Warning: This post contains spoilers for Happy Gilmore 2.
Mere minutes into Happy Gilmore 2, the long-awaited sequel to Adam Sandler’s 1996 sports comedy classic, it’s revealed that Virginia Venit (Julie Bowen), Happy’s pro golf PR director love interest-turned-wife from the first movie, was killed when Happy accidentally hit her in the head with one of his uber-powerful drives.
This tragic incident occurred years into Happy and Virginia’s marriage and left the couple’s five children—Gordie (Maxwell Jacob Friedman), Bobby (Philip Schneider), Wayne (Ethan Cutkosky), Terry (Conor Sherry), and Vienna (Sandler’s real-life daughter Sunny Sandler)—without a mother. It also led to the downfall of Happy’s golf career, which had thrived in the years following the original movie but ultimately resulted in a complete fall from grace when Happy gave up the game, blew all his money, and turned to alcohol to cope with his guilt and grief. As he laments in his opening voiceover, “I’d never been a big boozer, but alcohol was the only thing that helped me to forget what I’d done to the sweetest woman I’d ever known.”
Like its predecessor, Happy Gilmore 2 is an absurd and often over-the-top slapstick comedy. But as is the case with most Sandler films, it also contains moments of sincerity that ground it in reality. And the death of a beloved legacy character from the first movie certainly qualifies for that distinction.
However, narratively speaking, Virginia’s death makes sense and ends up being the catalyst that propels the story forward. Having lost the entirety of his golf earnings in addition to his now-late grandma’s old house, Happy finds himself in a tight spot when he needs $300,000 to send his daughter to a fancy Paris ballet school so she can take full advantage of her dance talents. Naturally, the only way to make that much money in a short period of time is for him to try to get back in fighting form and rejoin the Tour Championship league, a decision that sets him on a crash course to face off with new villain Frank Manatee (Benny Safdie), the creator of a stunt-based golf association dubbed Maxi Golf.
Virginia’s death also mirrors that of Happy’s father from the first movie, which was caused by an errant hockey slapshot and resulted in young Happy going to live with his grandma. Happy’s father’s untimely death was what led to Happy developing a short fuse, and his bond with his grandma was what first inspired him to take up the game of golf despite his distaste for the pretensions of the sport. We all know how that turned out.
This time around, while Happy’s grief over Virginia’s death is his weak spot, his love for his family is also what keeps him going when he’s close to giving up. First he just has to face off not just against Manatee but a host of familiar foes—and their progeny—on his second shot at golf glory.
Write to Megan McCluskey at Happy Gilmore 2&body=https%3A%2F%2Ftime.com%2F7305266%2Fhappy-gilmore-2-virginia-death%2F” data-ylk=”slk:megan.mccluskey@time.com;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas” class=”link rapid-noclick-resp”>megan.mccluskey@time.com.
