Knock Knock – As this episode of The Woman In The Wall begins, Lorna Brady (Ruth Wilson) looks at Clemence (Caoimhe Farren) who is lying in a coffin. In a flashback, Clemence tells her that it is like having an alien wriggling around in there. They discuss the possibility of having a boy or girl. Lorna worries she will not be good at parenting, but Clemence is confident she’ll be a good mother. After the intro, Detective Colman Akande (Daryl McCormack) has a nightmare in which he is chased by a monster. At work, Colman asks Sgt. Aidan Massey (Simon Delaney) about a type of haircut.

Colman explains that’s Lorna Brady since she has the same height, build, and haircut. Aidan admits it could be, but it is delicate so they have to wait. Aidan insists he isn’t coming to a funeral only to corner a grieving woman. He doesn’t understand why Colman is gunning for Lorna even though she is odd and sleepwalks. Colman is sick of sitting on his hands. Aidan says they’ll speak to Lorna, but it isn’t happening today. At the funeral, Lorna approaches David Tooley (Brendan McCormack) and says she is sorry. He believes she did this. Colman arrives and sits behind Lorna.

Father Keith (Rory Corcoran) begins speaking to the audience. Lorna starts hearing stuff and getting anxious. She goes outside for a cigarette only to find that her lighter won’t work. While walking with the others, Lorna notices missing posters for Aoife Cassidy. Then, she sees Aoife (Fiona Bell) standing nearby. Once Aoife disappears, a distraught Lorna returns to the group. Later, Lorna joins Michael Kearney (Mark Huberman) at the pub for a drink. He suspects she still isn’t sleeping. Lorna approaches David to ask if Clemence said anything to him about their children. Once he reminds her he just buried his sister, Lorna walks away and has another vision.

She goes into the bathroom to splash her face with water. Amy Kane (Hilda Fay) comes on and snorts drugs so Lorna takes some as well. Colman approaches Lorna to ask if she’ll pop in tomorrow. Michael interrupts before Aidan comes over to calm things down. Michael and Lorna sit down nearby. Aidan tells Colman he’d offer him a drink but he seems to be on the clock. Niamh (Philippa Dunne) thanks Coyle (Dermot Crowley) for coming. When asked if he has heard anything from the government about their petition, Coyle says they’re unsure if they’ve heard enough to declare the Convent as a laundry. He thinks they just need a little more time. Amy calls them boring.

She goes on to tell them that they had no idea what Clemence went through in that place. Only Amy and Lorna know. Amy says Clemence was only survived by her brother and not her child. She claims none of them looked after her and now they’re lying about her. Lorna argues with her until Amy curses her and leaves. Derek asks Lorna to walk him home. Once they leave, Amy tells Colman that Lorna burned Father Percy’s car. She was lying before, but she doesn’t know why since Lorna doesn’t care about her. Amy steps outside with Thomas (Brian Doherty). Colman watches them argue on the television above him.

At home, Derek apologizes to Lorna for what he said and for keeping them apart. Lorna admits it might’ve been for the best. Derek shows Lorna a picture and says the girl in the middle is named Breda who is Clemence’s daughter. He explains that Clemence went to town to have tea with someone and came back in a strange mood. She told Derek that she met a nun she used to know. It was one of the Sisters of the Seven Joys. She gave Clemence the photo. Lorna wonders if one of the other girls could be hers. The following day, Lorna goes to the police station to speak to Colman. First, she goes to the bathroom where she puts hot sauce in her eye to stay awake.

Then, they ask her about the car that was set fire to. Colman says he has an eyewitness who saw her take a match to it. After she denies it, she is told that the car belonged to Father Percy. Colman shows her a picture of a woman and asks if she knows her. The last time Lorna saw the woman she was walking away with her baby. Lorna insists she hasn’t seen or heard from her since. Colman says she is missing and her family is in pieces. Her husband is sitting in prison awaiting trial while the daughter is coming from Dublin to help with the search. Colman is confident it is only a matter of time before they find Aoife. He alleges that Lorna knows exactly where Aoife Cassidy is.

As Lorna’s eyes begin bleeding, she says some people disappear and nobody cares. Meanwhile, the whole world looks for others. When Lorna leaves, she sees Aoife again. Lorna begins following her. Michael checks on her after she nearly gets hit by a car. Aidan believes personal issues are impacting Colman since he was born in one of those places. Colman claims it was nothing like that place. Aidan asks what he has against these women then. Colman accuses Aidan of letting Lorna at the hook at every turn. Aidan reveals that he was a young guard at the place when those girls were there. Back then, many people would prefer their daughters be murdered than get pregnant outside of marriage.

Aidan says they don’t have enough on her, but Colman isn’t going to let it go. Lorna speaks to Michael about the picture which is proof that Clemence’s daughter lived. Lorna admits she doesn’t know what is real anymore. Michael suggests getting some sleep. She asks him to watch her because she does bad things when she sleeps. He thanks her for showing him the picture. Aidan and Colman visit Andrea (Genevieve Hulme Beaman) because they got her message saying she might’ve seen Aoife. They leave and Aidan says their next reported sighting is from Seamus Flanagan who once punched a police horse in the face. Colman argues they’re wasting time speaking to psychics and horse assaulters.

He leaves Aidan to do some actual work. Lorna begins sleepwalking. She grabs scissors and cuts up the picture of the girls. When Michael tries to stop her, he ends up getting cut. He throws water in her face to get her to wake up and see what she just did. Colman listens to Dara’s interview. He goes to prison to speak to Dara (Ardal O’Hanlon) in person. Dara confirms that Grace is the woman in the picture Colman shows him. Colman believes that woman knows where Dara’s wife is. He explains they’re getting concerned about where Aoife is. Dara mentions the House of the Sacred Shepherd which is something Aoife talked about. He believes she was afraid of them.

Olivia (Alexandra Moloney) visits Lorna in the middle of the night and explains that her mother is Aoife Cassidy. Olivia believes her mom knows where Lorna’s child is. She explains that her mom was speaking to a journalist because there are survivors telling their stories. The journalist needed evidence before he could publish the story. Lorna shows her the picture which she claims is evidence the nuns knew where the children went. Olivia asks her if she can help her find her mother. They talk about the mark on Lorna’s arm and hogweed burns. Lorna wonders if Aoife hid it all somewhere. Colman is busy looking through newspaper archives when he finds an article about the Adoption Society’s success.

He reads about The House of the Sacred Shepherd Adoption Agency. Then, he tells Colman that they worked with the local authorities from Kilkinure so they should check the local council records. Aidan asks Skelly to check the companies registrations office too. They discuss the Kilkinure Convent which involved Father Percy. Aidan says Lorna’s baby was taken from that place and these fellas might be involved. Conor Skelly (Cillian Lenaghan) finds that they closed in 1979. Aidan says Lorna gave birth in the mid-eighties while Aoife didn’t join the convent until at least 1984. Colman wonders why Dara would’ve mentioned them.

Colman remembers getting into a fight at the convent. Father Percy calms him down and confirms that he was adopted and chosen. Aidan says Seamus called because he thought he saw Aoife getting into a taxi on Halloween night. John Farrell is the only driver in town. Colman approaches John Farrell (Frank O’Sullivan) who confirms he had Aoife in his cab on Saturday night. John claims to have dropped Aoife off at Lorna Brady’s house because they were together. He says Lorna was here a short time ago. Lorna takes Olivia to the place where she believes Aoife might’ve hidden the evidence. Colman breaks into Lorna’s residence. When Olivia gets a call from her dad, Lorna learns he is in Dublin.

Lorna sends her downstairs before finding a bag under a loose floorboard. It contains what appears to be folders with names on the front. As Olivia comes back, Lorna rushes to hide the evidence. Olivia thinks they should go because she doubts anything is there. She asks Lorna if she can stay with her since she doesn’t know anyone else there. Lorna flees with the bag and leaves Olivia behind. Once she is alone, she finds the envelope with her name on it. Inside, she finds what looks like a death certificate. It says her daughter, Agnes Brady, died when she was 1 year and 1 month old. Colman finds paperwork from the Department of Children and Youth Affairs to Lorna.

When she goes home, she finds Colman there so she offers him tea. Colman asks her if she had a friend around on the night of October 31st. He tells her what John Farrell said about dropping her and Aoife Cassidy off there. Colman suspects Aoife killed Percy in Dublin and came down there in his car. He suspects Lorna helped Aoife cover her tracks. Lorna denies helping her, but Colman doesn’t believe her. Despite the other lies, Lorna is adamant Aoife walked away with her baby. She shows Colman the paperwork to prove it. The paper says Aoife was an assistant registrar at the Convent of the Seven Joys. Lorna says her baby shivered to death and she wasn’t there to hold her.

Colman wants to know where she got the paper because it is signed by Aoife. Lorna begins hearing a thumping that Colman doesn’t seem to notice. She begins panicking and yelling for it to stop. Lorna yells that she killed Aoife Cassidy and put her in the wall. When she tears open the wall, it looks like there is nothing there.

 

The Woman In The Wall Review

The third episode of The Woman in the Wall slowly unraveled the mystery while creating new ones to explore in future episodes. When Olivia visited, Lorna figured out where Aoife may have kept the evidence. She found that evidence and learned her daughter had shivered to death. Lorna also confirmed to Detective Colman Akande that she killed Aoife and put her in the wall. However, there was no body in the wall when Lorna cut it open.

The series hits some high notes while many others seem to miss their mark. The performances are mostly good although some viewers have complained about the inauthentic accents. The core of the story has the potential to become very interesting and deeply emotional. Whether intentional or not remains to be seen, but the series has many unbelievable and even ludicrous scenes.

In a way, The Woman in the Wall wants to be The Devil’s Hour although it may take things way too far. There may be some big flip at the end that puts the pieces together, but this is just too farfetched to have much of an emotional impact at this point. The story is compelling enough to want to see where it goes although the tedious pace will require a lot of patience to reach the end.

This episode scores a 5.5 out of 10. Past recaps of The Woman in the Wall are available on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site and work at this link. Learn about advertising on Reel Mockery here.