#legit other than anne the only friends we know she has are franky and Bridget- and their history is NOT normal

[secretsofthewilde]

Just thinking about how Vera Bennett is seemingly cursed to just never have a normal friend.

Throughout most of the show she doesn't have any friends outside of work. Within the first three seasons we only ever see her socialising with the other officers or Joan, all of which are either surface level relationships (like with Linda) or are ridiculously complicated and don't really allow for her to be able to spend time casually with them.

While working at Wentworth during these seasons we only really see her socialise with Linda during a night out, Fletch during their disastrous attempt at a fling and then later on during his time in physio/rehab, and then the complicated situation with Joan. Going out for drinks with Linda is probably the only occasion we get to see during this time where she just casually hangs out with someone for fun, and without a complicated history or romantic/sexual tones, but despite their agreement to do it again sometime we never hear of them spending time together again afterwards. By the time Vera starts to model herself after Joan in Season 2, it seems that she doesn't intend to socialise with anyone other than Joan - until the whole "betrayal" situation comes to light.

While she is friends with Bridget and Franky after both of them leave Wentworth, they're still bound to each other because of their shared history in that place and the way that it changed them. It's her friendship with Bridget (as little as we get to see of it) which is probably the healthiest one of Vera's that we get to see. There seems to be mutual respect and friendly affection between them, and in the original ending to season 7 Bridget and Franky were going to be seen interacting with baby Grace - with them presumably going to be aunt-like figures in her life. But even if we ignore the writers dropping their characters in season 8, Vera's friendship with both Bridget and Franky can never be fully removed from their time in Wentworth. Franky is always going to on some level see Vera as her ex-governor (or even vinegar tits if she's feeling ungenerous), just like Bridget is often going to assume she's in the right or knows better than Vera (and therefore distrust or hide things from her) due to their earlier conflicts about Joan's character and also Franky.

I think it's very interesting that this friendship is then ignored in season 8, only to introduce the character of Ann Reynolds. She's the very first friend we find out that she has met outside of Wentworth, but then she ends up not only working at said prison, but making Vera return to working there with her. Even if the two weren't working together at Wentworth it's very quickly revealed that their relationship isn't a healthy one and likely never has been. When the two met at the corrections academy Vera would have still been the timid mouse of a woman we saw in Season 1, and that would have allowed Ann to have a lot of control over their relationship - which is likely at least partially why she reacts so poorly to Vera's attempts to politely stand up to her now.

In short, it seems like Vera seems to attract (or at least open herself up to) unhealthy relationships and is likely unable to maintain ones that aren't at least on some level connected to Wentworth. Even if she were to truly quit after the finale episode, the only people she has connections with will all be related to the place, and if she were to build any new relationships (friendly or otherwise) they will likely always pale in comparison to these ones that she already has - not because she only wants to have complicated or admittedly unhealthy relationships, but because it's all she knows.