Episode seven of Wentworth‘s “Final Sentence” is all about lies, corruption, helplessness, and betrayal.
Allie and the Guards
Allie Novak feels hopeless, sexless and insecure in episode seven. The episode starts with her having a sex dream, only to wake up in a puddle of her own urine. She approaches Ruby, her ex-lover, for help, only to find Ruby having sex with her new girlfriend, Zaina. As Allie gets acclimated to her “new normal” — the wheelchair — she struggles to imagine a future worth fighting for.
Vera and Will tell Allie that the psychologist, Dr. Miller, knows Joan Ferguson’s retrieved her memory. He’s going to stand testimony in her trial. Vera and Will want to make his testimony lack credibility. They need dirt on him in order to undermine what he says about Joan so they convince Allie to seduce Dr. Miller.
Despite claiming Dr. Miller is a good, helpful psychologist, Allie agrees to help the corrupt guards. Perhaps it gives her a purpose and she hates Joan since she killed her soul mate, Bea. To begin with, the request brings up feelings of unattractiveness and sexlessness for Allie. She tells Dr. Miller she feels unattractive since the attempted murder physically disabled her. The conversation seems genuine but, over time, she plants a letter in his office and tries to get him to say she’s “beautiful.”
We know Allie genuinely has low self-esteem at the moment, even if some of what she says is to manipulate Dr. Miller. Not only does she try to sleep with her ex-lover, Ruby, in the showers, but she also threatens to commit suicide when she’s rejected. She threatens herself and the guards with a shiv and eventually begins stabbing her legs with it. Dr. Miller views her behaviour, after attending to her breakdown, as a PTSD response to the multitude of things that she hasn’t processed.
After Will and Vera see Allie self-harm, they talk privately about taking it “too far” by expecting her to seduce Dr. Miller. However, while in medical, Allie does lean in for a kiss with him when he visits. We discover that the letter she planted in his office was “proof of their love.” It was part of a scheme to frame Dr. Miller as a predator who now is “trying to break up with her.” Allie makes a formal complaint.
When Dr. Miller is “apprehended” by Will and Vera in his office, he deduces that they’re behind the set up. Instead of blaming Allie, he questions how the guards could take advantage of someone like Allie, who’s already gone through enough. In reality, Will and Vera are no better than Joan Ferguson. In many ways they’re worse. They identify as warm, trustworthy people. Wolves in sheep clothing. Joan can’t perform the way they do. She’s unlikable. What’s worse?
Rita and Marie
Rita is wary of Marie after discovering she knows Rita has been an undercover cop for the last 10 years. If the information gets out to the rest of the prison, Rita’s dead. She approaches Marie in the bathroom and intimidates her to find out her plan. Marie confesses that she has “bigger problems” than Rita at the moment: Judy and Lou are planning to kill the General Manager, Governor, and guards. Marie has a soft spot for Will Jackson after they slept together years ago. She doesn’t want anything to harm him.
Rita, like Allie, works with shady prison guards this episode. Rita lags to Will Jackson about Lou and Judy’s plan. Ann, General Manager of Corrections, thinks it’s just typical inmate behaviour to begin with, until Miles discovers Boomer’s camera in the butt crack of her “boyfriend” after a conjugal visit. When Ann hooks the camera up to her computer she finds evidence of Judy and Lou discussing their plans in the bathroom. She begins to take it seriously. Especially considering the plans involve making bombs, Ann’s daughter died from a bombing attack, and she already targets Judy because her charges involve terrorism.
Meanwhile, Lou discovers there is a mole in her ranks when guard Miles threatens her about the suspected plans. She overlooks Marie to begin with, because they’re sleeping together. Lou’s extremely lonely after Reb’s death and admits she “needs” Marie.
Lou assumes it was Joan. Surprisingly, Joan accepts the misguided punishment despite threatening Lou with the eye in her food last episode. Joan wants to get out of prison. If she “acts like Joan,” and not like Kath, then people won’t be sold on the amnesia story anymore. She’s also trying to prove to Miller that she can control her urges so he continues trusting her.
Rita convinces Marie to not feel guilty about Joan copping her punishment. “Now’s not the time for having a conscience,” Rita says. Lou realises Marie snitched when she discovers the phone Marie was supposed to give back to Zaina recording her under the bed. How will she punish Marie? Or will Marie snitch on Rita’s undercover past before the limelight lands on her? Now they’re in the same cell block, I doubt it. I suspect Rita will protect her.
Dr. Miller and Joan
Dr. Miller tells Joan that Will and Vera know about the experimental drugs he’s been giving her, that they’ve set him up, and that they are aware Joan’s not “Kath Maxwell” anymore. Joan says she has a plan. She steals the phone off Lou during the night, hooks up to the prison’s wifi (the details on a piece of paper I assume she got off Dr. Miller), and sends a picture to a local printer.
The picture is of Will, Vera and Jake burying Joan alive. I assumed Joan knew Jake and Will were part of the plan to murder her but I didn’t know she was aware Vera was too, because she holds Vera in a different light. She couldn’t imagine murdering Vera when she could the men. She essentially admits to Dr. Miller she had a connection with Vera and wanted to get closer to her. She wants to kill anyone who harms Vera, such as Jake.
Does Joan see Vera as a helpless pawn, incapable of having any real part in the attempted murder? Does she assume Vera was manipulated into helping with the burial? That could be Joan’s downfall. Vera’s one of the most sneaky, self-protective, quick-thinking characters on the show. Perceiving her as weak and without any malice will persuade Joan to overlook Vera’s capabilities.
