Well. I almost made it. I’m only one episode behind and the new season of Wentworth Prison has premiered. Imma push through anyway, one back isn’t bad! I’m mostly concerned about Allie, what the hell happened at the end of last episode??? Rolling S4:E12 Seeing Red after the break
Bea Smith (Daniella Cormack) wakes up blissful after her first non-solo satisfying sexual encounter of her LIFE;
Allie (Kate Jenkinson) must not have been found yet after Joan Ferguson (Pamela Rabe) injected her with something because it sounds like business as usual there.
Was that…
Is Allie dead?
Liz (Celia Ireland) can smell new love and crusty bums from here! Go shower with Allie, Bea! But watch your back while you do, mind. Bea finds Allie passed out, ohhh, not dead, yay!!!!!! The Freak made it look as though Allie overdosed. She’s being rushed along, maybe it’s still possible to save her!!
I should probably not get my hopes up, Wentworth likes to tapdance all over hope.
Bea screams as Joan smirks and everything was as it ever was on Wentworth. I note that both of the people most important to Bea have been attacked using calculated drug overdoses.
Governor Vera Bennett (Kate Atkinson) is reviewing the CCTV footage in her office with CO Jake Stewart (Bernard Curry); the missing six minutes wiped during the crucial minutes means an officer is involved. Jake tries on his best “reaaaalllyy??” face while CO Linda Miles (Jacqueline Brennan) interrupts and draws all of Vera’s notice.
She orders a drug test and search of all officers; lessee, there’s only the two, right? Jake and Linda, done!
Sonia (Sigrid Thornton) is visibly upset; her friend Helena’s body has been found. Liz gives her some cuddles while she cries; Liz and I are seriously doubting this woman had anything to do with her friend’s death. Could it just be overzealous policing?
The problem back in H block is that nobody has any idea who did this; the idea that the Freak would be able to pull that off hasn’t even ghosted into anyone’s mind and all Bea can come up with is Kaz.
That’s the problem with making connections with people; it leaves you open to whole new levels of hurt you didn’t even know you had.
Vera stops by to taunt Joan about her trial the following day; I mean this in the best way. I do not see this going Vera’s way. Joan is literally and figuratively twice the woman Vera is and every time she comes down to twist the knife in Joan’s side we see how desperately she still wants and needs Joan to acknowledge her. Boo
Bea brushes off some swipes as she tracks down Deputy Governor Will Jackson (Robbie J Magasiva) to get an update and protest Allie’s innocence: she was clean! Will at least lets her know that Allie’s alive, critical but stable. Thank the gods and the wee boarlets. She sees new Top Dog Kaz Proctor (Tammy McIntosh) getting her update from CO Miles and goes back to lie in wait.
She surprises Kaz in her cell with a right hook and the fight is on. They both get bloody and OVER it; them sitting there crying over the woman they both love is wrenching.
Bea hit her head during the fight so she’s got to stay the night in Medical: GOOD. Stay safe and keep an eye on the Freak! It’s very important to Bea that everyone knows that Allie was given a hot shot and isn’t using again; I suspect it’s falling on deaf ears.
We get a beautiful montage of our two favourite inpatients
Joan’s getting ready for court! Deja SEEN IT
Will is just now getting wind of the staff drug testing; Jake offers to sweet talk Nurse Radcliffe (Madeline Jevic) into losing their samples but hey! Guess what?! He only asks for HIS sample to be lost, whuuut??
Oh the GLOVES!
Linda is visibly taken aback when she sees the former Governor in all her glory; Joan has a good feeling about today!
Joan figures it’s no fun if people don’t even have a whiff what you cooked up on the side; she stops to tease Bea, offering condolences.
Bea loses it of COURSE, and Joan uses that to salve her soul all the way to her trial. Like an amuse bouche before the main.
Bea frantically calls for Will; who listens, kinda, but thinks her accusing Joan is whack. Bea’s conspiracy theory about Joan making a play on the outside doesn’t get any further and NO, you don’t getta use the phone, Bea.
Hm
What’s this with the what now on the outside?
Liz is meeting with dishy Don Kaplan (Steve Bastoni) who REALLY wants a conviction on Sonia. So much so that he shows Liz photos of the crime scene (Helena’s head was shaved and she was strangled with a belt? That seems important) and then asks her to lie under oath saying that Sonia confessed to her. Then maybe after, they could go away somewhere…
AH HA! So I WASN’T just imagining all the handsy stuff, he was working her from the beginning! What kind of law enforcement official does that?? Come on! Liz is devastated and DONE.
Will is the best friend Bea’s ever had; even after she beat the crap out of him. He brings her a phone in Medical because he rocks.
Bea calls Franky (Nicole da Silva); she thinks Joan told about attacking Allie because she won’t be coming back. Which ties in with her adopted nephew (ish?) Shayne Butler (Hunter Page-Lochard) not answering his phone and probably going to kill Nils Jesper, the only tie between Joan and what she did to everyone.
Franky reads off the witness list (anyone else perk up when they heard Fletch? Just me? Fine) and goes looking for Shayne, who’s “borrowed” the Khaleesi friend’s ride. Franky doesn’t want to call the police and have Shayne locked up forever; she’s gonna try to find him before he uses that huge gun on his passenger seat.
Maxine (Socratis Otto) has started to lose her hair from the chemotherapy and it’s time to shave it off. How that was handled was odd; all very smiley and Boomer (Katrina Milosevic) being campy but I’m disappointed that Maxie’s storyline is just a shortcut to get a pair of clippers in Sonia’s hands so we can see how well she can shave a head. Liz watching Sonia monologue about religious meanings of head shaving
Er. Um. Liz, just because you saw Sonia work a pair of clippers, it doesn’t mean you should lie on the stand. She runs right to Don, who gives her a thanks and a big kiss, wow, I felt that in my toes. That might just be because it feels like Liz and I haven’t been kissed in one thousand years.
Franky makes it to the courthouse in time to see Joan walk in; all smugness in a trim black suit. She snags Shayne before Nils makes it and oh
They have a tense standown in the alley while he pulls a gun on her and she begs him to think about his life; what’s he going to do? Be like her? Or be his own person? He finally puts down the gun and cries; only Franky would say this to someone who just threatened her life
It takes a hard case to help a hard case. She texts Bea to reassure her, but that was clearly too soon as we see Ferguson’s backup plan go into affect with a masked person pulling over Nils’ prison van. Is that Jake Stewart? I can’t tell yet. How much does $90,000 AUD buy you these days?
It buys you an Allie Novak in critical condition and a dead Nils Jesper, that’s what it gets you!
Will’s drug test came back positive (the only one, how bow dah?) and he’s suspended, whoops! The charges against Joan will likely be dropped because they haven’t got their key witness. Will reminds Vera that Joan will be coming after her job. SHE KNOWS.
Jake makes it back to the prison just in time to be promoted to Deputy Governor; I guess it pays to be one of two guards at Wentworth Prison!
The only part I’m happy about is that now Joan can’t hurt Bea too, she’s gonna be free! I don’t know why Joan went after Allie, why not Bea again? It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me just yet.
But Joan’s not gone yet; she disembarks while Vera and Jake watch. That has to be a bitter, bitter pill for Vera to swallow.
Franky’s visiting Bea now that Bea’s phone is dead; they’re all in danger once Ferguson gets out. Bea talks about Allie; she’s never felt like this before. Will interrupts, there’s a call from the hospital and his face is not sunshine and kittens.
Maxine’s there with Allie; who is no longer able to breathe on her own and oh Bea. She gets to talk to Allie; she tells her to look after Debbie and wait for her. Ah Bea, ah we all cry as she tries to deal with the loss of the only romantic love she’s known.
She gathers herself (that was…er…quick?) and heads to see Vera with a plan. She figures she has one more shot at Ferguson until she’s processed out the following day, why not let Bea provoke her into admitting something and she can record it on her contraband phone?!
Bea wanders into the common room where the women are all gathered around new Top Dog Kaz; she LIES to Kaz and says Allie is okay, everything is going to be okay now.
I DON’T LIKE THIS. Everyone looks happy, but distant from Bea and they’re all saying goodbye to her! NO LIKE.
Is Bea going to do something stupid to get to Allie and to Debbie; is she planning to sacrifice herself to nail Joan?? There is no Wentworth without Bea Smith!!
Okay wait, she’s got a shiv hidden in her wall, maybe the plan is to kill Ferguson, I’ll calm down. But then she stares at her artwork
And I’m scared again; Bea! Don’t say goodbye to everyone! Don’t give up! THERE IS NO WENTWORTH WITHOUT YOU!
Vera collects her; confirming she has the phone for recording? Bea nods then tosses it on the bed and aw my god you guys. Is she really doing this???
Ferguson is all smug smiles and grey composure as she’s processed out; she really thinks she’s coming back as Governor. Vera will not be intimidated; she knows the Freak isn’t powerful but rather sick. And how.
Ferguson is pushed out the door to outside with no ceremony; she knows something is in the wind immediately. Her head is up, she’s looking around and suddenly: there is Bea, looking like Vengeance personified.
Ferguson knows a woman with nothing to lose when she sees one; she looks for an escape route. Bea moves closer, ever closer, rhyming off a list of names of the people Ferguson has killed. How does it feel? Knowing you’re about to die? A sudden move and now it’s Ferguson with the screwdriver and the control but I still have this bad feeling that Bea is okay with that too. If she can’t kill Ferguson, having Ferguson kill her in front of the prison where there are cameras has to be a close second. No way to pay that off, is there?
WHAT??????? Bea grabs Ferguson’s hand with the shiv and drives it over and over into her belly, STOP BEA!!!! THERE IS NO WENTWORTH WITHOUT YOU!!!
Ferguson takes over, driving the shiv over and over into Bea’s belly and just as she really gets into it
Will and Vera race out to find her, bleeding to death on the road. Allie is in cardiac arrest and being frantically worked on as everything goes hazy and Bea stares at the seahorse clouds linking their tails above her
Bea loses consciousness and we’re out to her dying in a pool of blood.
And then
I legit jumped and yelled “MOTHERHUMPER!!”
It got very Juliet and Juliet up in there all of a sudden! Man. Okay. I thought I prepared myself adequately in the end as to Bea’s plan, but no, no I was not prepared. I’m so glad Ferguson was out there stabbing and murdering on camera, but I just. How can there be Wentworth without Bea Smith? Without Red? We’ve already lost Franky to the streets (its so WEIRD to see her in actual clothing!); Jacs is gone, everyone is GONE! And now so is Bea. Ah Red. How can
Sorry, sorry, that’s it, I’m going to watch the next few minutes of S5:E1 because I have low impulse control and a problems sleeping these days anyway. Sleep is overrated, right?
I have to thank AK and AT/B for suggesting this show so many months ago; I never thought I’d get caught up to current but their reading and comments kept me company the whole way! Thanks Juliets. See you for the next season soon, cheers.
But
Without Bea Smith? I mean, she was the framework of the show! We saw everything through her eyes and now I just don’t know how we can go on without her presence. We’ve lost the linchpin!
Damn.
