When Lemons Give You Life

The perspective shifts to Lisa Barlow, Griff’s 51-year-old half-sister, who has recently been diagnosed with ADHD. Her home is in a state of chaos, and she struggles with daily tasks like finding her phone. After taking a call from the nursing home about a fundraiser, Lisa reflects on her disorganized life. She prepares to visit Griff, whom she believes has early-onset Alzheimer’s disease and no longer recognizes her.

At Sunny Glen, Lisa finds Griff scowling at Allison and gives him his favorite Anzac biscuits. She takes him down the hall to a musical performance by Frank, a tall, gentle guitarist. Lisa is immediately attracted to him, and the music seems to stir a rare emotional response in Griff. Afterward, Lisa has a pleasant conversation with Frank. She then helps another resident, Rob, who is agitated, by calming him with a story about his cat. His sister, Mabel, is immensely grateful. Back in Griff’s room, Lisa unsuccessfully tries to entertain him by playing the ukulele.

From Griff’s perspective, Lisa’s ukulele playing is agonizing, but he maintains his dementia facade. He thinks about how his diagnosis helped him to avoid the public shame of a lethal food-poisoning incident at his former restaurant, Lorraine (named after their mother). He believes telling Lisa the truth now would only cause more pain and destroy his legacy. 

After overhearing Allison upselling the nursing home, which doesn’t offer most of what it purports to, Griff details his secret life in the facility: He uses a hidden smartphone and a secret bank account to order items online, having them sent to the abandoned house next to the nursing home, then climbing out his window at night to retrieve them. He decides to sneak into the kitchen to bake a lemon tart as a last meal before following through with his plan to die by suicide.

In a flashback to December 2002, a 42-year-old Griff prepares to propose to his partner Beau during a beach picnic. He has hidden the engagement ring inside a homemade lemon tart. The romantic gesture goes awry when Beau bites into the tart and breaks a tooth instead of finding the ring. At the emergency dentist, Beau discovers the ring in the pastry container. Despite the mishap, Griff formally proposes, and Beau happily accepts.

Now, on December 31, 2024, Griff sneaks into the facility’s kitchen. Unable to find a rolling pin, he improvises by dismantling a broken walking frame and using its metal crossbar. The act of baking the lemon tart is deeply comforting and makes him feel in control for the first time in months. Just as he finishes and cuts a slice to eat as his last meal, he hears the kitchen door open.

Rob, a resident who has dementia, wanders into the kitchen, drawn by the aroma of the tart. He mistakes Griff for his deceased mother. Touched by Rob’s tears, Griff shares the tart. Eating it brings Rob immense joy, and he holds Griff’s hand, believing he is with his mother. The connection moves Griff, who decides to save the last slice to give to Rob the next day. He also postpones his plans to die. He takes Rob back to his room; remembering a time he refused to comfort a young Lisa and filled with regret, he sings Rob a lullaby.

In a flashback to 1973, a 13-year-old Griff meets his newborn half-sister, Lisa, and feels instantly protective. His abusive stepfather, Brent, taunts him and blames him for the family’s problems, including blaming him for his father’s death. Later, finding the kitchen empty, Griff cooks a tomato meat sauce with spaghetti, finding a sense of control and safety in the process. When Lisa’s crying interrupts his peace, he briefly wonders if Brent was right that she would make his life miserable.

After she goes to her dog-grooming job, Lisa visits Sunny Glen, where she gives Rob and Mabel the gifts she ordered: a soft pair of headphones for Mabel to help her unwind at night and a stuffed cat that purrs and looks like Rob’s former cat, Cottonmouth. When Griff refuses to attend Frank’s musical performance, Lisa brings another resident, Walter, pretending he is her brother. Her plan unravels when Allison brings the real Griff to her, forcing her to invent the term “grandbrother” to a confused Frank. Despite their chaotic introduction, Frank asks Lisa on a date, and she accepts.

Before she leaves, Lisa gives Griff a card from a former colleague that praises his culinary talent, stirring painful memories for Griff. Alone, he prepares again to end his life. He takes out his hoarded pills, a bottle of fine whiskey, and his will. He decides he will do it after he takes Rob his remaining piece of lemon tart. 

Griff puts on “Martin’s” chef whites, along with his mandated post-COVID face mask, and takes the tart down to Rob’s room. On the way, he sees another resident, Sylvia, who is always begging people to help her go home to Rome. He makes her a cup of tea and continues down the hallway. There, he meets Rob’s sister Mabel, and they share the tart. She exclaims about how it tastes like their mother’s. Although he feels good about helping Rob, the talk of family makes him sad, and he returns to his room alone.

In a 1974 flashback, Griff is 14. His stepfather, Brent, becomes enraged that Griff’s mother, Lorraine, bought Griff a coriander plant for his herb garden instead of saving for a TV. Brent slaps Lorraine in front of a terrified Lisa, who stands clutching her stuffed bear. To protect his sister, Griff hides with her under his bed and soothes her sobs by whispering their mother’s Anzac biscuit recipe. He resolves that Lisa will never witness such violence again.

Continuing his preparations, Griff takes his hoarded pills from Beau’s urn. He reflects on his late husband’s life and writes a final, secret-filled letter to Beau, hiding it inside Beau’s broken viola. He retrieves the whiskey he and Beau had been saving for their 30th anniversary. As he puts the pills in his mouth, the action triggers a memory of how he and Beau first met.

In a flashback to 2001, Griff is the head chef of a prestigious restaurant. His estranged sister, Lisa, is there for a work dinner. When a young waiter spills champagne on a man at Lisa’s table, the man is remarkably kind and reassuring. Lisa criticizes Griff for his harsh management style. 

Later, Griff finds the young waiter crying in the bathroom, worried about paying for the expensive bottle. Griff secretly gives him $200. As he leaves, he glimpses the man stepping out of the far stall; their eyes meet, and the man gives Griff a small nod of acknowledgment before Griff is called back to the kitchen.

In the present, another resident, Gladys, who is blind, enters Griff’s room. With a mouthful of pills and whiskey, Griff is unable to speak as Gladys tells him she is looking for the “new chef.” She wants him to bake lenja pita, a traditional Serbian apple cake, for her husband Herb’s birthday. 

Griff is forced to spit out the pills and whiskey, splattering Gladys slightly. He lies that the chef is gone, but Gladys’s plea moves him, and he agrees to ask the “chef” for help. He then impulsively offers to let her cook with the chef. As she leaves, Gladys finds some of the pills stuck in her hair, takes them for the cereal she had for breakfast, and swallows three of them, leaving Griff horrified that he may have accidentally killed her.

Lisa and Frank have their first date at an Italian restaurant. Lisa confesses she brought Walter to the concert just to see Frank, who is charmed by her honesty. The date is comically disastrous: Lisa orders an extremely spicy dish, and Frank kindly swaps meals with her. Later, overcome with laughter after a prawn falls from his mouth, Frank spews wine out of his nose, sending them both into fits of laughter. 

They bond over stories about their families and the difficulties of caring for ailing parents. Lisa opens up about her fractured relationship with Griff and the loss of her parents. Frank offers to cook with her, a gesture of kindness she always craved from her brother.

A flashback to 1979 shows a six-year-old Lisa desperate to help Griff cook. He dismisses her, so she makes a chef hat and name tag to prove she is serious. Her father, Brent, comes home smelling of alcohol and sends Lisa against Griff before heading upstairs. Griff tries to keep Lisa away from their parents, who are having a loud, violent fight upstairs. After the shouting stops, Griff wordlessly brings Lisa a piece of pork crackling as a peace offering.

The next day, Griff confirms that Gladys survived the sleeping pills and wakes her late that night to cook. In the kitchen, using a fake posh accent, he pretends to be the “new chef.” Gladys is ecstatic to be cooking again, and the two bond over warm beer and shared stories of their late husbands.

After they finish the cake, Gladys reveals she knows his true identity—a carer found more pills stuck to her hair and identified them as sleeping pills, and Gladys connected the dots. She promises to keep his secret but asks him to be her “eyes” and watch her husband’s reaction to the cake. She tells Griff to cancel his other “plans,” insisting he is still wanted, which causes him to reconsider his decision to die.