Welcome to New Little Lies, a weekly recap chat about Big Little Lies we’re hosting on TheAtZShow. Each week Fernando and I will break down the latest happenings on HBO’s starry hit show by diving headfirst into the drama at Otter Bay. Spoilerphobes proceed with caution. We will be going into spoilers for all of Big Little Lies Season One, the premiere episode of Season Two, as well as speculating about the future of the show.

Zach Shevich: Starting off, the first noticeable change in the show comes as quickly as its title sequence. There are a few new character profiles, including shots of all six main women (that includes Meryl Streep this year!) driving their cars. The credits conclude with a badass shot of Nicole Kidman, Zoe Kravitz, Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley and Laura Dern walking together in slow motion like they’re in Reservoir Dogs. It’s an unlikely gang but they’re bonded together by a common crime.

Bonnie (Kravitz) is the first person to appear after the opening sequence. She stands on the beach pensively, looking heavily burdened in a way she wasn’t at all in the first season. Of the five main women, Kravitz had the smallest role during the first season of Big Little Lies. Her character was the most ancillary to the show’s main plot, but after killing Celeste’s husband Perry last season, she’s more heavily intertwined with everyone else than ever. Kravitz has a few scenes this episode where she appears emotionally withdrawn. Will Bonnie play a much bigger role on the show’s second season?

In its second season, Big Little Lies no longer has to take its time introducing conflict. Aside from guilt over their roles in Perry’s death, we soon learn that Madeline (Witherspoon) initiated the lie that Perry’s death was accidental and the rest of the women went along with her story. That lie kept the police off their tracks thus far, but it’s implicated them all in a coverup. And even if the police haven’t implicated them, the community has already branded them with their own scarlet letters, as, “the Monterrey Five.” Unable to confess and surrounded by judgmental eyes, will the pressure of their shared secret break the group?

Fernando Andrade: The Monterey Five are all dealing with what happened differently. Some are choosing to not let it consume their lives like Madeline and Renata (Dern) who are off dealing with their own families or having photoshoots to Diana Ross. Bonnie and Celeste (Kidman) are definitely having the hardest time here. Throughout the episode we are told by Nathan (James Tupper) that Bonnie has been out of it and distant. She's feeling the complete weight of guilt on her and she even tells Madeline she wished she would have told the police she pushed Perry. She is most definitely going to play a much bigger role in this second season which is great, since Zoe Kravitz is a really talented actress.

The one that is up in the air to me is Jane (Woodley). We see her kind of moving on with her life, she has a new job, dances to Mystery of Love on the beach and is happy her son is starting in second grade. Although things become worrying when she has an encounter with a new co-worker who knows of her as one of The Monterey Five. Will more new characters be brought in to stir the investigation up? Also, where does Jane stand in all of this in regards to what went down that night?

ZS: It’s true that Jane seems to be in the best place of the show’s characters. Last season she was new in town, her son quickly became a social pariah and she made many other moms into enemies. This season, everything’s looking up for her. Like you mentioned, she has a new job at an aquarium. The man who raped her, Perry, is now dead. Her son finally grew some hair and has friends at school. How much does Jane want to put this episode in her past?

The “This Season On” hinted at a continued issue between her and her son Ziggy (Iain Armitage) over the identity of his father. He doesn’t know his father was Perry but Celeste does, and has been sending Jane checks that Jane hasn’t cashed. Will her son’s desire to find out the truth about his father also lead to him finding out the truth about Perry’s murder?

Alexander Skarsgaard’s name appears in the opening credits, too. Though his character Perry died at the end of last season, his presence lingers over Big Little Lies, haunting people. He appears in the nightmares of Celeste (Kidman), jolting her awake from violent visions of their fights. He stays on the mind of Bonnie. And he brings to town the biggest addition to Big Little Lies this year, his mother Mary Louise, played by Meryl Streep.

Meryl Streep isn’t just another actress, of course. She is The Actress. Her addition brings with it the promise of some juicy scenes between her and the show’s other amazing actors. Her character, Mary Louise, grieves her son’s death while helping to care for her son’s surviving family. She prides herself on her ability to figure people out, as she does in a delicious scene where she tells Madeline (Witherspoon) that she, “finds short people to be untrustworthy.” But it’s hard to figure her out. Is she sad? Is she calculating? Just how close is Mary Louise to the truth about her son?

FA: Those are all really great questions. It was surprising but great just how much we got to see of Meryl Streep. She has another great scene with Madeline at her job where she passive-aggressively insults her again. She is staying with Celeste for the time being and rushes to her aid twice in the episode after she had nightmares about Perry and the incident, like you mentioned.

I like that point you made about Ziggy, because one thing that stood out this episode was the kids. We didn't get much Ziggy, but I'm sure that question of his father will come up. Celeste's twins, however, were causing a lot of ruckus. Fighting with each other and not listening to their mother, things that little boys often do, but these boys also don't have a father anymore. Mary Louise brings that up while they have dinner where she also provides a legendary scream.

Madeline's eldest daughter, Abigail (Kathryn Newton), also saw some screen time arguing with her mom over going to college. Madeline obviously has this ideal image of what success is and college is a part of that image. This carries over their relationship from season one where Abigail wanted to sell her virginity. This time around she just wants to join a non-profit and build homes for the homeless, but Madeline, as she screams, could care less about homeless people. Lastly, we see Renata grilling her daughters new teacher making sure he knows she has an insanely high IQ and to pay extra attention to her. Also, that she was bullied last year and to not let that happen again. That's Renata for you. Were there any other moments that stood out to you in episode one of season two, Zach?

ZS: While we haven’t heard much about the police investigation into Perry’s death yet, we saw glimpses of the interviews that the police conducted of the Monterey Five with someone fast forwarding through the tapes. Who is watching the tapes and what are they up to?

Aside from all the drama that season two promises to provide, it’s good to know that Big Little Lies will continue to provide the hilarious trendy mom parodies that the first season had. I especially loved Madeline’s issue with meditation, “you shut out the world but you also shut out your friends.”

But mostly I can’t wait to get a full season of Meryl Streep’s Mary Louise making things uncomfortable for the Monterey moms. Madeline is a character so used to charming and dominating her way through conversations, but Mary Louise has already shown an ability to leave her speechless. Whether she’s cutting Reese Witherspoon down to size or screaming at the dinner table, Big Little Lies is bound to be more interesting with her around.