'The Woman In The Wall' Steps Forward in "Show Thyself"

Last week's The Woman in the Wall premiere ended with the shock of being a much more literal title than I would have assumed. One morning, after waking from a troubled sleep, Lorna Brady discovered she had a dead body in her house; after a day or so of trying to figure out what to do with it, she hid it in the living room wall of her flat. The second episode returns to Lorna's house with her regarding the newly-plastered-over, body-sized patch in her wall. The last thing she remembered before shoving the body into the wall was the identity of the body, one of the midwives present when teenaged Lorna gave birth back at the Kilkinure Convent/Magdalene Laundry, tasked with whisking away the baby as soon as it was born. 

Sister Eileen: "Recent" is a very relative term to an old anchorite like myself."

A string of calls come into the dead woman's phone from "Dara;" Lorna texts back, pretending to be her, and starts to arrange a meeting, learning along the way the deceased's name is Aoife. Unfortunately, that's when the phone dies, and she has to go buy a charger to get it juiced back up. She's also not the only one working this angle. Det. Akande is also trying to track down Aoife, as she is the main suspect in his case, that of Father Percy, who was pushed down the stairs earlier the same night Lorna met Aoife and may have killed her. The problem is Det. Akande doesn't know Aoife is dead. He believes she's out there covering her tracks, unaware what he thinks is a "cover-up" is actually Lorna acting out from PTSD while sleepwalking. 

The local cops, Sgt Massey and PC Skelly are trying to give Akande what he wants, despite knowing half the time what he's asking for is useless and the other half that this small town doesn't have the security to keep evidence. They nearly get CCTV footage at the hardware store where Lorna is charging the phone, but since she sees them and the security system PC is right there on the counter, she just overturns a teacup into it and keeps it moving. He wants to talk to the man who owns the barns where Father Percy's car was torched? Sure thing, bud; let's go talk to Thomas Coughlan (Brian Doherty) and get an earful about how his horses won't mate. 

Thomas claims it was Amy out of spite, which Massey knows perfectly well, but lets Akande question her anyway. She was working all night — however, her gas station overlooks the area. Not that she'd tell them she saw it happen (though she did), nor that it was Lorna. She'll let them look at her CCTV footage, knowing it only shows the other side of the building. Amy's happy to give up the goods on men, though, and the photo of Aoife driving Percy's car from the street cameras shows her male passenger's face. Amy recognizes him and says he tried to shakily buy vodka with cash on the night in question, but she refused. Apparently, a five-year chip popped out, and her moral code couldn't allow her to help him fall off the wagon.

The man in the photo is Dara O'Halloran (Ardal O'Hanlon), the same man frantically texting Aoife's phone, an activity that helps them trace his location. Before they do, Lorna gets a good questioning in, posing as an ex-nun "Grace," supposedly helping Aoife track down women from the convent. From the convo, we learn Dara, an ex-con, was Aoife's husband, and they were headed to Kilkinure because Aoife was trying to do the right thing. But that's all we get before he realizes he is being played. However, in guessing who "Grace" is, he inadvertently gives away Aoife was scheduled to see multiple women that night, asking if she's Clemence (Caoimhe Farren), another of the group who met at Niamh's house last week.

Just as Dara starts to threaten "Clemence," Massey busts in, and Dara, panicking, runs for it. Distracted, the cops all race right by Lorna, who draws up her hoodie and makes for the exit. Akande turns and sees the hooded figure rushing away and gives chase, but not fast enough, losing her in the dark alley. Lorna, naturally, heads straight to Clemence's house — the two were in the convent at the same time, and gave birth within weeks of each other — but is turned away by Clemence's well-meaning but overprotective brother David (Brendan McCormack). 

For all that Dara was ready to hurt Lorna, one has to feel a wee bit sorry for him and his painfully bad false confession to killing Father Percy to protect Aoife once Akande whips out the photo of the two of them with her behind the wheel. Once Akande tells him to cut the crap, Dara's real confession comes out. Aoife only went in to talk to Father Percy on their way into town; he wants her left out of this. She still has PTSD from her time at the Laundry, haunted by the children they stole, and demands they find "Grace" and his missing wife. But Akande is still focused on solving the murder of Father Percy and heads with Massey to the convent to find records of Aoiffe's time there, which Dara pegged was in the mid-1980s.

The current administration wiped the records of those who worked at the convent during its Laundry years, but when Sister Burke (Esther Ayo James) cheerfully tries to block Akande from talking to anyone remaining who dates back that far, he cheerfully responds that's fine; he'll drag them down to the station in handcuffs and question them there. Suddenly, Sister Eileen (Frances Tomelty), whom Lorna distinctly remembers cruelly punishing her, is happy to speak to them. She jokes, "You finally caught me!" Massey attempts to be deferential; Akande is having none of it, demanding to know if Aoife Cassidy has been in contact. But Sister Eileen is ready to verbally parry with the youngster. 

She has every argument that this was not a Magdelene laundry memorized. Every sob story that these girls needed her help is at her fingertips. There was no Mother and Baby home here or a Laundry, she says. And yet, when asked about Father Percy, her memory's not what it used to be; she's tired, and they'll have to go now. Akande knows he's being played. On the way back, after hollering at Massey for not being appalled at Sister Eileen, he has a panic attack, and we learn why he's taking this so personally: He was adopted from a Mother and Baby home. He recovers and storms back to the office, where we learn Lorna's teacup didn't destroy the server, merely a delay, as Akande sees her marching towards the garages with an axe.

As for Clemence and Lorna, they're both together at the town's central hotel with Niamh and the others. Not that Lorna's interested in the Eadrom Group or James Coyle (Dermot Crowley), who promise this time it will be different; this time, they WILL get them compensation for their trauma; she's there to try to talk to Clemence about Aoife. Instead, she's pulled aside by Amy, who attempts to tell her in not-so-many words that her fire-starting ways have been covered. Lorna can't even bring herself to sit with them, restlessly standing in the doorway, as the rest — Amy, Peggy, Deirdre, Clemence — each pull out a piece of the past and haltingly tell horror stories from their captivity. 

This scene is as much the heart of this series as the mystery itself, the stories of what happened in these places, the torture the nuns visited upon girls like Amy, who remained defiant. Deirdre's story of how she made up fake exams so her mother wouldn't know she was suffering. And, of course, Lorna's memory of how she and Clemence tried to escape, how she was emotionally abused into confessing with promises of seeing her baby, and how Clemence was punished physically and Loprna then wasn't even given her baby, but emotionally abused for betraying her friend. Ruth Wilson is riveting, and it's worth watching the entire series just for this. Clemence rewards Lorna, admitting Aoife did speak to her, and promises they'll talk tomorrow.

In her quest to stay awake, Lorna heads to the pub for dinner, where she runs back into Michael. She does recall him from school, and from their convo, it's evident he had a crush on her at the time. Their reminiscing leads to the two of them heading to the abandoned shack known as The Wailin' Woman's House, where local teens would drink, party, and have sex. It was the last place Lorna saw Michael before she was taken away, the place she was knocked up by her boyfriend at the time, Declan. Michael tells her he's happily married with a mess of kids now. She tells him she's going to learn what happened to her baby tomorrow, and she's terrified. But she won't: Clemence has committed suicide.