In season one of Big Little Lies, men were downright evil.

Let’s count the ways: Madeline’s (Reese Witherspoon) ex husband Nathan (James Tupper) paraded his new isn’t-she-perfect yogi wife Bonnie (Zoe Kravitz) and their daughter Skye in front of her heartlessly. He then swept in as a hero to their daughter who he’d originally abandoned, as Madeline watched stunned.

Then there was the unknown monster who raped Jane (Shailene Woodley), fathered her child and haunted her every thought. She searched for him online, fantasied about shooting him in the head, even sat in the office of a random interior designer she thought could be him.

Finally, of course, there was the biggest, baddest wolf of them all: Perry Wright (Alexander Skarsgard). To think of those scenes where he smothered Celeste’s (Nicole Kidman) face with a cushion, dragged her across the floor by her hair, kicked her as she lay crying, stopping only to answer their son’s knock at the door (“mommy isn’t feeling well”), is to wince with unease.

Big Little Lies season 2, episode 6 recap: the bad mother