At the start of the episode, Lou Kelly (Kate Box) and Judy Bryant (Vivienne Awosoga) team up for basketball while Rita Connors (Leah Purcell) watches from the bench nearby. Meanwhile, Allie (Kate Jenkinson), Marie (Susie Porter), and the others listen to a news report about the assassination of US Defense Secretary Martin Schwartz. Allie says she remembers it because it happened the day she was stabbed before Rita learns the men were paid by cryptocurrency, but they haven’t found the individual who paid it yet. Boomer (Katrina Milosevic) has an upset stomach so Ruby (Rarriwuy Hick) and the others suspect it might be morning sickness. Marie offers her tea, but Boomer tells her not to suck up to her. Then, Rita suspects Judy used the stolen money to put a hit on Schwartz. Vera (Kate Atkinson) tells Will (Robbie Magasiva) about the picture Ferguson sent to her printer.

They’re not sure if Dr. Greg Miller (David de Lautour) knows about the photo and they agree to leave Jake out of the loop for the time being. Greg is brought in and awkwardly questioned about the photo without telling him what it is about. He seems clueless about the whole thing and doesn’t know what happened last night. Once that conversation ends, he goes to Ferguson (Pamela Rabe) to try to find out what she has, but she won’t tell him about the picture. In the laundry, a guard is paid to step out of the room so Marie can be punished for trying to record Lou’s conversations. Marie pulls out a shiv in hopes of defending herself from Lou’s women. Before Marie can be punished, Linda Miles (Jacqueline Brennan) and other guards rush in and break everything up. As Marie is pulled out of the room, she yells at Lou to fight her own fight.

Vera visits Ferguson in the kitchen to tell her it hasn’t worked. She says she is going to confess to everything to prevent Ferguson from getting away with her plan. Joan tells her she’ll be punished for being a governor and she won’t look good in teal. Then, she says the stakes are higher for Vera because it would severely hurt Grace if she goes to prison and Grace goes to foster care. When Zaina (Louisa Mignone) goes outside, Ruby approaches her to ask if she can get a pregnancy test. Saad quickly agrees to do so. Vera tells Will that Joan is right because she can’t let that happen to Grace. Will says they’ll let Ferguson and Greg run their race and deal with whatever happens. Rita corners Judy in the hallway in hopes of getting her to tell Lou to leave Marie alone. She also accuses her of the assassination of Schwartz. That night, Judy goes to Lou to tell her about the encounter and encourage her to do something about Rita because she could mess up their plan.

Joan is taken to Will’s office where Will tells her she has won. He says Vera doesn’t deserve to go down for this, so they’ll leave Ferguson and Greg alone. Ferguson agrees and admits she doesn’t blame Will for what he did. She would’ve done the same, but Will would still be buried. Lou approaches Rita outside, gives her coffee, and tries to find out what she is up to. Rita switches the coffee to protect herself and that makes Lou laugh. Lou can’t understand why Rita would be trying to mess up her thing or why she would care. She threatens to take Rita down if she gets in her way. Both are used to getting their way, so someone is going to be really disappointed. Lou offers to give her the top dog spot, but Rita says she doesn’t want it. Then, she wonders if Rita is bored before asking if she is a screw lover. Rita asks if she can guarantee the women will get hurt but Lou cannot because that would take away the surprise. Jake interrupts to tell Rita the police are there to see her.

Lou recommends she not go in there to mess with her thing. Rita is shown the gun that belonged to Morelli. They charge her with murder and explains that to Will moments later. Will says she should’ve come to him sooner because he helped before but can’t fix it now. Then, she tells Ruby about it and admits she wishes she’d done this on her own. Ruby says they’re in this together though. Rita cries while saying Jones has screwed them and there is nothing she can do while locked in Wentworth. Lou learns about Rita’s murder charge and immediately tells Judy who is worried she’ll use what she knows about her to get a plea deal. Judy wants to know what Lou told Marie because Rita will know all that now.

Lou doesn’t say and pretends everything is a joke. Linda arrives to tell Ferguson the police are there to interview her. Judy wants to know what Lou told Marie so she can find out what she is up against. Lou returns to her cell and begins listening to the recordings Marie made using the cellphone. Vera finds out that Ferguson is being interviewed so she watches through the window. She sees the passports Ferguson had made for herself and Grace before storming in and going ballistic. Vera learns they were found near the spot where the man who attacked Ferguson was living. Ferguson freaks out in the cafeteria while Vera looks around Joan’s cell. Ferguson says kill or be killed while Vera looks in the fridge and finds a bottle of milk with Kath’s name on it. Joan takes a piece of wire so she can use it to strangle Vera.

Rita is told the evidence can be twisted to support Jones’s story and her options are bleak. Ruby is facing up to 15 years. She wants to say she coerced Ruby, but Ruby isn’t willing to say that. Her attorney recommends taking a plea deal. Judy approaches her in the hallway and offers to help her escape as part of their upcoming plan. Ruby takes the pregnancy test to Boomer later that night. Although Boomer is hesitant to use it, Allie and Ruby eventually convince her to do so. At first, it says she isn’t pregnant, so she throws it into the garbage. She checks it again and finds out she is pregnant. She is thrilled and intends to tell Gavin when he visits tomorrow. Ruby checks on Rita and learns about the escape plan. Rita says Lou was going to kill the guards but they’re going to use Judy’s contacts to escape now. Rita believes she should escape with them so she can collect evidence against Jones, but Ruby doesn’t think that is a good idea.

Jake (Bernard Curry) visits Ann (Jane Hall) as she is ridiculed by the minister of corrections on the phone. She wants to have sex with Jake to forget about it, but he turns her down this time. He says he really cares about Vera and shouldn’t be doing this behind her back, so Ann forces him to leave. Lou continues listening to the recordings of her talking about Reb. Vera gets some Borax so she can poison Ferguson. She mixes it with milk and refills the bottle before writing Kath’s name on it. Meanwhile, Ferguson comes up with her own plan to murder Vera. Jake knocks on the door and interrupts Vera’s murder plot because he wants to tell her about sleeping with Ann. He admits he slept with her a couple of times. Vera is more worried about Ann. When she calls, Vera answers and Ann cries while saying she messed up again. She pleads with Vera to come. Vera tells her not to drive and to send her the location. When Vera returns to her office, she finds that Jake took the poisoned milk.

She finds him in the officer’s room trying to drink the milk but stops him in time. Vera confesses she was going to use it to poison Joan. He learns about the passports, Vera’s motives, and Ferguson having the photo. Vera says she is just as bad as Ferguson for trying to poison her, but Jake says Joan drove them to this point. Jake says Vera always held onto what was right and held out all this time, so she is stronger than any of them. She says she just wants this to be over. Boomer goes to the visiting room to wait for Gavin, but he never shows up. Jake has to take her back to her cell before too long. Vera goes to the library to prepare for her market gardening lecture. Ferguson is waiting for her with the wire. She tries to sneak up behind her but Ann storms in and complains about Vera not coming to get her last night. Vera tells her about her distractions while Ann says she always lets her down despite saying she is her friend.

Vera apologizes but says she has had a few tough days. Ferguson listens as Ann tells Vera she isn’t capable of being her friend and she doesn’t need more selfish people in her life. When Ann storms out of the room, Ferguson tries to sneak up on her but escapes the room instead. Meanwhile, Marie hears something that startles her, so she tries to convince Linda to let her go to get a message to Rita. Allie ridicules Rita for trying to escape with Judy and says she is an idiot if she trusts her. Rita goes outside and tells Ruby she is going to tell the governor about Judy’s escape plan while Marie screams to be released. Lou listens to another recording and hears the conversation between Jones and Marie. Rita promises Ruby she’ll find a way to get them out of there. Marie is finally released and immediately rushes outside to tell Rita about it.

Lou takes the phone outside and gathers the women around so they can hear the truth for themselves. Marie makes it outside before she is grabbed and hauled up by the other women. Lou begins playing the recording so the women can hear it. Rita tries to pretend that Lou made up the recording with her brother or something, Boomer denies it, and Ruby says it is bull crap. The women believe Lou who says she knows why Rita loves the screws so much. She calls her a pig before the women start bashing her and the guards try to break it up.

 

Wentworth Review

This episode of Wentworth was a double-edged sword with some good moments but also some questionable writing. We’re down to two episodes which makes it disappointing that more characters haven’t been eliminated by this point. Are the majority of these characters going to die in a fiery explosion? I am concerned the ending is going to leave many questions and I think anyone who has stuck through nine seasons deserves a definite ending for each and every character.

It was humorous to see the guards break up the fight in the laundry so quickly considering they’ve held long brawls there without interruption. Ferguson has been in prison for a long time now so it isn’t like they only just now found the passports. That was odd. Finally, it was weird to even believe Gavin would be allowed to visit Boomer at Wentworth again. While I get that he stood her up, he’d likely be banned from visiting the prison or in jail for smuggling contraband into the prison.

With that out of the way, I am glad the inmates found out about Rita and gave her a good bashing. The first few episodes were great with plenty of bloodshed and shocking character deaths. We need more of that but we’re running out of time. I really just want to know what is going to happen to Boomer, Allie, Marie, Lou, Joan, Ferguson, Will, Jake, Ann, and everyone else before the finale ends.

The episode was a good step in the right direction, but the intensity will need to be cranked up a bit to make this happen in the next two episodes. The episode scores a 6.5 out of 10. All recaps of Wentworth can be found on Reel Mockery here.