Joan Ferguson (Wentworth)

Creation

FremantleMedia Director of Drama Jo Porter said “Prisoner offered up a very rich well of amazing characters to draw upon and the Wentworth writers are very excited about revisiting the character of prison officer Joan ‘The Freak’ Ferguson in our second season. It was then announced that Pamela Rabe was going to portray Joan. It was said “In reviving the role of Joan Ferguson, Rabe adds to Wentworth‘s stellar cast and will undoubtedly add new layers to an imposing character…”

Characterization

The Wentworth website states “Joan’s strength is her determination to succeed against the odds. She found a career in corrections and started as an officer. Her no-nonsense attitude won her fans in high places and she was fast-tracked to Deputy Governor of Queensland’s most troublesome prison, Blackmoore.”

Backstory

In a Joan centric episode, “The Fixer”, we see that Joan worked in a different prison, and was having a relationship with one of the inmates, Jianna. Jianna's baby was taken away from her, and Joan blamed Will Jackson, then a social worker, for Jianna’s death. Joan wasn’t aware that, because of their relationship, Jianna was, in fact, killed by the other prisoners.

Season Two

Joan is introduced at the beginning of the second season where she busts a drug smuggle in the laundry room and introduces herself as governor. After Franky refuses allegiance with her, Ferguson becomes fixed on ending Franky's reign as top dog. She releases Bea and cuts her medication to try to make Bea lucid and urges her into taking on the top dog position.

Joan lets Doreen start a garden project in the prison and gets prisoners from the men’s prison to help with the development. She uses this trust to let Doreen tell her how Bea is and to reveal what prisoner spray painted a derogatory photo of Ferguson (the prisoner was Sky Pierson).

Joan later gets Vera drunk to learn about the secrets of the prison including Fletch’s affair with former governor Meg Jackson. She later uses this information to inform Jackson of the affair and then has her thug invade Fletcher's home to make it look like Will invaded his home looking for the diary then has Jackson's home invaded to make it look like Fletch was trying to get the diary back.

Joan gives a "hotshot" to Simmo Slater when she learns that Simmo has to kill Bea Smith, making it look like she had a bad reaction to Franky’s drugs. Joan also manipulates Liz into being her informant.

As punishment for Franky’s drug trade, Ferguson makes the inmates watch as she bulldozes the whole garden project. Upon learning the drugs what Simmo died from, Franky confronts Joan over murdering Simmo, at which point Ferguson reveals to her that one of Franky's friends is her informer.

Joan abuses Doreen after finding out she was pregnant. Joan then tries to get Doreen to blame Will on being the father. When Doreen refuses Ferguson murders Doreen’s pet bird and tosses it into her cell.

When Derek Channing initiates an investigation into Wentworth Prison in an attempt to get Ferguson removed as Governor, Ferguson finds out from Rachel Singer that Derek is recruiting parolees. She has Nils look into it and finds out he uses the young parolees as a part of his brothels. Ferguson blackmails Derek with this information, forcing him to give her a good word to the board.

When new inmate Kelly Bryant is transferred to Wentworth, she notices Joan immediately and Fletcher confronts her about it. Ferguson then meets with Kelly and has her moved to Bahnhurst prison. In the midst of Bea’s escape, Fletch finds out from Bryant that Joan assaulted Kelly to keep her quiet on her relationship with Jianna Butler. Fletch confronts Joan, along with the knowledge that she invaded his house and has a vendetta against Will, since he was the social worker that took Jianna's baby away. To keep him quiet, she has Fletch run down outside of Will's house.

Ferguson then demands answers from Doreen, Maxine Conway, Franky and other prisoners as to information where Bea went. Joan later makes out that Bea and Will were complicit and planned the escape. She has Vera affirm this accusation since she has the knowledge that Vera euthanized her sick mother. When Bea returns she addresses Joan as "Freak"

Season Three

Joan puts Vera’s life at risk during a riot organised by Bea Smith. Joan is later told by Bea "You don’t run this prison. I do!" After the riot, Joan sits Bea down and tries to find out what Bea wants. Bea gets what she wants from Joan including pizzas for breakfast. Franky witnesses Joan taking Jodie somewhere while in the slot.

Bea realises that Joan tortured Jodie into shivving Bea Smith in the yard

Joan visits Fletch and when she learns that Vera has been going to see him behind her back, she calls her trust in Vera into question.

Jodie makes an abuse complaint against Ferguson which blindsides her. Joan isn’t happy when Derek can’t quash the complaint as it had been made directly to the ombudsman. When realising that Bea had a hand in the complaint, she gets her henchman to drug Bea and drag her into the exercise yard through the tunnels. Without Bea at her hearing, Jodie fumbles and is sent to the psych unit

Joan has Bea put in the psych unit when Bea's behavior in the exercise yard is mistaken as a psychotic episode. Joan forces Bea say it was a mental breakdown to get Bea out of the psych unit. After hearing from Vera of rumours of Bridget and Franky's relationship, Joan plants a recording device in Bridget's office and hears Franky admitting to killing Meg Jackson.

Joan yet again tortures Jodie, leading Jodie to stab herself in the eye to prevent Jodie's move into the general population. When Bridget accuses Joan of engineering the self harm, Joan manipulates Vera into writing a statement on Bridget and Franky's relationship and has Bridget resign. Joan later has dinner with Vera, who confronts Joan about the riot incident and how it led Vera to contract hepatitis C

Joan turns Will and Franky against each other by sending Will the recording of Franky's confession on his wife's murder. Joan watches Will attack Franky but is enraged when he does nothing and Franky's parole is sealed. Joan then plants drugs in toys Nash Taylor came to bring Joshua in revenge for Doreen making fun of her and to further turn Bea's friends against her

When Joan believes Vera tried using Jianna as an excuse to unsettle her, she violently slaps Vera and their friendship ends. She reveals in front of all the staff Vera's condition and forefeits her deputy governorship. She then sees Fletch witnessing a hallucination of her father and asks Nils to kill him to stop him from revealing her previous murder attempt on him.

In the third season finale, Joan finds the walls closing in on her. She plants a recording device in the secure spot where Kaz Proctor reveals to Bea the name of Joan's henchman is Nils Jesper. She then calls Nils who is waiting to murder Matthew Fletcher on Joan's command. Joan then listens in to the recording as she notices Bea turning her back on Kaz. Joan is later seen smiling as she watches a news report that Kaz Proctor due to an anonymous phone call from an inmate at Wentworth Prison. Vera comes in and reveals she's put in a complaint to the board against Joan. When Doreen’s baby Joshua is kidnapped by Jess, Joan finds Jess and strangles her before setting the prison on fire to cover it up after she learns that her henchman is now in police custody. She later blames Jess for starting the fire and makes it look like she perished in the flames. After Bea and Will save Ferguson from the fire, Joan is arrested with all the prisoners watching.

Season Four

Joan is transferred to Wentworth's protection unit where she is awaiting trial. She tries to manipulate Vera again but fails.

Joan files a petition to be released into general population within the prison. When being assessed by Bridget, Joan reveals Vera's euthanization of her mother to stop the recording of Joan being used to keep her in protection. Joan is later released into the general population after she blackmails Channing.

When being moved into general population in the prison Joan is subjected to verbal abuse by the other prisoners. Joan speaks with Kaz and tells her not to listen to Bea. She also talks to Doreen and makes her believe that she saved her son, Josh, in the fire and that it was Jess who is responsible for the burning down of H Block. This leads Doreen to protect Joan while she has an airing in the exercise yard. Joan asks Bea to beat her up in the shower so as to give the women what they want. However, while she takes a shower, Joan is brutally attacked by Lucy Gambaro and Bea, who was on her way to kill Joan, comes to her aid and helps her get dressed. Flashbacks in this episode shows that while in the psychiatric facility she was raped by the doctor who was looking after her. Joan used this assault to get the doctor to give her a clean bill of health.

In the next episode, Joan is shown as a member of Kaz Proctor's crew after blaming her sexual assault on Will Jackson. This leads to an attack on Jackson, where Ferguson aids by telling them where the areas are in the prison without cameras. Joan denies to Bridget and Vera that she has been an attack so she can stay in general. Joan convinces Doreen to blackmail Vera to get her conjugal approved.

When Kaz' Dad dies, Joan plants drugs in Allie Novak's cell to get her slotted and give Joan more opportunity to become closer with Kaz. Joan then relays her experiences with her father to get Kaz' trust. Joan then talks to Boomer and tells her she and Maxine would be good at being top dog together. She talks to Lucy Gambaro and her crew to convince them to go after new prisoner, Tasha, in attempt to steer Lucy's attention off Joan. Joan leads Tasha to the shower, where Tasha pushes the panic button to stop her from being raped. Joan convinces Kaz to stop Maxine from punishing Tasha but Maxine lets Tasha off.

Joan comforts Tasha and saves her life when Tasha tries to kill herself. Joan later discovers that Bea is to be a witness at her trial. Joan then tells Kaz that Nils Jesper is working with Bea to keep Joan in prison. Joan is then seen witnessing Allie and Bea kiss in the kitchen. After Kaz is sentenced to 12 years in prison, Joan offers to kill Bea if Kaz uses her contacts on the outside to kill Nils.

Joan then receives roofies from Tina's Asian crew, testing the tablets out for herself. As Maxine goes for her breast cancer treatment, Joan manipulates Boomer into believing that Vera didn't offer to let Boomer come with Maxine to prison. This causes Boomer to get angry at Vera, leading her to be slotted. With Boomer and Maxine out of the way, Joan has Kaz cause a fight with Bea while she slips the drugs into Bea's drink. While Bea goes to the kitchen to meet with Allie, Kaz takes Allie and the other women to make a stand for Maxine departing alone. Joan uses this distraction to have Bea immobolized by the drugs and attempts to drown her. Meannwhile, Will Jackson finds the phone call that put Kaz Proctor away and it is revealed that it was actually Joan who made the call, claiming to be an inmate at Wentworth so as to plot the idea that Bea Smith called Kaz. Will shows Kaz the phone call, leading Kaz to angrily fight her and put her arm in the fryer. Bea is then resuscitated afterwards.

After going to hospital, Joan is moved into protection under medical until her trial. She meets with Shane Butler to gain his trust. Joan makes conversation with Jake about Vera. Joan convinces Shane that she is innocent and asks him to kill Nils Jesper. After witnessing Jake dealing drugs with Allie and being under stress when drugs are found in Tina's cell, Joan confronts Jake about his job as a drug dealer. Joan offers to pay him the money he owes if he kills Nils and helps her kill Allie. At the end of the episode, Allie is in the shower by herself when Joan appears behind the mirror, holds her down and injects heroin into her neck, staging a drug overdose.

Before her trial, Joan confronts Bea about Allie, calling her "collateral damage." Although Franky manages to stop Shane from killing Nils, Jake hijacks Nils van and shoots him, setting the van on fire. Joan's charges are dropped and she is released. On her way out, she is confronted by Bea, who plans to kill her due to the attack on Allie. Joan overpowers Bea and takes hold of her knife. Bea then thrusts herself into the knife, making it appear that Joan has killed her. Joan is then taken as Bea dies of blood loss.

Reception

Joan Ferguson has been described as “arguably the biggest villain within the Wentworth walls.”. Gay Times described Ferguson as a “formidable governor”, they also said “Straight edged, hair back and a stern face, Joan Ferguson is a force to be reckoned with”

Reveal Magazine billed Joan as “The dreaded Joan Ferguson” when talking about the episode Born Again.

Metro said, "Joan 'The Freak' Ferguson isn't just the most terrifying character in all prison dramas - she's the baddest and most sinister baddie ever to grace TV."

Pamela Rabe was nominated for a Logie Award in the category "Most Outstanding Actress" for her portrayal of Joan Ferguson.

Crimes

-Physical assault of Kelly Bryant (not caught)

-Facilitating home invasion of Will Jackson (not caught)

-Facilitating home invasion of Matthew Fletcher (not caught)

-Murder of Simone Slater (not caught)

-Facilitating the attempted murder of Matthew Fletcher on two counts (caught)

-Facilitating the murder of Harry Smith and framing Will Jackson (caught)

-Physical and psychological abuse of Jodie Spiteri on two counts (investigated, not caught)

-Facilitating the assault and drugging of Bea Smith (caught)

-Illegally recording Bridget Westfall and Franky Doyle's counselling session (not caught)

-Planting of drugs on Nash Taylor (not caught)

-Illegally recording Kaz Proctor and Bea Smith's meeting (not caught)

-Murder of Jess Warner (not caught)

-Arson (not caught)

-Planting of drugs on Allie Novak (not caught)

-Attempted murder of Bea Smith (not caught)

-Attempted murder of Allie Novak (unknown)

-Facilitating the murder of Nils Jesper, by Shane Butler (unknown)

-Facilitating the murder of Nils Jesper, by Jake Stewart (unknown)

-Murder of Bea Smith (unknown)