Rachel Kinski

Infobox soap character
name = Rachel Kinski
series = Neighbours
portrayer = Caitlin Stasey
first = August 18, 2005
Episode 4789
last = March 2009
cause =
creator =



caption1 = Caitlin Stasey as Rachel Kinski
nickname = Rach
alias =
gender = Female
born = July 20, 1991 [Susan said "Happy birthday" to Rachel on episode 5014, which aired July 20, 2006.]
death =
age = age|1991|7|20
occupation = Year 11 Student at Erinsborough High
title =
residence = 28 Ramsay Street
parents = Alex Kinski (father) (deceased)
Francesca Kinski (mother) (deceased)
Susan Kinski (step-mother)
siblings = Katya Kinski (sister)
Zeke Kinski (brother)
Malcolm Kennedy (step-brother)
Libby Kennedy (step-sister)
Billy Kennedy (step-brother)
Holly Hoyland (step-sister)
spouse =
romances = Stingray Timmins
(2006-2007)
Ringo Brown
(2007)
Angus Henderson
(2007-2008)
Ty Harper
(2008)
children =
grandchildren =
grandparents =
aunts/uncles =
nieces/nephews = Ben Kirk (step-nephew), Jackson Kennedy (step-nephew)
cousins =
relatives =
color = Television colour|Neighbours
color text =
species =

Rachel Jessica Kinski is a fictional character on the Network Ten soap opera "Neighbours", portrayed by Caitlin Stasey since 2005. She was recently voted the most popular female character in a poll on the Neighbours website, followed by Libby Kennedy and Stephanie Hoyland.

History

Rachel is the second child born to Alex (played by Andrew Clarke) and Francesca Kinski, their youngest daughter. She has an older sister, Katya (Dichen Lachman) and a younger brother, Zeke (Matthew Werkmeister).

Rachel and Zeke were home-schooled before their father enrolled them at Erinsborough High School to develop their social skills. Alex had brought up both children alone after the death of their mother. Rachel's father had a Belarus background and her mother Francesca was from Tibet. For the safety of his younger children, Alex also threw his eldest daughter, Katya, out of the house after she lashed out at her younger siblings following the death of her mother. For five years, Rachel had no contact with her sister. [ [http://perfectblend.net/neighbourhood/bio/ Neighbours: The Perfect Blend | Character Profiles ] ]

Introduction

On her first day at Erinsborough High, Rachel was considered a social outcast by her fellow peers, due to her quirky habits of singing and dancing in corridors. Rachel quickly found a friend in Bree Timmins (Sianoa Smit-McPhee), who taught Rachel about junk food and TV shows.

Rachel and Zeke were delighted at the prospect of having a stepmother when their father announced his engagement to their teacher, Susan Smith (Jackie Woodburne). After the tragic plane bombing over Bass Strait, the Kinski family waited anxiously to hear if their father and Susan had survived. After a few hours both were found, and the wedding was back on.

She dated a Year 10 boy named Jake Rinter (Chris Toohey) against her father's will. After not realising she was only fourteen, Jake invited her on a date. When asked how old she was, Rachel lied, claiming she was fifteen. But Rachel broke up with him after he made it clear he wanted her to go further than she was willing to.

When she found out about her father's illness, Rachel ran away in hope of finding her older sister. She found Katya, who had been working as a nurse in a rehabilitation clinic under the name "Catherine". Katya refused to accompany them back to Ramsay Street. However, Rachel's efforts were not in vain, as Katya turned up just in time before their father died after marrying Susan on his deathbed.

Father's Death

After her father died, she broke into her father's university office with Stingray Timmins (Ben Nicholas) to steal his turtle. When Max Hoyland (Stephen Lovatt) caught Rachel and Bree trying to graffiti Lassiter's, Rachel tried to take responsibility, but Max wouldn't believe her and blamed Bree.

Rachel and Stingray began to get closer, and one night after Stingray took her home to comfort her over feelings that Rachel thought she was uninteresting, she kissed him. Because of the age difference (Stingray was eighteen, and Rachel was fourteen), they decided to remain friends.

tingray and Rachel

After the death of Alex, Susan and Katya began a custody battle over Rachel and Zeke. Although Rachel said she would rather stay with Susan, Zeke, who remained mute after the death of his father, admitted through picture cards he would rather live with Katya. However, the situation became serious when Rachel received an electric shock from a faulty kitchen appliance. Being the only other person in the house, Zeke was forced to speak again so that Emergency Services could be informed. She later regained consciousness, with no long-term damage. She moved into a flat with Katya, but fought with her twice on the first night there, and even ran away to see Stingray during the middle of the night. Katya then found them, believing Rachel to be sexually involved with Stingray. After incidents such as staying up all night watching DVDs before school, Susan was concerned that Katya wasn't doing her job as a guardian well enough. Katya admitted to this, and Katya, Rachel and Zeke all moved into Susan's house.

After being told to date boys her own age, Rachel was even more determined to be with Stingray. After Susan told Stingray to stay away from Rachel, he confessed his feelings to his friend, Sky Mangel (Stephanie McIntosh), who herself had been having relationship problems. Stingray and Sky ending up sleeping together.

Following Susan's orders, Stingray told Rachel he was seeing someone else when she turned up on his doorstep. Rachel decided to move on and arranged a date with her class mate Garrett Burns. After a bad first date, in which Garrett talked about nothing but computer games; and the terrible second date that followed, Stingray turned up, claiming that Garrett would only hurt Rachel. He admitted his love to her, claiming that he couldn't hide his feelings anymore. Rachel confessed her love as well, and the two decided to have a secret relationship.

Reaction to Karl and Susan

Rachel became outraged at Susan's rekindled love with her ex-husband Karl (Alan Fletcher). She claimed that Susan had never loved her father. After both couples turned up at the same spa retreat, Rachel claimed she was disgusted at Susan's behaviour. She moved in with Lyn and the Timmins', until Susan urgently found her, saying that Katya had been run over by Max. After Katya was found to be fine, Rachel still refused to stay with Susan and stayed at Number 30, in a cupboard. Things came to a head when Stingray harshly told her that she was immature, and Toadie (Ryan Moloney) dragged her back to Susan after finding her living in his house. Susan and Rachel reunited, and Rachel admitted she was wrong.

Rachel told Stingray that they should take a break, which made Stingray turn to alcohol to drown his sorrows. In order to show how dangerous alcohol was, Rachel hatched a plan and pretended to be drunk while walking dangerously on Susan's roof. However her plan backfired when Stingray, under the influence of alcohol, attempted to save her by climbing up a ladder and fell off. Rachel visited him in the hospital when it was discovered that Stingray was possibly infertile, and he swore off the alcohol.

After Rachel found out that Stingray was the father of Sky's baby, she overheard Karl telling Susan that she should stay away from Stingray, as she would never come first. Rachel took Karl's words seriously, and confronted Stingray, saying that she loved him so much it hurt, but they could never be together.

Rachel got a new short and highlighted haircut, to which Stingray could only manage to state he liked her hair, before she left with Susan. Susan told Rachel that Katya is still refusing to give evidence (after being blackmailed by old colleagues from her past), but Rachel put on a brave face.

Rachel told Bree she still thought she had a chance with Stingray, despite Bree voicing her opinions that she thought there was no chance. However, when Rachel met up with Stingray later that day, she kissed Stingray and told him she wanted them to get back together.

Currently, Rachel is aspiring to be a journalist after visiting her stepsister, Libby (Kym Valentine), in Sheperton. She decided to make an online "blogzine", but was furious when Ringo (Sam Clark) made the banner for their website read 'B.U.N.S'. She misses Katya, who recently moved to Adelaide, and broke up with Stingray as they realized too much had changed since they were last together.

Ringo and Rachel

Rachel was dating Ringo for a time, but they took a break after Stingray's sudden death, because Rachel felt there was enough said and done between the two of them. Ringo has often tried to take their relationship further, but has not yet succeeded; also Lolly got in the way, as she may have had feelings for Ringo.

Rachel was concerned that Ringo and Carmella (Natalie Blair) were getting more than friendly, especially upon finding Ringo in her room, and he provided no explanation for this. Ringo took Carmella on a trip (they were going to buy something for Carmella's fruit business, which Ringo was becoming more involved with) and staged a breakdown, after hiding her medication, as he believed she was too dependent on it. Ringo and Carmella were gone for a very long time, and although, when Ringo got back, he and Rachel made up, her facial expressions suggested she wasn't completely happy.Ringo and Rachel split up, but promised they would always be friends.Rachel couldn't stop her feelings for Ringo, so when she got caught with an exam paper Rachel said she took it, not Ringo. Ringo found out and told Susan it was him, meeting up later with Rachel and sharing a kiss with her, but after more trouble the pair decided to split up for good.

Angus Henderson

After breaking up with Ringo, Rachel met the handsome older man Angus Henderson (Jonathon Wood). Rachel let Angus believe she was 19 and at university although she was only 16 at the time. However, it was later revealed that he was her substitute teacher at Erinsborough High, which surprised them both as Angus still thought Rachel was older than she was. They were later caught by Rachel's peer, Jessica Wallace (Heidi Valkenburg), however Rachel nor Angus knew of this until Jessica threatened to tell the whole of Erinsborough High. Jessica did tell her closest friend Taylah Jordan (Danielle Hovrat) that Angus was seeing a student, but did not say who.

When Rachel learnt that Jessica knew of her relationship with her teacher, Rachel fled a dance party to see Angus. Although he initially told her to go away, she returned soon after and they spent the night together. Later that night, the warehouse where the party was being held collapsed, trapping Jessica along with Zeke, Ringo, and two of Rachel's more recent friends, Bridget Parker (Eloise Mignon) and Declan Napier (James Sorensen). The relationship between Rachel and Angus was then revealed by Declan. Daniel Fitzgerald tricked Rachel into confessing her relationship with Angus. Angus left after realising Susan was right about him abusing his power.

He was later charged by the Police, but the night before his sentencing they ran into each other in Erinsborough High, where Angus was breaking bail to retrieve some paperwork. They revealed they still had feelings for one another.

Aftermath

After Susan found about their illicit affair she forced Angus to break off the relationship and to stop communicating altogether, Angus was disappointed but agreed. Afterwards Rachel was so devastated that she ran away from home. Taylah took her in under the secret agenda of getting her to return home ,when Rachel discovered this she felt betrayed. All of her friends arrived to talk into coming home, however she only lashed out and damaged her bonds with them, it was not until Zeke forced her hand that she complied.

Upon her homecoming she got into a heated argument with Susan that resulted in her saying she hated her, their relationship has been strained since.

When she returned for her first day back at school she was the subject of bullying however with the support of her friends she overcame it, however Justin Hunter keep picking at her which (twice) broke into fights resulting in Justin, Declan and Rachel being placed on detention.

After being put on detention twice Rachel worried that the stress was taking its toll on Susan. While she reassured Rachel that this was not the case, it was clear Susan was suffering a relapse.

Declan and Rachel

When Declan was failing math Rachel offered to help him as an act of friendship. This quickly turned into a flirtation. At the school camp Declan made a move and attempted to kiss Rachel but she rejected him due to loyalty for Bridget.

Return of Angus

During dance rehearsal for the school formal, the day before Angus' sentencing, Rachel had a surprise encounter with him in Erinsborough High, but they were sprung by Steve and Miranda. Rachel was then asked to give a victim impact statement at court, but instead of giving a statement she apologised to her family, friends and Angus.

Angus was sentenced to six months in jail, as the court saw that he had violated the trust of the community. When he was being taken away, Angus ran over to Rachel and grasped hands with her, slipping her a small package containing a ring and a photo of the two of them together. On the back was written, "Only love matters. Forever yours, Angus." Rachel is often seen wearing the ring and rarely parts with it. Ty has commented that she seems pretty attached to it.

Riley only notices this when looking through photos to use with the story and asked Rachel about it, but Rachel denied such a thing happened.

It was revealed that Rachel had been writing to Angus in prison. However, he returned all the letters unopened. Rachel began to doubt Angus' feelings for her, and Ty tried to help by suggesting that the letters were just too painful for him to read them.

Later, a letter arrived in the post from Angus. Rachels' new friend Donna took the letter from Rachel's home before she could read it in order to protect her, but later returned it. In the letter, Angus stated that he wanted Rachel to visit him in prison so he could talk to her face to face.

Managing to persuade Susan to accompany her, Rachel visited Angus in prison, where he claimed that he still loved her, shocking Rachel and causing her to leave without reply. Rachel then visited Angus again by herself, where he told her that he was being released from prison early for good behaviour, and he wanted them to be together properly when he got out.

After telling Susan this, although she reacted badly to start with, Susan went to visit Angus in jail herself. She then got Angus to swear that if the relationship ever hurt Rachel again, he was to leave and never come back. Angus swore on his life that he would respect that. Susan therefore came to the conclusion that Rachel had to be treated like an adult, and decided to allow Rachel to see Angus when he was let out, even suggesting that they invite him round for tea to discuss the relationship like adults.

Angus's release was delayed as he had no home to go to. In desperation Rachel tried convincing Susan that he could live with them. Susan refused, but later found a place for Angus through the Salvation Army.

On the day of Angus' release, Susan and Rachel went to pick him up. It was a joyful reunion that was followed by an uncomfortable dinner for Angus.

To provide him with stability, Rachel began looking for a job for Angus and asked Briget if she could get a job for him at the gym. Briget refused, asking why should she do anything for Rachel when Rachel hasn't done anything for her.

Angus asked Rachel to move in with him in order to prove that he could look after her, and Rachel quickly accepted. However, Angus is met with violence and hostility, including vandalism of his house and a brick thrown through his window, injuring Rachel. Fearing for her safety, the two briefly separated, but reunited at Declan's birthday party.

After having no success in finding a job, Angus encourages Rachel to speak to the Erinsborough Newspaper. She does an interview with Elle, and though her words are twisted by Paul in the final article, Angus says he is proud of her.

At the General Store, Angus tells Paul that he is accompanying Rachel to her school parent-teacher interview. Rachel is accused of cheating on a paper by Dan, who thinks Angus wrote it for her - which Susan agrees with. Outside the school, they are hassled by the newspaper crew. The next day, Susan apologizes for thinking Rachel was a cheat. Angus then tells her that he has accepted a job in South Australia, as they'll never be able to live peacefully within the Erinsborough community. Rachel initially says yes, and leaves a note for her parents, though she lets Angus believe she said goodbye to them in person. Later on the trip, she makes Angus stop the car and decides that she can't go with him. Angus returns her to Karl and Susan, and they say their last goodbye.

talker

At first, Rachel was receiving a number of text messages from a private number, saying things like 'C U 2nite.' She shrugged it off. Then, the same night, she was babysitting Charlie and Ben while Libby and Steph were at Charlie's for the Football Fundraiser when she heard a number of noises outside the house, then the electricity died. She had just received another text saying 'r u feeling lonely?'

We then see her running outside, and she yells to Dan, who is heading home from the fundraiser. Dan heads inside and finds Ty (Dean Geyer) lying on the floor. Rachel enters, admits to hitting Ty over the head, as she thought he was the stalker.

The next day, Rachel discovers that it was in fact Justin Hunter, the school bully, who was sending her the messages and hanging outside her house. She persuades him to go to the police, and then tries to apologize to Ty, who ignores her.

Ty Harper

In March 2008 Taylah's cousin Ty Harper (Dean Geyer), came to Erinsborough and Taylah has played matchmaker in getting them together but Rachel kept rebuffing her efforts.

When Rachel started singing while listening to her iPod, Ringo, Susan and Karl tried to convince her to make use of her obvious singing talent. Zeke revealed that Rachel used to sing all the time with their real mother, but after singing at her funeral swore she would never sing in public again.

This is somewhat of a continuity error, as when she entered Ramsay Street, she sang at school in the corridors.

Rachel overhears Ty writing a duet song and goes over to help him change the notes to make it sound better and sing it with him. Rachel stops singing halfway through, when Ty asks why, she says that after her mother died, she never wanted to sing with anyone else. Ty tells her that her mother would never had wanted that and that she has a great singing voice.

At the formal, Ty announced that Rachel would be singing a duet with him although Rachel had never agreed to this. Rachel gets on stage and sings with him, her family and classmates are shocked because they had never heard of her singing talent before. Libby later thanks Ty because she hadn't seen Rachel so happy in a long time.

While Ty and Rachel were watching Little Red perform at Charlie's bar, a stranger (later found out to be Donna, Ty's stalker) comes up and starts talking to Ty. Rachel decides to introduce herself to give Ty some space, Donna pronounces Rachel's name as Rachelle then keeps talking to Ty. Later at Charlie's, Rachel was just hanging around, when Donna comes in. Ty pleads with Rachel to pretend to be his girlfriend so Donna wouldn't be all over him.

For the fundraiser for the EFS, the boys had organized a kissing booth to raise some money. Ty and Declan were to be the main attractions until Donna bought all of Ty's tickets, so when Donna was talking to Ty, Rachel lied and got Ty out of doing it by bribing Ringo to take Ty's place for $20.

It is said that Donna will try to get Rachel and Ty together in the next week. Ty reveals his true feelings for Rachel and then after a few days they are together. Rachel gets rid of Angus' ring and explains her true feelings towards Ty, which he respects and then Rachel gives him a kiss. Sienna quits the band after Logan makes a pass at her and Ty is so happy, finally he gets a chance to have Rachel in his band for sure.

References