Wentworth is back for its last ten episodes ever. Yep, Dark OITNB is leaving us for good after eight years of lesbian-laden carnage. The reimagining of Prisoner, which also lasted for 8 seasons (ending in 1986), had a soaring start: the first episode was the most watched Australian drama series to premiere on Foxtel. Let’s hope it ends with a similarly explosive bang.
The good, the bad, and the nuance
Wentworth is not just an internationally acclaimed crime drama, it’s a psychological thriller, too. It tests complex characters, giving them complicated histories. It explores reasons why people behave in the way they do, continually testing our character loyalties like no other. It toys with the concept of good and bad, including “good people” versus “bad people.”
Wentworth explores the ways prisoners aren’t always strictly “bad” and prison guards are never strictly “good.” An individual is usually both good and bad, including both at once or at different points in their lives. Wentworth probes the way other influences, especially power, sways someone’s likelihood to be “good” or “bad” — or be seen that way.
A women’s prison is a great backdrop for a woman-focused drama that delves into women’s issues. It examines the way women are viewed under patriarchy as too “weak” or “innocent” to do things like seek revenge and even calculatedly kill a man. It explores women’s sexuality, including lots of lesbianism. Wentworth also deals with domestic violence, male violence, addiction, abuse of power, racism, ableism, and many more aspects of women’s lives.
The importance of complex characters
The cinematography in Wentworth is fantastic, but the characters are even better. While the show is inspired by Prisoner, Wentworth’s characters are original, they’re full of surprises, and they’re nowhere else on television. They keep us coming back for more. What will they do next?
Wentworth boasts the most dangerously cunning female “villain” on our television screens: Joan Ferguson (played by the Pamela Rabe). Joan Ferguson and fellow “villain,” Marie Winter (played by Susie Porter), had a surprisingly tender moment in the first episode of the second half of season 8, which aired on the 24th of August 2021. Marie rested her head on Joan’s shoulder as she daydreamed of revenge. “I loved shooting that scene,” Pamela Rabe told Daily Star. “It was really entertaining and so delicate and kind of unexpected.”
The scene almost never happened. With the pandemic’s social distancing expectations, being so close was up to the actors. “I do remember a quick discussion about whether, indeed, because of COVID safety protocols were very much in place and everyone was being extremely careful, I remember them saying, ‘Listen, you don’t have to lean against [her] if you’re not comfortable.’”
“We were all working together and being as safe as we possibly can, we were all being tested, why in the world would you not?” Pamela said. “There’s gonna be a lot of kissing and fighting and other things happening later on, you can lean on my shoulder any time,” she laughs. Prisoners are used to a little isolation so maybe the real-life desperation for touch during COVID made the actors more understanding of their characters.
What should we expect?
I wonder who will be kissing who?! The first 10 episodes of season 8, called “Redemption,” aired in 2020. It ended with what Wentworth does best: bloodshed and havoc. However, it gave us a slice of Joan’s intriguing psychology. She had a breakdown involving flashbacks in the final episode, which led to her getting her memory back. It appears as though we’ll get to see more of Joan’s backstory this season which, true to her personality, has only been given in reluctant glimpses since she first appeared in season 2.
Considering both Joan and Marie are attracted to women, I wonder if it will be them who kiss? Was Pamela hinting they would be? Speaking of their relationship, Pamela said:
“It’s great. Joan met Marie when she was Kath, so there was no history. Neither of them knew of each other’s past, and I think that kind of meant there was a clean slate. The path that Marie was on during the first part of season eight dovetailed really beautifully with the lost dependence and vulnerability of Kath, so there’s something there that becomes interesting, now that Joan has retrieved or is fully inhabiting herself, how much will she know of Marie and what will she expect of her?”
Pamela Rabe says Joan Ferguson, known as The Freak for her capacity for evil, is going to play an important role in the second part of season 8. “I think part of the arc for Joan Ferguson in these final 10 episodes is the fact that she really has arrived, Joan is back,” she said.
Have we been given a truthful narrative of the “real” Joan Ferguson so far? When Pamela says “she really has arrived,” is she referring to the psychiatry appointments she’s having that could lead to her dealing with some of the horrendous trauma she’s experienced since a little girl? When she says “Joan is back,” is she talking about ‘The Freak’ getting up to freaky stuff once again, or does she mean that Joan’s real personality, post-psychological treatment, will be revealed?
Witnessing her mother’s murder, which we discovered in the first part of season 8, means that – beyond popular belief – it’s possible Joan wasn’t “born bad.” It’s possible she developed this cruel personality to become the calculated perpetrator, never the victim. That doesn’t excuse her behaviour but it does reflect Wentworth’s interest in multidimensional characters that complicate strict categories of “good” or “bad.”
