So, Joan Fergusson has a new name to go with The Freak.  She’s now Top Dog of Wentworth.  And don’t the women know it.

Her plan, though, is only half realised.  Sure, she has the women petrified as she assumes her duties at the steam press in the laundry room. But what she really wants is to destroy Vera Bennett.

She spells it out very clearly to her man on the inside, Officer Jake Stewart, but he’s not entirely happy with Joan’s present to Vera.

“A tongue in the box? What the f**k, Joan”.

“Just stop your whining. Our plan is working.  Let’s just focus on making you Governor. Vera’s job is hanging by a thread.  We only need to give things a little push.  Just keep the drugs coming thick and fast.  It’s only a matter of time”.

Vera Bennett is all to aware of the shift in power.  Her survival depends on bringing down the Freak before Joan makes her next move. Well, she doesn’t KNOW she’s the ultimate target, not at this stage anyway.

In Vera’s mind, it’s as simple as finding someone who can successfully challenge the Freak.  Someone who the women would rally around.  Someone who is not psychotic.

There’s only one who fits the bill, but Franky has other ideas.

“There’s a way to help the women.  Take down Fergusson”.

“I’d rather keep my tongue”

“So, it was her”!

“Anyone with half a brain can see that”.

“You’re the only one who can take on Fergusson.  The women will rally around you”.

“You’re not dragging me back in”.

So, it’s back to square one for Vera.  Will Jackson, though, is trying to do it his way.  He sees a partnership with Kaz Proctor as a way of restoring the natural order of things at Wentworth.

The plan is simple; Stop the Drugs, Stop Fergusson.  It’s obvious to everyone Joan’s powerbase is with the prison drug lords. If they can stop the drugs, the Freak will be on shaky ground.

If only he took Kaz seriously when she told him there had to be an officer working with Joan.  She speaks the truth, but he’s not willing to believe her. The fool.

Their initial effort to track the drugs comes up empty.  Someone tipped them off.  The drugs aren’t where they’re supposed to be. Now Will starts to believe Kaz. 

Anyway, Allie is working on her own plan to bring down Joan (yes, in this episode everyone is out to get the Freak).

As we suspected, Allie is building a stockpile of drugs.  Not for her pleasure, but to kill Joan.  This she tells Franky after the other women staged a failed intervention, convinced that she’s returned to her bad habits.

“I’m clean.  I have been since Bea”.

“Bullshit”.

“I am.  I’ve been stockpiling. I just need one more hit and I’m ready”.

“For what”?

“Fergusson.  I’m going to hot-shot the bitch”.

Of course, it’s not that simple. It never is.  There’s Allie slumped in the shower cubicle as Joan and her crew walk in.  They suspect nothing. They dismiss her.

Joan tells them to leave and she begins to taunt Allie, moving closer and closer. Still she doesn’t act, but waits for the Freak to get just close enough…

“Look at you. Worthless. Nothing. Look how far you’ll go to escape your pathetic existence.  What? Do you want to touch me? Do you? But you’re filthy. You’re a filthy whore. A little Top Dog Whore…… if only Bea could see you now”.

And as she leans in to kiss her, Allie acts.  She stabs the Freak in the neck with her heroin loaded syringe.  But of course, her plan comes to nothing and the Freak manages to overpower Allie and pull out the syringe.

She’s survived and that can only mean bad things ahead for everyone at Wentworth.

Allie makes it back to her cell, where Franky gets the story out of her.  She doesn’t yell.  She doesn’t say ‘told you so’.  Instead, she makes Allie a promise.

Franky managed to reach the roof of the prison via the air-con vents.  She watched as Doreen walked through the prison gates a free woman, after being given parole.

Franky watched as Nash and baby Josh met Doreen at the gates.  They’re a family again.

And the promise she makes?  Franky promises to take Allie with her when she makes her Great Escape.

“You’re going to come with me.  F**k this dying shit.  Now you need to get out.  You need to live a happy life. That’s the revenge you get on Fergusson”.

And the scene is set for a roller coaster ride in the final three episodes of season five.

Vera wants to bring down Joan.  Joan wants to destroy Vera. Will Jackson wants Kaz Proctor to reclaim the mantle of Top Dog.

 But will Doreen manage to walk the straight and narrow?  Or will she somehow bugger things up and wind up back in Wentworth?

Yep.  It’s going to be a roller coaster.