Flowers in the Attic: The Origin Pt. 2 ending explained: Mal’s fate

Major spoilers ahead of Flowers in the Attic: The Origin Part 2

Flowers in the Attic: The Origin Part 2 introduced us to Olivia and Malcolm’s grown children after a time jump that skipped us past their childhood.

We’d seen glimpses of them in “Part 2: The Mother” with Mal and Joel playing outside with their mother and Alicia’s son, Christopher. And, of course, we’ll never be able to forget to circumstances of Corrine’s birth. The vivacious young woman remained unaware at the end of the episode that she and her brothers share only one biological parent, Malcolm.

Olivia is the mother who raised Corrine, but Alicia was the woman who gave birth to her after the horror she endured from Malcolm. Olivia’s complicity saw Alicia spending her pregnancy locked away from her child until she could give birth.

But, just because we skipped past the trio’s formative years, didn’t mean we weren’t made privy to the tension that’s thrummed through Foxworth Hall their entire lives. Malcolm still can’t stand his boys. And, while Joel seemed to stay clear of him, Mal was insistent upon getting his inheritance from his father.

His desperation for it was due to his impending nuptials with Helen, a young woman who also grew up in a wealthy household. Mal was even willing to stoop to blackmail, but it backfired on him as his father disclosed to Olivia himself that Nella’s daughter, Celia, is his child. Malcolm truly is despicable and the situation only worsened from there.

In capable of not traumatizing his children, Malcolm pressured Helen on her wedding day into bending to his will by informing her that he makes the rules in the Foxworth family. The point was to convince her into believing that if she really wanted Mal to get what he desires i.e. his trust fund early, then she needed to do what Malcolm says. That led to the two kissing which was the catalyst for Mal’s tragic accident.

How did Mal die on Flowers in the Attic: The Origin Part 2?

Flowers in the Attic: The Origin. (L to R) Luke Fetherston, Hannah Dodd and Buck Braithwaite star in Flowers in the Attic: The Origin.

It was poison that killed Mal, the same kind that nearly killed Malcolm. Remember, Corrine had gathered some plants from the poison garden and slipped some to her father. It was retaliation for keeping her a prisoner on the grounds after she’d gone to a party he’d forbidden her to go to, spent time with the boy she wasn’t supposed to be seeing, wound up pregnant, and had gotten an abortion.

Corrine had been angry and had grown tired of being kept from living her life. She wanted to see her friends so she thought she’d give her father enough poison to make him sick so she could sneak out. But, she ended up giving him too much and almost ended his life.

At 16, Corrine was frivolous, foolhardy, and naive. She was also reckless. Instead of getting rid of the poison she’d gathered, she kept it in a silver box in her room. That same box was the one she’d kept her weed in. It was familiar to Mal because she’d shared her joints with her brothers by the pond. That’s why he grabbed it after he caught Helen and Malcolm kissing.

Mal was looking to mentally escape from what he’d witnessed, and his sister’s stash was something that typically did that for him. Unfortunately, what he found in that box wasn’t weed. By the time he and Corrine were driving away in his car, Mal had been smoking the poisonous plant he’d found.

It was too late for his sister to do anything to help him. Mal crashed the car, and when the family reached him, he was already dead. His death was a tragic accident. In her grief, Olivia ceded control of the family back to Malcolm and then Alicia Foxworth showed up at the door which means we’re in for even more drama in Part 3 of this series.

Flowers in the Attic: The Origin Part 3 premieres Saturday, July 23 at 8 p.m. ET on Lifetime.