What actually happens
Two bodies and a town that already blames the new kid
Hemlock Grove, Pennsylvania, has extreme wealth and extreme poverty, and since the steel mill shut down its main employers are the Godfrey Institute for Biomedical Technologies and Hemlock Acres Hospital. Olivia Godfrey runs the Institute, which is rumored to do sinister experiments, and her brother-in-law Dr. Norman Godfrey is the hospital's lead psychiatrist. Peter Rumancek, a 17-year-old Didicoy, arrives with his mother just as a young girl's corpse is found, and the town suspects him because of rumors about his nature. The rumors are right: he is secretly a werewolf. That is the scene to brace for. Two teenage girls are killed and their bodies are left for people to find the next day, with the first found in the first episode and a second found in the third by a local student named Christina. Dr. Clementine Chasseur arrives to investigate.
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A psychic who needs a victim's remains to work
Roman Godfrey, heir to the Godfrey estate, catches Peter investigating a crime scene by himself, and Peter tells him his secret. They become friends and decide to find the killer together. Roman's cousin Letha, who is pregnant and says an angel is the father, starts to feel drawn to Peter. Peter turns to his cousin Destiny, who uses her powers to track down murderers, but she needs remains from one of the victims, and the two boys get into trouble when the police show up at the cemetery. Peter gets the remains to Destiny and comes away with clues. Their search takes them into the old steel mill, where one more piece of the puzzle turns up. Christina, tormented by visions of the body she found, attacks a friend on a date. Peter's relationship with Letha strains his friendship with Roman, and he almost leaves town with his mother before Chasseur's suspicions make him stay.
A coma that lets Roman do his best detective work
Roman barges into the White Tower demanding answers and finds Dr. Pryce's secret project, and Pryce responds by putting him into a coma. While he is out, his dreams point him toward who is behind the murders. Chasseur prepares to catch the killer before the next full moon, and Peter sits through a dinner with Letha's parents, Norman and Marie, who have just found out about the relationship. Roman wakes up weak and reunites with Peter to try to stop the killer from getting more victims. Peter is accused of being the killer and hides with his mother. Christina vanishes, and Roman begins to face the truth about his own nature. More corpses are found after the full moon, and Letha turns out to be the next target. With help from Roman's sister Shelley, Roman and Peter defeat the killer, but when Letha goes into labor tragedy strikes again.
A cult with a very specific list of enemies
In season two Peter's mother Lynda is arrested, so Peter returns to Hemlock Grove to raise money for her lawyer while Roman, now a full upir, deals with what he has become. Destiny and Dr. Pryce join the main cast, and a cult starts hunting every supernatural creature in town. Roman has an insatiable hunger to kill, and Peter risks turning into the same kind of killer the first season had. A woman named Miranda Cates, attacked on the road, takes refuge at Roman's house and discovers that Letha and Roman's baby is alive and hidden there. Pryce moves Shelley's mind into his experiment Prycilla so she can die in peace, and Olivia considers feeding on Prycilla to get her immortality back. Norman discovers Olivia's true nature. The baby, Nadia, is the cult's real target, so Peter and Roman fight to protect her. By the end all the cultists are dead, Miranda is frightened of Nadia's powers, and Olivia, rejected by Norman, rampages through the White Tower.
A heist, a mob war and a hero who is not staying dead
Season three opens with a search for Nadia and Miranda, helped along by an investigation into Dr. Spivak's past. Roman meets a mysterious stranger, then learns from Annie about two attacks that may be connected, and the two of them grow closer in a complicated way. Olivia can't feed and begins to feel the effects of a virus. Pryce works out what the new creature is and searches for a connection to the Spivak monster. Peter makes a bold move to stop a war between the Gypsies and the mob, asks Roman's help over Andreas, and later has to tell Destiny that Andreas is dead. Destiny investigates his death and ends up at Roman's door for a shocking confrontation. Shelley is asked for a selfish favor and then changes her mind. Annie condemns Roman for what he did, Peter and Roman hunt down Spivak, and Pryce's attempt to secure his own future goes badly wrong.
The ending, explained
In the finale, the consequences of Roman's actions leave him alone and cut off. Shelley finds a new purpose and leaves town. Olivia makes one last attempt to save herself and the plan ends in flames. Peter comes back from the grave to settle things one more time. Before that, Peter and Roman had gone after Spivak, Pryce's attempt to secure his own future had gone badly wrong, and Annie had betrayed her brother.
The post-credits ruling
Nobody has confirmed whether Hemlock Grove has a scene after the credits.
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Questions people ask at 1am
Is Hemlock Grove scary?
Yes, Hemlock Grove is a 5 out of 10. The murders are brutal and there are jump scares, but the series is mostly a gothic soap opera about a rich family and two young men with monstrous secrets.
How does Hemlock Grove end?
Roman ends up isolated by what he has done and Shelley leaves town. Olivia's last attempt to save herself ends in flames, and Peter comes back from the grave to settle things.
Does the dog die in Hemlock Grove?
Yes, a dog dies in Hemlock Grove. A cat is also killed off screen, a bird dies after flying into a window, and the cat's death matters to the plot.
Is there a post-credits scene in Hemlock Grove?
Nobody has confirmed whether Hemlock Grove has a scene after the credits.
What is Roman Godfrey in Hemlock Grove?
Roman is an upir. By season two he has fully transformed, and he struggles with an insatiable hunger to kill while Dr. Pryce tries to turn him back into a human.
