As the finale of Time begins, Orla O’Riordan (Jodie Whittaker) is taken to a hearing regarding the hostage incident. The victim has written a statement on Orla’s behalf. Orla is sentenced to 20 more days in prison. When she returns to her cell, she apologizes to Abi (Tamara Lawrence) and explains she didn’t know about Kelsey. Abi checks in Kelsey (Bella Ramsey) and the baby who is perfect. Kelsey reveals she’s named the baby Daniel. Abi gets emotional. Kelsey calls Adam (Nicholas Nunn) to complain that he let her down. He wants to see the baby. He insists it’s okay that she named him Daniel instead of Adam. Kelsey hangs up quickly when she hears the baby crying. Marie (Siobhan Finneran) checks on Maeve (Sophie Willan).

Marie tells Maeve that Stephen didn’t send Lou (Julie Graham) that card. She suspects Maeve asked someone on the outside to send the card. Maeve confesses she did it to see Lou’s face light up. Marie doesn’t know what she’ll do about it. Kyle does not visit Orla. When Adam visits, he ends up bringing drugs for Kelsey who doesn’t want them. She quickly tries to explain everything to PO Martin (Lisa Millett). Once Kelsey is led away, Abi worries they’ll take the baby from her. Kelsey gives Martin the drugs and questions what’s going to happen to her. Rob Cochrane (James Corrigan) tells Abi that he’s been seeing someone for about 18 months now. She’s pregnant. Rob asks what’s the biggest thing he did wrong. Abi says nothing before claiming he’s not to blame whatsoever.

He doesn’t believe that so he asks again. Abi says he looked away more when it got harder for her. PO Martin tells Kelsey that someone from children’s services is coming. She claims Kelsey will get the baby back, but she can’t say when that’ll happen. Kelsey gets upset and keeps saying they’re not going to take him. She accuses PO Martin of liking this most of all. Rob thinks it would’ve been better for Abi to ask for her mother’s help instead of doing what she did. He keeps asking why she did it, but Abi claims she doesn’t know. Kelsey gives the baby to PO Martin. Orla checks on Kelsey. Abi and Orla try to comfort her. At some point, Kelsey gets up and sees another prisoner using drugs. Abi interrupts her and questions whether she wants the baby back.

When Kelsey says yes, Abi tells her to keep off that stuff. Marie invites Lou into her office so she can tell the truth about the card. Lou is upset with Maeve when she returns. Orla gets in touch with Kyle who tells her grandma has died. Orla says she wants a crem and she’ll ask if she can come. She admits she might be in handcuffs. On day 270, Orla goes to the ceremony for her mother. She stands up and talks about her mom’s alcoholism. After the event, Orla pleads with PO Carter (Louise Lee) to take off the cuffs while she is with her kids. She asks them to tell Kyle that she loves him. Kelsey calls Adam who apologizes. She is going to tell the bizzies the truth so she can get Daniel back. Adam warns her that she’s dead if she does that.

Orla and Abi tell Kelsey to send him down. Lou enters the cell to tell Orla that her son is visiting for one of those restorative justice things. She asks Orla to come with her before revealing she’s an alcoholic. Once Stephen (Conor McCarry) arrives, Lou says she always hated herself and that’s where the booze came in. She explains how that leads to acting like an idiot and hating herself even more the next day. Lou started being someone different and saying she was rock and roll. That’s what she was when she punched Anna. Then, she had to pretend she didn’t regret it even though she wanted to apologize. Lou hasn’t had a drink since. Stephen always wanted to talk to her about it, but he was worried that would be betraying Anna.

Anna is the one who told him to come. Stephen would like to come again because it’s been nice to meet his mom. Later, Lou goes outside where she hugs Maeve. Adam and Kelsey go to court. Kelsey’s solicitor says she’d like to give evidence for the prosecution. Adam’s recorded threats are played in court. Kelsey says she was a heroin addict and trying to come off of it. Her mate and her fella were going to Spain. They wanted to get her away from Adam and where she was living. It was good for a while until Adam showed up and they flew back home together. The guards found a kilo of heroin in her bag and Adam was nowhere to be seen. Kelsey explains how Adam convinced her not to say anything about his involvement. She knew he put drugs in her bag even though he said it was a present for his mom.

She couldn’t tell him otherwise because she was too scared. Kelsey is sentenced to two and a half years in prison. She will serve another six months before being released. Adam is sentenced to a total of ten years. Day 232, PO Carter asks Orla about going back to her mom’s house. Orla can’t. Carter admits that’s going to be a problem because they don’t have anywhere for her. Orla is shocked to learn that they’re going to send her out with a tent. She says goodbye to her cellmates before leaving the prison with her stuff. Orla finds a homeless encampment where she sets up her tent for the night. She calls Kyle in the middle of the night. The next day, she meets Tess (Danielle Henry) and Kyle (Isaac Lancel-Watkinson). When they’re alone, Orla tells Kyle she knows he didn’t want to come see her because he was ashamed.

She believes he was ashamed she got caught but not what she did. Kyle says yes. Orla isn’t ashamed of anything she did to her kids. She says she’ll get a job and find them somewhere to live. Orla asks Kyle to treat her like his mom and let her come and see him. Kyle is okay with that. Abi spits out her foot. She asks Kelsey if she knew they messed with her food and didn’t say anything. Kelsey follows her back to the cell here she claims she was too scared to say anything. Abi seems to have grabbed a weapon. In the shower, she hears the baby crying and remembers listening to the baby on the baby monitor. Abi tells Rob she is going to get him. Rob reminds her they were going to let him cry. He threatens to go downstairs if she brings the baby in their room. During a session, Abi tells the others she is not a violent person but she will attack back.

She is going to tell her story. Abi hopes they’ll identify with bits of it and that’ll be enough for them to leave her alone. Abi and Rob tried to have kids for ages. When she got pregnant, she was thrilled. They went home with a crying baby and Abi could barely sit down because of the pain. The nurse visited, weighed the baby, and said he was losing weight. Abi told the nurse about her issues only to be reminded the nurse was there for the baby. Abi wanted to scream at her to say she needed help. One day, Abi gets upset at Rob because he leaves for work again. Abi managed to get him to sleep before stepping out of the room. She started thinking she’d harmed him and might’ve even killed him. Abi checked on him and saw that he was fine, but she did it again when she left the room.

She picked him up and carried him believing she couldn’t let him out of her sight. Abi talks about how it felt seeing him twisting in pain and crying. She attempted to get in touch with Rob at work. Abi also called the hospital only to be 18th in line. She explains she wanted to stop his crying and ease his pain. After running the baby a bath, Abi held him under. After walking out into the water, Abi returns. Rob comes home and asks Abi what’s wrong. She tells him that he didn’t ring. Rob finds the baby in the cot before calling the police. Lou asks if she told that story to anyone before, but Abi says it wouldn’t have brought him back. Still, Lou thinks it could’ve helped her. Abi was ashamed that she couldn’t cope when so many women did. Marie asks what his name was. Kelsey says Daniel.

After the session, Abi tells Marie that someone from the group will go after her now. While they talk, Kelsey defends Abi to the other women. Marie asks Abi what she’d want if she could grant her one wish. Abi says it would be to go back in time. Marie asks for another wish. Abi asks if the bishop has found her out yet. Marie says no before asking for another wish again. Abi admits she’d like to be able to grieve. Kelsey, Donna, and the others continue talking about Abi. When Abi goes back, Lou tells her that no one is going to do her any harm. The others agree. Abi thanks them. Kelsey says goodbye to Abi just before she is released from prison. The girls are there to give her a send-off. Three months later, Kelsey meets Mrs. Kelly (Gail Kemp) so she can see Daniel.

Kelsey is told to keep doing what she’s doing because Daniel will be hers again soon.

 

Time Review

The finale of Time was strong in some areas, but it fell a bit flat elsewhere. With three concurrent storylines, there likely wasn’t enough time for each of them to flesh out. As a result, it really felt like they ended abruptly with no real conclusion. Orla’s story ended after she met Kyle who agreed to treat her like a mother again.

There was no follow-up to that so that was a little disappointing. The same can be said for Abi and even Kelsey too. There is no mention of whether Abi was ever targeted by other women in the prison. There should’ve been more time to explore these characters and their stories a little more. The performances were great from start to finish even if the emotional connection just wasn’t there.

There was never a character that was nearly as sympathetic as Mark from the first series. Orla didn’t match Mark because the character often did dumb things that only made her situation worse. If she was desperate enough to do such things, the show really didn’t portray that well enough since it felt like they happened on a whim. Some of these actions may have been forced to give the perception that things were much worse than they actually are.

It might’ve been trying to do too much and make too many statements resulting in an unfinished, inferior season. Nevertheless, this was good in its own right thanks to strong performances and important topics. The finale scores a 6 out of 10. Recaps of Time can be found on Reel Mockery here.

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