Firefly Lane Episode 2 recap: Is [SPOILER] dead?

Firefly Lane Episode 2 opens during Kate and Tully’s teen years. Remember that party Tully was escorted to shortly after arriving in town? There she’s touted around like arm candy as she indulges herself in a glass of beer.

Then we skip back to the present and catch with Johnny and Tully. Their conversation serves as a brief info dump on Johnny and Kate’s relationship and its subsequent downfall. Johnny claims he left Kate because she wanted him to. She had feelings for Travis, the PTA guy. Tully says that Kate just wanted Johnny to fight for her, especially since they never had an affair — just exchanged a few flirty texts. She thinks Kate was playing “divorce chicken” and Johnny lost.

We also learn that Johnny is one of Tully’s producers on her show, and she’s upset because he’s planning to accept a job as a war correspondent in Iraq.

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They start recalling their glory days, and Johnny asks Tully if she ever considers what might have happened if they had made different choices in the past. Instead of answering, Tully tells Johnny there’s clean sheets for him and leaves him to finish off Max’s Krispy Kreme donuts.

In the ’80s, a younger Kate and Tully primp for work, and joke like friends do in front of the mirror. Tully teases Kate about her crush on Johnny, which Kate denies, and tells her she could always go for their cameraman Mutt, who apparently has a “boner” for Kate. Not that she believes it.

Present-day Kate and Tully are not on good terms. Tully stops by Kate’s house with mimosas and to catch up with Kate after she bailed early on the party the night before. Kate knows about Marah’s consent form, and she’s pissed at Tully for crossing a line with her daughter. Tully thinks Kate is overreacting. Their argument ends with Tully storming out of the house in anger and flicking Kate off in the process.

Firefly Lane Episode 2 recap: What happens to Tully at the party?

Post-argument, we return to the teen years and find out what happened to Tully at the party. Given the ominous vibe of the opening scene and Pat Richmond’s jerkish behavior, you might guess what happens, but that doesn’t make it any less upsetting. Pat coerces a very drunk Tully into the woods and rapes her, leaving her to find her own way home after and calling her a tease.

On her walk back home, Tully finds Kate reading outside near her horses and opens up about what happened. Kate immediately comforts Tully and is upset on her behalf. She thinks they should tell someone, but Tully begs her not to. She doesn’t think anyone would believe her since she was drunk, so Kate hugs her instead. It seems like this is the real starting point for their eventual friendship.

Tully struggles to deal with the weight of what happened to her at the party. It doesn’t help that her mom is always getting high and has no real interest in her daughter, caring more about her latest boyfriend than anything else. At one point, he gets too close to Tully while she’s cooking french toast, and she panics — remembering the assault. On impulse, Tully slaps him in the face with the hot spatula.

Upset about what happened, Tully tries to take refuge at Kate’s house but walks away, crying, when she sees Kate having fun with her brother, Sean. More than anything, Tully wants a loving family as Kate has.

The next day on the bus, Tully chooses to sit next to Kate!

Firefly Lane Episode 2 recap: Sean returns from leave to visit his sister in the ’80s.

In 1982, Kate is working when she gets a visit from her big brother, Sean, who is on leave from the navy. The last we saw of Sean was when he was a teenager, still keeping his relationship with Robbie hidden from everyone, including his sister. It seems like Robbie is still in the closet in the ’80s, as Kate makes a comment about all the women who must be throwing themselves at him.

However, Tully is aware that Sean is gay since she saw him kissing Robbie when they were teenagers. While doing cocaine together in the back of the news station, he tells her about a new guy he’s seeing and admits he’s considering telling Kate the truth about him being gay. Tully is fully supportive of that since she hates keeping secrets from her best friend.

Elsewhere, Kate and Johnny chat about a piece she’s written for one of their main on-air correspondents. Johnny thinks it’s fantastic. You can see the beginnings of their relationship forming. Then Tully interrupts by being her usual wild and carefree self. Johnny comments that he sometimes wonders what made her so sad, and Kate is surprised. She’s always seen through Tully’s veneer and thought of her as one of the saddest people she’s ever met. The fact that someone else can see that, too, is a first.

As the partying continues, Tully gets up on a glass table and breaks it, falling through the surface and slicing open her knee. Johnny picks Tully up and carries her away to get patched up, leaving Kate and Sean to clean the wreckage. Sean comments that Johnny is perfect for Tully. He’s a stable guy who is obviously in love with Tully. Her brother’s observation rattles Kate.

Then she changes the subject by asking if Sean is dating anyone. He comes close to telling Kate the truth about his sexuality, but she says their parents think something is “wrong” with him because he doesn’t date. Obviously, Kate doesn’t understand the gravity of what she’s said, but it’s enough to make Sean rethink telling her.

Speaking of Johnny and Tully, they come incredibly close to kissing, but they’re interrupted by a drunk Mutt trying to pee in the office — drunk enough to confuse it for a bathroom.

Firefly Lane Episode 2 recap: Kate starts her new job.

Kate’s first day on the job is not nearly as glamorous as she might have hoped. Her boss, Kimber, clearly only hired her for her connection to Tully, and she’s as airheaded and one-dimensional as they come. Kate’s first assignment is to express Kimber’s dog’s anal glands. Gross.

And for some reason, Firefly Lane Episode 2 decided to show us Kate doing just that in the bathroom, which I could have dealt with, except they added a bunch of disgusting sound effects. WHY!? And as luck would have it, poor Kate is interrupted by a cute photographer named Gideon (Andres Joseph). Not a great meet-cute.

But they get off on a better foot later when Gideon takes her initial photograph for the company. He makes her laugh and tells her she looks beautiful. I see sparks!

Throughout the day, Kate continues ignoring Tully’s calls, even as she leaves Kate multiple voicemails. Feeling alone, Tully goes out to a local restaurant and invites Max to meet her there. While waiting for him, Tully notices a mother/daughter sitting at a table nearby and imagines that it is her and her mom if they had a better relationship. Max shows up a little late. He’s a paramedic and got caught up with a patient. He tries to get to know Tully a little by asking about her parents.

She shuts him down, bluntly admitting that her mother died when she was 15 and she never knew her father. I’m guessing we’ll see what happened to Cloud during the season.

Regardless, Tully isn’t really interested in having a traditional “second date” with Max. She’d rather drown her sorrows in with a bathroom quickie.

On the flipside of town, Johnny comes to Kate’s to drop Marah off and hang out. He and Kate chat. It’s a nice bookend for the episode since it started with Tully and Johnny having a heart-to-heart and ends with Kate and Johnny having a heart-to-heart. Johnny isn’t happy that Tully gave Marah birth control pills, but he wants Kate to call her. Then he reveals that he got the big-time New York job, and they agree to try to have the “world’s greatest divorce.”

That night, Tully shows up at Kate’s house and throws rocks at her window since she won’t answer the phone. This scene is paralleled with a scene from their teen years when young Tully threw rocks at Kate’s window to get her to go bike riding at midnight.

In the present, Tully tells Kate that she can’t go a full day without talking to her. “I  need you. You’re my soulmate, you b*tch.” They make up with Tully promising to never overstep again with Marah. Kate reveals that she’s worried she’s going to lose Marah the same way she lost Johnny. Tully comforts her with a shared fantasy about the two of them buying a big beautiful farm someday with all the trappings.

Then, in the final moments of Firefly Lane Episode 2, the hour seems to skip ahead a few months, as evidenced by Marah saying she’s been able to drive for a few months now. We see Kate and Marah dressed in black standing outside. Marah says she misses “her,” and it’s implied that she’s referring to Tully. “It’s okay to miss her.” Oh my god, is Tully going to die!?

Firefly Lane Episode 2: Final Thoughts

Firefly Lane Episode 2 felt like a much stronger episode overall than the first hour, and I felt that Heigl and Chalke’s chemistry was more believable this time around, too. Their final scene together, especially, was sweet. And the teen actresses playing Tully and Kate are also great together. Even when the present storyline falters, the early days make up for it.

As for that ending, I was shocked! Is Tully dead?! Honestly, I’ve gotten that vibe that Tully might not make it out alive. I had a feeling she might commit suicide, but I wasn’t sure. And not enough is said in the final seconds to confirm or deny that.

What did you think about Firefly Lane Episode 2? Let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comments below.

The first season of Firefly Lane is now available to stream on Netflix.