Sweetpea Season One--Ending Spoilers

 

Plot: Wallflower Rhiannon regains her confidence after she accidentally murders someone. She then sets her sights on going after her school bully.

High school can be tough, especially when you have a bully. As we grow up, we realize the impact that bullying has had on you and how the bully not only managed to get away with it. They lead amazing lives as well.

But you are left with deep emotional scars that have thwarted every attempt you made to achieve success. Perhaps the worst part is when you are told that the bully wasn't the problem, it was you who didn't want to win in life.

That is the perfect example of gaslighting. You are put in that position where you react a certain way only to be told that it was your fault you reacted that way.

The bully always gets away with what they did.

Sweetpea has an interesting angle about bullying and how it affects people.

Rhiannon is almost relatable at first. Almost.

And when she commits her first kill, you are left with mixed feelings. You understand her troubles, but murder is murder. And that is wrong.

Sweetpea is a confusing watch because you don't know whether to cheer on the protagonist or be disappointed she chose the life of a murderer to get over her problems.

Sweetpea Plot

Rhiannon lives with her father in a house. She works as an administrative assistant at the Carnsham Gazette. Her boss, Norman, calls her sweetpea, much to her irritation.

One day, Rhiannon's father collapses. At the hospital, when she is trying to call for help, she finds a man engaged with the receptionist, due to which she thinks the nurses did not come in time to help her father.

Her father dies, and Rhiannon is shattered. Before dying, he gives Rhiannon a knife that she carries with her everywhere.

Her sister Seren wants to sell the house, but Rhiannon does not want to let go of her house.

At work, Rhiannon tries to get her boss to promote her to junior reporter, but he practically laughs at her. He claims that Rhiannon has no experience and implies she has no confidence either. He calls her Sweetpea.

Rhiannon finds comfort with her dog Tink, who she takes for walks. On the way, she sees an ad of her childhood bully, Julia's real estate business. She gets frustrated and doesn't see her dog Tink run into traffic.

He, too, dies.

Rhiannon has a couple more rough days when she finds out that her sister Seren has hired Julia to sell her house. At work, Norman has hired A.J. for the reporter position, and Rhiannon finds out he was a nepotism hire.

AJ speaks to her while she is opening packages and comments that her knife is a good piece of kit.

Rhiannon decides to confront her bully Julia, who is hanging out with her friends in a club. Rhiannon tells her off, but Julia makes fun of her and asks Rhiannon if she's still wearing a wig. In school, Rhiannon was so stressed out from bullying that she used to pull her hair out.

Rhiannon leaves after being humiliated.

Feeling desolate, Rhiannon goes on a depressed night walk only for a drunk man to accidentally pee on her.

Rhiannon loses it. This isn't the first time she hasn't been "seen." She stabbed the man with the very knife her father gave her.

Shocked, Rhiannon realizes she feels less remorse and a newfound confidence instead.

Rhiannon walks in confidently to work the next day. She considers killing AJ at some point and even follows him, but he is nice to her, and she backs out.

Another reporter, Jeff, is obnoxious to her and keeps trying to get all the best stories. When Rhiannon finds out that Jeff is putting himself in charge of the body found near the canals (Rhiannon's first victim), she decides to get into the story, too.

She walks up to Norman and proposes she talk to the victim's family. Norman agrees but sends AJ with her. AJ makes sure to.gibe credit where credit is due, but Rhiannon doesn't appreciate it.

When they meet the victim's family, the mother says her son was a nice person. Rhiannon sneaks around the house and finds out that the victim had a restraining order against him.

Rhiannon tells Norman that instead of writing all good things about the victim, they should spin the story of him being a bully.

Impressed, Norman notices Rhiannon and tells her that she will get credit for the story. He invites her to go with the others for drinks. Once there, she sings karaoke and is enjoying herself when the detectives walk in.

Rhiannon gets nervous, but the detectives only want information about the canal victim.

Rhiannon pulls herself together but then notices a man near the bar. He was the same one who had engaged the nurses at the hospital and delayed her father's treatment.

Enraged, she follows him out of the pub and kills him off.

With each kill, Rhiannon gets more confident and considers her next target to be Julia.

Rhiannon is visited by Craig, who works at Tommy's Transformations, her father's company. He had previously had a one night stand with Rhiannon but refuses to commit to her even though she is obviously crushing on him. He wants to buy her father's business, but with her newfound confidence, she makes him ask her out on a date instead.

After their date, they spend the night together, and she gets hung up on him.

At work, Jeff takes credit for the story, and Rhiannon spikes his coffee with laxatives.

The first victim's mother comes in, and she is disgusted with Rhiannon and AJ and accuses them of being malicious towards her son. Rhiannon snaps at her and tells her that maybe her son shouldn't have been a bully and implies that he deserved it.

The detectives come in and question everyone about seeing the victim. One of them is Detective Marina, who isn’t taken seriously by her boss either. She questions Rhiannon regarding her presence at the same club where the victim was.

Rhiannon makes up an excuse about visiting her friend and gives her Julia and her friends' names.

After that, Rhiannon decides to go see Craig, only to see Julia there flirting with him. Not liking the fact that Craig seems to be into her, she decides on the path of revenge.

She steals Julia's phone, slashes her car tires, and sits in her car waiting.  Craig drives off, and when Julia gets in her car, she realizes her tires are slashed. She gets out to check while Rhiannon casually drives up to her.

Rhiannon offers to give her a ride, and Julia, realizing she has no phone either, accepts her offer.

Rhiannon takes Julia straight to her home and reveals her plan to want to kill her. She even tells her about the two victims. Julia fights back, but Rhiannon manages to get the upper hand when Julia slips and falls.

She decides to tie Julia up and decide just how to kill her.

Try as she might, when it comes down to it, Rhiannon can not bring herself to kill her, especially since Julia keeps taunting her for not moving on after bullying her in high school.

Pissed off, Rhiannon goes to her father's company, finds Craig, and becomes intimate with him even though he keeps asking her if she has seen his proposal to buy the company.

Renewed with confidence, Rhiannon goes up to Norman and tells him that there has been another victim of a potential serial killer. She will tell him only if he agrees to make her junior reporter.

Norman gives in even though Jeff is not in favour of it.

She goes to Julia's house to speak to her fiancé Marcus, who seems depressed that Julia has gone. Rhiannon asks for a nice picture of Julia to put in her report, and while Marcus is out, she ruins the couch by pouring liquor on it.

She takes the photo and promptly leaves.

At work, AJ finally asks her out, and Rhiannon is flattered because it seems he noticed her when no one else did.

While she's getting ready for her date, Julia comments about her clownish look. Rhiannon wipes away the makeup, showing that Julia still has the ability to get into her head.

During the date, Rhiannon is enjoying AJ's company when Craig appears and publicly announces that he and Rhiannon have been spending nights together. AJ gets offended and leaves even as Rhiannon tries to get to talk to him.

However, she becomes distracted when she spots a drunk Marcus outside the bar. She takes him home and finds his phone, where he has been sending texts to Julia.

She returns home and tells Julia that she has not given up her bullying ways and is now bullying her fiancé.

Julia laughs it off and then reveals that she is the one being emotionally abused. Rhiannon is stunned and knocks her out.

She then realizes that Julia has gotten her period.

As she helps Julia clean up, she reveals how Marcus has been controlling her life and also hitting her. Rhiannon can't believe she is feeling sorry for her bully.

Detective Marina reads the article on Julia's disappearance and notices that Rhiannon wrote the article. She becomes suspicious of her and visits the company where she finds that some of the security footage has been deleted. Rhiannon has the USB in her possession.

Rhiannon considers killing Marcus, but as she is following him, Jeff notices her. He puts two and two together and realizes that she is the serial killer.

Rhiannon tries to stop him, but fortunately for her, Jeff gets into an accident and dies.

Julia and Rhiannon sort of become friends, and they come up with a plan that gets them both free.

Marcus is called to an abandoned house where Julia pretends to be tied up. He frees her, but when he returns to his old abusive self, Rhiannon decides to cut in.

Marcus soon realizes he is being set up. He emotionally blackmails Julia into giving him another chance. Rhiannon sees Julia giving in and decides to take matters into her own hands. She pushes Marcus off the balustrade, and he dies.

Julia is shocked. She thought Rhiannon was only going to frame Marcus but not kill him.

She behaves aloof towards Rhiannon even as she agrees to give the same statement to the police.

Detective Marina isn't buying it and suspects Rhiannon, but her boss tells her to close the case.

Rhiannon breaks up with Craig and pursues a relationship with AJ.

Everything is finally going well in her life, and Rhiannon has love and friends. But Julia is still rattled from witnessing Marcus's death.

She agrees to see Rhiannon but doesn't show up. Rhiannon later learned that Julia had left the country for some time, using her credit card.

AJ and Rhiannon are having an intimate moment when he receives a text from his police source. He sees the photo of the knife that has been kept in evidence, and Rhiannon remarks that it is a nice piece of kit.

The same remark he had given Rhiannon when he saw her use that very knife!

He starts to make a getaway while Rhiannon futilely explains that while she is the killer, she is doing good to get rid of bad people.

AJ calls her a monster and starts to leave. Something inside Rhiannon snaps, and she stabs AJ once and then again on his back. Blood sprays everywhere, and he collapses.

Rhiannon cries over him and then is stunned when her sister walks in through the door.

That marks the end of season one.

Rhiannon became a killer out of frustration and trauma, thought she was some sort of vigilante, then killed an innocent man because he was going to leave her.

Does that mean that Rhiannon is officially a serial killer and will not give up her killing ways? Can she get over her bloodlust?

Will she ever find love? Or will she get back together with Craig?

Sweetpea is addictive but as mentioned before, it is conflicting to state whether you like Rhiannon or not. I mean, she is a killer. She is likeable and all, but she kills people. Being obnoxious is not a crime is it?

Sweetpea is well-written and of course, Ella Purnell pulls off the role of a bullied adult and murderer, quite capably.

It's no surprise that Sweetpea has been renewed for season 2.

Read the book Sweetpea is based on