There are secrets blooming in the flower fields in The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, and sometimes secrets are best left buried. Let’s take a look at what happens in episode 3.
Finding your voice
After discovering the book her father gave her mother, Alice (Alyla Browne) is on a quest for answers and it leads to June’s (Sigourney Weaver) private workshop. When June finds her there, Alice throws the book at her in a rage. June is momentarily confused until she spots the dedication, which proves that she’s been lying about Alice’s mother this whole time.
Meanwhile, John (Alexander England) is calmly interrogating his wife about Gemma. Sally (Asher Keddie) confesses that she was with Clem during a rough spot in her relationship with John, and she only found out about Gemma’s bloodlines when she got sick and neither Sally nor John could donate to her. The doctors, it turns out, pulled her aside to reveal this information. She hoped Clem would help save Gemma’s life but he refused to respond to her requests and it was Agnes who was beaten for trying to help Sally. John’s quietly furious, and he plans on finding a place in town. Sally, though, pushes forward with plans to get some kind of connection with Alice through the courts because she’s family.
June makes a necklace for Alice as a means of apologizing for what happened. The flowers start moving Agnes’ things back into Alice’s room. When Twig (Leah Purcell) gets a notice that Sally is moving forward with the courts, June deletes it. Twig warns her that this is a very dangerous path. As Alice looks around her new room, now full of her mother’s things, she reads a note from June that came with the necklace. June apologizes for her actions and promises to reveal everything to Alice when she finds her voice.
Quest for answers
John, working late at the police station, studies the statues in the evidence locker taken from the Hart house. There’s a lock of Gemma’s hair there, just as Sally said. It’s a very sobering realization.
Sally continues her quest to be in Alice’s life, telling the solicitor that she doesn’t want to create problems but she believes she has information about her parents that could be helpful to her.
Alice has joined the other flowers working in the fields. It gives her a connection to her mother. She finds Candy (Frankie Adams) reading the inscription in her mother’s book. Alice sees Candy’s scar and asks if it’s the same scar her father had. Candy says it was from a “stupid dare” from when they were kids. Alice asks about her grandfather, and all Candy knows is that they met at the river and June called him the Robber Baron. They’d meet every month on the same day by the river and then he stopped showing up. When June walks in, Candy ends the story. Alice draws a heart between June and Robber on her notepad, and June asks if it’s so hard to believe that she could have been in love.
Later, June introduces Alice to the honey made on the farm. The bees are what give their flower field life and you can taste the flowers in the honey. She then gives Alice another lesson in flowers and their meanings.
Oggi (Luc Barrett)shows up and reads from the flower book. Suddenly a van pulls up and he tells Alice it’s “another flower.” This time, the young woman arrives with a baby, a little boy. Twig tends to the baby while Alice looks in the mother’s room to see her sleeping. She has bruises on her neck. She asks what Alice’s name is, but Alice can’t speak. She tries to say her name but can’t find her voice.
A package Sally sent to Alice has been returned, leaving her frustrated and angry. She packs a bag and drives off.
The newcomer asks June for her phone so she can make some calls. June explains that all calls have to go through herself or Twig, and that’s to keep the place safe. The other flowers tell her she’ll get paid if she works in the field, because all women need their own money. Twig tells Alice about her own kids, who were taken from her when she was young because that’s what they did in the country — they took kids away from their families. When Twig shows her the trees planted for her parents and baby brother, Alice breaks down in tears.
Soon Alice is helping with the baby with renewed energy, as if making up for what happened to her unborn brother. The girls celebrate when new girl Dina learns how to drive. “All women need to know how to drive,” they agree. June says it’s Alice’s turn, and soon they’re cheering for her as she takes off down the road. June tells her how to handle the clutch, beaming with pride after she gets them back to the house.
Best to call ahead
When Sally stops for a meal, she asks the waitress about Thornfield. The waitress, Oggi’s mother, asks if Sally is ok. The only people who know about the place are people who need help. Sally says she knows June, but Jana isn’t about to give up any information about her and suggests Sally call ahead because the farm isn’t open to the public. Oggi offers Sally a little wave, though. Later, Sally spots Candy dropping Alice off at school. Oggi is there to greet her and it brings tears to Sally’s eyes.
Sally decides to follow Candy, so when Candy arrives at the farm she alerts June to the visitor. June drives up before Sally can climb the fence. June refuses to allow Sally to see Alice, even though Sally has brought her a birthday present. She wants to know what it will take to make Sally back off. June finally opens the gate and drives Sally to the house.
June asks what Sally sees. Only women, June points out. “Thornfield is a flower farm, and it’s also a safe place for women to come and to heal,” June says. All of Sally’s questions are putting the women there at risk. Sally respects what June is doing but can’t believe a refuge is the best place for her. Sally suggests asking Alice what she wants.
They pick up Alice at school. Sally greets Alice, who looks close to bursting into tears. She walks away with June, leaving Sally alone. Back at Thornfield, Alice plays in the sprinklers and imagines seeing her mother. Sally cries alone in her car that night; when she calls John she tells him she’s chasing something that isn’t real, and that through her actions she lost everything.
When Alice wakes up, she sees a vision of her mother wishing her a happy birthday. The flowers all wish her a happy birthday at breakfast, but she immediately senses something is wrong. When she asks, she learns that Dina has left and taken the baby with her. Twig says she thought the baby needed his father, which sends Alice running from the house. She runs to the river, where she lets out a scream as she thinks about her mother. While June and Twig are waiting for Alice to return, they get a phone call from the hospital. Thinking it’s about Dina, the women all worry but June reassures them it’s about Alice. However, it’s not about Alice at all…it’s about Alice’s baby brother. It turns out that he’s alive and surgery went well, and it’s time for him to come home.
Oggi finds Alice and wishes her a happy birthday. They share a drink, and then he gives her a present. It’s The Little Mermaid book she used to read with her mother. She thanks him, and he’s stunned to hear her voice. That night she blows out her candles and then thanks June, who looks on in wonder. The other flowers want her to say their names, too, and they cheer her on.
Sally returns home and apologizes to John. He knows she’s sorry, and as he hugs her he says he misses Gemma and misses being a dad, a family. “It’s not too late for us,” he says. “No more lies.” He’s willing to work, but there can be no more lies.
June tells Alice that she argued with Clem because she told him that Thornfield could only be passed to women, and that’s when he packed up and left. She thinks the damage came from his father. They only heard from them when Alice was born. Alice asks if June knew he was hurting us. Alice leaves with Oggi. “There’s plenty of time to tell her the rest,” June tells Twig.
Candy looks out the window and rubs her scar until it bleeds anew. She thinks back to when she got the scar, when Clem promised that they were “stitched together” through the cut he made on their hands. Apparently he was “stitched” to several women on the farm.
As Alice and Oggi carve Agnes and Alice’s name into the tree by the river, June calls John and tells them it’s urgent.
New episodes of The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart air Fridays on Prime Video.
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