Villainous witches Cara Nabb, Rhoda Wishaw, and Clara Woodford
Cara Nabb (Dearbhla Molloy), Rhoda Wishaw (Stephanie Beacham), and Grace Woodford (Poppy Miller) are the remorseful main villainesses from "Wicca Work," episode 3.05 of New Tricks (airdate 15 May 2006).
The trio's shared backstory revealed that they were members of a coven of witches, which included 32-year-old librarian Craig Rossiter. A year after joining the coven, Craig used his power to prey on his female co-horts, including Grace, who believed afterwards that she had sex with the Devil. Cara and Rhoda saw Craig's abuse of Grace as the last straw, and on the evening of June 6, 1996, the coven performed a ritual to protect themselves from Craig; a ritual that resulted in Craig's death, which was caused by Grace. Grace killed Craig up on a tree and afterwards, his body was lowered.
The murder was covered up for nearly a decade until UCOS went on the case, with the investigation seeing Gerry Standing and Brian Lane under the influence of Rhoda's concoction, which caused sexual potency in both men and distracted them from their case. The episode's climax had Jack Halford believing that the coven was practicing black magic, as the tenth anniversary was nearing and they were caught performing what was believed to be a dark ritual. It also saw Jack subdued by Cara, who used a taser on him before leaving to join Rhoda. Grace was with Jack, revealing that she saw Craig in the decade that passed after his death, while Jack had been seeing visions of his late wife, Mary.
Meanwhile, Brian, Gerry, and DSI Sandra Pullman arrived at the ritual, which was revealed to be done to remove a curse that had befallen them since Craig's passing. Cara and Rhoda revealed everything that happened a decade ago, with the former also revealing that she had cancer and was dying. Both women stated that they didn't mean to kill Craig, but they were protecting themselves from him after he used his power to prey on the women, especially Grace, who was found up on the tree with Jack. Grace confessed to killing Craig, only for Cara to tell Grace that she did it, stating that she was dying and that she'll confess to cover for Grace. The UCOS quartet was left baffled regarding how to properly report their discovery, and the episode ended with no clear revelation of the coven's fate.
Trivia[]
- Dearbhla Molloy later appeared on Scandal as villainess Queen Isabel.