If a person is good-looking, wealthy and charming, he’s most likely trash.
That’s definitely the case in Lifetime’s Flowers within the Attic: The Origin, which explores Olivia Winfield’s twisted backstory and the complicated causes that led her to lock her grandchildren in an attic.
A prequel to 2014’s Flowers within the Attic and its sequel, Petals on the Wind, The Origin begins in 1920 with a youthful Olivia Winfield (performed by The Girlfriend Expertise’s Jemima Rooper) working in her father’s workplace and searching ahead to the liberty to vote quickly.
Dad invitations her to have dinner with a possible suitor named Malcolm Foxworth (Condor’s Max Irons), to which she reluctantly agrees. Oh, they’re additionally joined by her creepy cousin John Amos (The Vampire Diaries’ Paul Wesley), who’s simply as dedicated to prying into her private life as he’s his spiritual research.
In traditional This Is a Very Unhealthy Man Pretending to Be Good model, Malcolm does every thing proper. He asks questions throughout their energetic discussions about her father’s enterprise, invitations her for romantic walks, shuffles his plans to indicate a vested curiosity in her, and even items her a ebook he thought she would possibly get pleasure from.
However he’s additionally cagey about his private life and solely affords up a number of particulars: His mom died when he was 5 years outdated, and he lives in a giant empty mansion as a result of his father Garland (Kelsey Grammer) has been away touring in retirement. Olivia rapidly learns that Malcolm lied about his mom’s passing, however the debonaire bachelor has a very good excuse for that.
“Once I mentioned my mom died after I was a boy, I wasn’t mendacity. She did die — at the least to me,” he tells her. Olivia apologizes for asking about it, and within the subsequent second, Malcolm is on his knees proposing. (Olivia, lady, you in peril.)
They rapidly marry, and extra pink flags pop up: On their strategy to Foxworth Corridor, Malcolm coldly tells Olivia her job is to run the family; the mansion is darkish and dreary; Malcolm avoids her on their marriage ceremony evening and disappears the subsequent morning; her designated workplace area is tucked away in a windowless room; housekeeper Mrs. Steiner (Kate Mulgrew) tells Olivia that Malcolm doesn’t like individuals roaming and refuses to present extra particulars concerning the household regardless of working there since beginning; and maid Nella (T’Shan Williams) is reluctant to indicate Olivia the attic (the place she’ll finally imprison her grandkids).
Olivia ventures up there anyway, and that’s after we find out about Malcolm’s extreme mommy points. He retains Corrine’s portrait locked away within the attic, and her outdated room has been preserved like a creepy museum. Malcolm loses it when he catches Olivia going via his mom’s issues, however then exhibits her the room and spills extra particulars, like the truth that Corrine was 17 when she married Garland. Plus, she took pleasure in her look, which implies Malcolm despises girls who put on make-up.
To outsiders, Olivia and Malcolm are the right couple. They dance intently throughout their marriage ceremony get together, however nobody can hear him whispering in her ear that he thinks she seems to be like a standard prostitute for carrying a form-fitting gown and make-up. On the finish of the evening, Olivia retreats to her room (they don’t sleep in the identical mattress) to weep, and that’s when Malcolm leads her to his mom’s room and assaults her.
Olivia makes plans to depart her husband, however quickly learns from Amos that her father died in deep debt. With no inheritance or home to run to, she is caught with Malcolm. The assaults proceed, and she or he finally declares her being pregnant. When she provides beginning, Malcolm is disillusioned that it’s a boy since he needed a woman — who he’d identify Corrine after his mom — and instantly asks how quickly they’ll strive for one. Olivia finally provides beginning to a different boy, and Malcolm detests her since she’s unable to bear extra kids and has denied him “the one factor that I would like.”
Garland returns to the mansion together with his new spouse, Alicia, who’s additionally tremendous younger however head over heels in love with him. She’s pregnant, and Olivia is jealous of their loving relationship. Garland is affectionate and even sleeps in the identical room as his spouse. The couple is overjoyed when their son Christopher is born.
However Alicia is younger and delightful, and Nella warns Olivia to be careful for her as a result of Malcolm “loves lovely issues.” Cue the lingering stares and Malcolm following Alicia to the pond when she goes for a swim. One evening, Olivia finds Alicia screaming, Garland lifeless on the ground and Malcolm protecting up a scratched wrist. Suspecting that Malcolm murdered his father, she bribes the physician to not carry out an post-mortem, and Garland’s loss of life is dominated a coronary heart assault.
Months later, a depressed Alicia reveals extra particulars from the evening Garland died. Malcolm attacked her after which acquired right into a scuffle together with his father, choking him to loss of life in opposition to the wall. After that, he saved assaulting Alicia, taking her to his mom’s room identical to with Olivia. Appalled at this, Olivia tells her to take Christopher and her inheritance and begin over elsewhere. However it’s too late to depart as a result of Alicia is pregnant, and it’s undoubtedly not Garland’s.
This actually units Olivia off, and she or he kills Malcolm’s prized lamb earlier than having it served to him for dinner. Confronting her husband about Alicia afterward, Olivia tells him sarcastically, “Congratulations. You’re the daddy and the stepbrother.”
She then factors out that she is aware of about Malcolm killing Garland and what he’s performed to his stepmother. She needs to destroy him and spoil his identify, however she can’t since they’re irrevocably tied to one another. To guard their status, she devises a plan to publicly ship Alicia away after which sneak her again in later that evening. The younger lady will probably be sequestered away within the attic within the east wing, and Malcolm will not be permitted to go wherever close to her or Olivia will inform everybody what occurred, penalties be damned.
Oh, and Malcolm should arrange a $2 million belief for each of their sons to allow them to in the future be freed from him.
What did you consider Flowers within the Attic: The Origin’s premiere? Grade the episode under after which tell us your ideas within the feedback.
