I’ve just realised nobody’s started this thread. I’m not really feeling up to making an awfully lengthy opening post, so I’ll just pick out a few key points.

The hostage scenes
Shell’s a nutter! :lol: Even Denny can see that by the time she sets Bobby on fire. Denny’s face is a right picture at this point. I think Shell’s attitude towards the whole thing is very unsettling – much like Shaz’s before she faced the consequences of her crime. Shell doesn’t care about the people she hurts – “I’m a killer ain’t I, got a reputation to keep up”. And here I was, thinking she’d bloody transformed – after the revelations of her childhood and then her spell on the muppet wing. No such luck. Shell is, and always will be, a first class nutter.

Helen sussing it all out
Bet she thought she was just a bit clever in this ep, didn’t she. Well, it was difficult to realise there was something not right about Shell having the soap “back again for bathtime”. But got to give credit where it’s due; Helen did a good job on telling Karen her suspicions re Bodybag’s place being a point of temporary residence for the escapees. She approached Shaz in the right way, and Shaz just let it slip.

Told you I wasn’t really up to it, but thought I’d get it started. I’ll leave it to others to expand now

I have to admit, I haven't been especially excited to rewatch this episode. For me, it's one of the most difficult to sit through. Sociopathy in action! Woohoo! In one episode revenge is enacted for years and years of humiliation and abuse. When you see it distilled into a 24 hour period, the horror of life at Larkhall is just too much to bear.

The whole treatment of Crystal is to me, even more upsetting. Because what did Crystal ever do to Shell, other than stand up to her? And for doing so, she gets sent back to prison.

The episode isn't totally fresh in my mind, but what I recall about Helen's approach is that she honors the importance of Denny and Shaz's relationship. She plays on Shaz missing Denny, and acknowledges that what Shaz and Denny have is special, not just a fling, and not akin to a friendship. To me, this is one of the ways the show dramatizes Helen's own journey in S3, in terms of her own relationship with Nikki, and her sense of her own sexuality. I don't think Helen was ever homophobic (of course!), but I also don't think that, had she not fallen in love with Nikki, was she not WITH (and yet not with) Nikki, she wouldn't have spoken to Shaz of her relationship with Denny with quite the dignity she did. In a way, as she's speaking to a prisoner whose lover has left her stuck in Larkhall, she's speaking to her own lover, who she has left (temporarily) stuck in Larkhall. It's not a conscious thought, just a subconscious emotional connection.

I know what you mean, abzug. I think it was just because Shell had overheard Cystal calling her Evil and she doesn't like that side of her personality being brought to the forefront by other people.

I like the connection you've made here abzug. And I agree with you that, had Helen not made this subconsious connection and not connected to Shaz in the way that she did, Bodybag and Bobby would have probably burnt to a crisp (which may not have been the worst thing in BG history!)

I wasn't so keen on this episode so sorry haven't got round to rewatching it yet ...

I agree. We definitely saw a change in Helen in the way that she dealt with Shaz.

Clever of Helen to point out the significance of the soap and make the Bodybag connection. Not so clever on Fenner's part .... stupidly planting the soap ... forging the diary without varying the writing.

I can't quite remember how Fenner (looking distinctly shifty in this episode) tried to set Helen up with the diary. I think it was suggested that she didn't run the lifer's group properly etc. Was she was interviewed by Area Management because they thought Shell had escaped through Helen's incompetence or were they just following up possible negligence?

Also I never quite understood where the wigs came from!

abzug, sometimes I don't even know why I bother to comment. You say exactly what I thing but string words together so much better....Helen interacted with Shaz just right. Shaz didn't even know she was giving away the whereabouts of the breakouts because she hereself did not even know...Helen put her finger to the side of her nose and hunched it out. Previously in the show, Helen has done alot with Shaz: getting her to feel remorse; getting her in to see Denny in the infirmary when it was Shaz who put her there; and kickboxing self esteem move, so it's not w reach there would be a flow between the two in this instance.
Helen was never homophobic. Remember the S1 Nikki in the blue top taming where she asks about breaking up with Trisha, "Nine years is a long time." Once again Shed production team does a great job with the Helen character balancing the personal and the profession motivations which drive her.

(Did I ever say I love this show?)

I've always found this episode uncomfortable watching yet this is not a fault of Shed in their writing, quite the contrary as their writing is honest. Over two and a half series, Bodybag is painted as someone who gets pleasure in enforcing the nastier parts of prison regime while hiding behind rules and regulations. In this situation, the tables are turned yet Shell and Denny act no better than the opresser. In music terms an American folk singer called Phil Ochs wrote 'When in Rome' following a similar theme. It is realistic and has to be accepted as such. Equally hard is it to deal with just how sincere Bodybag was in her apology for the way she had behaved and her curious display of dignity which was something utterly new to see.

This episode shows that Denny, once separated from Shaz and under Shell's influence, goes a long way in becoming the 'old' Denny- but not all the way, in trying to limit's Shell's psycopathic behaviour. It's just occurred to me that Shell, in setting the coffin on fire, repeats history in the crime that landed her in prison and her capacity to hold grudges.

The area investigation is a ping pong game between several players in bouncing blame between area, Stubberfield and any other scapegoat that can be found. Interestingly enough, Gina's quick flick over the diary brought her ahead of the game over Karen and Area.

What is striking is the contrast between Helen's impotence in saolving her own personal problem and her astuteness in bouncing the 'incriminating evidence' of the bar of soap back away from her.The parallel of Helen's sympathy with Shaz losing her partner and Nikki losing Trisha has that ironic twist that Helen was able to ber sympathetic with Nikki before she knew what she came to feel for Nikki whereas this time around, times had changed. She also winkled out the truth in exploiting Shaz's vanity.

What is depressing is Karen's increasing belief in Helen being paranoid and being suckered into nursing Fenner's apparent weakness, his own paranoia that 'he's being set up as a target' when he had done just that for Helen. She's reached the point of being blinded by Fenner.

One curious point left out is the result of the police forensic test on the diary which, if relayed to Karen, would have proved what Helen was saying and that,paranoid or not, Helen happened on the truth about where Shell and Denny were.

This links back to what I said in my opening post: Shell has not changed, even after her childhood revelations and the spell on the muppet wing. She has not thought about the consequences of her crime, like Shaz did at the end of S2. Shell is still capable of committing the same crime, and isn't really bothered about who she's hurting; she's more interested in keeping up her reputation as a killer.

I thought this too. We know that the diary entries were written all at once, and that it was sent for tests to find that very thing out. So why didn't the results come back, proving Helen right? I also thought it was a bit odd that Helen didn't get any recognition for discovering where Shell and Denny were - and ultimately saving Bodybag's life. The only one to congratulate her is Fenner, but he has an ulterior motive: to get her to forgive his assault on her. Does Bodybag ever get told that it was Helen who actually saved her life? Because it's never mentioned again after this episode. Is it?

It reminds me of "Back from the Brink" where Karen gets the accolades for saving Fenner but, IMO, Helen is actually the one who saved him. Seems Helen never got the respect and acknowledgement she deserved from her immediate colleagues. Saving old Bodybag would be no different but I spose it could be argued that Area "thanked her" by promoting her to No. 1.

I wouldn't be opposed to some of that kind of thanks myself!

Shell is a really interesting case, in my opinion. Bad Girls consistently espouses the philosophy of rehabilitation, and the idea that prison (especially for women) helps no one. It's clear they'd rather have these women in rehab, therapy, community service, or restitution programs. But Shell stands outside this framework I think, and sort of serves as an acknowledgment that some women really are violent criminal sociopaths, are beyond rehabilitation, and probably shouldn't be on the street. So even though we've come to sympathize with Shell for her horrendous childhood, and root for her in certain ways, when it comes to whether we want her in prison or outside it, well, we want her in it.

That said, it seems she managed to basically behave herself in Spain and not do anything particularly awful for at least a year or two, so it's not like we're supposed to think that Shell is a menace to society--she's just a menace to people who abuse her or betray her (her first murder victim who stole her boyfriend, and now Sylvia).

Hi Lisa289, Fwiw, my take on that (I've always been attached to the soap & diary business: I read a lot of mysteries in the past, & was like, yelling at the screen the first time I saw it, more or less--Helen! tell them to test the handwriting, dammit! kinda thing) is that it simply wasn't necessary to follow-up. It was not information the audience needed.

Forensic document examination is expensive--which I believe they did in fact mention in the episode. Also it's time-consuming. In short, any result would likely have arrived well after Area had already come to their conclusions about how to assign blame. So rather than it being a lacuna in the text, I believe it was left out deliberately as it's basically just not a necessary detail: the point is that Helen thinks of it, and it's very damn smart of her. The soap is an obvious clue: back-dating the diary, less so (imo)--and hey, Helen isn't trained in that sort of thing, not really.

Me either! Thanks popstalin; I guess that was a bit of recognition for her :)

Hey abzug. I agree with you here. Bad Girls does promote rehabilitation and the fact that prison usually makes things worse. But Shed have also remembered to include the fact that some women actually deserve to be in that place (like Shell)

Bump.

I would agree with Abzug being right on about Shell, noting that ...she's just a menace to people who abuse her or betray her... In this episode, Shell specifically states that she's going to make her pay for sending her up to the muppet wing to bunk with Mad Tessa and get beaten by Pam Jolly.

It makes you wonder if Shell would have shown up at Bodybag's place had she (Bodybag) had not done that.

Granted that Shell is a sociopath, but I think she was just being a bitch when she set Crystal up. Shell does not suffer opposition gracefully.

What is interesting (as Richard observed) is Bodybag's ...curious display of dignity... Actually, I think it's typical behavior from people who think it's the norm to punish/humiliate those imprisoned...for whatever reason, and then either get caught or found out. Remember Bodybag's explanation that she was just following orders when we know she was doing it on her own. You can go back to Helen's remark to Fiona that historically, following orders was not a good excuse.

I think the strip search was also quite telling. Being naked and exposed is the ultimate humiliation. Total payback.

Whether or not Shed is comparing Larkhall to a concentration camp is a matter of conjecture, but sadly you can trace the behaviors and excuses straight through to Iraq...but that's another story.

Hard to say for sure (of course) but my feeling is she wouldn't have--she would have just made her escape without the revenge portion. Shell is a bully in general, but only vicious when she feels she's been mistreated (killing the girl who stole her boyfriend, Rachel, Fenner, Bodybag).

What do you think this is about? People like Bodybag do this to maintain the moral high ground/their feelings of superiority? Because Bodybag certainly has had more than her share of moments of degradation and humiliation, so it is remarkable that she maintains her dignity in this instance.

Yes, that is for sure. And I wouldn't put it past them to have these histories and presents in mind.

Hi, I don't normally do this, but I'm posting a link to the episode essay on the Annex in this thread:
http://www.badgirlsannex.com/S3E8Essay.htm
The reason I don't normally do this is because the essays there are usually based on the discussions here, so there doesn't seem to be much point. But this particular essay really breaks some new ground which we haven't covered in the thread. And it wasn't written by me, so I'm not biased or anything. :)