‘I wouldn’t even s*** that!’: What you missed on episode three of Foxtel’s prison drama, Wentworth
Wentworth does WikiLeaks in the third episode of the new season, as the Foxtel drama welcomes a new face. And there’s drama for Reb and Lou. Warning: Spoilers.
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It’s forty years ago since Judy Bryant made her first appearance in Prisoner, the show in Wentworth’s DNA.
American Betty Bobbit played Judy for 429 episodes, the second-longest running Prisoner actor behind Elspeth Ballaynte’s Meg Jackson — a recycled character Wentworth killed off in episode one.
However, Wentworth is only rebooting Judy Bryant just as the show is about to shiv itself.
Back in 1980, Judy Bryant deliberately went to jail – caught bringing drugs into the visiting room – when she thought her girlfriend Susie on the inside was having an affair. Poor Susie would be murdered and Judy eventually left jail to become a folk musician.
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In 2020, Judy Bryant is a Julian Assange-style cyber hacker, activist (or hackivist) and whistleblower played by Vivienne Awosoga. Judy is British (Awosoga was born in Hackney but moved here with her family as a kid) and her father is a conservative politician in the UK. She’s exposed a deal between the US and Australia to build a military base and when she arrives new prison GM Ann Reynolds takes an instant dislike.
Judy thinks she’s been chucked in the clink so she’ll crack and give up her sources. She gets a visitor — some hothead from the “National Security Organisation” (played by Peter O’Brien) — who threatens her unless she spills her guts.
Speaking of, the prison slop is particularly sloppy – Ann Reynolds is cutting costs which pre-cooked “breakfast stew”.
Top Dog Allie asks everyone’s favourite bent screw Linda if she’d eat it after she tries to stop the ladies protesting.
“I wouldn’t even s**t that but I’m not a convicted criminal,” Linda says. Only because she’s never busted on her myriad shonky dealings, but hey.
Judy Bryant has an idea – hunger strike. She’s giving Allie plenty of tech-help – like using the phone in the call centre the prisoners are now employed in to make contact with a journalist on the outside to publicise their hunger strike. But when Judy tells Allie about a hidden laptop – and the NSO find it – she realises she’s been bugged. And they’ve implanted plans to bomb a military base on her computer, which means they can charge her with terrorism.
Meanwhile, Reb has been off testosterone so long he’s had his period in the shower and is now desperate for HRT to complete his transitioning. Reb’s GF Lou has managed to smuggle some testosterone into the jail, but she’s gone through the food suppliers delivering the inedible mush.
So when the hunger strike reaches the media and they revert to the old supplier, their plans go down the pan. Lou gets her brother to bring it in the old fashioned way – sneaky handover under the visiting room table – but just before Reb can shoot up screw Jake busts them. Drat.
But when Reb collapses and is taken to hospital it seems he’s found a dodgy prison supply of the hormone drugs.
Will wants to move Marie Winter off site, but sorry Mr Jackson, Ann Reynolds strikes again – they get a 25% bonus for problematic prisoners so she’s staying put. She is getting time with Wentworth’s own Brett Sutton – psych Greg Miller.
See you next Tuesday.