

If you, like the rest of the internet, are currently wondering how the hell Big Little Lies is going to end, gather 'round. A fan on Reddit just put together a very compelling theory about what might go down, and it would explain so, SO much.
So basically, user emmyego thinks that Corey and Perry are brothers. It'd be crazy, but they're basing it on having read a bunch of Liane Moriarty's books. They found tons of proof, so we're just going to let their theory do the talking. First, the subtle hints about Perry's brother throughout the season.
Having mentioned the 'deceased' brother many times (subtly) throughout the season, and it’s clearly playing a role in the season finale, it is very likely that this aspect of Perry’s life will be used as the final plot twist. No one seems to suspect it so far, which is true to Moriarty’s style.
Okay, yeah. It'd be weird to not resolve this in SOME way.
When looking at the main changes between season 1 and 2, the introduction of Corey and the prominence of Perry’s past (hence the introduction of Mary-Louise and mention of his brother) seem to stand out the most. It would make sense that these are connected.
Alexander Skarsgård mentioned in an interview that we will receive a further insight into Perry’s childhood and why he turned out to be so violent. This kind of disproves the ‘he killed his brother’ theory because that would mean he had to be violent from the get-go.
That theory, in case you haven't seen it:
Instead, it’s highly likely that there was some sort of trauma inflicted upon Perry, and it’s not too far-fetched to believe that Mary-Louise had a motive to fake her other son’s death. There could be a myriad of logical explanations for this (of which we know Celeste starts to ‘question.’)
This could also be why Corey is at the police station- finding out what happened to his brother.
Don't worry, it keeps going.
Some were saying that Corey is there merely as a love interest for Jane. While this may be true, Season 1 ended with Jane taking Tom (the coffee shop guy) to the Gala. Why not just keep Tom as the love interest? This further eludes that Corey’s character has more significance than once thought.
Also to keep in mind- the way that the ’Perry was Jane’s rapist’ plot twist was so effective is because Jane and Perry were never introduced to each other in present time, so the audience struggled to put the two and two together. Though Corey and Mary-Louise have been a big part of Jane’s life this season, Corey and Mary-Louise have actually never been in the same scene together...
Jane also has a flashback to her assault when dancing with Corey, which would make sense if they were brothers. Celeste also looks at Corey very strangely at Amabella’s party.
That exact scene, for your reference:
All the girls seem to be going through something (Celeste and the custody battle, Madeline and the marriage breakdown etc.. ) but we haven’t really seen anything like this for Jane yet... it would make sense that Corey is here to cause trouble for her.
Wow, okay. There is so much to process here, and there are definitely some holes in this theory. Mainly, what would this contribute to the overall plot other than being a plot twist? It seems like a weird waste of energy for the entire second season to come to this kind of conclusion.
Someone in the comments pointed out that he could be a step-brother, which seems more convincing considering Mary-Louise dropped hints about her ex-husband's new family, but why would Corey care about a step-brother he's never met? I have so many questions.
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Emma Baty is the Associate Entertainment Editor at Cosmopolitan who focuses on movies and TV.
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