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| “ | I missed you at the reading of the verdict. Then again, it wasn't one of your best moments. | „ |
| ~ Nicole to Goren |
Nicole Wallace, also known as Elizabeth Haynes (nee Hitchens), is a major antagonist in Law & Order: Criminal Intent. She is the long standing nemisis of Detective Goren, similar to Kelly Nieman and Jerry Tyson from Castle.
She is portrayed by Olivia d'Abo
History
Not much is known about her childhood, except for the fact that it wasn't pleasant, as she has gone to extreme lengths to keep people from finding out. She was born in Australia (hence her accent). It is never confirmed, but considered, that her father molested her as a child, given her distaste of males, although she doesn't care much for females either, do to the possibility of her mother being an abusive alcoholic.
In her young adult life, she visited Thailand and met an equally psychopathic man named Bernard. She and Bernard went on a killing spree that targeted male tourists, motivated by money. She seduced the men, stole from them, and sent them outside to be killed by Bernard. The spree killed eight people and Bernard was sentenced to life in jail. She agreed to testify against him and only received a ten-year sentence in jail. After she got out, she moved back to Australia, married a man named Rowan (or Rohan) Barlett and gave birth to a child named Hannah Barlett.
When Hanna was three years old, Nicole began to suspect that Hannah was stealing Rohan's attention from her, so she twisted her arm until it fractured. Upon realizing what she had done, she snapped her neck and buried her body in the iron-rich soils of Australian wetlands (which later prevented DNA evidence from proving it was her child). After killing her first direct victim, she made it sound as if the baby was lost at sea, but police still investigated her. Fearing that she might get caught, she murdered an embezzler named Elizabeth Hitchens and stole her identity to flee to America where she used Hitchens' credentials to become a literary professor at Hudson University. She needed a permanent, salary-generating job to get a work visa, allowing her to stay in America without going to jail for Hitchens' crimes.
In order to ensure her job at HU, she pretended to be gay and seduced a lesbian professor named Christine Fellowes, as she was one of the two people on campus who were qualified for a job opening (The Head Of American Studies) on campus, and would have given her a raise. However, the dean overseeing the raise, Franklin Winthrop, is unsure who to give the raise to. Nicole/Professor Hitchens convinces an impressionable student named Mark Bayley to murder Winthrop (and his secretary when she becomes a witness), beginning the events of the episode Anti-Thesis. After arranging the dean's murder, Christine would get the raise and give her a permanent job in America.
Anti-Thesis
This became Nicole's first encounter with Goren and Eames. Under her Elizabeth Hitchens alias, she was employed as a visiting professor at Hudson University. Nicole hoped that Fellowes would get the position because of the suspicion cast on another candidate through the killer, Mark Bayley. To cover her tracks, she poisons Bayley after talking with Goren. However, her scheme is eventually discovered and her fake identity's embezzlement is exposed, which gives her motive for the murders. As a murder suspect, Nicole could be deported back to Australia because she lacks American citizenship. When Eames and Goren arrived to arrest her, but her apartment is empty, and Nicole/Elizabeth is gone.
Zoonatic and Person of Interest
She eventually meets a man named Gavin Haynes while on the run, seducing and marrying him. Nicole is thus safe from extradition since she becomes an American citizen upon her marriage. She decides to get rid of Goren to allow a jury to sympathize with her in the future, as a victim of an over-zealous detective. To this end, she seduces and sleeps with Doctors Roger Stern and Scott Borman, also stealing two grams of anthrax from Davis' personal collection. She then met a woman named Connie Matson at a bar near a U.S. Air Force base, and slept with her to gain her trust. Nicole then persuaded Connie to get some anthrax vaccine boosters so she could buy them from her, starting the events of Person of Interest.
When Connie managed to get the vaccines, Nicole killed her by hitting her over the head with a dumbbell, stole the vaccines, and framed Dan Croydon, a deadbeat dad whom Nicole knew would remind Goren of his own father. When Goren relentlessly pursued Croydon, she invited herself into Croydon's apartment, had sex with him, and enticed him to write a note expressing his anger at Goren. When he was finished, she killed him and made it look like a suicide. She then left the vaccines and vial of anthrax on a train to Montreal to prove Croydon's innocence and ruin Goren's reputation. Nicole later met Goren in a diner and taunted him. She also introduced him to her new husband, Gavin Haynes. Goren had her arrested on suspicion of stealing the anthrax and tricked her into revealing her true identity. She is then arrested for murder.
Nevertheless, Haynes stood by Nicole and even used his money to finance her successful defense to the murder charge.
Great Barrier
A Japanese girl named Ella goes on a thieving spree with an accomplice, who is murdered with succinylcholine. Goren and Eames begin tracking down Ella, who they believe killed her accomplice for his share of the profits gained during the robbery. The investigation leads Goren and Eames to a description matching Nicole, and they realize she has resurfaced. Nicole has a motherly relationship with Ella. She orchestrates Ella's crimes and even sends her to kill Gavin, as he knew about Hannah's death and might use this to scare Ella away from Nicole. However, Eames and Goren realize this and do exactly that, convincing Ella to use a wire to get Nicole to say something incriminating. However, Nicole realizes its a set-up and kills Ella before faking her own death.
Grow
Nicole re-emerged a year later, now working as a librarian and engaged to Dr. Evan Chapel; however, it is strongly implied that she murdered Evan's brother Larry and made it look like an accidental drug overdose. Goren believed that Nicole was planning to kill Evan's daughter Gwen in order to collect on the girl's trust fund. During the investigation, Goren learned that Evan was in fact trying to kill Gwen, and Nicole was trying to protect the girl, whom she had grown to love Goren confronted Wallace and told her that she would always pose a threat to anyone who got close to her, and implored her to help him protect Gwen. Nicole gave Goren evidence implicating Chapel in the murder of his wife and the attempted murder of his daughter, but insisted that she could be a good mother to Gwen. She then kidnapped the girl, but, in a rare moment of conscience, left her with her aunt in Arizona. She then left a voicemail for Goren admitting that he was right, and cursing him for taking away her last chance at happiness.
Framed
In 2005, Bernard Fremont was arrested for the murder of Russ Corbett. As he was leaving the courthouse after his arraignment, an unidentified woman stabbed him with a syringe, killing him instantly. Though he would never be able to prove it, Goren believed Nicole to be the assailant.
Afterwards, she learns that someone poisoned Goren's brother. Nicole sends flowers to the hospital and Goren's desk before becoming MIA. After Eames an Goren follow several cryptic messages, the discover a box containing a human heart, which they believe to be another one of Nicole's victims until the medical examiner confirms that the heart belongs to Wallace with DNA tests. After ruling out possibilities such as Nicole having a twin, it transpires that she was murdered by Dr. Declan Gage, who cut her heart out after manipulating her to murder Frank Goren, Robert's brother. According to Gage, her last words were "Tell Bobby he was the only man I ever loved."
Gage said he was trying to get rid of the three people who were pulling Goren's life down (Frank, Nicole, and Himself). Doctor Gage is tried for Nicole's murder and sent to jail for life, just as he planned. Goren thought about his initial encounter with Nicole during a therapy session with psychologist Paula Gyson.
Victims
Directly
- Hanna Barlett
- Elizabeth Hitchens
- Mark Bayley
- Connie Matson
- Daniel Croydon
- Zach Thaler
- Ella Miyazaki
- Larry Chapel
- Bernard Fremont
- Frank Goren
Indirect
- Eight Male Tourists: Killed By Bernard Fremont
- Franklin Winthrop: Bludgeoned By Mark Bayley
- Kate Robbins: Bludgeoned By Mark Bayley