Peter Flint

Peter Flint is a fictional character from the American soap opera Santa Barbara. He was portrayed by American actor Stephen Meadows from July 30, 1984 to February 28, 1985. Meadows returned in a cameo on April 11, 1986.

Character history

Peter Flint, a man with a hidden past, thought he had it all figured out. He was to marry Kelly Capwell, a daughter of a wealthy businessman C.C. Capwell and nothing would ever come in his way. Or so he thought. In the very first episode, with the release of Joe Perkins from prison, the first formed triangle on the show announced itself.^[1] Peter, who had also been involved in the storyline that preceded the show (Channing Capwell Jr.'s murder), was convinced that Joe had murdered Channing, but it was later revealed that Peter was a lot more involved in the story than the viewers were led to believe.^[2]

Noticing the attraction between Kelly and Joe, Peter often tried to break up the duo, but their love was too strong for Peter to break. Peter set out a perfect scheme to accuse Joe of drug trafficking, and at one point Joe was presumed dead when he got lost in the ocean.^[3] Peter then managed to pursue Kelly to marry him again, only to get disappointed once again when Joe returned.

Peter's shady past announced itself when Ginger Jones came to town and started blackmailing Peter, who was an ex-gigolo. Peter jumped to Kelly's rescue when Ginger kidnapped her. When that part was solved, Peter concentrated on convincing Kelly to marry him, and to achieve that, he had to remove Joe. He arranged a meeting with him in the woods and tried to kill him, but ended up shot, making a clear path for a Kelly-Joe reunion.^[4] Realizing that he needed to change his strategy, Peter told Kelly that he believed that Joe wasn't responsible for the murder of Channing, and he accused Mason Capwell of it, but later nixed the idea.

After being released from hospital, Peter's health took a turn for the worse. He was no longer able to think rationally because of a brain tumor and over the next few weeks in January and February 1985 he went on a serial-killing spree. He first seduced a waitress named Barbara Anderson who worked at 'La Mesa' restaurant, believing that she was Kelly. He raped and then strangled her, leaving a white carnation at the scene of the crime (something he would do after every murder), and her body was found the next morning. A few days after this Summer Blake^[5] (Gina DeMott's sister) became his second victim. He managed to lure her away from 'State Street Bar' into his car and drove her to a warehouse where he raped and strangled her. Warren Lockridge found her body just hours after she was killed. Days later, Peter tried to lure Kelly to the warehouse where Joe worked, but her sister Eden went in her place and Peter kidnapped and then attempted to strangle her. However, Eden eventually found a way to escape. Soon after this Peter murdered his third victim, Veronica Gayley (his former assistant and Mason's girlfriend), after she began to suspect that he was the killer. Peter strangled her in her apartment (leaving her body in her jacuzzi) and Mason was the person who discovered her after Peter played a tape recording of her murder on the phone to him. Peter's fourth murder victim was a young woman who worked as a high class prostitute and went by the name of Candy Fox; he strangled her on Joe and Kelly's wedding night, in the neighbouring hotel suite to theirs. Joe and Kelly heard Candy's screams and were the ones who found her body just minutes after her murder.

Peter's final plan consisted of kidnapping Kelly after her wedding to Joe.^[6] He managed to do that, and after a long struggle Kelly was, once again, rescued. Peter had completely lost his mind by this time and he even wrote a letter of confession for all the murders he committed. He then took Joe and Amy (Joe's sister) hostage and shot Joe, causing him to fall out of a window. This eventually caused Joe to die (technically making Joe Peter's fifth and final victim). Peter also tried to kill Kelly, but Cruz Castillo managed to shoot Peter dead before he could get to her.

References