It was supposedly only meant to be one season.

Big Little Lies season two begins today, but even with rave reviews, a star-studded cast who won a bunch of awards and an audience of eager fans, it took some convincing for everyone involved to commit to returning.

Now there are rumours that a third season might be in the works.

*SPOILER WARNING: This article includes plot points from season one of Big Little Lies, and some speculation about season two based on teasers and trailers.*

But … we're getting ahead of ourselves.

Based on a novel by Liane Moriarty, the show did a brilliant job of wrapping everything up in its finale for the central five characters: Reese Witherspoon (Madeline MacKenzie), Nicole Kidman (Celeste Wright), Shailene Woodley (Jane Chapman), Laura Dern (Renata Klein) and Zoe Kravitz (Bonnie Carlson).

This season will kick off after the events of last season, which saw Perry Wright (Alexander Skarsgard) getting pushed down the stairs in front of the Monterey crew.

A lot went down in that last episode, including suspicions about Madeline's secret affair, an apology over who was really hurting Renata's daughter (Celeste's own kid) and the discovery of Jane's rapist, Perry, just moments before his death.

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With the audience having spent most of season one trying to guess what happened at the gala and why, season two will be a different experience.

We know who was killed. We know who did it and how. We know why. And we know there's a cover-up.

Here are 13 questions season two has to answer

Our first three questions pick up from where season one left off: what happened after Perry died? how are the Monterey women coping with his death? will they turn on each other?

From the looks of the season two trailer, we can definitely expect this season to be focussed on the characters caught up in his death.

This is how HBO has described it:

"Multiple characters will be dealing with Perry's death, and the prospect of moving past a life-altering event. In short: Things could get messy."

So here's how it could all play out.

Perry's mother is coming and she wants the truth

Meryl Streep joins an already star-studded cast for the second season of Big Little Lies. She plays the mother-in-law of Nicole Kidman's character ( HBO )

Enter Meryl Streep.

Playing Perry's mother, Mary Louise (by the way: did you know that was Streep's real name) is looking for answers.

It certainly doesn't sound like she's sold on Perry *accidentally* falling down the stairs.

Streep is going to be doing all she can to needle the information out of these women, her daughter-in-law Celeste in particular, to find out what really happened that night.

The women will try to stick tight to their version of events. But here is question four: how long until Mary Louise finds a chink in their armour?

That's where the real tension will be this season, as the audience nervously waits for her to piece it all together and/or finally comes out and accuses the women of killing her son.

Everyone will be struggling to deal with Perry's death

It's not clear yet exactly how much of a gap takes place between season one and season two. ( HBO )

"It's going to get us, it's going to get us all."

With a suspicious cop on their case (question five: is it the same one who was spying on them at the end of season one?) Madeline, Renata, Celeste, Jane and Bonnie have a lot riding on them being able to convince everyone of their lie.

You get the feeling each character is starting to feel the pressure of living with Perry's death.

Madeline:

We've already been given hints that Madeline will continue as the alpha mum (a grown-up Regina George) of the Monterey parents, but behind closed doors it appears she's starting to question herself.

Adding to that will be the continued fallout over her affair with the director of her local community theatre production and her various family issues.

Remember she's still got issues with her eldest daughter, who has moved out to live with her ex-husband and his wife Bonnie.

And despite the events of the finale possibly bringing her and Bonnie together, she's probably still a little hung-up on Nathan — and therefore resentful about his relationship with Bonnie.

Jane:

It's likely this season will see Jane deal with the fallout of discovering the identity of her rapist and facing him last season.

Ziggy also spent last season asking questions about his father, so you can expect this to continue to weigh on her this season.

As the relative outsider of the group, Jane was new to the crazy world of parents at Monterey. And things didn't get off to a good start after her son was accused of hurting Renata's child.

Question six: Will this season see Jane bond with the other parents?

Renata

It'll be interesting to see how her relationship with the other women progresses after Perry's death.

Despite having spent most of last season warring with Madeline, she ended on the steps with the other women when he went down the stairs.

Her animosity towards Jane and her son Ziggy, after her daughter Amabella accused him of hurting her, probably faded once the true identity of Amabella's attacker was revealed.

As a working mum, Renata feels out of place and judged amongst the other Monterey women.

As a result, she spends a great deal of time worrying about her daughter Amabella — a trait that will likely continue this season.

Bonnie:

We're hopefully going to be seeing a lot more of Bonnie this season, especially given the criticism about the show's treatment of her in season one.

She'll be struggling the most of any of the women given her role in pushing Perry down the stairs.

It appeared to be in self-defence since Perry was about to attack his wife. But here's question seven: was there more going on?

It certainly seems likely, with creator and writer David E Kelley having told The Hollywood Reporter that "there was so much more to tell with the characters, especially with Bonnie".

"We only hinted about who Bonnie was," he said.

"We had not mined where she came from and what led to the big push at the end of year one."

Celeste

She's already confessed in the trailer she still feels guilty about what happened.

Last season she was seeing a psychologist about Perry's abuse.

We learnt a lot about how she was feeling during those sessions and given his death, she'll probably continue treatment.

With her mother-in-law arriving in town with questions, she'll be under a great deal of pressure this season along with struggling to rise two boys grieving over their dad's death.

There will most definitely be school DRAMA

We've been promised a look at "the vicious ferocity of sound parenting".

With Madeline on the war path, you can expect to see something go down at school pick-up.

We've already been promised as much in the trailer.

Then there's the cop who's not sold on the accident line

It's the cover-up to end all cover-ups.

At the end of last season, we saw the women tell the police that Perry tripped and fell down the stairs.

But at least one cop and a very determined mother-in-law aren't buying the "accident theory".

So question nine is: will it all unravel for this group of women or will they be able to hold it together long enough to fool the people who matter?

Perry himself will likely be making an appearance in some way

Alexander Skarsgard and Nicole Kidman as married couple Perry and Celeste in Big Little Lies ( HBO )

We thought we saw him die in the season one finale. But even Skarsgard himself had said that things might not be as they appeared.

"I don't even know if I'm really dead or not," the actor told NBC last year. "I feel okay right now but we'll see."

It had everyone wondering if Perry would be making an appearance as a ghost or perhaps in new flashbacks.

That was until Kidman slipped up in an interview last week. "He was the most incredible acting partner, and then he came back for season two," she said, before Witherspoon reportedly intervened.

So our final four questions all revolve around this apparently accidental disclosure: How will he return? Could he have survived? Is it for a flashback? Is he a ghost now?

Again, Kidman had this to say when backtracking her earlier comment: "He has a little bit of a part in the sense of … on the basis of … OK, I'll be quiet".

"He didn't abandon us, we'll put it that way," she added.

Perry making an appearance (in whatever form) might give Celeste the opportunity to find closure.

But those snippets of her in the trailer do not bode well for her this season.

Big Little Lies season two is on Foxtel's Showcase channel.