Grosse Pointe Backyard Society – Unhealthy Seeds (Season Finale)

May 17, 2025

If you happen to ever doubted that the worst secrets and techniques are buried simply beneath the floor, Grosse Pointe Backyard Society’s wickedly twisted finale, “Unhealthy Seeds,” yanks these skeletons up by the roots. The episode is a superb, genre-blending mixture of suburban satire, psychological unraveling, and simply sufficient emotional weight to maintain you invested in these deeply flawed (and at occasions, felony) characters. That is Determined Housewives meets Fargo, with potting soil and designer wine tumblers.

Let’s begin the place every part began to rot: Keith. His lifeless physique, as soon as buried within the backyard in a misguided try at “let’s fake this didn’t occur,” has vanished. Naturally, this sends Alice, Brett, Birdie, and Catherine spiralling. Viewers could have thought the worst had already occurred with the wooden chipper, however no, that was simply compost for the finale’s actual insanity.

The script flips early with the information that Melissa goes after full custody of the children and personally serves Brett the papers. It’s humiliating, uncooked, and really on-brand for a season that’s been about unraveling identities, Brett: the daddy, the husband, the lover. Melissa’s motivations are grounded in actual emotional ache, however her timing is merciless, particularly when Brett is already drowning in guilt (and homicide).

“Unhealthy Seeds” – GROSSE POINTE GARDEN SOCIETY. Pictured: Ben Rappaport as Brett, Melissa Fumero as Birdie and AnnaSophia Robb as Alice. Picture: Matt Miller/NBC ©2025 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Alice’s voiceover about unhealthy seeds units the thematic tone: what looks as if an ideal bloom on the floor could also be rotting beneath. As this performs out, we see every character hiding one thing, not simply in regards to the crime, however about themselves. Alice discovers Marilyn’s involvement within the loss of life of her canine Molly, a surprising and heartbreaking second that offers new that means to “petty suburban drama.” That scene, the place Alice finds the canine’s bandana below the sink and realizes the lady who as soon as wept along with her over her canine’s loss of life was complicit, it is devastating. It additionally results in probably the most emotionally loaded confrontations of the sequence, as Alice forces Marilyn to relive the reality.

Marilyn’s flashback to the “unintentional” killing of Molly is a few of the present’s darkest materials up to now. What was as soon as a unusual character has been peeled again to disclose somebody simply as able to manipulation and cruelty as any of the core 4. Her energy performs with Patty, courting again to a mysterious favour and even darker previous dealings, add wealthy layers to the present’s ongoing theme of girls wielding energy in shadowy, unstated methods.

In the meantime, the non-public investigator serves as each comedian reduction and a reminder that secrets and techniques in Grosse Pointe by no means keep buried. His demand for cash in change for Keith’s physique is peak crime drama absurdity, proper up till he collapses in the midst of his personal rip-off. That the core 4 even debate letting him die exhibits how far gone they’re morally. That they save him anyway? A reminder they haven’t utterly misplaced their humanity… but.

Birdie stays essentially the most deliciously unpredictable character within the sequence. One minute she’s making flippant jokes about homicide (“relaxation in peace, Keith”), the following she’s feeling maternal pangs as her son prepares for faculty. Her selfie scene with Ford, touching and honest, contrasts sharply along with her later giddy participation in turning Keith into backyard mulch. And in some way, it really works. That stability of maternal heat and deranged pragmatism is Birdie in a nutshell.

Catherine, in the meantime, is spiralling below the burden of guilt. Her storyline — a mom, a realtor, a PTA mother, a assassin — reaches emotional depth this episode. The second she sobs whereas her actual property slogan “honesty, integrity, coronary heart” was heartbreakingly human. Catherine is the present’s ethical middle at the same time as she compromises that morality in nearly each episode. Her incapacity to reconcile who she was with who she’s grow to be is the emotional cornerstone of the finale.

As for Alice, she’s the one who makes the boldest transfer by episode’s finish by strolling into the police station, lastly able to confess. Or possibly she’s not. When Joel swoops in to deal with her interview, it’s clear that corruption in Grosse Pointe isn’t restricted to yard potlucks. Whether or not Joel’s motivations are love, self-preservation, or one thing extra difficult, stays to be seen.

Then there’s that ending: The PI wakes from his coma. The group composts Keith in essentially the most literal type of poetic irony possible. Catherine praises the “environmental advantages.” Birdie says she’s able to return to being a “primary bitch.” And Brett? He wonders if this twisted ritual may convey some peace. It gained’t. Not with Alice lacking and that duck costume reveal teaser on the Spooktacular backyard social gathering nonetheless lingering.

And let’s not overlook Patty, who realizes Keith by no means made it to the cabin. The truth of his disappearance is about to blow up throughout the entire city. That closing flashback to Patty and Marilyn burying Molly’s physique, the unique “unhealthy seed” on this season-long mess, exhibits that the corruption of this so-called backyard society has been festering for a protracted, very long time.

“Unhealthy Seeds” is a pitch-perfect season finale. Twisted, sharp, and stuffed with the present’s signature darkish humour, it delivers on almost each plot thread whereas planting sufficient intrigue to develop one thing even larger subsequent season. If NBC has any sense, they’ll renew this chaotic backyard membership of flawed girls and their buried lies. As a result of let’s face it: this city has an entire lot extra fertilizer to unfold.

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