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After recently commenting on the impressive size of the 'corridor' set, I was intrigued to notice the floor, which showed parallel line tracks (I presume something to do with the cameras or lights wheeled around the set). Interestingly, these seemed to disappear into the wall itself in one scene, which I imagine shows how flexible the set actually is, where bits of wall are simply moved aside like doorways. Just an interesting observation.
Back to the action, and as Cindy got more and more squealy, whiny and hysterical, I was impressed at how 'sensible' Julie had become. First of all by trying to calm Cindy down by saying firmly that May was alright, and later by stopping the squealing with a slap. Blimey, good stuff. Strangely, after all this, and despite being allowed to finish early, Cindy insisted on staying in Wentworth for the final day, even though only minutes before, she didn't seem to accept May's explanation that everything had been for her own good. Remaining another day also seemed a little pointless, since Cindy's personality had undergone a complete transformation - from quivering childish sweetie-shop thief, to everybody's mature and sensible chum.
May had insisted that the wound to her arm was not caused by a dangerous weapon after all, but by an accident with a knitting needle. Quite obviously different to a dangerous weapon, which would have been long, sharp, capable of puncturing the skin, and not normally allowed in a prison. Anyway, despite the silliness of this part of the plotline, the best bit of the scene in the prison hospital had to be the pathetic wail ("Sister Haaaall....") that called the nurse away from May. I'd love to know which of the mumbling extras provided that line, which remained sadly uncredited. ("Pathetic patient" would have been the most likely listing, I guess.)
Cindy's father claimed he'd been "off work with a weak chest", which is a bit suspicious, because according to the credits, he was a policeman two episodes ago. (Could this be the shortest gap between an actor playing two different roles, in the series?)
Cindy wasn't the only person to undergo a change of personality, with the almost laughable suddenness of Nikki's personality transplant, from two-dimensional toughie, to simpering child spouting cheesy cute lines. ("I'm not a crim, I was just looking for kicks. But I don't want none of it no more.") After one week, a vicious criminal is reduced to a nice pussycat. Just like real life rehabilitation programmes then.
Poor Nikki. You could hardly expect her to be stable when she had a mother who offered her cheese sandwiches that turned out to be a square of flat cardboard wrapped in kitchen foil. Either that, or the cheese buttie had been accidentally run over by a bus on the journey there. And then of course, the stress of "Big" Queenie (the female one with hair) giving out threats like, "You'll have to talk to Tiny if you don't.." Presumably for a severe swapping of quiche recipes, I guess. When Queenie explained the plan for that evening, Tiny exclaimed it would "scare anyone straight!" Coming from him, it shows he must have had amazing faith in the scheme.
The Terri situation was interesting for several reasons. First of all, it gave Maggie K an opportunity to inject some humanity into Joan - something the writers had tried to do rather heavy-handedly in the past, but here it all seemed much more genuine and effective. It also introduced the theme of bisexuality into the series, which is often ignored by soaps and dramas. I also found it interesting because of the parallels between Terri and Sharon Gilmore (played, of course, by the same actress). Terri was in a relationship with Joan, but also had an affair with her boss. Sharon was in a relationship with Judy, but also had an affair with Chrissie Latham. In both cases, the character did love their initial lover, despite the infidelity. Ok, Terri didn't flaunt the affair in front of Joan in the way Sharon did with Judy, but there was still a selfish, childish streak that caused them to hurt the person they loved most, common to both characters.
There were some very moving scenes with Joan, reminding us how everyone she had loved has been taken from her in one way or another (her lover had been murdered, Shane had been adopted, her father had died, her dog had been accidentally killed); and one scene where she silently looked at herself in a mirror, showed more convincing emotion than any amount of Jenny Hartley wailing and shaking her head from side to side. I was particularly moved by her line, "Better to stay alone.. avoid falling in love at all costs.. avoid the pain of when it finishes.." Lots of pathos indeed.
Interestingly, some of Joan's sequences were intercut with a scene of Lexie and Julie discussing Daphne - someone wrongly believing they could find true love and happiness in a person more attractive and interesting than themself. Although not strictly identical, there were enough similarities between Joan's and Daphne's situations to make interesting comparisons, despite the vastly different personalities and backgrounds of the women themselves.
Wonderful put-down comment from Lou to Nora. "If you don't like it, complain to the council!"
What a bizarre scene, with the two doctors from hell checking Daphne to see if she really did suffer from PMS. This seemed to feature a great deal of ear-hole examination (naturally a dead giveaway of fake PMS suffering). Loved the way one of the doctors appeared almost Freud-like in appearance. I was almost disappointed to find he didn't have a bad germanic accent.
Oh well, after all the silliness and non-storylines, hopefully things are set to perk up with the arrival of a couple of very memorable characters over the next few episodes.
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