Oh, how interesting – my impression of this particular scene is quite different from yours. I don’t think Richard expected Maggie to sleep with him, or even thought about it might happen. I assumed the prison guards put them in to the room with the bed instead of a regular visitors’ room because they were a married couple, and they thought that if a wife visited her husband it would be because they wanted to have some time for themselves, but I never thought either Richard or Maggie actually intended to have sex.
Richard was afraid he might be killed and wanted to make amends one last time, as he says. Maggie only reluctantly visits him, and only after Julius insisted it was urgent that she go and see Richard.
I assume at that point, Richard has been in jail for a few months (I never quite manage to figure out the timeline on the show). It has been clear that Maggie is still married to him, even though she left him months ago (maybe because it is her way of showing her support while he is going through a difficult time), but at the same time we learn that she has never visited him nor spoken to Richard and doesn’t actually want to do so.
I think they end up having sex rather spontaneously, because Maggie is shocked to see Richard so devastated, and realizes her feelings for him while being afraid of losing him for good if he should die.
Interestingly, I thought they’d included the scene to start the season with one last proof for how much Richard is in love with Maggie. I thought it was meant to imply that they might reconcile once he gets out of prison, which was why Maggie’s death appeared even worse than it did. This would then also explain Richard’s character arc during the season, as he says he cannot do certain things because he promised Maggie. He finds himself unable to kill Sharpe, and he eventually agrees to sell Falcon Crest to Angela because he realizes he and Lauren won’t be able to live in peace if he doesn’t; something he hadn’t realized as long as Maggie had been alive.
My interpretation.
