The famous actor Conrad Khan has been able to perfectly fit into the shoes of Lucas Wrigley, the ominous character disguised as a friend. Having nailed the lead role in Country Lines, Conrad is considered to be one of the rising talents and has done justice to the character of Lucas Wrigley in the series The Burning Girls. Supposedly, the friend of Florence, Wrigley, has the motive of harming her and her mother, Jack, but why? Who was the mastermind behind the plan? There are a lot of questions that the director, Charles Martin, raises in us by introducing the character of Wrigley. The complex character has many secret revelations that will take the audience aback. What are those revelations? We have yet to see!
Spoilers Ahead
How Did Wrigley Manage To Become Friends With Florence?
Florence becomes friends with Lucas Wrigley after coming to Chapel Croft. Their first meeting was very sudden, when Florence came across him in the backside of the chapel, where all the graves were. He told her that he would often visit the place to spend some time alone and make some paintings. He saw that Florence had a camera and thought that she was passionate about photography. He told her that he would take her to a wonderful place where she could click pictures. After a few meetings, something more than friendship that was brewing between Florence and Wrigley. On one occasion, he asked her out on a date and told her that he would see her at the old house in the village.
On reaching the house, Florence saw that he had decorated the place with candles. She was so overwhelmed by this act, but just as they were spending time together, they were attacked by Rosie and her cousin Tom. It has been seen that whenever she was around Wrigley, she was targeted by Rosie. This was noticed foremost by Jack, and she had warned Florence about him. She had also warned Wrigley that if anything was to happen to her daughter because of him, then she would not spare him. She also had a nightmare of Wrigley nailing Florence to the floor, and she was screaming to Jack that Wrigley was innocent. The situation that Jack was facing was as if she could see right through the motives of Wrigley, but her hands were tied because of her daughters’ faith in him as a friend. Florence kept defending him and telling Jack that Wrigley was innocent and had nothing to do with the incidents.
What Was Wrigley’s Motive? Who Was Behind The Evil Plan?
Wrigley had an evil plan in his mind that eventually gets unveiled after Jack reaches his home and finds his aunt, Saffron, murdered. As Jack is about to escape the house, she is struck in the back of her head by Wrigley, knocking her unconscious. On regaining her senses, she sees that Wrigley and Rosie were the ones who had captured her. She sees that a noose has been prepared for her in the chapel, and her doubts about the death of Fletcher become clear. Rosie says that she was the one who planned Fletcher’s murder along with Wrigley because he was digging deep into her familial matters. He was keen on finding out the secrets surrounding the deaths of Abigail and Maggie, which had resulted in his death, and now Jack was about to meet the same fate. It was revealed that Wrigley had backstabbed Florence because he was Rosie’s boyfriend in reality and also did not have any physical deformities. He had faked his nervous problem of twitching to gain Florence’s sympathy and get close to her.
Wrigley had managed to capture Florence and drag her to the chapel to threaten Jack and make her commit suicide. She, however, saves Florence by throwing a chair at Wrigley and Rosie. As the mother-daughter duo tries to flee the church, the candles in the church fall, causing a fire in the chapel. The injured Wrigley tries seeking help from Jack, but despite being a priest, she denies him help and leaves him inside the chapel to die. It is ironic that Wrigley dies by burning in a fire, as he had committed arson at his previous school in order to kill another girl who had dumped him. We are now sure of the strong presence of karma that takes over evil.
Was Wrigley Mentally Ill? Why Did He Murder His Aunt?
After finding out that Florence and Wrigley had a romantic affair going on, Jack is keen on investigating Wrigley’s background. It is possible that he is mentally unstable, or maybe he is just purely evil. Wrigley had to face a lot of trauma as a child because his father passed away when he was just 9 years old, and his mother was unable to cope with the situation. He had to go and live with his aunt, Saffron. It is possible that he lost the correct track of his life after coming into contact with the wrong set of friends, including Rosie and Tom.
Wrigley’s aunt, Saffron Winter, had been writing a nonfiction novel, The Cursed Village, based on real-life incidents that were going on in the village. It is possible that Saffron Winter had a lot of knowledge about the dark history of the Harper family. After going through her novel, the previous vicar, Fletcher, started frequenting her, which made an alarm go off in Rosie and Wrigley’s minds. Right after they had made the death of Fletcher look like a suicide, Wrigley must have murdered his own aunt to keep the matters of the Harper family under wraps. He was under the manipulative thumb of Rosie and was constantly being controlled by her destructive whims.
Did Rosie Ever Try To Protect Wrigley?
Considering the kind of loyalty that Wrigley had shown to Rosie, in comparison, she had done nothing to take a stand for him. There are several instances where she tries to bring out the real face of Wrigley for Florence. She tries to befriend her by telling her that Wrigley once set fire to his previous school. Unlike Rosie, Flo takes a stand for Wrigley and says that it does not matter to her as long as he is a good friend to her. Rosie also comes to Flo and tells her the truth about Wrigley and how he was with her in the act of planning her murder. Rosie tells her that Wrigley was with her in the plan of attacking and killing her at the old house, where they had planned a date. Even after Wrigley’s death, Rosie tries to shift all the blame on him and shows no remorse at the death of her friend for her own wrongdoings. She claimed to have been controlled by Wrigley, but the authorities unearthed the truth from the texts between them, proving that the one planning all the acts was actually Rosie. It is really sad that Wrigley could not recognize his true friend and chose to be with someone who was intent on bringing him down in front of others to save her own reputation.
Personal Thoughts
The character of Wrigley is not very firm and is unable to make his own decisions, making him a mere puppet in the hands of Rosie. He is just another tool for the Harper family, which has been used to fulfill their own selfish needs. The character of Wrigley can not be said to be inherently evil. It is possible that mental trauma at such an early age made him lose the capacity to tell good from evil. The good-to-bad transition in the role of Wrigley was sudden and has taken us aback. He was not someone anyone could easily think of as having a completely evil character. However, there were subtle hints throughout The Burning Girls series that we could have missed. The negative dreams of Jack, her motherly instincts causing a disdain towards Wrigley, and the perils that befell Florence while she was with him were some of the several hints. Overall, the character of Wrigley has added a whole lot of surprise elements and multiple layers to the series, The Burning Girls.
