If Netflix Gives Dead to Me a Second Season, the Plot Could Go 1 of These 3 Ways

Updated on 5/22/2019 at 6:42 PM

We don't yet know for sure that Dead to Me, starring the magically gifted Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini, will return for a second season. We know for sure it should. Because never has there ever been a show that manages to simultaneously address what real grief feels like, while also nailing dark humor, and shocking fans with its twists and turns, and with perfect casting. We could go on and on about why this Netflix standout deserves another season, but in the meantime, supposing the streaming service is getting just how vital the show is, let's consider what could happen with Jen and Judy following the finale of season one.

To refresh your memory (spoilers ahead!), we left the grieving widow, played by Applegate, standing above the dead body of Steve (James Marsden). Jen calls Judy (Cardellini) and tells her to come over, because, Steve. Now they're both gazing down at the pool, where Steve is floating, and the implication is that Jen shot him. But OK, do we really think Liz Feldman — the creator of Dead to Me, who made us think we knew Jen, her deceased husband Ted, Judy, and Steve, only to shock us with secrets from their pasts that made us question everything — would really leave the plot so cut and dry? Read on to see what might happen in a shocking season two of the addictive dramedy.

Theory #1: Steve Isn’t Really Dead

Steve looks pretty dead in the season one finale, but what if he's just badly injured? What if Jen and Judy have to sit by his hospital bedside and pray he doesn't wake up and implicate Jen in the shooting? Because clearly Judy would side with Jen, whose husband she did, after all, hit with her car and leave by the side of the road to die. So now we have best friends Jen and Judy guarding a new secret: who shot Steve? The experience bonds them together again, and fans get to enjoy more of their complicated but deeply moving friendship. Perhaps they are also plotting how to implicate Steve in Ted's murder while he's in a coma to get Judy off scot-free.

Theory #2: Steve Shot Himself

Remember, Steve is pretty depressed after he learns that Judy has taken his fortune. He's wanted by the cops for money laundering, he's an accessory to the hit-and-run murder of Jen's husband, and the authorities are onto him. Steve has lost several pregnancies with Judy, which, though he's a jerk, is a personal crisis that would take its toll on any human. Judy and Steve even split up amid their problems. Then, in the finale, Jen rejects Steve's misguided advances. Maybe this is all too much for him and Jen isn't the one who pulls the trigger after all.

We learn through a series of flashbacks that Steve wrestles the gun away from Jen. Maybe he turns it on her for a moment, but then, the gravity of what he's done finally hits him. He killed another man! He turns the gun on himself, and Judy is left with fresh grief, since we know she always kinda wanted to get back together with Steve. She is also now the only person who can pay for Ted's murder. Will she finally turn herself in?

Theory #3: Judy Takes the Blame For Steve's Murder

When Judy arrives at Jen's house and learns what has happened, she begs Jen to let her take the fall. It's kind of like when Judy turns herself in for vandalizing that car, even through it's Jen who took a golf club to the windshield. On some level, Judy feels tortured and has wanted to get caught for killing Ted since the show began. She's been trying to make it up to Jen, since Jen is raising her two sons without their dad and it's all Judy's fault. So now, she's going to insist that she killed Steve.

It makes sense that she might want to. He rejected her when she thought she might be pregnant again. He seemed to be dating someone new! He's determined to put the accident in the past and cover up their guilt. This is the perfect way for Judy to finally get what she believes she deserves. And since Jen still harbors major resentment toward Judy for lying about who she was, she rationalizes the whole thing and finds peace with how everything plays out.