But assuming it’s not a complete death sentence, where would the show take the Smiths in season 2? We’ve already seen them go through all the typical stages and milestones of a relationship. We watch them begin as work partners in episode 1, start dating in episode 2, have their first real fight in episode 3, go on their first double date in episode 4, and experience the trials and joys of parenting in episode 5. In episode 6, they go to marriage counseling; by the penultimate episode, they’ve broken up. Finally, after a bitter ultra-violent gunfight in the finale, they reconcile.
John and Jane’s truth serum-induced reunion is a wildly cathartic, romantic moment between the two, a much-needed sequence of pure joy and connection after several episodes of growing misery. They’re back together even before Jane realizes it wasn’t John who killed her cat, or before John figures out it wasn’t Jane who rigged his mother’s house with explosives; no longer hiding behind their self-destructive defense mechanisms, they’ve broken through their marital rough patch and come out stronger on the other side.
It’s a follow-up on the movie’s main lesson, that full honesty is the best policy in marriage, except this time the couple’s lies to each other are made up of smaller, more personal, and more realistic betrayals, most of which are barely connected to their jobs as assassins. The show also goes one step further and declares that honesty isn’t enough; a good marriage requires both partners to put in more work to be there for each other. Thanks to Jane’s conversation with John’s mother (and John’s conversation with Hot Neighbor), it’s only now that the Smiths seem genuinely up for that challenge.