[This story contains major spoilers from Bad Sisters season one and the first two episodes of season two]

Following the success of the first season of Bad Sisters on Apple TV+, creator and star Sharon Horgan had the challenge of coming up with a fresh storyline.

In the first season, four of the five starring Garvey sisters plot different ways to kill John Paul (Claes Bang), the abusive husband of their sister, Grace (Anne-Marie Duff), only to have John Paul die at the hand of Grace herself. With that villain vanquished, Horgan still wanted season two to have the same kind of energy as well as the continued emotional pull for the audience toward the sisters. [I was] just thinking about how to give everyone the same level of entertainment and story and emotion, really. How to make it feel like the first season, but feel completely different as well. To keep the sort of DNA of the show, but do something unexpected, Horgan tells The Hollywood Reporter.

How can we make it even better? adds Dearbhla Walsh, executive producer and director of the series.

And so Horgan, who also stars in the show as Eva, the eldest Garvey sister, turned to a storyline spurred on by the consequences of Graces actions in season one, and the coverup by her sisters and others around them.

The main thing was emotionally dealing with the fallout of what happened to all those sisters in season one, and how they move on from it and and how they get away with it until they dont, Horgan said.

At the start of season two, which picks up in Dublin two years after the events of season one, Grace, has some rare moments of joy, including holding her bachelorette party, at the racetrack with her sisters, as well as a backyard wedding to her new partner Ian Reilly, played by newcomer to the cast Owen McDonnell. Shooting those scenes was also a nice emotional break for Duff.

The day of the races was just the best fun, when we bet on the winning horse and we go wild. I loved that, because I got to be a different Grace. Also, the wedding was a glorious couple of days. And we had everything. We had blue skies and hurricanes, and it was just classic, Duff tells THR.

In addition to McDonnell, Killing Eves Fiona Shaw joins the series as the new character, Angelica, sister to Roger, Graces former neighbor, who helped in the coverup of John Pauls death. As Angelica, Shaw barges, largely unwanted, into social situations, cracks jokes and inserts herself into the Garvey family drama with both a sanctimonious and a probing attitude. Shaw was the clear choice for the role, Horgan says, adding that she and Walsh courted her and were incredibly nervous to meet her.

We all find her funny, but, even in things like Harry Potter, I always just thought That is a very, very funny woman, Horgan said. She reminds me of Molly Shannon, she has such a physicality to her performance. Shes so known for great, weighty stage roles, and she can kind of do anything, but I just always thought she was incredibly funny, I want to lean into that more so. And it was just so great because she gave us that and more.

The fun of the first episode quickly turns, Duff notes, as the police visit Graces home after discovering the body of John Pauls father in a suitcase in the lake (a death from season one unrelated to the sisters), resurfacing suspicions about the circumstances surrounding John Pauls death. As the pressure builds, Grace decides to tell Ian that she was responsible for her late husbands death. Ian disappears shortly thereafter.

At the beginning of episode one, shes in such a lovely place, but she confesses so early on in that episode that the stakes are so high. By episode two, shes just this hummingbird, isnt she? And she cant land. She has nowhere to land. So I felt like that was the energy that I had to keep holding on. It was much more taut, whereas in season one, shes becoming as invisible as she can be. In this season, shes just trying to stay above the water, Duff says.

Graces anxiety builds as her sisters also begin to question her recent actions, including her flares of anger, and the second episode ends with Grace leaving a panicked voicemail to Eva asking for help. The episode then cuts to the sound of a car crash, sirens and Blanaid (Saise Quinn), Graces daughter, crying in a police car that arrives at Evas house.

Like in season one, which used time jumps to show John Paul dead in the present, interspersed with flashbacks to the sisters each trying to kill him, Horgan wanted to include time jumps in this season. The first episode opens with the sisters popping the trunk of a car at night overlooking a cliff, before reverting back to present day, while the second episode includes some gaps between Graces frantic actions.

The shocking Grace ending after the first two episodes will loom large over season two, with viewers hoping for answers heading into episode three.

Theres lots of ways to tell a story, Horgan said. In the first season, we had the jump between two timelines. And so I think we all creatively wanted some kind of playing with time. Its nice to give an audience something to sort of try and figure out over the course of the season.

***

Bad Sisters season two releases new episodes Wednesdays on Apple TV+.