Kirsten Cohen

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Kirsten Cohen
Image:Kirsten_Cohen.jpg
Kelly Rowan as Kirsten Cohen
The O.C.
Portrayed by Kelly Rowan, Ellen Hollman (Flashbacks)
First appearance Premiere (episode 1.01)
Last appearance The End's Not Near, It's Here (episode 4.16)
Cause/reason Series Finale
Created by Josh Schwartz
Profile
Nickname(s) Kiki
Kiks
Gender Female
Date of birth February 2, 1967(1967-02-02)
Age 45 (flashforward)
40 (last appearance)
Occupation co-partner, NewMatch
former CFO&CEO of the Newport Group
Title businesswoman

Kirsten Cohen (née Nichol) is a fictional character on the FOX television series The O.C.. She is portrayed by Canadian actress Kelly Rowan.

Contents

[edit] Background

Born in Newport Beach, CA, Kirsten is the eldest daughter of Caleb and Rose Nichol. She comes from a very wealthy background. Her father, a real-estate developer founded The Newport Group which rose as one of the most powerful companies in California.

She is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in Art History. It was during her college years when she met her future husband Sandy, specifically on an campaign for the 1984 presidential elections. Kirsten states that when they fell in love, she "lived in a mail truck and stank of patchouli".

Since marrying Sandy and giving birth to their son Seth, Kirsten's mother became ill with ovarian cancer. This prompted the Cohens to move back to Newport. She has since joined her father at The Newport Group, becoming the workaholic she was introduced as at the beginning of the show.

Besides Seth, she has two other children with Sandy: biological daughter Sophie Rose and adoptive son Ryan

[edit] Personality

In contrast to her husband, Kirsten is relatively conservative. She is referred to as a WASP by Seth.

[edit] Storylines

[edit] Season One

Kirsten is introduced when she meets troubled teen Ryan Atwood for the first time. Ryan was her husband's client, who he brought home with him because he had nowhere else to stay. Under the impression that Ryan was going to stay only until Sandy was able to contact Child Services, she welcomes him into their home and lets him stay in the pool house.

Later on, Kirsten meets Dawn, Ryan's mother. After being told by Dawn that she cannot take care of her own son because she is a mess, Kirsten and Sandy eventually take Ryan under their wing, becoming his legal guardians. The rest of the season focuses on the Cohens adjusting to the newest member of the family, with Kirsten becoming a mother figure in Ryan's eyes. In turn, Kirsten comes to love and accept Ryan as if he was her own son.

Though Kirsten has a mostly stable marriage, her close friendship with next-door neighbor and ex-boyfriend Jimmy Cooper causes tension and awkwardness between her and her husband. When Jimmy finds himself in the middle of financial trouble, she helps by loaning him money. Not long after, she and Sandy find out that Jimmy had been taking money from his clients' accounts to support himself. Ultimately, it was Kirsten's husband who helped defend Jimmy to avoid jail time.

In the first season finale, Kirsten hints to Theresa Diaz, Ryan's pregnant ex-girlfriend, that she had an abortion early in her life.

[edit] Season Two

The problems begin for Kirsten during the second season when she feared that her husband was cheating on her with an old girlfriend, Rebecca Bloom, who had mysteriously showed up back in town. Sandy and Kirsten's marriage begins to deteriorate, and she turns to alcohol to compensate. Her alcoholism was fueled by working closely with a man whom she was having a crush on, Newport Living magazine editor Carter Buckley, who also drank too much.

Towards the end of the season, Kirsten crashes her car while driving drunk. She was in the middle of an emotional conversation with her husband, who had told her to pull over when she drops her phone near the gas pedal. Kirsten reaches over to pick up her phone, but doesn't see that she was approaching an intersection. A truck runs over her car, sending the vehicle all over the street.

Kirsten survives the accident with minor bruises and a few broken fingers. She convinces Sandy that she's swearing off the alcohol after the scare the accident causes, but Sandy finds a bottle of vodka in her purse. He was in the middle of confronting her when Julie calls to inform the Cohens that Caleb died of a heart attack. Stricken, she walks away from Sandy with the bottle of vodka.

Following an intervention staged by her worried family, she checks into a rehabilitation program for alcohol abuse after her father's funeral.

[edit] Season Three

At Suriak Rehab, she meets Charlotte Morgan, who seemed to be interested in making friends with her. In reality, Charlotte was a con artist who was only after her, as Kirsten was the richest woman in Newport Beach. However, it was revealed during Caleb's will reading that he had been bankrupt when he died, and left Kirsten with nothing but a letter. Seeing the letter as a threaten to the progress she has made in rehab, she runs away and spends the night in a motel with a bottle of vodka, "but I didn't drink," she tells Sandy later on. Kirsten returns home and has since created a high-class dating service, NewMatch, with her one-time stepmother Julie Cooper-Nichol.

Over the course of the season, Kirsten and her husband once again found themselves amidst conflict due to his decision to take over The Newport Group. Long hours made Kirsten concerned that Sandy was turning out to be a workaholic, but it was Sandy becoming like her father, getting into illegal deals and crossing the line often that worried her the most. This causes her to relapse, yet the problem was settled when Sandy decides to quit the job at the end of the season.

[edit] Season Four

Kirsten attempts to garner a silent partner for NewMatch in Gordon Bullit by setting him up with Julie. Later on, Kirsten ostracizes Julie after suspicions about the business and fires her after she uncovers it has become a prostitution ring without her knowing it.

A family crisis appears once again when Frank, an accountant The Bullit brings in to deal with NewMatch's books, reveals he is Ryan's biological father. Upon hearing of Frank's desire to see Ryan, Kirsten talks Sandy into at least giving him a chance. She invites him over for dinner, but it ended badly after they found out Frank lied about having cancer just so he could see his son again.

On the night of Kirsten's fortieth birthday, Kirsten finds out that she is pregnant. This causes her to flash back in time and remember the abortion she had before going to college. She finally comes clean to Sandy about the abortion, after having kept the secret from him for so long.

In the series finale, Kirsten and the rest of the Cohens find out that their home was broke beyond repair. Sandy and Kirsten reluctantly begin house-hunting. After hearing their parents reminiscing, Seth and Ryan fly to Berkeley to find their old house, but the current owners were unwilling to sell. Convinced that bring their parents would help, they bring Sandy and Kirsten to Berkeley with the help of The Bullit. While there, Kirsten asks the couple that live there if she can use their bathroom. She finds that her water broke, and she gives birth to her daughter in the Cohens' house in Berkeley. Her daughter is named Sophie Rose Cohen, after Sandy and Kirsten's parents.

In a flash-forward Sophie Rose is shown to bear a striking resemblance to Kirsten.

The O.C.
Episodes   |   Website
Primary
characters		 Ryan Atwood | Marissa Cooper | Seth Cohen | Summer Roberts
Sandy Cohen | Kirsten Cohen | Julie Cooper | Jimmy Cooper
Taylor Townsend | Kaitlin Cooper | Caleb Nichol | Luke Ward
Secondary
characters		 Alex Kelly | Anna Stern | Dawn Atwood | Frank Atwood | Trey Atwood |
Carter Buckley | Gordon Bullit | Sophie Cohen | Theresa Diaz
Holly Fischer | Lindsay Gardner | Johnny Harper
Charlotte Morgan | Hailey Nichol | Neil Roberts |Kevin Volchok
Zach Stevens | Veronica Townsend | Oliver Trask | Rebecca Bloom
Locations Newport | Orange County | Chino | Berkeley | Brown
Music Mix 1 | Mix 2 | Mix 3 | Mix 4 | Mix 5 | Mix 6
Related Chrismukkah
Key producers Josh Schwartz | McG | Stephanie Savage | Allan Heinberg
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