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Susan Walker
Susan
Ex Partner Patrick Maitland
Current Partner Steve Taylor
Occupation Accountant
Seasons Season 1 to Season 4
Portrayed by Sarah Alexander

Susan Walker was one of the main characters of Coupling. She was portrayed by Sarah Alexander.

Season 1[]

At the start of the show Susan is in a casual relationship with Patrick Maitland. Patrick reads more into their relationship and they end it. At the same time she encounters Steve Taylor in the women's bathroom at the bar. Susan recognises Steve as she works in the same office with him friend, Jeff Murdock and had seen him at a work function and tell him she fancied him. However, she is unaware that Steve is in the process of having sex with his current girlfriend, Jane Christie in the stall. She leaves the bathroom and asks Jeff about Steve's odd behaviour and he informs her that Steve has an "unflushable".

Steve later calls Susan and she agrees to go on a date with him. Having had a facial cancelled she head to the restaurant they are meeting at early finds Steve, Jeff and Jane there. She learns that Steve is in a relationship with Jane but that promptly ends when Jane realises Steve has asked out Susan. Soon they are joined by Patrick who has brought Sally Harper, Susan's bestfriend to the restaurant on a date. In an effort to get rid of the others Susan jokingly offers to show them a breast if they'll leave. Jeff taking her serious accepts and soon everyone is behind the idea. Susan exposes herself to the group and accidentally to a waiter. Without skipping a beat she asks for a table for six and the waiter immediately complies. Steve confused by Susan change of heart has it explained that they had both their ex-partners and their best friends there and states. "every relationship has baggage, why not invite it all out to dinner?" ("Flushed").

Life after Season 4[]

Writer & Creator Steven Moffat gave a closure to the lives of the characters:

Steve and Susan have two children now, and have recently completed work on a sitcom about their early lives together. They're developing a new television project, but it keeps getting delayed as he insists on writing episodes of some old kids show they recently pulled out of mothballs. She gets very cross about this, and if he says "Yeah but check out the season poll!" one more time, he will not live to write another word.

Trivia[]

  • When angry she will generally say "apparently," a habit first noted in the first series episode Inferno and shown to be inherited from her mother in My Dinner in Hell.
  • Whilst Susan's job is never directly referred to, she works alongside Jeff, an accountant, and she reveals she has a degree in Economics.
  • From the original airing of the Season 3 finale where Susan discovers that she is pregnant, to the airing of the series finale when she has the baby, 19 months and 10 days have elapsed.
  • Susan frequently enters a scene saying, "Sorry, I'm late." This is a dig at producer Sue Vertue who, according to Steven Moffat, tends to turn up late quite often.

Quotes[]

  • Junior Shop Assistant: "Why do girls like you always have a boyfriend? "
    Susan Walker: "Because I have acute nymphomania and my own brewery."
  • "Men, and I don't mean to generalize, are crap! They're the human race's only failed gender. Who needs them - and why are they so difficult to keep hold of? Do you think they realize that were it not for the genetic imperative to populate the earth, they wouldn't get a date. That's one hell of an inducement. No pressure girls, but shag one of these or it's curtains for all human kind. That's harassment! But you know what? Do you know what's even more crap than men? We are more crap than men. All those stupid books you guys had, and these magazines - a hundred pages of 'men are useless bastards' and an article on why you should wake him up with a blow-job. Am I alone in spotting the inconsistency here? And these places – because for God’s sake don’t let them see what we really look like. Just let them enjoy the results. Don’t let them see how it all happens."
  •  Well, you know what it's like at the start, when they're all fiery-eyed, and eager, and they haven't seen you naked yet. And it's like he's smashing at your door with his mighty battering ram. And he's promising to ravish you forever. So you brace yourself for man overload, and throw open the doors, and what do you find standing there? An over sized toddler who wants his dinner. And before you can say, "There's been a terrible mistake," he's snoring on your sofa, the fridge is full of empty bottles and the whole place smells of feet.
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