The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart – Part 5: Desert Oak

By: Jennifer Vintzileos

As Alice (Alycia Debnam-Carey) gets acclimated to life in Agnes Bluff and a job as a new park ranger, Twig (Leah Purcell) is on a mission to visit Sally (Asher Keddie), John (Alexander England) and Charlie (Jeremy Blewitt) Morgan before searching for Alice. Candy (Frankie Adams) remains behind to watch over Thornfield. But while things are on the up and up for Alice and Twig, it seems June (Sigourney Weaver) faces her own uphill battle as the cancer has spread. Ultimately, June refuses to go for any treatment and decides to head home to rest at Thornfield. While she takes a taxi, Candy greets June upon her arrival home and informs her that Twig is gone.

After a day of Ruby (Shareena Clanton) showing her the ropes, Alice and Lulu (Vivienne Awosoga) hang out while Alice decorates the outside of her home. Lulu shows Alice where everyone else lives, particularly Dylan’s (Sebastian Zurita) home. As Alice shows interest in Dylan’s place, Lulu asks her about Moss (Xavier Samuel) and she explains how she ended things with him. Free and enjoying her time, Alice later runs into Dylan while she is preparing to go on a hike. Dylan joins her and they spend some quality time together.

While Candy informs June of Twig’s plans to visit Charlie, we see Twig has arrived at the Morgan household. Inside Twig meets Charlie for the first time. With evidence in hand, Twig explains that any correspondence Charlie had received from Alice was actually written by June…as a way to keep the two apart. June may have taken care of Charlie’s medical issues, but she lied to everyone that Charlie had perished in the fire with his parents.

Finding June in her studio with pictures of Charlie, it seems Candy wishes to see what the boy looked like. Unfortunately, June refuses to share her personal life with Candy and this sets the younger woman off. With June needing help and refusing to open up, Candy reminds her that everyone else is gone. But the rebuff triggers something far deeper in Candy, prompting her to take off her makeup and confront June for replacing her with Agnes (Tilda Cobham-Hervey).

In a flashback June remembers the relationship that blossomed between her son Clem (Charlie Vickers) and a young Candy (Catherine Laga’aia). Eager to squash any romance since Candy was 13-years-old at the time, June chastises her son and threatens to remove him from the premises if he does not comply with June’s request. When Agnes came into the picture and Clem showed interest in her as well, June fostered the relationship as Agnes was older. June later tells Candy that Agnes never replaced her, but that rather she was too young to be with Clem and June was protecting her instead.

Finally ready to have guests, Alice has a house-warming party and invites Lulu, Aiden (Nelson Baker) and Dylan over. As Lulu and Aiden seem lost in their own conversation, Alice and Dylan get closer…something that Lulu takes notice of. Later when Lulu and Aiden leave, Alice and Dylan stop fighting their feelings and finally sleep together. Now a newly minted couple, the next night they head to a party of a co-worker. Alice is happy, but notes that Lulu is anything but upon seeing how close her and Dylan have gotten. When Alice tries to confront Lulu about what’s going on, Lulu brushes it off but warns Alice to be careful with her new relationship.

After enough time of reconciling, Twig and the Morgans get down to business. Using Alice’s last credit card purchase as a point of reference, they trace her to Agnes Bluff. Charlie tries to plead with Twig to join her on the trip, but Twig promises to find Alice and tell her everything. Before leaving Twig hands Charlie a flower with the meaning “your presence eases my pain.” With that said, Twig sets off to Agnes Bluff and tells Candy she has found Alice.

Spending more time together, Alice and Dylan decide to go camping together. They cook dinner over a fire and set up sleeping arrangements, later Dylan shows Alice the fireflies. While watching the fireflies, Alice questions Dylan about his relationship with Lulu….which angers him and he storms off. Left alone, Alice feels sorry for broaching the topic and ends up falling asleep alone. Eventually, Dylan returns and tries to salvage the night.

The next morning, Dylan shares that he had had something with Lulu….but it was nothing compared to his feelings for Alice. With this, Alice opens up about what really happened the day she lost everything. After dreaming about lighting her father on fire for the way he treated her and her mother, Alice achieved her goal and ended up burning the house down….losing her mother and unborn brother in the process. Dylan tries to explain it was not her fault and he gives her one of his bracelets to bond them together.