As the finale of Ten Pound Poms begins, Terry Roberts (Warren Brown) visits the house that is still in on the market. Terry returns the car to Benny Bates (Marcus Graham) and admits he’s not proud of himself. Benny believes you have to be ruthless if you’re going to survive in this country. Terry says he’s going to live his way. When Terry leaves, Benny asks for the phone book. Robbie Carter (Nic English) speaks to Mandy (Alex Malone) and Hilary (Sibylla Budd) about Mandy’s pregnancy. Robbie questions whether it is his and why Mandy didn’t say anything. Hilary quickly says Mandy was ashamed. She wants Robbie to acknowledge his responsibility since Mandy won’t be able to hide the bump soon. Hilary says the baby needs two loving parents. She argues that Robbie enjoyed his pleasure and must now deal with the consequences.
Mandy says she loves Robbie and believes he could love her with time. Hilary says Robbie can ask for her hand in marriage. When Annie (Faye Marsay) approaches Terry, he says he doesn’t want to talk about it. Then, Annie invites Kylie (Rose Chachko) and Pattie (Hattie Hook) to the party for Kate’s engagement. Kate Thorne (Michelle Keegan) speaks to the women during the meeting. She admits she hasn’t felt anything resembling happiness for a very long time but she does today. Robbie tries to practice what he’s going to say to Kate. Men from the child welfare department visit the hotel and speak to Mrs. Walker (Tina Bursill). JJ Walker (Stephen Curry) steps outside and listens to their conversation. Mrs. Walker tells them that Pattie is no longer around. They look around to see if they can find her. JJ drops off a note to Kyle to help. Mrs. Walker takes the men to speak to Terry. Kylie grabs Annie. Together, they try to get Pattie and Mary out of there as quickly as possible. Kylie says she has an idea.
Terry stalls the men and lies about Pattie having a baby. Pattie begins crying and saying she’ll never see her again. Annie tells her to go to the beach hut and stay there until she arrives. Kylie walks with a basket. She hides with the baby. Peter (Finn Treacy) returns and finds out what is going on. Terry asks him to tell these people that Pattie is engaged to be married. Peter says that, but the men keep searching for Pattie and the child anyway. Robbie approaches Kate. JJ finds Kylie with the baby. The men from the welfare department continue looking around. JJ rushes out with a box and gives it to Peter. They’re chased by the welfare men as they drive away from the hostel. Annie joins and hugs Terry. Peter carries May to Pattie at the beach hut. Kate speaks to Robbie about what happened. Robbie admits he has a problem and he can’t marry her. He says that Mandy’s baby is his. Robbie explains he went back when she disappeared with Michael. Mandy told him she was protected. Now, Hilary is arranging a shotgun wedding.
Kate gets upset and says Robbie was the only thing she had left. She forces Robbie to leave. Terry and Annie make it to the beach hut. JJ worries that the child welfare people won’t give up. He knows a solicitor who has defended some other residents. He’ll call him. Peter says they cannot sleep there. Terry has a suggestion, but he knows they’re not going to like it. He takes them to Benny’s rental. Terry insists they’ll figure something out. Pattie suggests she can go back to England. Annie says they’re going to stick together and Terry agrees with her. When they’re alone, Terry tells Annie that he wants to talk. He always thought about the war as his hardship. Terry admits he never thought about Annie’s hardship. She tells him about having to make all the decisions. All the worries changed her so she needed to find strength and independence. Working with Harry did that. Terry asks how it happened with Harry. Annie says Harry comes to her. Annie doesn’t think Harry felt like he was stealing something. He was good to her. Annie believes he started loving her although real love takes time.
Terry knows he was a bad husband when he got back. He realizes that she stuck with him anyway. Terry says Annie is his girl. Terry wants to keep the past in the past. Annie thanks Terry and says she’s so sorry. The next day, Sheila Anderson (Emma Hamilton) speaks to Bill (Leon Ford). She asks if their entire marriage was a sham. Bill says Ray Skinner is a predatory homosexual who forced himself on him. He gives her house keys and says it’s hers to share with the children since he’s made other plans. Sheila wants something else. She asks him to sign the forms he’s always refused to sign so she can return home with the girls if she wishes. Bill doesn’t want to sign the paperwork. Sheila reminds him he’s committed crimes so he will do what she asks. Bill tells her to come by the house on Saturday and he’ll sign the papers. The aborigines march for equal rights. Ron Mahoney (Rob Collins) sees Maggie Skinner (Maya Stange) while he’s marching. Police arrive to break up the protest. Arika (Haylee River) is hit and Ron is warned he’ll get the same.
Ron is attacked and taken away with the others. Maggie yells and asks what he’s done. The lawyer, Leon (Wayne Pygram), tells Annie and the others that they’ll have more difficulty because of the baby’s skin color and Pattie’s age. Something Leon says convinces Terry that Benny was responsible. In private, he tells Annie about his suspicions. Terry admits he did some things for Benny that he’s not proud of. He was trying to stay loyal and keep the money coming in. Terry insists he won’t get away with it since he has an idea. Later, Terry breaks into Benny’s office. A guard patrols the building with a dog while Terry frantically searches for evidence. The guard lets the dog go. Terry managed to escape through the window. Ron and Arika are locked in a cell. Maggie questions the police officer. He tells her to go home. David Robinson confronts Kate in the morning. He says Michael is fine, but he needs five minutes of her time. David suggests speaking to journalists and clinging to the past will only cause more pain.
He offers to pay anything to get her to leave Sydney. Kate suggests he could give Michael back and let her take him home. She admits she’s obsessed with her son. She hopes David and his wife will be obsessed with him too. Kate says she won’t be bought like the people who stole her son and continue to steal kids from their mothers. She’ll leave Sydney, but he’ll never get the satisfaction of telling Michael his mom didn’t want to know him. Kate believes Michael will ask about her one day and she won’t be difficult to find. Benny visits Christine Bailey (Taylor Ferguson) to see if she has his money. They talk about the incident. Christine says he should’ve given Terry a promotion instead of firing him. Anne joins them and they encourage Benny to open the envelope. He finds private correspondence between himself and his solicitor after Mrs. Yargelis’s death. They say he knew she died of carbon monoxide poisoning but reported it as a natural death.
Benny threatens to tell the police that they broke into his office. Terry tells him they have Photostats of the letters. He tells Benny that he came after his family so they’re coming after him. Benny insists they won’t be able to make this stick as the little people. He warns them he can make people disappear before leaving. Terry and the others have recorded the conversation. Kate visits Mandy who tutors Wilfred twice a week. Kate says she wanted to speak to Mandy woman-to-woman. She’s been in her position since she got pregnant in England. The father was committed to someone else and it wasn’t easy. Kate admits it caused a scandal. She promises that she won’t get in the way and she’ll move to Sydney. They won’t see her again. Mandy says Robbie is a good man and he’s doing the right thing. Wilfred comes back in with a bloody nose. Mandy gets sick while Kate begins tending to his wound. Kate follows Mandy outside. When she throws up, Kate notices she is wearing something about her stomach.
She begins to realize that something is wrong. Terry visits Mr. Milne. He tells him that Benny Bates has blood on his hands. Terry gives him the original recording of him and his friend. When asked why he’d do that, Terry says he’s not that man. When Ron is finally released, he finds Maggie working at the hut. Ron says the arrest means he’s lost his privileges. He can only do official work and he has to account for his movements. As a result, he can’t come there anymore. Ron appreciates their time together and hopes she has a great life out there. They kiss before Ron leaves. Pattie and her family attend the hearing to appeal the adoption of Mary Clare Roberts. Leon speaks to the judge briefly before allowing Pattie to speak for herself. Pattie discusses her situation and her parents. She talks about bringing up her daughter as an Australian. Kate tries to find Robbie only to learn the wedding is today. She rushes to catch up with Robbie before he gets married.
Sheila leaves JJ and goes to the house to pick up the signed papers. Bill has two officers with him. He tells Sheila the officers have come to help her. He says she escaped a psychiatric institution. Sheila tries to tell them about Bill, but the police officers haul her away anyway. Mandy arrives at the wedding. The ceremony begins as Kate rushes there. Kate runs in and says Mandy is not pregnant. She points out that Mandy is wearing a menstrual belt. Kate asks her to tell the truth in God’s house. Robbie soon finds out that Mandy lied about being pregnant. He tells Mandy he doesn’t love her before leaving with Kate. Pattie’s appeal against Mary’s adoption is denied. Her parents are allowed to adopt Mary so she can stay at Galgownie Hostel.
Ten Pound Poms Review
The finale of Ten Pound Poms was a lot more of the same. The story was largely predictable throughout with the most likely outcomes. For starters, it was clear that Terry would turn against Benny at some point and attempt to bring him to justice. That happened although there wasn’t a clear conclusion.
JJ and Sheila finally got their way only for Bill to turn the tables on them later. Sheila should’ve been a bit smarter about going to the house to meet Bill in person. Who didn’t see that coming? Considering how morbid this series is, it’s a wonder that Bill didn’t strangle Sheila to death in the living room of the home.
Ron and Maggie never had a chance. Although Pattie’s appeal was denied, she still got to keep her baby. Kate managed to prevent Robbie from marrying Mandy who lied about her pregnancy. Again, it wouldn’t be a surprise to find out that Robbie and Mandy died in a van crash immediately after leaving the chapel.
For every good thing that happens in this show, ten bad things happen. Usually, bad stuff immediately happens after something good happens and completely offsets whatever was good. That would be fine if the goal was to show a vengeful higher power or something, but it’s a bit unrealistic in this sense.
It’s gotten to the point where the bad things are comical because there are so many of them and they’re always timed so meticulously. Since nothing good really happens, it’s getting harder to justify sticking with the series. The series definitely needs a bit more diversity instead of just constant bad news in every episode.
The finale scores a 5.5 out of 10. Recaps of Ten Pound Poms can be found here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. Join the discussion here.
Jay Skelton is a fan of all television shows and movies. He tries his best to keep up with the latest foreign television shows and movies. Jay loves skinny dipping in the dark too.