As The Split returns tonight with season 3, you’ll probably need a refresher on where we left everyone – here’s our no-nonsense season 2 recap!
The Sterns and Defoes all found themselves in a whole world of trouble and turmoil…
The Split season 2 recap – the Sterns in crisis
Millions were gripped by the first two series of The Split. There were, of course the actual legal cases that the team of solicitors at glossy London firm Noble Hale Defoe had to tackle.
In the last outing, which was on TV back in February 2020, this included the tawdry break-up of celebrity couple Fi and Richie Hansen (played by Donna Air and Ben Bailey-Smith).
But really we were glued to the flailing marriage of the Sterns: lawyer Hannah and her barrister husband Nathan, played by Unforgotten’s Nicola Walker and Episodes’ Stephen Mangan.
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When, that is, we weren’t distracted by their unbelievably luxurious house, where even the kitchen island is bigger than most people’s entire homes.
And if Hannah hoped for calm and steady support from her formidable mother, Ruth, and sisters Nina and Rose, there was disappointment – their lives were in equal turmoil.
Read on for our look back at where we left them all at the end of season 2 of The Split.
The Split season 2 recap – Hannah Stern’s bombshell
While Hannah spent the first series struggling with the fact that husband of 20 years, Nathan, had cheated on her, she spent much of the second rekindling a flame with fellow lawyer and now colleague Christie Carmichael (Dutch actor Barry Atsma).
She was unable to resist Christie’s charms. No one could blame her – have you seen the man?
But it wouldn’t be long before her secret liaisons with Christie aroused Nathan’s long-held suspicions. And impacted her work: distracted, teary, mean to her juniors.
Would guilt-ridden Hannah follow her loyal heart and concentrate on making a go of it with Nathan, for the sake of their eternal love and their three kids?
Can you just be my mother for once
Or would she listen to her pulsing nether regions and carry on getting twisty with Christie?
She did the former. All was fine, until in the spirit of ‘new start’ honesty, she admitted to Nathan that she’d actually slept with Christie on the night of their wedding.
Cue marital carnage, which ended with Nathan leaving the family home and Hannah sobbing in someone’s arms.
It was her mother, not Christie.
He’d already declared defeat and announced he was leaving Noble Hale Defoe and Hannah alone to get on with her forever family life.
Which was, of course, no more.
There are going to be a LOT of pieces for Hannah to pick up in The Split season 3.
The Split season 2 recap – what happened to Nina Defoe?
Doctor Who and Being Human actress Annabel Scholey plays Hannah’s sister Nina. And, yes, another divorce lawyer in the firm.
And one with a massive drinking problem.
In season 2 we saw her face up to her alcoholism and also discover she was pregnant.
So who’s the daddy? Could’ve been the married man with whom Nina had been having a fling.
But she plumped for her on-off comedian boyfriend, Rex (Ghost’s Mathew Baynton), who went to Los Angeles and actually found fame and fortune.
He briefly popped back to discover he was going to become a father and offered to make a long distance go of it with Nina. She declined and declared she was going to do solo parenting.
It all seemed like Nina had got her head and future sorted. Until the final episode of The Split season 2, when she had a ‘slip of the tongue’ snog with Tyler (Damien Molony; Being Human; Ripper Street; Brassic), the fiancé of Noble Hale Defoe’s boss Zander (Chukwudi Iwuji, currently filming the new Guardians Of The Galaxy).
Is she going to be fit, ready and sober for motherhood?
The Split season 2 recap – where did we leave Rose Defoe?
Bless Rose, the youngest and least feisty sister in the Defoe family and the only one who seemed to be leading a sort of normal life. (And wear flat shoes.)
Childminder Ruth had a rocky start to her marriage to James (Rudi Dharmalingam) in season 1 of The Split.
Mainly because she became dangerously ‘close’ to the vicar who was marrying them; and then had an awful miscarriage. But season 2 of The Split, saw her and James content and trying for a baby.
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Well, not that content. He hated his work and resented her floating around being an entitled Defoe, bemoaning her woes, while he grafted.
So, he quit and she stepped up and got a nannying job.
But it was heart-breaking to witness the couple realise they couldn’t have children naturally. Especially when Rose had to deal with sister Nina being pregnant.
Perhaps season 3 of The Split will see Rose finally have a baby of her own.
The Split season 2 recap – a refresher on Ruth Defoe
Since The Split’s season 1, the indomitable matriarch Ruth (Deborah Findlay) has erm…dominated…her daughters. Their eternal boss as both a lawyer and a mum.
“Can you just be my mother for once,” wept Hannah in season 2’s finale as she realised Nathan was probably going to leave her.
But Ruth’s not without her own melting points.
In The Split season 1, it was the unexpected return of her estranged husband Oscar (Anthony Head). Who promptly died at the end of the series.
In The Split season 2, it was the reappearance of an old ‘friend’, Ronnie. He clearly had a soft spot for Ruth – his eyes went all twinkly whenever he saw her.
Will Ruth’s twilight years be toasty or will she keep herself out in the cold?
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