Joy and George Aston
Joy Aston (French) is a midwife in Bristol. She teaches ante-natal, but dwells on the painful and violent sides of giving birth. She had a son who died of cot death, to cope with her grief, she treats a practice doll as if it were a real child, calling him Freddy. Her husband George (Pemberton) is even forced to care for Freddy. Joy steals blood from the hospital blood bank, putting it in a baby bottle for Freddie. In the third episode George refuses the charade of pretending that Freddy is real, but Freddy appears to have thrown his baby dish onto the floor. Joy is delighted that the blood seems to be bringing him to life.
In episode five Freddy seemingly comes to life, and violently attacks Joy, culminating with George's death and Joy's collapse. However, George is not dead, but Freddy is under Nicola's (Elizabeth Berrington) control, Joy's colleague with whom George is having an affair. They believe Joy is dead, so they dismantle Freddy and leave. However, Joy awakens and rushes Freddy to hospital, but since he is a doll, the doctors refuse treatment. So Joy kidnaps Nicola and drives her to Ravenhill, where Joy exsanguinates Nicola to transfer her blood to Freddy. As Nicola lies dying, Joy reveals that she was driven insane after the death of her son Paul and Freddie was given to her as part of her therapy. She then hears Michael Fry enter the building.
As the others arrive, Joy wanders away from Nicola. As her blood drain slows she becomes catatonic. Jennifer, Oscar's new helper, discovers Nicola and tries to help her out of the building. Joy believes the blood transfusion turned Freddy into Jennifer, and begins treating her like a baby boy. They are present when the building explodes.
In the second series, Joy is wearing a neck brace and looking after Jennifer (calling her Freddy), now completely disabled. George moves out and reveals that Nicola died from blood loss, since the emergency transfusion the hospital had was contaminated with Ribena, since it was the blood Joy stole in season one. She is interviewed by Detective Finney who is extremely interested in Kenchington's locket. She tells him she does not know its whereabouts, but Finney notices Jennifer's hand move, surmising that she might know something. After failing to get any information from Jennifer, he suddenly stabs Joy in the neck with the pencil and places it in Jennifer's hand, making it seem like she stabbed her. He leaves Joy bleeding to death alongside the incapacitated girl.
Read more about this topic: Psychoville, Main Characters
Famous quotes containing the word joy:
“Suddenly he found he had pressed the spring of the grenade. He struggled to pull it out of his pocket. It stuck in the narrow pocket. His arm and his cold fingers that clutched the grenade seemed paralyzed. Then a warm joy went through him. He had thrown it.
Anderson was standing up, swaying backwards and forwards. The explosion made the woods quake.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)