Warning: Spoilers for Firefly Lane Season 2 ahead.
Raise your hand if you didn’t expect to end up sobbing uncontrollably Firefly Lane Season 2, Part 1. (Yes, my hand is raised right now. And no, I’m NOT fine!)
That Netflix Drama that follows the close friendship of Kate Malarky (Sarah Chalke) and Tully Hart (Katherine Heigl) over decades is based on Kristin Hannah’s novel of the same name. If you’ve read the book you should have a pretty good idea of what to expect. But viewers like me, who jumped in coldly at the show, can expect a real gut punch in season 2 episode 9.
Part 1 of Firefly Lane’s two-part, nine-episode final season was released on Friday 2nd December. (That’s today!) And Part 2, consisting of the final seven episodes, will premiere in 2023. Unfortunately Part 1 ended on a heartbreaking cliffhanger. So waiting for new episodes is going to be painful.
Before Season 2 Part 1 was finished, we saw Kate and Tully’s friendship take a major rift. And in case that wasn’t sad enough, Episode 9 revealed a life-threatening health issue for Kate, which has fans asking: Does Kate die in Firefly Lane Season 2, part 2? Here’s everything we know about Kate’s diagnosis on the Netflix show and her fate in Hannah’s two-book series.
Dies Kate in Firefly Lane?
Based on what we learned in Season 2 Episode 9 and what we know from Hannah’s books, Kate’s fate doesn’t look too good. In Season 2, Episode 9, Kate learns that she has “rare and very aggressive” stage 3 breast cancer. In the Kate book series does die from the disease. But we’ll have to wait for the last seven episodes of Firefly Lane Season 2 to learn if Kate dies in the Netflix series too.
At the end of Season 2 Part 1, Netflix gives fans a minute-long preview of Part 2 entitled There’s More to Come. While the 60-second clip may be intentionally misleading, it seems to imply that Kate is dead and — wait for it — Tully is marrying Johnny 10 years after the end of Part 1.
In the preview, a “TEN YEARS LATER” title card introduces Johnny (Ben Lawson) and Kate’s brother Season (Jason McKinnon) in suits standing in front of an altar. Chairs are set up in Kate and Johnny’s house, flowers fill the room and guests chatter happily before the ceremony begins. “It’s almost time to go. How are you feeling?” Sean asks Johnny. “I would feel a lot better if the bride showed up. We’re supposed to start any minute,” Johnny replies.
So who will be Johnny’s bride? Well, in Season 2 Part 1, Johnny proposed to Kate again and she agreed. For a moment, we wonder if she survived her battle with cancer and is finally remarrying her ex-husband a decade after her diagnosis. But then we cut to TULLY (!!!) dressed all in white, fixing her makeup in the bathroom and yelling, “Hold your horses! I’m almost done. It’s not like you can start without me anyway.” Again, the scene could be intentionally misleading. Maybe Kate is fine! And Tully is her… maid of honor or something. But for now, it feels like Tully is marrying Johnny in Kate’s absence. And since Firefly Lane book sequel, Fly awayfocuses on Tully raising Kate’s daughter Marah, it’s not too far-fetched to assume that the Netflix series will end with Kate’s death and Tully will officially become Marah’s stepmother.
Will Kate and Tully reconcile after Kate’s diagnosis? Will Kate Survive Season 2? Will Tully actually marry Johnny one day? Everything will (hopefully) reveal when Firefly LaneThe last seven episodes of were released on Netflix on June 8, 2023.
The first nine episodes of Firefly Lane Season 2 is currently available to stream on Netflix.