Bea then meets the other members of the unit, including Liz Birdsworth, Sue "Boomer" Jenkins, and Doreen Anderson.
Meg, against the concerns of the staff and especially prisoner advocate Erica Davidson, releases Jacs from the slot early as another attempt to weaken Franky's hold on the drug trade.
Bea is regularly subjected to physical and sexual abuse by her husband Harry, flashbacks of which are occasionally triggered by events in the present.
Bea works up the courage to try and kill Harry by drugging him, tying him up in his car and filling the garage with exhaust fumes, but cannot bring herself to follow through and saves him while Debbie calls for an ambulance.
TV Equals described this episode as "Things have been changed to suit modern sensibilities, of course, and this updated series has been stripped of the campy sets, dialogue and black humour and populated instead with sex, violence and a heroine with a journey to go on.
That’s Bea Smith, a woman who has been put away for the attempted murder of her abusive husband, and her experience in this first episode will surely inform her future trajectory up the hierarchy of her new surroundings.
"[1] Elaine Atwell, writing for AfterEllen, said " I tell you this not to scare you off, but to caution you that if you’re looking for a show to fill the OINTB-shaped hole in your heart, this one is actually likely to wound you much deeper.
"[3] Ian Hollingshead writing for The Telegraph said "The final showdown between Franky (Nicole da Silva) and Jacs (Kris McQuade), a young tattooed lesbian and a schoolmarmish matron, laced with malice as they fought over who would be top dog, was so compelling – and the cliffhanger so agonising – that it would be a crime to miss the next instalment.