If any show that’s on television right now emphasizes the so-called “Mommy Wars” that plague womanhood, it’s Big Little Lies. On one side of the show, you have the moms that have careers — Renata, mostly — and on the other side, you have the moms that have chosen to stay at home with their kids – Madeline and Jane, among others. The show’s flashback/flashforward format has shown viewers that there was a murder and plenty of people have plenty to say about it. With no clues yet as to who died, what about the killer’s identity? Is Renata the killer on Big Little Lies?
Now, I don’t have kids, but I’m fiercely loyal person, so I can only imagine how Renata feels on Big Little Lies. Her daughter, Amabella, was choked by one of the other kids in her first grade class. The problem with nabbing the offender, though, is that this all happened on the first day, and Amabella didn’t know any of her fellow students’ names yet. Still, she fingered Ziggy, Jane’s son and the new kid in town, as the culprit, even though he swore he didn’t do it. A stern talking to should have ended the matter, but Renata wasn’t done — she invited every child in Amabella’s class to her birthday party.... except Ziggy. Oof. To reverse this injustice, Madeline invited all of the kids to Frozen on Ice on the same afternoon. See what I said about war?
Madeline doesn’t have any skin in this game in theory — Ziggy is not her son, but she feels a need to defend him anyway. Renata and Madeline hate each other, and they've always hated each other, and that’s why this feud has escalated to a point where Madeline told Renata to “get rhymes-with-ducked” over a glass of wine. But can this really all spin into murder that fast? Could Renata snap if it means this crusade to protect her kid? (Well, if you want to look at book SPOILERS for who the murderer is, you can click here. But don't say I didn't warn you. For now, this is my un-spoilery speculation:)
I’m not sure of that, and I’ll tell you why. Renata is a high-powered woman. She has a big job and she’s on the board of, I don’t know, everything that’s important to be involved in near Monterey. Renata fills a room, and usually, people only get to be in positions of power like that by being very cool and calculated. You can’t fly off the handle if you are the CEO — you have to sit down a spell, think it through, and then act. Since this murder seems very much like a crime of passion during an argument (at least from what Big Little Lies the show has said thus far), I don’t think Renata is the killer. Though she may be kicking like hell underneath, her exterior is mostly composed.
Directly related to this idea of being collected all the time is the way that Renata and the other women in Monterey like to keep up appearances. It’s all about the look, all about keeping up with the Joneses, and for Renata to act out in a way of physical violence would make her look weak. She couldn’t control her emotions? No, not Renata. As evidenced by Amabella’s party, Renata knows how to take out an enemy through ostracizing and humiliating them. Killing them? I don’t know if she’s quite capable of that.
