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The new Barnhurst characters were starting to settle in, and Inmate Number fans get the thrill of a quick flash of Willie's number on her box of belongings - 36939.
Wow! From out of the blue, Ann suddenly started getting "strict" with security in Wentworth, and generally behaving as if the place was a prison. The poor inmates weren't even able to borrow knives from the dining room any more.
And the staff weren't getting away with anything either, when she told them she expected no excuses, and gave them a good talking to, and even stole one of Erica's "That will be all"s. Of course, as they filed out of her office afterwards, Meg still hung around like a smouldering fart, obviously expecting special treatment for being such a nice person, and angling to know what was going on. Thankfully Ann didn't give in. Hoorah.
"The prisoners are not fools," Ann said at one point. I’m not sure the writers had the same sentiments for the viewers. After the cell search, the findings on Ann's desk appeared to include a six-inch piece of barbed wire, a razor blade, a knife, and a few other objects. (Probably yet to find a sawn-off shotgun, and a machete.) What was shocking was not the items that have been found, but the fact that nobody had been attacked, killed, mutilated, or committed suicide when all this weaponry had been floating around. Time to tighten up security? Sounds like it was more a question of starting to have some security.
Joan was still suffering in hospital, this time with her patronising Doctor. "Oh, you're reading," he said to her, forgetting she wasn't 5 years old. "No double vision?" Maybe she should have really impressed him by reading two books at the same time. Surprising how Joan didn't suffer extreme nausea, with the sickly-sweet little girl asking her to read stories, saying "You're my best friend", and making a big thing out of being frightened of the operation - as is the norm for a soap opera bit-part who's about to die for a bit of quick pathos. So as well as a lesson in mortality, we made up for Joan's lack of "humanising" subplots for the last few weeks.
I loved when Joan found the girl had not returned and asked the nurse where she was, and the nurse asked, "are you a relative?" Presumably this nurse finds it normal for visiting relatives to arrive wearing pyjamas, a dressing gown and bandages all around their head. And I loved the editing in this scene, where the haunting background flute music was cut abruptly short, to almost comical effect, as we were catapulted to the next scene.
The Barnhurst characters seem to have dominated the inmate storylines (apart from Myra), for example with Lexie having little more to do than look p*ssed off as Julie beat her at cards. Not sure if the scowling was because of the defeat, or because of Julie grunting and squealing like a wild sow in season. This scene seemed to show us that (1) you can even beat professional card sharps if you're good at maths, and (2) never accept the offer of a quick hand of poker with Carol Vorderman. Strange "Deliverance" banjo-type background music for this scene, I thought. Obviously someone in the sound department has gone out and bought some new incidental music tapes. By the way, did they have car boot sales in those days?
Daphne was having one of her strange phases again, it seemed. Bad headaches, feeling emotional, tearful, wanting to be alone and lie down, sudden mood changes, feeling depressed or annoyed.. Did they miss out chocolate cravings and spots? Hmm.. what a mystery..
Nora: "You seemed a bit low this morning."
Daphne: "I was just thinking about Bertie the Begonia. He'd have been alright if I'd have been able to get him in the fresh air."
..Sometimes Prisoner can be quite intense.
Loved it when Lou was goading Nora ("She killed 3 people, didn't she?!") after the incident where Nora went to pick up that baby with the badly-dubbed goo-gooing, and Nora responded by grabbing Lou round the throat and yelling, "That was 23 years ago". Which I guess is her way of saying she's no longer a violent person.
So here was the infamous Ruth Ballinger, who I must admit I liked this episode, despite looking and behaving horribly like the Spitting Image puppet for Margaret Thatcher. Ann was told to give her everything she wanted (one of the silliest plotlines in a long time) despite the fact that it would cause problems with the other inmates. Presumably there was some reason why she wasn't in isolation in that case, where it wouldn't be rubbed in the women's faces so much. At least it explained the writers introducing the sudden get-tough approach on security, to emphasise the point I guess.
Biggest happening of the episode had to be the first action directly involving the Les Dawson lookalike extra, who was referred to as "Jill", and asked to introduce Mrs Ballinger around. Wow. No lines to speak though, unfortunately.
And my favourite shot of the episode was the one of Mervin standing in front of a green notice which said "Filth is his favourite meal".
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