Joan Ferguson is a fictional character in the Australian television series Wentworth, who serves as the main antagonist from season two to season five. Joan is portrayed by actress Pamela Rabe. Her storylines centre on rivalries with Will Jackson, Bea Smith and most staff and inmates. She is introduced in Season 2 as the new Governor of Wentworth Prison following the dismissal of Erica Davidson but becomes a prisoner in Season 4 and remained until the end of the fifth season. The character was presumed dead between the sixth and seventh season, when she was revealed to be alive in the latter. She returned in the eighth and final season.
Overview During her time as both governor and prisoner, Joan is known for creating major conflicts within Wentworth prison. The second season follows her attempting to gain control over the prison by replacing Franky with Bea in the top dog position. She also turns Will Jackson and Matthew Fletcher against each other in revenge for a past incident with Will.
The third season shows a more psychotic side of Joan as Bea and the inmates turn against her and her vendetta against Will Jackson leads her to being arrested in the last episode. Joan returns to Wentworth as a prisoner in Season 4 and attempts to exonerate herself and end Bea Smith's rule, doing this first by befriending Kaz Proctor and convincing her to murder her star witness, Nils Jesper. When this fails, Joan uses her knowledge of Officer Jake Stewart's actions within the prison to have him kill Nils Jesper. As she walks free, Bea Smith ambushes her in revenge for Joan's attempted murder of Bea's girlfriend, Allie, and thrusts a screwdriver into herself, incriminating Joan for Bea's murder.
Season 5 follows Joan being imprisoned for Bea's murder, as she attempts to bring down Vera Bennett by becoming Top Dog. Allie Novak attempts multiple times to get her revenge on Joan, finally succeeding by having her buried alive by Will Jackson. Throughout the sixth season, Joan appears as a hallucination to Will, taunting him and having him second guess if he succeeded in burying her alive. Will, accompanied by Vera and Jake, goes to undig her grave for closure and if there's a slim chance Joan could have escaped. But they all discover her now lifeless body in the box, and she was believed to be dead until appearing in the closing seconds of the Season 7 finale episode ‘Under Siege Part 2’ confirming she is indeed alive.
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 Joan was born in Korsakov, Russia, on August 24, 1964. It is unclear how and why she came to Australia. Her deceased father is Ivan Ferguson, who placed very high expectations on her and taught her that emotions would weaken her. In Ivan's eyes, Joan did not sufficiently meet these expectations and he frequently hectored and bullied her as a result. 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.Episode 19: The Fixer
Storylines
Season 2
Joan is introduced at the beginning of the second season when 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 make Bea lucid and urges her into taking on the top dog position.Episode 11: Born Again
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 graffiti 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.Episode 12: Whatever It Takes She later uses this information to inform Jackson of the affair and then has her thug, Nils Jesper, 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.Episode 16: The Pink Dragon
As punishment for Franky's drug trade, Ferguson makes the inmates watch as she bulldozes the whole garden project. Franky confronts Joan over murdering Simmo, at which point Ferguson reveals to her that one of Franky's friends is her informer.Episode 17: Metamorphosis
Joan abuses Doreen after finding out she is pregnant. Joan then tries to get Doreen to name Will as 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 on this, 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 uses Vera to affirm this accusation since she knows that Vera euthanized her sick mother, at her suggestion. When Bea returns, she addresses Joan as "Freak"Episode 22: Fear Her
Season 3
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!"Episode 23: The Governor’s Pleasure After the riot, Joan asks Bea what she wants. Bea gets most of her terms met from Joan including pizzas for breakfast.Episode 24: Failing Upwards Franky witnesses Joan taking Jodie somewhere while in the slot;Episode 25: Knives Out She's in the slot herself and hears Jodie next door.
Bea realises that Joan tortured Jodie into shiving her 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 of Vera into question.Episode 26: Righteous Acts
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, causing Bea to miss Jodie's hearing. Without Bea at her hearing, Jodie is intimidated at giving evidence and is sent to the psych unit.Episode 28: Evidence
Joan has Bea put in the psych unit when Bea's behavior in the exercise yard is mistaken as a psychotic episode. After Vera mentions rumours of Bridget and Franky's relationship, Joan plants a recording device in Bridget's office and hears Franky admitting to killing Meg Jackson.Episode 29: The Long Game
Joan yet again tortures Jodie, leading Jodie to stab herself in the eye to prevent being moved 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 being infected hepatitis C from a dirty syringe that was held to her neck.Episode 31: Freak Show
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 doesn't kill Franky so that Franky makes parole. Joan then plants drugs in toys that Nash Taylor bring forJoshua in revenge for Doreen making fun of her and to further turn Bea's friends against her.Episode 28: A Higher Court
When Joan believes Vera tried using Jianna as an excuse to unsettle her, she violently slaps Vera and their friendship ends. She reveals Vera's Hep C to all the staff and removes her from deputy governorship. Joan realizes that Fletch witnessed her "talking to air" in a hallucination she was having about her father. She asks Nils to kill Fletch to stop him from revealing her previous murder attempt on him.Episode 28: The Living and the Dead
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 tells Bea the name of Joan's henchman, Nils Jesper. She calls Nils who is waiting to murder Matthew Fletcher on Joan's command. Joan then listens in to a recording as she notices Bea turning her back on Kaz. Joan is later seen smiling as a news report states that due to an anonymous tip from the prison, Kaz Proctor has been incarcerated at Wentworth. Vera comes in and reveals that she's put in a complaint to the board against Joan. When Doreen's baby Joshua is kidnapped by Jess, Joan sets out to rescue him, just as Jess attempts to kill him; Joan strangles her, setting the prison on fire to cover it up. She learns that her henchman is in police custody by this point. She later blames Jess for starting the fire. After Bea and Will save Ferguson from the fire, Joan is arrested with all the prisoners watching.Episode 34: Blood and Fire
Season 4
Joan is transferred to Wentworth's protection unit where she is awaiting trial. She tries to manipulate Vera again but fails.Episode 35: First Blood
Joan files a petition to be released into general population within the prison. When being assessed by Bridget, Joan reveals Vera's euthanasia 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.Episode 36: Poking Spiders