🤐 SPOILER ALERT 🤐

No friendship is perfect, and Kate (Sarah Chalke) and Tully (Katherine Heigl)’s decades-long bond is no exception. The support they give each other over the years is the emotional core of a show concerned above all with friendship — which makes it all the more confusing and upsetting when the two have a falling-out at the end of Season 1.

Why are the once-inseparable Kate and Tully feuding? The way Firefly Lane’s timeline jumps around, it isn’t initially clear; we just know that by 2004, something in the recent past has come between them. With this much history, nothing is ever simple; if you’re still scratching your head after watching the latest chapter of Kate and Tully’s lives, here are all the answers.

Whose funeral was it at the end of Firefly Lane Season 1?

At the end of Season 1, we see Kate and Tully outside a funeral in 2004, seemingly ending their friendship of 30 years. But the question of whose funeral they’re at isn’t resolved until the middle of Season 2, when we finally learn that it’s Kate’s dad, Bud (Paul McGillion), who passed away after suffering a heart attack. Given everything we know about Kate and Tully, it’s surprising that Kate wouldn’t want her best friend by her side in such a vulnerable moment — whatever happened between them must have been serious.

Diyah Pera/Netflix

Do Kate (Sarah Chalke) and Tully (Katherine Heigl) see it through in Season 2 of Firefly Lane?

Why do Kate and Tully have a falling-out?

It takes a lot to end a 30-year friendship. “To show something that could break up this unbelievable friendship was just such a challenge,” Chalke tells Tudum. In Episode 7, we finally learn what Tully did that was so earth-shattering.

Kate drops her daughter Marah (Yael Yurman) off at Tully’s penthouse for a sleepover so she can enjoy a romantic weekend alone with her semi-estranged husband, Johnny (Ben Lawson). Marah is grounded for flunking gym class, and naturally, you’d expect your best friend to abide by your strict instructions and not let your daughter out of sight. However, when Marah gets invited to go see The Notebook with her crush, Ashley, Tully obliges and lets her go out.

Unbeknownst to both Tully and Kate, the teens actually attend a frat party. There, a guy pushes himself onto Marah, and she ends up hiding in a pantry, frantically calling Tully for help. Tully has been drinking, but she nevertheless rushes over to the party to bring Marah home. On their drive back, they get into a car accident, in which Marah is badly injured.

Tully doesn’t have any children of her own, but as Marah’s godmother, it’s the closest she is to being a parent. Because she was intoxicated while driving Marah, Kate feels betrayed by Tully, someone she considered family. “You really feel for Kate and you really feel for Tully, and there’s no specific right answer. I think that after people get to know these characters, there’s something that you can really relate to in both,” Chalke adds.

Watch Ali Skovbye's Audition Tape for Firefly LaneSee Ali's reading for Young Tully.

What happens in the car accident? Who is in it?

Tully and Marah are on their way home from the party, but they’re far from safe. As Tully goes ahead on a green light, another driver runs a red and crashes into her. They both survive, but Marah is badly injured. Although Tully isn’t at fault in the collision, her blood alcohol is over the limit and she is arrested for driving under the influence.

Why did Tully drive drunk?

While Marah is out against Kate’s firm order, Tully runs into her ex-boyfriend Danny, who just moved back to Seattle. It turns out that he also lives in the same building, and the former lovers decide to have dinner and share a bottle of wine. Tully’s hopeful about rekindling with her old flame, but Danny reveals that he now has a girlfriend.

After he leaves, Tully pours herself a few more glasses of wine. Her wallow is disrupted, though, when Marah calls her from the frat party in obvious distress. Tully, who herself was sexually assaulted in high school, flashes back to her own trauma and, despite her tipsiness, immediately drives to Marah’s rescue.

What happened to Johnny?

At the end of Season 1, Johnny’s fate is unknown after he’s injured in an IED explosion in Iraq. Thankfully, he survives, but he has to be transported to Germany for brain surgery while still in a coma. When Johnny wakes up and returns home, it’s clear that his war is far from over. Johnny is now dealing with PTSD and anger management issues. Kate confesses that she wants to get back together, but Johnny insists on being alone so that he can sort out his life and fully recover.

Why does Tully start vlogging?

Long before the days of YouTube and TikTok, there was Tully Hart. Her new agent, Justine (Jolene Purdy), advises her to start vlogging to build an audience. Tully isn’t a fan of taking advice, but she decides to trust Justine’s judgment. Vlogging not only becomes a new hobby for Tully, but also an outlet for speaking up about her ongoing legal battles with her old employer. The vlog takes off, and when Tully’s former boss Wilson King (Martin Donovan) offers her her old job back, she threatens to expose him for sexual harassment unless he drops his lawsuit again.

Watch Roan Curtis' Audition Tape for Firefly LaneSee Roan's reading for Young Tully.

Who is Tully’s father?

With the help of her mother Cloud (Beau Garrett), Tully sets out to make a documentary about  researching her biological father. Cloud reveals that Tully’s dad is Parker Binswanger, the brother of former governor Benedict Binswanger (Greg Germann). It turns out that Parker owns the restaurant PJ Pelicans, which Tully visited in the ’80s while investigating then-candidate Benedict.

It seems like Tully’s documentary finally has a happy ending, but the last step is to film the reunion. Tully visits the restaurant and is greeted by Parker’s wife, who reveals that he actually passed away six weeks prior.

Who is Benedict Binswanger?

You could say that Benedict is Season 2’s villain. The scion of a wealthy family, Benedict runs for governor in the 1980s and feuds with Tully as she covers his campaign. Digging past the official story, Tully learns that he bribed politicians, injured workers and sent his brother away — though there’s more to the story than she knows at the time. Their quarrel continues when Benedict appears as a guest on her show Get Up America. He accuses her of having daddy issues due to being raised by a single mother with addiction problems. Tully is speechless, because Benedict is describing her upbringing a little too accurately.

But of course, there’s a reason he knows so much. Everything comes full circle in Episode 5 when it’s revealed that Benedict is actually Tully’s uncle. He’s been cruel to her since before she was even born: He was the one who orchestrated Cloud and Parker’s breakup.

What is Marah’s secret?

Marah questions her sexuality as she falls for her friend Ashley. When Kate, Johnny, and Kate’s brother Sean see an email on her computer about having a crush on a girl, Uncle Sean, who is gay, advises the parents to let Marah come out to them when she’s ready. They both agree, but Kate can’t help but pry.

It’s no secret that the Indigo Girls are queer icons — and Kate wants Marah to know that. When “Closer to Fine” comes on the car radio one day, Kate sees an opportunity for some mother-daughter bonding, which she initiates by telling Marah that it’s beautiful to see two lesbians making music together. The words subtle and Kate clearly don’t belong in the same sentence; Marah immediately catches on and confronts Kate, asking if Tully was the one who revealed her secret.

Does Johnny choose Charlotte or Kate? 

Charlotte (India de Beaufort), Kate and Tully’s former intern from their days working in journalism together in the ’80s, has always had a calculating side. As the nerdy KPOC intern, she regularly vied for Johnny’s affection, unaware of his romantic connection with Kate. Decades later, she reunites with her old colleague when Johnny is stationed in Iraq and makes another play for his heart. Even after his coma, she continues to make sly digs at Kate for being less successful. But when Charlotte propositions Johnny again, he turns her down because he misses Kate — the woman he truly loves. In the Season 2, Part 1 finale, Johnny proposes to Kate, and they agree to get remarried.

Does Kate have cancer?

After noticing a rash on and lump in her breast, Kate immediately goes in for an appointment. She’s diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer, which is in an advanced stage, and must start treatment right away. With her future unknown, Kate is forced to examine the relationships in her life and heads to Tully’s penthouse.

“I don’t know anyone who hasn’t been touched by cancer, and it took that for Kate to be able to finally overcome her fury with Tully,” Heigl shares with Tudum. “It’s more than fury. [Kate]’s just stopped trusting her. That choice was just too far, and that diagnosis is what makes her realize, ‘Now this is the only person who’s going to have my back and so I can now forgive her.’”

Where is Firefly Lane filmed?

Firefly Lane is the street where Kate and Tully’s journey begins; it’s where they meet as kids growing up in the town of Snohomish, WA. Throughout the decades, we watch their lives unfold in Seattle and the surrounding Pacific Northwest area. However, the series is actually filmed further up north in Burnabay, British Columbia, Canada (half an hour from Vancouver). Known for its scenery and Instagram-worthy environment, Burnabay is also where Virgin River is filmed.

Where is Tully when Kate starts chemo?

After Kate discovers she’s ill, she attempts to reconnect with her friend with a visit to her apartment. The two women just miss each other, but their reunion still takes several months because Tully is out of reach on a reporting trip in Antarctica. While Kate continues to leave Tully messages, Tully doesn’t find out what’s going on until she returns to the States.

Does Kate die in Firefly Lane? 

Yes, she does. Click here if you want to learn more from creator Maggie Friedman about the biggest twists of the final seven episodes.

Will there be a Firefly Lane Season 3?

No, Friedman tells Tudum that the supersized second season allowed her and the writers to wrap up the story of Kate and Tully on their own terms. “I’m glad that we were able to get to the end and have it be a fully satisfying journey, and for people who watch all the episodes to feel like we had closure,” she says. “It was so important to me that I get to end on my own terms and tell the story that I wanted to tell. And we did that. On the other hand, now it’s done. I’m so sad.”

Firefly Lane Season 2, Part 1 Trailer