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***
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.
What happened in the Wild Cherry ending on BBC One?
It was “sick” Daniel who had been sharing photos of teenagers online – even of his own daughter. He’d posted the intimate shots on the grubby chat room called ‘we are but demons who dream’. Noori had granted him access to the catalogue.
He told Lorna and Juliet: “I made a mistake.” When they accused him of killing Iris, he lunged at the group, shouting: “I didn’t kill anyone. Crazy [bleeping] women.”
As the four ladies fought with Daniel, he ended up on the ground. Which is where someone – we didn’t see who – walloped him over the head with a chunk of wood. Reader, they’d killed him. But no one shed a tear. Good riddance more like.
Coming up with a plan quick, they dragged Daniel’s body into the back of Lorna’s car. Which is when Gigi decided to show up again and had witnessed it all. Instead of threatening to call the police, she told them: “I can help you with that.”
Then, having cleaned herself up, Juliet planted Iris’ phone in Daniel’s suit jacket. Meanwhile, Gigi and her newly-reunited brother Jacob helped them dispose of the body.
Who killed Iris?
According to the police, Daniel killed Iris. Police officers arrived at the party moments after Daniel had been disposed of. They had found out about his involvement in the app, and his murky dealings with Noori. And his ‘disappearance’ only added to his guilt. Police assumed he’d done a runner. Coupled with the fortuitous discovery of Iris’ phone in his jacket, and it was case closed.
But actually it was Noori who had killed Iris. She told Grace: “The night of the party, I followed Iris to the woods. She thought it was you who was in a relationship with Daniel.”
When Iris decided to “protect Grace” and alert the grown-ups to Daniel’s predatory behaviour, Noori got “so mad”. She explained: “I didn’t want Iris to ruin it and tell on him.”
Although she told Grace she hadn’t done”anything” to Iris. She did have her phone… Which is why Noori later planted it on Grace (nice friend). We later saw Noori and her mum burning clothes in their fire pit. That was the final proof we needed of her guilt.
Viewers know that Iris was found dead in the lake after the wild party at K-Rizz’s TikTok party. Although it looked like drowning at first, in fact she’d been murdered and had suffered a skull fracture.
What happened to the main characters in the Wild Cherry ending?
In the Wild Cherry ending, several women and girls had got away with murder… But did that make them as bad as the men who tried to “control the narrative”?
Spoilt brat Allegra and her friend Grace had learnt some serious lessons by the end of Wild Cherry. Allegra wasn’t obsessed with “going viral” anymore. At the end, they were still besties, but quite a bit wiser. Lorna and Juliet were no longer friends at the end of the six-part series. Meanwhile, Lorna had told Grace who her real father was – the super rich Jeremy Trevy.
Juliet ended her “sham” marriage with Rafe, a thoroughly despicable bloke by all accounts. She finally stood up to him in a punch-the-air-with-joy scene.
Of course, Gigi had then been complicit in Daniel’s manslaughter. And so had something to hold over her new ‘friends’. In the closing moments of the series, we discovered that Gigi had taken photos of them beside Daniel’s body. You know, in case she needs them one day…
What else happened in the Wild Cherry ending?
Gigi, meanwhile, chose to stay put in Richford Lake. In a move no one saw coming, she rebuilt her brother Jacob’s life from scratch – giving him a fresh identity as awkward, bespectacled “Kyle” and easing him into her world by introducing him to her husband Freddie. The only snag? His accent needed some serious fine-tuning before anyone would buy it.
And then came one of the show’s wildest final twists. Frances – forever the polished, pristine queen bee – turned up on K-Rizz’s doorstep, quietly admitting she just wanted “to feel better”. So much for perfection. Even she wasn’t as composed or untouchable as she pretended.
Will there be a series 2 of Wild Cherry?
BBC One hasn’t announced whether Wild Cherry will return for a second series – and honestly, the story lands so neatly that it works beautifully as a one-off.
That said, there’s definitely room to dig deeper if the BBC decides to revisit Richford Lake. Gigi’s explosive piece of blackmail alone feels like it could fuel an entire new chapter should she ever be forced to play that card.
For now, nothing is confirmed, but we’ll be keeping a close eye on any updates about a potential Wild Cherry series 2. Watch this space.
Read more: First look at ITV’s The Lady and the real story of Buckingham Palace dresser turned murderer
Wild Cherry is now available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
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