History Recap / CreepshowS3E1Mums

As the two reach the front door, Hank, accompanied by his associates Beth and Connor (Malone Thomas and Lowrey Brown), blocks their path, revealing that the trip was a ruse for Bloom to take Jack and escape from his "terrorist" father. In the resulting struggle, Bloom's suitcase opens, revealing a money clip and a bottle of whiskey inside. Despite the fact that Bloom claims he planted the items, Hank forces her into the truck and vows to take her to the police, boasting that his status as a former Marine will give the cops incentive to believe him than Bloom. Before she is driven away, Bloom yells to Beth to take care of Jack. Once Jack is ushered inside the house, Beth attempts to calm the boy down, mentioning that his parents' cycle of abuse has basically become routine at this point. Jack, on the other hand, laments that the cycle will never end, and blames himself being too scared to do something to stop his mom from being taken away.

* AmbiguouslyHuman: Given the hints that Bloom drops about how Meemaw is older than the trees themselves, the fact that she was carrying an unknown packet of seeds to take with her to her house, and the reveal that she herself merges with the seeds to become a monstorous PlantPerson, it's hinted that Bloom and her family may be something more than nature-loving hippies.

* BewareTheNiceOnes: In spite of his aggresive parents, Jack is gentle and considerate for most of the episode. After learning that Beth, who had spent all the time since Bloom was killed bonding with him, was actually the very person who set up his mother's murder in the first place, he quickly assaults her with a shovel and gives the body to his reanimated mother, then does the same to Hank and Connor afterwards, proving that he's got just enough of his father in him to stand up for himself.

* BittersweetEnding: Jack loses his mother, but he does get her back via reanimation and combination with her garden. With his mother's help, he also manages to stop Hank and Connor before they could carry out their planned attack on that government building, and ends the story by finally travelling to his mee-maw's house, eager to move in with her.

* {{Gaslighting}}: Hank and Beth continously do this to Jack regarding where his mother went, hoping to throw him off their trail.

* MonsterIsAMommy: Bloom was already a happy(ish) mother before she died. When she becomes merged with her garden, she initially was given the mindset of a hungry beast. When she discovers that she's the blood she's feeding on is Jack's, she regains her humanity and frees his injured hand, then gives him a kiss and tells him what truly happened on the night she was taken from him.

* TraumaButton: Upon discovering the mysterious flowers for the first time and finding out that they remind him of his mom, Jack experience a traumatic flashback to the moment she was taken from him, as well as his failure to intervene in the situation.

* TheWoobie: Bloom and Jack, who have to deal with being related to the abusive extremist Hank. They thankfully get revenge on the guy in the end.

!!Mums

* MeaningfulName: Jack's mom Bloom loves gardening, and when she is killed, she merges with her garden "blooms" into a sort of monstrous plant hybrid.

** Hank and Connor are seen drinking bottles of [[Recap/CreepshowS1E6GrayMatter Harrows Supreme]] while discussing their plan of attack on the government building.

* AmbiguousSituation: Regarding the flowers Jack takes with him on his drive, are they actually his mother's reanimated body? Or just a souvenir she left him to remember her by

On an isolated farm in the heart of Kansas, gentle country boy Jack (Brayden Benson) lives a relatively simple life. The only major downside to Jack's life is the fact that his parents are constantly feuding with one another due to their conflicting lifestyles. While slopping the pigs, Jack witnesses yet another argument between his peaceful, garden-loving, recovering alcoholic mom Bloom (Erin Beute), and his gun-toting, Confederate extremist dad Hank (Creator/EthanEmbry), watching as the latter loads his truck with assault weapons and drives off. Later that morning, Bloom invites Jack to travel with her to meet his "mee-maw", claiming that she is about to turn 100. Bloom also seems to be in a suspicious rush to leave, telling Jack that she's already packed for the both of them and urging him to get out of the house. She also addresses her son's concerns about her precious garden by telling him that "Mother Earth has a way of taking care of her own kind".

Later that night, Hank is revealed to have killed Bloom during the drive to the police station, planning to tell Jack that there was a struggle, and Bloom died by jumping out of the truck and hitting the street at high speed. He and Connor proceed to bury Bloom's corpse out back, beneath the garden she would spend hours tending. Meanwhile, Jack finds a packet full of mysterious seeds that he believes his mom wanted to take to "Mee-maw's" house. He makes plans to plant the seeds in Bloom's garden, hoping to give his mother "something nice to come home to." As Beth reminisces on how she used to spend hours working in the garden with Bloom, Hank and Connor come inside the house. When Jack asks if Bloom is alright, Hank lies to his son that Bloom wanted to leave because she wanted to be free to drink and take her pills, mentioning that she would've chosen her addictions over her own son. He also tells Jack, not paying any attention to his sadness, that Bloom was taken to a halfway house after supposedly having a complete breakdown at the police station, and finishes his summation by telling Jack that his mother is getting the help she needs, then reminding him to stay strong and stand tall. While out in the garden, Jack pricks his finger on one of the seeds from the packet as he tries to plant them, with some of his blood dripping onto the soil. Beth witnesses this and offers to help Jack plant the seeds herself. Inside the house, Hank and Connor discuss their plans to blow up a nearby building that houses offices of several government agencies. It's during this time that Hank reveals that he is planning to have Jack read a manifesto entitled "The Pale Horse's Cookbook", in the hopes that the boy shares his father's separatist views.

Now knowing the entire story, Jack locates Beth and informs her that he "did something stupid", and needs her help to fix it. Being taken to the garden, Beth notices what appears to be a skeleton among the plants, whereupon Jack attacks her with a shovel. When Hank comes home, Jack begins to replay the ruse. When Hank approaches Bloom's garden, he sees Beth's corpse, animated roots embedded in her face. Jack then attacks Hank with the shovel, slicing his forehead open. As Hank reaches for his gun to kill Jack, the vines restrain his hands. Heads that resemble Bloom's proceed to sprout from underneath the soil as Bloom's main body recognizes her killer. She transforms her head into a gaping maw, which clamps onto Hank's face and pulls him into her grave, devouring him alive. Jack then enters the house and calls Connor, telling him that Hank urgently needs to meet with him, thereby subsequently tricking him into getting eaten as well. The next day, Jack takes Hank's truck and drives away from the farm to visit his "mee-maw", taking Bloom's luggage and some of the mutated flowers (which may or may not Bloom herself) with him.

* AbusiveParents: Hank, big time. Everything he does to his family is mentioned below.
* ActorAllusion: Creator/EthanEmbry once again plays an abusive, survivalist husband, having previously done so in the ''Series/MastersOfHorror'' episode [[Recap/MastersOfHorrorS1E1IncidentOnAndOffAMountainRoad ''Incident On and Off a Mountain Road'']].
* AndTheAdventureContinues: Jack ends the story taking Hank's truck and his mom (in the form of flowers) to his Meemaw's house, who may take him into her home and care for him.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: At first glance, Beth appears to be a friend of Bloom who acts as a mother figure towards Jack when she disappears, spending most of her screen time comforting and bonding with the kid. We later discover that she is actually the one who ratted Bloom out when she tried to take Jack away, because she's been having an affair with Hank, and was pretty much lying right to Jack's face about everything regarding his mother.
* BittersweetEnding: Jack loses his mother, but he does get her back via reanimation through her garden. He and the reanimated Bloom also manage to stop Hank and Connor before they could carry out their planned attack on the government building, becoming unintentional heroes.
* {{Bookends}}: The story begins and ends with Jack attempting to travel to his "mee-maw's" house. The only difference is that in the end, he succeeds.
* BotanicalAbomination: Bloom's reanimated corpse merges with the roots of her garden, combining them into a monstrous combination of plant and person. Thankfully, she's still a good individual despite her newfound appearance.
* BystanderSyndrome: Fearing his father's wrath, Jack is forced to watch as his mother is ripped away from him and subsequently murdered. He blames himself for not doing anything to stop Hank from doing so, and he mentions that this is far from the first time this scenario has happened.

** Hank and Connor are seen drinking bottles of [[Recap/CreepshowS1E6GrayMatter Harrows Supreme]] while discussing their plan of attack.

* CatapultNightmare: Jack has one after discovering the seeds for the first time, where his bed turns into a plot of soil that houses an undead version of Bloom, who emits an unearthly screech and vomits more soil.
* DefiantToTheEnd: Hank's last words are profanity directed to his monstrous, reanimated wife, just before she eats him.
* DisposingOfABody: Hank and Connor bury Bloom's corpse in her garden, where she merges with her plants and returns to (semi-)life.
* TheDogBitesBack: Jack and the undead Bloom exact vengeance on the three people who were directly and indirectly responsible for the latter's death.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: While Connor was just as gung-ho as Hank was about blowing up the government building, he is very clearly shaken by Hank's senseless murder of his wife, telling Hank that things didn't have to go this way.
* FlatCharacter: Connor does not have as much of a personality as the other characters, mainly existing to serve as Hank's fellow Confederate accomplice.

* FlowerMotifs: Flower designs can be seen all over the inside of Jack's house.
* FlowerMouth: Bloom's head transforms into a gaping maw as she devours Hank.
* ForeShadowing: Beth, while reminiscing about how anyone can plant anything, mentions that someone can "plant evidence to throw someone off the track", which hints at her role in Hank's scheme.
* FoulFlower: The flowers that grow around Bloom's body have blood-red petals, hair growing between said petals, thorny stems, and skull-shaped pistils. While they look deadly, they're simply part of Jack's reanimated mother, who helps save the day.
* FrameUp: Hank plants a bottle of whiskey and a money clip inside his wife's luggage to make it seem like she's fallen off the wagon and robbed him, giving him an excuse to drag her to the police station.
* GardenOfEvil: As the plants merge with her dead body, Bloom's garden appears to transform into one. It's subverted later on, as she and the garden (having become one through the reanimation process) help Jack rid himself of his extremist father and his associates.
* HateSink: Hank, an abusive father, unfaithful husband, domestic terrorist, and all-around douchebag. He treats his wife like crap for being a "hippie-dippy tree-hugger", kills her when he hears that she was planning on running away with his son (he even made active threats to kill her before that if she warned the Feds about what he was up to), shamelessly lies to Jack about her whereabouts, and forcefully tries to indoctrinate the kid into his own racist, Confederate, extremist mindset, seeing him as a fellow soldier instead of a son. He and his friend Connor had also been plotting to blow up a local government building, and had it not been for Jack and the reanimated Bloom, they would have possibly succeeded.
* HippieParents: Bloom is strongly implied to come from a family of hippies. This is one of the reasons that Hank grows to resent her, since her peaceful nature clashes with his extremist ideals.
* HurricaneOfPuns: Beth and Jack trade a handful of plant-based puns as they plant the mysterious seeds in the garden:

* ImpliedDeathThreat: Inverted. Hank is noted to have made blatantly active threats to kill Bloom if she ever told the authorities about what he was up to.
* ManEatingPlant: Once she's transformed, Bloom initially needs to feed on human blood to survive. Later on, she's able to devour entire people.
* MeaningfulName: Jack's mom Bloom loves gardening, and when she is killed, she merges with her garden to become a sort of zombie/plant hybrid. Jack, similar to the classic fairy tale, indirectly causes the plants to grow and merge with Bloom's dead body.
* MiddleOfNowhereStreet: Hank's farm is far from civilization, presumably to keep the government out of his very illegal affairs.

* MonsterIsAMommy: Bloom was already a happyish mother before she died. When she becomes merged with her garden, she initially has the mindset of a hungry beast. When she discovers that she's feeding on Jack's blood, she regains her humanity and frees his injured hand, then tells him what truly happened on the night she was taken from him.

** The bottle of booze in Bloom's luggage is revealed to be a bottle of "[[Film/{{Creepshow}} Pappy Grantham's]] Straight Rye Whiskey", complete with a portrait of Nathan Grantham himself on the label. It's astonishingly appropriate because Nathan was mentioned to be a bootlegger in both the original film and its comic book adaptation.

* NatureIsNotNice: Once Bloom merges with and gains complete control of the garden, she uses the garden and herself to make quick work of her adulterous, murderous husband, as well as his lover and his associate.

* OffscreenTeleportation: In the opening scene, Hank is seen driving his truck away. When Bloom opens the door to leave with Jack, Hank suddenly appears right in her path.
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Bloom's dead body technically reanimates into a zombie, but the corpse is somehow merged with her garden. Instead of feasting on flesh or brains, she mainly feeds on blood, since it was what helped the strange seeds grow. She also seems to grow and expand whenever she devours someone, as heads that resemble her own sprout up from the soil when she apprehends Hank.
* ParentalIssues: Jack's parents have greatly conflicting lifestyles, and are always squabbling with one another. With a peaceful hippie for a mother and a gun-toting extremist for a father, it's a ''miracle'' that Jack himself turned out as well-adjusted as he did... at least until the ending.
* PlantPerson: Bloom's dead body mutates into a sort of zombie/plant hybrid when Jack's blood comes into contact with the strange seeds she stored.
* PunBasedTitle: "Mums" are a type of flower, and Jack's mother ends up becoming a plant herself.
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Jack's Meemaw, while stated to be turning 100, is hinted by Bloom to be older than TV, cars, horses, and even trees.
* RecoveredAddict: Bloom is a recovering alcoholic, having possibly taken up drinking because of her hubby's extremist mindset. When spying a (planted) bottle of whiskey in her luggage, this makes Hank believe she's relapsed. He even says that Bloom's alcoholism has given her "an arrest record and a history of mental illness", but of course, that could just be his lies.

* RuleOfThree: Jack feigns having done "something stupid" three separate times to lure Beth, Hank, and Connor to the house one by one.

** "The Pale Horse's Cookbook", the manifesto that Hank plans to have Jack read, is written by [[Film/TalesFromTheHood3 Denton Wilbury]], another racist survivalist.
** The concept of Jack and Hank cutting their hands on thorns and Plant/Zombie!Bloom feeding and growing on human blood may bring ''Film/LittleShopOfHorrors'' to mind, especially when her head transforms into a gaping, Audrey II-esque maw.
* SociopathicSoldier: Hank is said to have served in the Marines before he was married. He plans to brag about this to the cops, giving them a reason to believe him instead of Bloom.

* TraumaButton: The fact that the mysterious flowers remind him of his mom causes Jack to experience a traumatic flashback to the moment she was taken from him, as well as his failure to intervene.
* VineTentacles: Once transformed, Bloom is able to utilize roots and vines to grab whatever she can find in her vicinity.
* WhatDoesSheSeeInHim: For whatever reason, peaceful hippie Bloom fell in love with and married Hank, a proud Confederate terrorist. She brings it up during her confrontation with the man, admitting that their marriage was the worst mistake she ever made.
* WouldHurtAChild: When Jack attacks him with a shovel, the first thing Hank does is reach for his gun in an attempt to kill the kid. Thankfully, Bloom makes short work of him.

* BittersweetEnding: Jack loses his mother, but he does get her back in the form of a plant zombie. He and the reanimated Bloom also manage to stop Hank and Connor before they could carry out their planned attack on the government building, becoming unintentional heroes.
* BookEnds: The story begins and ends with Jack attempting to travel to his "mee-maw's" house. The only difference is that in the end, he succeeds.

* TheDogBitesBack: Jack and the undead Bloom exact vengeance on the three people who directly and indirectly responsible for the latter's death.

* HateSink: Hank, an abusive father, unfaithful husband, domestic terrorist, and all-around douchebag. He treats his wife like crap for being a "hippie-dippy tree-hugger", kills her when he hears that she was planning on running away with his son (he also made active threats to kill her before that if she warned the Feds what he was up to), shamelessly lies to Jack about her whereabouts, and forcefully tries to indoctrinate him into his own racist, Confederate, extremist mindset, seeing him as a fellow soldier instead of a son. He and his friend Connor had also been plotting to blow up a local government building, and had it not been for Jack and the reanimated Bloom, they would have possibly succeeded.
* HippieParents: Bloom is strongly implied to come from a family of hippies. It's one of the reasons that Hank grows to resent her, since her peaceful nature clashes with his extremist ideals.

* TheMole: Beth, who spends much of her time bonding with Jack, is revealed to be Hank's lover, and therefore was the one who tipped him off about Bloom's plan to run off with him.

* NatureLover: Befitting her hippie nature, Bloom expresses love for all over Mother Earth's beloved plants, especially those in her garden.

* ParentalIssues: Jack's parents have greatly conflicting lifestyles, and are always squabbling with one another. With a peaceful hippie for a mother and a gun-toting extremist for a father, it's a ''miracle'' that the boy turned out as well-adjusted as he did... at least until the ending.

* RecoveredAddict: Bloom is a recovering alcoholic, having possibly taken up drinking because of her hubby's extremist mindset. When spying a (planted) bottle of whiskey in her luggage, this makes Hank believe she's relapsed.
* RightWingMilitiaFanatic: Hank and Connor are a pair of these, since they actively plan to blow up a government building.
* RuleOfThree: Jack feigns having done "something stupid" to lure Beth, Hank, and Connor to the house one by one.

* TraumaButton: Taking notice of the fact that the mysterious flowers remind him of his mom causes Jack to experience a traumatic flashback to the moment she was taken from him, as well as his failure to intervene.
* WhatDoesSheSeeInHim: For whatever reason, peaceful hippie Bloom fell in love with and married Hank, a proud secessionist terrorist. She brings it up during her confrontation with the man, admitting that their marriage was the worst mistake she ever made.

Kansas country boy Jack (Brayden Benson) lives a relatively simple life, apart from the fact that his parents are constantly feuding with one another due to their conflicting lifestyles. While feeding the pigs, Jack witnesses yet another argument between his peaceful, garden-loving, recovering alcoholic mom Bloom (Erin Beute) and his gun-toting, Confederate, neo-Nazi, extremist dad Hank (Creator/EthanEmbry), watching as the latter packs his truck with assault weapons and drives away. Later, Bloom invites Jack to travel with her to meet his "mee-maw", claiming that she is about to turn 100. Bloom also seems to be in a rush to leave, telling Jack that she's already packed for the both of them and urging him to get out of the house.

As the two reach the front door, Hank, accompanied by Beth (Malone Thomas) and Connor (Lowrey Brown), blocks their path, revealing that the trip was a ruse for Bloom to take Jack away from his "terrorist" father. In a struggle, Bloom's suitcase opens, revealing a money clip and a bottle of whiskey inside. Despite the fact that Bloom claims he planted the items inside, Hank forces her into the truck, vowing to take her to the police, boasting that his status as a former Marine will give the cops more incentive to believe him than Bloom. Before she is driven away, Bloom tells Beth to care for Jack. Once inside the house, Beth attempts to calm Jack down, mentioning that this cycle of abuse has become routine at this point. Jack, on the other hand, laments that the cycle will never end, and blames himself for doing nothing to stop his mom from being taken away.

Later that night, Hank is revealed to have killed Bloom while on the road, planning to tell Jack that there was a struggle and Bloom died by jumping out of the car at high speed. He and Connor proceed to bury her out back, beneath the garden she would often tend. Meanwhile, Jack finds a strange packet of seeds that he believes his mom wanted to take to "Mee-maw's" house and plans to plant them in the garden, hoping to give Bloom "something nice to come home to." As Beth reminisces on how she loved to work in the garden with Bloom, Hank and Connor come inside the house. Hank proceeds to lie to his son that Bloom wanted to leave because she wanted to be free to drink and ingest her pills, mentioning that she would've chosen her vices over her own son. He also tells him that Bloom was taken to rehab after supposedly having a breakdown at the police station, but also tells him to stay strong and stand tall, not paying any attention to his sadness. While out in the garden, Jack cuts his finger on one of the seeds from the packet when trying to plant them, with some blood dripping onto the soil. Inside, Hank and Connor discuss their plans to blow up a nearby government building, while also planning to have Jack read a manifesto entitled "The Pale Horse's Cookbook" to gain his father's separatist views.

That night, the seeds begin to take root and sprout. The next day, Jack discovers that the garden has grown exponentially, and notices that peculiar flowers have bloomed. Noting that the flowers have pistils in the shape of skulls and hair growing between their petals, Jack discovers that they remind him of his mom, which triggers an emotional flashback of the day she was taken from him. With his mind clouded by the trauma, Jack proceeds to grab and squeeze one of the flowers' thorny stems, his blood pouring onto the soil. A tearful Beth approaches Jack and claims that Bloom loved her too, and vows that she'll be back soon. Later, on the night before the planned bombing, Hank, Connor, and Beth discuss their strategy. It is also revealed that Beth was the one who told Hank that Bloom was planning to take Jack away, since she has been having an affair with him. Jack, witnessing Beth's betrayal, retreats to the backyard in sorrow. Suddenly, he hears the agonized squeal of a pig, prompting him to discover one of them is restricted in animated vines. When he frees the pig, the vines grab his injured hand. The source of the vines is revealed to be Bloom, her dead body having merged with plant DNA and mutating into a zombie/plant hybrid. Bloom squeezes Jack's injured hand to feed on his blood, but upon recognizing him, she releases him, kisses him, and whispers in his ear about what actually happened to her.

Now knowing the entire story, Jack locates Beth and informs her that he "did something stupid", taking her to the garden. When she notices what appears to be a skeleton among the plants, Jack attacks her with a shovel. When Hank comes home, Jack begins to play the same ruse he played on Beth. When Hank approaches the garden, he sees Beth's corpse, partially eaten and animated roots embedded in her face. Jack then attacks Hank with the shovel, slicing his forehead open. When Hank reaches for his gun, the vines restrain his hands. As heads that resemble Bloom's sprout from underneath the soil, the main Bloom recognizes her killer and transforms her head into a gaping maw, proceeding to devour Hank. Jack then enters the house and calls Connor, telling him to hurry over, and subsequently tricking him into getting eaten as well. The next day, Jack leaves the farm with Hank's truck, planning to visit his "mee-maw", taking some of the mutated flowers (which may or may not be Bloom) with him.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Beth seems to be a friend of Bloom who acts as a mother figure towards Jack when she disappears, spending most of her screen time comforting and bonding with the kid. We later discover that she is the one who ratted Bloom out when she tried to take Jack away, because she having an affair with Hank, and was pretty much shamelessly lying to his face regarding his mother.
* BittersweetEnding: Jack loses his mother, but he does get her back, in the form of a plant zombie. He and the reanimated Bloom also manage to stop Hank and Connor before they could carry out their planned attack on the government building, becoming unintentional heroes.

* BystanderSyndrome: A tragic variation. Jack is forced to watch as his mother is ripped away from him and subsequently murdered. He blames himself for not doing anything to stop Hank from doing so, and he mentions that this is far from the first time this scenario has happened.

* CatapultNightmare: Jack has one after discovering the seeds for the first time, where he is approached by an undead version of Bloom who emits an unearthly screech and vomits soil.
* DefiantToTheEnd: Hank's last words are profanity directed to his monstrous wife, just before she eats him.
* TheDogBitesBack: Jack and the undead Bloom exact vengeance on the three people who directly and indirectly abused and killed them, respectively.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: While Connor was just as gung-ho as Hank was about blowing up the government building, he is very clearly shaken up about Bloom's murder, telling Hank that it didn't have to go this way.

* HateSink: Hank, an abusive father, unfaithful husband, domestic terrorist, and all-around douchebag. He treats his wife like crap for being a "hippie-dippy tree-hugger", kills her when it's discovered that she was planning on running away with his son, shamelessly lying to Jack about her whereabouts, and forcefully tries to indoctrinate him into his own racist, Confederate, extremist mindset, seeing him as a soldier instead of a son. He and his friend Connor had also been plotting to blow up a government building, and had it not been for Jack and the reanimated Bloom, they would have possibly succeeded.
* HippieParents: Bloom is strongly implied to come from a commune of plant-loving hippies. It's one of the reasons that Hank grows to resent her, since her peaceful nature clashes with his extremist ideals.

* MeaningfulName: Jack's mom Bloom loves gardening, and when she is killed, she is reborn into a zombie/plant hybrid. Jack, similar to the classic fairy tale, indirectly causes the plants to grow.
* MythologyGag: The bottle of booze in Bloom's luggage is revealed to be a bottle of "[[Film/{{Creepshow}} Pappy Grantham's]] Straight Rye Whiskey", complete with a portrait of Nathan Grantham himself on the label. It's astonishingly appropriate because Nathan was mentioned to be a bootlegger in both the original film and its comic book adaptation.
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Bloom does reanimate into a zombie, but her corpse is somehow merged with plant DNA. Instead of feasting on flesh or brains, she mainly feeds on blood, since it was what helped the strange seeds grow. She also seems to grow herself whenever she devours someone, as heads that resemble her own sprout up from the soil when she apprehends Hank.

* RecoveredAddict: Bloom is a recovering alcoholic, probably because of putting up with Hank's extremist mindset. When spying a (planted) bottle of whiskey in her luggage, this makes Hank believe that she's relapsed.
* RightWingMilitiaFanatic: Hank and Connor are a pair of these, since they plan to blow up a government building.

* TraumaButton: Jack noticing that the mysterious flowers remind him of his mom triggers an emotional flashback to the moment she was taken from him, as well as his failure to intervene.

Later that night, Hank is revealed to have killed Bloom while on the road, planning to tell Jack that there was a struggle and Bloom died by jumping out of the car at high speed. He and Connor proceed to bury her out back, beneath the garden she would often tend. Meanwhile, Jack finds a strange packet of seeds that he believes his mom wanted to take to "Mee-maw's" house and plans to plant them in the garden, hoping to give Bloom "something nice to come home to." As Beth reminisces on how she loved to work in the garden with Bloom, Hank and Connor come inside the house. Hank proceeds to lie to his son that Bloom wanted to leave because she wanted to be free to drink and ingest her pills, mentioning that she would've chosen her vices over her own son. He also tells him that Bloom was taken to rehab after supposedly having a breakdown at the police station, but also tells him to stay strong and stand tall, not paying any attention to his sadness. While out in the garden, Jack cuts his finger on one of the seeds from the packet when trying to plant them, with some blood dripping onto the soil. Inside, Hank and Connor discuss their plans to blow up a nearby government building, while also planning to have Jack read a manifesto entitled "The Pale Horseman's Cookbook" to gain his father's separatist views.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Beth appears to be a friend of Bloom who acts as a mother figure towards Jack when she disappears, spending most of her screen time comforting and bonding with the kid. We later discover that not only having is she having an affair with Hank, but is also the one who ratted Bloom out when she tried to take Jack away.
* BittersweetEnding: Jack loses his mother, but he does get her back, in a way. He and the reanimated Bloom also manage to stop Hank and Connor before they could carry out their planned attack on the government building, becoming unintentional heroes.

* BystanderSyndrome: A tragic variation. Jack is forced to watch as his mother is ripped away from him and subsequently murdered. He blames himself for not doing anything to stop Hank from doing so, and he mentions that this isn't the first time things have gone this way either.
* CatapultNightmare: Jack has one after discovering the seeds for the first time, in which he is approached by an undead version of Bloom who emits an unearthly screech and vomits soil.
* DefiantToTheEnd: Hank's last words are profanity directed to his wife, just before she eats him.

* HateSink: Hank, an abusive father, unfaithful husband, domestic terrorist, and all-around douchebag. He treats his wife like crap for being a "hippie-dippy tree-hugger", kills her when it's discovered that she was planning on running away with his son, and forcefully tries to indoctrinate Jack into his own racist, Confederate, extremist mindset. He and his friend Connor had also been plotting to blow up a government building, and had it not been for Jack and the reanimated Bloom, they would have possibly succeeded.
* HippieParents: Bloom is strongly implied to come from a family of peace-loving, plant-loving hippies. It's one of the reasons that Hank grows to resent her, since her hippie nature clashes with his extremist ideals.

* MeaningfulName: Jack's mom Bloom loves gardening, and when she is killed, her corpse mutates into a zombie/plant hybrid. Jack, similar to the classic fairy tale, indirectly causes the mutated flowers to grow.

* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Bloom does reanimate into a zombie, but her corpse is somehow merged with plant DNA. Instead of feasting on flesh or brains, she mainly feeds on blood, since it was what helped the strange seeds grow. She also seems to grow herself whenever she devours someone, as heads that resemble her own sprout up from the soil.
* PlantPerson: Bloom's dead body mutates into a sort of zombie/plant hybrid when Jack's blood comes into contact with the strange seeds she stored away.
* RecoveredAddict: Bloom is a recovering alcoholic, probably because of Hank's extremist mindset. When spying a (planted) bottle of whiskey in her luggage, this makes Hank believe that she's relapsed.
* RightWingMilitiaFanatic: Hank and Connor are these, since they plan to blow up a government building.

** "The Pale Horse's Cookbook", the manifesto that Hank plans to have Jack read, is written by one [[Film/TalesFromTheHood3 Denton Wilbury]], another racist survivalist.
** The concept of Jack and Hank cutting their hands on thorns and Plant/Zombie!Bloom feeding on human blood may bring ''Film/LittleShopOfHorrors'' to mind, especially when her head transforms into a gaping, Audrey II-esque maw.

Kansas country boy Jack (Brayden Benson) lives a relatively simple life, apart from the fact that his parents are constantly feuding with one another due to their conflicting lifestyles. While feeding the pigs, Jack witnesses yet another argument between his peaceful, garden-loving, recovering alcoholic mom Bloom (Erin Beute) and his gun-toting, Confederate, neo-Nazi, extremist dad Hank (Creator/EthanEmbry), watching as the latter packs his truck with assault weapons and drives away. Later, Bloom invites Jack to travel with her to meet his "mee-maw", claiming that she is about to turn 100. Bloom also seems to be in a rush to leave, telling Jack that she's already packed for the both of them and urges him to get out of the house.

Kansas country boy Jack (Brayden Benson) lives a relatively simple life, apart from the fact that his parents are constantly feuding with one another due to their conflicting lifestyles. While feeding the pigs, Jack witnesses yet another argument between his peaceful, garden-loving, recovering alcoholic mom Bloom (Erin Beute) and his gun-toting, Confederate, neo-Nazi, extremist dad Hank (Creator/EthanEmbry), watching as the latter packs his truck with assault weapons and drives away. Later, Bloom invites Jack to travel with her to meet his "mee-maw", claiming that she is about to turn 100. Bloom also seems to be in a rush to leave, telling Jack that she's already packed for the both of them and rushes him out of the house.

Kansas country boy Jack (Brayden Benson) lives a relatively simple life, apart from the fact that his parents are constantly feuding with one another due to their conflicting lifestyles. While feeding the pigs, Jack witnesses yet another argument between his peaceful, garden-loving, recovering alcoholic mom Bloom (Erin Beute) and his gun-toting, Confederate, neo-Nazi extremist dad Hank (Creator/EthanEmbry), watching as the latter packs his truck with assault weapons and drives away. Later, Bloom invites Jack to travel with her to meet his "mee-maw", claiming that she is about to turn 100. Bloom also seems to be in a rush to leave, telling Jack that she's already packed for the both of them and rushes him out of the house.

Kansas country boy Jack (Brayden Benson) lives a relatively simple life, apart from the fact that his parents are constantly feuding with one another due to their conflicting lifestyles. While feeding the pigs, Jack witnesses yet another argument between his peaceful, garden-loving, recovering alcoholic mom Bloom (Erin Beute) and his gun-toting, Confederate extremist dad Hank (Creator/EthanEmbry), watching as the latter packs his truck with assault weapons and drives away. Later, Bloom invites Jack to travel with her to meet his "mee-maw", claiming that she is about to turn 100. Bloom also seems to be in a rush to leave, telling Jack that she's already packed for the both of them and urges him to hurry as well.

Later that night, Hank and Connor are revealed to have killed Bloom while on the road, with Hank planning to tell Jack that there was a struggle and she jumped out of the car at high speed to her death. They bury her out back, beneath the garden she would often tend. Meanwhile, Jack finds a strange packet of seeds that he believes his mom wanted to take to "Mee-maw's" house and plans to plant them in the garden, hoping to give Bloom "something nice to come home to." As Beth reminisces on how she loved to work in the garden with Bloom, Hank and Connor come inside. Hank proceeds to lie to his son that Bloom wanted to leave because she wanted to be free to drink, mentioning that she would've chosen her vices over her son. He also tells him that Bloom was taken to rehab after supposedly having a breakdown at the police station, but also tells him to stay strong and stand tall. While out in the garden, Jack cuts his finger on one of the seeds from the packet when trying to plant them, with some blood dripping onto the soil. Inside, Hank and Connor discuss their plans to blow up a nearby government building, while also planning to have Jack read a manifesto entitled "The Pale Horseman's Cookbook" to gain his father's separatist views.

The next day, Jack discovers that the garden has grown exponentially, and notices that peculiar flowers have bloomed overnight. Noting that the flowers have pistils in the shape of skulls and hair growing between their petals, Jack mentions that they remind him of his mom, which triggers an emotional flashback of the day she was taken from him. With his mind clouded by the trauma, Jack proceeds to grab and squeeze one of the flowers' thorny stems, bleeding onto the soil. A tearful Beth approaches Jack and claims that Bloom loved her too, and vows that she'll be back soon. Later, on the night before the planned bombing, Hank, Connor, and Beth discuss their strategy. It is also revealed that Beth has been in league with Hank and Connor the whole time and was the one who told the former that Bloom was planning to take Jack away, since she has been having an affair with him. Jack, overhearing this, retreats to the backyard in sorrow. Suddenly, he hears the agonized squeal of a pig, prompting him to discover one of them is restricted in animated vines. When he frees the pig, the vines grab his injured hand. The source of the vines is revealed to be Bloom, her dead body having merged with plant DNA and has since reanimated/mutated into a zombie/plant hybrid. Bloom squeezes Jack's injured hand to feed on his blood, but upon recognizing him, she releases him, kisses him, and whispers in his ear about what actually happened to her.

Now knowing the entire story, Jack locates Beth and informs her that he "did something stupid", taking her to the garden. When she notices what appears to be a skeleton among the plants, Jack attacks her with a shovel. When Hank comes home, Jack begins to play the same ruse he played on Beth. When Hank approaches the garden, he sees Beth's corpse, partially eaten and vines embedded in her face. Jack then attacks him with the shovel, slicing his forehead open. When Hank reaches for his gun, the vines restrain his hands. As heads that resemble Bloom's sprout from underneath the soil, the main Bloom recognizes her killer and transforms her head into a gaping maw, devouring Hank. Jack then enters the house and calls Connor, telling him to hurry over, and subsequently tricking him into getting eaten as well. The next day, Jack leaves the farm with Hank's truck, planning to visit his "mee-maw", taking some of the mutated flowers (which may or may not be Bloom) with him.

* AbusiveParents: Hank, big time.

* BystanderSyndrome: Jack is forced to do nothing but watch as his mother is ripped away from him and subsequently murdered. He tragically blames himself for not doing anything to stop Hank from doing so, and he mentions that this presumably isn't the first time things have gone this way.

* FrameUp: Hank plants a bottle of whiskey and a money clip inside his wife's luggage to make it seem like she's fallen off the wagon, giving him an excuse to drag her to the police station.
* HateSink: Hank, an abusive father, unfaithful husband, racist survivalist, domestic terrorist, and all-around douchebag. He treats his wife like crap for being a "hippie-dippy tree-hugger", kills her when it's discovered that she was planning on running away with his son, and forcefully tries to indoctrinate Jack into his own racist, Confederate mindset. He and his friend Connor had also been plotting to blow up a government building, and had it not been for Jack and the reanimated Bloom, they would have succeeded.

* MeaningfulName: Jack's mom Bloom loves gardening, and when she is killed, her corpse mutates into a plant hybrid. Jack, similar to the classic fairy tale, indirectly causes the mutated flowers to grow.
* MythologyGag: The bottle of booze in Bloom's luggage is revealed to be a bottle of "[[Film/{{Creepshow}} Pappy Grantham's]] Straight Rye Whiskey", complete with a portrait of Nathan Grantham himself on the label. It also works because Nathan was mentioned to be a bootlegger in both the original film and its comic book adaptation.
* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Bloom does reanimate into a zombie, but her corpse is somehow merged with plant DNA. Instead of feasting on flesh or brains, she mainly feeds on blood, since it was what helped the strange flowers grow. She also seems to grow herself whenever she devours someone, as heads that resemble her own sprout up from the soil.
* RightWingMilitiaFanatic: Hank and Connor are this, since they plan to blow up a government building.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Beth appears to be a friend of Bloom who acts as a mother figure towards Jack when she disappears, spending most of her screen time comforting and bonding with the kid. We later discover that she's not only having an affair with Hank, but is also the one who ratted Bloom out when she tried to take Jack away.

* BystanderSyndrome: Jack ultimately just watches as his mother is ripped away from him and subsequently murdered. He tragically blames himself for not doing anything to stop Hank from doing so.

* FlatCharacter: Connor does not have as much of a personality as the other characters, mainly existing to serve as Hank's accomplice.
* HateSink: Hank, an abusive father, unfaithful husband, separatist extremist, and all-around douchebag. He treats his wife like crap for being a "hippie-dippy tree-hugger", kills her when it's discovered that she was planning on running away with his son, and forcefully tries to indoctrinate Jack into his own racist, Confederate mindset. He and his friend Connor also plot to blow up a government building, and had it not been for Jack and the reanimated Bloom, they would have succeeded.
* HurricaneOfPuns: Beth and Jack spout out a handful of plant-based puns as they plant the mysterious seeds in the garden:

* OurZombiesAreDifferent: Bloom does reanimate into a zombie, but her corpse is somehow merged with plant DNA. Instead of feasting on flesh or brains, she mainly feeds on blood, since it was what helped the strange flowers grow.