Katherine Blake

Katherine Blake (formerly named Wendy Mulligan) was a fictional character on the New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street. She is remembered for being the shows first murderer^[1] and for her attempted killing of Dr. Chris Warner.

Character History

1993-1994

With Meredith Fleming's departure from the clinic, Michael McKenna hired Katherine in late 1993. Although very secretive and anti social, Katherine got on well with the staff excluding Chris Warner and Hone Ropata as she had different methods to them. Chris eventually warmed to her and developed a crush. In November 1993, Tom Neilson suffered a heart attack as his son Darryl Neilson called for assistance. Katherine attempted CPR but Tom passed. Darryl believed that Katherine did not handle the situation properly and developed a personal vendetta against her. Katherine took this badly and insisted she handled the situation properly. An investigation was launched and Katherine was cleared of all wrong doing. Darryl did not agree though and the audience witness Darryl breaking into Katherine's flat. Katherine arrived home however and the two got into a fight with Katherine overpowering Darryl and threatening him to back off to which he does. Katherine soon starts a relationship with Chris and even helps Chris hide Alison Raynor from her abusive husband. Chris tells Katherine he believes he may be in love with her to which Katherine agrees. Katherine received two new patients, a young girl named Sarah-Jane and an elderly English women named Nora. Nora insisted she recognized Katherine and Sarah-Jane was scared when she witnessed Katherine attempting to murder Nora during the night. Katherine was shocked when Sarah-Jane moved hospitals to get away from Katherine.

In 1994 Kirsty Knight started pestering Katherine for her medical certificate to which Katherine insisted she would get round to later. Katherine was shocked when she learnt Kirsty had contacted Katherine's medical school herself to obtain the certificate. Katherine confronted Kirsty telling her to back off before she ripped up the faxed certificate. Kirsty became puzzled and continued to research Katherine. Katherine stole money from the hospital and hid it in Kirsty's locker which resulted in Kirsty quitting after getting accused of the robbery. Katherine learnt from air-headed new receptionist Marilyn Bluck that Chris was inquiring about the old woman Nora who had recognized Katherine. Obviously angry, Katherine stormed out of the hospital. Kirsty meanwhile had broken into Katherine's house, when she heard Katherine entering she hid in the wardrobe. Katherine packed her clothes then headed to Chris' flat to get her wallet. Kirsty discovered a shrine with newspaper articles. It turned out that Katherine's real name was Wendy Mulligan and that she had killed her husband by running him over and that she had been imprisoned and that she was not a real doctor but a fraud. Katherine arrived at Chris' and took her wallet. Chris chased her down and was shocked when Katherine drove towards him full speed, clipping his leg. It appeared that she was going to reverse into him, but she jumped out and helped him. This gave enough time for Kirsty and Hone to arrive. Katherine admitted her story that she killed her husband after he cheated on her and that she had been studying to become a doctor. She is lead away by police, Chris asks if their relationship was a lie, to which she responds: "Not all of it". She is then arrested.

Katherine returned a few days later to a shocked hospital. She asks Michael McKenna to help her in her trial, to which he denied. She then asked Carmen Roberts who had been her best friend, but she too declined. Katherine is shown to be annoyed that her colleagues couldn't see her behind the murderer she was. She then broke into Chris' apartment and greeted a visibly shocked Chris. She told Chris that she did love him and the two have sex before breaking up the next morning. Katherine tells Chris after the trial she is going to become a doctor she then leaves.

References