Tonight’s episode of Grosse Pointe Backyard Society doesn’t tiptoe into its long-teased drama—it cannonballs into it. From the second the gala begins, there’s a way of future within the air. That is the evening we’ve been bracing for all season, the one which’s been glimpsed in scattered flash-forwards and ominous montages. And now, lastly, all these fragments come collectively in actual time, culminating in a loss of life nobody noticed coming and a twist that reframes every part.
The opening act of the gala is a stress cooker. Doug and Brett lastly conflict in a really public, very bodily combat over Alice, and it’s extra than simply testosterone and jealousy. There’s actual heartbreak of their punches, a long time of unstated rivalry, romantic confusion, and private failure. Watching them unravel like that’s thrilling, however it’s additionally deeply unhappy, particularly for Alice, who’s caught within the center however more and more looks like she’s standing alone. In the meantime, Patty, ever the lady who believes she’s the star of each room, takes a success of her personal. When she geese into the lavatory, she overhears Brett’s ex-wife, Melissa, and one other lady gossiping about her, and it’s not type. They name her out for being manipulative, for taking part in harmless, for being the form of lady everybody pretends to love however secretly resents. Patty tries to brush it off, however the phrases hit laborious. For somebody who’s curated her picture right down to the hemline, being uncovered like that stings.
The episode, nonetheless, belongs to Alice. Her arc tonight is dizzying. Bertie and Catherine attempt to elevate her spirits by reminding her she’s simply landed her dream job at New York Journal, however the timing couldn’t be worse. Her marriage is imploding, she’s simply been humiliated in public, and every part in her life that after appeared safe is now hole. The large information that detonates her emotionally comes not from a letter or an argument—however from a drunk Tucker, stumbling into the dialog and blurting out the outcomes of the ballistics check. The gun. The bullet. Patty killed her canine. The shift in Alice is rapid. Her face hardens. She doesn’t cry, she plans.
What follows is a deliciously unhinged act of vengeance. Alice steals the quilt, the identical garish, coveted quilt that’s been handed round this season like a cursed relic, and with Brett, Bertie, and Catherine in tow, takes it to the backyard centre to destroy it. They plan to chop it, burn it, no matter will make the largest assertion. However Alice doesn’t need to do it in secret. She needs Patty to observe. She needs her ache to be public, identical to her personal. And so, she sends Patty a sequence of texts.
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Again at house, Patty is winding down with Keith, unaware that the evening isn’t over. As they prepare for mattress, Keith says one thing odd—he generally wonders what Patty’s life would’ve been like if she’d by no means married him. Patty reassures him, with a softness that’s uncommon for her, that she loves him, and that nothing might ever change that. However the tenderness is interrupted in a stunning means that nobody noticed coming.
What occurs subsequent is each tragic and absurd, trademark Grosse Pointe Backyard Society excellence. The backyard centre turns into the stage for the present’s most theatrical scene so far. Alice, brandishing a knife, is about to stab the quilt when Keith walks in. The digicam pans to his toes, and in a single wonderful visible reveal, we see it: the footwear. The identical footwear worn by the corpse we have solely generally known as “Quiche” from the flash-forwards. It’s Keith. Keith is Quiche.
The confrontation is brutal. Alice, vibrating with fury, tells Keith that Patty killed her canine. Keith counters by saying Doug can do higher than her, that Alice doesn’t belong of their household or in Grosse Pointe. The insults fly like knives, however the precise knife—the true risk—remains to be in Alice’s palms. The scene escalates when Bertie, of all folks, activates a wooden chipper. The quilt will get tossed in. Keith, unable to let Patty’s prized possession be destroyed, lunges for it and manages to drag it again out. However in doing so, he stumbles backward onto a backyard software, one thing innocuous, one thing sharp, and impales himself. Similar to that, he’s bleeding out on the ground, a person who thought he was saving his spouse’s legacy and ended up dying in a pile of potting soil and vengeance.
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| “Monaco Under the Stars” – GROSSE POINTE GARDEN SOCIETY. Pictured: Ben Rappaport as Brett, AnnaSophia Robb as Alice, Melissa Fumero as Birdie and Aja Naomi King as Catherine. Picture: Mark Hill/NBC ©2025 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. |
“Monaco under the Stars” is a triumph. It’s the most effective episode of the season, in a season that has been epically sturdy in it is freshman yr. It juggles tone masterfully, swinging from darkish comedy to excessive drama to real heartbreak with out shedding its footing. The writing is sharp, the performances dialed to perfection, and the pacing by no means lets up. Each payoff feels earned. Each twist hits. And now, with Quiche’s id revealed and half the forged emotionally (or actually) destroyed, the query isn’t simply what comes subsequent, it’s how a lot worse it could actually get. As a result of in Grosse Pointe, there’s at all times extra dust to dig up.
