the original season. Everything revolves around Jen and Judy, and their complicated bond is like a estrogen-laced supernova that pulls everything into its wake. The series continues to address all sorts of female issues such as motherhood, infertility, white female privilege, sexual assault, verbal abuse, rage, skewed power dynamics, and more. However, at the same time, it manages to be a delightful escape, pulling us out of the everyday and into a thrilling storyline that often manages to shock and delight.
Come for the complex friendships and stunning kitchen porn, stay for the jaw-dropping plot twists that turn the series on a dime. Here are the five most bonkers plot twists in Dead to Me Season 2.
NOTE: Spoilers follow, so if you’re not caught up on the entire new season yet, go grab some orange wine and chill out for a sec. Come back later when you’ve watched.
Jen Rages Against the Steve
The big cliffhanger at the conclusion of Season 1 was that Jen had murdered Steve Wood. We didn’t quite know the exact circumstances of Steve’s death, but it seemed safe to assume that he had threatened Jen and then she had shot him in self defense. Wrong!
A series of flashbacks illustrate that Jen lost it when Steve started hurling hurtful insults at her. He berated Jen, saying that her husband Ted threw himself in front of Judy’s car because he wanted to die to get out of his marriage. The choice insults that Steve uses to rankle Jen cannot be reprinted here, but suffice to say that the man knows how to get under a woman’s skin. Jen snaps and loses it, smashing a toy wooden bird into Steve’s skull over and over again. Bye bye, Steve. Helloooooo Ben….
Twinsies!
TGIJM: Thank Goodness It’s James Marsden! He’s back, y’all! And better than ever.
At the conclusion of the Dead to Me Season 2 opener, Jen and Judy hear a knock at the door. Who could it be? Turns out it’s Steve! WHAT?! HOW COULD IT BE?!?! Oh… no… wait… it’s Ben, Steve’s “good” twin! He’s back home to help his family deal with his missing brother and his handsome Steve-like face gives Jen all of the feelings.
Everything is better with a giant dollop of Marsden, and Dead to Me gets an electric boost from his presence. Of course, the circumstances of his surprise twin return beg comparisons to a plot from a soap opera, but Marsden and his goofy, dimpled charm make it all work so well. The fact that he’s now playing a character that’s the polar opposite of the one he portrayed last season is also super fun because he’s got the acting chops to pull off the total 180. And let’s face it, that rugged mug isn’t too shabby to look at either. I think we can all agree that James Marsden should just be cast in everything from now on. Hollywood, are you listening?
Neighborhood Full of Secrets
Jen isn’t the only one keeping secrets in her idyllic Laguna Beach community. Her neighbor Jeff (Marc Evan Jackson), husband of Karen with the orange wine, is also engaging in some deceptive behavior of his own.
When Judy and Jen go out of town to bury Steve’s body, they decide to stay overnight at a local motel on the way back, as a treat. And who do they see canoodling in the hallway but Jeff and his new beau, Sebastian. Jeff begs the two women not to say a word, and because they have their own issues to deal with, they don’t.
Later, when Jen has to deal with some gnarly spray paint vandalism on her garage door, she goes over to see if her friendly neighbors picked up anything on their street cam. Clearly in need of a rap sesh, Jeff rambles on about his infidelity and how he finally came clean to poor Karen about the situation. Jen could not give one single solitary eff about Jeff, so she tries to fast forward through that part of the convo and onto what she really needs: the footage. She spots the graffiti culprit – Parker, Charlie’s ex – and then cashes in her favor with Jeff to ask him to delete all their street footage from the past month. Jeff obliges because, honestly, it’s the least he could do.
Judy Gets Lucky… And Then Very Unlucky
Throughout Season 2, Judy engages in a flirtation with cutie chef Michelle (Natalie Morales). They smoke joints together, commiserate over difficult parents, and just basically vibe hardcore every time they see one another. Cardellini and Morales have excellent screen chemistry together, and the pairing really works. Hooking up is a foregone conclusion, but then, when they finally do, Judy hits a roadblock.
Turns out that Michelle’s ex is actually Detective Ana Perez (Diana Maria Riva), the very same detective who is assigned to both the hit-and-run case as well as the missing persons case for Steve Wood. And she already has her eye on Judy. This is an unexpected twist that temporarily complicates Judy’s life, but ultimately pays dividends.
Legit the Entirety of Episode 10
Try not to get whiplash, because episode 10, “Where Do We Go From Here”, is a doozy, my friends. First, Jen and Perez head out into the murder forest to find Steve’s body. But it turns out that Perez has a personal history that makes her sympathetic to Jen’s plight. Perez takes her cop hat off for a hot sec and treats Jen like a person and a mother who has children she wants to protect.
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Shortly after letting Jen off the hook, Perez also unknowingly delivers another giant can of WTF when she returns Judy’s beloved paintings to her. This whole time, sweet, sentimental Judy has been leading everyone to believe that she wanted her paintings back so she could sell them or maybe just keep them for emotional reasons. Nope. She cracks those babies open and reveals a flurry of cold, hard cash. She might have an empty heart from her crappy childhood, but at least now she has some sweet stacks to fill up her pockets.
As Jen and Judy celebrate their newfound financial freedom, they also stumble upon one of Jen’s successes – a new stop sign. The women cheer and then slowly pull out into the intersection when – SLAM! – they’re T-boned by a station wagon. And who’s the culprit? Ben Wood! After presumably receiving news that Steve’s body had been found, he went out to grab a bottle of alcohol, relapsed, and then was driving around Jen’s neighborhood while severely intoxicated. Once Ben shakes off the impact of the accident, he drunkenly flees the scene. And the cycle of death, destruction, and hit-and-run car accidents continues ever onward in the Dead to Me saga as Season 2 signs off on yet another bonkers cliffhanger.
Will there be a Dead to Me Season 3? Only time will tell, but the biggest plot twist of them all would be if Netflix doesn’t renew this fantastically addictive series ASAP.
‘Dead to Me’ Seasons 1 and 2 are currently available for streaming on Netflix.