Later Storylines
With the new cast members in place storylines in 2004, focused on the new characters through several major storylines. During one of the many marital upsets that characterised the Costello household, daughter Chloe retreated upstairs and rifled through older sister Melanie's possessions, finding a stash of MDMA. She took several of the pills which made her ill. Hospital tests revealed the source of the illness, but also suggested she might also have cancer, and further tests were ordered. In the public outpouring of sympathy and support for the family, Chrissie finally found acceptance in the neighbourhood. When tests showed Chloe did not have cancer, Chrissie failed to report this fact, convincing Chloe to maintain a pretence of illness as a "little game". Unfortunately, the lie took hold, leading to many months of Chrissie deceiving the community and her own family, convincing everyone that Chloe was undergoing chemotherapy. When Eileen saw them out shopping when Chloe was purportedly in hospital, and after picking up on other hints, she voiced her suspicion that Chrissie was faking Chloe's illness. Eileen was ostracised by the community for several weeks, with no one believing her. Chrissie's pretence continued several more weeks until a suspicious Tanya removed Chloe's bandages to reveal that there were no injection wounds at all.
Tanya herself was pregnant to her gay best friend and flatmate Sean: as platonic friends with little prospect of parenthood presenting itself, they planned to become parents together and Tanya had undergone in vitro fertilisation. Brendan Boulter would soon become engaged to Melanie Costello and go on to marry her, while conducting an affair with Sean. Denise Boulter had been largely ostracised by her outraged daughter and husband after the truth about her long-ago affair with Caleb came to light. However, they eventually reconciled their differences, although Brendan would leave town to escape his own problems.
Gary and Chrissie's marriage had faltered, leading to their separation, but the family endured its lowest ebb when Chloe Costello was sexually abused by a family friend, Bradley Foster (Harry Capehorn). The Boulter's marriage was again tested when Denise was raped by an unseen assailant. She later accused local taxi driver Graham Harker (Lee Warburton) of the crime, despite a total lack of evidence, and the Boulter family began hounding him, seeking revenge. Graham started a romance with Melanie who became his sole supporter.
Gary and Chrissy Costello eventually reconciled and Gary proposed on Christmas Eve 2004. Melanie had earlier refused to attend their remarriage ceremony due to clashes with her parents over her relationship with Graham; on the day of the ceremony, however, Melanie had learned that their suspicions had been correct and that he was a dangerous rapist. Her absence was actually due to his holding her captive in his flat. Melanie was able to enlist Denise's help escaping from Graham. These events would see him brought to justice however, repercussions from these events would also lead to the Boulter's marriage disintegrating, and Les and Denise both left Charnham.
Meanwhile, at The Black Swan, emerged a recurring villain capable even of rivalling Pete: the psychotic Trish Wallace (Gabrielle Glaister). An unnerved Eileen was being blackmailed by someone who threatened to reveal to Pete that Eileen herself had framed him for arson. Pete in fact knew this already and he and Eileen endured several tumultuous story twists as they schemed and plotted against the other. This culminated in the dramatic 2000th episode in late 2004 where Pete threw Eileen into the River Thames. Pete's eventual comeuppance followed an armed showdown between Pete, Trish and Eileen in September 2005. Pete was shot dead after a shootout with S019 Officers (in a final act of Suicide by cop).
Several other characters, including Sadie, Dave and Lucy, were one by one written out of the series as Alison Davis ended her reign to be replaced by ex-Hollyoaks producer Sean O'Connor. O'Connor quickly outlined his plans for the show, including a name change and many new younger, more glamorous characters. However, his plans were cut short by the announcement soon after his arrival that Channel 5 would not be renewing the series for 2006. This timing resulted in numerous barely known new characters populating the final episodes, making the finale all the more challenging to pull off effectively.
Read more about this topic: Family Affairs