Episode 1.4 - The Victim
Written by Martin Allen
Produced by Brian Park
Directed by Laurence Moody
Watch this episode on SeeSaw now
Zandra has decided that she wants to abort Robin’s baby. Although Helen concedes that she’s probably doing the right thing, she remains troubled by the inmate’s motives. Handcuffed to Lorna and Dominic, Zandra is escorted to the clinic. As soon as she’s installed in an examination room, she plays on Lorna’s evident unease with the situation by feigning distress. When Lorna heads off in search of a nurse, Zandra seizes the opportunity to escape.
Despite the obvious dangers, Fenner is still spending a lot of time in Rachel’s cell. Rachel is beginning to suspect that Fenner is neglecting her in favour of Shell and so rebuffs his passionate overtures. Meanwhile, Shell is determined to make Rachel suffer for daring to have an affair with her man. Entering Rachel’s cell, she takes down the photograph of the teenager’s baby and gouges out its eyes with a pen. She threatens to do the baby harm unless Rachel arranges for her mother to smuggling in a package of drugs on her next visit.
Zandra makes her way across London to Robin’s house. He isn’t pleased to see her, a feeling intensified when she reveals that she is pregnant. Zandra is heartbroken when he informs her that the news of her pregnancy hasn’t changed anything – he wants nothing to do with her, or her baby. At the clinic, Lorna and Dominic are frantic and about to contact Larkhall when Zandra returns. Worried about the possible consequences for her career, Lorna manages to persuade Dominic that they should keep quiet about Zandra’s escape. Dominic is clearly worried – Zandra is a junkie and definitely not to be trusted.
Rachel’s mum turns up empty-handed: no package and no baby. Rachel is devastated, not only by the prospect of Shell’s wrath, but also by the news that her baby daughter Maddie has been placed into care. Across the room, Nikki is crushed when she discovers that her long-term girlfriend, Trisha is seeing someone else. Later, she breaks down and confides in Monica, revealing that she is serving a life sentence for killing a policewoman who was trying to rape Trisha. Worried about Nikki’s state of mind, Monica goes to speak with Helen. Helen shares her concerns and has Nikki placed on suicide watch.
Infuriated by Rachel’s failure, Shell punishes her by ‘accidentally’ scalding her with a jug of tea. Tired of her emotional dependency, Fenner is unsympathetic – he warned her not to make an enemy of Shell. Rachel finally comes to her senses and threatens to go to Helen with the truth about their affair. After warning her against this course of action, he abandons her. Rachel trashes her cell in a bid to escape to the safety of solitary confinement, but Helen decides to be lenient and takes away her G3 status instead. Rachel will be returned to the four-bed dorm which of course, is the last thing she wanted.
After being tormented by Denny and Shell, Rachel decides that she’s had about enough as she can stand of prison life and when Zandra wakes in the morning, her eyes focus on the limp figure of Rachel hanging beside her from the bars of the window.