The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart Review: Part 5: Desert Oak (Season 1 Episode 5)

This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.

With a new episode written by Sarah Lambert, Kirsten Fisher, and Kim Wilson and directed by Glendyn Ivin, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart Season 1 Episode 5, “Part 5: Desert Oak,” continues to dive into the past lives of these characters. However, it doesn’t seem enough to keep the audience engaged throughout the episode.

Even though the story is supposed to center around Alice, her character is still one that we don’t know if we like or not. Every time the episode focuses on her story, it seems to slow down, and nothing relevant comes to light.

However, this time around, we might have learned something from Dylan that will complicate Alice’s story.

It has been clear from the beginning that her father’s abuse and death marked Alice’s life. Now that she is an adult, she seems to be doing her best to distance her past from her present.

However, as her relationship with Dylan moves forward, we see glimpses of a present that might repeat the patterns of the past, with Alice taking the place of her mother. This isn’t confirmed yet, but the episode gives us some clues.

For starters, her friend tells Alice, “Be careful, he [Dyaln] can be a lot,” which makes us think that Lulu has a past with him that pushes her to be wary of his relationship with Alice. Does this mean he ever hurt her? We still don’t know.

But as the episode goes on, we see a different side to Dylan. When Alice brings up Lulu (a topic he clearly doesn’t want to discuss), he immediately gets mad, storms off, and leaves Alice alone in the desert.

Upon his return, Alice repeats her mother’s actions. She apologizes for something she didn’t even do and serves him a meal as if trying to make up for her “mistake.”

These signs seem to point in the direction that something bad will happen between Alice and Dylan. And given the show’s history, we are afraid to think it might be abuse once more.

However, Alice’s current storyline isn’t as captivating as it was in the first three episodes. But the moment The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart Season 1 Episode 5, “Part 5: Desert Oak,” introduces the idea that she might be in danger, we can again feel the need as part of the audience to ensure she is okay.

The biggest issue with her current storyline is that it seems too slow. Most of the things that happen during her day-to-day life don’t seem relevant to the story, at least for now. The only thing we believe might become relevant is that she lies to Dylan about her grandmother dying in a drunk car accident.

And it is hard to remain focused during Alice’s scenes when so much more is happening on the other side of the story with June, Candy, and even Twig.

Hopefully, with the remaining two episodes of the series, we will feel more connected to Alice’s story and understand why such mundane details of her life are important.

What surprises us the most on The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart Season 1 Episode 5, “Part 5: Desert Oak,” is Frankie Adams’s performance.

During this episode, we see Candy take her armor off completely. She washes away her makeup, changes her outfit, and dyes her hair back to its natural color, leaving the blue behind. We get to see who she is behind the façade.

This is done to show the viewers more of her past, and it is probably the best tactic to let us in and show us who she used to be before something terrible happened to her.

It is on this episode that we finally understand what happened between Candy and Clem and how guilty June has been feeling all these years. But it also helps understand why Candy chooses to stay with June instead of going off with Twig.

The time jumps between young Candy and Clem and present Candy taking her armor off are probably the best time jumps we have seen throughout the season. It was done perfectly between key moments of their story and each piece of disguise that Candy takes off.

It feels as if we are seeing her for the first time, emphasizing that Candy hasn’t been feeling seen by June.

The other way in which The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart Season 1 Episode 5, “Part 5: Desert Oak,” introduces time jumps is through June’s character, which is nearly as perfect as those introduced by Candy.

When June thinks back on a particular moment of the past, three key elements come into play every time.

The first one is that she hears the voice of the past. Everything that was said at one moment in time comes back to her, and she can hear it wherever she is, taking us back to the past with her.

The second one is that she will always find herself in the room or the space where said moment occurred. When it comes to Candy’s story, she is both in the greenhouse where Clem abused her and in the room where she faced Clem.

Last but not least, we will see the past as she remembers it. Whether it is her as she watches something happen or having a discussion with someone, we become witnesses to that moment and can understand why it has affected her or the other characters.

This technique allows us to understand better why June is the way she is beyond all the lies she has told her family and the audience.

One thing that has been very clear from the beginning of the season is that June has never trusted men. We don’t know if there is more to the story of Clem’s father or if it is rooted in her son’s behavior.

But this episode makes us wonder if June is afraid of men because she has seen what they are capable of in different circumstances. Two key moments make the audience feel this way.

On the one hand, when June comes home from the hospital, two men are working on repairs in the house. The moment she sees them, we realize she doesn’t feel comfortable with them around. This is confirmed when she asks Candy, “What are these men doing here?”

On the other hand, there is a conversation between Twig and the Morgans that points once again to June giving Charlie up because she didn’t know what he was capable of.

When Twig says she understands June behaved the way she did because she was trying to protect Alice, Sally is confused about why she felt the need to protect Alice from her brother. It is then that Twig says, “It’s complicated,” once more reminding us that June was afraid.

After learning Clem abused Candy and knowing he continued to do the same with Agness and Alice, it is no wonder June is trying to protect all the women she knows. Will this help her case when Alice finds out about Charlie?

Even though it gets lost in Candy’s story and the fears of what Dylan may do, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart Season 1 Episode 5, “Part 5: Desert Oak,” is about Twig going to meet Charlie to find Alice.

Not much comes from her meeting with Charlie as of now, but as part of the audience, we can tell it will be relevant once Twig is reunited with Alice. How will this affect the young woman?

With two episodes left, we wonder if The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart will be able to tie every loose end and deliver closure for every major character.

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What did you think of this episode of The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart has weekly releases through September 1 on Prime Video.

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