When we\u2019re first introduced to the core trio in Time season 2<\/a>, we learn that Orla (Jodie Whittaker) has been given six months for \u201cfiddling leccy\u201d, Kelsey (Bella Ramsey) is inside for drug offences, and Abi is serving a life sentence for the murder of her sister-in-law.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy?\u201dasks a prisoner on the other side of the cell wall, curious to know what made Abi snap.<\/p>\n \u201cShe annoyed me,\u201d she responds, matter-of-factly.<\/span><\/p> Abi spent three-and-a-half years in another prison before being transferred to Carlingford, but we\u2019re not told why she has been moved, only that she has.<\/p>\n But there\u2019s something about the way she carries herself, even when threatening other inmates, that suggests we don\u2019t know the full picture, which is confirmed during an unsettling encounter with another prisoner.<\/p>\n \u201cI know who you killed,\u201d she says to Abi. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t your sister-in-law, was it?\u201d<\/p>\n Following that, prison chaplain Marie-Louise (Siobhan Finneran) encourages her to open up about what really happened, which is still being withheld from the audience.<\/p>\n \u201cHave you ever tried to tell anyone why you did it, not even tried?\u201d she asks. \u201cIf you\u2019d do that, you\u2019d be in control, wouldn\u2019t you? You\u2019d be in control of that truth.\u201d<\/p>\n But Abi has no intention of addressing her past, believing it far easier \u2013 and safer \u2013 to continue to lie.<\/p>\n Halfway through the first episode, however, her cover is ripped away while she\u2019s sat with her ex-husband during visiting hours.<\/p>\n \u201cEh love, do you know who your kids are sitting by?\u201d another visitor yells at Orla and her children, who are just a few feet away from Abi. \u201cThey\u2019re sitting by a killer. Not just any killer. They\u2019re sitting by a woman who killed her own baby.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a staggering moment that sends Abi rushing back to her cell while the rest of the room is brought to a standstill, horrified by what they\u2019ve just learned.<\/p>\n From that moment on, the dynamic shifts. Abi is at risk from her fellow inmates and must have eyes in the back of her head at all times. If she drops her guard, just once, she risks being severely injured at best and at worst, killed.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the level of ostracisation Abi faces hardens her,\u201d said Lawrance of how her character moves forward from that moment. \u201cShe comes across quite tough and there\u2019s a symbiosis there \u2013 the more people [who] isolate her, the more she withdraws, and then the less people want to connect with her.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd on top of that, there\u2019s a moralistic hierarchy where the inmates feel a level of superiority because of the nature of their crimes compared to hers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Lawrance also highlighted that Abi\u2019s inmates don\u2019t believe she has repented for what she did to her baby son when, in fact, it\u2019s quite the opposite, as we see through her flashbacks.<\/p>\n \u201cAbi is dealing with guilt, which they don\u2019t realise at first, and that seeming remorselessness is part of why they hate her,\u201d she explained. \u201cBut she is riddled with sleeplessness and oral and visual hallucinations and struggles to forgive herself.\u201d<\/p>\n She added: \u201cI think her persona is that she doesn\u2019t care, but I believe that she\u2019s deeply sensitive and she shows that in the ways in which she steps in and steps up for people around her, particularly Kelsey.\u201d<\/p>\n She went on to praise Jimmy McGovern and Helen Black\u2019s writing for the \u201csubversion of stereotype\u201d, noting the importance of \u201crecognising how sometimes people do things that people might see as reprehensible, not because of who they are, but because of the circumstances they\u2019ve been put in\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n Lawrance came to understand that herself through the extensive research she carried out into the UK prison population.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was quite alarming,\u201d she said, adding: \u201cI can\u2019t remember all of the stats now, but the biggest thing that stood out to me was the intersection between childhood trauma, people in the family who\u2019ve offended before, domestic violence survivors, sexual abuse, poverty and mental health issues, and how all of those things intersect as reasons why people commit crimes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n She continued: \u201cW<\/span>e get a chance to empathise with them through this show, especially with the nature of flashbacks for Abi. Hopefully, that will give a lens into the pressure she was under, which led her to do what she did. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cEven if they don\u2019t obviously condone what they\u2019ve done, I hope people come away with a level of understanding of how people end up where they are.\u201d<\/span><\/p> ![\"Tamara](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/10\/tamara-lawrance-time-season-2-0545517.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"Time")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>![\"Tamara](\"https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2023\/10\/abi-time-season-2-6cc1c0b.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413\" "\\"Time")
\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>\n