Sky’s Sweetpea is a riveting tale of a doormat trying to find their “rawr.” For anyone who has watched the show, you know exactly what I mean. But for the uninitiated, Sweetpea tells the story of Rhiannon, a self-conscious 20-something-year-old whose life completely changes after her father passes away. It’s fantastic to see a twisted female protagonist who can actually carry the thriller genre with full force and not feel like a cardboard character born from egotistical male vengeance but gender-reversed. What I mean is that Rhiannon’s story feels genuine despite its unrealistic gore, because her character development is something anyone might relate to. This is not to say we’re all going to turn into psychopathic killers, but what I mean to say is that once you’re in the cycle of darkness, i.e., of being treated as invisible because you’re bullied into believing you’re a crap person, then it’s generally impossible to get out of it. But hey, this is a satirical thriller that’s got some good comedy, and it’s definitely worth your time. So, with that said, I’ll get straight into the Rhiannon story.
Spoiler Alert
Why Does Rhiannon Kill Her First Victim?
Rhiannon’s “glow up” begins a little while after her dad passes. Rhiannon’s been an invisible wallflower ever since she was a teenager. Back then, the popular girl in school, Julia, bullied her to the point she was pulling out her own hair when she was stressed and anxious. I suppose this obsessive behavior alone could be a sign of what’s to come next, but we’ll get to that in a bit. Anyway, Rhiannon wants a promotion at work too. She works at The Gazette, a local paper, but as a sort of assistant/receptionist. Rhiannon wants desperately to become a junior writer, but her boss, Norman, is one of the people who treats her the worst. You can imagine being made to feel like you’re worthless every single day at work isn’t the best feeling. To add to that, Norman brings in a nepo-baby named AJ as a junior writer rather than listening to a word she has to say.
When Rhiannon’s father dies, she starts to become even more stressed about her life as things keep piling up on her. Her sister decides she wants to sell their house and brings Julia on as the realtor to sell it. Her dog gets run over, and she starts to completely lose it in her grief. This is when she gets drunk and tries to confront Julia at a club. This doesn’t go anything like she’d hoped, and she ends up leaving the club to go cry at a canal. At this time, a stranger comes up to the side of where she’s sitting and goes about his own business of drunkenly peeing by the canal. It gets all over Rhiannon, and the man doesn’t really bother with saying anything nice to her. Plus, considering how he didn’t see her and proceeded to pee where she was, he literally makes her feel invisible. This frustrates Rhiannon, and she ends up stabbing the man 14 times till he dies and then dumping him in the canal. Now, this man may have been a stranger, but it’s all of Rhiannon’s frustration boiling up to a point of no return, and so she ends up feeling relieved after killing him, beginning the moment she decides to show everybody what she’s really made of.
How Does Rhiannon Become a Junior Writer?
Rhiannon uses the information she has about the guy she murdered herself and uses it at work. She tells Norman that she can do a great story about the guy, but Norman sends AJ with her because, you know, he thinks she’s incapable of anything solid. Rhiannon learns that the man, Ryan, had a restraining order against him and realizes she’s done good for the world (got rid of one bully, now for her next target). Rhiannon comes up with a fantastic story, but her colleague Jeff ends up writing it, which means she doesn’t get her name on the front page. This makes her angry, but at least Norman sees her now and even invites her to karaoke night with the lads. There she meets Craig, somebody who worked with her dad and now wants to take over his company. Rhiannon’s got a huge crush on Craig, but all he really cares about is work.
Now, you know how you get a pregnancy glow? Rhiannon has a murder glow in the same way. She sings “Roar” at karaoke and then notices a man being prick at the bar. This happens to be the same man who was troubling the nurse on the day her dad passed away. Maybe if she’d been able to grab the nurse’s attention on time, her dad might’ve still been alive. This man becomes her next target, and this time Rhiannon’s well prepared. Rhiannon makes her kill with the same lock knife she carries around with her all the time. This knife belonged to her dad. I guess she kept it for his memory’s sake, but she ends up using it for the craziest things, as you can imagine. Anyway, on the other hand, Rhiannon decides to make her move on Craig and asks him to dinner under the pretense of going through the agreement. They end up sleeping together, and Rhiannon proves that she’s actually a likable person.However, the next day, when she decides to surprise Craig, she ends up seeing Julia there discussing the renovation of her dad’s house. Now, since Rhiannon has killed a couple of people, she’s already made plans to kill Julia too, but she wants to do something confrontational, so as you can imagine, she watches a bunch of movies and such to figure out how to make it happen. So, despite having kept her plans for Julia aside to enjoy some time with Craig, she decided to get on with it on the same night.
Why Does Rhiannon Not Kill Julia?
From Sweetpea episode 4, the story turns a little bit. Like, we don’t need “sweetpea” to turn into a serial killer just yet. Anyway, with Julia kidnapped, Rhiannon decides to use her missing person’s case to become a coveted junior writer. Her plan works, and Rhiannon’s piece does numbers, making everyone happy, especially Norman. However, back at home, Julia’s trying her best to get out of Rhiannon’s basement. Rhiannon struggles to kill her immediately; this is because she wants to know why exactly Julia hurt her as much as she did. Julia doesn’t really have an answer for this; she just hated herself, so she decided to make Rhiannon hate herself instead to feel better.
A few days into it, things get out of hand when AJ tries to visit while Rhiannon’s feeding Julia, and she accidentally drops a plate, making it seem like she was trying to get help. Rhiannon smacks Julia in the head to make her realize how serious she is about killing her. This is when Julia gets her period and has a complete breakdown. Julia tells Rhiannon that Marcus is a monster, and he abuses her. She also tells her that she knows she deserves this treatment because she’s a horrible person. This completely changes Rhiannon’s perspective because now Julia’s a victim of bullying too. This gives Rhiannon her ideal next target, Julia’s fiance, Marcus. However, when she’s about to kill Marcus, her colleague Jeff sees her, and she chases after him on his bike until he gets run over by a bus (whoops).
Who is Marina?
Every episode of Sweetpea begins with the words “people I’d like to kill.” In one of the episodes, it’s not the people Rhiannon wants to kill, but people Marina wants to kill. Marina is the police officer version of Rhiannon. This means that she’s just as invisible, but she doesn’t actually want to go and murder people; instead, she wants to catch the bad guys to work off her own frustration. Marina’s story is quite sad; she’s a great police officer, very observant, and knows exactly what she’s doing, but her boss thinks she’s not good enough, and that she’s just going by hunches. Marina is on to Rhiannon quite soon after she questions her as a witness, but she’s got no proof. With Julia missing, Marina has a story to put together, but seeing as she’s a wallflower, her boss tells her to shut up and do what she’s told (yikes).
What Happens to Marcus?
Now, since things are getting a bit crazy for Rhiannon and Julia, and the former knows that the latter is being abused, she decides to use Marcus as a scapegoat to escape prison. She plans on blaming Marcus for the murders and Julia’s kidnapping with both of the ladies as witnesses. Rhiannon gets Marcus to come to the house he’s building for Julia and him together. She ties Julia down there and convinces her that this will be the best way for both of them to be free for good. The plan works for a bit as Marcus shows up, but he starts to choke Julia because he thinks the man who has kidnapped her tried to have sex with her. He then threatens to jump off a barricade in the house, and Julia tells him she’ll take him back and that she loves him. This makes Rhiannon angry, and she pushes Marcus to his death.
Does Rhiannon Face Consequences For What She’s Done?
AJ has liked Rhiannon since even before she became “visible” to everybody else. She seems to like him too, but only as a friend at first. However, with time passing, they get closer, and she starts to see his appeal (despite him having stolen her job). Julia and Rhiannon both tell the same story to the police when they get questioned about Marcus, and Rhiannon’s already planted the knife on him and even got him to touch it, so everything is sorted for her. When they get out, AJ meets Rhiannon and expresses his relief at seeing her being okay. Rhiannon then realizes how much she likes him and decides to break up with Craig, who blackmails her into signing the agreement. This is after they’ve spent a night together with Julia as actual friends. That same night Marina shows up to Rhiannon’s house and breaks in to find CCTV footage of Rhiannon slashing Julia’s tires, somewhat proving her theory.
After that wonderful night though, Julia goes missing with Rhiannon’s card, which she used to buy drugs at the party because Marcus had frozen her cards. Rhiannon doesn’t seem too worried, but the woman does end up using her card for something. She’s then distracted by AJ visiting her and forgets all about Julia. AJ and Rhiannon have sex, and everything seems to be peachy until the next morning, when AJ tells Rhiannon that he’s got a new source within the police, and they’ve just sent him a picture of the murder weapon. Rhiannon has a look at it and says the same thing AJ had said when he first saw her knife. AJ immediately realizes that she’s the murderer because that is her knife.
At the end of Sweetpea, AJ freaks out, and Rhiannon tries her best to calm him down. It doesn’t work, and AJ ends up calling her a monster, which leads her to get angry. She grabs the knife lying on the kitchen table and ends up stabbing AJ, seemingly the love of her life. It’s too late when she’s realized what she’s done, and she tries to hold on to him, telling him it’ll all be okay, and this is when the front door opens and her sister Seren shows up. The episode ends with Rhiannon having nowhere to go with the body and possibly having to murder her sister.
