'Wild Cherry' Ending Explained & Series Recap: Who Murdered Iris?

Adolescence is a tricky phase for both—parents and their children. To what extent should parents monitor their children? The idea is to protect them but also not become a ‘helicopter parent,’ and striking that right balance is, I suppose, extremely challenging. In BBC’s new mystery thriller show, Wild Cherry, a teenage girl gang got in trouble when the operations of a secret online group called “The Catalogue” that they’d created became public knowledge. One of the participants, Iris, went missing, resulting in an intensive police investigation. Grace and Allegra were under scrutiny, and their mothers, Juliet and Lorna, were desperate to get their children out of the messy situation. Were the girls responsible for Iris’ disappearance? Did Grace and Allegra end up behind bars? Let’s find out.

Spoiler Alert

Why did the cops consider Grace and Allegra the prime suspects?

The lives of the affluent families living in Richmond Estate, also popularly known as ‘the island,’ looked perfect from a distance, but on close inspection there were cracks in every household. Juliet believed she’d given her daughter, Allegra, a perfect life—she lived a luxurious life and was enrolled at one of the finest educational institutes in the country; what more could she ever want? Well, as it turned out, there was a lot more that Allegra desired. She wished her father, Raef, was more present in her life; she blamed her mother for not doing enough to make him want to stay; she barely had any respect for Juliet and believed her mother was too desperate for attention and respect. She adored her grandfather (Juliet’s father), Lord Ackerley, a man of incredible influence who could pretty much make any problem disappear. She preferred spending most of her time with her best friend, Grace. Unlike Allegra, Grace didn’t come from generational wealth. Her mother had built a company from scratch, and she was taught from a young age that nothing came easy. Grace and Allegra’s lives changed when Allegra’s boyfriend, Hugo, leaked sexually explicit pictures of her to his friends. Allegra was devastated, so Grace suggested they take control of the narrative. Instead of living in shame, she proposed they take advantage of the situation and make those interested in explicit content pay a price to get access to their pictures and videos. The idea was to not let another man profit off their vulnerability; they preferred making money and uploading pictures that they shot of their own free will. They charged £100 for entry and £50 for subscription. Most of the students from their school as well as Hugo’s school were members, and they participated in a monthly competition where those interested uploaded their pictures while the rest of the members voted and chose the hottest boy and girl. It was ‘cool’ to be on ‘The Catalogue,’ and Grace and Allegra were proud of their business endeavor. But soon, the school found out about their operations, and they suspected Iris, a member, of snitching on them. Iris had repeatedly warned them to delete the app; she suspected someone was leaking the pictures outside the group, and she was concerned about their safety. Since Grace and Allegra refused to remove ‘The Catalogue,’ she got the school involved. She didn’t provide them with any evidence, just tipped them off about their online activities. Grace and Allegra had denied the allegations, and the school didn’t take any immediate action due to lack of evidence. While Juliet refused to believe that her daughter made sexually explicit videos and shared them online, Lorna wasn’t so sure. She was suspicious of Grace, and later when she confiscated her daughter’s phone, she discovered that Grace was spending most of her time on the ‘Calculator Go’ app, a ghost app under which ‘The Catalogue’ operated. Allegra was already a social media influencer, and to climb to the top of the ladder, she desperately wanted to collaborate with K Rizz, an influencer who often launched young girls on his account. Allegra believed that featuring in one of his videos would help her boost her follower count, and in exchange she agreed to pay him, although she chose to keep that part a secret from her friends. She wanted others to assume that K Rizz chose her because she was talented and attractive. When Grace, Allegra, Iris, Jocasta, and Noori were at K Rizz’s house party, a gang had forcefully entered the premises and ransacked the place. During the commotion, Iris went missing.

The girls chose to remain tight-lipped in front of the cops. Juliet didn’t disclose the fact that she’d seen Allegra and Grace return home late that night; instead, she deleted the surveillance footage in an attempt to erase any evidence that could bring trouble to them. It was pretty evident to Detective Khan that the girls were hiding something, but she couldn’t figure out what it was. Soon, Iris’ body was found in a lake, and Grace and Allegra tried to pin the blame on K Rizz. They lied to the cops, stating that he was the one who’d come up with the app idea and they were victims just like Iris. But their lies didn’t help their case, because K Rizz had an alibi. Detective Khan considered Allegra and Grace the prime suspects in the case after Noori, their friend, confessed that the duo were the ones who’d started the app, and they’d also threatened to destroy Iris after she warned them to delete the app. 

How was Daniel involved?

The cops interrogated Grace and Allegra, and while they admitted to starting the group and lying about K Rizz, they repeatedly told the cops that they didn’t cause any harm to Iris. Since Detective Khan and his team didn’t have any evidence to prove that the girls were involved in Iris’ murder, they had to let them go. After returning home from the police station, Grace and Allegra wondered who could’ve leaked their pictures outside the app, and they came to the conclusion that maybe it was Jocasta. She had previously complained to the school administration, accusing Grace of coercing her to take sexually explicit pictures. She’d also added morphine to the alcohol during their photoshoot, which Grace thought was weird, and she arrived at the conclusion that maybe Jocasta had a secret boyfriend she’d shared the pictures with. They decided to crash the birthday party of Jocasta’s mother, Frances, in order to talk to her. Juliet and Lorna never thought they would ever end up in such a precarious situation. They wanted to trust their girls, but they also couldn’t completely shrug off the idea that they could be extremely dangerous considering everything that they were already involved in. There were moments when they blamed themselves for not being good mothers, but no matter what, they tried their best to help their daughters prove their innocence. So, when Allegra and Grace suggested dropping by Frances’ birthday, they decided to go along with the girls.

When Allegra and Grace confronted Jocasta, she begged them to believe that she didn’t have a boyfriend. She sympathized with Grace because she knew that Grace had secretly been in love with Iris, but she never got the opportunity to confess her true feelings for her. Jocasta thought it was worth mentioning that Noori was upset after they spoke to the cops because her boyfriend had refused to meet her. Grace was surprised because Noori had consistently told them that her boyfriend lived in America. It was evident that Noori had been lying to them, but why? When Grace was about to confront Noori, she noticed how emotional she was watching Frances and her husband, Daniel, dance to ‘Baby I’m Yours.’ Grace remembered Noori listening to the same song, and she’d mentioned that her boyfriend had made the playlist for her. It was obvious that Daniel was her ‘American’ boyfriend, and it was agonizing for her to watch the man she loved dance with his wife. Grace figured that Daniel must have been the one who’d leaked their pictures. Since Noori was desperate for his attention, she didn’t think it was a stretch to assume that she had provided him with access to the app. She also realized that when Iris had mentioned an older guy leaking their pictures, she’d meant Daniel. Iris didn’t get the complete picture; she had found out about the chatroom and Daniel’s involvement, but she’d assumed Grace was in a relationship with him, which is why the last time she spoke to Grace, she’d hinted at her dating an older guy. Meanwhile, Lorna’s husband, Steven, had been trying to find the meaning behind the last text Iris had sent: ‘We’re but demons who dream,’ and he discovered that it was the name of a chatroom where pictures of minors were circulated. What was all the more shocking was that the site was registered to Daniel Frederick’s house. Steven had already had the police station have the cops look into the chatroom.

Daniel had noticed Grace talk to Noori and rush out of the house immediately after. He suspected that she had found out his secret, and he tried to speak to her. Grace refused to speak to him, and she ran into the woods, and Daniel followed her. Coincidentally, Lorna and Juliet were by the window at the party when they noticed Daniel following Grace. By then, they’d already figured out that he was dangerous, so they rushed in to save Grace. Daniel caught up with Grace, and he tried to establish that he’d always been good to her, so he expected her to be grateful to him. Thankfully, Lorna and Juliet had arrived at the scene by then. When they accused Daniel of grooming Iris and killing her, he got agitated. He claimed that he didn’t harm anyone, and he attacked Juliet and Lorna. Allegra had arrived at the scene after hearing the commotion, and together the four tried to contain Daniel, and in the process they ended up striking him in the head with a rock. Daniel was dead, and they needed to deal with his dead body before the cops found out. 

Who was Gigi, and what did she want from Juliet and Lorna?

Gigi had pictures of Juliet, Lorna, Allegra, and Grace killing Daniel, and she intended on using them if they dared to share her secret with those on the island. Gigi was neither an American nor from a posh background; she was Sadie, a hustler who chose to adopt an identity that made navigating the world a little easier. She met Freddie at a bar, and when he mistook her for an American socialite named Gigi, she simply played along. Freddie didn’t ask her too many questions, so fooling him wasn’t a challenge. He was a widower in search of a partner who wouldn’t mind looking after his daughters, and Sadie offered him exactly what he was looking for. She soon moved in with him, and she desperately tried to fit in in the posh neighborhood. She soon realized that she had to win over the women living in the estate to build her reputation. She held parties and yoga sessions, hoping that they would appreciate her efforts, but no one considered her worthy of being one of them. Gigi had also lied about being a life coach, and some of the teenagers in the estate consulted her for guidance. So, Gigi knew about the app and everything that the girls were up to. She was envious of Juliet, and while Juliet had been nice to her from the start, she didn’t trust Gigi after she hosted a party and intentionally slipped magic mushroom oil in their drink for them to loosen up. Juliet had watched her husband passionately kiss Gigi, and she wondered if they’d been involved for quite some time. When Juliet refused to entertain her anymore, she felt frustrated, and she purposefully disclosed to Iris’ mother, Jelena, during Iris’ wake that her daughter was on the app.

Jelena had no clue about the app, and the moment she discovered that Allegra and Grace were the ones who’d started ‘The Catalogue,’ she shamed the girls and their mothers publicly and asked them to leave. Her one decision triggered a series of events, and she wasn’t apologetic about it. She wanted to watch Juliet’s perfect life fall apart, and well, her plan worked. Things got complicated when Juliet caught her and her brother, Jacob, during a heated discussion. She realized that Gigi wasn’t who she claimed to be, and her brother, Jacob, was equally dangerous. Allegra had taken a liking to Jacob, though she knew from the start that he didn’t come from wealth. No one knew that Gigi and Jacob were related at first; Gigi feared her brother would ruin her second chance at life. She had spent most of her youth looking after her brother, and she refused to help him anymore. Jacob had warned Gigi that she was playing with fire, and that the life she aimed to build wouldn’t last. When Juliet learned the truth, she had instructed Gigi and Jacob to leave Richmond Lake, and if they failed to do so, she would reveal their secret. But that very night, Gigi caught them murdering a man, and she now had proof that she could hold against Juliet.

She offered to help Juliet and Lorna get rid of the body, but in exchange they had to keep her secret to themselves. Juliet didn’t have an option; she handed Jacob her car keys (Daniel’s dead body was in the trunk) and cash and begged him to leave Allegra alone. The cops didn’t find Daniel’s body, though they found Iris’ phone in his coat pocket. Juliet had left the phone there, and she was relieved that the cops had finally found it. In the end, Detective Khan came to the conclusion that Daniel had circulated the sexually explicit photos and videos of the teenagers in the chatroom and was also responsible for Iris’ murder. They assumed that Iris must have developed a relationship with him, and once she found his secret, he decided to get rid of her. But the truth was far more disturbing than that.  

Who murdered Iris?

The girls were back in school, but the events of that night continued to haunt Grace. She was in the washroom rigorously washing her hands (the image of her bloodstained hands continued to torment her) when she interacted with Noori. The fact that everyone had assumed Iris was the one who’d given Daniel access to ‘The Catalogue’ disturbed Grace because she knew it was actually Noori. When she asked Noori why she did what she did, she explained that Daniel made her feel special, although he never even kissed her. He used to spend time with her—they would go on long drives and chat all the time, and Noori strongly believed that he loved her and he wasn’t just using her to get the photos, as Grace had tried to imply. Grace hugged Noori; she’d realized she didn’t deserve to be blamed because, at the end of the day, Daniel had broken her trust as well. But when Noori said that she ‘didn’t mean to,’ Grace thought there was something odd about her statement. She’d said the same thing at the birthday party when Grace discovered that Daniel was her secret boyfriend. She demanded to know what Noori meant by it.

During Wild Cherry’s ending, Noori confessed that at K Rizz’s party she’d discovered that Iris had already found out about Daniel, and she felt the desperate need to protect him. She’d realized that Iris was under the assumption that Daniel was Grace’s boyfriend, and she intended on telling Grace the truth because she wanted to protect her friend. Noori had followed Iris into the woods, but she refused to tell Grace what she did after that. Presumably, Noori had struck Iris in the head and attempted to drown her body in the lake. She stole Iris’ phone and snuck it into Grace’s bag, who had later passed it on to Juliet. Noori was the killer, and while Grace had figured out the truth, she didn’t know what to do. The cops believed Daniel was the culprit, and Grace perhaps didn’t even have enough evidence to prove that Noori was the murderer. Also, it was easier to blame an older man than accept that her friend had killed the girl she loved, just because she was madly in love and wanted to protect a pedophile. The truth was discomforting, and the ending of Wild Cherry reveals that Grace chose not to do anything about it. Noori’s mother, Maryam, knew her daughter’s secret and chose to protect her. She got rid of any evidence that could tie her with Daniel. It was evident why, after Iris’ body was discovered, Maryam had insisted her daughter tell the cops about the app and the threat video that Grace and Allegra had recorded for Iris. They wanted to pin the blame on Grace and Allegra because they feared that if the cops found out about Daniel and interrogated him, he would end up revealing Noori’s connection to the whole thing, and they would eventually figure out the truth. No one in Richmond cared about right and wrong; they simply wanted to protect their image and move past this haunting incident. Also, just like Juliet and Lorna, Maryam did what was best for her daughter, even if it meant covering up her crimes. 

What does the future have in store for the girls?

In Wild Cherry’s ending, we discover that Jacob didn’t leave Richmond; instead, Gigi introduced him to her husband as her brother, Kyle, who had come from the US. Since Jacob had already found out about her secret and gotten too involved in her life, she perhaps thought it was best to keep him handy. Freddie looked a little suspicious of Kyle (Jacob), but considering he is enchanted by his young fiancee, he might just overlook all the red flags. Will Jacob and Gigi get rid of Freddie eventually, once the legalities and financial prospects are sorted out? Considering they were criminals, it’s not too far-fetched to assume so. Juliet had decided to separate from Raef; she’d realized that he was nothing but an embarrassment to her family, and she didn’t have to spend the rest of her life in search of his approval. Juliet’s relationship with Allegra drastically improved after the incident. She had realized that her mother would move mountains for her, something that no one else in the world would do for her. Lorna eventually told Grace who her birthfather was. It wasn’t an easy decision considering that she was deeply triggered at the sight of Jeremy Trevy, her ex-boss who’d paid her a hefty sum and broken off their relationship when he learned that she was pregnant. We don’t know if Grace will choose to know her birthfather or if she will maintain a distance from him because of the way he’d once treated her mother. The girls, especially Grace, would struggle to get back to their regular lives. The burden of the truth would continue to wear her down, and perhaps one day, she might just decide to share it with someone. Noori clearly needed help, but her mother will likely not allow her to consult a therapist, fearing the secrets she might reveal to them. Gigi continues to hold an important weapon that she might just use some day if she needs to. While the dust has settled for now, there is no guarantee things will stay that way forever. 

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