Brooke Freeman
| Dr. Brooke Freeman | |||||||||||
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| Shortland Street character | |||||||||||
| File:Brooke-cocktail-e4.jpg | |||||||||||
| Portrayed by | Beth Allen | ||||||||||
| Duration | 2008 - present | ||||||||||
| First appearance | 24 July 2008 episode 4035 | ||||||||||
| Introduced by | Jason Daniel | ||||||||||
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Brooke Freeman (born Brooke Marsden) is a fictional character in the New Zealand soap opera Shortland street. She is portrayed by Beth Allen. Since debuting in mid 2008, Brooke has generated the image of being a man eater and manipulator. Brooke has been referred to as Shortland Streets answer to Bonnie Parker on two separate occasions, the first when she dated the dodgy Kieran Mitchell in 2009 and currently for her relationship with bad boy Isaac Worthington.[1]
Storylines
Backstory
Brooke was the daughter of successful business man Grant Marsden but when she was teenager her father was done for insider trading and escaped leaving Brooke and her mother Annette with a lot of hatred towards him and no money. Her and her mother started a new life and changed their surnames to Freeman. It was revealed that when she was 20, she had an abortion while at medical school. Sometime before landing a job at Shortland Street, Brooke met, got taught and started dating Ethan Pierce, who was her domestic partner for eight years.
2008
Brooke arrived at Shortland Street in July 2008. She instantly attracted a lot of male attention including that of local playboy Kip Denton and recent widower Chris Warner. Soon after Brooke arrived, the new surgeon arrived too. His name was Ethan Pierce. None noticed, but Ethan and Brooke obviously knew each other previously. Chris caught onto this and Brooke dismissed it saying he used to teach her. Tania Jeffries and Tracey Morrison instantly dislike Brooke as they thought she was playing games with Kip and Chris. Ethan convinced Brooke to date Chris so he could have a higher chance of becoming Head of Surgery. Chris and Brooke's relationship went far and Brooke was getting used to being rich again. The Ferndale newspaper published an article about Brooke, it revealed that Brooke's real name was Marsden and that her father, Grant scammed millions of dollars off people. She changed her name to Freeman to get away from this but still people got angry at her after the paper was released. Chris' son Harry Warner instantly took a dislike to Brooke too. They two would often bicker and fight and Brooke lied to Chris to get Harry in trouble. Eventually, Chris had enough and broke up with Brooke. Another person who took a dislike to Brooke was TK Samuels, he did not appreciate her methods and did not believe she was a real doctor. Ethan and Brooke's romance stopped during Brooke's relationship with Chris even though Ethan's plan had worked and he landed HOD of surgery. But Ethan started dating party girl Alice Piper and secretly recorded having sex with her and uploaded it to the internet like he did often with Brooke. Brooke tried desperately to get him back but never won. She even had a catfight with Alice and revealed the truth about Ethan recording her. On Ethan Pierce's last day alive, Brooke pleaded with him to take her with him as he was leaving the country. He reluctantly agreed but as she tried to get in his car, he sped away. Brooke hastily went to Ethan's seaside house to find blood all over the ground. She heard a noise but ignored it and ran outside. She discovered Ethan crawling to the sea. Ethan Pierce died in Brooke's hands on 19 December 2008.
2009
Brooke instantly became a lead suspect in the killing and many of her workmates believed so too. In April 2009, Alice watched as Brooke was arrested for the killing. She was later released and local nurse Maia Jeffries was discovered to be the killer. Brooke briefly hated Maia for this reason but her hate towards her ended.
While Brooke was in custody for Ethan's murder, Brooke's father Grant Marsden (Alan Lovell) arrived for her support. Brooke was still incredibly angry at him for running away from her. To pay him back, she enlisted the help of local IV owner Kieran Mitchell. They pretended that Grant needed a serious heart treatment. They staged a surgery and accepted his money. Kieran was romantically linked at the time but the two drifted apart and Hunter tried to gain Brooke's attention but failed.
Halfway through 2009, Brooke was promoted to HOD to TK's shock. Brooke, annoyed at TK constantly pestering her, got him moved to ED. But Brooke could not balance time between being HOD and working at a plastic surgery facility she owned called Dumont Clinic. She asked Sarah Potts to cover her. The two became good friends until Sarah found out Brooke was skipping Shortland Street to work at Dumont. She refused to help Brooke any more. Shanti Kumari's mother Shobna came to Brooke asking for breast lift surgery. Brooke accepted and eagerly took Shobna's payment of four thousand dollars. Unfortunately, Dumont shut down just before the surgery, leaving Shobna four thousand dollars poorer.
While Brooke was getting accused of skipping Shortland Street to work at Dumont, she would often flirt with Callum McKay the CEO to get out of things. Brooke, desperate for money, started a relationship with Callum much to everyone's disgust. Eventually Brooke started actually loving Callum. But in July 2009, Callum's apparently dead wife Justine Jones returned to testify against John Grainger and the dodgy pharmaceutical company Scott Spear. It appears she was in Witness protection. Callum told Brooke it was over, but Brooke knew he loved her too. She went to the safe house that Justine was staying at and put the whole family at risk. She forced Callum to drive with her to the trial. Unbeknownst to everyone, local hitman Don Lennox had been hired to kill Justine. He was hiding in the bushes outside the court. When Callum emerged from the car with Brooke, Don mistook her for Justine and shot her in the abdomen. Brooke fell to the ground and Callum realised he really did love Brooke. Justine realised this too and left to Australia without Callum. Brooke survived the shooting and was currently giving Callums daughter Sophie tips on Kieran. However on the day of her birthday, Sophie and Kieran attended (Though they were not invited) and announce that she (Brooke) had knew about her and Kieran becoming close with one another, causing Callum to become firmly disappointed with Brooke. They spend some time apart but eventually made up.
As the weeks go by, Brooke attended a conference held in Australia, while Hunter tried to make Callum believe that she was going to have an affair behind his back. Though when she returns, she finds Callum having an evening dinner with Rachel, who was sent as the DHB's supervisor for Callum, at the IV. Believing him to be on a date, she walks out of the IV with Callum following her trail and missing the announcement of Sophie and Kieran's plans to marry, though Hunter finds out from Rachel later on. The next day, Brooke attends a meeting between her, Sarah and Rachel, who demotes her from her position as the HOD of the PCC and gives Sarah the opportunity to take that position. Feeling sour and betrayed, she goes to Callum for some support but he tells her that the fact that she had been spending more time at the Dumont Clinic and leaving most of her work behind at the Shortland Street Hospital for Sarah to deal with, the decision had to be finalized. Brooke becomes upset of this outcome: She is no longer the HOD of the PCC and has broken up with Callum. Now Brooke has decided to change her selfish and manipulative self to a good and understanding person. She had connected with a girl name Polly and played Netball with her and attended a dinner event at Sarah and TK's home, with her behaviour controlled as Maxwell showed his disapproval of her and she heavily despises Kieran.
Brooke decided to kick Maxwell out of her apartment but he went to Callum, who decided that Maxwell should have the apartment to himself and Maxwell kicks Brooke out. Brooke became very sad and stayed home at night crying. TK came as he thought Maxwell was leaving and he comforted Brooke. Brooke realized that TK was the man she wanted. The next day, Sarah kindly let Brooke stay at her and TK's house. Brooke's affections for TK grew and she was disappointed as TK and Sarah seemed to be getting even closer together. TK was still disappointed that he and Sarah could never have kids and he was taking this out on other children. Brooke told Sarah this, who asked TK which resulted in another argument. Brooke was happy as her target was getting closer to her.
2010
Now she has slept with TK, after his marriage with Sarah failed completely and she had moved on with Maxwell and successfully becomes even more close with him. However, TK revealed to Brooke that he never loved her at all, but Brooke does not give up. On March 5, TK decided to give a relationship with Brooke a chance. Brooke managed to manipulate TK into loving her by being nice and giving food to homeless people which backfired but she still managed to get TK to continue their relationship. In April, the PCC was announced to be closing, Sarah and Brooke decided to buy it out, but Brooke did not have the funds so Sarah asked TK. TK agreed and Sarah and him became business partners. Brooke, scared that they would get back together ran to her and TK's room and pricked holes in his condoms, hoping that a baby will secure their future. Brooke then announced to Sarah she was no longer interested in working there and went to Callum for a job and eventually received a job in the medical ward. Brooke rushed out on a patient with a oral disease and Nicole reported her, she told Callum in front of a full triage that she thought she was pregnant. This shocked TK and upset him. But the test turns out "Negative". On Wednesday 19th May 2010, TK breaks up with Brooke, leaving her heartbroken and devastated. Later Brooke learnt that Loren was pregnant and supported her decision to get the baby terminated as Brooke had a termination when she was 20. Daniel also told her that he snuck condoms from TKs drawer and Brooke realised that her poking holes in TKs condoms caused Lorens pregnancy. After severe low self esteem from her break up with TK, Brooke started an absurd friendship with asexual Gerald Tippett.
In June 2010, Brookes raging alcoholic mother Annette Freeman arrived in Ferndale much to Brookes horror. Brooke agreed to put her in rehab but was shocked to find her mother constantly drinking at The IV and annoyed at her many attempts to try to get her and TK back together. Annette became fixated with TK and even moved in with him. Brooke got extremely embarrassed by Annette at a fundraiser when she told Brooke she wished she had never been born. On 7 July, Brooke caught Annette sleeping with DHB high flier William Nungent. As July progressed new nurse Wendy Cooper noticed something was wrong with Brooke and Brooke started suffering intense pains. She went to the doctor and it was discovered she had cysts on her ovaries but later, she survives and thanks Wendy.