Once bubbly, happy and bright, Rebecca "Bex" Fisher returned to her family a hardened, world-weary young woman after running away. She's seen a lot - too much - in her time away from her family, and it's left her brittle. Bex is a survivor. Maintaining a veneer and positivity, she tries her utmost to pick up where she left off with her family. To do this Bex decides her best tactic is to wipe out the past eighteen months and ask mum Karen Fisher and siblings Harry Fisher and Jess Fisher not to ask what happened to her while she was away but to simply be glad she's returned, but this is hard for Jess as with Bex dissappearing it made the family's life complicated and Jess just wants to know where she was and why she went.
Bex knows that Karen will struggle with this, and is aware that her return is creating tensions in the Fisher household, especially with between her and Jess. As Bex flounders in her efforts to establish normality back at home, her relationship with Jess deteriorates as she becomes once more the focal point for her mum's attentions as her rows with Jess increase.
Waterloo Road offers a new hope for Bex, with its single sex segregation policy. It's an opportunity to leave behind the seedy world of porn and Dylan Hodge, the man she met two years ago who led her astray and then betrayed her. No longer able to trust men, initially Bex will enjoy the more innocent world of all-girl classes, without the distractions and impositions of the opposite sex. Bex wants more than anything to forget what happened to her, but if she were being honest with herself, she'd admit that she really needs to come to terms with her ordeal. As Bex battles to keep Hodge away from her and her family, exposure comes from an unexpected angle when boys at school stumble across Bex's image on the internet. With her secret out, a humiliated Bex feels she'll never escape the mistakes of her past and decides to return to Hodge, but this was only because she found out that Jess was dating him and Hodge had also made a video of Jess, and if Bex didn't go back to Hodge the video of Jess would go online, Bex went back to Hodge because she cared so much about her sister. But Karen only just got her eldest daughter back and she certainly isn't giving up again without a fight. Karen doesn't care what Bex has done - she just wants to help her through it.
It won't be easy, but only by coming to terms with the abuse she suffered through Hodge and his films and ultimately seeing Hodge face justice, Bex can really hope to forge a new brighter future with her family.
Trivia
- Bex is a fan of Joy Division and Bloc Party
- Bex is the only character to be credited as being potrayed by two actresses as Alycia Booth potrayed a younger Bex in Karen's flashbacks while Tina O'Brien potrayed Bex for the most part.