Spoilers ahead for Dead to Me.

The second season of Dead To Me opens with Jen Harding (Christina Applegate) and Judy Hale (Linda Cardellini) dealing with the Season 1 death of Steve Wood (James Marsden), as Liz Feldman and the show’s writing team have crafted a season that explores how emotional traumas have deeply bonded Jen and Judy together. The Dead to Me writers continue to be inordinately perceptive at observing how connected anger and grief are, and the many challenges involved with learning to cope and move forward. The result is another season of moving, thoughtful television.

In a sick turnabout-is-fair-play way, Jen’s offing of Steve may be viewed as a balancing of the scales for Judy hitting Jen’s husband Ted with Steve’s Mercedes. But as Season 2 unfolds and we see why Jen did what she did, we discover there are many layers to the story, and they’re all filled with anguish.

Jen and Judy stash Steve’s body in a freezer in Jen’s garage, which provides a temporary solution. Both women are emotional messes and try to hold it together to figure out what to do with a dead body and how to avoid going to jail. The first of many twists happens at the end of the first episode when Jen opens the door to a guy who looks exactly like Steve, but it’s Ben, Steve’s almost-identical twin brother (still James Marden!). Ben is very different from Steve though, in that he’s kinder and more thoughtful. Still, Jen has bad flashbacks to the night Steve came to her house and said awful things to her about Ted jumping in front of the car because he wanted to get away from her. Ben tells Judy and Jen that the FBI is looking for Steve and then he finds out Steve’s office is being raided by the Feds. Jen worries about the FBI connecting the dots and leading them to her and Judy. Judy says as long as Steve is presumed missing, they’ll be fine. Detective Perez (Diana Maria Riva) talks with Nick (the police officer Judy hooked up with at a retreat in Season 1,) who is back on desk duty at the station, and he doesn’t want to help Perez with the case but he gives her a file of information he researched.

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Image via Netflix

Judy has to move out of the assisted living center where she works and she moves back into Jen’s guest house. Judy makes a new friend at work: Michelle, (Natalie Morales) the daughter of Flo, a new resident at the home. The two strike up a friendship which turns into more as they start to hang out together, drink and get high. Michelle is a chef. The two wind up sleeping together but the romantic haze is shattered the morning after they sleep together when Judy discovers Michelle’s ex-girlfriend and still roommate is … Detective Perez. Awkward!

Meanwhile, back at Jen’s house, rats have invaded the garage as there’s a heatwave and they’re trying to escape the heat. Jen and Judy realize they have to move Steve’s body and when Henry’s creepy little friend Shandy suggests burying a body in the Angeles forest, Jen decides that’s the plan and she and Judy bury Steve’s body in the forest that night as the entire neighborhood is under an electrical blackout.

Back at the house, Charlie finds Steve’s Mercedes in a shed. He decides to take it for a spin as he’s been bugging Jen for a car to no avail. Charlie picks up his friend Parker and they go for a drive and stop to make out – until a cop tells them they can’t park where they are. On their way back, the car runs out of gas and a frantic Jen and Judy go to get them. Judy takes the kids back and Jen decides to torch the car.

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Image via Netflix

Time out for an emotional check-in moment: Throughout all this frenzied activity, both Jen and Judy have flashbacks to unpleasant moments with Steve, which definitely makes us sympathize with both women and makes us wonder about how to mourn the loss of people who cause us pain. This happens again and again in season two as both Jen and Judy talk about losing their mothers; we learn more about how Jen’s mother battled breast cancer and how Jen could not shake her anger at her mother for not beating the disease. Judy’s mother Eleanor (Katey Sagal) is in prison, and when Judy goes to visit her after not seeing her for 15 years, we learn that Eleanor’s been in prison more than once and Judy testified against her when she was a kid. Eleanor talks about how Judy has always been so sensitive and Judy replies, “Yes, I have feelings.” Let’s just say there’s not really a warm, huggy resolution between the two as Judy figures out that what Eleanor really wants is money for a good lawyer and when Judy can’t give her that, Eleanor asks her to write a letter to the parole board. In a welcome twist, Judy says no to that request.

Ben tells Jen and Judy he’s planning a vigil for Steve and as he asks them questions about what he should do to make it nice for his missing brother, Jen says she and Judy will take care of planning the vigil. Jen thinks it will throw the police off suspecting them if they do this. The day of the vigil, Judy sees Steve and Ben’s mother, and it’s emotional for all concerned. Judy also sees Heidi, the woman Steve was dating after they broke up, and is shook when she sees Heidi is pregnant – and the baby is Steve’s. At the end of the evening, Ben thanks Jen for all her work on the vigil and after telling her he’s been sober for a year but he had some drinks at the vigil, he kisses Jen. During a slideshow of Steve at the vigil, Charlie sees a photo of Steve with the Mercedes and figures out the car was Steve’s. When he asks Jen about it, she fumbles but then tells him that Steve gave it to her after he backed out of a real estate deal with her.

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Image via Netflix

As Detective Perez and the police start to get closer to discovering the burnt car was Steve’s and start to look at Charlie as a possible suspect, Jen realizes she has to do the right thing and turn herself in, especially after Judy says she wants to take the fall for everything. The bond between Jen and Judy has grown stronger to the point where they’re fiercely protective of each other and trying to keep each other out of harm’s way. As the two talk about their past emotional traumas and we see how it has informed what they think they deserve – and don’t deserve – in life, the tears keep flowing. Jen has continued guilt about Ted thinking she was an awful person and that her kids don’t like her much either. Judy is shocked at first when Jen tells her she’s so needy for attention that she doesn’t care if it’s positive or negative, but then she takes that observation to heart along with Jen’s advice to learn to say “no” more often. The conversation ends with the two women saying “I love you” to each other and more tears.

As Season 2 nears the end, Jen is on the receiving end of an act of kindness from Detective Perez and Jen’s son Charlie turns in Steve’s bag that contains a phone and recorder with evidence of Steve’s money laundering crimes and the involvement of the local police captain. But then a fateful accident closes the season and once again, we’re left shaken and wondering who will make it out alive.

In a sophomore season filled with their trademark twists, Dead To Me tests Judy and Jen’s friendship in the aftermath of the loss of their respective romantic partners, as the dark comedy continues to mine themes of grief, anger, and how we cope with emotional trauma — including how childhood losses and trauma manifest themselves in adulthood. Jen and Judy’s friendship is tested several times over the course of the season and watching their bond grow stronger is one of the best things about it. Season 2 is a ride.

Rating: ★★★★ Very good