The women of H Block return to Wentworth after the rebuild to find a new dynamic in play — Vera is governor, Will is deputy and Kaz Proctor has established a power base. Bea questions whether she has the stamina or desire to be Top Dog for the next forty years of her sentence. On the outside, Franky is trying hard to be a productive member of society. As always, no-one should underestimate "the Freak".

Feeling betrayed, Vera takes steps to have Bridget dismissed and expose her relationship with Franky, but is forced to backtrack and enlist Bridget s help instead, when Ferguson makes a bid to be released into the general prison population. The three unlikely allies devise a plan in which Bridget attempts to entrap Ferguson into exposing her psychopathy. Kaz stages a protest with the women in the yard in an attempt to force Vera s hand on the conjugal visits program.

Ferguson, having found protection in Kaz's crew, cunningly blames Will for her brutal ganging, a move which only strengthens Kaz's support for her. When Bea defends Will, it backfires dramatically. She is painted as a screw-lover, and rapidly begins to lose the support of the women. The first ever conjugal visit takes place at the prison, and Boomer shamelessly attempts to impregnate herself to her deadbeat ex-boyfriend, Daz. Meanwhile, Maxine is diagnosed with breast cancer and can't bring herself to tell the other women.

With Bea in the slot, Ferguson intensifies her manipulation of Kaz. Seizing on the recent death of her father that sends Kaz into an inexplicable spiral Ferguson realises that Kaz was a victim of abuse at his hands. Ferguson uses her own troubled relationship with her father as a means of form a closer bond with Kaz. When new Indigenous inmate, Tasha, is put under Doreen s care, Ferguson sees an opportunity to force Kaz into action against Bea. With Maxine as acting Top Dog, Ferguson places Tasha in Lucy's orbit and when Tasha breaks the rules by protecting herself from Lucy's molestation, Maxine appears to have no choice but to punish Tasha. Ferguson urges Kaz to stand up to Maxine and save the innocent girl from abuse at the hands of a man , thereby tapping into Kaz's past trauma. Bea and Ally's bond is cemented when they are slotted in adjoining cells and spend hours talking.

Bea is released from the slot and is immediately confronted by Lucy; if Bea doesn't punish Tasha for breaking prison rules, Lucy and her crew will be forced to. Doreen shocks everyone by turning her back on Bea and Liz is assigned to look after a new inmate, Sonia Stevens, on remand for the supposed murder of a young woman.

Ferguson is rattled when she discovers that Bea will be supporting Jesper’s evidence in court. Meanwhile, Bea seems to be losing control of the women so she forces a prison-wide vote to end the debate. Vera is privately determined that Bea maintains control and interferes with the votes, cementing Bea’s power. When Kaz gets sentenced for 12-years, Ferguson unveils her plan and urges Kaz to help her. In return, she’ll take out Bea Smith.

As Bea and Allie take their illicit affair further, Bea finds herself uncharacteristically tentative and vulnerable. Neither is aware that Ferguson is tracking them carefully, plotting to drug Bea, then trap and kill her. Meanwhile, Maxine leaves the prison to undergo a double mastectomy, and Boomer is distraught when her application to be support person is denied.

Bea struggles to recover in the wake of her attack. Ferguson returns from the burns unit and is placed in a medical hold under the supervision of Jake. Maxine is back after surgery and finds herself in the crossfire of huge tension between Boomer, Liz and Sonia.

When Bea discovers Allie has fallen back into drug addiction, Bea decides to remove Allie from Kaz’s control once and for all. In the process she exposes herself to Tina and Vera, showing her willingness to put her personal desire before here responsibilities as Top Dog. Kaz, desperate to reassert her own standing with the women, tries to resolve Doreen’s custody issue by sending a message from the Red Right Hand. While Jake managers to ingratiate himself with Vera and Will as a result of Kaz’s actions, Ferguson discovers Jake is a drug dealer and begins spinning her web around him. Vera, caught between her own desire and need to control Ferguson, engages in a risky game of sex and power with Jake. Meanwhile, Franky pursues Shayne in the hope of exposing Ferguson’s plan to undermine her trial and secure her release from Wentworth.

With Bea and Allie finally out as a couple, Kaz forms an alliance with Tina's Asian crew to help take Bea down. But when Jake smuggles a new batch of drugs into the prison for Tina, Bea gets wind of the stash and orders Tina to flush the gear. Tina refuses, citing Bea's weakening power-base, and her alliance with the RRH.

Bea awakes blissfully happy after a night with Allie but it is the eve of Ferguson's trial and the Freak has been relentless in putting the final touches to her scheme for freedom and exoneration. Liz becomes convinced of Sonia's innocence and then Don puts an offer to Liz which could change her life. Maxine is committed to the chemotherapy and her prison family rallies around her.