'Olive Kitteridge' Recap Part 1 "Pharmacy" - Frances McDormand & Richard Jenkins Take On Depression, Marriage & Small Town Troubles In HBO's Miniseries Drama

The highly anticipated, star-studded HBO miniseries, based on Elizabeth Strout's Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name, Olive Kitteridge, debuted this weekend. Part one, entitled "Pharmacy," introduced us to Olive, her family, her town and everyone's troubles. Check out our recap of this opening episode, directed by Lisa Choldenko and starring Frances McDormand, Richard Jenkins, Bill Murray and more, right here!

Check out our preview coverage of this miniseries right here!

Our introduction to our leading lady is bleak, to say the absolute least: her apparent suicide, though it cuts before the gun goes off. Jumping back 25 years prior, we see an equally depressing scene in Olive's kitchen on St. Valentine's Day, too. Olive's husband, Henry, offers a gift for the holiday, only to be coldly ignored.

At work at the pharmacy, we see Henry's caring nature by how he handles Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt) and her prescription drug addiction. We also see his coworker, Lois, drop dead right outside of the store. Back home, while Henry tries to share his story with their son, Christopher, Olive reveals Lois was not exactly well liked in this household and that they shouldn't be so sad to see her dead. Moving past the death, Olive informs Henry that Christopher isn't doing well at school. Here is a clip from the episode that shows this part of the story:

As you can see, the Kitteridge family has some issues with emotions, with Olive already showing signs of wear.

Jumping forward a month, Henry has replaced Lois with a much younger cashier named Denise (Zoe Kazan). She's married to a logger named Henry (Brady Corbet), with whom she's very in love, and she has a very childish, sweet sense of humor that definitely rubs her new boss the right way.

Meanwhile, we find out that Olive is an educator and, unfortunately for unruly kids, is in charge of detection. She does, however, have a sort of flirtatious relationship with another teacher, Jim O'Casey (Peter Mullan).

Depression seems to be wreaking havoc on Rachel, who managed to get her hands on some prescriptions, so Olive, Christopher and O'Casey drop off her son. This leads to further evidence of Olive's harshness towards her son, and eventually to the revelation that depression runs in the Kitteridge family-and that it comes with intelligence. Then Olive points out that Denise is dimwitted due to her happiness, and also called her mousey. All the while, Henry kept calling her cute.

Foreshadowing aside, Denise's praise of Jerry (Jesse Plemons) and his good grade in business school opens up into some back-story on the new cashier and her husband. The young couple comes over for an awkward dinner with Olive and Henry, which actually terns into a night of sex for the older couple.

In what starts off as an innocent hunting trip, young Henry is shot by his friend Tony, and dies. Some familiar faces are seen at his funeral, including Jerry and even Jim O'Casey, who is clearly having an affair with Olive.

As you probably could've guessed, Henry and Denise become closer. Driving lessons, embracing her while she breaks down in her dead husband's car, hand-feeding her dinner and even tucking her into bed when she falls asleep on the Kitteridge house. He even gets her a kitten, but his babying of her gets on her nerves just a bit. At this, Henry gets easily angry with his family and might have even cut out the O'Casey problem as well.

Denise passes her driving test right after reconciling with Henry, but unfortunately she runs over her new kitten. (Rest in peace, Mittens; you were one of the cutest kittens ever!) Henry goes to console the young widow.

Olive celebrates her birthday with a special dinner with Henry and friends-and O'Casey watching the entire scene from the bar. On the ride home, Olive and Henry pass the scene of a car crash. Jim O'Casey was the driver and Olive spends the night weeping uncontrollably in bed.

After telling Jerry to ask Denise out, could Henry be trying to make it work with Olive? Pat one concludes with this question looming. Onto part two.

Let us know what you thought of "Pharmacy," the first episode of the four-part miniseries drama, Olive Kitteridge, in the comments section below!