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The “Lost Flowers of Alice Hart” finale doesn’t pull its punches in clarifying the terrible trauma that June (Sigourney Weaver) and her granddaughter Alice (Alycia Debnam-Carey) have gone through, and showrunner Sarah Lambert felt it was important to drill down the effects of repressed trauma in the show’s finale.

In an earlier episode of the Prime Video series, based on the book by Holly Ringland, June finally revealed that her “Robber Baron” who she always told stories about as the love of her life, was a woman. Her son, Clem (Charlie Vickers), resulted from June getting raped by a stranger, and Clem developed violent tendencies as well. The first few episodes of the Prime Video show hinted at Clem’s abusive nature towards his wife and daughter Alice (Alyla Browne), but not until the finale do viewers learn that he was also violent towards his mother.

“I don...

Standing before technicolor stained glass, her golden curls gleaming, Adrienne Beaufort (Miranda Otto) resembles a saint. She preaches her gospel to a room full of acolytes, decrying materialism and urging the washing away of sin. Then she showcases what might one day be the crowning achievement of her spiritual movement: her family of nearly a dozen children. Most of them have had their hair dyed platinum blond and chopped into harsh bangs and bobs—crude reflections of Adrienne’s own exquisite styling. “They are as pure and untainted as it is possible to be,” Adrienne says to the crowd. “A generation raised away from the suffocating rules of society. Nurtured under the most perfect conditions.”

Adapted by Matt Cameron and Elise McCredie from J.P. Pomare’s 2019 novel In the Clearing, Hulu’s The Clearing is inspired by the real-life Australian cult known as “The Family,” which operated in the latter half of the 20th century.