Wheel Of Fire – As the sixth episode of The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart begins, Twig (Leah Purcell) puts a poster up for Alice and asks a local if she has seen her. The woman, Mary (Trisha Morton-Thomas), is unable to help her. When they sit down at a table, Twig tells Mary that she was brought up in a girl’s home in Adelaide. She has an adopted daughter and two of her own. Twig shows Mary a picture of Johnny and Nina. She tells Mary how she had a blow-up with her husband and social services got involved. Mary takes one of her flyers. Alice (Alycia Debnam-Carey) and the others are told fire duty is coming up so there will be mandatory training.

They’re also having the Bush Bash Ball tonight. Lulu (Vivienne Awosoga) asks Alice if she is coming because they never see her anymore. Dylan (Sebastian Zurita) doubts Alice would love it because it is lame. Alice says it’d be lame if she went by herself. Once Alice gets dressed later, Dylan comes home and gets upset when he sees her dress. He believes it is Lulu’s slutty dress. Dylan asks if she is dressing like that so all the guys from work can wank over her. Candy (Frankie Adams) finds June Hart (Sigourney Weaver) working late into the night. Candy asks her to take something for the pain, but June believes this is the beginning of the end. She eventually convinces June to go to bed. Twig hangs out in her motel room and looks at a pamphlet for the crater tour.

Alice and Dylan end up staying home. Lulu calls Alice to ask where she is. Alice responds by claiming she got a migraine. Candy checks on June in the morning only to find she is already out of bed. She finds June by the water and immediately checks to make sure she is okay. June says her mother told her she’d carve someone’s name next to hers one day. She also told June she was safe there. June wants Candy to write a letter for her. June reveals that her name was Robbie. She was a bit older and June thought everything about her was thrilling. They would camp out by the river when Robbie’s husband was away mustering. June wants her to know how grateful she is for every second they had together and that she is sorry they lost touch.

June tells Candy that Robbie’s last name was Baron. Candy reminds her she told them that the Robber Baron was Clem’s dad. Lulu catches up with Alice the following day to say she didn’t know she got migraines. Dylan gives Alice a gift that he hopes will make up for the headache. After she puts the necklace on, Alice nods confirming she likes it. In private, Dylan apologizes and says he just freaked out last night. Alice promises that she is never going to hurt him. Dylan leaves seconds later. When Twig pulls up, Alice hides to avoid being seen. Twig joins the others as they listen to Ruby (Shareena Clanton) as part of the tour. Twig puts up a flyer before returning to her vehicle.

Once she leaves, Alice checks the flyer she posted. Twig finds Mary next to the road so she offers to give her a ride. Alice asks Lulu if anyone was asking about her today, but Lulu doesn’t know anything. Alice doesn’t think she needs to go and instead offers to get a beer with Lulu. Later, Twig tells Mary she should probably get back to Agnes Bluff. Mary convinces her to stay with them. Twig tells her that she used to play that game with her kids as well. Alice makes it back and calls for Dylan but he doesn’t seem to be around. Alice calls him and leaves a message asking him to call her back. Twig ends up breaking down and sobbing. In the morning, Dylan apologizes to Alice for last night.

He claims he took painkillers and went to sleep because his back was killing him. Dylan suggests they should do a bush walk after work. Once he leaves, Alice calls Twig using the number on the flyer. Twig finds a message from Alice telling her she has a home and job now. Alice also says she met someone and is in love. She doesn’t want to talk to Twig or see anyone from Thornfield. Later, Dylan calls Alice to say the diesel bore is down so they can’t go for a walk tonight. Alice decides to hang out with Pip instead. She goes for a walk with the dog. When she gets back, Dylan is upset and questions where she has been. He slams her against the wall and asks who she was with. He seems to throw her to the floor.

Candy finds June listening to music and dancing. He tells June she went to the address she gave her only to find a young couple living there. They brought it from Ned Baron a few years ago after his wife Roberta died. June tells Candy how they were lying on the riverbank kissing without a care in the world. When June heard a noise, she saw three people. She pushed Robbie into the river and yelled for her to go. They caught June who was unable to keep them off her. She believes one of them knocked her out. When she woke up, she hurt all over. June was afraid they’d be there waiting for another go so she just kept still. She never told the police and never saw Robbie again. Although Robbie kept calling, June couldn’t answer.

When Clem was born, he just cried for a whole year. June believes Twig saved them when she came. A crying Dylan apologizes to Alice and says he doesn’t know what happened. Dylan pleads with her not to leave him before saying she doesn’t see how the other men look at her. He begins apologizing repeatedly and hitting himself in the head. Dylan says he doesn’t want to be that guy so he asks her not to set him off like that. Candy tells June it is about time for more morphine, but June doesn’t want to take it. June tells Candy that her will is in the top drawer of her desk. Dylan learns that someone from Thornfield has been contacting Alice. He questions whether Alice wants to see her, but Alice says she doesn’t. Alice sends a message to Twig telling her to go home and leave her alone.

Candy calls Twig to tell her that June is dying and she thinks she is going to kill herself. Twig promises to come home now. During the training session, Dylan checks on Alice to make sure she is feeling better. Dylan is told he is needed back at the base because the diesel bore has gone down again. Alice is told to stick with Aiden who will show her the ropes. Once the training begins, Alice freaks out while remembering things from the past. Aiden offers to radio for someone to take her back, but Alice thinks she can finish the training. Once the training session ends, Aiden checks on her and hugs her. Dylan watches from his vehicle. At home, Alice tells Dylan that it went well. Dylan says people can’t get enough of her and she plays them like a song.

He gets mad about the hug before pushing her against the wall and calling her a prick tease. Dylan throws her to the floor and kicks her. He chokes her before walking away. Dylan calls her danger and reminds her that she killed her parents. Alice grabs the lamp and hits him with it. As Alice tries to flee in her vehicle, Dylan runs out and jumps in front of it. She manages to get away from him. Alice flees into the other house with Pip and closes the blinds. She sees Agnes (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) who tells her everything is going to be fine. She tells Alice to open the door and let him in. As Dylan bangs on the door, Agnes insists he is just going to get angrier and it’ll get worse.

Alice begins screaming. In a voicemail message, Twig tells Alice that there are things she needs to know and things she can’t tell her in a message.

 

The Lost Flowers Of Alice Hart Review

The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart has an interesting story that could be very meaningful for a lot of viewers. The main characters are compelling enough, the performances are competent, and the scenery is great. However, the series has been stunted by its tedious pacing and overloaded stories that often introduce characters who’ll never matter in the long run.

The other women at Thornfield were introduced early on as if they were going to be integral to the story, but they’re barely mentioned anymore at this point. Mary will likely be a footnote as well. This really never needed to be seven episodes and instead could’ve been far more effective at four episodes. At seven episodes, everything is stretched thin to the point that very little meaningful happens in each episode.

When it finally does, any impact those scenes could’ve had is overwhelmed by the sense of pure boredom. The series didn’t need an entire episode dedicated to Alice’s relationship with Dylan considering the predictability of it. Truthfully, this is starting to feel like a missed opportunity to tell a sincerely gripping, heartfelt story.

The episode scores a 5 out of 10. Recaps of The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart are available on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising on Reel Mockery here.