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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. A seductive, highly intelligent criminal mastermind, she he is the long standing nemesis of Detective Goren, similar to Kelly Nieman and Jerry Tyson from Castle.
She is portrayed by Olivia d'Abo.
History
She was born in Australi. It is never confirmed, but strongly implied, that her father molested her as a child. Goren at one point theorized that the trauma bred in her an intense hatred of both men and women, and an all-consuming need to manipulate and destroy anyone who got close to her.
As a young woman, she visited Thailand and met a con artist named Bernard Fremont. 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. They killed eight people before they were caught. Bernard was sentenced to life in jail, but Nicole 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 the child's neck and buried her body in the iron-rich soils of Australian wetlands (which later prevented DNA evidence from proving it was her child). she told people her child 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 literature 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 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 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, however, her apartment was empty, and Nicole was gone.
Zoonatic and Person of Interest
She eventually met a wealthy man named Gavin Haynes while on the run, and seduced and married him. Nicole was thus safe from extradition since she became an American citizen upon her marriage. She still resented Goren, however, and decided to discredit and ruin him. To this end, she slept 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, setting in motion 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 went on a thieving spree with an accomplice, who was murdered with succinylcholine. Goren and Eames began tracking her down, believing that she killed her accomplice for his share of the profits. The investigation led Goren and Eames to a description matching Nicole, and they realized she had resurfaced. Nicole orchestrated Ella's crimes and even sent her to kill Gavin, as he knew about Hannah's death and might use this to scare Ella away from Nicole. they do exactly that, convincing Ella to wear a wire to get Nicole to say something incriminating. However, Nicole realized she was being set up and killed Ella before leaping out the window to her apparent death. Goren believed that Nicole had faked her death, however.
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, however, 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 Nicole 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.
Slither
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.
Frame
When Goren's brother Frank was murdered via drug overdose, Goren immediately suspected Nicole. She sent flowers to the hospital and Goren's desk before disappearing. After Goren and Eames followed several cryptic messages, the discovered a box containing a human heart, which they believe to be another one of Nicole's victims. However, the medical examiner confirmed that the heart was in fact Wallace's. Goren eventually found out that she was murdered by Nicole and Frank were both murdered by his mentor Dr. Declan Gage, who was trying to "free" Goren from the baggage of his past. According to Gage, Nicole's last words were "Tell Bobby he was the only man I ever loved."
Victims
Directly
- Hannah 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
Gallery
