Firefly Lane season 2 part 1 recap guide: All 9 episodes explained

Firefly Lane season 2, episode 8 recap: All Apologies

The penultimate episode of Firefly Lane season 2 part 1 begins with the aftermath of the accident. Tully is led out of the hospital in handcuffs by the police. Kate still hasn’t said a word to her, and there’s no update on Marah yet.

1970s

The AV Club hosts a summer gathering at the school. Considering their disaster of a first kiss and lack of chemistry, Kate breaks things off with Eugene. Unfortunately, Eugene turns out to be a jerk. While at the school, the teens break into the pool to use it while no one is there, and Eugene snaps a photo of Tully and Kate jumping into the water in their underwear.

When school is back in session, someone takes that photo, prints out dozens of copies, and plasters it all over the hallways. The other students are quick to ridicule Tully and Kate. Despite the fact that they didn’t take the photo, they get in trouble with the principal, who demands they apologize. Tully refuses and gets them both suspended. He also tells them to clean out the girls’ locker room.

Eugene visits Kate as the girls are doing their mandatory clean-up session. Apparently, he didn’t blow up the photo, but he did show it to a friend, who then took it and printed copies. He’s still bitter that Kate dumped him. Kate channels her inner Tully and calls Eugene out for his bullsh*t. Tully is impressed.

1980s

Tully prepares for her new weekend anchor job at KPOC. It seems to be going well until they get the results from the focus group. They’re extremely critical, using every sexist term in the book to slam Tully’s voice as “shrill” to calling her hair frizzy. Their boss, Stan (Craig March), isn’t happy. He tells Johnny that they need to get the ratings up ASAP and appease viewers, or he’ll be making some big changes, which likely means firing Tully.

As much as Tully pretends not to be bothered by the critical feedback from the focus group, it clearly has gotten under her skin. Thankfully, she has Kate to support her. Tully works her butt off trying to fix her sign-off and make herself the perfect anchor, including staying late at the office.

Theo arrives to pick Kate up for a date, but when he sees the women working, he offers to stay there with Kate so they can watch a movie together. Kate and Theo start fooling around in the office while Tully practices her sign-off. So focused on her work, Tully doesn’t realize she’s left a pop-tart in the toaster oven for too long, and it starts a fire.

When Stan arrives, he’s livid. But Kate jumps in to take the blame despite Tully’s protests. The fact Kate is also half-naked when the fire trucks arrive also doesn’t help her cause, and Stan fires her. But Kate isn’t all that upset about it since she knows the job is way more important to Tully, whereas, for her, it’s just a job. Plus, now she can accept Theo’s offer to go to Europe for six weeks on a romantic getaway and to meet his family.

2000s

Because she was driving drunk, Tully is taken to jail and booked, including getting a mugshot. The entire thing leads to a huge scandal that’s all over the news and sees Tully dealing with a wave of paparazzi when she leaves the precinct on bail.

But Tully doesn’t really care about the scandal. All she wants to do is talk to Kate, who is refusing to answer any of her calls or texts. Tired of being ignored, Tully drives to Kate’s house, but Johnny answers the door. He tells her in no uncertain terms that Kate doesn’t want to see her. They’re pissed at her for endangering Marah; although Marah is okay, she still got pretty banged up and needed surgery on her shoulder.

In the days that follow, Tully spends most of her time brooding and leaving Kate messages. Then one day, she gets a text from Kate telling her to come over so they can talk. When Tully arrives, Marah greets her at the door and invites her in. It seems like Marah is the only one not mad at Tully.

But when Kate sees Tully, she’s pissed. It becomes clear Marah orchestrated the whole thing to try and force them to talk. Only because of Marah does Kate even give Tully a few minutes of her time. They have a tense fight that ends with Kate telling Tully she cannot forgive her and ending their friendship of 30 years.