Warning: Major spoilers for Firefly Lane Season 2 ahead.
The first nine episodes of Firefly Lane Season 2 is finally on Netflixand as you watch the drama’s second season, one important question will haunt you: What did Tully do to Kate?
Season 2 of the series, based on Kristin Hannah’s bestselling book series, picks up where Season 1 left off. It’s 2004 and Kate (Sarah Chalke) and Tully (Katherine Heigl) fight before the funeral of Kate’s father, Bud. The problem is we don’t know why. Viewers will find out what caused Kate and Tully’s friendly feud before the end of Season 2 Part 1 and we’ll guide you through that breakup.
What did Tully do to Kate in Season 2? Why is Kate mad at Tully? And does it have anything to do with the car crash we see in the season 2 part 1 premiere? Read on to find out everything we know about Tully and Kate’s rift.
What did Tully do to Kate? Firefly Lane? And who was in that car accident?
In the season two premiere, we see Kate and her daughter Marah (Yael Yurman) at home after Bud’s funeral. Marah comforts her mother in the kitchen and says she’s sorry that everyone keeps bringing up Tully, but remarks, “It’s been a while since the accident.” Hmm. Which accident?
Flashback takes us to a year before the funeral and we see Kate and Tully (friends at the time) spring into action after learning that Johnny was caught in an IED blast in Iraq and hospitalized in Germany was flown. Tully chartered a private plane and flew Kate to his side. While the two waited to see if Johnny was okay (he was!), Tully went to the gift shop and bought her and Kate matching beer mug keychains. If this seems like a random detail to repeat, stick with me. It will be useful later.
Season 2, Episode 1 ends with a title card, “SIX MONTHS LATER,” and we take a look at a serious car accident. We don’t know any details at this moment, but based on what Marah previously said, we’re assuming Tully is involved. It was, but it’s not that simple. There’s a lot more to this heartbreaking story, so let’s dive in, shall we?
In the following episodes, viewers get additional insights into the scene of the accident and can put the parts together. We see the Seattle police and fire department arrive at the scene, and by the end of season 2, episode 4, it turns out that the beer keychain that Tully bought in Germany was on the keys in the car’s ignition hangs. “Holy shit. This is Tully Hart,” says an officer approaching the crashed car.
At the end of Episode 6, another flashback reveals that Tully wasn’t alone in the car. Kate and Johnny’s daughter, Marah, was in the passenger seat. But that’s not all… Season 2 Episode 7 finally brings us to the day of the crash and we learn exactly what happened that night. Tully watched Marah around her flat for the evening so Kate and Johnny could have some much-needed alone time. Despite being grounded, Marah asked Tully to let her go to the movies with Ashley, a girl she likes. And finally, Tully gave in and let her go. After Marah left the house, Tully spent the night meeting up with her old flame, Danny Diaz, for snacks and wine. Tully had no intention of leaving her apartment that night and when Danny went home she continued drinking and chilling alone on the couch. But everything changed when she got a frantic call from Marah, who instead of going to the cinema ended up at a frat party feeling unsafe.
Tully got in the car and picked Marah up. On the drive home she stopped at a red light, and when the light turned green Tully accelerated as she should. Another car ran a red light and crashed into Tully’s car from the side, and the episode ends with Tully waking up in the hospital asking about Marah. She sees Kate and Johnny through the window but they ignore her screams. And in episode 8 we find out why. The crash was an accident, but police determined Tully was legally intoxicated when it happened. That damn fact, and realizing Tully let Marah go while she was grounded, got Kate over the edge.
Does Marah die in the car accident with Tully?
Tully is arrested for drunk driving, and in the days following the accident, Johnny and Kate lock her out completely. The accident puts Tully’s career in jeopardy, and although Marah is alive, she has a concussion, two broken ribs and shoulder surgery. After Kate ghosts Tully, she shows up at her house and Johnny opens the door. “There’s nothing to explain and she doesn’t want to see you… you’re not the victim here,” he tells Tully. After a devastating montage in which Tully turns to Kate and becomes ghostly, she finally receives a text from Kate that reads, “Meet me at my place.” Excited, Tully rushes to reconcile with her best friend, only to have it learn that she never sent the text message. Marah took Kate’s phone and reached out to Tully in hopes of helping them put things back together, but her plan didn’t work out as she had hoped.
Why is Kate so mad at Tully? Firefly Lane Star Ali Skovbye weighs in
Tully apologizes to Kate and Kate listens to her but eventually shuts her down. “I’m not me without you, but I can’t forgive you,” says Kate. The two spend the rest of the season apart, and when we see them meet outside of Bud’s funeral in episode 9, Kate tells Tully, “You’ve got a lot of nerve coming up here.” Tully emphasizes the seriousness of the event and asks, “Don’t you think you’ve punished me enough?” But Kate doubles down and refuses to let Tully back into her life (though she admittedly misses her).
In an interview with Decider, Ali Skovbye, who plays teenage Tully Firefly Lane‘s ’70s Flashbacks, shared some thoughts on the feud in season 2. Although she was devastated to see the dynamic duo break up, she felt the accident was just a reminder of all the times in whom Tully has been a below average friend of Kate’s over the decades.
“I think I cried almost every episode,” Skovbye said of Season 2, Part 1. “It might just seem like a biased thing, but especially Episode 9 – I was like sobbing. I also think that, heartbreaking as it is, Tully tends to run on and take advantage of Kate a bit. So I think to finally see Kate stand up for herself is really amazing and I think it had to happen. But it was really sad. Your story is really sad.”
In Episode 9, after Kate learns that she has stage three breast cancer, she goes straight to Tully’s apartment and knocks on the door. It’s clear she wants to reconcile and needs her best friend to help her through the challenging time ahead, but unfortunately Tully isn’t home. She had just left for her new job in Antarctica. POOH!
Will Tully and Kate reconcile before the series ends? We’ll have to wait until the final seven episodes of Season 2 premiere on Netflix on June 8, 2023 to find out, but we have high hopes they’ll find their way back together soon.
The first nine episodes of Firefly Lane Season 2 is currently available to stream on Netflix.