Wrong Side of the Glass

The shiraz is supposed to be for later. But Adrian's arrival at the Owens' property changes things, and Gladys finds herself taking a sip before she's ready to admit she needs one. What follows is a masterclass in how quickly situations can deteriorate: Luke's recruitment pitch landing like a lead balloon, a portal blazing to life against a shed wall, and a witness too rattled to process what he's seen fleeing in his ute with tyres spinning against dirt. "We're going after him," Luke announces, and suddenly Gladys is behind the wheel, chasing a man who thinks they're both insane. The car responds to every touch. The speedometer climbs. Something fierce and forgotten awakens as she weaves through Collinsvale traffic — a boldness she'd buried years ago, a taste of finally steering her own story. Then things start going wrong. A roadside stop that turns volatile. A spider on the windscreen triggering the wrong reflexes. Luke making choices she can't follow. Beatrix calling with warnings about police and contacts and walls closing in. The helicopter overhead. The flashing lights in the mirror. And Gladys screaming directions toward an escape route she knows she cannot take herself — watching her only exit disappear in a swirl of impossible colour, stranded in a forest with sirens closing in and nothing but mud on her shoes and a bottle of shiraz clutched against her chest.