Grosse Pointe Garden Society plays with the idea of a motley crew of characters who put up a benign front, only to expose what lies beneath the manicured lawns of the high society they are a part of. At the heart of the story is a garden society run by the upper crust of Grosse Pointe, Michigan. The garden society appears to have developed as a response to the demand for a new kind of liberation for the women who refused to stay subjugated by their husbands. However, the ‘success’ of the establishment lies in the dubious time-pass activities surrounding the central activity of gardening. The exquisite flower beds are a panoply, but they are also hiding something nefarious beneath them. We are cautioned against the exercise of putting faith in the external appearance of the characters.
Despite the generous servings of murder mystery elements, Grosse Pointe Garden Society is sharply observant of the nastiness of the self-aggrandizing high society. The community is built on the very ideals of selfishness and corruption. However, we also see some unexpected charity juxtaposed with the blatant hypocrisy.
Spoilers Ahead
Who are the members of the garden club?
The series opens with the images of the covert burying of a body, which stands in contrast to the civilized veneer of the garden club of Grosse Pointe, Michigan. The garden club, Grosse Pointe Garden Society, was initially formed to divert a group of jaded elite housewives from their boring lives. “They say people look like their dogs,” Alice Morris, the protagonist, remarks, “but when you’re in a garden club, you’re more like the flowers you plant.” The dreamy flower beds of the garden club are personified by Alice, and she mentally associates them with her fellow members at the club. She imagines herself to be a geranium, one who is contradictory in her impulses. The landscaper of the club, Brett, is a dandelion. Alice has seen him growing through some of the toughest adversities with grace. Alice associates the Vice President, Catherine, with a zinnia. Zinnia, as a flower, is akin to human Catherine in that they are hard-working but very seldom appreciated. The new volunteer, Birdie, is described as a ‘classic lily of the valley’—notorious, attention-seeking, and one keen to have things her way at any cost.
How does Alice invite trouble?
Alice is an aspiring writer and a teacher who rocks the boat of the elite who send their kids to the school. Peyton is a wayward student who shows no signs of improvement, either academically or morally. His mother meets Alice in search of an answer to his deteriorating grades. It all starts over a grade on his poetry assignment. Peyton tries to traumatize her, and Alice reads his threat as an insinuation that he has killed her missing golden retriever, Molly. Alice goes to the principal, Dave, and pleads with him to suspend the boy. Despite all circumstantial evidence, Dave discounts the idea, as Peyton’s family is the reason why the school has survived for this long. She confronts Peyton’s mother head-on, and for that, she is thrown out of the school.
Why is Birdie an eyesore?
Birdie is established as a reckless socialite with little to no regard for the lives and honor of others. One time, after Birdie crashes into the town fountain, the people of the town compel her to undertake community service as repentance. She gets thrown out of most high-end clubs, and a PR machinery tries to revive her image. Amidst this, she ends up at the garden club as a volunteer. On the advice of her PR manager, Birdie attempts to dole out school scholarships for students. She chooses someone who has a tendency to lean towards making ‘bad’ choices. Later, it seems that Birdie has chosen the boy who is her biological son. The boy’s mother threatens Birdie to stay away.
Will Catherine Expose Gary Mills?
Catherine comes off as a woman in charge. She is a successful real estate agent, and as the Vice President of the garden society, she has retained credibility among the members. However, her personal life is strife-filled. Her husband is detached. Bored and disappointed by her partnership, she tries to look for happiness elsewhere. She enters into an affair with her real estate colleague, Gary Mills. When she spots Birdie with the same bracelet as Gary had gifted her, her world is turned upside down. Soon Catherine figures out that he has been having a string of affairs behind each of the women’s backs; she is just a cog in a giant wheel. With the help of Birdie and the other women, she exposes Gary one night. This does not automatically portray the husband as a hapless man either, who seems equally unworthy of Catherine’s love and patience. The night when her husband leaves for Dubai, Gary is seen halting his car right below her window with a gun.
Who is Brett fighting against?
Brett and Alice seem to have an easygoing friendship. Brett shares custody of his children with his ex-wife, Melissa. He constantly tries to outsmart Connor, Melissa’s new husband, and win the faith of his children. Once he ends up at the school with a borrowed vintage car that he helped restore to impress his kids and his classmates. Connor, however, in the end, tries to look for a paper trail that would incriminate Brett or malign his enduring benevolent image.
Who Has Been Murdered?
The first episode ends with a cliffhanger surrounding the identity of the body, which we see being buried throughout. The group—Alice, Brett, Catherine, and Birdie—tries hard to hide the body and destroy all damning evidence. However, we are not certain how the person was killed or who actually killed him. Neither do we stand at a position to pass judgment on the reason for the killing. The murder takes place six months later than most of the events we see in the first episode. As assumptions, we do have some names at our disposal, from Peyton to Gary to Connor. However, the possibility of the ones on the periphery provokes equal apprehension.
The villains are created meticulously. Alice is the one who seems more distant to the high-class malice. She escapes the tawdriness of elite life. Her contrasting figure exposes the dangers of the empty-mindedness of this class. However, given her rivalry, we are not certain of her innocence. Birdie, on the other hand, is the exact opposite of Alice. She is gaudy, unmindful, and out of her wits when handed the task of destroying the evidence. Her involvement in the freak accident, which damages the town fountain, makes her the perfect object of our suspicion. However, is it too early to pin it on her?
