Wentworth recap: The Freak is back and after revenge, and someone’s had an unkind snip
Aussie prison drama Wentworth Redemption is back and so are some ghosts from the past. Here’s a recap of episode one. Warning: Spoilers
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SPOILER ALERT: WENTWORTH REDEMPTION S8 E1 RECAP
It’s been a while since Wentworth had a proper love story.
But the season return of the prison drama (now titled Wentworth Redemption, in case you missed the narrative that’s going to play out) has a couple to rival Allie and Bea (RIP).
We pick up with Lou Kelly (in a fetching pooh emoji brown wig) and boyfriend Reb Keane shopping for a wedding ring in a posh jewellery shop.
There’s a Pretty Woman moment when the stuffy staff member tries to get Lou to choose from the more ghetto bling selection.
In a flash Lou has pulled a gun and pointed it at Mr Snippy stating “You touch that alarm and I will blow your tiny wizened balls off.”
So it’s hello to Lou ‘Fingers’ Kelly and the word ‘wizened’ and we’re off.
Lou and Reb speed away, there’s a car crash, Reb is injured but Lou isn’t going to leave her man behind and she’s back in jail.
The bus on the way to Wentworth sees Reb – who is transgender and was born Rebecca – cop some mouth about his attire. And before long Lou uses the mouthy intimate’s face to smash a pesky fly against the bus window – right in front of all the staff. Welcome back.
Turns out Kelly is a Wentworth familiar face – she was on the inside back in the day – pre Bea and Jacs Holt – and knows Boomer.
But Boomer’s not jazzed to see her back – and warns new top dog Allie (who’s clearly inherited someone’s make-up since we last saw her in the siege) that her nickname Fingers relates to the fact she removes digits if she’s crossed.
Apparently there’s a few fingerless prisoners who can attest to that. This will become important later.
Jane Hall is another Wentworth newbie, she’s the new prison GM Anne Reynolds who sees the jail as licence to print money in the new corporate world. Captive prisoners equals cheap labour. She has plans for a call centre run by prisoners She’s a piece of work.
Ann is also a classic Karen, complaining her coffee is “tepid” when she tries to get her pal from back in the corrections Academy era Vera off mat leave and back to work.
Allie visits Kelly in a pre pandemic self isolation (otherwise known as the Slot) and gives her the lay of the land – she’s boss. Lou levels with Allie about how Reb was born in the wrong body and won’t survive if he’s separated from her.
On the outside someone is stalking Vera and baby Grace, taking pap pics of them. Who could it be?
Also out in the wild we see that Rita Connors is in the bush, under police protection. “You are going to be fine,” she’s told by some suit. She, and we, know that is not true.
KATH MAXWELL. Remember that name. It’s the new identity Joan ‘The Freak’ Ferguson is going under obtained under the worst possible means.
She’s a little greyer than you remember her, but being buried alive will do that to a person. She’s living in some shack near a train, filled with one of those classic crime scene walls with lots of photos of Vera, Grace and whoever else she’s been stalking. This isn’t going to end well.
However points for a pre-iso bottle of hand sanitiser The Freak/Kath Maxwell pumps like we did back in the days when it wasn’t liquid gold.
Kath wants to go to Rio, she seems to be planning to take Grace with her. Hasn’t Vera suffered enough?
Marie Winter – who you may remember organised the failed siege – is back behind bars. Her ex lover, prison boss Will Jackson, is happy to throw her to the wolves by putting her back in the general prison population.
Marie takes Reb under her wing – in some creepy substitute for her own dead son.
Boomer has a run in with Lou out in the yard and her knowledge of transgender issues is a little prehistoric.
Before long Lou attacks Boomer in the shower block (seriously, you’d rather pong than go near that place) as retaliation for her comments. Boomer literally wets herself as she realises her own near-death experience must have been how Liz (RIP) felt when she euthanised her in the last series.
Boomer lets out a wail that sounds a little like a wounded animal/Wookie from Star Wars.
Boomer’s dirty laundry gets filthier when she lags to Allie about who bashed her.
And the episode ends with Fingers Kelly getting belated payback. Allie has somehow acquired a shiny pair of garden shears and is ready to remove one of Lou’s digits.
In a scene reminiscent of when Bea shot a smug Brayden Holt, once Lou tells Allie “Darling, you’re not top dog material, you’re a big pair of lips with eyelashes” (at least someone’s noticed the makeover) there’s a nasty snip and someone’s one digit down.
See you next Tuesday