In The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart episode 2’s “Wattle”, young Alice learns more about her new home at Thornfield and its connection to her past…and her future.
A chance to start over
After being plagued by dreams and nightmares, Alice (Alyla Browne) wakes up to find June (Sigourney Weaver) towering over her. Twig (Leah Purcell) has Candy’s (Frankie Adams) old clothes for Alice to wear.
Later, Twig wonders aloud whether having another child on the farm will be a good thing for the other “flowers”, but June isn’t sure. They might mess Alice up, too. And when Twig asks about setting up Agnes’ old room for her, June reminds her that Alice doesn’t even know her mother was on the farm, too.
June introduces Alice to Stella (Renee Lim), Mish (Kathleen O’Dwyer), May, Rosie (Amy Kersey), Vlinda (Helana Sawires) and Boo (Maggie Dence). Candy introduces herself, expressing her excitement about finally getting to meet Alice. June tells the flowers that Alice will be living with them from now on. Candy offers a toast: “Welcome to Thornfield, where wildflowers are allowed to bloom.”
June gives Alice the lay of the land, showing her the cutting fields that were started by her great-great-grandmother and handed down to the women in the family. When June says that the flowers look like “bursting fire pods,” it triggers a memory for Alice of her mother saying the same thing.
Poor Agnes
John Morgan (Alexander England) and Sally (Asher Keddie) talk to the lawyer, who confirms that the will was amended right before Agnes’ death to include her unborn son. The lawyer got the impression that Agnes wasn’t safe, which is why he only talked to her on pay phones and faxed documents to a local post office.
Back at Thornfield, Alice listens as June tells Stella that a man was released from prison and he’s looking for her. But she’s safe at Thornfield so long as she remembers the rules.
Alice explores the grounds. She finds an old greenhouse with a tree growing inside it and she traces the cuts in its trunk with her finger. Suddenly June is there, angrily telling her that she’s not allowed in that place because it’s dangerous.
In the kitchen, Candy asks if her father ever mentioned her. She’s Alice’s aunt. June and Twig found her by a river and took her in. She got her name from Candy, who enjoys sweets, and Blue because of the blue evening gown wrapped around her. Alice wants to go to the river, but Candy doesn’t have time. When Candy extends her hand, Alice sees the same scar on her hand as was on her mother’s hand. Candy yanks her hand away and tells Alice she’ll lead her to the path toward the river.
At the river, Alice finds her father’s name carved into a tree. She has a memory of being in a boat with her father. He wants her to stand up and do the hula on the boat but she keeps falling over and it makes him angry.
She’s jolted out of the memory by the sound of someone calling to her. As she goes into the water, she’s reminded of how that day on the boat ended up. As her father went looking for something he pushed her over the side of the boat.
Thankfully, Oggi (Luc Barrett) is there to pull her out. He tells her that he used to live on the farm with his mom, who was also a flower. But he says that June would shoot him if she knew he came around. Alice quietly sneaks away and goes back to the house, where June is worried about her. When they see her there, Alice panics and starts crying hysterically.
Who is June?
John does some research in June and sees the original will that named Sally as the beneficiary and guardian for Alice. He’s upset that Sally didn’t tell him that she knew Agnes.
Twig tells June that the nurse at the hospital said Alice had panic attacks before and that a doctor suggested therapy and possibly drugs to help her with the PTSD. “Drugs? For a nine year old?” June asks. She has a flashback of young Clem making her something; even as a child he was talented.
Oggi finds his mother Jana (Victoria Haralabidou) working. Candy is there dropping off pies from Thornfield. Sally goes for a drink and to play pool while John is working. She learns that June had a colorful past with lots of assaults. The nurse from the hospital is also there and she tells Sally that Alice had another panic attack.
Candy is about to leave when the man from the diner follows her outside and they keep talking. The next time we see her, she’s going back to Thornfield and he’s in a car behind her, watching the gates close.
The next morning Alice finds her shoes with a note from Oggi, who brought them back so she wouldn’t get in trouble. That day, Vlinda gives Alice a lesson on what all of the flowers represent and how they all come together for the perfect wedding bouquet.
Sally calls June and asks about Alice. June lies and says that she’s talking again and she’s not having panic attacks. Sally informs her about the will and the fact that she was named Alice’s guardian if June is deemed unfit. John is furious, but Sally isn’t messing around. She’s going to get her back.
Wattle: "always with you"
June brings Alice the Thornfield Language of Flowers, a book with all of the flowers they grow. Alice picks out wattle, thinking of her mother wearing them in her hair. She looks around the room and sees the wattle on the wallpaper. She writes a question to June, whether her mother was ever there. June says no.
Stella is terrified that Paddy (Jeremy Lindsay Taylor), her ex-husband, has found her. He’s left a box with their wedding rings on the doorstep. The last time she wore them was when he beat her and she lost her baby. June vows that she’ll keep Stella safe as Candy reveals that it was Paddy who was at the diner the night before.
While Sally checks in with the police while her husband is away, hoping to discover something about June’s history, June takes Alice to school. When the kids start making fun of Alice for being from Thornfield, Oggi steps in to defend her but seeing the bully punch him sends her into a rage and she starts beating the bully herself.
Speaking of bullying, now that the local police know that Sally is asking about June, they go out of their way to help her. June is on Paddy’s trail but being pulled over allows him to slip away. When she gets home, she gets a call from John, who seems puzzled about being pulled over. June warns him to call off his boys before she files charges.
At school, Alice asks Oggi how he knew it was a fire. His mum told him. Twig arrives to gather Oggi and as she pulls Alice away, Alice slips him a note saying the fire wasn’t an accident, it was her fault.
At home, June asks what the local kids are calling them. Witches? Lesbians? The town has always looked down at them because they are afraid of them, and that gives the flowers power over them.
John confronts Sally about getting into the middle of his investigations. She’s upset that he didn’t tell her about the assaults, but he had a good reason: June was a victim in all of them.
Strangers at the bar
June manages to catch up with Paddy, pretending to flirt with him at the bar. They have a drink but he’s not interested in her. June understands. She starts talking about the kind of woman he’d probably like, describing Stella specifically. She antagonizes him, trying to get him to hit her, but he won’t. “Coward,” she seethes.
John understands that Sally misses their daughter. He wants his wife to tell him the truth, but Sally can’t say anything to him. Sally goes into Gemma’s room and looks around, deep in thought.
As June walks away from the bar, Paddy attacks her, getting the attention of the locals at the bar. Later, she goes to the greenhouse with the tree in it. Using her knife, she carves another line in it. The old tree has a face carved into it.
The next day, June hands out the mail and Stella sees June and thanks her. June sits beside Alice and reassures her that it was a result of being struck by a tree branch in the old greenhouse.
John returns home to find Sally sitting alone with a statue of a girl carved of wood. He looks closely at it and asks if it’s Alice. It’s their daughter, Gemma, and the statue was made by Clem Hart. John, becoming emotional, needs his wife to say it out loud. “She was his,” Sally whispers. “Gemma was his.”
While John falls apart, Alice is exploring her new home and she finds a copy of Alice in Wonderland that has a letter in it from Clem to Agnes saying that he’s so glad she’s at Thornfield. The memory of the boat trip finishes with Agnes rescuing Alice from the water. She thinks of her father burning the fields and she goes to find June, imagining her grandmother burning.
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