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Firefly Lane is the latest Netflix drama, which tells the story of the trials and tribulations of a pair of female friends. The show starring Katherine Heigl and Sarah Chalke sticks fairly closely to the Kristin Hannah book of the same name, but gets rid of a major plot point: the death of one of the characters.
In the 2008 book, Kate Mularkey (played by Chalke) and Tully Hart (Heigl) fall out at the start of the 2000s after Kate appears on Tully's talk show The Girlfriend Hour. During the taping of this show, Tully calls Kate a bad mother, and it seems like after three decades, their friendship is over.
However, soon after this, Kate learns she has terminal breast cancer, and she dies at the end of the novel, shortly after she is able to reconcile with Tully. Kate leaves a note for Tully asking her to look after her husband and kids.
This does not happen, however, in the first season of the Netflix show. This could mean one of three things—that the writers are saving Kate's cancer battle for a potential Firefly Lane Season 2; that the show is just going to move straight to the plot of book two, which sees Tully living on without her best friend; or that the writers have got rid of this very final ending for Kate so the show has the potential to run for multiple seasons.
It is too early to say which one of these is the case, as we do not yet know whether the show is even getting a Season 2. Netflix has to collect viewing data on the show now the show is out to determine whether they will order a Season 2 or cancel it—a process that can take anything from just over to month to multiple months depending on how popular the show is.
There is some evidence, however, that the show is taking a different direction than the book. The finale, for example (spoilers ahead) sees Tully and Kate fall out not over the latter's appearance on the former's show but over an unseen incident that is one of the cliffhangers of the season that is sure to be revealed if the show gets greenlit for more.
One of the reasons why the show has not chosen to kill off Kate so early is to keep Chalke in the cast, but there is a way that the show could keep her while staying true to the books. As the show uses a time-hopping flashback structure, the show could show her death in the 2000s while still flashing back to her life in the 80s and 90s—an idea that This Is Us has been using to great effect for years.
Firefly Lane is streaming now on Netflix.
