Alice passes through the door and shuts it behind her.
A Few Years Ago, Back Home
Alice and Zoe walk home and Alice stops to talk to a neighbor, Nestor Debs. Zoe pulls her sister along, saying that she's thinking of her, and they go into their house.
Now
Alice finds herself in a field, and sees a manor in the distance. She walks there, unaware that Father time is watching from hiding.
Luke arrives at Louise's house with Robert' corpse in the back seat. Louise comes out and sees Luke, and she comes over. He shows her Robert's body and Louise complains that he brought it to her house. Luke asks her if she'll help him. Together they clean the blood out of the back seat.
Alice continues toward the manor but never gets closer. As she screams in fury, Joseph appears seated in a chair, and tells her to stop running around. He explains that it's their plantation on top of the food chain, and Alice realizes that a heart is buried in the ground. Joseph pulls a plant out of the ground, revealing that it has a human hand for roots. Alice tells him that she just wants to find her sister, and Joseph warns that it's harder to get to the house than it looks. As she walks off, Joseph chews on one of the root fingers.
In the manor, Zoe sits and stares at the meal as the Peaches talk. The pregnant Edie comes in and sits down next to Zoe, and explains that the house is bigger on the inside than the outside. She figures that Zoe is hungry, and Zoe insists that she isn't. despite that, her stomach grumbles. Grandma Peach wonders where Robert is, pointing out that he's been downstairs since the day before, and Aldous notes that Robert isn't careful. He says that maybe Grandma Peach doesn't know what Robert gets up to. The Meat servant brings in lunch and prepares to serve.
Luke and Louise take Robert to Louise's taxidermy workshop and go outside. Robert opens his eyes.
Edie tells Zoe that Aldous hates that Robert is Grandma's favorite Peach. She explains that Robert rescued her from the secretarial pool. He walked in and told her follow him out the door and he'd make her a Georgia Peach. The Meat Servant serves rare meat, and Zoe stares at it. Edie says that she'd follow Robert anywhere, and asks for a second helping. She tells Zoe to eat the meat.
Luke and Louise return to the workshop and discover that Robert's corpse is gone. There's a boarded-up tunnel entrance nearby, and Louise explains that bootleggers dug the tunnels. They go into the next room where Louise keeps some of her stuffed animals, and Louise lags behind. She hears something moving behind a sheet hung from the ceiling and pulls it away. Robert grabs her hand, and Luke runs over and tackles him. When he yells "Mouse" at Luke, Luke slams a shovel into Robert's chest and wonders how they make him stay dead.
Alice keeps walking through the field and never gets any closer. She finds a man tilling the plants, and he tells Alice that she's new. He says that Alice brought a secret companion with her, but Alice says that she's there to find someone. The Gardener recites a riddle and when Alice can't answer, says that it's a riddle.
A Few Years Ago
Alice stares at a fan in the window at night, and asks Zoe if she feels safe. Bugs gather on the window, drawn to the light.
Now
The Gardener says "a window" repeatedly. And Alice briefly remembers seeing Father Time. The Gardener says more of his riddle, and Alice walks off saying that it's a waste of time. He keeps harvesting hands from the ground, and some of them twitch.
Louise takes out a pair of motorized hedge trimmers and cuts Robert apart.
Alice stands in the field and remembers the past.
The Past
Zoe comes home and starts ranting. The neighbors and police come over, and when Alice runs out, Zoe says that Alice isn't her sister. An officer holds Zoe back, and she bursts into tears and insists that Alice isn't her sister.
Now
As Alice walks through the field, Izzy pops out of the field ahead of her. Father Time starts humming "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and rises up behind Alice, and Izzy runs away. Alice chases after her, calling the girl's name.
Luke dumps a bowling ball out of its bag and sits down next to Louise. He insists that their best option is going to the Chief, but Louise warns that he's in the Peaches' pocket. Luke says that people have already told him that he's too sensitive and he finally believed it, and he stopped trusting his gut. He blames himself for not seeing the signs that his father was corrupt. Now he's listening to his gut and figures that they have something on him. Luke figures that it will force the Chief the other way because a fight has started and he'll have to make a choice. He insists that his father isn't a monster, and he'll choose Luke over a family of monsters. Louise agrees that Luke should talk to the Chief but tells him to keep her name out of it.
Zoe doesn't eat lunch, and the Meat Servant serves kidney parfait and ear wafer. The Peaches eat, and Edie offers Zoe a piece of ear. Zoe takes it and tries to eat it. Meanwhile, Aldous tells Evelina that nobody cares about Robert downstairs, and he doesn't care about Robert. Evelina insists that Robert cares about Aldous, and Edie says that Robert will come back from one of his adventures. Aldous says that Robert had better come back because the rent's almost due, and walks off laughing. Zoe sets the ear on the plate, and Edie warns that if people don’t eat enough protein then their bodies will eat themselves. When Zoe says that she can't eat the parfait, Edie takes it.
Luke takes the bowling bag home and finds his father in the kitchen microwaving supper. He sees the bag and asks when Luke started bowling, and Luke pushes it across the counter to him. The Chief looks inside and finds Robert's severed head. He tells Luke that he's an idiot and asks where the rest of Robert is. Luke takes him to his car and shows him the other severed parts in the trunk. The Chie tosses the bag in and Luke asks which side he's on. His father doesn't respond and Luke closes the trunk.
Alice loses Izzy in the plants. The Gardener pops up and asks another riddle, and Alice realizes that the answer is a door. She turns and sees three doors in the middle of the field, and opens one. The park is below, and Alice opens the second door. It leads to a black void filled with wind, and Alice goes to the third door. It leads to the inside of a building, and Alice goes inside.
The Chief and Luke drive through the streets, and the Chief says that Joseph was originally a rich white man. He said that he'd make Luke's father chief and let him do all the things he wanted to do. The Chief cleaned up the force, and all he had to do was look the other way when people in Butcher's Block went missing. He says that he did it for Luke and his brothers, and when Luke is the deputy chief, maybe Joseph will offer him the same deal. The Chief wonders if Luke will be a better man, and Luke says that he will because he's not like his father.
Alice walks up the building's stairs and enters the next floor. She sees Father Time in the shadows and runs through the building as he follows her. Alice comes to a door and gets through it just in time, slamming it behind her.
Zoe holds the penknife in her hands, and a severed finger falls on the tablecloth in front of her. She picks it up and Edie encourages her to eat it. Zoe starts to eat it and then gags it up as the Peaches look on. Edie notices the cuts on Zoe's leg as Zoe pulls her dress up and cuts off a piece of herself. Screaming, Zoe eats her own flesh.
Alice hears organ music playing as Father Time bangs on the door. She tries to find a way out of the room but all of the windows are bricked over. Father Time smashes in and Alice cowers in a corner. He comes over and grabs Alice's hair, and she screams. Memories of Alice's past flash through her mind, and she sees a red door at the end of a white corridor. When Alice looks up, Father Time collapses after Joseph stabs him in the back.
Later, Luke digs a grave for Robert. Louise sits in her car nearby and secretly watches, and the Chief walks over. He complains about his stomach, and then comes over and offers to help. However, when Luke turns the Chie cuts his son's throat. Crying in grief, the Chief goes back to his car, leaving Luke in the grave next to Robert's as Luke chokes on his own blood.
Robert tells Alice that Father Time is her disease, the evolution of her madness. He warns that it will heal itself and grow back, and it needs to be extracted. Joseph offers to do it for Alice if she tells him to cut off its head.
Once the Chief drives away, Louise goes over to the grave and finds Luke. She runs off.
Edie takes Zoe to the study and asks if eating her own flash helps. She says that she's really starting to like Zoe, just as Smart Mouth, Joseph, and Alice come in. Joseph offers a toast to family, and the Peaches join in. Zoe tells Alice not to do it, but Alice drinks the wine and joins in the toast.
Written by Gadfly on Mar 1, 2018