Wild Cherry has wrapped with a perfectly twisted finale, finally unmasking Iris’ killer – and exposing the older man behind the disturbing exchange of intimate photos among the town’s teens.
The six-part drama has been pitched somewhere between Big Little Lies and Mean Girls, and it more than lived up to that comparison. At its heart were lifelong friends Lorna and Juliet, suddenly pulled onto opposing sides when their pampered – and frequently infuriating – daughters Grace and Allegra became entangled in a scandal at their elite private school.
What started as teenage mischief spiralled into something far darker, setting the stage for the explosive ending fans have been waiting for.
The teens’ secret “catalogue” app was at the heart of everything – a toxic rating system where students uploaded their photos and paid subscribers judged them. Grace and Allegra were making serious money, but the whole thing was illegal, dangerous and, ultimately, deadly. The app set off a chain of events that ended with Iris losing her life.
Richford Lake looked picture-perfect from the outside, but underneath it was a mess of insecurity and denial. Juliet played the flawless wife while quietly unravelling, clinging to alcohol and a fantasy of control. The teenagers strutted around as if they didn’t care, but every pose, every decision was fuelled by fear of how they were perceived. Beneath the confidence was nothing more than frightened girls making grown-up mistakes with devastating consequences.
By the end of the penultimate episode, the police arrived and hauled Grace and Allegra away for Iris’s murder. But were they truly responsible – or was someone else hiding in plain sight? And once the truth came out, what price did the real culprit pay?
***Warning: spoilers from the ending of Wild Cherry ahead***
Nicôle Lecky as morally ambiguous Gigi in Wild Cherry (Credit: BBC)
Wild Cherry ending explained: Who was Gigi?
New Richford Lake neighbour Gigi was a fraud, and not who she said she was at all. Not a life coach, not a guru, and not American. Born Sadie on a London council estate, she adopted the name Gigi – and the Los Angeles accent – to infiltrate the upper classes. I mean, you can’t blame her for trying. But the fallout left her younger brother Jacob without any family. In a bid to escape her life, she’d left him and he had no idea where to find her. Until he tracked her down to Richford Lake.
At the beginning of the final episode, she told us: “My name is Sadie. Or Gigi. I know, I’ve been lying my whole life. I used to stay home and make up stories and play with my dolls. Because I wanted to be like those perfect women. I didn’t go to school much. I was too busy looking after my baby brother. As soon as I was old enough, I knew I had to hustle. I had to take matters into my own hands. Playing by the rules doesn’t get you anywhere.”
She added: “I couldn’t afford to have morals, and Freddie didn’t ask too many questions. I mean, why would he? He had someone to take care of him, and his kids. In Richford Lake, I had the life I was always meant to have. Just like those perfect women. But I found out these women were just like me. They were wild.”
In a heated discussion with Jacob, she said: “I deserve to be here and have nice things. Just like all these other bitches.”
When Juliet walked in on Sadie/Gigi and Jacob arguing, she realised they’d all been duped and threatened to call the police. Instead, she told Gigi to leave Richford Lake. But this bad bitch wasn’t going anywhere. More on that later.
What was the meaning of ‘we are but demons who dream’?
Lorna’s husband Steven finally discovered the meaning of the mysterious message Iris sent Lorna on the night she died. It was a chat room for “some very sick people”.
Someone was sharing photos of the girls on there. All of the teenagers were on it. And the site was registered in Richford Lake – to be more specific, it was registered to Frances’ house. That meant that either Jocasta or her mum and dad was behind it. And it was never going to be snooty Frances.
In fact, Frances’ husband Daniel was the offender. The doctor had been hiding a secret relationship with his daughter’s teenage friend Noori. Yuk. Daniel was “the older guy” that Noori had been seeing. Although it wasn’t sexual, he had clearly been grooming her. As Grace said “he’d been using her to get photos of young girls”.
Grace worked it out when she saw Noori upset at Frances’ lavish birthday party. When Daniel saw Grace comforting Noori, he realised his dirty secret was out. He followed Grace into the garden to talk to her. But, when she ran away, he followed – something witnessed by Grace’s mum Lorna and her friend Juliet.
Grace ran into the woods behind Frances and Daniel’s house, closely followed by Daniel and behind him, Lorna and Juliet. Of course, Allegra was already in the woods, having met Jacob there earlier.
What followed was a tense denouement, where all the Richford Lake secrets were spilled.
Support authors and subscribe to content
This is premium stuff. Subscribe to read the entire article.
