Nicole Wallace
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| Law & Order character | |
 |
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| Nicole Wallace | |
|---|---|
| Time on show | 2002-??? |
| Preceded by | N/A |
| Succeeded by | N/A |
| First appearance | Anti-Thesis |
| Last appearance | Grow |
| Portrayed by | Olivia d'Abo |
Nicole Wallace is a fictional character in NBC's Law & Order: Criminal Intent, portrayed by Olivia d'Abo. She is the archenemy of one of the show's main characters, Detective Robert Goren. As created by d'Abo, Wallace is a calculating and dangerous psychopath, who remains somewhat sympathetic in light of her childhood trauma.
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[edit] Biography
A psychopathic con artist, thief, and serial killer, Wallace has eighteen known murders to her name.
[edit] Historical
Wallace's keen eye for detecting and exploiting weakness is borne of her own dysfunctional childhood. She was molested and raped by her father.[1]
Wallace was imprisoned in the Lard Yao women's prision in Chatuchack, Thailand.[2] With her then-boyfriend, a Charles Sobhraj-like criminal svengali named Bernard Fremont, for helping him rob and murder eight men. She would seduce them, they would rob them, and he would kill them.[3] Wallace and Fremont were caught when Hilary Marsden, another of his lovers who was insanely jealous of Wallace, planted two of their victims' passports on the pair. When captured, Wallace testified against Fremont. She received a 10 year prision sentence and deportation to Australia while Fremont received a life sentence.[4] While in prison, she learned to speak "low class" Thai.[5]
Upon returning to her native Australia, she supported herself as a prostitute.[6] She gave birth to a daughter, whom she drowned at age three, when she feared that the daughter was becoming a sexual rival. Wallace has internalized her father's excuse that she had been too attractive to resist, and so it seemed natural to her that the child's father would abuse the girl. The daughter's remains were eventually discovered.
In 1996, Wallace was in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia — the heart of sheep country. While there, Wallace was vaccinated for anthrax.
[edit] During Criminal Intent
In 2002, she came to the United States and got a job as a literature professor at Hudson University under the alias Elizabeth Hitchens. Hitchens was a graduate of the University of Sydney and had worked with the New Covenant Foundation, an educational foundation in Melbourne, Australia.[7]
[edit] Personality
Wallace is an expert manipulator with a gift for rooting out every painful detail from a person's life and using it to control and/or destroy them.
In response to the to the trauma of her molestation, Wallace came to resent her mother as a rival for her father's affection. Moreover, she came to hate women because her mother could not, or would not, stop the abuse.
The abuse molded her into a psychopath, unable to see other people as anything more than tools to be used for her own ends. Most people who fall into her machinations are discarded the moment they become a liability.
The childhood abuse also bred in her an indifference to sex. She uses her lovers, both male and female, as pawns in her crimes, and either lets them take the fall or kills them herself once they outlive their usefulness.
[edit] Appearances
[edit] "Anti-Thesis", (2:3)
Wallace first crosses paths with Goren during the investigation of the murders of the president of Hudson University, Mr. Winthrop, and his secretary, Kate Robbins. Winthrop was about to select the next Chairman of the Department of American Studies. Wallace proved to be a formidable and interesting adversary for Goren.
Prior to the action in this episode, Wallace had met Elizabeth Hitchens in Australia, killed her and assumed her identity. As the episode opened, Wallace had a temporary position as a visiting Oxford University literature professor at Hudson University.
Wallace manipulated a male graduate student, Mark Bayley, whom she took as a lover, into committing the murders. After 10 years and five extensions, Mark's time was running out to complete his Ph.D. thesis entitled Fighting in the Captains Tower which connected the works T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and Bob Dylan. Mark wanted to further the candidate for chairman who was most likely to grant him another extension on his thesis deadline, Roland Sanders. By allowing the cloud of murder to hang over Sanders, Wallace taints his appointment and takes Sanders out of the running for the chairmanship.
Meanwhile, Wallace wanted to further the appointment of a rival candidate, Christine Fellowes. Wallace was also Fellowes' lover. Wallace believed Fellowes would give her permanent employment, which Sanders would not. Permanent employment would allow Wallace to gain U.S. citizenship. Unbeknownst to Wallace, the real Elizabeth Hitchens had embezzeled $400,000 from the New Covenant Foundation in Melbourne before she assumed Hitchen's identity. Thus, having assumed Hitchens' identity, Wallace could now be charged with the crime — or would have her identity theft, and corollary murder, discovered. However, because of extradition treaties, if she gained U.S. citizenship, Wallace would not be deported back to Australia for a "nonviolent, financial crime."
Goren's attempt to connect Wallace to the Winthrop and Robbins murders was thwarted by the death of Mark Bayley. Wallace exploited Mark's severe allergic reaction to peanuts to kill him. She injected his nicotine gum with peanut oil causing Bayley to go into anaphylatic shock. Goren was questioning the Bayley when he died just before he implicated Wallace in the murders.
By determining how Wallace knew that Mark was allergic to peanuts, Goren learned that Hitchens was really Wallace (Wallace's fluency in Thai gave her away). Goren then arranged to have Wallace's female lover fire her; thus allowing the police to arrest Wallace for having an invalid work visa.
During the interrogation, Wallace threw Goren off by confronting him with personal information. She had obtained his birth date and social security number. She then obtained his home address, next of kin, mother's maiden name, and mother's address. Hence, she discovered his mother's schizophrenia. During the battle of wits, Goren deduced that Wallace had been sexually abused, which she emphatically denied.
She was released when her lawyer secured a writ of habeas corpus. But as she is leaving the interrogation room, Wallace intentionally drops a clue which allows Goren to discover the real Elizabeth Hitchens' embezzelment. She uses the name "George Hurstwood", whom is a saloon keeper in Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser. Hurstwood stole money from his bosses safe. Goren then secured an arrest warrant the embezzlement. When they arrived to arrest Wallace, she had emptied her apartment and vanished.
[edit] "A Person of Interest", (2:22)
Wallace resurfaced, as Elizabeth Haynes (nee Hitchens), having gained citizenship by marrying Gavin Haynes, a wealthy businessman. In an attempt to destroy Goren's professional reputation, she "tricks" Goren into hounding the wrong murder suspect.
"A Person of Interest"[8] is a continuation of the prior episode, "Zoonotic"[9]. As "Zoonotic" ends, 2 grams of anthrax bacterium are unlocated. Wallace does not appear until part way through the episode.
Connie Matson, currently employed as a part-time home care nurse, was discovered murdered in her home. Matson had been a Air Force nurse at McGuire Air Force Base until 3 months before her death. Within the Air Force, Matson was assigned to the Anthrax Vaccination Program. Shortly before she is murdered, on screen, Matson opened the door to a jogging partner, who is not shown on screen. It is suggested that the jogging partner may have been a lover. During the investigation, it is strongly suggested that Matson was a lesbian.
Detectives Goren and Eames are called to solve her murder because of her connection to anthrax, and their previous case which left them seeking the remaining anthrax bacterium. After determining that Matson had obtained and sold boosters for the anthrax vaccine from a military contact, the detectives began tracing who might need the boosters. By tracking down a job application Matson submitted to the Haznostics corportation, the detectives discover a "Dr." Daniel Croydon. Croydon is a Haznostics' Lab Director and formerly worked in the Army Bio-weapons Lab.
Goren and Eames investigate Croydon and discover a very arrogant man who has never finished anything he started — including the PhD he included on his résumé. Croydon's wages are being garnished because he has fallen behind in his child support payments. Further, six years ago when his wife, Fran Swinton, developed breast cancer, he did not take care of her. Originally he refuses to answer any of the police's questions, saying he knows they are attempting to frame him. It should be noted that Goren, Eames, Deakins, and Carver all agree that Croydon is the obvious suspect at this point. They agree that under increased pressure, Croydon may reveal who has the missing anthrax.
At a press conference called by Croydon, Goren plays on Croydon's pathological arrogance to get him into an interview room. Once there, Goren attacks Croydon verbally. Eames displays disapproval of Goren's tactics. The next day, Croydon is discovered hanged after apparently having committed suicide. During the ensuing press coverage, Goren's reputation is tarnished. Later, Goren discovered evidence that clears Croydon an proves that the evidence they thought they had was manufactured.
As Goren prepares to have dinner at Sal's Resturant, Wallace appears at his table. She reveled in his fallen status. It becomes clear that she desired that the credibility of his insights and theories be damaged, not just his career. She said,
| “ | You were wrong about me. Just like you were wrong about Dr. Croydon. | ” |
She had discovered the failings of Goren's father as a husband and a parent. Croydon, who "ran out on his poor, sick wife" and was a "deadbeat dad", was thus the perfect suspect to manipulate Goren's resentment.
When Goren left the resturant, he found Wallace and her new husband, Gavin Haynes. By making her "an honest woman", Gavin also made her a U.S. citizen. When Goren and Eames confront Gavin, they discover Wallace told him about Hitchen's embezzelment as well as the events at Hudson University. Gavin has been inocculated against the police's "lies".
In 1996, Wallace was vaccinated for anthrax while in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia. Croydon was in Bendigo at the same time. She last received a booster 2 years ago, which means she is still resistant. Conversely, Elizabeth Hitchens was never vaccinated for anthrax. The detectives also discovered where she crossed paths with Dr. Roger Stern. Stern's collection revealed the missing 2 grams of anthrax bacterium.
The detectives discovered that she obtained citizenship unusually quick after her fairly quiet marriage. After they told her they thought Gavin had bribed a judge to obtain her citizenship, Wallace confronted the judge. She informed Judge Burbank of the investigation and said she would pay any amount to keep him from implicating Gavin in bribing a judge. Wallace was then arrested for attempted bribery. Carter reasoned that if they can prove she obtained her citizenship under a false identity, Elizabeth Hitchens, then she will be declared a foreign national without standing. As a foreign national, they could compell a blood test to look for either the anthrax vaccine boosters sold by Matson or the missing anthrax bacterium.
While interrogating her, Goren said there was a leak in the evidence bag containing the anthrax. When she refused to believe him, he ran an anthrax test in front of her. During their tit-for-tat information exchange, Wallace said she used his parent's divorce decree to learn about his father. Goren told her that she had just given up her once chance for happiness with Gavin because she came back after him. He had forced her to face the childhood abuse she never admitted to herself as well as the fact that she had now become her own abuser. She gave up Gavin "to shoot the messenger" — "That's the price of denial." When the anthrax test displayed positive, Wallace remained unconcerned. She indicated that he had been immunized. Thus, the detectives were able to arrest her.
As she is taken away, Wallace said
| “ | Don't think for one second that this is the end of us, Bobby. | ” |
Carver indicated that she was refusing to plea but wanted a trial. Goren ended the episode saying, "I'm done with her."
[edit] "Pas de Deux", (3:12)
Wallace does not actually appear in this episode. In passing, Captain James Deakins said that Wallace is found: "Not guilty on all counts. She's got her husband's money to thank."
[edit] "Great Barrier", (4:4)
Wallace returned to plague Goren a year later as the brains behind a diamond theft ring. Wallace used her new lover, a young Asian woman named Ella, to take the fall. Ella also made an attempt to kill Haynes, Wallace's now ex-husband. The attempt failed. Wallace asked Goren for a truce and belittled Eames for having been a surrogate mother for her sister's baby.
Goren was deeply shaken by her reappearance, but did his own research and discovered the existence of Wallace's murdered child. Goren confronted Wallace with her past during an interrogation session, and her cool, detached demeanor was finally shaken. Wallace vehemently denied the charges. Infuriated, she becomes bent on ridding herself of Goren once and for all, to prevent him from interfering with her new life.
Goren and Eames could not find evidence to connect Wallace directly to the diamond thefts, so Goren attempted to get to her through Ella. Goren warned Ella of Wallace's compulsion to use and destroy anyone close to her. Ella arranged to meet Wallace while wearing a wire. However, before police could intervene, Wallace found the wire, crushed Ella's trachea, and apparently jumped out of a window into the river below. Because a quart of Wallace's blood was left behind, the medical examiner said Wallace couldn't have survived in the water. Goren, however, had his doubts.
(In an alternate ending, Wallace is shot dead — on screen — by Goren. East Coast viewers got the scene where Wallace lived, and West Coast viewers saw the one where she died. Both endings were made available on NBC's website. Viewers were given the chance to vote on which ending they preferred. The one where Wallace lives was chosen; thus, it is the only "official" ending.)
[edit] "Grow", (5:1)
Wallace appeared on Goren's radar yet again when the brother of a man she was dating is murdered. Goren discovered that the young daughter of Wallace's fiancé stood to inherit millions from a trust created by a lawsuit regarding an improper drug testing which left the daughter highly susceptible to cancer.
Goren theorized that Wallace was planning to kill the girl by exposing her to doses of estrogen which would induce incurable cancer. As a medical examiner, her fiancé would have the ability to hide the murder. Goren confronted Wallace, but she angrily insisted that she was merely trying to get her life back together, with the family she always wanted.
Upon further investigation, Goren realized that Wallace's fiancé was the one trying to kill the child to gain access to the trust fund. Wallace was actually attempting to protect the daughter. Realizing his mistake, Goren approached Wallace and admitted that he now knew the truth: that she was trying to atone for murdering her daughter. Goren tried one last time to reach his old foe, reasoning with her that she could never completely control her homicidal compulsions, making her a serious danger to anyone who trusted her. Further, Goren revealed to Wallace that the boyfriend was aware of her past, something she had kept hidden from him and the daughter. Wallace then knew the fiancé was trying to set her up for the murder of his daughter.
Wallace incriminated her fiancé in the murder of his wife, the attempted murder of his daughter, and tacitly admitted to murdering the man's brother. Further, she admited responsibility for her daughter's accidental death. She refused the idea that she can not be a good mother, however.
After her boyfriend was arrested, she kidnapped his daughter and fled the state. In an unprecedented attack of conscience, Wallace left the girl with an aunt in Arizona. She then left an eerie message on Goren's voice mail, cursing him for taking away her last chance at a real life. Wallace then disappeared.
[edit] "Slither", (5:10)
Although she did not appear in this episode, Wallace was implicated in the murderer of Bernard Fremont. Goren and Eames were investigating Fremont and his two lovers for a string of robberies and murders in New York. Goren realized that Fremont was the boyfriend that Wallace was arrested with in Thailand. Fremont and his lover Mala were ambushed as they emerged from a court room after being released on bail, and Fremont is killed with a poisoned syringe. The murder occurred off screen, so it is not clear that Wallace did indeed murder Fremont; however, Goren believed Wallace was responsible.
[edit] Murder Victims
- 8 Men — Actually killed by her partner Bernard Fremont — Convicted in Thailand[10]
- Her own 3 year-old daughter — Not convicted/proven
- Elizabeth Hitchens — Not convicted/proven[11]
- Mr. Winthrop — Actualy killed by Mark Bayley — Not convicted/proven[12]
- Kate Robbins — Actualy killed by Mark Bayley — Not convicted/proven[13]
- Mark Bayley — Not convicted/proven[14]
- Connie Matson — Not convicted/proven[15]
- Daniel Croydon — Not convicted/proven[16]
[edit] Trivia
- Wallace believes Ahab's obsession has nothing to do with the pursuit of evil, but rather a man's unrelenting pursuit of potency. Goren counters that sometimes a whale is just a whale.[17]
- She states that relinquishing responsibility to Fremont allowed her to commit violent crimes without guilt. Goren counters that using a man to kill other men allows her to punish her abusive father by proxy and absolve herself of the guilt she felt for the abuse.[18]
- She seems to love opera, and states a preference for the work of Penderecki.[19]
[edit] References
The citation style for specific episodes is Season # : Episode #, " Episode Name ".
- ^ 2:3, "Anti-Thesis"
- ^ 2:3, "Anti-Thesis"
- ^ 2:3, "Anti-Thesis"
- ^ 2:3, "Anti-Thesis"
- ^ 2:3, "Anti-Thesis"
- ^ 2:3, "Anti-Thesis"
- ^ 2:3, "Anti-Thesis"
- ^ 2:22
- ^ 2:23
- ^ 2:3, "Anti-Thesis"
- ^ 2:3, "Anti-Thesis"
- ^ 2:3, "Anti-Thesis"
- ^ 2:3, "Anti-Thesis"
- ^ 2:3, "Anti-Thesis"
- ^ 2:22, "A Person of Interest"
- ^ 2:22, "A Person of Interest"
- ^ 2:3, "Anti-Thesis"
- ^ 2:3, "Anti-Thesis"
- ^ 2:3, "Anti-Thesis"
| Characters |
| Robert Goren | Alexandra Eames | Mike Logan | Carolyn Barek | Megan Wheeler | James Deakins | Danny Ross | Ron Carver | Patricia Kent | G. Lynn Bishop | Nicole Wallace |
| Cast |
| Vincent D'Onofrio | Kathryn Erbe | Chris Noth | Annabella Sciorra | Julianne Nicholson | Jamey Sheridan | Eric Bogosian | Courtney B. Vance | Theresa Randle | Samantha Buck | Olivia D'Abo |
| Episodes |
