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“Wentworth” recap (2.03): Forked by Franky

[Hey prisoners, Valerie Anne here. Taking over for Elaine this week. Never know where I’ll pop up these days!]

Previously on Wentworth, the new Governor worked extra hard to make us miss Erica, Franky frantically asserted her dominance all over the place, and Bea decided that killing Jacs wasn’t enough revenge for Debbie and aimed her sights at Brayden.

Out in the yard, chaos is rampant, because the Governor’s new anti-drug campaign is throwing a wrench into things. A fight breaks out on the basketball court, but more importantly, someone spray painted a rather crude image on the wall. Ol’ Fergie is not pleased to be depicted with a giant wanker.

Another wrench in the system is Jacs’s friend Simone, who is back to shake things up. She tells Bea she wants to just forgive and forget. Bea seems keen on this idea, but unfortunately for Simone, Franky does not. She follows Sky into a bathroom and yells at Sky for spray painting the yard, since now their cells are being tossed. Sky is sent away without any drugs, much to her dismay, and Franky demands to know where Simone got drugs and what she has on her. She knows Sky can smell gear a mile away, so it must be here somewhere. For good measure, Franky searches her. In the biblical sense. For one full second I thought it was going to turn into something sexual, with Boomer watching and everything, but Simone says it’s not her cup of tea. Franky puffs out her chest and leaves, but Simone had some drugs hidden under the sink the whole time.

Meanwhile, the Governor tells Fletcher that he’s being written up for macing Sky. He’s highly offended that he’s getting reprimanded for using excessive force on a girl half his size, but Joan has no sympathy for him. Next up in the Chokey is Doreen, who the Governor gives 24 hours to “remember” who spray painted the beautiful portrait of her in the yard. The fate of her garden depends on it.

At lunch, Doreen is moping about the garden, but Franky literally could care less. Where she once might have told Doreen to chin up, she is instead obsessed with finding out how Simone is getting drugs in, because, without a governor on her side, she needs to hold on to what power she has left.

She puts on her coyest smile and goes over to have a chat with her good pal Simmo. While she’s chatting and being charming, she’s also murmuring threats and stabbing her with a fork. All the while, Bea is taking notes; listening in with her supersonic hearing, and wondering if it might be Brayden helping Simone.

Later, when Simone is tending to her fork wounds, Bea approaches her and asks if Simone will help her talk to Brayden, but Simone doesn’t understand why she would want to do that. Bea tells her that she wants to apologize for taking his mother from him, and it looks like saying the words physically pains her. Probably partly because it’s not true, and partly because it is.

Outside in the yard, Doreen is being distracted by Nash, her fella from the men’s prison. Elaine predicted in a previous recap that he’s probably going to end up axe-murdering Doreen, so every time I find myself thinking they’re sweet together, I start to panic and yell RUN!

Inside, Franky finds Sky in her cell, high as a kite. Higher, even. As punishment, Franky has Boomer beat the crap out of Sky. I think this is an interesting dynamic, because Franky is all bark, and uses Boomer as her bite, but on her own, Boomer is a sweetheart. Which I guess is the point; in a place like this, you do what you have to. And Boomer does have to, if she wants to survive.

A bruised and bloody Sky finds Simone in her block and tells her where she can find Franky studying alone later that night. Bea is still observing, listening, waiting. She senses something is amiss and tries to warn Simone not to go after Franky, that Sky is woven tight in that cute little braid of hers, and can’t be trusted. But Simone isn’t worried about Sky’s loyalties; she thinks it lies solely in who has the gear, and right now, that’s her and her alone.

Simone goes to the pool room, where Sky told her Franky would be, and calls out to her gals that were supposed to meet her there. But they’re being held up, because the spray can was planted in their cell block. Simone realizes she’s alone and out come Franky and her girls, hoods up. Franky & Co. beat Simone with the 8 ball she “accidentally” launched at Franky earlier and show no mercy. When she’s a helpless heap on the floor, Franky puts the 8 ball in a sock and hands it to Boomer. She wants the injuries to be bad enough that Simone is taken into protection and off their hands. As soon as she gives Boomer her weapon and her order, she leaves, and as soon as she steps into the hallway, we see a flash of the Franky we used to know. She looks sick about what she’s done, what she has to do. She knows Liz was right, she’s swum out too far, but at this point all she can do is cling on to whatever she can reach, no matter who she drags down in the process.

Just as Boomer gathers up enough courage to do as Franky asked, Bea shows up to stop her. Enough is enough. Boomer is afraid of what Franky will do, but Bea is giving her the out she so desperately wanted, so she runs off. Bea gets Simone up and takes her back to the cell blocks, but not in time for bed checks, despite promising Will she would be right back.

And Will had promised Fletcher he’d be right back, and not to call in the low prisoner count just yet, and so it’s Fletch that gets busted by Joan and her mini-me, the two people that hate him the most (besides us, the audience).

In the hospital wing, Simone insists that she doesn’t see who beat her, and Bea promises she just happened to remember Simone saying she wasn’t feeling well and went to check on her. And nothing makes the Governor angrier than prisoners working together to lie to her, so she storms off, surely to concoct some other devious plan.

Boomer comes to Bea and tells her that Franky is not letting her eat as a punishment for not going the extra mile with Simone. She scurries away before Franky can see her talking to Bea, because Franky has some threatening things to say to Bea as well. Franky is starting to see that she might have more competition for Top Dog than she previously realized, even if Bea doesn’t know it yet.

In the principal Governor’s office, the guards get another lecture about fixing Wentworth. Afterwards, she scolds Fletcher separately, because she’s running out of patience and she really wants an excuse to fire him. So this is his final warning. And surely Fletch will take this like the respectable gentleman he is and strive to improve himself and tow the line from now on. Oh and also a pig just flew by my window.

Franky, feeling rather proud of herself, tells Doreen that she should be thanking her for getting her off the hook for ratting out Sky as the spray paint vandal. Doreen has been watching a girl who had nothing to do with it paint over the giant penis and isn’t feeling particularly grateful. Franky promises her that no one is innocent in this place, and says that in return she wants to be put on garden detail. Doreen knows better than to refuse Franky and agrees.

In the guards’ locker room, after getting called a tattle tale by Fletcher, Will receives a letter from A that simply reads, “I’m watching you.” Like most people do when they get such a letter, he looks around the room. Like most people do when they look around the room after receiving such a letter, he doesn’t see any clues as to who could have sent it.

In the garden, Franky reveals her true motivation behind wanting to be on garden duty: There’s a male prisoner who can hook her up with the gear she so desperately needs to regain control. Other scandalous things going on in the garden: Nash and Doreen are flirting up a storm, and Bea finds something sharp in the dirt and pockets it, her eyes wild with scheming.

Later, Simone finds Bea and thanks her for saving her life, a newfound admiration in her eyes. If Bea saw in herself what Franky sees, what the Governor sees, she might have used this moment as leverage. She might have started here and now to take over, to overthrow Franky’s regime. Alas, her obsession has given her tunnel vision and she can think of only one thing: Brayden. She gives Simone a letter and says it’s an apology, and asks Simmo to give it to him. Simone says she really doesn’t owe him anything, but that he’s going to be here tomorrow, so sure she’ll give it to him.

Bea goes to Franky to ask for legal advice, but before Franky is ready to play nice, she wants to know what amount of involvement she had in Simone’s not being in a coma. Bea says she was in the shower and Franky leans in for a whiff of that magical red mane of curls. Franky is satisfied and gives Bea the legal advice she’s looking for. Before she leaves, she looks back at Franky and promises that she’s not against her. And for now, that’s very true.

Bea goes to Will’s office and asks for an urgent visit from her lawyer. Will can’t even look at her, he’s so angry at her betrayal, so Bea turns on the sweetness and begs for forgiveness. Assures him she wasn’t lying, apologizes for getting him in trouble. And since Will is a big softie, he agrees to put in her request.

Bea goes back to her cell and methodically sharpens her shiv; toothbrush handle, lighter, and all.

During the next garden shift, Nash and Doreen end up making out in the shed, which is surely against the rules. And, my mind flitting back to our recapper Elaine’s theory, is probably going to end in heartache. Most likely literal “ouch there’s a shovel in my chest” heartache.

The Governor is (rightly) suspicious of Franky’s sudden interest in gardening, but with a charming smile, Franky assures her she’s just really passionate about vegetables. What she’s really after though, is the gear the shady guy promised her. She hands him some cash as a down payment, and he says he wants a little… “extra” for his trouble. Franky makes the same horrified/disgusted face I do. For a second I thought it was going to happen and I was going to set everything on fire, but then Franky made Boomer give the guy the BJ. And based on the chest-grabbing, I don’t think Boomer minded so much. Oh, I hope Boomer didn’t mind so much. Poor thing.

The next day, during visiting hours, Bea puts her shiv LITERALLY INSIDE HERSELF and goes to meet her lawyer. While he’s rattling on about how he doesn’t actually have anything new to tell her and he’s only here to act as a plot device, Bea somehow gets the shiv out of her vajayjay and is looking around frantically for Brayden. As soon as she sees him, she acts, lunging at Brayden’s throat, right where she got Jacs, screaming FOR DEBBIIIIIIIIIIE! Unfortunately, she only knicks him, which causes her to flail around in the arms of the cards, calling him a monster, and spitting at him the best she can. He smiles his cocky smile and even though I rarely root for the death of even fictional characters, I find myself really upset she failed. Also upset is Simone, who is no longer Team Queen Bea.

Speaking of upset, Will. is. FURIOUS. He went out on a limb for her and she cut the branch with a chainsaw. He is not going to make that mistake again. Bea is thrown in the slot and stares down at the blood on her hands. It’s not enough, and it’s too much.

What did you think of “Boys in the Yard”?

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