Storylines of Shortland Street (2009)

This article details the storylines of the TVNZ soap opera Shortland Street in 2009.

Highlights of the Year

• Maia confesses to Alice that she murdered Ethan. Maia has remained out of prison. However, her mental health has become unstable. So far Yvonne, Alice, Tania and Libby know about the murder.
• Tania Jeffries and Kingi Te Wake survive being kidnapped. Tania hits Kane with a hammer and Kingi narrowly survives getting buried alive. Soon after Kingi leaves New Zealand.
• Gerald and Morgan marry, with Libby as bridesmaid and Chris as bestman.
• Kip and Alice go to Raratonga for a holiday but decide to stay there to live.
• Maia is sent to a mental institution where she hallucinates Ethan for a solid 2 weeks.
• Justine returns to New Zealand to testify against John Grainger and the dodgy pharmaceutical company Scott Spear, Don Lennox shoots Brooke, accidentally mistaking her for Justine. Brooke is then brought into ED but she survives. After Justine gave evidence, she broke up with Callum as he is now in love with Brooke.
• New doctor, Oliver Ritchie accidentally infects nurse Shanti Kumari with dengue fever in an off screen event and he briefly manages to cure her. The dengue fever masked the symptoms Shanti's ectopic pregnancy.
• Shanti dies from an ectopic pregnancy masked by dengue fever.
• Oliver has a romantic week with Libby, although he then infects her with dengue fever in order to find out if she can survive the dengue virus that killed Shanti. Later on, Libby finds Oliver's dengue fever research up in the attic before Oliver catches her and confessed that he infected her with dengue fever by revealing to her that she is the experiment. Scotty and Chris rescue her and the hospital learn that it was Oliver who infected Shanti with dengue fever.
• Sean rushes to the IV on the final episode to burn it down, he does not realise Sophie is in her and Kierans room hungover.
• Kieran follows Sean in Rachel's car and accidentally kills Morgan. He escapes the scene and makes it out that Rachel hit her, though he is starting to feel guilty about what happened.

Storylines by month

January

• Ethan dies in Brooke Freeman's arms, after being shot by a mystery killer.
• Tania and Kingi survive thanks to a White Tails gang member named Tupac, who reforms thanks to Kingi's influence.
• Sarah Potts becomes Acting C.E.O after Callum is dismissed due to the Nesses Bio scandal.
• Morgan Braithwaite discovers she is pregnant and breaks up with Hunter.
• On 29 January, Maia confesses to Alice Piper that she killed Ethan.
• Sarah terminates her pregnancy because she finds out the baby will be born with Edwards syndrome.
• Kieran is arrested for the alleged murder of Betty Crawford.

T.V Guide Leak

• The T.V Guide released on 29 January revealed that Popular Nurse Maia Jeffries was indeed Ethan Pierce's killer but was under a mental breakdown. The reveal was set for the upcoming episode on that day.

February

• Brooke is placed under arrest for the murder of Ethan Peirce.
• Kieran gets arrested but cleared of all charges and he starts to get attracted to Brooke.
• Shanti and Tracey find out that Morgan is pregnant and start gossiping to everyone about it.
• Tane returns and starts training for nursing at Shortland street after Scotty gives him a nursing job there.
• Tracey overhears Alice and Maia talking about Ethan's death.
• Morgan is pregnant with triplets.

March

• After deciding Trent and Cindy are unfit parents seeing as they want to abort one of the triplets. Morgan decides to keep all 3 herself.
• A new surgeon called Gabrielle Jacobs who has Asperger syndrome becomes HOD of surgery.
• Sarah's son Daniel returns.
• Trent and Morgan realise they are attracted to each other.

April

• TK is repositioned to ED.
• Sophie walks in on Daniel insulting her to TK. Daniel eventually realizes he likes Sophie.
• Brooke is held hostage by a mentally unstable patient.
• Hunter falls for Brooke.

May

• Gerald and Morgan marry in a small ceremony.
• Tai gets arrested and Scotty blames himself.
• Maia is sent to a mental institution, she starts to hallucinate Ethan Pierce telling her to confess.
• Hunter crashes an ambulance but comes out ok.
• Callum and Brooke share a kiss.

June

• Morgan delivers the triplets but she decides she wants the real parents to have them, Gerald disagrees and starts to realise he doesn't enjoy Morgan's company.
• While in the mental institution, Maia confesses to Ethan's ghost that she is sorry for killing him and he vanishes.
• Maia admits to the police that she killed Ethan.
• Chris gives a Jehovah's Witness patient blood. Gabrielle and Callum disagree with this and he is fired and eventually rehired.
• Brooke and Callum begin an affair.
• Kip accepts a job in Rarotonga and persuades Alice to stay with him.
• Maia Jeffries had a trial on June 22 and declared not guilty due to insanity.
• A new nurse called Aroha stirs up trouble and Kip's replacement Dr. Maxwell Avia causes the nurses to take a stand against his arrogance.

July

• Maia is reappointed charge nurse.
• Sophie tells Kieran that Justine Jones is still alive.
• Yvonne is held as a hostage in a bank robbery.
• Justine returns.
• Brooke Freeman is shot by Don Lennox, who accidentally mistook her for Justine.
• Justine leaves after seeing Callum is in love with Brooke.
• Scotty and Shanti run out of money, yet decide to have a family.
• Daniel's friend Ryan dies, Daniel is informed of this while he is at a race in boot camp.

August

• Libby is knocked unconscious and nearly burns Chris' house down, though she is saved by Gabrielle.
• Ben and Tania start a relationship.
• Sophie dumps Daniel for Kieran, leaving him unhappy, though he is still suspicious that she is having an affair.
• Daniel catches Kieran and Sophie kissing.

September

• Chris's house gets refurbished.
• Sophie and Kieran admit their relationship to an angry Callum.
• Chris comes back from Venice, and chooses Gabrielle over Libby.
• While Kieran is away, Sophie and her friend have a night partying in the IV which eventually leads to Sophie friend getting alcohol poisioning.
• Kieran and Scotty's sister Rebecca start up a small brothel.

October

• Daniel returns to Samoa, but later returns after the 2009 Tsunami.
• Brooke tries to publicly humiliate Maxwell, but it fails and her and Callum take a break from their relationship.
• It is revealed that Nicole is Morgans sister.
• Lucy, Sophie's friend gets hired for Kieran's brothel.
• Shanti is having fevers, Oliver tries to help, but then she discovers she's pregnant
• Shanti dies from ectopic pregnancy.
• Ben breaks up with Tania as he realizes that he is actually in love with Yvonne.
• Rachel McKenna returns as an advisor for the hospital. She then admits to Chris that she actually returned to get back with him.
• Scotty decides to try to find out more about his family and maori culture as he feels Shanti would have wanted it like that.
• Later on, it is revealed that Shanti actually had dengue fever, which masked the symptoms of her ectopic pregnancy that lead to her death.
• Libby and Gerald buy their dream house and rent a room out to Oliver, who took a romantic interest in Libby, who is revealed to look like his deceased girlfriend, Tamara, who died of dengue fever.

November

• On the first night of Oliver's romantic week with Libby, he infects her with dengue fever in order to find out if she can survive the dengue virus that masked ectopic pregnancy that lead to Shanti's death,
• Sophie and Kieran hosted their engagement party, which took a sour turn as Callum confronted Kieran about his involvement in the escort agency business. Callum told Sophie that if she chose him over her family, he will have nothing to do with her.
• Sean Mitchell makes his debut in Fernadale as Kieran's long lost younger brother, he announces that he is Sid Mitchell, the true owner of the IV.
• Libby is trapped inside the flat, while being terribly sick by Oliver. Later on, she discovers his dengue fever research in the attic before Oliver catches her and confesses to her that he infected her with dengue fever by revealing to her that she is the experiment. When Yvonne gets a distressing call from Libby. Chris and Scotty then "break in" and he(Scotty) finds out that Oliver infected Shanti with the dengue fever before he(Oliver) reveals that he only did it by accident. But Scotty was unable to hold his anger and begins to take is deep frustrations out on Oliver by thinking that he murdered his wife and beats him to a pulp while Chris tries to stop him.
• Maxwell and Tracey have broken up for good. As too have Callum and Brooke, although Sophie is still in love with Kieran.
• Libby is rushed to the hospital where the staff learn that it was Oliver who infected Shanti with dengue fever. Later, Libby survives her illness when she hears that her test result turns "Negative". Now she is out of the hospital and returns to the Jefferies household, though she is still shaken from the event and still thinks that Oliver tried to kill her. However, she manages to get over this, although Oliver is not mentioned again.
• Tania had intended to get back with Ben, but firmly he told her that they are better off as friends, nothing more. She is saddened by the thought but realizes that she had to let him go. Ben and Yvonne meanwhile start a secret relationship.
• Sean becomes fliratiously attracted to Morgan who refuses to rush into a relationship with him quickly but in truth, she does like him.
• Nicole has recently found out the actual truth of Maia's past and refuses to talk with her even more.
• Ben discusses his plans to holiday in Australia and advises that Yvonne come with him, but she refuses as she does not want to hurt Tania but quickly she realizes that her feelings for Ben have grown deeper and eventually agrees to it.

December

• Tupac is arrested after taking the fall when Sean gives one of Kieran and Rebecca's escort agency prostitutes dodgy drugs.
• On 7 December, it is revealed that Oliver Ritchie is imprisoned when Gerald returns from his holiday.
• After a thief breaks into several cars in the hospital carpark, Gerald is tasked with reviewing the security footage, and discovers a video of Yvonne kissing Ben.
• Sarah decides to break up her marriage with TK, citing that she wants him to have a family.
• Former whitetail gang member and hitman, Don Lennox, who had killed Craig Valentine and nearly killed Justine Jones and Brooke Freeman, is bought into hospital critically injured after a gunshot to the chest. Chris attempts to operate on him, but Lennox dies from blood loss.
• Yvonne finally tells the truth about her closeness with Ben to Tania but she did not take it very well.
• Sarah and Maxwell start a casual relationship
• Scotty's sister Rebecca has given up working in a Brothel and is now working at the Ministry of Women's Affairs
• Morgan accidentally gets killed by Kieran speeding in a car, he has Rachel in the car who is passed out drunk, Kieran drags Rachel into the drivers seat and leaves the car.
• The 2009 season ends.

Characters

New Characters

• Bill Lamont - Detective in charge of investigating Ethan Pierce's murder. He was briefly seen in 2008 investigating the bone harvesting.
• Gabrielle Jacobs - New H.O.D. of surgery following Ethan's death. She has Asperger's Syndrome and was now in a relationship with Chris Warner.
• Tai Scott - Scotty's brother and ex-criminal.
• Maxwell Avia - New H.O.D. of ED following Kip Denton's departure and cousin of former character, Vinnie. Has a gambling addiction and he is now in a relationship with Sarah Potts.
• Aroha Reed - Nurse with musical aspirations.
• Ben Goodall - Paramedic. Replaced Grunter after the ambulance crash. Dated Tania Jeffries, although it was later revealed that he actually has crush on Yvonne Jefferies.
• Oliver Ritchie - Psychotic doctor who uses illegal dengue experiments on unsuspecting human subjects in order to find a cure for dengue fever, which masked the symptoms of Shanti's ectopic pregnancy that lead to her death. Left in November.
• Nicole Miller - New bisexual nurse, and Morgan's half-sister.
• Sean (Sid) Mitchell - Kieran's younger brother, posing as their deceased brother Sid, the true owner of the IV.

Departures

• Kingi Te Wake - Used to be a whitetail gang member but was actually an undercover police informant. Leaves to study law in Australia.
• Xavier Moyo - Returns to Zimbabwe.
• Alice Piper - Stays in Rarotonga with Kip.
• Kip Denton - Stays in Rarotonga with Alice.
• Shanti Kumari-Scott - Died after an ectopic pregnancy when Oliver Ritchie accidentally infected her with dengue fever before it masked the symptoms of her death.
• Tupac Evans - Arrested while he was taking the rap for Sean Mitchell who gave one of the escort agency prostitutes dodgy drugs.
• Don Lennox - Local hitman who died during emergency surgery from gunshot wound.
• Morgan Braithwaite - Kieran Mitchell accidentally ran her over in the last episode of the decade.

Returned Characters

• Ethan Pierce - Guest Appearance, Officially Departed in 2008. Returned in Maia's hallucinations in May.
• Ingrid Campbell - Acting H.O.D. Left after Gabrielle Jacobs was appointed.
• Tane Samuels - Trainee Nurse, first nurse at Shortland Street in a wheelchair.
• Daniel Potts - Sarah's son who returned from Samoa.
• Justine Jones - Returned for a week to testify against John Grainger and the dodgy pharmaceutical company Scott Spear.
• Don Lennox - Returned to assassinate Justine and returned again several months later after suffering a gunshot.
• Rachel McKenna - Apparently returned to advise Callum about the hospital, but actually returned to try to get back with Chris.

See also

Preceded by: 2008

Storylines of Shortland Street 2009

Followed by: 2010