Note: This article contains major spoilers for the Bad Sisters season one finale and the second episode of season two.

The cast of Bad Sisters have opened up about the surprising death in the second episode of season two.

Adapted from the Belgium limited series, the Apple TV+ drama from Sharon Horgan follows a group of sisters who attempt to kill their abusive and murderous brother-in-law John Paul (Claes Bang). However, in the end, it was his wife Grace (Anne-Marie Duff) who finished the job off in an act of self-defence.

The unexpected second season – which was ordered by Apple following the success of the first – opens with Grace settling into her new life while still harbouring guilt for her actions. However, the entire show was flipped on its head in the second episode when her character was shockingly killed off in a car accident.

In a new interview with Variety, Horgan, who also plays Eva Garvey in the series, explained her decision to kill off Grace at such an early stage in the season.

“There was a while where we were like, ‘Can we [continue] the tone of the show having lost Grace?’ Because the tone of the show is a fine balance between comedy, tragedy, drama, thriller, farce-y at times,” she said.

“Once we figured out tonally that we could handle it, we didn’t question it. We knew it would be kind of shocking and fucking awful, but I did think it was important to show the extent of the damage that can happen [in an abusive relationship].”

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Lead director of the series Dearbhla Walsh added: “It was important that it never felt like a gimmick. And Episode 3 [releasing on November 20] was a really challenging one, to have an authentic funeral and then to transition across.”

Asked if Horgan had warned her about Grace’s fate, Duff said: “I’d known a good while before the scripts arrived, so I didn’t have the soap opera surprise. I think it’s a brilliant idea, because it shakes things up, and it changes the landscape, and suddenly there’s a huge amount of freedom in that. And also, it was such a repeated question, ‘What happens to Grace in Season 2?’ And it removes that from the conversation.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Horgan was asked how the rest of the cast reacted when Duff was suddenly no longer present on set.

“Because we were all doing scenes together and then suddenly she was gone, I have to say it was emotional. The whole filming, the whole series, felt like we were on an emotional rollercoaster.”

In a three-star review of the second season, NME wrote: “Though still darkly funny and packed with one-liners, the tone this time around is bleaker and less manic than what’s come before. Bad Sisters season two might not quite capture the bottled-lightning originality of season one but it offers enough intrigue, brash boldness and spark to render it a compelling watch.”