S04E05: 'Only The Lonely'

Tina is distraught to learn that her sister Maxi murdered Virginia O’Kane. The other inmates aren’t too impressed either, and after Maxi and Yvonne get involved in a fight, she and Al are placed on Rule 43 for their own protection.

After hearing that Fenner is living in a grotty B&B, Neil offers him the use of his spare bedroom, complete with en-suite shower facilities. Fenner agrees and moves in the following day, delighted when he discovers that home-cooked meals also seem to be included in the rent. However, when he begins to spy on Fenner in the shower, it becomes clear that Neil has more than just friendship in mind.

Cassie meets with her solicitor and tells him that she blackmailed Roisin to cover up for her. She is appalled when she is told that a blackmail conviction could add an extra three years to her sentence but decides that it is a fair price to pay to assuage her guilt and orders her solicitor to put the wheels in motion. Cassie knows that Roisin will refuse to go along with the plan if she finds out about the extra sentence and so chooses to conceal it. However, when she confides in Yvonne, Roisin is appalled to be told the truth. After confronting an unrepentant Cassie she is left in an awful dilemma – does she go along with the plan and consign Cassie to years in prison or does she come clean and forgo the chance of being reunited with her children?

Denny and Shaz are still making good progress with their tunnel but are finding in increasingly difficult to move the excavated earth without drawing unnecessary attention. They decide to rope in the Julies who come up with the idea of making ‘The Great Escape’ style ‘cheaters’ for Shaz and Denny to wear inside their trousers – when the string attached to the pockets is pulled, the earth drops through their trousers and can be swept into the garden. However, there is nothing they can do about Hollamby’s developing suspicions as to what they are up to.

Neil continues to make himself unpopular by banning officers from smoking and from using the prison gym. Does he have the prisoners’ interests at heart as he claims, or is this just a personal vendetta against Karen? Karen is convinced that this is the fact, but little does she know that Neil’s behaviour is fuelled by his jealousy of her relationship with Fenner.

Neil is so impressed by Hollamby’s work on the canteen computer that he arranges for her to pass her IT skills on to the inmates. Hollamby has other ideas and gets Barbara to take the class for her while she catches up on her reading. Left to their own devices, the inmates find various ways of entertaining themselves including playing computer games and printing off pornographic images. The lesson ends in disaster when Buki spills Hollamby’s tea and shorts out all of the computers. Later, Hollamby is horrified when she finds the pornographic image pinned up on the wall, only with her and husband Bobby’s heads superimposed on the fornicating couple!

Hollamby isn’t the only one to be suspicious of Denny and Shaz’s sudden preoccupation with the potting shed and the fact that they always seem to be covered in dirt. Buki blackmails Denny and Shaz to let her in on the plan and they have no choice but to agree. Later, Buki is digging in the tunnel when Hollamby collars her lookouts, Shaz and Denny, and orders them back inside for lock-up. Buki is left on her own in the tunnel with only a flickering torch for company. Inside, Hollamby has realised that she’s an inmate down. She puts two and two together after finding a pair of Shaz’s muddy shoes an races out to the potting shed. It may all be too late for Buki who is buried under the now collapsed tunnel.

A new inmate arrives on the wing and Julie J receives a horrible shock – it’s her daughter, Rhiannon!