Flowers in the Attic: The Origin Part 4 ending explained: The Dollangangers

The time finally arrived! If you’d been along for the ride that is Flowers in the Attic: The Origin, then you knew “Part 4: The Martyr” was always going to lead us to the start of Flowers in the Attic. We took the long way to getting this point, watching tragedy after tragedy befall Olivia Foxworth due to her own choices and those of her family.

This episode was no different as Corrine’s pursuit of her uncle Christopher, and insistence on being in a relationship with him, pushed Olivia to tell them both the truth. That they are closer in relation than they were led to believe, they’re siblings through their biological mother, Alicia Foxworth. Unfortunately, this didn’t deter these two lovers.

In an aftermath sequence full of anger, spite, violence, and the truth laced with ire, not a single Foxworth was left unscathed. Corrine’s refusal to end up like her mother, and her desire to follow her heart, put her on a path to be with Christopher even if it meant being disowned.

Christopher managed to trick Malcolm into thinking he’d leave Corrine behind if he was sufficiently paid, but he took the money and ran off with her anyway. Olivia was devastated. She lost all of her children. Mal to the grave, Joel due to her and Malcolm’s treatment of him, and then Corrine to forbidden love and a desperate need to escape Foxworth just like her older brother.

Away from her parents, Corrine did live a happy life for well over a decade. She and Christopher got married and changed their names to the Dollangangers so no one could find them and so they could hide their real identities which would invalidate their marriage due to incest. Christopher referred to the choice of last name as a bit of whimsy to Corrine’s delight.

The two had four kids together. Their oldest Christopher Jr., second oldest Cathy, and twins Carrie and Cory. They were happy. Christopher had finished his schooling and became a doctor like he’d worked so hard to be and for a time they were able to be a family. One with a cute little house in the suburbs. It wasn’t what Corrine was used to, but her love for her husband pushed her through.

When tragedy struck, however, the young mother had to reevaluate her situation.

Why did Corrine come back to Foxworth Hall in Flowers in the Attic: The Origin?

Christopher died in a car accident, making Corrine a widow and a financially strapped one at that. He hadn’t been honest with her about their finances and, upon his death, she learned that they were substantially in debt. So much so that their belongs were being repossessed. Corrine, who’d never worked a day in her life and had no money to her own name, decided to reach out to her mother for help.

At this point in Olivia’s life, she’d become a deeply religious woman. When she’d heard about Christopher’s death, she’d warred over whether she should reach out to her daughter. Nella, who was visiting from New York City, had urged her to assist Corrine. But Olivia’s cousin, Amos, pressured her not to do so.

It was his belief that she should let Corrine come to her when she was at her most desperate. That her suffering would lead her back home where she belongs. His interpretation of God’s love was not at all similar to Nella’s who believed in a merciful God not one who punished his children when a helping hand could be given.

Ultimately, Olivia listened to Amos, and Corrine did eventually come back. She returned, however, to a fundamentally changed mother. One hardened by yet more heartbreak due to Amos’ advances toward her that turned violent when she rejected him. She killed him during their struggle, and his death marked her just as Mrs. Steiner’s had.

By the time Corrine arrived at Foxworth Hall, her connection to Olivia had weakened. It was clear she was only there in search of the life she’d known as a girl, not that her mother was aware of that impulse. Corrine told her children that all they had to do was make Olivia and Malcolm love them and they’d be set for life.

But, it’d been 15 years since she had been home. The kindness and love that once radiated from Olivia had hardened from loss. She didn’t welcome her daughter or her grandchildren with open arms. Instead, she brought them back into the fold under the cover of night.

Why did Olivia lock her grandchildren in the east wing in Flowers in the Attic: The Origin?

One thing Corrine never seemed to be able to grasp in Flowers in the Attic: The Origin, was that her actions have consequences. Life didn’t come with a reset button and her choice to be with Christopher came with sacrifice, yes, but living away from her childhood home meant she didn’t have to deal with the societal repercussions of her decisions.

Her return to Foxworth Hall brought those repercussions back to the forefront which started with Olivia realizing the Dollanganger children don’t know their parents are siblings. In the last minutes of “Part 4: The Marytr,” they didn’t learn of this fact, but it still hung heavily over the entire scene.

Obviously, no one could know that Corrine came home with children, let alone ones fathered by Christopher. So Olivia hid them in the east wing of the estate, the same way she’d shut their biological grandmother in decades ago.

Her shortness and strict demeanor was also a product of what they are to her. Not her grandchildren but rather the product of incest and Corrine’s poor choices.

Considering Malcolm’s predatory and incestuous behavior, and her daughter’s romantic attraction to her own brother, Olivia’s insistence that boys and girls shouldn’t sit or recline on the same bed together did come from a place of trying to keep history from repeating itself. But, obviously, her trauma is going to lead to her enacting trauma on those children whether purposeful or not.

If her behavior around them wasn’t enough of an indication, the fact that she locked them in a room was a glaring signal that nothing good was going to come especially since Corrine went along with it and convinced her children it would all be okay.

The series ends with Olivia and Corrine walking away from the locked door as if they didn’t just shut in four children in an abandoned wing of a huge estate. If you want to know what happens next you’ll have to check-out Flowers in the Attic. The 2014 adaptation by Lifetime is available to stream on mylifetime.com and through the Lifetime Movie Club.