Sturt’s Desert Pea – As the finale of The Lost Flowers Of Alice Hart begins, Alice Hart (Alycia Debnam-Carey) receives a call from Dylan (Sebastian Zurita) but doesn’t answer. Lulu (Vivienne Awosoga) knocks on the door seconds later. Once Lulu comes inside, Alice tells her what happened and tries to call Dylan. Lulu insists she doesn’t need to call him. Alice doesn’t think he understood what was going on. Lulu takes several pictures of her so she can see herself before Alice takes a shower. After she finishes, Lulu tells her that she needs to report Dylan. Otherwise, Alice will have to cover up her bruises, take some sick days, and continue working with Dylan. Lulu says Dylan could be cruel and jealous. Although he scared her a couple of times, he was never in love with her.

Twig (Leah Purcell) approaches June Hart (Sigourney Weaver) and hugs her. They join Candy (Frankie Adams) inside before Twig tells June where she went. She got a message from Alice who isn’t ready to talk although she is happy and in love. When Alice visits Sarah (Catherine McClements), she learns that Dylan has made some serious allegations against her. He claims they were both verbally and physically abusive. Dylan also told Sarah that Alice attacked him last night. Sarah says Dylan has cuts and bruises all over him. Alice insists that was because she was defending herself. Dylan also claims she lied about her qualifications and that she has a violent history dating back to when she was a kid. As Alice begins laughing, Sarah tells her they haven’t had a problem with Dylan in four years.

Sarah shows her the posters Twig puts up and reveals they’re going to suspend her pending a formal inquiry. After that, Alice tells Lulu who offers to take her to the police. Ruby (Shareena Clanton) tells Alice she is coming with her on the tour so she can look after her. Alice ends up getting physical with a tourist who tries to take flowers. She runs away. Later that night, she looks through the window as Dylan and others watch the video of her attacking the tourist. She sits alone and calls Twig to say she needs to come home. Alice wants Twig to come and get her. Later, she says she gets to go back to Thornfield as another messed up flower. June comforts her before they hug. Then, June steps outside to call Sally Morgan (Asher Keddie).

June takes Alice out and tells her that she lied about something a long time ago. She explains that Alice’s brother didn’t die in the fire. June reveals she gave him up for adoption to Sally Morgan. She apologizes for keeping them apart. Alice begins screaming at her. Sally finds Alice at the library and asks if she is looking for Selkie Story. When Alice asks what he’s like, Sally thinks it’d be better to let Charlie speak for himself. Charlie has always known about his beautiful sister. June sees Twig and Charlie in the distance. Alice looks through the book and notices that certain words have been marked. Sally tells her it is the only way they could communicate without Clem knowing. He kept a close eye on Alice’s mom. Alice learns that they sent messages through books.

Sally says she wanted to help her since she was trying to leave her dad. She had a definite plan and it is all laid out in the book. Sally only realized when she went to Thornfield and saw the sign. She believes Alice ended up exactly where her mother wanted her to be. Alice blames herself for messing up the plan. Sally tells her there is something she needs to see. Sally takes her to look at the findings of the inquest into the deaths of Clem and Agnes Hart. At the time, Alice couldn’t be interviewed because she was still recovering in the hospital. She sustained assault from her father resulted in broken bones, a collapsed lung, head, and neck trauma. Agnes lived in fear while Clem was committed and deeply controlling.

Agnes befriended Sally Morgan. She made plans to leave Clem and take Alice to a refuge. On January 7, 2007, Agnes attended her pre-natal check-up at the Wyuna Base Hospital accompanied by Clem. After the visit, they went to the library where Agnes updated Sally of her plan using the message in the book. Then, they returned home. Forensic reports indicate that a small fire had broken out in the shed. Clem screams and chases Alice inside while Agnes tells him not to hurt her. Agnes pleads with him to stop while he chokes Alice. Agnes ends up hitting him in the back of the head. She left the house and returned to Alice before going into labor. First responders found her suffering from severe smoke inhalation. The inquiry finds that Agnes killed Clem to save her daughter’s life.

Alice meets Charlie (Jeremy Blewitt). Two months later, Twig asks Sally about Alice over the phone. Sally says she spoke to her about Clem and Gemma. Alice and Charlie are making up for lost time. Twig says June is still there sleeping. They’ve loved hearing Charlie’s messages. Sally can’t promise anything, but she’ll see if Alice wants to call them. After the call ends, Boo (Maggie Dence) comes in to watch over June. Alice tells Charlie that he looks like Clem a little bit. She goes on to say there was some good too since he was artistic and strong. Charlie questions whether they’re going to charge Dylan. Alice doesn’t answer and instead reminds Dylan he will be late for school.

Once he leaves, Sally tells Alice about Twig’s call. Alice isn’t sure about calling because she doesn’t know what to say. She is still upset that they told her Charlie was dead for 14 years. While contemplating contacting June, Alice receives a message from Dylan who says he misses her. Alice responds by telling Dylan that she misses him too. Twig takes care of June and gives her honey. As June gets out of bed, she remembers Agnes and Clem telling her that they wanted to get a place of their own. Clem was thinking about building them a cottage by the river. He claims Thornfield has been rundown for too long so it needs to be modernized. In private, June tells Clem that he won’t be building anything at Thornfield because it isn’t his and never will be.

When she dies, Thornfield will go to Twig and Candy. Clem says the Candy stuff is nothing. If that is the case, he won’t mind June telling Agnes that he raped his little sister. Clem tackles her before choking her and saying she won’t tell Agnes anything. Twig eventually stops him. In the present, June imagines Agnes telling her it had to be this way for Alice. Twig helps her up and gets her something to drink. June says she is finishing this for Alice. She writes her a letter. Sally approaches Alice to tell her she shouldn’t get sucked back in by Dylan. Alice insists she isn’t going back. Seconds later, Alice finally calls June but she isn’t around to answer the phone. Outside, June tells Twig and Candy that a new queen bee has been born. June hangs out and drinks with the girls.

Twig suggests June can have one more for the road, but June seems to be gone already. Alice returns to Thornfield where she is greeted by Twig and Candy. John, Charlie, and Sally come with her. A large group comes over for June’s send-off even though Candy believes she would’ve hated it. Twig brings Charlie and Alice up before telling the flowers about them. Later, Candy tells Alice that they all got letters. Twig receives a gift in hers. She checks the tree down by the water and finds that her name is carved in it. June tells Alice that they win when they remain silent. She put a book aside for her in the shed that she calls “The Lost Flowers”. June says these were the stories she should’ve shared with her when she was old enough to hear them.

When women started coming there, it’d become a ritual that they’d come to the shed and tell June what happened to them. June wrote it down. June says she had her voice taken from her when she was very young because of a crime by the river. She found her voice again by writing down those stories. The stories of The Lost Flowers are of women whose lives and histories have been erased mostly by men. Many of those men will never be held accountable for what they’ve done. June says they pay for their silence. Alice goes to the greenhouse with the others. They set the tree on fire. June says she realized she wasn’t alone while listening to other women speak and that is how she got her voice back.

June gives Alice her story. She tells Alice that she has a big voice and it is time to use it.

 

The Lost Flowers Of Alice Hart Review

The finale of The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart provided a fitting conclusion to June’s story while leaving Alice’s story open to interpretation. The finale was pretty straightforward without any surprises or twists. The performances remained solid from start to finish with Sigourney Weaver leading the way. Young Alice’s performances were more impactful than older Alice although any hiccups would’ve been easy to overlook by fans of the series.

While the finale closed the door on June Hart, it just didn’t have the emotional pull it should’ve for a handful of reasons. For starters, the story was stretched thin at seven episodes leaving the emotional bits scattered among characters that added little and scenes in which nothing happened. If the series is binged at once, it might have more emotional value but a 4-episode series would’ve been even better.

Secondly, June wasn’t the most sympathetic figure in the story so it wasn’t easy to genuinely care about the character. In many ways, the character was a hypocrite and unlikable. The story really lost its most sympathetic character when Alice Hart aged and became a caricature of any woman caught in an abusive relationship. The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart had many great moments, but they were mostly at the beginning of the series.

The remaining good bits were sparsely spread through four grueling episodes that will require a lot of patience to finish. The finale scores a 6 out of 10. Recaps of The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising on Reel Mockery here.