Julia McNamara
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| Julia McNamara | |
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| First appearance | Pilot (episode 1.01) |
| Created by | Ryan Murphy |
| Portrayed by | Joely Richardson |
| Information | |
| Gender | Female |
| Age | 43 |
| Spouse(s) | Sean McNamara (divorced; first time) Sean McNamara (divorced; second time) |
| Children | Matt McNamara (son, with Christian) Annie McNamara (daughter, with Sean) Conor McNamara (son, with Sean) |
| Relatives | Erica Noughton (mother), Jenna McNamara (granddaughter, via Matt) |
Julia McNamara (née Noughton) is a fictional character in the American television series Nip/Tuck. She is Sean's troubled ex-wife and is played by Joely Richardson.
[edit] Character history
Julia was Sean McNamara's wife of 17 years, the couple have divorced, for the last time, in season four. She has three children: Matt, Annie and Conor.
When the show begins, she is beginning to doubt her relationship with Sean, and throughout the course of the first season she considers (and attempts) several affairs, including one with Christian Troy (which is thwarted when Julia arrives at his apartment only to find Christian already sleeping with twins) and a college student several years her junior. The pilot episode makes clear her troubled emotional state when she first flushes her daughter's still-living gerbil down the toilet (resulting in her being booted from the PTA) and allows Christian to "examine" her bare breasts in her living room when she tells him she is considering plastic surgery.
In season two, we meet Julia's mother, Erica Noughton, who degrades Julia and makes her feel worthless for not becoming a doctor. Their already dysfunctional relationship worsened when Erica and Christian sleep together. Julia's inability to make permanent decisions becomes a motif through the course of the series: she spends most of the first and second seasons wishing she had married Christian. An episode in season two showing how her life would've been different reveals that if she were married to Christian, she would've spent the course of their marriage wishing she'd married Sean, a revelation which is followed up by Julia considering lesbianism.
In the second season, she reveals to Christian that he is in fact Matt's biological father, having impregnated her during a one-night stand in college, when she was engaged to Sean. This revelation finally destroyed Sean and Julia's tenuous marriage.
In the third season, Julia and Gina Russo, Christian's ex-lover, open up a spa called "De La Mer" together. They eventually get more customers when they make a new face mask (the key ingredient of which is semen) that is endorsed by Joan Rivers. Later Julia briefly enters into a relationship with Quentin Costa, who later comes to work at De La Mer. Quentin then withdraws from Julia and even cheats on her with a male patient (while employed at McNamara/Troy). Julia's mother briefly visits De La Mer, and she and Julia get in a fight. Julia tells her to leave and that she never wants to see her again. The flight Erica was supposed to be on crashes. Sean and Julia, and later Christian and Liz, all go to try and help the victims, hoping to find Erica. Christian later tells Julia he found Erica. Julia talks to the severely burned woman who she believes to be her mother, eventually coming to the revelation that she doesn't need her anymore, but all of sudden the body starts breathing again. Julia then smothers her with a pillow to either end her suffering or to kill her. Julia then returns to work where she fires Quentin. Later that day she goes home to see that Erica is alive and well and had been waiting for her the whole time. Erica says "Oh Sweetheart, I've been waiting for you all night! I couldn't leave the way things are between us. Oh, Did you hear the news? That earlier flight you wanted me on crashed!" Later Julia finds out she is pregnant and tells Sean. Sean tells Christian about it and they think Quentin is the father. However, Quentin tells Christian that he never slept with Julia. Julia later tells Sean that he is the father (they had a brief sexual encounter in an episode early in the season). Later after a dream leads her to believe that there is something wrong with her baby, Julia takes a test to verify whether or not the baby is deformed. Julia (knowing the results of the test) gets back together with Sean with a look of fright in her eyes as she embraces him[1].
It is later revealed that the new baby Conor suffers from ectrodactyly, a congenital malformation of the hands[2]. The baby was born on episode 4x03. Julia had an affair with the nanny, Marlowe Sawyer, whom she planned to leave with Annie and Conor to go to Florence, Italy. Julia decided to leave, but not for Italy and not with Marlowe. She is taking Annie and Conor to New York City with her, leaving Sean, Christian and her old life behind[3]. In a recent conversation, it was revealed Julia is currently staying with her mother Erica[4].
Julia makes a trip out to Los Angeles to see Christian and Sean's new practice. She reveals that she is exploring her sexuality and dating a woman named Olivia Lord, played by Portia de Rossi.[5] This relationship soon begins to crumble down because of Liz's attraction to Olivia[6] and after being attacked while shopping for sex toys, Julia reaches the breaking point and sleeps with Christian.[7] The affair continues until Christian's actions break down the relationship. While Julia is having the affair with Christian, Eden acts nice to Julia with true intentions to kill her by poisoning her food with mercury. After a period of time and with Olivia's help, Julia learns that the cause of her illness is mercury poisoning; she sends the last piece of fruit cake to be tested and is shocked to discover that it had an 80% concentration of mercury. After confronting Eden, she surprisingly surrenders and walks into Julia's bedroom. She returns to Julia with a gun saying that "Mercury takes too damn long." And the episode ends with Julia screaming as Eden pulls the trigger.
In the season 5 finale, Julia is in the hospital after Eden shot her in the head. However, Eden tells an extremely different story; saying that Julia was psychotically depressed due to her degrading physical and mental health, and that Julia shot herself. Sean knew better and initially questioned Eden however the police and Olivia stop him from pursuing this because they believe Eden to have been traumatized. Julia remains comatose for a short while, with her family closely watching her. When she awakens she suffers from retrograde amnesia and can't remember anything from before the shooting. During a meeting with Sean he misinforms her that they are still married, and that they have never been happier as a couple and a family.
[edit] References
- ^ Nip/Tuck Episode 3x15
- ^ Nip/Tuck Episode 4x01
- ^ Nip/Tuck Episode 4x11
- ^ Nip/Tuck Episode 4x13
- ^ Nip/Tuck Episode 5x01
- ^ Nip/Tuck Episode 5x06
- ^ Nip/Tuck Episode 5x07
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