“Red Rose” is a 2022 psychological thriller drama series that revolves around the lives of seven high school students who encounter the dangers of a smartphone application called Red Rose. Childhood memories play a very important role in an individual’s life. It shapes a person to become better and encourages them to honestly step forward with their true feelings and thoughts. Sometimes, traumatic incidents can stir things up and make it harder for an individual to get past them. These incidents might make them want to depend on an outward source of happiness rather than searching for it inside themselves. Well, that’s exactly what happened with Rochelle Mason. She had just finished high school and had been waiting to experience a new adventure in life. But life was never fair to her. Even though things had been great with her friends, Rochelle would always feel left out and would try her best to look superior in front of her friends and the ones she used to mock. Rochelle was always dear to her friends, and they loved her with all their hearts, yet she never told them everything about her personal life and expressed her pain in the form of superiority. Deep down, Rochelle just wanted to feel special and cared for once.
Apart from her friends, the other people around Rochelle didn’t much like her, and even her classmate, Becky, didn’t invite her to the house party because she could never afford a pretty dress. Eventually, Rochelle’s friends convinced Becky to invite her, and she agreed. Rochelle wanted to experience happiness since life had been different since the day her mother, Gloria, had passed away. Rochelle had two twin sisters, Clare and Nora, and to support her father, Vinny, Rochelle had to skip plenty of things to look after her little sisters. Despite all the problems, Rochelle never complained because Vinny needed help. He would be leaving for Manchester pretty soon, and Rochelle had no choice but to agree with his decisions. Despite everything, Vinny had always promised to stay back if needed. She would often spend time with her friends Wren Davis, Ashley, Noah, Anthony, and Taz. She believed that the upcoming summer holidays might bring in more opportunities to enjoy. To make things worse, Rochelle realizes that Noah and Wren had mutual feelings for each other. She believed that Gloria had been the only person who truly cared for her, but that was not the case.
Spoilers Ahead
The Guardian Angel
Rochelle would portray a different persona to look cool in front of her friends. Whenever she had to get supplies for her family, she would cover her face to get them from the food donation banks. Wren and the others cared for Rochelle genuinely, but a part of her felt that they were pitying her for all the problems she had faced in the past.
Everything went monotonous until Rochelle came across an unknown link from Becky. She found it strange that Becky had sent her a link to an application called Red Rose. Rochelle opened the link immediately and began exploring the application even more. It was different and quite catchier than the others she had usually used. Soon, Rochelle became too addicted to the application, as it provided her with the homey feeling that she had been looking for. At times, she tried her best to avoid the questions that popped up in the app, but curiosity got the best out of her. It picked on things that Rochelle was sensitive about, and she would spend her entire day on the app talking to her Guardian Angel, who mysteriously delivered designer clothes and shoes to her house that she then wore to Becky’s party. Gradually, Rochelle’s attitude started to change, and she began to boss everyone around even more. When Rochelle attended Becky’s party, she thanked her for the app. That’s when she understood that Becky had never sent her the link.
Rochelle wanted her sisters to grow up and take care of themselves, so she left them alone, and someone began to stalk them. Rochelle spotted Gloria’s figure in the woods, and this time the figure reached her house. Luckily, Rochelle was about to rescue Clare, Nora, and herself before the unknown figure attacked Rochelle and the twins. The app would create voice notes that sounded like Gloria, and she would instantly believe that it was her mother. This time things went too far, and she knew that it wasn’t Gloria. By this time, none of her friends believed her because she couldn’t prove that an app called Red Rose ever existed, but they all eventually started to believe that Rochelle had been suffering mentally and needed help. Even though the app provided her with things that she desired, it also took away some of the most precious things in her life. It created a whole new world around Rochelle, and she would receive manipulated messages, which made her believe that her friends hated her. Somehow, the app had access to her contacts, photos, social media handles, and personal life. Rochelle started to lose her mind and couldn’t find a way to eliminate the app. She deleted it, but it would pop back up on her screen.
The concept of an evil spirit started reeling inside her mind, so the day her father left with Clare and Nora, she decided to opt for an exorcism herself. It was pretty clear that she felt that Vinny wouldn’t believe her, just as the others hadn’t believed her. Once the exorcism had been done, everything went quiet, and Rochelle went in for a relaxing bath. Suddenly, loud music echoed around the entire house, and Rochelle was found dead in the bathtub the next morning. On the day of her death, Rochelle’s friends arrived at her place, but her social media revealed that she was busy spending time with someone. If only Rochelle’s friends could have checked on her, maybe she would’ve been alive. In the end, everyone believed that she had taken her life, but that was not true. Rochelle’s friends knew that someone had been responsible for her death, and it all came to light when the Red Rose app popped up on Wren’s phone.
Who Was The Killer?
Rochelle had been the connecting link to the entire group. After her death, things began to crumble, but Wren had to find the truth, so she decided to sign up on the Red Rose app. As time passed, the app began to haunt Wren, and just like Gloria’s figure, Rochelle’s figure began to follow her everywhere. The app displayed Rochelle’s voice mysteriously, and she would even receive calls from Rochelle. Eventually, one of their classmates, Jaya Mahajan, figured out that Wren had been using this app, and soon it was revealed that several people were involved with Red Rose. All the fingers pointed at a boy named Jacob Taylor, who had passed away. They tracked him down and found out that he had been on the dark web and used this app to keep an eye on his crush, Alyssa. He’d wanted to know everything about her, but one day Jacob realized that the other members of the group, who he thought had been helping him the whole time, were his enemies. Jacob found out that the app would invade a person’s personal space and wanted to back out of it. On the other hand, Jacob was too upset because Alyssa rejected his proposal and blamed the entire group for forcing him to confess. A man named Gardener punished Alyssa for hurting him, and she ended up committing suicide. Jacob had tried to save her, but he couldn’t, and in the end, he killed himself too because the Gardener had been looking for him as well.
Jacob was a genius at coding, and Wren and her friend pretended to be old friends of his and visited his house to carry some of his belongings. They had to find out the main gateway to destroy this app, and the only connection was Jacob. Amidst all this, Wren didn’t realize that the app had been manipulating her messages and that some of them had been delivered to her mother, Rachel’s boyfriend, Simon, and her father, Rick. The duo got into a huge scuffle, and Rachel ended up kicking Wren out. She spent her time at Taz’s place until Simon kidnapped her; he tried to kill her but ended up killing himself. At first, they believed that Simon was the Red Rose creator, but then Jaya and Anthony discovered that the app also had a website on the dark web. The killer was still on the loose and had been trying hard to kill Wren and her friends. Anthony and Jaya decided to hide this from Wren, but Jaya accidentally revealed it in her drunken state. Wren ran away from the party, and all her friends began looking for her. In the meantime, Ashley was struck by a stranger, and Jaya mysteriously disappeared. The next day, Ashley was admitted to a hospital, and Wren underwent questioning at the police station. Moreover, Anthony found out that the Red Rose members had been in touch with his little brother.
Things began to get even more complicated when Rick disappeared. Wren wanted to find him, but Rachel wouldn’t allow her to. Rick sent her a message telling her to keep her inside the house, but Wren knew that it was not her father. She escaped and visited his house. Suddenly, the TV screen displayed footage of her father tied up to a chair. The creepiest part about this whole part was that everyone was followed by one or more Red Rose members, but eventually, they managed to save themselves. In the end, Wren finds the Gardener and Rick in an abandoned building, and Rick challenges Wren to fight him. All this time, several people were active on the app and cheered Wren on to fight him. Luckily, Jaya was alive, and she was hiding in her secret place where she had all her computers located. She logged into the Red Rose website and helped protect Wren and the others from the killers. She deleted the entire website and the application, which distracted her from the Gardener for a while, and Wren eventually killed him. Rochelle never killed herself; it was the Gardener who had attacked her and drowned her in the bathtub that night. In the end, everything was fine until a lady approached them who was a member of the Red Rose and gave hints about being the Gardener too. She warned Jaya that even if the app had been deleted, they would never be able to escape their clutches.
What Happened To Gloria?
In the year 2013, Gloria, Rachel, and Rita tried to play with an Ouija board. It was pretty clear that they had been friends even before their children became friends. Well, when they used the Ouija Board, the trio connected with a spirit named Tom, and Gloria instantly believed that it was her grandfather. Believing that it was him, Gloria asked him if he wanted to talk to her, and the board pointed yes. Before they could ask more questions, there was a loud noise that scared everyone, and they left without ending the game properly. Even though the series doesn’t highlight anything in detail, there is a clear indication that Gloria was a strong believer in the supernatural and that she had been suffering from several psychological problems. Vinny revealed to Rochelle that Gloria couldn’t stand them anymore and committed suicide. The cause of her death was still unknown, but there was a huge possibility that the Ouija board game was somehow connected to her death. Rochelle was extremely close to Gloria and couldn’t even imagine a life without her. Back in her time, people found Gloria to be weird, including Rachel and the others. But they all rooted for each other and Rochelle.
Rachel had been extremely supportive of Rochelle and always guided Wren to keep her safe. In the end, Rochelle just wanted to communicate with her mother, and that’s what she thought until the app took the best out of her. Even if the images and footage had been fabricated, there was an eerie presence around the whole footage that Rochelle used to see. Eventually, things became clear when Wren and her friends found out that the Red Rose members were leading the users to believe that they were losing their minds. That explains Rochelle’s attempts to opt for an exorcism before she was killed.
