Michelle Landau

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Michelle Landau
First appearance	Cindy Plumb (episode 4.01)
Last appearance	Gala Gallardo (episode 4.15)
Statistics
Gender	Female
Age	30
Occupation	Businesswoman
Spouse	Burt Landau (deceased), Christian Troy (fiancé)
Children	Wilber Sutherland (adopted son)
Portrayed by	Sanaa Lathan
Created by	Ryan Murphy

Michelle Landau is a character that first appeared in the fourth season premiere of the television series, Nip/Tuck. She is played by the actress Sanaa Lathan. Intended to be the series antagonist for the fourth season, she is a successful businesswoman who makes a successful offer to buy the plastic surgery firm from McNamara/Troy in the premiere episode of the fourth season.

She was married to a much older wealthy man who joined her in buying out McNamara/Troy, however she has a secret past with a woman named James that haunts her. She had trouble with Liz, since the latter discovered her secret (or at least the tip of the iceberg) and she wanted to fire her but was stopped by Dr McNamara.

Christian Troy blackmailed her into telling him about James. It was discovered that Michelle was an escort whilst attending medical school. James paid for Michelle to go to medical school and Michelle thought she had paid her back. However, James took advantage of the fact that Michelle now owns a plastic surgery practice.

After blackmailing this out of Michelle, Christian blackmailed her again to sleep with him and the two were seen together by James. Christian, not wanting Michelle to be hurt, paid off James for the rest of the pictures - after she promised to leave him and Michelle alone.

James does not keep her end of the bargin and continues to haunt Mrs. Landau. At the end of episode 4.05, Dawn Budge, it was revealed that Michelle is one of the organ thieves that has been stealing kidneys from unsuspecting citizens, like Liz. According to James, she is one of the best.

When Burt found out that Christian Troy and Michelle had an affair, he brought them both to his house and forced them to have sex because Burt could no longer sexually pleasure Michelle. After this fiasco, Michelle became distant from Burt. She said she always loved him, but after he made her and Christian have sex in front of him, she felt like she was owned and couldn't stand to even look at him. She and Christian fall in love and James, sensing this, tries to use Michelle's love for Christian to her advantage. She drugs Christian and threatens to take both his kidneys unless Michelle can get her more. Burt is already very sick in bed, so when Michelle goes back to the house, she denies him his medicine and watches him die, taking with her both his kidneys.

Michelle and Christian are now free to be together. Christian proposes to Michelle, who agrees. Although they have a brief falling out over living arrangements and Michelle's stress over James, the engangement is on. After Christian gets Wilbur back, he asks Michelle to be Wilbur's adopted mother - she is initially reluctant but eventually happily agrees.

Later, James kills herself infront of Michelle, upset with the life she is living. After James' suicide, Michelle gets in her car and Escobar comes to her, telling her that she will take James' place delivering the organs.

Christian and Michelle buy Sean's stake in the practice, following Sean's expressed desire to leave Miami. Escobar approaches Christian and Sean about performing surgery on his wife, but they refuse. Escobar approaches Michelle, who believes she may have a way to avoid having Escobar pressure Christian. She attempts to perform the surgery on Gala Gallardo's breasts herself but is discovered by Christian. With this discovery comes the confrontation where Michelle reveals her part in the organ-theft ring to Christian. This revelation serves to end her relationship with Christian, as he feels he can no longer trust her.

She buys out Christian's stake in the practice on the same day as the end of their engagement, freeing Christian to follow Sean to California.