Franky Doyle - Wentworth Season 5

Episode Two

After watching the premiere of Wentworth's season five I was more than convinced to have seen an extremely strong episode concerning Franky Doyle's character (and in general of course). Now, after having seen the second episode of the season, I'm still just as convinced that that has been the case, but am also taken aback since this second episode turned out to be even stronger - concerning the writing as well as the acting. At the same time, it feels completely different from any of the stuff we have been shown ever before over the past four seasons of this series. Maybe it's exactly that, though, that makes this one as strong as it turned out to be: Everything about it feels weird and wrong and yet, there is not a thing that doesn't make sense and it somehow manages to conserve all the feelings it needed to, which definitely couldn't have been easy in any way considering where we had left off.

The first time we get to see Franky Doyle, she is on her way to Wentworth Prison and we immediately get everything that her going back there means summed up in one little moment: She tells another woman, who's crying, that she was going to be alright and the woman simply answers: "What would you know?" The unspoken response to that question says it all. There's nothing that would have needed to be added to that. It perfectly sets the tone for all the following scenes evolving around Franky being back on the inside.

That being said, let's get into it.

Take off your freedom

It was during Franky's meeting with Mike Pennisi in episode one of season five that her necklace - a kite with a red string - was first brought up in conversation, though she's actually been wearing it ever since she got out of prison in the end of season three. On that note, how cool is it for a character to causally just wear some necklace at the end of a season and then more than a season later it is brought up as one of the most important symbols to that character? That's developing a series at its best! To be honest, I think it's a beautiful symbol and I love the way it comes up again and again, here and there, throughout the episode in all the right moments. Though, the questions remains: If Franky has always had that kite as a symbol of freedom - where has it been throughout the past four seasons? How come we've never seen or heard of it?

Within the first few scenes, the necklace now is put into focus (meaning she's either holding it, we get a close-up, etc.) various times, when Franky returns to Wentworth; she physically holds onto it, onto her freedom ultimately, which only makes sense and actually puts an emphasis on her being about to loose it yet once more. Being back inside, she is being photographed, the camera taking the picture of her is the camera filming the scene, which leads to her looking directly into the camera, into the viewer's eyes at one point. That "locking of eyes", if you want to put it that way, to me is so important and beautiful because it's nothing less than a connection to where she wants to be - on the outside. Furthermore, of course, her eyes constantly speak volumes, so the fear of being back becomes more and more vivd with every shot we get.

"Take off your jewellery", says one of the officers and we get a close-up on the kite-necklace again - the officer might as well have said: "Take off your freedom." And I think that might also be the answer to the questions I've brought up before. We have never seen or heard about that necklace within the first four seasons because when Franky first got into prison she had to give it away, she gave away her freedom and she didn't even try to hold onto it since there probably wasn't any part of her believing that she had the right to do so. And maybe she hadn't at the time. She lost her freedom and she lost all hope, too. "There's no fucking hope", is what she had said to Bridget and she had meant it. So even as she grew a more and more hopeful again at the end of season three, it wasn't enough for her to actually believe in it or remember that symbol. When she got to put it on again, when she got to be free again, she had it back, there was no reason to mention it then. Up until now... I think, this kite is not just some symbol, but actually another element we can now add to Franky, which lets us get to know her a little better. I love it.