Storylines of Shortland Street (2001)

This article details the storylines that took place on the New Zealand Soap Opera Shortland Street in the year 2001.

Storylines

Nurse Kate Larsen (Rebecca Hobbs) had second thoughts about her revenge plot against Eamon Dempsey and tried to save him when he was left dangling from a clifftop. Unfortunately Eamon lost Kate's grip and plunged to the ground below and died. Kate never said a word to anyone about her involvement in his death and felt guilty when Eamon's aunt, Moira Crombie (Geraldine Brophy) apologised to her for doubting her about the rape. Moira also reconciled with her estranged husband Dean Cochrane (Greg Johnson).

Dr. Chris Warner (Michael Galvin) returned to town at the end of 2000 and immediately regained control of the clinic. Sofia Martinez decided to leave town and when Paul Exley tried to bluff his way into a better position at the clinic by resigning, Chris shocked him by accepting his resignation! When Chris learned of Nick and Ange's situation, he attempted to comfort his old friend by telling him about how his marriage to Alison had ended when he had an affair. Nick was disgusted by Chris' well-meaning, albeit misguided attempts to compare his affair and impending divorce from Alison with Ange's illness and angrily told Chris to leave.

Blake (Jesse Peach) was befriended by Marshall Heywood (Paul Reid), a tearaway at Ferndale High, however they quickly fell out. When Marshall got into trouble, it was his big brother Adam (Leighton Cardno) that got him out of it. Adam was a doctor and got a job at the clinic.

Meanwhile, Fergus got caught up in an illegal immigration scam which resulted in the death of one of the illegal immigrants. Fergus was left to take the fall for the scam but was determined to marry Waverley and kept from her the news that he was wanted by the police for his involvement in the scam. Rachel returned for her cousin's wedding and quickly became suspicious of Fergus' dubious behaviour. As Fergus and Waverley were due to be married, the police arrived to arrest Fergus. Fergus fled from the cops, and poor Waverley was left jilted at the altar. After the fiasco, Nick and Ange who had previously decided not to legally marry, took advantage of the empty church to make personal and private vows to love each other always in an unofficial ceremony.

Nick and Ange named their son Lucas and spent a precious few weeks together before Ange succumbed to her illness. Nick was devastated, and blamed baby Lucas for Ange's death. Nick refused Rachel's attempts to reach out to him and continually left Lucas in the care of Rangi and Donna. Eventually Nick began to see that Lucas was not to blame and that the best way to honour Ange's memory would be to be the best possible dad to Lucas. Waverley consoled herself by helping Nick look after his son, and the two grew closer.

Rachel decided to stay in Ferndale and got involved with Frank again. Frank broke up with Cassie to be with Rachel and Cassie left town when the maternity unit at the hospital was closed. However, when Daniel returned, Rachel quickly dumped Frank and took up with her estranged husband again. Frank was furious and decided to leave Ferndale. After Frank had left, Rachel decided that she had made a mistake and told Daniel that she wanted a divorce. Knowing that Frank would never take her back after she had dumped him for Daniel again, Rachel moved on with her life and began a somewhat lukewarm relationship with Adam.

When Erin Kingston (Emma Lahana) returned Marshall pursued her and Erin eventually lost her virginity to him. Erin got a big shock when Marshall's mother Barb (Annie Whittle) came in after the act was over and asked her if she would like a drink. Erin went against the rest of the family for a while and continued to see Marshall. That is until Marshall made a drunken pass at Rachel. Erin broke up with Marshall and was so devastated that Dean sent her to Australia. This caused a rivalry to develop between the Crombies/Cochranes and the Heywoods. Moira was peeved when Barb got a job as the new P.A at hospital instead of her and quit in anger. Dean decided to move the family to Australia to be closer to Erin, but Blake was sent to another relative when he revealed that he had fallen for Erin and couldn't stand to be around his stepsister any longer because of his feelings for her.

Matt (Roy Snow) became attracted to newcomer (and fellow nurse) Toni Thompson (Laura Hill) and the two quickly became lovers. However Toni was hesitant to commit to Matt and the two settled on just being friends for the time being. Toni moved in with Donna and supported her when Rangi went missing.

It seemed that Chris had some sort of plan to change Shortland Street forever; it was soon revealed that he had sold Shortland Street to the Government, and that Shortland Street was to transform into a public hospital. The revamp turned the clinic into a fully fledged hospital and several departments considered to be no further use were closed. Patricia Hewitt (Maureen Edwards) quickly took over as the new Hospital's CEO as Chris wanted to concentrate on surgery. Kate's old friend Judy Brownlee (Donogh Rees) was hired to retrain all of the nurses.

Kate had a mental breakdown and confessed her crime to the police. However, the police didn't believe her so Kate attempted to kill herself on the cliff where Eamon died. Fortunately Al Dubrovsky and Tamsin Yates saved Kate. Kate eventually decided to leave Ferndale and Victor behind and Judy took over her job as head nurse. Al, who had been fired from Shortland Street for performing an unauthorised operation, also left Ferndale. On the plane he was reunited with Tamsin.

Victor's sister Te Hana Hudson (Vanessa Rare) and her family (husband Joe (Rawiri Paratene), daughter Mihi (Quantrelle Kingi) and son Tama (David Wikaira-Paul)) moved to Ferndale when Te Hana got a job as a nurse at the hospital. Victor often clashed with Joe because he thought that Te Hana could do better than Joe, while Mihi and Tama quickly became friends with Marshall. Mihi also befriended Shannon Te Ngaru (Amber Curreen) who quickly became a regular visitor to the Hudson household.

After several weeks, Rangi's body was found. He was dead. Donna was stunned to learn that he had been having an affair and that his death was considered suicide. Terry Munro, the mother of Rangi's daughter Tasha urged Donna to prove that Rangi had been murdered so that his children, Toka (his son from a relationship with Wai Farrell (Midge Murray)), and Tasha would be able to receive his life insurance. Rachel and Toni helped Donna investigate and Donna soon learned that it was Kim Tairoa, the husband of Rangi's mistress, Kim (Emily Mowbray) who had murdered him. The case was solved, but Donna still felt bitter over the loss and ended up sleeping with Victor who was still devastated by Kate's departure.

Rachel broke up with Adam when she realised that the relationship wasn't going anywhere. Chris got involved with his former school friend Samara Hindmarsh and the two made plans to marry when his divorce from Alison was finalised. Samara and Rachel took an instant dislike to one another and Rachel became determined to get rid of her. Rachel eventually exposed Samara as a fraud with the arrival of the real Samara's parents on the eve of the wedding who said 'this is not our daughter'. Faux Samara had killed the real Samara and assumed her identity. Chris was devastated and blamed Rachel. Barb told Chris off and revealed to Chris that it was obvious that Rachel had developed feelings for him and that he was the only one who couldn't see it! Chris began to reevaluate his feelings for Rachel, but by this time she was involved in a relationship with Jack Hewitt (Manu Bennett), Patricia's son. Unbeknownst to Rachel, Jack suffered from Bipolar Disorder.

Matt and Toni's friendship suffered during a nurses strike. Matt turned against Toni when she turned scab and crossed the picket lines to work. Chris was impressed by Toni's actions and the two began a raunchy sexual affair. Adam, who had moved in with Chris soon discovered the affair. When Chris and Toni broke up, Toni began sleeping with Adam instead. However Adam dumped Toni when he realised that he wanted Waverley instead. Toni was devastated and slept with Matt again. Toni then learned that she pregnant, but who was the father: Chris, Adam or Matt? Matt was quickly ruled out when Toni learned how far along she was in the pregnancy. However Toni still didn't know if her baby was Adam's or Chris'!

Judy became involved with a cop and was devastated when she learned that he had been killed. Patricia, who was in desperate need of a heart transplant, received his heart.

The staff at Shortland Street began hanging out at the Dogs Day Inn when the Buzz Bar was closed down. Te Hana soon developed an attraction for Geoff Greenlaw, the pub's owner. Unfortunately Mihi also developed a crush on Geoff. When Mihi caught Te Hana and Geoff kissing, she was devastated. Meanwhile, Geoff's adoptive sister Anne began working at Shortland Street as a nurse. Anne quickly developed feelings for Victor, but he was still involved in a relationship with Mere Johnson (Carolyn McLaughlin).

Jack grew jealous of Chris and Rachel's friendship and tried to make Chris look bad by exposing his prior drug addiction (see 1994). Rachel eventually learned that it was Jack who was badmouthing Chris and dumped him, but by this time Jack had gone off his medication and was growing increasingly unstable. Patricia, who was still recovering from her heart transplant, sought to protect Jack by making Victor temporary CEO of Shortland Street rather than Chris, but her actions only served to make things worse. At the end of the year, Jack kidnapped Rachel.

Nick finally admitted his feelings to Waverley, but it was already too late, she was with Adam. Nick was offered a job in London and gave Waverley an ultimatum: She either dump Adam and reunite with him or he would take the job and move away forever! Waverley was torn.

Marshall began using P and quickly became a drug addict. He ended up amassing huge debts and decided to pay them off by becoming a drug dealer and manufacturing his own P in the Heywood's basement. Unfortunately Barb decided to throw an 18th birthday from Marshall and invited most of the Clinic's staff to the party. Marshall had left a bunsen burner on and was unable to get to it. As a result, the house blew up while everyone was still inside!

Cast Members

All Year Cast Members

Recurring Cast Members

Arrivals

Returning Cast Member

Departures

Guest Stars


Preceded by:
2000		 Storylines of Shortland Street
2001		 Followed by:
2002
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