Season 1 1979 - 1980

NR

Two new prisoners, Karen Travers and Lynn Warner, are inducted into Wentworth Detention Centre and have to adjust to the harsh regime and the tough women they meet there. Karen, convicted of stabbing her cheating husband to death in the shower, turns out to be an old flame of prison doctor Greg Miller. Lynn has been convicted of kidnapping and burying a baby alive, and though she loudly protests her innocence, she is bullied by the other women, led by their 'Top Dog', murderess Bea Smith. Meanwhile, young inmate Sally Lee hangs herself in her cell while going through serious drug withdrawal. Tough lesbian Franky Doyle goes berserk when she learns her girlfriend Doreen is being moved to another cell and destroys the Recreation Room. Bea burns Lynn's hand in the press and Lynn reports her for it, putting Bea's upcoming parole in jeopardy. Late at night, bent screw Officer Yates lets Bea out of her cell so she can go and scare Lynn into withdrawing her complaint.

Lynn withdraws her complaint, so Bea's release is approved. The prisoners hold a farwell party for Bea and Mum. Mum leaves her beloved garden in the hands of Lynn. Mum is released into the care of her daughter, Lorraine, and Bea gets a lift into town from Eddie. Meg and Bill are having problems with their teenage son Marty, who tells them he wants to move out and get a place with his girlfriend. With Bea gone, Franky siezes the opportunity to take over the press and announces she is now in charge. Greg tries to talk Karen into appealing against her sentence, realising her husband was abusing her. Lynn goes on hunger strike until her innocence is believed. Mum's daughter rejects her, saying she doesn't want her coming home with her, so Mum checks into a grotty bedsit in town. Bea spends her first night of freedom in luxury at a hotel. Next morning, she visits daughter Debbie's grave and picks up a package from her old cellmate, a ""present"" for her husband. She then makes her way back ho

With Franky's hold over the women growing, she attempts to show the screws who is in charge by getting the women to stay in the dining room until she gives the order for them to leave. Prostitute Chrissie Latham tries to seduce Bill but he turns her down. Lizzie and Marilyn mess around with the wiring so that Eddie will be called in. Marilyn and Eddie climb up into the roof for a "liaison". Bea's return sends Franky over the edge and she starts a riot in the dining room. Bea, Doreen and some of the women are trapped in the laundry; Franky, Lizzie, Chrissie and others are in the dining room. Franky wants the gates unlocked so she and Bea can fight it out. Trapped in Franky's side, pregnant prisoner Rosie Hudson goes into labour. Meg is taken hostage by Franky's mob and tied up in the dining room. Bill tries to talk Franky into letting Meg go. She agrees, but in the handover all hell breaks loose as she and her gang overpower the officers and let Bea's women out. Bea and Franky fight one

Bill dies on the way to hospital and Rosie gives birth to a boy. Meg is devastated as the police investigation into Bill's murder begins. The cops aren't getting very far; meanwhile, Eddie tells Marilyn he saw who stabbed Bill. Bea and the girls learn from him that it was Chrissie who killed him. They attack and scalp Chrissie, and she is transferred away to another prison. Meg turns up for work, yells at everyone and is sent home by Erica til the funeral is past. Mum collapses at the bedsit and her landlady goes through her belongings. After the funeral, Erica tells Meg that she doesn't have to come back to the prison, she will get compensation from the Department for Bill's death. Meg is furious and tells Erica she isn't going anywhere.

Mum recuperates from her collapse at her daughter's home but has to pretend to the children that she is an aunt as Lorraine told them their grandmother was dead. Franky and Bea fight during a dance class in the Rec Room. Yates is caught smuggling the pill in for Marilyn. Suspected of being the one who supplied Sally Lee with drugs, she is reprimanded by Erica and quits in disgust. Bea reads the girls' tea leaves and Lizzie pinches a bottle of surgical spirit from the infirmary. Mum can't deal with Lorraine any longer and walks out, after which Judith Anne learns that she is really her grandmother. Mum is rearrested for shoplifting and sent back to Wentworth. Meg is still going loopy after Bill's death and tells Lynn her hunger strike is a waste of time. Lynn digs a hole under the fence and plans to escape but is caught by Meg and Vera and collapses. Greg examines her and tells her she is pregnant.

Lynn reveals she must be pregnant after being raped by her employer, Mr Bentley, father of the baby she is supposed to have buried alive. Franky bullies Lizzie into giving her some of her buy-up and later steals her false teeth when she refuses. Marilyn learns she is to be paroled in a few days. Eddie proposes to her but she turns him down, though she agrees to move in with him. Horrified by Lynn's story, Meg's attitude softens again and she tells Erica she believes Lynn. Vera is having trouble with her ailing mother but refuses to put her in a home. Lizzie and Doreen plan to escape with a pair of rusty old wire cutters but in the end Lizzie is too drunk to go. Franky's brother Gary comes to visit and tells her he wants to build a farm and have her come to live with him there. Judith-Anne comes to visit Mum. Meg and Erica think there is enough evidence to have Lynn's case reopened.

Lizzie finds a stray cat in the garden and brings it into the prison. When it dies, she blames Franky for killing it, but it turns out she did it accidentally herself by giving it water from the garden tainted with weed killer. Lizzie then tries to fake amnesia in order to get an early release but Meg sees right through it. Gary Doyle comes to visit Franky again and gives her a copy of his plans for the farm. Later, the other women deface the plans by scribbling all over them. Mum suggests Franky work in the garden to keep her away from Bea. Erica and Meg ponder Franky's chances of a parole. Some male prisoners come to work outside the fence to work on the drainage system and Lynn befriends one of them, a guy named Doug. Vera's mother has a heart attack and dies. Marilyn is released to live with Eddie but, unable to get a job after being inside, she considers going back on the game.

Bea and the girls find out about Franky's plans to get paroled and live on the farm so they try to rile her into blowing her chances. Marilyn gets a job at a hotel but she is demoted after beauty consultant Helen Masters complains about her and then quits after being sexually harassed by her boss. She goes back on the game to buy Eddie a birthday present, prompting them to have a row and she walks out on him. Helen Masters is sent to Wentworth charged with manslaughter after her car is used in a hit-and-run. At first she is to be bailed but when she tries to skip the country the police send her to jail. She finds it hard to settle in, tormented by Vera and teased and bullied by the other prisoners. Finally, she announces she is withdrawing her bail application and intends to make as much trouble as possible while she is in Wentworth.

Following Helen's decision to withdraw her bail application, her special privileges are removed and she is put in to share a cell with Bea and Doreen. She offers to hold beauty classes for the women and is blackmailed by her assistant, who claims he knows her alibi for the night of the accident is fake. Marilyn and Eddie make up briefly, but she finally walks out on him for good to go back on the game after a boozing session with an old friend. After listening to Lynn's story about her innocence, Helen puts her lawyer on Lynn's appeal and agrees to pay for it. Meanwhile, the truth about Lynn is finally revealed: Mrs Bentley buried her own baby. Cleared by the police, Lynn says goodbye to Mum and is released.

Helen raises a protest against the food being served up to the women. Erica agrees to come and taste it, so Bea and Doreen make it really inedible. Erica is disgusted by the food and agrees to let some of the women help out in the kitchen. Lynn goes back to her home town but is having a hard time. Her father won't acknowledge that she is pregnant and her mother is busy making up stories about where the baby's father could be. Lynn writes a letter to Doug, the male prisoner she met at Wentworth; back at the prison, Mum tries to dissuade Doug from getting in touch with Lynn. However, Mr Warner finally sticks up for Lynn in the face of criticism from a local priest. Following her mother's death, Vera is lonely and depressed. She gets drunk, goes to a bar and picks up Graham Lang, an off duty cop, who she takes home with her. Marilyn is brought back to Wentworth; she and Eddie can't sort out their differences. Helen gets Doreen to forge her signature on a contract written up by James to gi

The Governor introduces a volleyball program to let the inmates work off their tension. Doug gets out of jail and turns up at the Warner farm to see Lynn. Mr Warner offers him a job on the farm, but they end up running away back to Melbourne together to get married. Graham Lang arrives at the prison to interview Marilyn and asks Vera to help him get information out of her. During a volleyball game, Marilyn accidentally hits Vera with the ball, giving her the opportunity to have her sent to the pound. Later, Bea advises Marilyn to give Lang the info he wants, to get Vera off her back. Franky gets a telegram about her brother Gary having an accident, but as she can't read, she doesn't know what it says. She gets Doreen to read it for her, but Doreen is too scared to tell her what it really says and she rebuffs Mum's efforts to help. In the end it is Karen who tells Franky the truth, that he is critically injured and in hospital. By the time Franky gets to the hospital to see Gary, he has

Karen talks Franky down from the roof and offers to teach her how to read. She makes another pass at her during a lesson, though, and gets a slap in the face. Back in the city, Lynn and Doug move in with his friends Bernie and Suz. She refuses to sleep with Doug until they are married. They get married in the back garden with a celebrant; meanwhile, Bernie talks Doug into doing a payroll job with him. Meg wises up to Vera and Lang's heavying of Marilyn and warns them off. Bea gets Eddie and Marilyn to make up at last and she agrees to tell Lang what he wants to know. This done, Lang breaks off a dinner date with Vera and drops her like a hot potato. After being rejected by Karen, Franky muscles in on an escape plan of Lizzie and Doreen's. They steal a step ladder and, with Doreen's teddy in tow, the three of them climb over the fence to freedom...

No sooner are the escapees over the fence than Lizzie suffers chest pains. Franky and Doreen take her back to the fence, where she asks the guard to let her back in. As news of the escape spreads, the women are locked in their cells and Vera attempts to tighten security. Franky and Doreen mug a young boy for his fish and chips and sleep in a barn for the night. Vera reports Eddie and Marilyn's relationship to Erica, prompting her to cancel the contract with Eddie's firm. Lynn reluctantly agrees to drive the getaway car for Doug and Bernie.

The payroll robbery goes disastrously wrong as Bernie is killed and Doug is shot. Lynn then ends up crashing the getaway car and goes into labour. She manages to get to a phone box and calls Greg for help, but both Doug and the unborn baby die anyway. Franky and Doreen continue their exploits on the outside, but Doreen is getting fed up and contemplating going back to Wentworth. Eddie gets sacked for losing the prison contract but when his boss visits the prison in his place, Bea and the girls bully him into giving Eddie his job back. Meg is dismayed to learn that Marty has left home. The new prison social worker, Jean Vernon, arrives and is given Bill's old office, annoying Meg by throwing out his things. Karen gets a visit from her unsympathetic mother. Judith Anne comes to visit Mum, but Mum realises something is wrong with the girl and gets Jean to try and help her find out what.

Doreen and Franky masquerade as nuns and con people into giving money to charity... them! They go to the home of an old spinster, Miss McBride, who invites them in for tea, planning to batter and rob the old woman. Greg hires Steve Wilson as Karen's new lawyer to represent her at her retrial. Judith Anne comes back to see Mum and tells her that she is pregnant, and that Lorraine disapproves. With Jean's help, Mum decides to apply for parole to look after Judy and the baby when it arrives. Lynn is brought back to Wentworth on remand. New prisoner Monica Ferguson turns out to be an old pal of Bea and Lizzie's, having done time with them before. Vera reports Greg and Karen to Erica when she catches them kissing in the infirmary. They have to come clean about their former engagement, and Erica agrees to let it go this time, but if there is any further trouble, Greg will be replaced.

Doreen stops Franky battering Miss McBride and the old lady is so taken with them that she invites them to stay. After a while, Doreen decides to tell her who they are, but she tells her she has known all along: she enjoys the company and says they can stay as long as they like. Mum gets out on parole and moves into a flat with Judith Anne. After a lot of persuading, Monica agrees to Bea's suggestion that she let Marilyn and Eddie run her milkbar while she is inside. Marilyn is released, never to return again. Bea, Monica and Lizzie set Vera up for "bashing" Monnie, so Erica instructs her to take a few days off until the incident can be investigated. Meg and Karen find Lynn on the floor of her cell, bleeding after slashing her wrists with a piece of broken mirror.

Lynn is rushed to hospital after her suicide attempt. Jean blames herself for the incident. Barbara Davidson, Erica's niece, arrives in Wentworth charged with drug smuggling. She ignores Auntie Erica's advice not to tell the women they are related. Barbara gets Lizzie to tell her about the frame-up on Vera, then tells Erica about it. Erica is furious, transfers Monica to another cell, and reinstates Vera. Karen tells Steve about her husband forcing her to have an abortion and beating her. Franky, Doreen and Miss McBride have a party for the old woman's birthday, but it is gatecrashed by the arrival of her nephew, Trevor. He recognizes the fugitive pair so they bundle him into a cupboard, say goodbye to Miss McBride and flee.

When a young girl, Sarah Roberts, accepts a lift home from a man who says he knows her father, she ends up getting raped. Her parents, Catherine and Ken, are concerned that she is so late coming home from school, but it is not until the next day that Sarah tells her mother about the attack. The police come to the Roberts' home to interview the girl. Catherine vows to avenge the attack on her daughter. Barbara has drugs smuggled into the prison, telling Vera that Monica has asked her to get them for her. She plants the drugs in Monica's cell, and they are found thanks to a cell search instigated by Vera. Monnie is packed off to Solitary. Since the drugs were brought in right under Bennett's nose, Barbara wants Vera to do her a few favours. Meanwhile, Erica announces a crackdown in security as Bea vows to get even with whoever framed Monnie. Jean visits Lynn in hospital. She tries to get her to write to her parents and reconsider not hiring Steve as her lawyer. As for the escapees, Doree

Bea is furious to learn from Vera that Barbara is inside for smuggling drugs. Lynn, back from hospital, helps Bea and Lizzie find Barbara's drug supply. Bea force feeds her with them, drawing the screws to the scene, and shows them the drugs that they failed to see being smuggled in. Erica sends Barbara to Solitary and tells Vera off. When Franky sees that Toddy has hit Doreen, she is furious. She knocks him out with her gun and the pair quickly move onto pastures new. Jean asks Meg if she can move in with her. Sarah Roberts tries to get her life back to normal after the rape. She spots the man who raped her at a shop and calls Catherine, who promptly runs him down and kills him in the street.

Franky talks Doreen into robbing a hardware store but the hold-up goes wrong when the police arrive on the scene. Franky tries to make a run for it, shooting a policeman, but is gunned down in the process. She dies in Doreen's arms, telling her to flee while she can, her last words a defiant "bloody bastards..." Doreen runs off. Catherine Roberts arrives at Wentworth, charged with killing Sarah's rapist. She has a hard time dealing with the startling alien world of prison life, while back at home hubby Ken drowns his sorrows and hires Steve to take on her case. She is released on bail. Jean moves into Meg's unit and flirts with Dr Greg. Karen gets a letter from Franky, sent before her death. Soon after, the women hear on the radio she has been killed. Karen realises Greg is paying Steve Wilson to defend her and is furious. Doreen turns up at the prison gates and asks to be let in. Back in the cell block, Doreen spots Karen and attacks her, blaming her for Franky's death.

Doreen is acting like a second rate Franky clone now she's back inside, rounding up a posse of women and slicking her hair back. Erica warns her not to cause any more trouble after the attack on Karen Travers. Later, in their cell, Lizzie tells her she doesn't buy her tough act for a second. Nonetheless, she causes trouble during Karen's class and bullies Lynn. After an upsetting visit from her father, though, Lynn promptly joins Dor's gang to steal buyup from the girls. Lizzie learns her brother Angus is dying and wants to see her. Lizzie refuses, until Bea talks her into it. Erica accompanies Lizzie on her day out, leaving Vera in charge. The wife of the man Catherine killed wants money from the Roberts as compensation. Steve angrily tells her to keep away or she will be charged with extortion and blackmail. Catherine refuses to plead temporary insanity. Barbara's case comes up before the VJ. On the way to the hearing, she tells Meg she intends to implicate one of the officers in a d

At the VJ's hearing, Barbara backs down and claims she was the only one involved in bringing the drugs into the prison. Vera tells the VJ that Barbara is Erica's niece and subtly suggests she has given her preferential treatment. When Erica returns, she is furious to learn that the Department are considering investigating her running of Wentworth thanks to Vera's meddling, and demands to know from Meg what went on while she was away. Lizzie arrives to see Angus and the pair waste no time in fighting with each other. He tells her she's getting nothing in his will and then snuffs it. Lizzie pinches something valuable anyway and smuggles it back into the prison. Steve and Jean get Mr Warner to come back and talk to Lynn, as her tough image will affect her trial. However, Doreen intimidates him during their visit in the garden. Catherine gets three years and Ken has to sell his share of the business to cover their legal costs. Karen learns her retrial starts in a couple of days.

Steve tries to track down Karen's mother to give evidence at the retrial, but she refuses point blank to do so. Lynn and her father make up, and Lynn gets 12 months for her part in the disastrous payroll robbery. Catherine is struggling to settle in with the women; she finds it hard to adjust to their less than refined ways and has to learn the "no lagging" code. In addition to this, Sarah turns up at the prison to moan her parents don't love her. Erica clashes with Vera over her telling the VJ that she and Barbara are related. Erica's ex, Michael, tries to talk her into giving Barbara preferential treatment. Doreen continues to bully Barbara and goads her into a fight, egged on by Vera. Unable to cope any longer, Barbara barricades herself in her cell and theatens to burn the place down.

Barbara remains barricaded in her cell overnight, until Erica manages to talk her out by promising to protect her from Doreen and Vera. Barbara is then transferred to another prison, after an apology from Doreen, who has finally dropped the tough act and returned to her old self. Steve tries to keep Karen's spirits up as her retrial begins, despite the prosecution's determination to prove that she is a liar who is simply playing for sympathy. Lynn's father arranges a work placement for her at the nursery belonging to his friend Syd Butterfield. Catherine gets a visit from Ken, who tells her he is moving to Sydney to work: the house will be let out and Sarah sent to live with relations.

Lynn starts her work release at Butterfield's nursery but runs off in tears after a misunderstanding with Syd over some money. Jean has to tell Erica that Lynn has gone missing, but Lynn turns up at the prison of her own accord soon after. A mysterious new prisoner arrives at Wentworth charged with shoplifting, but neither the police nor prison staff can get her to give any details about herself, not even her name. At Karen's trial, the prosecution accuses her of making up the stories about her husband abusing her. Things look bleak until, at the last minute, Karen's mother shows up unexpectedly to give evidence. The murder charge against Karen is reduced to manslaughter, cutting her sentence to just two years.

The news about Karen causes celebrations among the inmates and staff. The mystery new prisoner is identified as a Susan Rice, but the woman remains an enigma. Jean is puzzled as to why she was shoplifting, as it turns out she is not short of cash. However, she is estranged from her husband, who has filed for divorce. She gets out on bail but is almost immediately rearrested for the same crime. After attacking Doreen and freaking out in the Rec Room, she tells Meg that her husband is having an affair with a pop star, Jason Richards. Vera bumps into ex-Officer Yates in a bar, who invites her to a party at her place. Yates introduces Vera to a man called George Lucas, whom Vera becomes smitten with and they go out on a date. However, it turns out that George is the man Yates was working for when she was sacked from Wentworth for drug dealing.

The mystery of Susan Rice deepens, when it emerges that nobody connected with Jason Richards has ever heard of Susan's hubby. Susan herself continues to freak out at the least opportunity. She says that it was Richards' idea for her husband to divorce her. She later learns her husband has applied for custody of their kids. Another screaming fit in the Rec Room ends with her trashing her cell and she is so upset she has to be sedated. Meg is concerned about Vera's involvement with Yates and George Lucas. Vera begins to think he is only interested in her because he wants her to take over Yates' drug dealing in the prison. He comes to the prison to see her and they are seen kissing by Doreen and Lynn. Later, George tells Vera that Yates has been arrested and asks her to look after her when she arrives in Wentworth. Steve makes enquiries about Karen being able to go to Uni on the outside.

Anne Yates arrives back at Wentworth as a prisoner, and Erica tells her officers not to reveal details of her crimes. The women bully Yates, who demands that Vera protect her, threatening to turn George in to the police if she refuses. Lizzie steals Yates' file from the office, so Bea can see what Yates is inside for. Bea later gives it back to Yates and tells her to get rid of it. Lynn is allowed to go back to the nursery and has to tell a horrified co-worker that she is in prison. The woman tells Syd she won't work with a criminal, but Syd sticks up for Lynn. Doreen and Lizzie forge Erica's signature on a work release form, but Jean sees through their ill-conceived deception. Psychiatrist Dr Weissman gives Susan Rice the all-clear, when she acts very calmly and rationally. She goes to court and gets a fine and a good behaviour bond.

The prisoner step up their bullying campaign against Yates now that they know what she is inside for. Yates gives her file back to Vera and steals a knife from the dining room after Vera refuses to give her anything to protect herself with. Monica ambushes her in the corridor and takes her to Bea. Bea and Yates fight, leading to Yates pulling her knife, stabbing Bea and running off. She hides in one of the laundry driers; Vera, unaware she is inside, walks past and shuts the door. Meanwhile, neither officers nor prisoners know where Yates is and the hunt begins to find her. Susan Rice throws acid in Jason Richards' face live on TV. She is brought back to Wentworth, now completely loopy, and is attacked by Doreen. Meg and Jean discover that Richards is in fact Susan's husband, not his lover. Lynn meets Syd's son Geoff, who is instantly attracted to her.

Yates is missing and the search begins for her. Next morning, Lizzie finds her dead in the drier. Vera realises she was to blame but keeps quiet. With Bea in hospital, Monica decides to take over as Top Dog and clashes with Noeline Burke. They both blame each other for killing Yates, but Noeline is packed off to the pound for lying to Erica about it. Meg tells Mum about Bea being in hospital. Mum goes to visit her but is not allowed in, as Judith-Anne lets slip to Jean that Meg has been visiting them. Steve invites Jean to dinner to meet Clara Goddard, who is interested in funding a halfway house. Later, Clara turns up to asks Steve for legal advice, saying she is about to be arrested. With Yates dead, Vera plans to flee the country with George but he goes without her, leaving her with an envelope of money.

Bea learns she will be going back to Wentworth soon, so she drugs her police guard and escapes from the hospital. Mum is shocked when Bea turns up on her doorstep but agrees she can stay for a few days, against Judith-Anne's protestations. Panic ensues when Meg turns up to visit Mum. Noeline continues to throw her weight around with Bea absent so Monica, Lizzie and Doreen give her an extremely hot shower. Furious, Noeline pinches Lizzie's fags and rips the arms and legs off Doreen's teddy. Syd fires Lynn without warning. George Lucas turns up at Vera's place and forces her to turn him into the police. Clara Goddard tells Steve she has been charged with embezzling a lot of money. She cannot afford to pay her bail and is sent to Wentworth on remand, where she is a big hit with the other women.

Meg is suspicious when she finds a packet of Bea's cigarettes and Mum has to make excuses. Meanwhile, Bea has hidden in the next room. Later, Bea asks Mum to go see Val and get some cash so she can buy a dress and a wig. Judith-Anne goes instead, but Val has moved. She buys the dress and wig herself so that Bea will leave. Meg realises Mum must have been hiding Bea. She and Jean go back to the flat, and narrowly miss bumping into Bea. Jean has to tell Lynn she has been fired, but Jean eventually manages to talk Syd into taking her back. Noeline tries to bully Clara, and bashes Karen when she stands up for her. She then recruits thick Martha as her offsider, but Monica thumps her anyway and threatens to spin dry her. Jean moves out of Meg's unit. Vera pays George's bail but he ties her up in her flat and skips the country.

Bea returns to Mum's flat, furious over Judith-Anne lying to her. Judith-Anne finally agrees to find out where Val is, but after she contacts Val, Val calls the police. Bea spots the police in time and turns up on Val's doorstep, forcing her to let her stay. Later, a policeman arrives at Val's house looking for Bea. Erica finds Vera tied up in her flat and calls the police. Vera admits it was Lucas who tied her up. She learns she may face charges for associating with known criminals. Erica wants to demote her, but Meg gets her to reconsider. Monica tries to show her dominance over the women with a sit-in but Karen breaks it. Doreen tries to stand up to her but nobody backs her up. Clara refuses Steve's offer of bail. Noeline is moved in to share a cell with Karen.

Bea hides in the garden until the policeman has left, but the girl who lives at the house next door sees Bea hiding outside. Bea and Val see her talking to the policeman outside, but nothing comes of it. Lizzie tells Doreen she intends to try to get back in Monica's favour and if she's got any sense Doreen should join her. Lizzie tries to suck up to Monica with memories of when they were first inside and the previous governor ("Mollie Repton"), which reminds Monica of Lizzie home brewing skills and asks her if she could still cook up something for the women. Meanwhile, Bea is somewhat the worse for wear after a hard night's drinking and is looking forward to another night out with the same blokes. She and Val are interrupted by the girl next door, Yvonne, who wants to meet Bea. Bea is concerned when she hears form Val that Yvonne's parents leave her unsupervised for much of the day, and gets a bit mother-hen-ish. Lizzie can't get yeast for home brew, so Monnie tells Lyn to bring some in, claiming that it's to make some decent "bread". Marianne de Vere, a socialite friend of Steve's, visits him to find out what's happened to Clara and instantly endears herself to all of us with her opening remarks that London is full of "coloureds" and is "no place for a white woman". She expresses an interest in funding the halfway house so Steve says he will arange a visit for her. Karen gets permission for University study. Marianne visits Wentworth and talks to Erica. Monica brings Lizzie a couple of buckets to help make the grog. Erica takes Marianne around the prison and Steve feels the need to apologise to Karen for her snotty attitude. He also tells her about the halfway house project and his hope that she might be able to work there. Yvonne waits for Val to leave and tells Bea she has seen her photo in the paper and wants to find out about what Bea did and why. Noeline finds out about the grog when Doreen comes to ask Doreen advice about it. Lynn manages to hide the yeast in

The home brew causes friction amongst the women, as Monica sells it on but won't give Lizzie any. Clara gets permission to have a birthday party and the women are allowed into the kitchen to prepare for it. Lizzie takes yeast from the kitchen and makes more booze in a cupboard, but Noeline muscles in on the scheme. The party goes well, until Noeline sneaks away and gets roaring drunk in the Laundry, where she's found by Erica and Meg. Col Burke's siege continues, but he doesn't know what to do next. He asks to see Noeline and she arrives with Vera, somewhat the worse for wear after her booze exploits. Noeline sneers at Col, dismissing him as useless and while he is distracted, Vera rescues Mrs Woods. Col runs out of the house after them all and is shot dead by the cops. Noeline is distraught. Yvonne spitefully calls the cops on Bea after she breaks up a rowdy party the girl is throwing.

The police turn up at Val's place and arrest Bea, but she persuades them Val didn't have any choice but let her stay. She is brought back to Wentworth and welcomed back by Doreen. With little effort, Bea reclaims the press. That night after lights out, Noeline punches her, but next morning it is Noeline who wakes up worse for wear. Bea goes to the Governor and admits she walloped her. Monnie is still adamant she's in charge, leading to a brawl between them, during which Meg is knocked out. They finally declare a truce. Erica furiously cancels Lynn and Karen's day releases when no-one will say where the booze came from, so Clara takes sole blame for the alcohol and is sent to Solitary. Steve tells Karen he has feelings for her but is rebuffed. Greg looks after Meg after her accident and they end up spending the night together.

Meg and Greg are nervous around each other after spending the night together. Doreen appears to be developing a crush on Lynn and is upset to realise Lynn's parole is looming. Noeline learns that she will be released in a week's time and is warned to keep out of trouble, but both Erica and Meg know she will be back before very long. Marianne de Vere agrees to fund the halfway house and wants to throw a garden party for the women, to which the media will be invited. Despite Vera's reservations, both Erica and the Department agree to it. Marianne also donates a new colour TV for the Rec Room. Clara is given permission to do the catering for the garden party, at which Lizzie and Doreen start a food fight. Everyone later gathers in the Rec Room for the unveiling of the new TV, only to find it has been smashed by the now released Noeline.

Erica cancels all privileges, including Lynn's work release and Karen's study release, and tightens security following the disaster at the garden party. Bea is feeling increasingly left out as Clara proves a big hit with the other girls and suggests she is thinking of stepping down as Top Dog. Meg realises that Noeline must have been the one who smashed the TV. A Greek woman called Irene Zervos arrives on prostitution charges; she speaks very little English and is very distressed at being inside. Karen offers to act as communicator for her. Monica shows her racist side by bullying Irene and abusing her. It turns out that she and her family are illegal immigrants and are likely to be deported.

Erica announces that a Visiting Justice has been appointed to investigate her running of Wentworth; Vera is thrilled, planning what she will change when Erica is sacked and she is appointed Governor instead. Clara cements her popularity amongst the women by getting Monica to leave Irene alone and successfully asking Erica to resume the work release. Karen and Steve try to help Irene further. Irene's brother, Alex, and his wife, Tessa, learn that they are allowed to stay in the country and mistakenly think this means Irene can also. The VJ transfers Clara to another prison. Vera and the prisoners lay it on thick to the VJ but it backfires on Vera in spectacular fashion: rather than being promoted to Governor, she is to be demoted to make way for a new male Deputy Governor.

Vera is livid as former Vietnam vet Jim Fletcher arrives to start work as the new Deputy Governor. Fletcher wastes little time before he manages to annoy both the officers and the women. Lynn is caught supposedly trying to smuggle letters out but claims she has been framed. Her work release is cancelled. Monica throws a fit when her parole is turned down. Irene gets released, then promptly rearrested for being an illegal immigrant. New prisoner Joyce Martin arrives and Jim knows her husband from Pentridge. She tells the women that she is the only one who knows where the proceeds from their robbery is and so she has thousands of dollars waiting for her when she gets out.

Lynn frets about her parole as she protests the letters were planted on her. Fortunately, she has Meg and Erica on her side. Doreen steals some pills from the surgery and plants them under Lynn's pillow, where they are found in a cell search. Lynn is sent to Solitary, but Lizzie suddenly realises that Doreen set her up. Joyce's husband Harry comes to visit her, anxious to get his hands on the robbery money. She refuses to tell him. He returns later with some men in a truck and tries to abduct her from the prison grounds. Jim intervenes and is injured in the scuffle. Meg asks Greg to consider giving up his job at Wentworth. Monica decides to sell her milk bar to Marilyn and Eddie.

Jim recovers from his minor injuries as Joyce recovers from her narrow escape at the hands of her husband. Not wanting Harry to get to the money, she asks Monica to help her move the money somewhere safer after she is released. Erica learns that Jim and his wife, Leila, are separated. Lizzie tells Erica that she framed Lynn: Lynn is let out of the pound and Lizzie suffers loss of privileges. Meanwhile, Lizzie confronts Doreen, telling her she knows it was her who did it. Doreen spitefully tells Lynn that it was Lizzie who set her up and Lynn turns on the old woman. However, Monica soon works out the truth about the whole incident and tells Lynn the truth. Lynn is furious and calls Doreen a worm, rubbing mud in her face. Steve is invited to lunch by an old flame, Jennifer Collins, who proposes they go into partnership together.

Lynn refuses to forgive Doreen and learns she is to be released. She and Doreen sort of patch things up before Lynn leaves, but Doreen is still distraught over the whole thing, and confused over her feelings for her. Monica refuses to get involved in Joyce's troubles, especially as she has just got her parole and will be leaving along with Lynn. However, when Monnie's husband Fred turns up to tell her he has huge gambling debts, she agrees to help Joyce in order to pay them off. What Monnie doesn't know is that Fred's lying through his teeth and he wants the money to live it up with his girlfriend, Blossom Crabtree. Dimwit Martha Eaves overhears Monica and Joyce discussing their plans, and reports back to Harry Martin and his gang, telling them when Monnie will be released. When the release finally comes, though, Lynn leaves first and is accidentally abducted instead.

Monnie is eventually released, little suspecting what a narrow escape she had. Lynn tells the kidnappers she isn't called Monica: they believe her but say they will keep her as a hostage to put pressure on Joyce. Karen hears from her student friend about the lecture she missed from the sociology lecturer Peter Clements, and lends her a tape she made. Monica looks up Joyce's aunt Madge, who knows about the money but is glad to let Monnie take it. Karen meets Jennifer, Steve's legal partner and - it appears - now his lover. Madge's neighbours Edie pops over to borrow a jug of milk: Madge tells Monica that Edie and Horace are due to be evicted. Edie returns home and ignores another reminder that her house is to be demolished. Karen is introduced to Peter Clements: he says he will be taking some time off to do research. He asks to speak to Karen: he evidently knows she is in Wentworth and asks if he can give her a few pointers for his research. Joy visits Joyce and is told they have kidnapped Monica. Joyce instantly realises from the threat to ruin the hostage's "pretty face" that she cannot be talking about Monica, and laughs when she hears the description of the blonde 20 year old who is the hostage. Bea doesn't find this quite as funny when she realises Lynn is in danger. Julie returns to the gang with the news that they have the wrong woman , but she says they have to hang onto Lynn until they get the money. The man who has bought the house comes round in person to tell Edie and Horace to get out. Peter Clements gives Karen a lift back to Wentworth: he tells her that he actually wants to study the staff rather than the prisoners and asks her for background information on the officers. Joyce informs on Vince and his mates to Jim: he passes on the information to the police (apparently Julie was foolish enough to put her real address in the visitor's book) and they are arrested. Monnie arrives home as Fred is on the phone to the his girlfriend Blossom. She sends him of

Monica scours Melbourne looking for Fred. Meanwhile, Blossom and her boyfriend Bruce con Fred out of the money, so he goes home again with his tail between his legs. Monnie is livid and beats him senseless, landing herself back inside. However, Blossom is also arrested for having the stolen money, and it isn't long before Monnie and Joyce realise who she is and what she has done. Edie rolls about the town drunk and throws a brick through the window of the refuge that turned her and Horrie away. After shoplifting and attacking a woman with an umbrella, she is sent to Wentworth, where Jim takes pity on her. Dr Clements continues his research at the prison and upsets Doreen by referring to her as a lesbian.

Lizzie befriends Edie, and she is moved into Lizzie & Doreen's cell. Monica and Joyce try to beat Blossom up when they realise exactly who she is. Monica tells Joyce that Blossom didn't get her share of the money. Jim starts to realise that there is some link between the three women. Blossom wants Vera to protect her, but she refuses; later, Monica bashes Blossom and is sent to Solitary. On the way, she and Jim are intercepted by Edie, who tells them Lizzie is having a heart attack. Doreen loses the plot and attacks Monnie through the bars of the solitary cell, blaming her for Lizzie's condition. She is promptly carted off to a psychiatric hospital. Jim gets slipped a note telling him where the key to Joyce's safety deposit box is. Later, when Joyce goes to check her hiding place, she finds the key is gone. She accuses Bea of stealing it, but Bea suggests that Jim has taken it.

Erica introduces new security measures to try and ferret out the key (ie metal detectors). Monica gets out of the pound. Blossom approaches Jim for help: she offers him half the money to help her smuggle the key out of the jail, and he agrees. Bea suggests to Vera, who reports to Erica, that Jim is having it off with a prisoner. When Blossom gets probation, she calls Jim to arrange getting the key out. Vera overhears the phone call, reports him to Erica, and he is swiftly suspended. Lizzie accuses Peter Clements of sending Dor round the twist. Greg and Jean are suspicious of him and his motives. Meanwhile, Peter's colleague Tom Burton is having an affair with Karen's college friend Melinda Crosse. His wife Carol drunkenly tells him she'll kill him if she ever finds out he's having an affair.

The suspended Jim has a motel liaison with Blossom, and gets her to tell her where the key is, then turns her over to the police. He gets reinstated and gets a large reward for his part in the capture; Monica and Joyce get charged for their parts in the saga, and Joyce is transferred to another block. Jim learns Leila has a new boyfriend. Tom Burton tries to break off the affair with Melinda, who blackmails him with incriminating photos: she wants $5000 or she'll send them to his wife. He tries to call her bluff, and the photos end up in his wife's clutches. Lizzie gets out of the infirmary and returns to her cell, where she is fussed over by Edie. Edie, meanwhile, is worried about returning to the outside, and is upset by Jean discussing it with her. Jim takes Jean to task over her insensitivity. Peter tries to get hold of the officers' files, and manages to get hold of Jim's army file, which reveals he has a phobia of blood.

The women plan to make a fool of Jim when they learn that he is afraid of blood. They talk Greg into holding first aid classes for them, and plan to humiliate him during it. Edie is worried about him and tells Vera the women are up to something. During the class, the girls pour red liquid over Monica; Jim gets flustered and over-reacts. They plan another surprise for him later on, but are thwarted by Edie. Meanwhile, Lizzie and Edie are becoming firm friends. Jean tries to find Edie somewhere to live when she is released, while Lizzie plots to help her friend stay inside with her. Jim offers to help Edie financially. The night before she is due to be released, she passes away in bed, leaving Lizzie distraught. Jim arranges to pay for her funeral. Carol Burton calls the cops on Melinda and has her arrested for blackmail; she arrives at Wentworth and is shocked to find Karen is already an inmate there.

Noeline Burke is returned to Wentworth after a job she does with daughter Leanne goes wrong, and gets a pasting from Bea for smashing the TV set last time she was inside. Jean Vernon, who has moved back in with Meg, tries to help the Burke family by encouraging Leanne to claim the dole, to Noeline's disgust. Leanne and her boyfriend Denny look for a way to get quick cash, and Meg returns home to find her flat has been broken into. Melinda learns she is pregnant. Greg prepares to leave Wentworth for his new practice, but agrees to help out until they get a new doctor. A media blackout surrounds the arrival of a mysterious new prisoner in Solitary, and the women speculate as to her identity.

The new inmate in Solitary starts protesting and banging on her cell door to be let out of the pound, joined by Bea and the other women in support. The woman, child killer Bella Albrecht, is let out of Solitary, but a veil of silence surrounds her presence there. As the other women try to get the gen on her, Erica tells Karen the truth about Bella but makes her promise to keep quiet. Karen refuses to tell Bea anything, but she gets the info out of Peter Clements. Later, alone in the shower block, Bella is attacked. Meanwhile, Meg realises that it was Leanne who burgled the flat, but Jean persuades her not to turn her into the police.

Bella's attacker is Martha, but she's only trying to be friendly. Erica agrees to let Martha act as Bella's bodyguard. Out in the garden, Monica attacks Bella and is sent to Solitary. Bella confides in Karen about her past and what led her to Wentworth. She also tells Karen how stupid she thinks Martha is, which Martha overhears. Martha storms off after an argument in the shower block, leaving her alone, after which Bella is knocked out and drowned in a sink. In the aftermath of the murder, Erica banishes Peter Clements from the prison when he admits he told the prisoners about Bella. Jean persuades Meg to let Leanne move in with them, and she quickly turns the place into a pigsty.

Melinda finds Bella's body in the shower block and Bea falls under suspicion of her murder. Noeline schemes and points the finger at Bea and Monica: Bea has an alibi in the form of Greg, so Monica becomes the chief suspect. They are both sent to Solitary anyway. Lizzie tries to confess to clear her mates, but nobody believes a word of it. Melinda cons Greg into helping her in court, by using her pregnancy to get off on a good behaviour bond. As soon as she is free, she goes to see him and demands an abortion. He realises she never had any intention of having the baby and only used it to get released. Disgusted by the whole matter, Greg resigns from Wentworth. Meg very quickly grows tired of Leanne's antics and complains when she arrives at the prison to see Noeline. Noeline passes something to her during the visit, which turns out to be a ring stolen from Bella's body after her murder.

The officers search the prison for Bella's missing ring, unaware that Noeline smuggled it out to Leanne. However, Meg later catches Leanne with it. Noeline is questioned by the police and reveals she found the ring in Martha's locker. Martha accidentally confesses to Erica that she murdered Bella, so Bea and Monica get out of Solitary. Martha simmers in Solitary following her confession. When her meal is delivered, she jumps Vera and puts a fork to her throat, dragging her up onto the roof and threatening to chuck her over, but Jim manages to diffuse the situation and save the day. Greg quietly leaves Wentworth, saying goodbye to Karen. Peter Clements' thesis is published and ridicules both Vera and Jim. Karen nervously awaits her parole hearing but it appears to go badly and she is convinced she has blown her chance at release.

The women decide to hold a farewell party for Karen to cheer her up, but Monica throws cold water on their optimism, saying she once had to wait months for a decision on her parole. Jean arranges an interview for Leanne as a cashier in the supermarket down the road. Lizzie reminds Karen about the halfway house project as a way of getting her to look to the future. As Vera wakes up Monica, the camera dwells for a second on her bedside reading matter . Jean lends Leanne a neckscarf for her interview to disguise the fact that she isn't wearing a bra under her teeshirt. Vera snaps at Jim for not supporting her when Bea comments they should have just dropped Vera off the roof. Meg discusses Peter Clements' thesis with Jean, who think he was accurate about Vera ("a sociosexual neurotic fulfilling frustrated needs") but Meg defends her. Noeline suggests Greg only left because Meg was trying to seduce him. Vera lets Karen know she's got her parole by brusquely ordering her to go and pack her things. Noeline grudgingly says goodbye to Karen and advises her not to get in any more trouble. Vera sneers at Karen that she expects to see her back inside. Karen leaves Wentworth with the thirty dollars she brought in plus $172.50 wages. Jim and Vera refuse to let her say goodbye to her friends or Erica. Jean collects her on the other side of the gate to drive her to the place where she is staying. Leanne gets the supermarket job and attributes her success to the fact that the manager "kept perving on me tits". Karen goes to stay with Marjorie Whitton, a friend of her mother's who lays down the house rules to her in no uncertain terms (and an uncertain Welsh accent). Doreen returns to Wentworth: she does not seem to be cured, and doesn't respond when Meg uses her name, or recognize Lizzie or Bea. Bea realises that Doreen has been drugged. Jean makes up a phony shopping list for Meg so she will look in on Leanne at the supermarket. Lizzie refuses to work in the laundry with less than

Jean asks Erica to keep Leanne's arrest from Noeline, so she has the papers censored. However, Lizzie finds a clipping in the bin and gives it to Bea. Greg refuses to come and examine Doreen's foot, so Bea declares a hunger strike until he comes. When Bea tells Noeline about Leanne's arrest, she starts throwing things, so the screws lock them all in the dining room. Bea tells Erica she will stop the stand-off if she sees Greg. As soon as she is out of the dining room, though, Monny and Noeline call off the hunger strike and Jim marches Bea straight to Solitary. Erica is furious with Jim for countermanding her orders while Noeline is released as planned. Karen meets Melinda at Uni, who invites her to come and stay with her, as Karen has had enough of Mrs Whitton. Greg tells Melinda that if she has an abortion, she will be charged with perjury and sent back to Wentworth.

Karen moves in with Melinda. She goes for a job interview but the woman realises who she is and sends her packing. Melinda books an abortion under Karen's name and goes away to have it done, telling Karen and her father that she is just going away for a few days. With Bea in the pound, Monica takes over the press. On the outside, Toni McNally, wife of a drugs kingpin, shoots a woman dead in a pub toilet and is brought to Wentworth on remand. She ingratiates herself with the others by passing on goods smuggled in by her lawyer, effortlessly taking over as Top Dog. Meanwhile, the witness who saw Toni kill Jackie Coulson is moved to a safe house for protection, but runs away from her police guards. Jim asks for leave to try and sort out his family problems.

Toni gets her drug delivery, in amongst tins of fruit. Monica refuses Toni's effort to recruit her as muscle, so she hires Martha. Vera complains to Erica about the special treatment Toni is getting. The fruit is found in Toni's locker and she is sent to Solitary until the VJ sees her. Back among the women, she shares the dope with them that she hid from the screws. The request for a replacement for Jim is refused, but Toni uses her contacts to arrange his leave and get him out of her way. Jim and Vera bond over a few drinks and end up kissing. Vera is lovestruck, and then crushed to learn Jim and Leila are trying to mend their differences. Greg and Karen find out that Melinda had her abortion after all using Karen's name. Karen is disgusted and moves out of Melinda's flat.

Toni smuggles more contraband in, and passes the dope around. Monny tries to get to the pound to tell Bea that Toni is dealing. Vera reports the drug taking to Erica, but Toni points out nobody can prove she is involved. Later, Erica confesses that the Department have ordered her to go easy on McNally, and she is close to quitting. Monica tells Vera where the contraband is hidden; Toni tells Monny she knows it was her who lagged. Karen checks into a hotel and gets a job at a smelly cafe, but gets the sack after an old woman runs out without paying her bill. A friend from uni takes her to a meeting of the PRG, where she meets Angela Jeffries, who runs it. Angela offers her a place to stay and a job as her secretary.

Monica is in trouble from Toni and Martha, out to get her for lagging and blow her parole. However, Meg realises that a fight between them was a set up and Monica is released after all, vowing never to be back. Sean McNally cuts Toni off, refusing to supply her with any more contraband. Now that the supply has run dry, the women tire of her and reject her, leaving only Martha on her side. Meanwhile Glenys, the witness to Toni's crime, is followed around by McNally's hitmen. Karen takes up her post with Angela Jeffries, who tells her they finally have the funding for the Halfway House. She wants Karen to try and persuade Greg to go back to the prison, but he still refuses. Later, Greg is alarmed to learn that Angela is gay.

Bea gets out of Solitary, and Vera delights in warning her about Toni. However, Bea shocks the girls by making no effort to take over again. They later agree to work together to get on Vera's nerves, annoying big Martha. Toni tells her husband's cronies that she wants Glenys killed: later, Glenys is captured by the hitmen following her, who drive her into a forest at night, where a grave has been dug for her. Ted Douglas talks Erica out of resigning. Instead, she is going on leave for a while to think things through. Greg finally agrees to come back to the prison and goes out for dinner with Karen. Angela tells Karen that she is a lesbian. Meg goes to see Mum and a now very pregnant Judith-Anne, and finds Mum's health is rapidly worsening.

Bea realises Toni is dealing drugs and hits Doreen for going along with her. Doreen tries not to tell Erica it was Bea who hit her, but accidentally lets it slip. She begs Erica to recommend her parole, despite Greg's reservations about her mental state. After examining Mum, Greg says she has a chest infection and needs rest. He suggests Karen move in with them to look after them; later, Mum collapses while home alone. Angela holds a meeting about the Halfway House, with Erica and Greg in attendance. However, Karen acts very childishly resulting in a telling off from a furious Angela. Glenys escapes the hitmen and flags down a passing driver, angering Toni. Meanwhile, Glenys is under police guard again, but still gets a threatening letter in her dinner.

Meg finds Mum unconscious and calls Greg, who says she has pleuresy. She is admitted to hospital. Meanwhile, Erica finds out about Meg visiting Mum against regulations, and she is furious. Doreen makes up with Lizzie, but rebuffs Bea's attempt to mend fences. Toni gets a visit from Ros Coulson, daughter of the woman she killed. Next day in court, Glenys withdraws her testimony and Toni is cleared. On the steps of the court, Ros guns her down. Erica goes on leave, and Jim returns to take over as Acting Governor. He immediately tries to show his authority by announcing cell changes, earning the women's anger. Bea threatens to set fire to some mattresses unless Jim returns them to their old cells. He agrees, but takes away all their privileges instead.

Ros arrives in Wentworth as the women learn of Toni's shooting. Dr Weissman interviews Ros and certifies her as sane. Martha tries to heavy Ros, but Bea takes her under her wing. Later, though, Bea is sent to Solitary for knocking Martha out. Ros learns from Jim that Toni has died in hospital. The women grow restless against Fletch's regime when he orders an exercise period at 6.30 in the morning. Karen agrees to move in and look after Mum and Judith-Anne. Ron, Mum's son-in-law, visits and tells them he will do what he can to help even though Lorraine wants nothing to do with them. Meanwhile, Karen thinks she is falling in love with Angela, but Angela puts her straight, telling her she simply feels gratitude and not love.

The officers are up in arms about Jim ordering compulsory overtime but he backs down in the face of union action. Two prisoners are transferred from Barnhurst: one is a mother called Pat O' Connell, in for aiding and abetting her crim husband and son - the other is none other than Chrissie Latham. Unfortunately, it is Meg who has to induct them. She demands Chrissie be sent back to Barnhurst and the officers go on strike to support her. Bea gets out of Solitary as Vera plots to get rid of Jim. Karen visits Lorraine and persuades her to visit Mum. She wants Mum to come back to live with her, but Mum insists she take Judy back too. Karen and Angela learn that Doreen's mum is looking for her so Angela asks Erica to visit the woman and see what her intentions are.

Jim arranges to have Chrissie kept out of Meg's way. Erica tells Jim she has decided to resign, though she hasn't done so officially yet. Jim tells Ted Douglas he has had enough of being Governor, but won't work under Vera Bennett. Douglas talks Erica into coming back after all, leaving Vera fuming. Erica visits Doreen's mother, Alice Hemmings, who tells her she doesn't want to see Doreen. She is horrified when Erica tells her Doreen is in jail. Alice visits Angela to offer financial aid for the halfway house, and Angela tries to talk her into visiting Dor. Later that day Doreen gets a visit from a woman she does not know - Alice Hemmings. Mum gets out of hospital, just as Judith-Anne goes into labour and gives birth to a baby boy, Daniel.

Alice Hemmings pretends to Doreen that she is there on behalf of the Halfway House and doesn't tell her who she is. Vera sneers Alice is wasting her time with Doreen; later, Alice tells Karen she realises she has left it too late to come back into Doreen's life. Erica returns to work. Chrissie taunts Meg into almost hitting her. Ros suggests to Bea they send her to coventry rather than beating her up. Erica warns Bea she will be held responsible if anything happens to Chrissie. Mum finally reconciles Judith-Anne with her mother and they all go back to live with Lorraine and Ron. Someone breaks into the infirmary and smashes into the medicine cabinet to steal drugs.

Greg notices drugs have been stolen from the infirmary and a search is carried out. Meanwhile, Chrissie is being violently ill in the toilet and accuses Bea of poisoning her. Bea is sent to the pound but when Chrissie throws up hours later, Erica realises Bea is not responsible as the medicine in question causes vomiting immediately, and she is released again. Ros suggests that Chrissie is making herself ill, which Chrissie eventually admits. However, she says she has been doing it to cover up the fact she thinks she is pregnant. Karen moves into the halfway house. Pat is visited by Angela, who tells her she has filed the divorce papers, and her mum and kids. Her mother tells her she is struggling with the kids and that if Pat isn't out by Christmas, they will have to go into care.

Chrissie's pregnancy is confirmed by Greg and she tells him she wants an abortion. Bea and the girls continue to bully and threaten Chrissie, until Pat finds out she is pregnant and asks Bea to lay off. Greg arranges for Chrissie to be transferred to Maternity to think about her options. A work party from the men's prison is coming to repair the fence, and Karen visits Doreen to tell her that Pat's son David will be among them. Chrissie lets Pat into Maternity, where there is a window looking out into the garden. David spots her at the window and they talk; she tells him she is divorcing his dad so she can be paroled to be with the kids for Christmas. However, they are caught together by Vera, who acidly tells Pat that she has just blown her parole.

After Vera reports Pat over the incident with David, Erica agrees to Jim's suggestion to go easy on her and not take the matter any further. Bea thinks that Chrissie must have lagged and wants to thump her, but Pat stops it. Karen gets Doreen's room ready at the Halfway House and tells Alice she should stay away from Dor unless she is prepared to tell her who she really is. Doreen is released, but finds it hard adjusting to life on the outside. Alice and Doreen bond while on a drive together; later Alice tells Karen the reason she doesn't want Dor to know who she is - she's dying of cancer. Chrissie decides to have her baby after all. Rosie prepares for baby Sam's first birthday, oblivious to the fact that he will be taken from her when he reaches a year old.

Pat's efforts to persuade Rosie that Sam will be taken away from her fall on deaf ears. She says she will kill herself if they take her baby away. Dr Weissman is called in to see her, but Vera has nastily hinted that if the authorities think she is unstable they will take Sam away. As a result, she acts very calm when she sees the doc, meaning he cannot recommend reversing the Department's ruling, so Sam is handed over to foster parents in front of her. Ros refuses to see Dr Weissman and plead temporary insanity in court, thinking she will get off. She is brought back from her trial in a terrible state, having been sentenced to life. Alice tells Karen she won't be coming back to see Doreen as it is getting too hard and gives her a goodbye present of perfume. Dor realises it is the same perfume her mother used to wear and works out who Alice is at last.

A furious and upset Doreen demands to know why neither Alice or Karen told her the truth. Finally, Karen tells her that her mother is dying and takes her to see her. When Doreen returns to see Alice again, she does not answer the door and appears to be unconscious. Vera starts typing classes for the women and plans a small birthday party in the staff room but nobody shows up for it. Meg tries to counsel Rosie, but Chrissie sticks her nose in and makes her worse. Ros goads her into attacking Chrissie during a typing classes. While everyone is preoccupied, Ros sets off the fire alarm and escapes in a repair man's van. A now completely loopy Rosie thinks Chrissie has stolen Sam and punches her in the stomach. Meanwhile, Karen and Doreen arrive home at the Halfway House to find Ros waiting for them in the kitchen.

Doreen begs Karen to let Ros stay the night and she reluctantly agrees. Next morning, cops arrive at the Halfway House to tell Doreen that Alice is in hospital. Doreen and Karen wait at the hospital for news, only to be told that Alice has passed away. Ros goes to the brothel where her mother worked, but the man who runs it wants her to sell herself as payment for hiding her. She steals money and goes back to the halfway house. Karen tells her she needs to leave, but Doreen plans to let her hide out in her mother's house. Ros is worried that she will get Dor into trouble, so she runs off. On the way to catch a bus to Sydney, she stops to help an old drunk who collapses in the street, and is recognized by a passer-by who calls the police. Ros is promptly arrested again. Bea learns that Rosie has been transferred to a mental institution.

Ros is brought back to Wentworth. The police think she hid at the halfway house and a reporter, Alex Fraser, starts sniffing around the house to find out more. Ros refuses to tell the police where she was hiding. Karen eventually admits to Greg that she did let Ros stay. Greg is furious at having to lie to the police to save Karen and Doreen. With Christmas approaching, Lizzie suggests the women write their annual Christmas play, so Bea and Ros use the chance to ridicule the officers. Vera runs herself ragged trying to have the play cancelled and sabotaged, but the women submit a fake script for Erica's approval. Pat hears Andrew tried to run away from home again. Mrs Devlin comes to visit and says that the kids will have to go into care if she hasn't got her parole by Christmas. Karen supplies Alex with info to write an article on Pat's plight, in a bid to persuade the parole board to release Pat.

Christmas Eve and the women are making the final preparations for their play, which turns out to be a complete character assassination on all the officers and staff. They all walk out of the play in turn after being insulted and so the dejected women give up and pack everything away halfway through. Erica is furious following the publishing of the article on Pat and tells Greg to choose between the prison and the halfway house. Doreen makes a cake for Lizzie's Christmas gift, soaked in alcohol, which Vera confiscates. Pat is released, and sees how hard a time David is having when she visits him in Pentridge. Later, the police turn up on Pat's doorstep to tell her that David has escaped.

Following David's escape, Pat is bothered by a horde of reporters. She gets a message to go and meet David at his hideout and tries to get him to give himself up. He and his friend Shayne steal a car to flee the state and the police set up a trap to catch him at Pat's house, assuming he will go there to say goodbye to her. At Karen's urging, Greg goes to try and warn Pat what is going on. A gunfight follows; Karen hears on the radio that a cop and another man have been killed. She assumes it is Greg. Ros is depressed that nothing came as a result of the play and gets rather too chummy with Chrissie. Doreen goes on her first date since her release, but panics and runs off when the guy tries to kiss her. Lizzie picks the lock of Erica's office and steals some of her sherry.

Karen arrives at Mrs Devlin's house but Greg is okay: it turns out it was Shayne who was killed in the shootout. Pat is arrested and sent back to Wentworth, but she tells the cops she doesn't know where David is now. She gets an extra year in court. Mrs Devlin tells her she needs to go into hospital for an operation, so the children will have to go into care after all. David, meanwhile, vows revenge on Greg, blaming him for Pat being recaptured. With help from Chrissie, Ros manages to get into the surgery and steals drugs from the cabinet but she drops one by accident. Later, Greg finds the dropped capsule and realises other pills are missing. The screws don't find the drugs in the cell search. Bea and Lizzie realise that Ros and Chrissie were involved; Vera catches them with the pills so Chrissie lags on Ros. Chrissie is confined to Maternity and Ros is sent back to Solitary.

Karen and Greg's engagement doesn't go down well with Doreen, who is displeased at the changes at the Halfway House. Bea confronts Ros when she gets out of Solitary, intent on bashing her. She wallops her, but the screws arrive and blame Ros, sending her straight back to the pound. Erica cracks down on security and Vera, predictably, goes well overboard with her tough measures. The inmates have a whipround to buy an engagement pressie for Karen and Greg. Jim is reunited with an old army buddy, Geoff Butler, who promptly hits on Meg and is rebuffed. David O'Connell plans to kill Greg, despite Herbie's pleas that he not do it, and stakes the surgery out. He gets Herbie to call the surgery, and opens fire on the person who comes to answer the phone...

Karen is rushed to hospital, her life hanging in the balance following the shooting. Greg, Doreen and Karen's mother keep a vigil at the hospital. The police suspect Greg was the target and not Karen as the doctors tell him that there are fragments of the bullets dangerously close to her heart. They need Karen's mother's permission to operate and try to remove them. Meanwhile, David O'Connell refuses to turn himself in. When he tells Herbie that he will try to kill Greg again, Herbie shops him to the cops. The VJ gives Ros another three days in the pound. Political activist Janet Dominguez arrives in Wentworth and proves to be an intelligent, eloquent woman, despite the screws' assumptions about her. Ros befriends her through the wall in Solitary. Meg dines with the Fletchers and Geoff. Leila is horrified when Jim invites his old pal to move in with them.

Ros approaches Janet to suggest they try and escape together. Janet arranges for a woman to visit Ros and slip some drugs to her. Kathleen twigs something is going on and suggests that the drugs, which Ros plans to drug the screws with, could be poison. To prove her wrong, Ros takes some of it - and promptly drops to the floor. Meg agrees to go out with Geoff, prompting Leila to phone her behind Jim's back to warn her about him. Pat learns David has been captured and charged with shooting Karen. As Karen regains consciousness in hospital, her mother suggests to Greg that he and Karen move to Queensland with her after the wedding.

Greg suspects that Ros has been drugged when nobody can wake her after her collapse. Janet's appeal is turned down, so the escape will go ahead. Bea wants to know what Ros and Kath are up to, so Lizzie offers to try and get moved into their cell to snoop. Kath worries the terrorists will kill anyone who gets in the way of the escape. Meg tells Jim that Leila tried to warn her off Geoff, and later tells Geoff she doesn't want a relationship with him. Geoff wants Jim to go overseas with him to become a mercenary. Later, while at the pub with Jim, a man hits on Geoff so he beats him senseless in the toilets.

Lizzie's attempt to get moved in with Ros and Kathleen is thwarted by Vera. Leila grows more concerned that Geoff Butler is dangerous when she reads in the paper about the man being beaten up in the pub toilet. She warns Meg about him and then finds a gun and a machete in Geoff's bag. After Ros drugs the officers, Janet's terrorist cronies storm the prison to free them. In the midst of the drama, Erica shows up, concerned that she couldn't contact anyone at the jail on the phone. Ros, Janet and the terrorists abseil down the building: Janet orders one of the men to shoot Erica and she falls to the ground in slow motion...

Erica lies wounded in the arm, but Ros is forced to go with Janet. A police officer is shot by one of the terrorists and Janet is shot in retaliation - she tells Ros to make a run for it. The women watch through their windows and the alarm wakes Chrissie in maternity and she goes to the window and sees Ros run in the opposite direction from the surviving terrorist when he opens fire on her. Jim is called to the prison and takes over temporarily from Erica as she is in the infirmary . Bea and Pat hear the news on the radio in their cell saying that two people were killed. The Commonwealth police ask to interview Kath but Vera can't wake her up. Erica is reluctantly taken to hospital. Janet refuses to give the police any information. Leila phones Meg to tell her about Geoff's attack on the man in the pub and for once it seems to sink in with Meg that Geoff might not be all he appears to be to her. Ros gets away from Wentworth on the back of a truck and steals a change of clothes from a clothesline. Jim speaks to the women at breakfast and tells them any help they can give the police will be rewarded. Ros follows Chrissie's earlier advice and makes her way to the docks. Chrissie volunteers to speak to the police. Detective Marshall gives Kath a hard time with a ruthless display of shouting and sheer bad acting but she can't tell him anything useful. Chrissie demands remission in return for her information about Ros making off on her own, and talking to Kath later, she realises where Ros has probably gone. Jim tells Meg she doesn't have to worry about Geoff any more, as he's reported Geoff to the police. He advises Meg to avoid him for a while. Geoff returns to the Fletchers' from the golf club where he had been arrested and later released: he packs a bag and leaves. The police have a final word with Janet, but she refuses to help the police trace Ros, calling her a "squeamish little bitch" for saving Erica's life. Meanwhile, Ros is picked up by a sailor just boarding