The first season of The Baxters revolves around Kari’s marital problems, as she grapples with the knowledge of her husband’s infidelity. The series is now streaming on Prime Video.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Elizabeth and John Baxter have five children: Erin, Brooke, Ashley, Kari, and Luke. While Erin, Brooke, and Kari are married, Ashley and Luke are still single.
Elizabeth is the first to notice that Kari’s husband, Tim, no longer loves her, while Kari remains unaware that her husband has been cheating on her.
Tim, a professor, has fallen in love with a student named Angela. Another student, Dirk, also believes himself to be in love with Angela.
Dirk discovers Tim and Angela’s affair and informs Kari without revealing his identity. When Kari sees Tim at Angela’s house, she realizes that Dirk was telling the truth.
Kari is heartbroken, but she still does not want to divorce Tim, who no longer wishes to be with her.
Even Kari’s family urges her to divorce Tim, but she refuses, believing that Tim has lost his faith and that she can bring him back.
Meanwhile, Kari’s ex-boyfriend, Ryan, a former NFL player now coaching a football team, returns to town. Ashley encourages Kari to give her relationship with Ryan another chance.
Kari met Tim at Bible study after breaking up with Ryan, and Ashley believes that Kari only got close to Tim in the first place because she was trying to make Ryan jealous.
However, Kari dismisses Ashley’s opinion and advice. Soon after, Tim brings Kari divorce papers to ease Angela’s mind.
Angela’s father abandoned her and her mother because he fell in love with another woman. Due to that, it is hard for Angela to trust Tim.
Tim also moves in with Angela and does not answer Kari’s calls, leaving her no choice but to bring the papers to Angela’s house.
She does not sign the papers and reveals that she is pregnant. The revelation makes Tim uncertain about divorcing Kari.
He stresses about it and turns to drinking. He even decides to return home to talk to Kari instead of insisting that she sign the papers.
Meanwhile, Kari, after meeting Ryan at church, confesses to her mother that she has not entirely forgotten him.
Ryan was her first love, and he still has a place in her heart. As he is back in town, Kari goes out with him, and the two of them finally discuss their breakup.
Kari and Ryan had different dreams, and Kari did not want to hold Ryan back, so she suggested they take a break.
After that, Ryan was injured during a game. When Kari visited him in the hospital, seeing him surrounded by important people made her feel as though she did not belong in his life.
Ryan now assures her that her fears were unfounded. He was not ready to give her up for his career, and that is part of the reason he has returned.
He wonders if Tim’s cheating was life giving them another chance, and they end up sharing a kiss. After their date, Ryan drives Kari home, where Tim sees them together and gets upset.
Tim tells Angela about Kari’s pregnancy and his decision to prioritize his child over their relationship, leading to their breakup.
Dirk, who is obsessed with Angela and has been following her, sees Angela crying as she leaves her home.
Dirk refuses to accept that there is nothing between him and Angela, even when Angela clearly spells it out for him.
He needs psychological help, but instead of seeking assistance, he blames Tim when Angela moves away with no intention of returning to the university.
Worried about Tim, Kari goes looking for him and finds him drinking in a bar. She brings him home, and Tim apologizes for everything.
He is willing to change. He wants to work on their marriage, and he is going to prove to Kari that he can be better.
He starts attending church again, apologizes to Kari’s parents, joins an AA group, and participates in couples counseling with Kari. Together, they try to mend their relationship.
Kari says goodbye to Ryan once again, which leads to Ryan thinking about accepting a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: a coaching position with the New York Giants.
Tim and Kari’s efforts pay off six months later. They grow much closer. Additionally, Tim has been sober for a while now.
They find out that they are going to have a girl, which makes Kari worry, as the last time she was pregnant with a girl, the baby did not make it.
On top of that, Dirk’s obsession with Angela drives him to confront Tim. He walks away when Tim warns him, but he plans to make him pay for what he did to Angela.
Luke has started dating Kari’s employee, Reagan, and Ashley’s friend tries to set her up with Landon, a firefighter who has liked Ashley since they were in high school.
Ashley and Luke share a strained relationship. Luke’s best friend, Colton, died in a car crash, with Ashley at the wheel that night.
Although the accident was not her fault, she still feels guilty. Ashley’s past continues to haunt her, making it hard for her to move on.
The accident happened after she returned home from Paris. She is now a single mother and the only one in her family who does not believe in God.
Ashley no longer paints because of multiple rejections, and her family keeps asking her to get a job because she has been living on settlement money from the accident that is bound to run out one day.
Her family’s concerns about her not being there for her son make her feel like she is being judged for being a bad mother.
Furthermore, Ashley comes to know that Elizabeth has been trying to contact Colton’s mother, Lillian, because she wants to help get everyone the closure they never got.
Elizabeth wants to build a nursery at church, and she wants Lillian to help her. This upsets Ashley even more because she believes that her mother is trying to get closure for her.
Upset with her family, Ashley storms out of her parents’ house during Thanksgiving dinner. She runs into Ryan and shares her problems with him.
Ryan comforts Ashley, who ends up kissing him, an action she instantly regrets. Similarly, Luke also regrets not being there for Ashley.
He realizes that he should be more understanding toward Ashley when Reagan helps him see that Ashley is a complex individual because she has been through a lot.
Ending explained:
Guilt and grief
Luke attempts to resolve his differences with Ashley, but she refuses to reconcile after years of not having a relationship with him.
Luke does not hold Ashley responsible for Colton’s death, but Ashley believes otherwise; she thinks Colton would still be alive if it were not for her.
On the night of the accident, both Ashley and Colton were rushed into surgery, with Ashley’s father as the only doctor on call. He operated on Ashley, and while she survived, Colton did not.
After talking to Luke, Ashley runs away, leaving her son with her parents. However, this time, her parents resolve to help her confront her feelings.
They find her and help her understand that any doctor in her father’s place would have decided to operate on her because she was six months pregnant at the time.
Her parents ask her to let go of her guilt and grieve Colton’s death in order to move on, and Ashley accepts their help.
They bring Ashley back home with them. Elizabeth also manages to contact Lillian and convinces her to work on the nursery with her.
Although Lillian does not intend to stay in town for long, working on the nursery helps her find the closure she needed after Colton’s death, and she is ready to move on now.
Lillian gives Colton’s favorite toy to Ashley’s son, Cole, and Ashley realizes that she does not blame her for her son’s death.
The consequences of past mistakes
Tim becomes a better man, and he loves Kari more than ever before, crediting her with saving him from self-destruction.
However, Tim’s past mistakes come back to haunt him when Kari is alone at home and Dirk shows up with a gun, intending to kill Tim.
While waiting for Tim’s return, Kari attempts to dissuade Dirk from harming Tim, but she fails to change his mind.
It is when Dirk is with Kari that Ryan pays her a visit. With Dirk holding her at gunpoint, Kari tries to send Ryan away.
However, Ryan realizes that something is wrong and barges in, which results in Dirk pointing the gun at him as well.
Unlike Kari, Ryan succeeds in talking Dirk out of killing Tim, persuading him to leave without harming anyone.
Just when Ryan and Kari believe that the trouble is over, they hear gunshots. Dirk ran into Tim outside the house and shot him.
The end of a life and the beginning of another
A dying Tim tells Kari that he loves her before he is taken to the hospital, where Kari goes into labor.
While the doctors fail to save Tim’s life, Kari gives birth to their daughter, Jessie. Three weeks later, Kari is seen trying to adjust to her new life as a mother with her parents’ help.
Kari’s family supports her through and through, and Kari celebrates Christmas with them. Unlike Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas is a happy affair.
Ashley’s relationship with her family has improved, but when Ryan comes to meet Kari, Ashley feels uneasy and watches them from afar.
Ryan is moving to New York to work with the Giants and has come to say goodbye to Kari. The two part ways on good terms, but there is still a lot left unsaid between them.
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