Netflix's Firefly Lane, based on Kristin Hannah's book, presents two main characters of Kate and Tully. These two have been best friends since they were teenagers. They are family to each other, and it's both rare and wonderful to see a strong and complex friendship as the central focus of a television series. They may have love and romance, but their friendship is more important or at least equally important to any other relationship that they have.
The series weaves back and forth between different times in their lives and friendship. It also is in both of the characters' points of view, making it difficult to see who is the true main character, and here are a few arguments in favor of each.
Kate: Ugly Duckling/Swan Story
Kate feels second-rate to Tully and to other girls; she's often the one who is forgotten in the background, and peers don't sit next to her on the bus. Friends she once had when she was a kid bully and berate her, as she's not the cool one in their eyes, and she feels insecure.
Her friendship with Tully starts to change that when Tully recognizes something beautiful and unique in Kate. She recognizes that Kate is kind, and that means a lot in Tully's unstable world. When they were teens, Tully gave Kate fashion advice. Later, she encourages Kate in her career and to pursue a love interest. Viewers see Kate learn to recognize her inner and outer beauty, that she's always been a swan.
Tully: Star Reporter
Tully wants more for herself than to be just a pretty girl, and she's also afraid of becoming like her mother. She decides that she wants to be a reporter, and she's determined to make it work. She wants to be seen, taken seriously, and to report.
Early in her career, she gets shot in the arm at a gas station hold-up, but she still continues with her report and also comforts a scared child. Soon after, a prominent man in the field proposes that he'll make her a superstar if she sleeps with him and threatens her that he'll make sure that she's nothing if she doesn't. She turns him down and then gets her show her way, becoming famous and independent. She is the hardworking star of this series.
Kate: Life Shift and New Beginning
After Kate had gotten married, she left her career to raise her daughter. Then she goes through a painful divorce. Both she and her ex-husband love each other, and their divorce is amicable, even if it's painful. They just want two different things. So, in a sense, Kate is starting over both in romance and in her career.
While she's lower on the career ring than she was before she married Johnny, she becomes valued. She also decides to try a new romance with some guidance from Tully. All in all, this series focuses on her new beginning, thus making her seem like the true main character.
Tully: Birthday Rituals
Tully's birthday stands out—it's even the title of one of the episodes ("You Say It's Your Birthday"). When they were teenagers, Tully's mother decided to celebrate her daughter's birthday by taking Tully and Kate to a fancy restaurant. It seemed promising, but it was a disaster.
When Kate can see that Tully is obviously upset about the night, she tells her, "I promise, forevermore, to make sure that your birthdays are amazing and special and happy because you deserve that." Tully looks forward to her birthdays, and they are always special. Her birthday becomes a ritual and a central part of their friendship.
Kate: The Love Story
Out of the love stories, Kate's love story receives the most attention and focus in the series. When Kate first met Johnny, she was immediately smitten. They quickly started a friendship which soon blossomed into a love affair. Viewers see their full love story: how they met, the ups and downs, and how long it took for the romance to become a marriage.
Then the marriage turns to divorce. Yet, it's a love story because these two haven't fallen out of love even if it's not practical concerning their different paths. With the amount of time and episodes focused on Kate's love story with Johnny, it makes her seem like the true main character.
Tully: Mother Issues
In some ways, Kate's parents are almost stock characters, with a couple of exceptions. Meanwhile, Tully's mom, Cloud, is a thunderstorm. Cloud wasn't prepared to be a mother and made horrible choices. Many times, Tully mothered her mother, and Tully was embarrassed by her.
Tully's own issues with becoming a mother come from Cloud. She doesn't want to be like Cloud, yet she also wants Cloud's love and approval. There are many scenes where Tully grapples with her relationship with Cloud, making it seem that she's the true main character.
Kate: Her Story Starts With Tully's Friendship
Since this is a series about friendship, it's interesting that Kate's story starts with her friendship to Tully. She longs for a connection, for a friendship, and she's curious about the new girl who just moved to their lane.
The two aren't immediate besties, but Kate shows Tully extreme kindness in a hard moment. This is what jumpstarts their friendship, and Kate embodies the most important theme of the series: friendship.
Tully: The Series Starts With Her Story
Yet, Tully could be the true main character because the series starts with her point-of-view, and viewers get to know Tully as a young girl before the friendship. She's taken away from her grandmother by her mother, Cloud, after she hadn't seen Cloud for a few years. Cloud takes Tully to a Vietnam War protest, and then Tully gets separated, ending up afraid and alone on a park bench. Worse yet, she's abandoned, as Cloud never comes back to find her. Viewers learn Tully's struggles years before she meets Kate, setting it up to seem as if Tully is the main true character.
Kate: The Rift
Most of the first season of the series focuses on the friendship as well as the separate issues that Kate and Tully go through. Yet, the last episodes show the viewers that something changed between the two besties. At first, it seems like Tully died as Kate and her daughter are dressed for a funeral and talk about how they miss Tully.
Yet, when they get to the funeral, Tully stands outside. Kate barely acknowledges here, then later tells Tully to leave. It's clear that something big and bad happened between the two, and it's also clear that Kate holds the cards. If she wants to be friends with Tully again, Tully would be there in a heartbeat. But, at least, at this point, she doesn't.
Tully: The Outsider
As much as Kate may think that Tully has it together and can strive in any social setting, Tully is the outsider. Despite getting Kate and Johnny a puppy for the daughter and being there in the delivery room, Tully realizes that she's not included in this part of their lives and steps back. Also, she's included in Kate's family functions as almost another daughter, but she's also an outsider.
Many times, Tully flashes back to the moment on the park bench when she was abandoned and alone as a child. As an outsider, she serves as the true main character; she's all smiles for the camera, but only the viewers—and, to some extent, Kate—know her true and complicated inner monologue.