The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart finale: Explosive final scene almost didn’t happen

The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart has come to its explosive end – but if it hadn’t been for a crucial phone call, it would have looked very different. WARNING: Spoilers

WARNING: Major spoilers

One of the most explosive scenes in the final episode of hit Aussie series The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart was originally not in the script.

The Prime Video adaptation from Holly Ringland’s best-selling book jumps through time as it tells the story of Alice Hart (played at different ages by Ayla Browne and Alycia Debnam-Carey), whose parents Clem (Charlie Vickers) and Agnes (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) died in a horrific fire.

As a young orphan, she is taken to live with her estranged grandmother June (Sigourney Weaver) at the property where her parents first met, Thornfield Flower Farm – and over the years, the haunting details of her family’s past are unravelled.

Alycia Debnam-Carey as Alice Hart. Picture: Supplied/Prime Video

In the tense finale, June’s partner Twig (Leah Purcell) and their adopted daughter Candy (Frankie Adams) are seen setting fire to one of Clem’s wooden carvings of June, made in the same greenhouse where he raped Candy when she was just 13 years old.

It’s a hugely symbolic moment in the story: but according to The Wrap, had it not been for the insistence of director Glendyn Ivin, the show’s final scene would have been very different.

“When I first read the first draft of episode seven, that fire wasn’t there. As I was reading and I was getting towards the last few pages, I really thought as I turned that last page that there was going to be a fire, but there wasn’t, there was something else,” he told the publication.

“I rang [creator Sarah Lambert] and I said, ‘Sarah, we’ve got to have the fire. It’s gotta happen.’

“And she was like, ‘no, no, no, there’s too much fire’ and I was like, ‘no, no, there’s not enough. We have to do this.’ So there was a bit of an arm wrestle there.”

Sigourney Weaver as June Hart. Picture: Supplied/Prime Video

Adding to the symbolism of the scene is the fact there were so many early references in the series to Alice’s fascination with flames – with her fantasising about setting fire to things as a child.

In the first episode, she physically sets fire to her father’s shed.

“I’m glad we got it through. It’s a really beautiful ending, and fire for Alice, in her life, has always been a destructive element,” Irvin told The Wrap.

“There’s a different kind of reverence to that element at that point.”

The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart has proven a hit for Prime Video, with the series premiering to the biggest opening weekend viewership globally for any Australian original launch last month, and reaching the top five in 78 countries.

The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart is now streaming on Prime Video.