Upamanyu Biswas
The final episode of ‘Grosse Pointe Garden Society‘ throws a few spanners in the work as our main characters are faced with a mounting sense of guilt over what happened to Keith. With their resolve wavering, it paves the way for outside influences and their own moral scruples to shine a light on their shortcomings, predisposing them to a bad mistake. In the previous episode, a big problem arose when Kenny, the private investigator working for Connor, discovered Keith’s burial site. Racked with financial issues, Kenny decides to use the information as a blackmail tool against our main characters. Things also heated up on other fronts, including constructing an elaborate ruse to keep Patty from discovering that her beloved husband was gone. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Grosse Pointe Garden Society Episode 13 Plot Recap
As the episode begins, we witness Patty visit Marilyn at her home to ask about the missing quilt. Patty wants it delivered to her house, but Marilyn no longer knows where it is. Once her guest leaves, Marilyn starts working on figuring out where the thing might have gone. In the meantime, Brett receives a visit from Melissa, who shows up at his doorstep only to be greeted by Alice. She is stunned by Alice’s presence, especially the fact that she is in such informal wear and seems to have just stepped out of the shower. Some throwaway comments from Brett only make the situation even more awkward. When Alice leaves the room, Melissa uses the opportunity to hand Brett a newly filed custody claim for their children. She wants to be the sole guardian for both the kids, throwing Brett out of the loop once and for all.
At the next garden session, the group tries to think of alternative ways to deal with Keith’s body. With construction work ready to begin on the club grounds, the group has to conceive a new solution to avoid Keith’s remains being discovered. Catherine suggests composting Keith’s body, a concept that feels inhumane to Alice. However, they don’t have many other options, and their time is running out. Subsequently, Marilyn invites Alice to her home for some urgent work. It turns out that the mayor’s wife has created her investigation board, tracking down every detail surrounding the quilt and how it may have gone missing. Alice is stunned by the amount of work Marilyn has put in. Later, when she goes to pick up some paper towels from underneath the sink, she discovers a blue cloth that only Molly used to play with.
Things get complicated at the police precinct because Deputy Lange is still suspicious about the night of the gala and the strange set of accounts he heard about that day. He particularly asks Joel about the testimony of the gas station vendor, a conversation that makes his counterpart very nervous. Eventually, Lange mentions that a woman in a red dress keeps cropping up in many witness accounts, pointing toward Birdie. Joel tries to dissuade any suspicion by playing it off. Elsewhere, Melissa meets up with Connor at the local eatery, which the latter thinks is a reconciliation date. However, it is just a way for Melissa to tell her estranged husband that she plans to divorce him. At night, the group begins digging to find Keith’s body, only to discover that he is no longer there. Kenny steps out of the dark with a smug expression – he has the body.
Grosse Pointe Garden Society Episode 13 Ending: Does Alice Confess?
At the end of the season, a lot of changes happen within our characters, particularly in light of the episode where we deal with Keith’s accidental death. The psychological ramifications of the incident are the hardest to bear for the four main characters who play a significant role in the night’s events. However, the person affected the worst by the death is Alice. Because Keith was her father-in-law, his passing served as the ultimate reminder of her failing marriage with Doug and how she made things worse by trying to fight back against the overbearing attitude of her in-laws. While she wanted to punish the latter by tearing their prized quilt in front of their eyes, it only backfired in a cataclysmic manner. As such, it makes sense that near the final moments of the inaugural season, Alice shows up at the precinct with the express purpose of telling the truth and her role in covering it up.
Before Alice is ushered inside the station, we see her call Brett, where she honestly reveals that she harbored some feelings for him despite acting like they were only friends. Although on the surface, this seems like a massive step towards a potential relationship between Brett and Alice, the hopes are crushed when we realize it is simply her way to come clean one last time before she confesses about Keith’s death and is taken into custody. She sits down with Deputy Lange to put down her statement. However, Joel overhears their conversation and drifts towards them, worried that Alice is about to blow up the whole incident. She has no idea that Joel and Birdie have been secretly conspiring, making the situation awkward. While Joel attempts to step in, Lange refuses, creating a tense environment where everything depends on Alice’s next move.
While we don’t witness the exact outcome of the confession scene, there are a couple of possible ways the scene plays out. Firstly, Joel successfully interjects and manages to discourage Lange from taking her statement. His forceful words may dissuade Alice from actually making the confession, thereby keeping the secret alive and the four from ever being caught. Secondly, Alice ignores Joel’s qualms and tells Lange everything. She would likely be arrested immediately and placed under interrogation while the cops try to find Keith’s whereabouts. Although either is likely to happen, it is more probable that Alice will regain her senses and keep quiet about the situation. It seems like the most beneficial thing in the long run, even though the secret might already be up with Patty learning from Doug that Keith never went ice-fishing in the first place.
Why Do They Save Kenny?
The second interesting thing that happens near the end is Kenny’s blackmail plot against the four. He moves Keith’s remains to a secret spot and uses the whereabouts as leverage to extract money from Birdie, Alice, Brett, and Catherine. We previously learned that Kenny is in a financial mess and unable to provide the appropriate funds to his daughter, Lexi, for her future. As such, he sees Keith’s death as a great way to gain the upper hand over some of Grosse Pointe’s posh upper-middle-class residents, demanding exorbitant fees to keep their scandal a secret. It leaves the group with no choice but to heed his demands. However, Birdie, who is responsible for procuring the money, decides to trick Kenny. Although the plan backfires, something even more random takes place subsequently – Kenny suffers a heart attack.
With Kenny at their mercy, the group discusses whether they should leave the man to die, as his passing would solve all their problems. However, against their better judgment, they decide to show compassion and call 911. Kenny is hospitalized and placed in the ward for proper care. As he is comatose, the group is safe for the time being. However, they wonder whether their choice to save him was right for them. On the other hand, Lexi is eternally grateful to them for saving her father’s life. Watching her relief, the four can only accept their decision, even though Kenny can come back and haunt them. Alternatively, he may be relieved and grateful that the people he was blackmailing showed him compassion even though they had no logical reason to.
In the final parts of the season, Kenny regains consciousness while lying in the hospital bed. Lexi witnesses her father’s return to the land of the living and immediately rushes out to inform the doctors about it. To that end, he can now damage the group by continuing his blackmail plot. Yet, a level of ambiguity exists surrounding what he makes of his situation. We don’t know whether he will be moved by the four’s actions or consider them a useless gesture meant to save their desperate situation. Therefore, seeing how he reacts in the following season will be interesting.
Who Killed Molly?
The mystery behind Molly’s death is one of the never-ending sagas of ‘Grosse Pointe Garden Society’ season 1. Throughout the show, the mystery is opened and seemingly resolved only for a new development or evidence to challenge the previous set of conclusions. As such, a degree of uncertainty always exists around the dog’s murder. However, the truth finally comes out at the end as Alice realizes that the perpetrator was someone totally unexpected – Marilyn. The mayor’s wife had shot Molly to death by accident on a night when she heard a commotion in her backyard which involved her cat and another animal. Believing that some coyotes had entered her backyard and were attacking her feline companion, Marilyn shot into the dark, murdering Molly instantly.
Soon after killing Molly, Marilyn realized the gravity of her actions, as everyone in Grosse Pointe knew the dog belonged to Alice. She informed Patty, who stopped by the house to hear the news firsthand. Although she planned on telling Alice the news asap, she was stopped in her tracks by Marilyn, who proposed that they both hide the truth and all evidence of their involvement. Patty is reluctant to engage in such a high level of deception. However, Marilyn uses her status as the mayor’s wife to convince Patty to take her side. Subsequently, the two women dug a grave to hide any evidence connecting Marilyn to the murder. The only thing that was not buried was the blue cloth that Molly used to play with. Patty told Marilyn to keep it because it would serve as a reminder of the atrocity she committed, knowingly or unknowingly.
When Alice confronts Marilyn about the evidence, the latter folds quickly, revealing everything about the night and how she felt too guilty to acknowledge her involvement. While Alice is enraged by the whole thing, she feels a degree of sympathy and empathy for Marilyn, especially considering what she has been through over the last few days with Keith’s passing. Alice feels that she and Marilyn are more alike than not, albeit in the former’s case, her actions inadvertently caused the death of a human being. Still, the mystery behind her dog’s death is finally solved, bringing an end to a saga that presented theory after theory with numerous compelling suspects. However, the main culprit was Marilyn, and no one would have guessed.
Do Brett and Melissa Reconcile?
In the latter parts of the season, Brett’s relationship with Melissa starts getting stronger because of a wedge growing between the latter and Connor. Additionally, Brett also shows himself to be a capable father, a notion Melissa starts to appreciate quite late. Still, it leads to some old passions reigniting between the former couple, even though Keith’s death quickly douses them. After the gala night, Brett becomes detached from reality as he worries about his part in the accident. To that end, his relationship with Melissa hits a roadblock as she feels shunned by him right after the renaissance of new feelings between the pair. Things only get more complicated when Melissa sees Alice in casual clothes inside Brett’s house the following morning. She gets jealous over his closeness with Alice and issues a custody claim for their children, leaving it on his doorstep.
Initially, Brett is taken aback by Melissa’s stance on separating him from his children. The sudden increase in vitriol from her side leaves him a bit shocked. This is because he is unaware of the depths of feeling in Melissa and the envy she feels at seeing Alice worm her way into his life. However, unbeknownst to her, Alice and Brett are simply friends, and there is nothing more to their relationship. The nuance is important even though, from Melissa’s angle, it is a sign of Brett’s disloyalty towards her and her own insecurities creeping up. Earlier in the narrative, we learned that one of the main reasons Melissa left Brett in the first place was that she always felt second-best to Alice. No matter what she tried, she sensed that Brett’s crush on Alice was something more deeply rooted than his love for his wife.
As a result of the custody battle, Brett shows up at the court, where he runs into Melissa. He confronts her about the claim’s legitimacy, stating that Melissa is channeling her frustrations at him through a legal avenue. He tells her that if she wants to fight him for the custody of their children, she should do so for the right reasons. His words have an impact on Melissa, forcing her to reflect upon her decisions and how they may adversely affect her children. If she separates them from their father, they would group up in a single-parent home without Brett around them. At the same time, Brett would be emotionally distraught forever because Melissa took his children away from him. Thus, she listens to reason and decides to stop the custody battle. In the end, we see her show up at Brett’s doorstep with the children, showing that she has gotten over her grudge.
Who Do Brett, Catherine, and Birdie Confront at the Halloween Party?
Season 1 ends with a peculiar scene that is stated to take place in the upcoming season. In it, the Grosse Pointe Garden Society is decked out in full Halloween decorations as a big signpost says, “Welcome to the Garden Society Spooktacular.” Meanwhile, in a dark room inside the club, Birdie, Catherine, and Brett (who are all in Halloween costumes) confront someone dressed in what looks like a duck costume. They express their sense of frustration with the duck while it seemingly shakes its head in protest. It is interesting to note that Alice is not among the main group, suggesting that something may have happened to her or that she may have gone through with her confession and is now under arrest for Keith’s murder. However, it is also possible that she may be in some other part of the club’s massive premises.
Discerning the exact meaning behind the Halloween scene without knowing the context is hard. As the NBC show deliberately confuses the audience by showcasing scenes in an order that may or may not be chronologically determined, a seemingly random scene could have far-reaching implications that cannot be understood unless the rest of the story is revealed. Thus, we will learn the mystery behind the duck costume wearer and the significance of the Halloween Party in the second season.
Read More: Grosse Pointe Garden Society Episode 12 Recap: The Fallow Period
