This article contains spoilers for The Woman in the Wall episode 5, "Ex Gratia".
The Woman in the Wall episode 5 sees Colman and Lorna teaming up to continue their investigation. With their resources pooled, they made a truly shocking discovery about the House of the Sacred Shepherd; it was actually involved in human trafficking. As it turned out, the organization wasn't just facilitating adoptions of the children from mother and baby homes, but it was actually selling them to prospective parents in exchange for "private donations".
Here's what happened in The Woman in the Wall episode 5.
Joining forces
Episode five picks up with Colman and Lorna right after The Woman in the Wall episode 4. After showing Lorna his own death certificate, they begin sorting through the death certificates that Lorna had found and the evidence and files Colman had gathered from the archive and from Father Percy's house. Percy kept everything from the families he'd "helped" over the years.
Lorna finds a Christmas card signed by Frank, Breda and Joyce. Surmising that must be Clemence's daughter, Breda, they decide they want to find Frank and Joyce to ask them how they could have adopted Clemence's child. Using the Church named in the photo (Sacred Heart Church) and the return address on the envelope, they narrow the family's potential location down to all the places in Ireland they could live in, and set off to find the family.
During their journey, Lorna asks Colman why they don't ask his parents about how they ended up adopting him from a home, but he's reluctant to do so. Meanwhile, Niamh and Anna meet with James Coyle, who gives them some great news: The Kilkinure Convent is set to formally be recognised as a Magdalene Laundry, meaning the survivors will be entitled to compensation.
Back in Kilkinure, Sergeant Massey is off work, but Lorna's list of children without birth records is weighing heavily on him. He ends up returning to the station, saying he doesn't want to feel 'useless' anymore and asks for all the latest info about the case to be forwarded to him.
Meeting Breda
Lorna and Colman find the house they're looking for and knock on the door. Colman tells Lorna he'll do all the talking and flash his badge. A young woman answers, explaining her parents are out, but Lorna recognizes her to be Breda. Lorna tells her that her birth mother has died, and Clemence shuts the door in their faces, upset.
She soon reopens it and asks what they're really doing on her doorstep. When Lorna explains she was in the same home as Clemence, Breda invites them in to talk about the circumstances of her adoption. Breda apparently found out she was adopted at a very young age; she says her parents were directed to Father Percy when they were struggling to adopt, and he told them about a nine-month-old baby who wasn't thriving as her mother had abandoned her.
Since things weren't looking good for her, and they didn't want to see her sent to St Alma's (which Lorna guesses was an orphanage), they 'saved' the baby. Breda also lets on that her parents remortgaged the house during the process and donated the money as "thanks" for helping them.
The conversation sours after that, and Breda asks them to leave; before doing so, Lorna tells her Clemence loved her baby, and would never have abandoned her. In the car, the pair find a £5,000 donation listed in Percy's records on the same day Breda was listed dead on her certificate, and they find more "private donations" when listed on dates that match up with other children, including Agnes. With this info, Lorna again asks if they can go and speak to Colman's parents about his adoption.
Colman's adoption
Colman and Lorna sit down with his mother. Apparently, Father had offered to help them when they were having trouble conceiving. Since everyone else refused to help them back then, she explains they took him up on his offer. When he asks if any money changed hands, she says Father Percy told them it was expected they'd make some form of donation to the organization. She also hands him a file of things they kept from the adoption to look through.
The conversation gets more heated, but Lorna steps away when she gets a call from Niamh. She had gathered the other women from the survivors group at the Clew Bay to tell them the good news about the Convent, and to get them to sign letters to get compensation from the State.
Lorna asks if they can get back to Kilkinure. During the drive, she reads the letter Niamh forwards to her, and they realize they actually exist purely so the State can bury the investigation and stop things going any further; Colman tells her she has to make sure they don't sign.
Lorna eventually arrives at the station, begging them not to sign. The others are reluctant, prompting her to explain she's got evidence that the Convent was involved in human trafficking. Colman goes to the station to chat to Massey about the trafficking, and Massey produces something he's found himself; Percy made a call to a Dublin hotel at 6 pm the day just before he was murdered, when Aoife Cassidy and her husband would have been halfway to Kilkinure. Massey muses about who would have wanted to see Percy murdered, and Colman produces a business card for a Ignatius J McCullen from the file his mother gave him.
Ignatius, unmasked
Back at the Clew Bay, Lorna continues to beg the other women to help fight the State, but they don't want to pass this minimal chance at justice up, citing that the compensation might do them some good.
Horse farmer Thomas then stumbles into the meeting planning to "say his piece", where he blasts the women and complains that they're getting compensation, saying that the convents essentially did them all a favour in taking them in.
Outraged, Amy confronts him with a list of all the terrible things that happened to her in the convent, at just 15. When he says the child was better off away from her, she slaps him. Massey had arrived to watch the confrontation but just wanted to haul Thomas away.
Lorna tells Amy she never knew how bad things were for her, and tells her to sign the letter. At that point, Niamh experiences some pain, and the women scramble to call her an ambulance as she's going into labour.
Skelly finds a 1994 news article detailing the opening of the Wisconsin Holy Cross Adoption Agency. This is significant, as the agency is formerly known as the House of the Sacred Shepherd, which was funded by a man called Jim McCullen, who later goes by James.
This info was listed in Interpol's database, as James was questioned over his fundraising efforts for the Life, Love & Liberty Foundation who were responsible for bombing some abortion clinics about a decade prior. He asks to see the photo listed alongside his profile, and though it's 20 years old, he knows that the man in the picture is James Coyle!
Back in the Clew Bay, Carmel, an elderly woman who still lives at the convent in the care of the nuns pulls Lorna aside. She says she remembered Aoife Cassidy was a special woman and was not surprised she had tried to help Lorna. What's more, she also reveals that Aoife has a medical condition that makes her appear like she has died for a period of time, before coming back to life. Where could Aoife be now?
The Woman in the Wall concludes Sunday, September 24 at 9 pm on BBC One. Previous episodes can be streamed on BBC iPlayer.
