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Opening with the highlights of the previous episode's wedding, dubbed over with the orchestral strings version of the theme tune, usually reserved for main characters departing the series or Ettie moving to a new flat up the road. The end of the wedding, with Matt being driven away, had all the ingredients of being a very sad and moving piece of drama - had it not been for that ridiculous massive veil Marlene was wearing, distracting me from the pathos, and making it hard to take the whole sequence seriously. Matt and Frank were being sent off to some kind of Prison farm, it seems. I might be wrong, but I thought that would be for lower risk criminals, rather than violent rapists. But I suppose you wouldn't put one of those in a women's prison, either.
Geoff's final scenes also got a liberal dose of the strings version of the theme tune - yet again - and what with all the departures over the last episode or two, I thought they might as well have just left it playing in the background throughout.
Lou made her appearance in court, with a strange silent policewoman who was standing behind her and smirking a lot. Chief witness Joan had a hard time, with all the interruptions by the annoying defence lawyer as well as all the woop-wooooop noises. I loved it when Lou was brought back into Wentworth with Officer Hagen ("That does it girl, you're on a charge!") and they did their marvellous comedy 'chicken dance' across the screen, to the clacking of high heels. A classic moment, and worth another look if you've no idea what I'm referring to.
Judy seemed extremely confident in the lead up to her parole board meeting, announcing, "I'm getting out tomorrow," etc. I did wonder if she'd fail, as a sort of twist to everything looking so certain for her release. Er, no. She got out. No twist. And to celebrate the occasion, she put on her best dufflecoat and went into the dining room to tell the others the good news. She told Myra she'd come and visit regularly, which made me think instantly of when Lizzie and/or Doreen had been released, and were later told it was against the rules for former inmates to visit the remaining prisoners. Then I remembered Sheila popped in for a chat while Jude was still inside. Maybe the prison forgot.
Judy finally walked down the drive carrying a box marked "1047-H”. Which meant she might have been doing a runner with someone else’s belongings, as her prisoner number was 387558 according to her mugshot. I did wonder if the pink thing from the laundry was making an escape attempt in the box, before realising it was probably that pink bedspread. I loved Judy's reaction to Sheila in her outrageous tigerskin coat: "Look at her! I don't know whether to kiss her or shoot her!"
Another marvellous scene, this time between Lou and Anita, first with Lou offering her opinions on what Anita should do about the dirty weekend in Geneva with her boyfriend (and presumably a quantity of red PVC), and then with Lou telling her life story. A lot of work seems to have been done recently on developing the character of Lou, both by the writers and the actress, and I feel she's becoming more three-dimensional and interesting as a result.
Gasp - Myra lagged! This seemed to be built up as a big thing, as I would have expected, wondering if the women would actually kill their disgraced top dog. So after Myra's anxiety about having to tell the women what she'd done, it all seemed to become a bit of a damp squib, being almost instantly forgotten, apart from one small comment from Alice.
Meg and Dennis were still as annoyingly joined-at-the-hip as ever. "The governor's golden haired little duo are still pussyfooting around in the staff room," grunted Joan, obviously as irritated by the Hansel and Gretel double act as I was fast becoming.
Possibly the first of several new arrivals appeared somewhere near the (long forgotten?) white line in reception. "Freedom", the statue. The actors playing the delivery men actually did a convincing job of making the statue (and stand) look very heavy. Unfortunately, the lightweight clunk noise that was heard when the two parts were put on top of each other, seemed to suggest polystyrene, wood, or plaster-of-Paris. (And I loved the way she appeared to be shielding her eyes from the sight of Meg in one scene.) Andrew Fry seemed very unimpressed with the statue, and wanted to know "how do you expect a prison to run" with things like that. A stiff and lifeless piece of old furniture, more lightweight than at first seems..? Well, Wentworth seems to have managed perfectly alright up to now.
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