Henry Mapasua

Henry Mapasua is a fictional recurring character on the New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street. Henry was portrayed by Victor Rodger who also writes for the show. Originally appearing as Maxwells childhood friend and an all round nice guy, within two months Henry had become an antagonist in the show.

Character storylines

Before Shortland Street

Henry was born and bred in Samoa and grew up alongside Maxwell Avia. The two were best friends and did everything together. At the age of 12 they unofficially became blood brothers when they cut their fingers and touched each others finger. Later on Henry married and had a child. The 2009 Samoa earthquake affected Henry deeply, both emotionally and financially as his village was hit. By this time Henry had moved to London.

Arrival to Shortland Street

Henry arrived at Shortland Street in April 2010 and interrupted Maxwell's lunch date with his partner Sarah Potts. Originally Sarah disliked Henry but he told her all the charity work he did and Sarah came around. With a lot of peer pressure, recovering gambling addict started to gamble with Henry again and the two would often hit the casino. Sometimes Isaac Worthington and Kieran Mitchell would join them.

The con begins

As the months went on Henry slowly gained the trust of Kieran and Isaac. Henry came into The I.V announcing he had won big at the horses. He then revealed he owned a horse and it earnt him a lot of money. Isaac and Kieran showed interest in buying shares in a horse and Henry pointed them in the right direction of a horse he was selling shares of. Henry also got employed by Maxwells partner Sarah at her GP. Henry told Maxwell not to buy a share in a horse. Isaac bought one but Kieran could not afford it so Maxwell became his silent partner. Kieran went to have a look at the horse and was approached by a man wanting to buy his shares. Happy with his apparently great deal, Kieran left a happy man. While at the IV, Henry got a call from the man who approached Kieran. It turned out he was an actor that Henry hired to generate interest in the horse. Jane Perry overheard the conversation and informed Kieran who decided it was time to prank the prankster.

The conner gets conned

While Henry was at the IV having a drink, Jane ran from the counter saying how she hated Kieran and that she quit. She also informed Henry that she had got a lot of inheritance from her grandmother. They started to meet at the IV often and discuss her sum of money and what to do with it. Henry, sensing an opportunity told her to invest in a horse. Henry was overjoyed when Jane decided to buy the whole horse. But then she told him she was to buy a house instead. Kieran and Jane hired an actor to play a real estate agent and gave Henry several pamphlets on the house. Jane told Henry that she bought the house but was regretting it and if she was to withdraw her offer she would loose $160,000 of her deposit. Henry offered to pay it for her if she bought the horse. She agreed and Henry paid her the hefty sum of money. The next day Jane disappeared and Henry realized he had been conned. He linked it to Kieran and threatened him. Kieran realised that Henry was making money off selling shares for his horse to multiple people and keeping the race money for himself.

The con ends

Henry got angry at Maxwell when he found out he was Kierans silent partner and ran off. Kieran confronted him at the horses shed and caught him injecting the horse with an unknown liquid to make it run faster. Maxwell had followed the two and listened to Henry confess to the crimes. Maxwell told Henry to tell the police or he will. Maxwell did end up calling the police and Henry was taken in for questioning. Henry tried to pass the blame onto Maxwell and Kieran before trying to seem like the nice guy and how he and Maxwell were friends since babies. Kieran suggested to Henry that he skipped the country. Later it was revealed that Henry was arrested attempting to leave the country and sentenced to time in prison.

References