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She serves as the overall main antagonist in the TV Series ‘Luther’ and the archenemy to the protagonist, John Luther. She serves as the central antagonist in Series 1, a supporting antagonist in Series 2, a supporting character in Series 3, the unseen overarching antagonist in Series 4 and the final antagonist in Series 5.

Background[]

Alice is the daughter of Donald and Laura Morgan. She was a child prodigy who enrolled in Oxford University at age 13, where she also mentions in episode one, that she was sexually mature. She received her Ph.D. in Astrophysics at age 18, for her study of dark matter distribution in disc galaxies, which she is surprised to find Luther equally understands, and is what makes her attracted to him.

Alice is equally a genius, psychopath, and malignant narcissist. She states that she felt as though she was a freak growing up, and hated her parents. In S01E01, her parents' murder is investigated by the Serious Crimes Unit. DCI John Luther quickly deduces that it was Alice who killed them, but he is unable to prove it. Alice is proud of the murders - and equally as proud for not getting caught - and views it as a sign of prestige, power and self-affirmation - her joy is further shown in the taxi drive when she is given freedom to leave the police station.

Over the course of the series, Alice becomes a close friend of Luther's and one of the few people he trusts, sometimes acting as his accomplice. Their friendship is strong, despite the fact that Alice's core belief, that nothing ultimately matters, comes into direct conflict with Luther's. Their friendship becomes deeper, when it surprisingly turns into love.

It is a common headcanon that Alice is bisexual, but has not been confirmed.

Involvement[]

Alice first appears in S01E01, in which the murder of her parents is investigated. Luther deduces that Alice was the murderer, but he is unable to prove it. Alice's mother was sleeping, and her father was listening to music at his desk. She shot her mother in the head, then shot her father in the back of the head. Afterwards, she shot the family dog in the face and throat four times, opening up its trachea to the point where she was able to disassemble the pistol and hide it deep within the dog. When the dog was cremated, the gun's plastic frame, and thus its forensic value was destroyed, making it impossible to ever prove Alice's guilt. Luther later finds the remaining metal pieces of the gun in the dog's ashes, which Alice kept in an urn at her apartment, which Luther discards, robbing Alice of her keepsake.

Luther, unable to convict her of the murders, moves on to other cases. However, Alice becomes obsessed with Luther and begins to stalk him. She does not believe love exists, but becomes infatuated with Luther after seeing that despite his wife, Zoe, leaving him and seeing another man, Mark North, Luther remains faithful to her, goes out of his way to protect her, and actively tries to patch things up with her. He has to deal with the worst scum that London has to offer and yet still believes love exists. She makes Luther her "next project" and begins to investigate him. She briefly takes Zoe hostage and later invades her home and interrogates her while Mark is present. She concludes her investigation but continues to involve herself in Luther's life, trying to win his approval.

In S01E04, she murders Henry Madsen, a pedophile and serial killer. Madsen had been pursued by Luther, but had fallen off a walkway when Luther refused to save him. Were Madsen to wake up, his testimonial could not only cost Luther his job, but also possibly reduce Madsen's sentence. When Alice kills Madsen, Luther, again, does not approve, causing her to emotionally shout over the phone "I did this for you!"

At the end of S01E05, it is revealed that Luther's long-time friend and partner, DCI Ian Reed, was in fact corrupt. He knew about a robbery and gave it the go ahead so long as he received a cut. However, the robbery led to a kidnapping that quickly went awry. Luther tried to convince Reed that the two could cover the corruption up, but Reed panicked and shot at Luther. He later visited Zoe and murdered her, framing Luther. When Luther tries to enact his revenge upon Reed, he involves Alice as his accomplice. The two hold up and rob a car driven by DCI Martin Schenk and DS Justin Ripley, stealing a gun stained with Luther's fingerprints. Luther convinces Mark that he did not kill Zoe, and has him steal a bag of diamonds that Reed is hiding in his locker. Upon finding the diamonds missing, Reed panics and follows North; right into Luther's hands. After a brief struggle, Luther is stabbed, but Alice kills Reed with his own sawed-off shotgun.

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Alice attempts to coerce Luther into fleeing the country with her.

In Series Two, Alice has been placed in a mental institution. In S02E01, Luther visits her and the two talk where Luther take a bite out of an apple. Later, while walking outside, Luther wedges a keycard in the apple and throws it over the wall, which Alice finds. In S02E02, Alice has escaped from the institution and visits Luther in his new apartment. She states that she is going to go to Mexico, but that is only the first stop. She tries to convince Luther to come with her, saying that his work with the police is killing him. Luther agrees that it is, and even agrees that running away with Alice would be extraordinarily fun for him. However, he must remain in London and continue working for the police.

She is briefly mentioned in S02E04, when Luther threatens Baba by saying should anything happen to him or Jenny Jones, Alice will kill her.

She returned in the season finale of Series 3 when Luther was wrongly accused of arranging for DS Ripley to be murdered by a vigilante. After freeing him from police custody, she aided Luther in proving his innocence, as well as aiding in the vigilante's capture. She again makes her interest in a relationship with Luther clear. After again evading arrest she met up with Luther, and the episode ended as they debated what to do next.

During her appearance in the finale, she told Luther she had been living in Berlin, and even married, but later killed her husband, Bertrand, stating "I always wanted to be a widow."

Series 4 is centered around her supposed death, an event which draws Luther "back from the brink" to continue working with the police. As Luther investigates her death, we meet George Cornelius who admits to robbing Alice for her diamonds.

Series 5 brings George Cornelius into conflict with Luther, who suspects Luther of aiding Alice with kidnapping his son Alastair. Luther has no clue about the kidnapping until Alice shows up at Luther's door at the end of Series Five: Episode 1. In the cold open to Series Five: Episode 2 we flashback to the diamond deal that George set up to rob Alice that was mentioned in Series 4. Back in the present, we see that Alice is hurt and we see in a flashback that Alice tried to ransom Alastair to George but get shot. DSU Martin Schenk and DS Catherine Halliday show up to discuss the case. Martin hears a creak upstairs and ends up bagging some bloody gauze from the detritus of Luther patching Alice up, but falls short of actually running into her. As soon as the two officers leave, George and his goons enter Luther's house. George sees the gauze and medical supplies in the bed and deduces that Alice was in the house. Georges shoots up at the attic, and we see Alice and Luther escape. Alice takes Luther to where Alastair is being held which happens to be her parent's house where their murders precipitated Alice meeting Luther back in Series One: Episode 1. They discuss their break up, and as Luther drives Alastair back to George, we see flashbacks of their relationship (presumably post-Series Three and pre-Series Four). As Luther drops Alastair off, he offers his house in order to smooth things over. Then, we get more glimpses into their break up where Luther's altruistic urges come to a head with Alice's nihilism as Luther watches a news report disheartened at the lives that could have been saved if he were there. Martin meanwhile had the bloody gauze analyzed and learns that Alice is alive. George ends up rejecting Luther's offer and kidnaps Benny in order to get Alice. Also unhappy with Luther's attempt at compromise with George, Alice walks into George Cornelius's house disguised as an escort and murders Alastair. The series ends with Alice shooting DS Halliday dead after Halliday stopped serial killer Jeremy Lake, Alice being motivated by jealousy for Luther's attention while Luther and Halliday were working together.


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