EPISODE 591Broadcast on Carlton/LWT Thursday 02 July 1998 23:40; Channel 5 Sunday 20 February 2000 04:40. A blow of fate changes Nancy McCormack's life forever. A mysterious figure means the difference between life and death for Joan. Meg ~ Elspeth Ballantyne Joan ~ Maggie Kirkpatrick Eve ~ Lynda Stoner Jessie ~ Pat Evison Nancy ~ Julia Blake Julie ~ Jackie Woodburne Lou ~ Louise Siversen Lexie ~ Pepe Trevor Barbie ~ Jayne Healey Joe McCormack ~ John Larking Peter McCormack ~ Steve Bastoni Bet Gowan ~ Rosalind Hill  Mrs Gibson ~ Patsy Martin Sister Hall ~ Gael Andrews Pat Slattery ~ Dorothy Cutts Off. David ~ Cheryl Ballantyne  UNCREDITEDRita ~ Glenda Linscott | Lou and Alice drag Joan to the laundry and put her one of the driers. Rita defends Dan against Lexie's accusation that he must be a wimpy cleric: in fact he has been thrown out of the church for helping the less fortunate. Lexie notices Jessie is staring at her and suspects her of perving. Lou shuts Lexie up when she starts to complain when Eve comes into the rec room. Jessie goes to Lexie's cell pretending she wants to place a bet on the sweepstake to decide what Barbie is inside for. Instead Lexie and Jessie end up arguing when Jessie objects to Lexie's arrogant attitude and to being called a lesbian. Lou sends Eve away to clean her cell: just after she leaves Officer Slattery comes into the rec room to call the women into the garden to hear an address from Meg. Lurch is worried that they are going to have to leave Joan in the drier longer than they intended. Once the women are outside, Rita asks permission to go inside again for "an oil change". Lou shrugs off Lou's suggestion that she should do the same to go inside and get out of the drier. However, a mystery figure has already moved Joan out of the drier: we can see only the hands as she cuts Joan's bonds and hides a note under her collar. Meg addresses the women in the garden with an unconvincing "tough guy" routine, but then asks the women to observe a minute's silence in May's memory. When the women go inside again, Pat Slattery finds Joan on the floor just outside the laundry: she finds the note under Joan's collar which implicates Lou. Meg questions Lou but she claims she was with Alice or Lexie the whole time. Lexie demands the hundred dollars again from Lurch in return for confirming her and Lou's alibi. Joan is in the infirmary but is not seriously hurt.  She wants to return to work, but Meg tells her she must rest. Joan scoffs at Meg's report of the note naming Lou and tells her it was Rita who attacked her. Meg points out that someone must have got her out of the drier, and whoever it was probably saved her life. Lou visits Joan in the infirmary and tells her it was Rita who did it: Joan agrees but tells Lou to leave it to her to her to settle accounts. Rita is interviewed by Meg and denies putting Joan in the drier, and even more vehemently denies taking her out. Nancy's husband Joe has a mistress: he promises her to tell Nancy about their affair so that they can be together. Rita returns to the rec room having been let off without charge. Jessie speaks to Julie to find out more about Lexie. Joe and Nancy have a row: their next door neighbour hears them and calls Peter. When he arrives the argument is over until Joe starts again. Peter challenges him and hits out at him: Joe falls knocking his head on a conveniently placed coffee table.  Nancy sends Peter away and says she will sort it out: but she seems to know that Joe is dead not unconscious. Lexie tells Rita to taunt Lou by telling her to watch out for the Phantom Lagger. Meg warns Joan not to retaliate against Rita, so Joan of course goes straight to Rita's cell to issue a few threats before she goes home. Rita asks her if she enjoyed the "tumble" as much as the ones she used to have with Terri.  As Joan hurries away, she pushes past Julie and Lexie, who notice a folded piece of paper on the floor. After dark, Nancy drags Joe's body into the back garden and digs a grave to bury him. The paper is a note signed by the Phantom Lagger: it was to have told the officers to check Julie's cell if they want to find out what happened to Nora. Julie reads the women parts of the note left by Nora the night she escaped then eats it to stop anyone reading the bit where Nora gives details of her whereabouts. Lou says that they have to catch the Lagger before she does any more damage |
EPISODE 592Broadcast on Carlton/LWT Thursday 09 July 1998 23:40; Channel 5 Saturday 26 February 2000 04:40. A trap to identify the Lagger ends in a shock revelation. Rita finds an unusual way to communicate with Slasher.Meg ~ Elspeth Ballantyne Joan ~ Maggie Kirkpatrick Joyce ~ Joy Westmore Eve ~ Lynda Stoner Julie ~ Jackie Woodburne Lexie ~ Pepe Trevor Lou ~ Louise Siversen Alice ~ Lois Collinder Nancy ~ Julia Blake Jessie ~ Pat Evison Rita ~ Glenda Linscott Barbie ~ Jayne Healey Steve Ryan ~ Peter Hayes  Peter McCormack ~ Steve Bastoni Mabel ~ Val Jellay Sister Hall ~ Gael Andrews Ida Brown ~ Paddy Burnett  Det Mike Woods ~ Bob Ruggiero  Det Tony Neil ~ Stephen Hutchinson  Slasher ~ Slasher Pat Slattery ~ Dorothy Cutts Off. Radcliffe ~ Marion Dimmick | Lou accuses Lexie of writing the note: Julie points out to Lexie later that it would be reasonable to suspect Jessie as she's been snooping around and the notes only started to appear after Jessie came to Wentworth. Julie also remembers that Jessie was the last into the garden on the morning when Joan was put into the drier. Nancy phones Joe's boss and says he's gone away on family business which make a time to sort out, so he shouldn't keep the job open for his return. Despite Julie's stern warning to keep her mouth shut until they have more evidence, Lexie tells Lou that Jessie is the Phantom Lagger. Meg visits Joyce in hospital to fill her in on the news, and when telling her about Barbie Cox, she does a grotesquely poor imitation of her. Joyce introduces Meg to her doctor, Steve Ryan, who asks Joyce if he can speak to her on another matter next day. Jessie phones Mabel to ask her to bring in some glossy magazines for Lexie. Lou bashes Jessie in the shower next morning, but relents and gives her time to prove her innocence. Eve starts saving her tablets. Peter seems to believe Nancy's story about Joe going to Queensland. Joan returns to work and finds another note poking out of the lock of a corridor security gate. The note reveals that Eve has not been taking her pills, which is proved to be true after a cell search turns up a small stash of them hidden in a matchbox. Rita's dotty Auntie Ida brings some magazines for her. Dr Ryan asks Joyce for her impressions of how women in prison cope, as it's a topic he's interested in for a project for his psychiatry exam. Mabel brings in the magazines, but it was just a pretext: Jessie really wants her to visit to get her to ask Lily Spencer (apparently a much feared character) in C block to vouch for her. Eve tells Meg she was not taking her pills because she needed to stay alert in case the women took action against her for her attack on Joyce. She begs Meg not to tell the women about it, but Joan points out that at least one of them must already know if she was set up. Auntie Ida is not what she seems: as soon as she gets through the gates she becomes a Hell's Granny  , donning a crash helmet and leaping on the back of Slasher's bike. Rita finds the pile of magazines conceals a CB radio  . The police receive a complaint from Joe's mistress that he has gone missing. Jessie is cleared after it is reported that Lily Spencer has spoken up for her, which puts Lexie back under suspicion. The police visit Nancy: she tells them Joe has left her, as he has done several times before. After the police leave, Nancy tells Peter that Joe is dead, not missing. Eve begs Lou to let her help catch the Lagger, and stresses that she will do anything at all to expose the person concerned. Nancy convinces Peter to let her confess to causing Joe's death, as it will only be manslaughter. She mentions Daphne's case to argue that she will receive lenient treatment, though in this case on grounds of her menopause rather than PMS. Joyce tells Steve he would understand better if he could talk to the women in person, though he could ask Mervin for his views. The police are sceptical of Nancy's story: they don't believe she could have buried Joe all on her own or that she was acting in self-defence when Joe fell. Eve's plan to catch the Lagger is to give everyone a slightly different story and see which one the Lagger uses. Lou starts off by priming Lexie with one version of a possible escape plan. Rita talks to Slasher on the radio  after smashing her cell window. She tells him to "have one" for her (a drink, we hope, though from the smutty tone of the conversation she may mean something else). Nancy is charged with murder after information given by Joe's mistress and the next door neighbour. Alice finds the next note from the Lagger: the information in it points to Lexie. When Alice asks what they are going to do, Lou vows she will kill Lexie.
Gina (Balzano) is mentioned as losing her privileges after the Lagger exposes her for stealing meths. The young blonde prisoner in the infirmary referred to as "Spencer" is probably not supposed to be the same as the Lily Spencer mentioned by Jessie. Is it really necessary for Rita to break the glass in her window to use the radio? And as Martin and Ouija both pointed out in Digest 2000, this causes a major wall wobbling moment. |
EPISODE 593Broadcast on Carlton/LWT Thursday 16 July 1998 23:45; Channel 5 Sunday 27 February 2000 04:45. Ettie Parslow surprises Ann, and Joan shocks Rita. Lou tries to murder Lexie, while Jessie doesn't know whether to tell Lexie the truth or keep her secret.Meg ~ Elspeth Ballantyne Joan ~ Maggie Kirkpatrick Ann ~ Gerda Nicolson Joyce ~ Joy Westmore Eve ~ Lynda Stoner Jessie ~ Pat Evison Nancy ~ Julia Blake Rita ~ Glenda Linscott Julie ~ Jackie Woodburne Lou ~ Louise Siversen Lexie ~ Pepe Trevor Barbie ~ Jayne Healey Ettie ~ Lois Ramsay Mervin ~ Ernie Bourne Alice ~ Lois Collinder Steve Ryan ~ Peter Hayes Pat Slattery ~ Dorothy Cutts Peter McCormack ~ Steve Bastoni Det Mike Woods ~ Bob Ruggiero Det Tony Neil ~ Stephen Hutchinson Sam Page ~ Bruce Crowl Sister Hall ~ Gael Andrews Slasher ~ Slasher Off. Hagen ~ Christine Andrew Off. Radcliffe ~ Marion Dimmick Officer Ward ~ Jacqui Jackson Policewoman ~ Patricia Anthony  Ronnie ~ Lyne Ford Tina ~ Hazel Henley  Nora no longer appears in the credit mugshot sequence in this episode, replaced by Julie. | Lou passes the word round that it was Lexie who was the Lagger and she will kill her. Eve bloodthirstily urges Lou to make sure she carries out her threat. Meg visits Ann at home and finds out she hasn't made her mind up yet what to do with her enforced leisure. When Lexie arrives for lunch, everyone ignores her. Nancy sees Peter again before she goes to court and reminds him to keep to their story. Meg refuses to accept Rita's explanation of how the window got broken and tells her the money to repair it will be taken from her wages. Mervin leaves the women unsupervised in the kitchen to meet Joyce when she arrives home from hospital. Alice gets a slight shock from the power point in the kitchen - one that has suddenly appeared at the end of one of the workbenches and seems to have no possible use at all. It does give Lou an idea of how to dispose of Lexie. Nancy's bail is refused, which baffles even her own solicitor, so she has to go to prison on remand. Lexie tells Julie she has to help her and find out what Barbie's sentence was, now she's working in reception and can get access to the files. Eve overhears this and suggests to Lou that they should write a note exposing Julie for looking in the files, as it might help to convince the women that Lexie deserves a severe punishment for lagging on her best friend. Joan finds the note  and shows it to Pat: they agree that Julie needs to be watched carefully. Nancy arrives at Wentworth on remand and gets the black glove treatment from Joan. Rita has another chat to Slasher via the CB radio: he promises to bring in her jacket for her as it's been repaired. Joan shocks Nancy by giving her a body search after she's had the regulation shower  . Julie is caught red-handed by Pat Slattery as she is looking through the files and is sent to solitary. Ettie calls on Ann to ask for help with her girls: Ann realises that Meg is behind it. Alice reports back to Lou and is told to spread the word that Lexie lagged on Julie. Nancy starts to complain to Meg when she is brought to the Governor's office, but realises it is pointless. Alice is sent to bring Lexie to the kitchen. Jessie is pushed into the cold store while Lou knocks Lexie out. Lou and Alice lay Lexie out on the workbench in a pool of water  and Lou switches on the faulty socket  to electrocute Lexie. Jessie manages to get out of the store and saves Lexie with artificial respiration. Joyce comes out of hospital and Mervin collects her by taxi. Nancy is taken to solitary for her first night. When she complains, Joan warns her not to be too forthright in expressing her views - to either the officers or to the other women. When Lexie comes round in the infirmary and remembers nothing, Jessie tells her to stay in the infirmary as long as she can as Lou is trying to kill her. Meg is interviewing for a handyman: Mervin decides to pass the information on to Steve Ryan, who wants to get inside Wentworth to do research. While they are emptying the bins from the kitchen, Jessie asks Eve point blank if she's the lagger. After putting a locked security gate safely between them, Joan shows Rita her jacket - and takes a scalpel to it to cut it to shreds.
Mark Caffrey comments "We can see Ernie Bourne waiting outside for his cue to return as the kitchen scene with him, Siversen, Evison, Collinder and Stoner continues... " Ann's mantlepiece |
EPISODE 594Broadcast on Carlton/LWT Thursday 23 July 1998 23:40; Channel 5 Saturday 04 March 2000 04:40. Ann agrees to help Ettie with her charges. Jessie warns Lexie to act sick and save her life. Nancy is going through agony, and Joan gets a terrible shock from Slasher.Meg ~ Elspeth Ballantyne Joan ~ Maggie Kirkpatrick Ann ~ Gerda Nicolson Joyce ~ Joy Westmore Eve ~ Lynda Stoner Jessie ~ Pat Evison Nancy ~ Julia Blake Rita ~ Glenda Linscott Julie ~ Jackie Woodburne Lou ~ Louise Siversen Lexie ~ Pepe Trevor Barbie ~ Jayne Healey Ettie ~ Lois Ramsay Steve Ryan ~ Peter Hayes Sister Hall ~ Gael Andrews Pat Slattery ~ Dorothy Cutts Faye ~ Maud Clark  Slasher ~ Slasher Off. Hagen ~ Christine Andrew UNCREDITEDMervin ~ Ernie BourneAlice ~ Lois Collinder | When Pat Slattery arrives on the scene, Joan hurriedly pockets the scalpel and accuses Rita of slashing her own jacket to attempt to frame Joan. Joan goes back to reception and sends Officer Hagen off to help Officer Slattery deal with Rita. When she is left alone, she hides the scalpel between the pages of a report in a pile of papers on the desk. Eve tells Lou that Jessie won't join them and has even threatened to spread a story that Eve herself is the Lagger. Meg thinks it very odd that Rita would try to destroy something that meant so much to her. Joan pledges support for Meg, but Meg has her searched just the same "for her own protection". Meg goes to Rita cell to question her and another scalpel is found there where Joan hid it. Joan is smugly confident and asks that Rita be searched again in case she's had anything else smuggled inside. Rita gives the CB radio to Barbie to hide  . Joan amazes Meg by not demanding a heavy punishment for Rita, but Joan soon reveals the reason she is sucking up to Meg when she asks if Meg will recommend her as Deputy Governor. Meg pointedly does not respond to this request. Joan recovers the other scalpel from reception. Jessie finds Barbie looking for a hiding place for the CB radio and realises she hasn't got a clue where top put it, so she takes charge of it and promises to hide it somewhere safe. Lou scalds herself while on kitchen duty to get sent to sick bay, and steals some capsules while Sister Hall is out of the room attending to Lexie. Lou is put in a bed in the infirmary and passes the time emptying the powder out of the capsules and wraps it in a sheet of paper. Jessie is alarmed to hear that Lou is in the infirmary with Lexie so she asks to visit her but permission is refused. However, she is allowed to take Lexie her meal tray, and goes to sickbay with Alice who is taking Lou's tray. Rita protects Barbie from another prisoner called Faye and puts her to keep lookout while she uses the radio to talk to Slasher again. Ann agrees to help Ettie after initially refusing. Lou creates a disturbance in the infirmary to give Alice the chance to drug Lexie's food. Rita asks Slasher to fix Joan on the outside. Lexie doesn't eat the drugged food, as Alice mixed the powder into her mashed potatoes, which she doesn't like. Ettie is worried about one of the girls in her house who is called Roach: when Ettie mentions her Roach's boyfriend Ann notices he has the same surname as Rita and wonders if they are related. Eve has a go at Alice for messing up the plan to kill Lexie. Rita pointedly wishes Joan a "good night" when she is about to leave work. Joan assumes that Rita must be up to something and goes to Lou's cell to demand that she finds out what it is. Lou goes to try and talk to Rita but gets nowhere. Mervin tries to keep it from Joyce that he has put Steve forward for the handyman's job, but when she finds out she is more worried about what will happen if the women find out. Eve tries to get Lou to drop Alice from the team. A gang of bikies follows Joan's taxi home. Jessie gets a note to Julie in solitary to tell her that Lexie is in danger. Joyce and Mervin agree to help Steve Ryan. Slasher and the gang make a call on Joan and force their way into her house when she answers the door. |
EPISODE 595Broadcast on Carlton/LWT Thursday 30 July 1998 23:40; Channel 5 Sunday 05 March 2000. An ex-Vietnam veteran takes over as new governor of Wentworth, and Joan feels the wrath of Rita's biker friends.Meg ~ Elspeth Ballantyne Joan ~ Maggie Kirkpatrick Ann ~ Gerda Nicolson Joyce ~ Joy Westmore Eve ~ Lynda Stoner Jessie ~ Pat Evison Nancy ~ Julia Blake Rita ~ Glenda Linscott Julie ~ Jackie Woodburne Lou ~ Louise Siversen Lexie ~ Pepe Trevor Barbie ~ Jayne Healey Bob ~ Peter Adams  Ettie ~ Lois Ramsay Mervin ~ Ernie Bourne Alice ~ Lois Collinder Steve Ryan ~ Peter Hayes Pat Slattery ~ Dorothy Cutts Sister Hall ~ Gael Andrews Peter McCormack ~ Steve Bastoni Det Mike Woods ~ Bob Ruggiero Slasher ~ Slasher Roach ~ Linda Hartley  Bongo ~ Shane Connors  Denise ~ Elizabeth Rogers  | Rita is just chatting with Slasher on the CB radio (with Barbie acting as lookout) to get an account of what the Conquerors did to fix Joan when Officer Slattery comes to tell her she has "visitors" - the police. Officer Slattery isn't impressed with Rita's explanation of how the cell window got broken a second time. Joan's lounge is completely wrecked: Sam's picture of Shane and the Major has been slashed with a knife  . She tells Meg who has visited her on her way home, that she knows that Rita's gang were resonsible for the attack though she couldn't see their faces as they wore stocking masks. Meg offers to stay with her and for once a devastated Joan  doesn't shrug off an offer of help. Rita is alarmed when she finds out that Jessie knows about her CB radio as she was relying on her apparent inability to contact anyone on the outside to prove that she couldn't have ordered the attack on Joan. She warns Jessie to keep her mouth shut, and Jessie says she doesn't think anyone else apart from her and Barbie know about it. Joan has a nightmare reliving the attack on her (a bargain basement nightmare, which manages to avoid showing any of the attackers apart from as booted foot, so no actors needed to be hired). Meg tells Joan the Conquerors all have alibis and warns her not to take revenge. Lexie apologises to Jessie but Jessie is interrupted just at the moment when she seems to be about to answer Lexie's question, and tell her why she is really interested in her. Joan puts all the ruined momentoes of her father  and Shane  in the garden incinerator. Lou tries to protest on Rita's behalf when she is called away to see the Governor before she can eat her meal. Meg threatens to transfer Rita and Rita storms out. Lexie comes out of the infirmary despite her protest that she still feels ill. Rita is worried that she'll be moved to a country prison, far away from the Conquerors. Mervin asks Meg to consider Steve for the handyman's job, apparently not thinking it unusual that a qualified doctor would want to do the job. Jessie tells Lou that Lexie is pregnant to stop Lou bashing her. No one asks how Lexie could possibly have become pregnant. Meg gives Steve the handyman job, enigmatically commenting "I can understand why why you want a job away from your own profession". Jessie claims that Lexie is two months pregnant [which would place the time of conception somewhere around episode (587)]: Lou says she will have to check it out with Sister Hall before Lexie is off the hook. Meg is just getting Mervin to help her move the office furniture around (in the apparent belief that Ann would like nothing better than to be confronted with a new arrangement when she returns to work), when the new Governor, Bob Moran, arrives. Lexie tries to get Sister Hall to tell people she's pregnant, but has to be content with her assurance that she would neither confirm nor deny any fact in a prisoner's personal file. Even after hearing Meg's account of the attack on Joan, Bob isn't convinced there's enough evidence against Rita: he refuses to transfer Rita immediately and asks to see her. Nancy comes out of solitary and is taken to the cell she is to share cell with Rita, but the cell share gets off to a bad start when Rita violently objects when she finds Nancy reading one of her magazines. Lou tries to check up if Lexie is pregnant, but gets nowhere with Sister Hall. Bob lets Rita know he's keeping her in Wentworth only because he regards troublemakers like her as a personal challenge. Ann meets Roach, who has just failed a job interview, possibly because of her sub punk/Goth appearance. Roach confirms that her boyfriend Bongo is Rita's brother. Steve thanks Joyce for her help, and in his gratitude he is too tactful to remark on the outrageous "Bea Smith" orange wig she is wearing  . Rita tells Lou and the women about the new Governor, and says that from what she's seen of him, Lou did the women no favours by forcing Ann to stand down. Peter goes to the police station to try to confess to his father's murder, but the police think he's just trying to get his mother out of jail. Bongo arrives at Ettie's place on his bike: when he finds out that Ann is the ex-Governor of Wentworth, he suggests to Roach that they should play a trick on her. Jessie suggest Lexie gets Steve to make her really pregnant.
No time for a retake, it seems, for the scene where Rita storms out of the Governor's office and almost shuts the door on herself after narrowly avoiding a collision with the door frame. Muster is for "Laundry: Jenkins, Kelly, Wilder, Cox, Egbert, Kenndy, and Murray. Kitchen: Lin-Mai, Corbett, Balzano and Windom". The spelling of the first name for kitchen duty is anyone's guess but I think it is meant to be the Chinese / Vietnamese looking prisoner who has been seen in the background and is given prominent position serving dinner in this episode. Lou calls for "Ronnie, Tina" to act as lookout in the laundry, but the usually ubiqitous Ms Murray is absent for once. Though Louise Siversen seems to fluff her line and says "Turner" rather than "Tina". Bob's phonecall to "Alan" is probably meant to be Alan Maxwell, to be introduced in (601). |
Story Editor: Bevan Lee
Script Editor: Kit Oldfield (591); Alister Webb (592)-(593); Kit Oldfield (594); Alister Webb (595)
Storyliners: Bevan Lee, Tony McDonald, John Coulter, Kelly Bermingham
| (586) to (590) |
