Episode 9 explores what happens when we beat a person we perceive as “bad” like a dead horse, making us, in turn, “bad.” It starts off with Marie having a nightmare of being hung with a noose by Allie and the crew. The dream not only foreshadows her death by stabbing at the end of the episode, but it shines a light on Allie and crew’s contribution to it. Marie is not a “good” person, but nobody in Wentworth (or the real world) is entirely good or bad.
Marie and Joan, resident baddies, have arguably been punished enough. That doesn’t mean the characters should completely forgive them or befriend them, but continually whipping them for their sins has corrupted so-called “good” people. They have a thirst for violence now. It would be better to kill the “baddies” long ago, straight after they’d committed “the sins,” than relentlessly punishing them forever.
Wentworth is Biblical this year. The Old Testament-style punishment and judgement has given viewers a lot to think about. Episode 9 is no exception. When Joan Ferguson takes the stand, Joan has the jury “eating out of the palm of her hands,” according to Vera. They believe that she hasn’t regained her memory and does, in fact, still think she’s Kath Maxwell.
Vera won’t let Joan get away with what she’s done and, to an extent, I understand her stance. She is willing to show evidence that Joan has regained full memory, putting her own reputation at stake: she kept the guards’ attempted murder of Joan a secret. She wants Joan punished more than she cares about her own safety and freedom.
Joan sees Vera ready to bring forth the evidence and admits she’s Joan before she can be found out. The only reason she would do that is to save others, mostly Vera. If Vera succeeded in displaying evidence then Joan would remain in prison, so that was Vera’s goal anyway… or was it? When Joan admits her faults and puts herself in prison, Vera takes issue. She questions Joan’s motives. Vera didn’t just want Joan in prison. She wanted to punish her, personally.
This is where beating a “baddie” like a dead horse becomes an issue. All season, Joan thinks she’s been taking a drug that has made her empathize more. She’s been able to curb her impulses through mindfulness and therapy. When she finds out that she’s been given a placebo for months — after she’s pled guilty and is back in prison — she realizes she’s not naturally evil.
That moment is one of the most important scenes in Wentworth history. It shows how people perceived and continually treated as “bad” internalize other people’s judgement. We know Joan was abused by her father, who wanted her to be violent and unempathetic. Nothing she ever did was acceptable. We know Joan saw her father murder her mother. This is a woman who believes she is naturally bad because she has been treated and told so. Unlike Vera, who took on the permanent-victim role as a response to childhood trauma, Joan took on permanent-perpetrator.
The tides have changed now. Joan is asked, while staring into Vera’s eyes, “were the people who identified you [in the hospital] significant to you?” and she couldn’t respond, just like when the psychologist asked her earlier in the season if there was anyone she wanted to have an emotional connection with and she thought of Vera. She is asked if she can’t remember anything from before she was assaulted and, looking at Vera, knowing their past together, she won’t say. That means forgetting Vera, and what she did to Vera, too. I think the only crime Joan feels guilty of is how she’s treated Vera and she’s willing to be punished for it.
Joan doesn’t save herself selfishly. She doesn’t torture anybody by doing so. She admits she’s Joan Ferguson, claims she’s manipulated the psychologist for the trial — so he won’t get in trouble — and says, in third person, like she’s the one-dimensional villain the rest see her as, “the only safe place for Joan Ferguson is behind bars.”
Joan’s storyline parallels Marie’s in this episode. Marie, like Joan, has done a lot of (objectively) bad things in her life. The other characters refuse to let it go. This episode, after a season of helping Rita, Marie sticks to her plan to protect Ruby while Rita is dealing with threats from Lou.
For Rita to get out of prison, she needs Lou’s phone, which Marie used to record Lou on, because it also has a recording of cop Jones admitting Rita was undercover. Lou discovers Rita’s threat against her brother is empty when a guard discloses it came right after Rita spoke with the “good” guards. She realises Rita wants the phone, which she predicted Lou would use to warn her brother of danger, giving her the opportunity to seize it.
Ruby tries to intercept the sim-card deal, which she knows about because she’s in a relationship with the dealer. Ruby follows Lou and crew into the kitchen and tells Marie, who is close behind, to stay away. The crew begin beating Ruby up, when Marie enters with a big piece of wood and starts slashing everyone with it. She tells Ruby to run, which she does, but instead of dropping the wood and running herself, Marie continues coming at the crew.
Why did she do it? I see it as a form of suicide. Like Joan Ferguson, she thinks she deserves violence, partly because people won’t stop whipping her over her mistakes. Marie isn’t the strongest, physically, and she was up against multiple young, fit and violent people. She knew what would happen.
Lou grabs a knife and stabs Marie in the guts. She claims it was “for Reb,” but I don’t believe it was. Lou couldn’t even kill Sheila, who actually murdered Reb, by herself. The reason why she could kill Marie was because of guilt and humiliation. First of all, Lou slept with Marie after Reb died, which would have brought up a lot of negative feelings, including guilt. Then she finds out Marie was recording her (to get to the bottom of her and Judy’s plan to bomb the prison), which is humiliating.
The possibilities of the final episode are endless. First of all, loyal people don’t stay loyal if they’ve been betrayed. Lou got her right-hand woman to take the blame for Marie’s murder. Will Lou have the support she needs to carry out the attack? Judy’s been told she will be exonerated. She doesn’t want to go through with the escape plan anymore, despite trading her bomb-making skills to spare her life earlier in the season.
Ann’s secret communication with CIA/FBI style people about Lou and Judy’s plan is going to mean the car with the bomb material has to come into the prison to get the evidence and/or arrests they need for their own agenda. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ann causes an explosion by being so fixated on her late daughter’s death that she cares more about burying Judy than everybody’s safety.
