As the 9th season of Wentworth begins, we join the prisoners in the recreational yard as Joan Ferguson (Pamela Rabe) remembers being trapped in the coffin. She imagines herself pulling out a knife, rushing up to Will Jackson (Robbie Magasiva), and stabbing him in the torso. Jake Stewart (Bernard Curry) brings her back to reality when reminding her she has an appointment with Dr. Greg Miller (David de Lautour). She glares and smiles at Will before joining Jake in the elevator. Then, she fantasizes about snapping his neck and leaving him dead in the elevator. She passes by Vera Bennett (Kate Atkinson) and finally makes it to Dr. Miller’s office. During their counseling session, Joan insists she can only remember that one fragment and argues he likes inflicting pain. She insists she can’t remember and apologizes for being difficult.

Joan suggests suspending their chats until closer to the trial, but Miller explains he has an obligation to the court to chart her progress. He reminds her she was an innocent child when she saw her mother brutally murdered by someone she loved. Joan doesn’t want to talk about it. Miller insists they can work together and potentially restore Joan’s memory. Boomer (Katrina Milosevic) asks Will why they haven’t charged Lou yet since everyone knows she attacked Allie (Kate Jenkinson). She insists it isn’t fair. Will encourages her not to retaliate since that wouldn’t change what happened. Seconds later, Boomer runs into Ruby (Rarriwuy Hick) and Judy (Vivienne Awosoga) and confirms Allie is being discharged so she’ll be back soon.

They agree Lou (Kate Box) is dead meat as soon as Allie confirms she did it, but Judy wonders whether the incident could’ve messed up Allie’s memories. Lou walks by with Reb (Zoe Terakes) and pokes fun at Allie before moving on. Reb urges her friend to lay off the Allie stuff a bit, but Lou insists she got what was coming to her. She promises someone got to Allie first before they approach Marie (Susie Porter) who is sitting with Sheila Bausch (Marta Dusseldorp). Lou tells Marie her ex-girlfriend is coming back and talks to Sheila about her specialty. Linda Miles (Jacqueline Brennan) interrupts to tell Lou the detectives want to speak to her again. Reb is surprised they want to speak to him too. Once they walk away, Marie sympathizes with poor Reb who is being dragged into Lou’s mess. Sheila admits the police aren’t there about Allie. Her lawyer went to them because Lou wouldn’t cooperate with her, and she is trying to force her hand.

Lou and Reb are questioned about their time at The Truth Path and the poisoning. Reb says they know nothing about it because they had left by then. She claims they left in June, but Lou says it was the end of May. Reb quickly corrects herself and says May since it was Lou’s birthday. They’re asked if they can confirm Sheila’s movements on that day, but neither of them can. Once they finished, they return outside and tell Sheila they couldn’t help her. They warn her she is going down for life. Meanwhile, Boomer and Ruby can’t wait for Allie to return, and they continue talking about getting revenge on Lou. Judy yells that this is for Allie before trying to attack Lou. However, she is quickly pushed to the ground and subdued by Wentworth officers. Boomer and Lou have words but that stops when Allie arrives in a wheelchair.

Allie reveals her spinal nerves are damaged so she likely will never walk again. Marie seems particularly disturbed by the revelation. Judy tells Will she couldn’t stand it anymore and went after Lou. She realizes she is going to be slotted but doesn’t seem thrilled when Will lets her off with a warning. Will insists Allie is going to need her mates more than ever. Boomer switches cells with Allie and a bar is installed so she can pull herself out of bed. Allie confesses she told the officers not to say anything about her condition because she didn’t want them to do something stupid. She insists it wasn’t their fault before she is asked if it was Lou. Judy nervously returns to her cell and Allie asks to talk to her alone. She quickly apologizes and admits she kept the money. Allie tells her to use the money to fight her extradition. They hug. Then, we jump over to Rita Connors (Leah Purcell) who learns the police came asking about her last week.

Her friend told them she didn’t know where she was, but she’d be lying now. She steps inside and finds her father laying on the bed in pitiful shape. Vera carefully watches Joan through the CCTV cameras while she works in the cafeteria. Jake enters and encourages her to have meals in the staff room since Ferguson isn’t doing anything, but Vera believes Ferguson has changed lately. They discuss Grace not sleeping so Jake offers to stay over and help. She must rush off for a meeting. Jake admits it is worrying him that she is going constantly, but she insists she can do it. Will and Vera sit down with Allie and tell her about her ongoing therapy plan. Allie believes she should step down as top dog, but Will and Vera argue otherwise. They encourage her to tell on the person who stabbed her, but she won’t squeal. Once she goes outside, Lou walks up to her and kicks her wheelchair backward. She demands the money which Allie insists she doesn’t have.

Allie tells her to go ahead and kill her before Boomer gets involved. The situation is quickly defused, and everyone goes in separate directions. In the bathroom, Marie tells Sheila her plan to force Lou’s hand didn’t work well, but Sheila admits she hasn’t given up just yet. Judy enters and complains she forgot her body wash, so Sheila gives her some. Then, she flosses angrily. Marie encounters Reb later that night, but neither of them says anything. Reb approaches Lou and asks about Marie saying Lou didn’t want her to the surgery. She admits she doesn’t think Lou has thought about it fully and what it’ll mean to her. Lou says otherwise and Reb wonders if the world will think they’re some boring straight couple. Lou tells Reb tells her she needs her more than the rest of the world. She insists it has always worked and it always will. Joan hears them going at it in the other cell, so she turns on the music to block out the noise.

She thinks about stuffing Will in a deep freezer. When Jake approaches Vera in the morning, she gets upset and goes on and on about Grace not sleeping. He was only trying to tell her to be careful since someone threw up around the corner. Joan walks by and tells Vera good morning before saying she looks tired. Vera stops her and forces her to clean up the vomit in the hallway without gloves. Judy watches a news report about the search for the sniper who assassinated the United States Secretary of Defense. Allie tells Ruby she might get a shower later before learning Rita is with their father right now. Boomer writes a letter to catfish him now and insists it’ll get her a baby. Sheila comments about it before Jake tells her the lawyer is there to talk to her. Once she is gone, Marie asks to speak to Allie in private. She wants to know why Allie hasn’t punished Lou but Allie refuses to admit it was Lou.

Marie wants to know if it is Lou so she can protect the people she cares about. Once the conversation ends, Marie goes to Reb and tells him it was Lou because Allie saw her in the showers. Marie insists it isn’t too late to get away from Lou, but Reb reveals she told Lou to do it because she stole their money. She goes on to say Lou has protected her more than she’ll ever understand and nothing Marie says will ever change that. Marie goes outside and learns from Sheila that the police have closed the investigation and they still believe she murdered nine people. Sheila admits she would never kill him because he kept her on the right path and things are unraveling without him. Marie knows it wasn’t because she caught Lou doing the same thing here. She believes Lou hated Mendel for what he did to Reb, so Lou killed him and his followers.

Marie digs deeper and says Lou murdered the man Sheila loved and got her in trouble for it. She insists it is different for Lou in her because she has someone who loves her. Marie tells Sheila she has one choice left and that is to either take her own life or to take Lou’s. Ruby calls Rita who is still sitting with their father. Ruby is told they don’t know how much longer he has before she is allowed to talk to him. She apologizes to her father for letting him down and getting locked away. Then, she promises to call back again. Their dad wakes up and talks to Rita. Will checks on Ferguson and she has malicious thoughts about him once again. She pulls a knife out of the water and dries it while Will lingers around the kitchen. She ends up leaving the knife and running away before Will turns around.

Then, she meets with Miller and hears voices encouraging her to say it. She confesses she has remembered everything and the urge for revenge is so strong. She warns something terrible will happen if Greg doesn’t help her control herself. He admits he can’t continue working with her, so he gets a guard to take her back to her cell. Seconds later, Sheila asks Marie to get her some sedatives because she wants to drug both. Sheila goes back to her cell and begins planning while Marie gets the drugs for her. In the yard, Lou asks Ferguson if she wants to play cards with them. She makes fun of her because of the fish thing. Jake lets Ferguson know that Miller wants to see her again. Allie yells that she’d like to have everyone’s attention before saying she is going to be stepping down as top dog. While they’re distracted, Sheila places the pills in Lou and Reb’s drinks. Allie says Boomer is going to be taking over until there is a formal vote.

Boomer doesn’t have a speech, so she encourages everyone to behave themselves. Lou and Reb take a drink before they quickly leave the yard. Greg pulls the blinds and gives Ferguson a bottle of Psuldrycin. As requested, she agrees not to say anything about the return of her memory or the drug. He tells her how the medication works and insists it might prevent her psychopathic urges. He admits it might not work and she’ll need to fully commit to their sessions and delve into her past. She takes the medication before we join Allie in the bathroom with Ruby and Boomer. They help her while Reb and Lou go back to their cell for sex. Allie cries in the show while Boomer and Ruby wait for her right outside. Ruby hears and comforts her seconds later. Sheila finds Reb and Lou knocked out in their cell and prepares to go in with a weapon. She walks past Marie outside and glances at her. Marie moves closer to Ferguson and places her head on her shoulder.

Lou wakes up and finds Reb with the tourniquet wrapped tightly around her neck. She panics and frantically tries to wake Reb up, but he doesn’t. Marie and Ferguson go back to the cell and learn about Reb’s murder. Ferguson hits the panic button, and the alarm begins to sound as the episode ends.

 

Wentworth Review

After a few rocky seasons of Wentworth, it is finally back, and I am already torn by the opening episode of season nine. First, I can honestly say this is one of the best episodes the series has had in at least 4 or 5 seasons. If Reb is indeed dead, it’ll prove the writers are willing to go all out and take risks. On the flip side, I am not sure why they felt the need to bring Allie back.

I get that there is still plenty to do with the character, but Wentworth’s biggest problem is the fact it has too many characters right now. I can name a few I care about and the others I don’t. Although I appreciate the writers taking the risk and killing Reb, I will miss the scenes between Reb and Marie since they were some of the best scenes in recent seasons. Quite frankly, I am not sure I truly care about any of the characters at this point.

The show needs to narrow down its roster quickly. Rita, Judy, Ruby, and so many others are just filling space right now. We need to dedicate more time and energy to the characters that are hitting the right notes. Ferguson’s story could be interesting even though it is still difficult to wrap your head around your miraculous survival. I could go on and on, but I won’t. I’ll just say that we need more chaos like this in every episode.

One or more of the characters should be eliminated each episode. Finally, I’ll argue it was too easy for Marie to manipulate Sheila and convince her to kill. I can overlook this though since the writers are working with limited time now. The episode was one of the best in a long, long time. I’d give it a 7.5 out of 10. Previous and future recaps of Wentworth can be found on Reel Mockery here.