LAST WOMAN STANDING

Cameron adams takes a walk down memory lane with the Wentworth characters who have stolen our hearts (and other appendages) in the hit series

AS acclaimed prison drama Wentworth fires up for its final season, here’s a spoiler-heavy look at some of the most iconic – and occasionally evil – characters on either side of the bars.

JOAN “THE FREAK” FERGUSON

Body count: Kath Maxwell,

Jessica Warner, Bea Smith (sort of)

It’s harder to find a redeeming feature for The Freak than list off her most heinous crimes. Joan Ferguson was a character in the original TV show Prisoner, from which Wentworth was rebooted. However, actor Pamela Rabe has made The Freak her own. We should be discussing Rabe’s extraordinary characterisation up there with Eric Bana in Chopper and Ben Mendelsohn in Animal Kingdom.

Joan Ferguson arrived in season two as governor and was soon on the wrong side of the bars. Relentlessly evil, she didn’t let being locked up stop her reign of terror – remember when she cut out the tongue of “Juicy” Lucy and gave it to her nemesis Vera Bennett (Kate Atkinson)?

Deep down, Wentworth fans knew that even being buried alive at the end of series five wasn’t going to stop The Freak. And it feels like the worst (best) is yet to come…

BEA SMITH

Body count: Brayden Holt, Jacs Holt

We knew Wentworth wasn’t like other dramas when the show’s most iconic character, Bea Smith, was killed off at the end of season four. Played to perfection by Danielle Cormack, Bea was jailed after attempting to kill her abusive husband (played by Jake Ryan). We watched Bea become Top Dog and even escape the prison to avenge the death of her daughter Debbie by killing Brayden Holt (she’d also knocked off his mother, Jacs). Bea found love on the inside with Allie Novak (Kate

Jenkinson) and sacrificed her own life in an attempt to frame The Freak for her murder. Truth be told, Cormack had done so much with Bea there wasn’t much left.

FRANKY DOYLE

Body count: Meg Jackson (unpunished), Mike Pennisi, Iman Farah (exonerated) Another fan favourite, actor Nicole da Silva made Franky a flawed hero. Indeed fans are still hoping there’s a way Da Silva will make one more return to the prison for the final series. Doyle gave LGBTQIA+ viewers some representation with some of the series’ steamiest sex scenes. She came to jail for attacking a celebrity chef on a reality TV show – burning him with hot oil. We finally found out it was Franky who killed Meg Jackson in series one (she thought she’d shivved her enemy Jacs Holt) and formed strong friendships with Bea, Allie and Liz Birdsworth, as well as a secret affair with prison shrink Bridget (Libby Tanner), and is one of the few characters we got to see outside of prison.

LOU KELLY

Crimes: Armed robbery, assault

A recent arrival, Lou Kelly’s nickname is “Fingers” for her thieving credentials. However, after a showdown with Allie, Lou (Kate Box) loses one of her actual fingers in one of Wentworth’s most hard-to-watch scenes. We’re still finding out what happened to Lou in a cult that seemingly tried to “cure” herself and partner Reb Keane (Zoe Terakes), but Lou’s a career criminal who’s already done time. She’s not shy to shiv and the final season is going to show us what went down when the cult ended.

WentWorth: the Final Sentence

8.30pm, Tuesday, FoxTel