Let’s start with a huge congratulations to the writer Julie Gearey and the entire cast of Prisoners’ Wives for this excellent last episode! 😀
It really was a showcase of very fine talented actors, and truly hope the BBC confirms series 2 very soon indeed, so we can get to see them all again 😀
*Spoilers ahead*
It really was a crammed last hour, trying to fit every storyline in , in order to have some sort of conclusion. Though it was good to see, there is room for that second series as well =)
Lou, Sean and little Mason, managed to have a last great couple of days as a family before Lou eventually found herself in prison. We also saw a bit of her trial and got sentenced 6 months in prison.
Harriet & Gavin had uhm interesting last encounters. Harriet bless her,under encouragement from Lou, finally managed to pluck up the courage to seek out Ian, the chaplain in the prison. Ok so she was very much forward lol, had a bit of a meltdown but eventually they did end up having dinner and a date 😉 Gavin…gosh so much more trouble could build up as he wants to convert to be a Muslim. Nothing wrong with that of course! But the series made it look like he was being influenced by radicals. Which is potentially not that good…
Francesca, arghh she made me want to scream at her, saying ‘follow your father’s advice, you bloody idiot’! LOL Yes she did get loads of cash from that little trip to the airport on Paul’s orders but gosh what a mess 😦 Her father ended up badly injured as someone did want that cash back! Her dad is right though, if she continues to follow Paul, she’s a criminal , just like him. oh and her son has a drug problem…hmmm
And what about Steve & Gemma?
Gemma seriously had a very bad 24 hours, in all honesty it even looked like some scenes from ’24’. First she get grabbed by the detective , forced into witness protection against her will (she was ready to take her statement back). Then instead of being protected she get shot at in the hotel room, just as she started to go into labour! Trying to run from psycho Andy she manages to get into a shopping centre, hiding in clothes stalls until she could get to the ladies, to actually give birth! Andy really almost killed her in the cubicle , was it not for the teenagers that saved the day , entering at the right time. That said , Steve did his bit too, as the detective (really can’t manage anything on his own!) phoned him up, asking to give Andy’s phone number so they could gps locate it and find Gemma. Luckily he did as he was utterly shattered at the notion he could lose his unborn child & wife to that psycho. Gemma did end up giving birth in that ladies cubicle (a son 😀 ) and Andy ends up behind bars (let’s hope for Steve in an entire different prison!)
A Happy Ending then? Gemma takes the baby (damn it but don’t have a name) to visit Steve, making it look like it will be ok…only to be dashed at last minute as she decides it will be the last time she ever visits him! Steve is left a blubbering mess while she walks happily away from the prison with a big smile (guess to show she’s finally independent from all the men who tried to tell her what to do).
The entire cast was just brilliant 😀 And Jonas made be have a backflash to that certain season 2 episode of Robin Hood we all uhm try to forget ;p He was just awesome, really believable performance as he really cried his eyes out 😦 And who else had a huge awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww moment when he held the baby? Haha, man was asking & hoping for that scene since last week and very glad I got my wish lol. Yes babies & Jonas is just a nice combo 😉
Don’t get me wrong, Steve admitted he was a lying bastard and he did kill that person. Though in fairness he could be telling the truth still about Andy the psycho not letting him out of the business. But I stick to what i said before, that’s the only nag in the script: that raid should have been done during the arrest itself to find that gun…and also shouldn’t the police have had Andy’s phone number all that time? He was arrested the week before, surely they made some sort of record?! But again these are just blemishes in an otherwise very entertaining series , really hope for a second series!
What’s next then?
Lou’s story: they can show us what it’s like in a women prison maybe. How Sean copes with finding work…the relationship between little Mason & Harriet perhaps?
Harriet’s story: all is well now, so she thinks as she keeps dating the lovely Ian, unaware of her son’s troubles in prison. She could be faced new challenges as a foster mother etc…
Francesca’s story: tries to salvage the mess Paul left her with yet again, tries to find out who hurt her father and who’s after them? Discovers to her horror her own son is addicted to drugs! So yes lots more scope for Fran to come back.
Gemma’s story: ahem…well she could realise three months down the line, how much she misses Steve after all and gets back to visit him. We follow Steve’s trial, see how he regrets everything, made those declarations, and who knows Gemma might even have a change of heart and be called as a character witness on behalf on her husband. Yes I may well float on river DeNial but quite like it there …;-)
In any case I do think the series can continue, and as we know Julie is working on it as we speak. We might all find ourselves in Prison again, next year 😀
Blimey this was a long post, if you read it all, thank you so much!! =)
Nikki
Jonas Armstrong Blog 
Been anxiously waiting for it Nikki, thank you very much and it seems there’s plenty of scope to continue on, let’s hope it will be commissioned for a second series as it definitely is not finished by the way your review reads. I can see Steve serving a lesser sentence based on how Season 1 has ended and what you’ve written here. Please, Please let it carry on for a Second Season, please!
Great rundown of the ep! Where to begin responding?! lol 😀 This ep was absolutely packed…
Considering how much I was rooting for Fran’s independence earlier in the series, I was incredibly disappointed with where she went. Not disappointed in the acting or writing, not in the least– it was believable and very well portrayed. I was disappointed that she slid so far back, she came out even lower than where she began. As for Paul, well, I’d cheerfully give him a kick to the shins, given the chance. (Y’know, if he was real, and all, lol.) But, that’s nothing new; I’ve always felt that way toward him. I’d said to the friend I was watching with that Fran’s setting an awful example for her son when they were out to eat, but geez… I didn’t expect that, although I wonder if I should’ve, considering his attitude. And who knows what the daughter’s getting into. Then there’s poor Frank, who’s tried his best to support Fran only to have his home ransacked and his self beaten in return… really, I wouldn’t have minded giving Fran a good kick during this ep, either, which is a new thing with her.
For Harriet, on the other hand, I was so pleased by the upward path she’s taking personally. That sort of journey isn’t without its dips and pitfalls– how much did I want to give her a giant hug when she was melting down in the car?– but ultimately I think she’ll come out on top (provided she doesn’t spend TOO much time with the neighbour, hee). And lol, poor Ian, so confused. 😀 With Gavin, I’d hoped that being given the Koran would be a good step for him, but more than anything else, it concerns me that his attitude still seems very negative. There was such a different side of him at the start of Family Day, and I’d hoped he would find something to bring that out more. This doesn’t seem to be it, which doesn’t bode well for either him or Harriet. Nor does his apparent lack of ability to take responsibility for his own poor choices. Yes, Harriet should’ve intervened if she knew what he was up to, but ultimately the fault was with him, yet they’re both laying it at her door. Not good.
I loved the family moments with Lou, Sean, and Mason! I was still hoping that Lou would be able to hand over whatshisname who set her up, who seemed to me a much bigger fish, but maybe that’ll be in S2? Anyway, the three of them were adorable together, and I honestly have really high hopes that they’ll get things worked out once she’s out; I don’t see her going back to dealing. I thought it was interesting how she and Paul were essentially part of the same chain, as well as Gavin and Paul and Fran’s son, too, really. Drugs have put all of them where they are. Which isn’t really a deep revelation or anything, lol, but I guess I just hadn’t pieced that together yet.
I’m actually going to break this into two comments, both because I have no idea if there’s a restriction on comment length, and also to avoid tl;dr. 😉
Fran really disappointed me as well, thought she’d see the sense of not doing Paul’s bidding any longer. But as she tells her father ‘it’s not enough’ ( to have a roof over her head, it needs to be a villa with swimming pool ~_~ ) So she prefers to have the cash and not ask questions, to just be happy with what you got. No wonder her son is a teenage nightmare! Poor ol’ Frank, very sorry for him indeed, that’s the thanks he got? And yes Paul needed a good lick in the shins! 😀
Never really warmed to Gavin until Family Day, so to find him in potential trouble again isn’t great 😦 Mind they left that one open, as it’s not sure if it’s radicalization or just helping him out genuinely. I agree about both mother and son are to blame for the situation. Not wanting to share too much of my personal life on here, but let’s say i can relate to losing a person at a crucial age…but you really can’t keep putting the blame on that as an excuse for going off the rails! So yes his mum should have opened her shutters and get him help, but Gavin got himself into trouble all on his own soo… anyway those two could need a counselling session together! Harriet bless her, glad she got to date Ian, she deserves a bit happiness in her life!
Really liked Lou! More than I thought at the start of the series, as you say the whole family is lovely. I think she finally learned her lesson and won’t ever go back to dealing. Harriet could be a great support system for when she gets out of prison. Yeah that guy really needs to be caught! Maybe in series 2 indeed, maybe a genuine sting operation? Lou helping out the police…could work .
Drugs is just horrible, it finds its way everywhere, from the poor to the top of society! Almost every week we hear on the news here about a shipment of cocaine, heroine, or some other type a drug being found concealed n the docks of Antwerp. Just sad!
Fran so very nearly grew past that, too, which is what makes it SO frustrating. Arrrrgh! I wouldn’t mind adopting Frank as my dad/grandpa (the generations are a bit different there, lol) and getting him away from there. 😉
I feel the same with Gavin, and I’m sorry if that situation struck a tough chord for you. *hugs* Also without getting into it too much, I can sympathise with relating to a show–or book, or film– in a personally difficult way. At any rate, yes, counselling would be a very, very good idea for them. 😛 I really hope we see more of them next series.
And also agreed with Lou! 🙂 I wanted to give her a good shake early on, when she was leaving Mason alone to deal and flipping off school personnel right next to him, but I think (hope) that, removed from the situation in which it was all happening, she’ll manage to stay straightened out. I’d love to see her bring that rat down!!
It really is sad, and everywhere. I’m disappointed but not surprised that the problem’s growing in my city, since we’re having issues with gangs (SO glad I’m moving soon), but it was pervasive even when I lived in a small town. Just awful.
Part Two–
All right, Gemma. I just can’t understand some of what Gemma does. Nor is that the first time; I’ve chalked a lot of things up to naivete until now, but idk. (I even wonder if that might not possibly have been some of the draw for Steve, since she probably wouldn’t ever have caught on to his criminal dealings if he hadn’t been arrested.) I mean, she’s running down a busy street, in labour, and doesn’t try to get help from anyone? (For that matter, nobody’s disturbed to see an obviously frightened, heavily pregnant woman running around?) If she was hesitant to trust the police at that point, call an ambulance– she needed it anyway, and she would’ve been surrounded by people at the hospital. I actually figured that’s what she was going to do when she went to the phone. Then she goes into a market, also full of people, and picks an exposed place to hide instead of asking any of the LOADS OF PEOPLE for help?? And then she picks an inescapable place to go in the market… Okay, she’s terrified, she’s in pain, there’s a lot going on, clarity of thought isn’t going to be easy to come by just then, but I was basically headdesking the entire time. Meanwhile, I was left kind of surprised at her ten-minute labour and delivery. 😛 Yes, I know, it was longer than that, and all the running and extreme stress around could account for it, and all deliveries are different, buuuuut… it was just kind of quick, imo.
Anyway, I will say that it was a very successfully suspenseful sequence, I was on the edge of my seat even as I wanted to shriek at the screen, lol, and I honestly had no idea how it was going to go. So, despite my issues with it, tonally it worked. Meanwhile, I haven’t trusted the cop this whole time, and it was good having that turned around.
Okay, Steve and Gemma (and that utterly ADORABLE unnamed baby… wth, how long has that poor kid gone without a name? Shouldn’t they have figured that out by now? lol)– I think it goes without saying that I was a puddle of miserable goo by the time it was all over. All that stuff I’d said about betrayal if Steve found out Gemma sold him out– well, that’s not how it went down, but that heart-shattering angst was all in this scene and then some, and wow did Jonas bring it. (I’ll set aside him+baby broodiness as a given, hahaha.) Even though he was killing me, lol, I couldn’t fault anything Gemma said, because she had him on every point. This wasn’t the ending I expected, even though I didn’t expect everything to work out for them, but ouch… that was excruciating. On the plus side, Steve’s exonerated as far as his feelings for Gemma and the baby go, since that was somewhat in question here and there. But that’s really the only plus side here. I’m not sure how Gemma’s going to handle single parenthood, and while I am definitely all for women seizing their independence and yay for her taking control of her life, I just don’t know how successful she’s going to be. That’s not to say I think she needs a man in her life or anything, only that I wish there had been something earlier in the series to give me confidence in her ability to function independently. Fingers crossed, surely, but I just don’t know. While I feel that their story could be considered complete here, I would be interested to know how she’s faring, in S2.
Anyway, I had even more thoughts than that, but I can’t recall the rest right now, being kind of overwhelmed by just how much there was to process. And two novel-length comments is enough babbling, as it is, lol. 😉
P.S. Thanks for the RAS link in the sidebar! It’s been kind of quiet lately, but it picks up here and there. 🙂
Hahaha oh gosh was thinking the very same about why Gemma just didn’t grab someone, saying she’s in trouble and needs help?! Guess it simply wasn’t dramatic enough if she’d done it….
and yes she did give birth very quickly, but bless her poor thing, was soo scared fr her when Andy had that gun pointing at the door ready to shoot!
I’m going to make a full Steve analysis later, as together with my friend (also Jonas fan) we both seem to get stuck with same questions about script/ character development. I really liked the other stories, so liked Julie’s writing a lot! But the one with Steve still bothers me as it makes no sense most of the time…really been scratching my head lol (think it’s the years of watching other shows about crime …) Also we both concluded it could simply be cause of Jonas’ performance, we want to make excuses for Steve? But yeah will do that one later!
About Gemma being independent, best of luck to her! But frankly that kid needs his dad, even she thinks it’d be best not to see Steve ever again…it’s so going to blow in her face when her son will start to ask questions! But yeah again that was probably not the point of the scene of her looking happily away from the prison 😛
No worries about sharing links! It’s least I could do after all your wonderful contributions here! 😀
lol, I also saw the “Why didn’t Gemma get help?!?” point made on a review, although apparently the reviewer didn’t facepalm as much as I did at it. 😉 But yes, it was very dramatic, and my heart was in my throat when Andy had the gun pointed, especially after he’d hesitated then raised it again. At first I got a little b****y when she said at the prison that the delivery had been tough (having two kids, myself, I was in kind of a “SHALL WE DISCUSS ‘TOUGH’ DELIVERIES” mindframe, lol), but really– running for not only her life, but the life of her baby as well, and finally giving birth under those conditions… “tough” is rather an understatement. 😉
Y’know… yes. The other stories were so tightly written, the plot holes in Gemma and Steve’s story were fairly jarring. I’ve read your analysis, and will reply shortly. 😀 I know exactly what you mean about trying to separate the character from the actor/performance, too– it’s hard sometimes (the end of this being a supreme example!!), but it’s good that we’re all trying, lol.
And <3! 🙂 🙂
I would just like to say this finale was AMAZING!!!! Anyone notice that the airport Fran went to for the money was called “Robin Hood Airport”!! I thought that was quite funny really, 🙂 xx
Haha was it? Will need to re-watch that bit 😉 Call upon my ignorance on UK airports but shouldn’t it be near Nottingham instead of Sheffield?
Yep I thought it was a little geographical mistake there as well but it was a good little link for the observant fans of Jonas out there 😉 xx (not saying you’re not observant) 🙂
There was debate when it was opened as Robin Hood Airport because of that, but it actually is in an area with claims to early legends– Robs was placed in Barnsdale Forest as well as Sherwood, and apparently teleported in order to pop up all over those areas of England, lol, if many of the claims are to be believed. 😉
I thought it was just a fun coincidence that it was in PW, but cool either way!
Oh I see! yes remember the many claims of the legendary hero by other counties now you mention it lol! 😀
Yes definitely cool to have it in PW…would have been a lot of fun if Steve had found himself there ;P
That would have been funny 😛 xx
What a fantastic series this was to watch & Jonas is absolutely brilliant as Steve,he deserved an award for his performance.
Well the RTS Yorkshire awarded the series for Best Drama of 2012. 😀 But yes it would be great for Jonas to win an individual award.