MovieChat Forums > Prisoner (1979) Discussion > A question about the final episode. (CON...

A question about the final episode. (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

posted 8 years ago by br-36199
2 replies | jump to latest

After Joan Ferguson has been told that Rita Connors has passed away during the night you see a scene of the women including Officer Pringle in the dining room crying over her death.
Seeing as how Rita didn't actually die, does that mean the women had been falsely told that Rita had died or were they just pretending to cry in order to fool Joan?
You also see Meg Morris and the teacher Lucas in the staff room looking sad.
And Kath Maxwell also tells the women in the laundry that she has told Merle about Rita dying and that Merle is now crying.
I've often wondered about this and having just watch the final episodes again made me ask this question.

In short, why were the women all crying if Rita hadn't really died?

[–] thenakedeye 8 years ago

Yeah it's a glaringly big flaw in an otherwise superb series finale. I suppose we can forgive them for stretching believablity for dramatic effect (something this show did often).

[–] dinandwoesthof 8 years ago

I saw the final episode yesterday and I wondered the same thing. Who were on it and who wasn't? Sounds rather cruel to tell her mates she died just so they can set up Joan. For a minute I also thought they also staged the cancer in order to trap Joan. The way she and Lurch walked out of the cell, I thought she was healthy but in the yard she was sitting in a chair so I guessed the cancer was real after all.