The Woman in the Wall unmasks unexpected villain in penultimate episode

In episode 5, Lorna and Colman continued to work together to uncover the truth about The House of the Sacred Shepherd, and found that the organisation had not only been overseeing the transfer of children from the mother and baby homes to new families, but that they had been selling them - in exchange for "donations".

Colman was one of the children trafficked, while it appears so was Lorna's daughter, Agnes. When Colman confronted his mother for the truth, he was given the card of a man Father Percy introduced them to who worked for the adoption agency, Ignatius J McCullen.

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Meanwhile, Lorna got a call from Niamh at the survivors group, telling her that they had got what they wanted - the convent was going to be officially classed as a Magdalene Laundry in law, and the women would be receiving an apology and compensation, thanks for the work of James Coyle, lobbying on their behalf.

However, when Lorna looked at the documentation the women would have to sign, it became clear that this was the agency covering their tracks - by signing the forms, the women would be giving up their right to bring action against the institution.

As Lorna tried to convince the other survivors not to sign, Colman got back to investigating. Then, he and Conor discovered who Ignatius J McCullen really was - a man who had dropped the Ignatius and now was going by James.

That's right, the mystery villain working for the adoption agency all along was in fact Dermot Crowley's character James Coyle!

Of course, looking back, the writing was on the wall. He was, of course, in prime position to convince the survivors to sign away their rights to bring further action against the agency and stop them looking for the truth.

He had also previously made clear to Niamh that he did not want her looking into Lorna's discovery of the death certificates - at the time, he had said this was because he didn't want their association with Lorna to tarnish their bid for compensation.

But was he behind Father Percy's murder? And will Colman and Lorna now be able to bring him to justice?

That wasn't the only major development in the show's penultimate episode. The instalment also saw Lorna come to the shocking realisation that the titular woman in her wall, Aoife, had never been dead to begin with.

Instead, she had a medical condition which made her temporarily appear as such, with those who saw it often believing it to be a miracle.

But where is Aoife now? Let's hope that all will be revealed in next week's final episode.

The Woman in the Wall continues on Sunday 24th September on BBC One. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on.

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