Big Little Lies · A Viewer's Companion
Three households, one school run, and a body at the bottom of the stairs.
Monterey's tangle isn't dynastic — it's domestic. Madeline's ex-husband married Bonnie, so both wives stand at the same school gate; Jane arrived in town with a five-year-old and a secret; and one man on this chart connects three of the families in ways the show takes two seasons to admit. The teal border marks the Monterey Five — the women bound together by what happened on trivia night — fog grey the husbands, exes and grandparents around them, and gold the first-grade class caught in the middle.
Why the chart matters: five families, one secret each
The show's whole engine is that these households keep colliding — at drop-off, at birthday parties, and finally on trivia night.
Perry was Ziggy's father
Jane moved to Monterey carrying the memory of the man who raped her six years earlier — Ziggy is that assault's child. In the season 1 finale she realizes the man is Perry Wright, Celeste's husband, in the same instant the other women do. The show treats it with gravity, and so does this chart: the dashed line is a fact, not a twist for its own sake. It makes Ziggy the half-brother of Max and Josh — something the boys themselves work out in season 2.
What happened on trivia night
At the school's Elvis-and-Audrey fundraiser, Perry finds the five women on a stairwell and attacks Celeste. In the struggle, Bonnie pushes him and he falls to his death. The five agree to say he slipped — and that shared lie, not friendship, is what welds Madeline, Celeste, Jane, Renata and Bonnie into the “Monterey Five” of season 2. Teal border = party to the lie.
Madeline, Nathan & Bonnie
Madeline's ex-husband Nathan married the younger, serene Bonnie — so Madeline attends every school event alongside her replacement. Each of Madeline's daughters belongs to a different marriage: teenage Abigail is Nathan's, first-grader Chloe is Ed's. When Abigail chooses to live at Nathan and Bonnie's house, it lands on Madeline like a verdict.
Mary Louise's mission
Perry's mother arrives in Monterey politely refusing to believe her son simply slipped. She interrogates the Five one coffee at a time, and then goes further: a custody suit against Celeste for Max and Josh. Her own history — her other son Raymond died in a childhood car crash she was driving — is the wound under the mission.
It all started at school orientation
On the first day of first grade, someone chokes Amabella — and she points at Ziggy, the new kid. Renata declares war on Jane; Madeline takes Jane's side; the whole town picks teams. Season 2 quietly corrects the record: the bully was Max, one of Perry's twins. The kids re-enact the parents' story in miniature.
The name decoder
Three blond boys, three daughters across two marriages, and three husbands who blur together at the school gate. Keep these apart:
Max vs. Josh vs. Ziggy
Three little blond boys, all — it turns out — Perry's sons. Max and Josh are Celeste's twins (Max is the season 2 bully; Josh is the one who tells). Ziggy is Jane's boy, raised with no idea who his father was.
Chloe vs. Abigail vs. Skye
Whose daughter is whose: Chloe = Madeline & Ed. Abigail = Madeline & Nathan (her first marriage). Skye = Nathan & Bonnie. So Chloe and Abigail are half-sisters, Abigail and Skye are half-sisters — and Chloe and Skye aren't related at all.
Ed vs. Nathan vs. Gordon
The husbands. Ed Mackenzie = Madeline's now. Nathan Carlson = Madeline's ex, Bonnie's now. Gordon Klein = Renata's, whose securities fraud takes the family fortune down in season 2.
Mackenzie vs. Carlson
Why Abigail's surname differs from her mother's: Abigail Carlson kept her father Nathan's name; Madeline became a Mackenzie when she married Ed. One household, two last names.
Wright vs. Chapman
Ziggy Chapman is a Chapman by name and upbringing — Jane's alone — but a Wright by blood, which is exactly why Mary Louise starts offering Jane money for his future in season 2.
Celeste vs. Jane
The two women bound through Perry from opposite directions: Celeste his wife and victim inside the marriage, Jane his victim from one night years before. They become allies before either knows what connects them.
Bonnie vs. Elizabeth
Season 2 pairs each mother with her own mother. Elizabeth Howard, Bonnie's, arrives with second sight and a history of having hit her daughter — the trauma that shaped how Bonnie reacted on those stairs. She dies of a stroke mid-season.
Not family — but always in the room
Detective Quinlan
The Carmel detective who never believes Perry slipped. She closes season 1 watching the Five on a beach — and spends season 2 waiting for one of them to crack.
Corey Brockfield
Jane's gentle coworker at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and, in season 2, her first relationship since the assault — briefly suspected of talking to the police.
Tom
Owner of the Blue Blues café where half the season 1 scheming happens; sweet on Jane by the finale.
Chart covers both seasons of the HBO series (2017–2019) — spoilers all the way through, including the season 1 reveal and the season 2 verdicts. Portraits are stills and cast photos from the Big Little Lies wiki, cropped and self-hosted so nothing hotlinks. Martin Howard has no usable image on the wiki, so he keeps his initials.