There were plenty of revelations during Big Little Lies Season 2 Episode 5, but the last couple of minutes revealed a potential bombshell.

Things get upended all the time on Big Little Lies, and "Kill Me" was downright explosive. 

Just when it seemed like Jane might be moving onto a happier chapter of her life, Corey comes under suspicion. Why does everything have to be too good to be true? 

Life isn't a fairytale, nor does it play out like our favorite television shows and movies. In this case, we might be thanking our lucky stars.

The personal secrets of the Monterey Five are much more salacious than Perry's death. He got what was coming to him. But the coverup is tearing into their lives so that they don't have a good focus on everything else.

It may have been Jane and Celeste who bore the brunt of Perry's hostility toward women, but it's their kids who are will pay for a lifetime for actions that were not their own.

A recent visit to my elementary school yearbooks reminded me that the way we see kids treat each other in entertainment is nothing in comparison with real life. 

Big Little Lies Review: Tell Tale Hearts

Kids are brutal. They have a tiny toolbox with which to deal with some of the most unpleasant experiences they'll ever face, and they depend on their parents to guide them and keep them safe.

But parents aren't perfect. They especially find it difficult to remember that they provide little windows into their kids' souls, and their actions will form who the eventually become outside of their parents' influence.

That was all over "Kill Me," as Max and Josh protected their new sibling, Ziggy, when the school bully took Ziggy to task for his father the rapist, as well as Amabella's worries over being broke, and Chloe quietly giving her father a shoulder to lean on.

Kids are always reacting to their parents. Max and Josh use violence to solve problems and tell Celeste not to be a bitch because that's what Perry did.

His disrespect for Celeste has traveled to their boys, even if the boys love their mother very much. They also pout and worry about how Celeste perceives them to the point they're willing to do whatever she wants to secure her love.

Celeste doesn't even know what she's doing to them. Even asking them to tell the truth comes with a caveat. Tell the truth that you want to live here with mommy. She's defining their truth.

That's not to say that Max and Josh want to live with Mary Louise, either. It's just notable that while Celeste thinks she's doing right by her boys, she's also asking them to frame their truth in a way that will sway the outcome of the case.

Mary Louise has a big mouth, and she cannot refrain from saying whatever she thinks at any given moment. That should play to her detriment, but I'd like Celeste to play dirty with her mother-in-law as Mary Louise is playing dirty with her.

Mary Louise is too confident. That has to come back to bite her.

She's quick to point out the flaws in other mothers whether it be that they work or take sleep medication or have to deal with unsavory life circumstances like bankruptcy as a result of their husband's actions.

Mary Louise played the passive-aggressive matriarch while at the attorney's office, as she tried to color the perception of the judge in her favor by pointing out that she's not bitter, but merely oh, so worried about her grandkids.

Celeste hasn't been playing the same game as Mary Louise for a couple of reasons. Her lawyer has told her to hold back, and Celeste also doesn't really believe there's a chance Mary Louise will get custody.

Except it's a genuine possibility, especially since it's suggested her attorney is in the pocket of the police and working another angle by taking the case.

With all of the women on the witness list for Mary Louise, the mother might be taking the case for her purposes instead of actual concern for Max and Josh, too.

She wants all of the women on the stand because they'll be forced to tell the truth about what happened to Perry. But we already know she doesn't want to face the whole truth about her son.

Big Little Lies Review: The End of the World

Mary Louise is digging with the hope that Perry wasn't the rotten apple others say he was, but even if the truth of the lie comes out, it's nothing in comparison to how he carried himself.

Celeste needs to think more about Mary Louise's motive and less about sex with Perry and Mary Louise's audacity in trying to get custody. She needs her head in the game.

Celeste needs to share with her attorney all that she knows about Mary Louise and Perry and his dead brother so the heat can be turned up under Mary Louise's ass.

Celeste needs to act a little bit more like Renata.

Renata wants to look everything right in the face. She even tried to save the collective asses of the Monterey Five by facing down Mary Louise in her house, but that backfired terribly.

Renata's life is crumbling around her, but she keeps pushing as if she's not rowing against the current. It's quite admirable, and it's likely why she managed to climb the ladders of corporate and societal success.

She doesn't waste a lot of time contemplating her misery but pushes back her chair and rises from the table to make her dreams come true.

Can she be a match for Mary Louise and the detective, though? That's going to be rough.

Proof that childhood forms who you are long after it's over is Bonnie. 

It's taken a while to make sense of the visions she's been revisiting of her as a little girl with her mother. As my mother always asked, "what did you do," I mistakenly thought Bonnie had always been trouble.

Did you diffuse things? Sure. Did you stop shit from getting worse? Sometimes. But did you protect me?

Bonnie

• Permalink: Did you diffuse things? Sure. Did you stop shit from getting worse? Sometimes. But did you...

Now it appears Bonnie grew up with an abusive mother, an alcoholic who couldn't contain her rage. Bonnie's relationship with her father is as a result of him doing too little to protect her. 

Elizabeth came in like a tornado upending Bonnie's misery by adding more. She acted as if she had the utmost concern for Bonnie, but could a mother who treated her daughter so poorly really have her interests at heart years later?

Martin: She started to talk this afternoon. To mumble. I had no idea what she was trying to say. I tried and I tried, and I finally got it.
Bonnie: What'd she say?
Martin: She said you're drowning. Sometimes the things she feels and sees turn out to be right, and now I'm worried.
Bonnie: Dad...
Martin: What's goin' on?

• Permalink: She said you're drowning.

She didn't seem like the kind of woman who would want to give up so easily, but Elizabeth chose to lay the burden of her mangled life at Bonnie's feet. 

If Elizabeth had visions of Bonnie drowning before she had her stroke, how does she think asking Bonnie to end her life will affect her?

Honestly, when Bonnie was outside of the police station again, I thought maybe she did kill her mother and was going to report it to ease her conscience about what happened with Perry. That still could be.

Most of all, learning about Bonnie's childhood puts perspective on her reaction to Perry abusing Celeste. While all of Celeste's friends stood there screaming and whatnot, it was only Bonnie who was urged to act. She did to Perry what she could never do to her mother.

And then there's Corey coming out of the police station. That was like letting the air out of a balloon. All of the happiness Jane has been grasping was suddenly in question.

The good news is that Jane couldn't go through with sleeping with Corey, but the bad news Ziggy already has an affinity for him, and Ziggy has been through enough.

Big Little Lies Review: She Knows

If Mary Louise's attorney is in the pocket of the police, then it wouldn't be at all surprising if that hapless detective sent a plant in to get to know Jane hoping she'd get comfortable and spill what happened with Perry.

That's despicable for many reasons, but the real sadness here is that what happened with Perry shouldn't be a criminal matter. He was kicking Celeste. Bonnie reacted naturally. That he died was unfortunate, but he wouldn't have wanted live with himself anyway.

Can you imagine Perry forced to admit the way he treated Celeste let alone answering to rape? He was a bully. Bullies are often overpowered just like what the kids did to Brian McPherson. They're all smoke, and that's why they pick on those who cannot well protect themselves.

If Corey is a plant, the only thing that will keep her from spiraling out of control is her love for Ziggy. But another scenario is that Detective Quinlan is trying to get information. She's not above using Celeste's kids for information on the worthless case, so why not Corey?

Madeline and Ed at that couples retreat was horrifying. It's entirely unclear what hugging random strangers in a room has to do with the intimacy of marriage, but count me out.

I balk at shaking a stranger's hand during Catholic Mass (when I'm visiting those who attend), so hugging it out when you're already vulnerable  seems crazy.

But Madeline and Ed can't continue as they have been going so far, so what can they do? So far, they've had an enlightening discussion on the drive home.

Ed: On our first date, it was like you were interviewing me. Not so much for the soulmate position or lover but rather father, the stable provider. Abigail was ripped apart, and you were determined to fix that. To not make the mistake of going down the lust path again, you had a certain criteria, and I checked all the boxes, so you made the sound, practical choice. It's not something I couldn't make peace with. I did. But then you got unsound. You decided to make impractical choices, one being to fuck Joseph Bachman, which left me with the most difficult choice of all -- to walk out with my dignity or to stay with a woman who I simply cannot trust.
Madeline: You can trust me to love you more deeply than I've ever loved anybody. Can you trust me not to fuck things up again? Maybe not. I don't know if I can trust myself with that. I didn't trust my parents' marriage, and the one I had with Nathan was not to be believed. And I don't know what it is. I don't. Maybe it's some unconscious, preemptive thing where I want to be the destroyer, not the destroyer. I don't understand, and I rack my brain about it, but I... Cause all I really want is to be married to you. Just happily married to you. But I must have low self-esteem, or I fucking hate myself or something because look what I've done. If I fuck up again, it will not be with infidelity. I give you my word. All my future mistakes will be brand new ones.

• Permalink: You can trust me to love you more deeply than I've ever loved anybody. Can you trust me not...

Everything about that conversation speaks volumes. Ed always felt Madeline was settling when she chose him, but he loved her enough to overlook it. Madeline, meanwhile, didn't promise to be mistake-free going forward, and that will be paramount to their survival.

It's women's proclivity for the bad boys in life that has worked its way into their marriage. But there isn't a need to trade excitement for love. Madeline only had to open her heart to the man Ed is to discover that. 

Will Ed want to sow some wild oats while he's feeling insecure about his future with Madeline?

Tori sure wants him to do that. Or does she? What is her game? If she's trying to get payback for what Madeline did with Joseph, having Joseph in the room while she hits on Ed is one way to go about it.

But surely Ed wouldn't want to go to those lengths to get even with Madeline. He's not sick and vengeful, even when faced with new tits and a free piece of ass. Just no. Not my Ed!

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That event, together with Bonnie witnessing Corey leaving the police station (and that he might have spotted her), turned an otherwise regular episode of Big Little Lies into a rather unsettling one.

You can read the full recap by clicking the link at the top of the page. What do you think of this turn of events? Drop your thoughts in a comment below!

Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic. She's a member of the Critic's Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, conversing with cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film with anyone who will listen. Follow her on X and email her here at TV Fanatic.