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Character Profiles > Serena Bishop Lara Sacher

Serena Bishop 2003-2005
Lived: 22, 24, 30 Ramsay Street
Born: 1988
Parents: David and Liljana Bishop
Siblings: Luka
Family Tree: Bishop
Occupation: Student, Coffee Shop Assistant, General Store Assistant, Bounce Bikini Shop Assistant and Co-Owner
Died: 2005 (presumed)

The only child of David and Liljana Bishop, Serena is a girl who is used to getting what she wants in life. More in tune with her father’s love of money than her mother’s Serbian traditions, Serena knows she only has to click her fingers and she’ll get what she wants, though her parents are strangely oblivious to this.

Having always lived in Perth, Serena spent many of her holidays with her cousin, Sky. They grew very close and so Serena was thrilled to learn that, when they moved to Erinsborough for her father’s job, Sky would be living with Harold. The cousins quickly picked up on the tension between Harold and David and Serena was only too pleased to move to Lassiter’s apartments after a big argument between father and son. Serena caused tension herself, however, when she took Sky out on a shopping spree with daddy’s credit card, leaving Sky worried that her cousin had no idea of the value of money. When David and Harold made a tentative truce and the family returned to number 24, Serena began meeting some of her neighbours and quickly developed a strong interest in Taj Coppin…

In an attempt to get closer to Taj, Serena dragged Sky to a club where she knew the object of her affection would be. However, the girls got sprung by an undercover cop for being underage and ran out. Serena waited outside for Taj, who gave her a lift home, and when she got back, she realised that Sky, who had walked, wasn’t back yet. When Sky did get back and was caught out by Harold, Serena didn’t let on that she’d been out too and Sky was suitably punished. After learning that her parents were bankrupt, Serena found out she’d have to change schools – to Erinsborough High. Serena was upset at first, but soon fell in with the popular crowd, much to Sky’s disgust. Serena tried avoiding her ‘weird’ cousin at school and started going out more and more with Erin’s group. In an attempt to help with her parent’s finances, Serena also managed to get a job working in Lassiter’s kitchens.

When Erin and her friends announced they’d be going to Cube, a new club in the city, Serena went along, but was the only one in the group deemed old enough to enter. Once inside, Serena was noticed by the barman, Chris Cousens, who offered her his card and told her he was a photographer. Thinking she could raise some money for her parents, Serena went along, with a worried Sky close behind, and earned $200. With the school formal getting closer, Serena decided to visit Chris again, in order to earn enough money for a dress. However, when Chris offered her the dress from the modelling shoot, she was thrilled. At the formal, Serena started flirting with Taj again, but was horrified when he came on very strong, in an attempt to scare her off, which worked. Meanwhile, Erin and pals attacked Sky and knocked over a portaloo with her inside. Serena saw what was happening, but did nothing to help. The next day, the two cousins had an argument, overheard by Liljana, who learnt of everything her daughter had been getting up to. An upset Serena ran straight to Chris, who offered her sympathy and encouragement, plus two tickets to a gallery opening…

As the weeks went on, Serena got more and more involved with Chris and he asked her to go to a hotel with him. Although she happily went along, she became uncomfortable as the evening commenced, and ended up running off and catching a taxi to the hospital, upon hearing about her grandad’s stroke. However, after receiving a bunch of flowers from him, Serena was back seeing Chris once again. Unfortunately, David and Liljana stumbled upon the photos of Serena in a bikini and told their daughter that she would have to stop seeing this man. Serena was horrified when her mother slapped Chris in the middle of the Coffee Shop, but her parents’ behaviour only made her more determined to see her boyfriend. Sneaking out on her 16th birthday, Serena went to see Chris, who was fully aware of the implications of this milestone. He gave her a ring as a birthday gift and started coming on strong, but they were interrupted by a phone call. While Chris was out of the room, Serena stumbled upon a webcam he had set up to record their entire encounter and she ran out of his studio in tears. Hiding outside number 24, she saw Boyd and Sky and eventually plucked up the courage to go inside. Unfortunately, the police could do nothing to help as Chris hadn’t actually broken any laws, but David decided to break into the studio and steal the computer. Having handed this in to the police, he and Lil then burnt the photos of their daughter, while Serena threw the ring and necklace, given to her by Chris, into Lassiter’s lake. The whole incident seemed to make Serena a lot more self-aware, as she abandoned her old, shallow friends and started hanging around with Summer, Sky and Boyd.

Soon after, there was a new arrival in Ramsay Street, when Toadie’s cousin, Scott Timmins, came to stay. Serena first met him as he rode along the street on a skateboard, with a stolen video camera. He quickly fell for her, but she saw him as nothing more than a weirdo. However, Serena found it very difficult to avoid contact with the newcomer, as he stole Stuart’s wallet one day and ran off through the gardens of Ramsay Street, then performed a BMX stunt which resulted in him landing in the pool at number 24. Everything he did was an attempt to impress Serena, and as time went on, she began to find the attention flattering and his stunts amusing. As his court case, for streaking at a football match, arrived, she offered him her support, though he ran off after she shouted at him for messing around in the Coffee Shop. However, she made up for it by attending the court, and his attentions once again returned to winning her over. He decided to make her a collage, but she thought it was something he’d made at primary school. It wasn’t until she noticed that there was a heart in the middle of the picture, with an S in the middle, that she realised what it meant. She finally agreed to go on a picnic with him, but when Stuart and Jack came along, it was obvious that Serena still wasn’t completely comfortable being seen out in public with Scott.

Scott worked hard to win Serena over, but when Toadie went missing suddenly, his behaviour became even more erratic than usual. As Serena attempted to stop Scott leaving to track down his cousin, he pushed her away and accidentally hit her in the process. Liljana and David witnessed the incident and told Serena that she was no longer allowed to see the boy. Of course, this only made the couple more determined and they agreed to go out on their first official date to classy restaurant, George’s. While Serena was used to such an environment, Scott was forced to take some lessons in style and etiquette from Gino, but they proved to be futile when he ate too much and threw up all over his date. Although they faced another slight problem when he missed their next date to help in the search for Toadie, Scott soon managed to win over Liljana and David, or at least, he did in his own mind. With Scott doing his best to impress them, Serena was relieved when her parents finally loosened their grip and allowed the relationship to continue…

Serena and Scott faced further problems when she attended a dinner party at the home of her friend Simon Ferguson, from private school. Unfortunately, Scott turned up, announcing that his name was now Stingray, and he proceeded to act the fool. Although Serena’s friends found him amusing, Serena was embarrassed and dragged him away from Simon’s house. However, Stingray wasn’t prepared to be treated like that, and accused Serena of being a snob before ending their relationship. Serena was extremely upset and decided to act and dress more like a ‘bogan’ in order to win Stingray back. Luckily, he wasn’t one to hold grudges and soon took her back. However, further problems arose when David said that someone had been mooning him, and he’d seen a tattoo on the mystery bum, beginning with the letter ‘S’. Knowing that Stingray was the one mooning her father, Serena began to wonder what the tattoo said, even suspecting that it might be her name. She and Sky asked Boyd to have a look in the changing room, but this plan backfired, so Sky decided to simply pull Stingray’s pants down in the school corridor. Serena was horrified to read the name ‘Shazza’ tattooed on her boyfriend’s backside and, when he wouldn’t tell her who Shazza was, she dumped him. In an attempt to win her back, he got Boyd to write Serena’s name on the other cheek. But when Serena saw this, she realised that it wasn’t even a proper tattoo, and it seemed that he’d have to try a lot harder to win her over this time. In the end, Stingray was forced to tell her that Shazza was nothing more than his pet guinea pig from childhood.

It looked like things were back to normal, but when Stingray accidentally lost Connor O’Neill’s baby daughter, he started to feel like his behaviour was causing too many problems. He shocked Serena by stealing David’s car and disappearing off out of Ramsay Street. She, along with Toadie, Sky and Boyd, desperately searched for Stingray and tracked him down just in time. Almost involved in an accident, the car skidded to a stop and Stingray finally self-destructed, trying to run off before breaking down in Toadie’s arms. This incident made Stingray decide to start taking the medication which would control his behaviour. Serena, however, wasn’t convinced, as she noticed her ex-boyfriend become more and more subdued to the point where he was barely even reacting to anything around him. Although he made it clear that he wanted them to get back together, she was determined to move on with someone a little less complicated.

Serena was thrilled when her grandmother, Svetlanka, returned to Erinsborough. Serena grudgingly kept this a secret from her parents, realising that they would have to be careful with how and when they told Liljana. However, things started to go wrong when Harold spotted the two of them at Lassiter’s, and Serena decided that she would have to do something. She told her parents that she would be bringing a friend to dinner that night, but when her grandmother was late, she accidentally blurted out the truth to Harold in earshot of her mother. Liljana was horrified and announced that she wouldn’t have Svetlanka in the house, even after she tried to offer the family $100,000. Serena was delighted when Liljana finally agreed to have Svetlanka over for dinner, but she wouldn’t be there to witness it, as she’d been forced to attend a Serbian youth night. Thinking the night would be nothing short of embarrassing, Serena was surprised to meet a guy there, Luka Dokich, which whom she formed an immediate attachment. Luka had just arrived from Perth, and it seemed that his family were old friends of Svetlanka’s. Although her family were delighted with Serena’s new man, Stingray was still holding out hope that he and Serena would reunite. When he saw her with Luka in the Coffee Shop, he only made things worse when he attacked Luka, leaving Serena in no doubt that she’d made the right choice by dumping him.

Someone else who attempted to stop things developing between Luka and Serena, was Svetlanka. She inexplicably tried to warn Serena off Luka several times, but the couple weren’t about to be separated. Luka lied to Svetlanka, claiming to be heading home to Perth, when actually he was hiding in a storage shed. Serena continued to see Luka and announced to Sky that she was going to sleep with him. Serena realised that Svetlanka was onto her and had followed her to the shed, however, and a confrontation began during which Svetlanka slapped her granddaughter. This still wasn’t enough to stop Serena, but just as she and Luka were preparing to sleep together, she received a phone call to say that her mother had collapsed and been taken to hospital.

As the family realised that Lil’s condition was extremely serious, they all offered to have tests done to see if they could donate part of their liver to help her. Nobody was compatible and Serena had to face the fact that she could lose her mother. Meanwhile, Luka decided that he should move on. However, Svetlanka suddenly announced that Luka might be a match for Liljana, as he also had quite a rare blood type. Sky managed to track him down just as he was about to leave town, and he was brought back in time to help. After the operations, Serena was thrilled to have Luka back by her side, but Svetlanka was suddenly even more determined to split the young couple up. As another argument began, she finally revealed the truth – that Luka was Liljana’s son. Serena agreed not to say anything, as it would be devastating to her their recovery, and she hid out in her room for several days, unsure of what to do. Things came to a head when Lil and Luka came home to recover from their operations. As Serena tried to avoid Luka’s romantic advances, she finally blurted out the truth when he was about to leave for Canberra, based on a false tip-off from Svetlanka about his birth mother.

The whole family was left devastated by Serena’s revelations. Svetlanka was sent home to Perth and told never to contact them again, while Serena and Luka agreed to put the past behind them, as they weren’t to blame for what had happened. She was happy when she received comfort from Stingray, but found it very difficult to come to terms with what had happened. As Luka began to spend more and more time at number 24, she tried to push him away and was shocked when Lil asked him to move in with the family. Serena’s suspicions were aroused when she saw Luka with some matches outside the house and, when she found out that her dad’s briefcase had been burnt, she realised that something would have to be done. She turned to her grandmother for information and finally found out the truth – Luka had burnt down his school in Perth and Svetlanka had provided a false alibi for him. Serena confronted Luka with this information and, after a heart-to-heart, he agreed to go back to Perth and get some help.

Meanwhile, Serena tried to help when Sky and Boyd split up, after Sky shared a kiss with Lana. As she acted as go-between for them, she grew close to Boyd and then ended up sharing a kiss as they planned the senior formal together. Serena was thrilled when she and Boyd began a secret relationship, as she finally felt that she’d found someone normal, who wouldn’t mess her around and who she could be happy with. When Sky asked Serena to pass a message on to Boyd, arranging to meet him outside Grease Monkeys, Serena deliberately sabotaged it by giving him the wrong time. However, Boyd’s interest began to wane and Serena knew that she had to do the right thing, an opinion backed up when she confided in Lana. In the end, Serena managed to get both of them out on Ramsay Street on Christmas Day and explained that she’d got her times mixed up – but they were meant to be together.

Serena’s own love life was also looking up, however, when she received a Christmas gift from Stingray – a Freddo frog with a message which were the words he’s used when he first asked her out. As Serena came to realise that she and Stingray were meant to be together, she was about to ask him out when a newcomer to town, Shazza Cox, stole her thunder. Serena became insanely jealous when she saw Shazza and Stingray together, despite the fact that they had a lot in common, and tried to compete with the girl for her ex-boyfriend’s attentions. When Serena found out that Stingray was planning to sleep with her, she tried to talk him out of it, but he spent the night at her place. The next day, Shazza turned up in Ramsay Street and asked Serena and Sky to break the news to Stingray that he was dumped. They weren’t happy about having to do it, and Shazza later turned up at Grease Monkeys to do the job herself. Serena, meanwhile, was left to help him to pick up the pieces. The young couple got back together and soon after, their thoughts turned to sleeping together for the first time. However, all of their attempts to be alone came to nothing, until one afternoon when they had number 24 to themselves. Unfortunately, David burst in on them soon after and threw Stingray out, breaking his arm in the process. But this looked to be the least of Serena’s problems, when it appeared that her parent’s marriage was falling apart.

Serena was delighted when he parents’ brief separation came to an end and her mum moved back home, but things then took another disastrous turn when David was accused of defrauding the Helen Daniels Trust out of $47,000. Although Serena stood by her father, Lil’s trust in him diminished to the point where she once again moved out, going to stay with Susan at number 28. Serena was crushed by her mother’s actions and accused her of being selfish and tearing the family apart for no reason. Meanwhile, Serena was also facing problems in her love life, as Boyd was suffering from a brain tumour and, in his delusional state, he admitted everything to Sky about his brief relationship with Serena. Sky confronted Serena and the argument spilt out onto Ramsay Street, where Stingray’s newly-arrived sister, Janae, heard everything. She told her brother what she’d heard, leaving him to confront his girlfriend about it. Stingray admitted that he didn’t want to lose her over it and they managed to patch up their differences and he proved to be a great support to her as her family life crumbled around her. However, when Boyd became single after splitting from Sky, Stingray’s paranoia grew to the point where he decided to end his relationship with Serena.

Serena soon had other things to occupy her mind, as she tried to get her parents back together. In an attempt to make her mum feel bad, Serena stole Dylan’s car for a joyride one day, then phoned her mum and claimed that she’d been drinking and some boys had taken advantage of her. In the end, Serena was forced to own up to her lies, which only served to make Lil realise how desperate the situation was becoming. As David became increasingly desperate to win Lil back, he began to use Serena as a pawn. When Lil mentioned that she might take Serena away for a few days, David quickly took his daughter on holiday himself, but later apologised for his behaviour, allowing mother and daughter to make up with each other. However, the happiness was to be brief, as Serena and David found out that Lil had been having an affair with local businessman Paul Robinson, via a photo of Sky’s video camera. At first, Serena told her mother that her behaviour was disgusting and she wanted nothing more to do with her and David did the same, even going as far as trying to run Paul over. It was only when he nearly killed Serena in the process that he realised that he needed help. Meanwhile, it emerged that Paul had been double-crossing the locals and he was found critically injured in the bush, Lil ended the relationship and Serena had renewed hope for her parents.

Things really started to look up for Serena when she scored herself a job at Toadie’s bikini shop, Bounce, and then her mum moved back home. Although her parents had started to patch things up, Serena was still worried for them and she and her boss, Connor O'Neill, had to briefly end their feuding over the shop when he found her in tears. It was the beginning of a new friendship, which quickly developed into love, though neither party wanted to admit it at first. After spending the night together at a hotel, following a bikini photo shoot for the shop, Serena attempted to seduce Connor, but he stopped her, fearing that her parents would hate them being together. Unable to cope with the rejection, Serena quit her job, which finally spurred Connor into action and he arrived at number 24 one day and told Serena he loved her, in front of a surprised Lil and David. Serena was delighted, but her parents were concerned that she was about to give up on her plans to study marketing at university. Playing into their fears, she dragged Connor into a practical joke in which she told her mum and dad that she was giving up on her career to have babies with her new boyfriend. Although she later let them in on the joke, she gave them another surprise when $20,000 arrived from Svetlanka, and Serena decided to invest it in becoming a partner in the bikini shop, rather than getting a degree.

Serena’s decision led to a falling out with her parents, particularly her mother, and she decided that she would be better off living with Connor at number 30. As Serena and her friends, along with David and Harold, celebrated her new business deal, Lil finally turned up and presented her daughter with a family heirloom, a ring, and the pair made their peace. Meanwhile, Connor found out that his daughter, Maddy, was suffering from an ear infection and required an urgent private operation – at a cost of $50,000 – to end her suffering quickly. This revelation coincided with the return to town of Connor’s ex-girlfriend, Carmella Cammeniti. Unbeknownst to Serena, Connor managed to get Carmella to lend him the money, but the manipulative young lady then claimed that she’d got the loan from her mob connections, in the hope that Connor would spend more time with her. A desperate Connor decided that he had no choice but to steal the takings from Bounce to get the mob off his back, and so he faked a mugging. However, Carmella wasn’t about to let Connor go to jail because of her lies, so she left the money outside the shop and finally admitted to Connor that she’d actually got the loan from her mum. Unfortunately, it all came too late, as Serena spotted Connor and Carmella together in her car one evening and he owned up to taking the money from her. Realising that she couldn’t trust Connor, Serena ended their relationship and moved back home.

After only a few days apart, Serena started to have second thoughts about ending things. When Lou Carpenter gave Serena his ticket for a joy flight to Tasmania – organised by Paul to celebrate Lassiter’s 20th anniversary – she used the opportunity to spend some time with Connor, who would also be going. During the flight, Connor told Serena about the robbery and she forgave him, telling him that it didn’t matter because she loved him. Sadly, their happiness did not last long, as a bomb exploded on the plane, taking out one of the engines. As the fuel ran out, Serena told her parents, in the seats in front, that she loved them and held on to Connor as the plane crashed into Bass Strait. The young couple then found themselves in the water, trapped under a piece of wreckage. They were forced to remove their life jackets and swim out from under it, but, outside, Serena struggled to keep her head above water. As she grew weaker and weaker, Connor desperately tried to keep her awake and alert, but it was to no avail, as he looked around him and realised that Serena was gone.

Trivia Notes
• As a child, Serena wanted to be a princess
• Serena was a fan of the TV show Charmed