Villainous conspirator Jo-Anne Kramer
Jo-Anne Kramer (Ashley Williams) is a villainess (redeemed) from "Rats", episode 1.10 of The Protector (airdate August 22, 2011). She was a researcher for the Lorber Medical Lab at Ardair University, working under the advisement of Dr. Ben Ramsey along with three fellow students: Harold Coogan, Evan Fenster, and Trisha Burke.
The episode opened with all four students (and later Dr. Ramsey) falling victim to mysterious sodium azide poisoning, with Trisha dying from the poison as a result of a congenital heart defect. When first questioned by detectives Gloria Sheppard and Michelle Dulcett, Jo-Anne bemoaned the death of her colleague and expressed a fierce belief that the culprit was Animal Freedom United, an animal rights group who had been sending threats to the team.
But the investigation revealed that Trisha had uncovered a secret of Jo-Anne's: she was selling their team's data to Geary Labs, a rival research lab. After the illicit transactions were found on a USB drive Trisha kept on her keychain, the data was traced back to Jo-Anne, revealing her treachery. Jo-Anne was brought in for questioning by Gloria and Michelle, and once the two confronted Jo-Anne about her actions, Jo-Anne revealed her motivation: she was having an affair with Ben Ramsey, and it was his idea to sell their data to Geary Labs. Jo-Anne additionally expressed shock at learning that Ben was also in a relationship with Trisha and stated that she'd had no idea Ben was planning to kill Trisha to cover his tracks, heartbroken by the fact that her lover had been using her for his own gain.
In order to prove her innocence in the poisonings and Trisha's death, Jo-Anne agreed to go undercover to get Ben to confess to what he'd done. Jo-Anne eventually got Ben to confess to poisoning her and the rest of their team, having only poisoned the lab's hot water dispenser with enough sodium azide to kill Trisha. After his confession, Jo-Anne pulled back her hair to reveal the earpiece she was wearing as the detectives came in and arrested Ben. It was later revealed that Jo-Anne accepted a deal to avoid jailtime in exchange for testifying against Ben.
Trivia[]
- Ashley Williams also portrayed serial killer Darlene Coolidge on Monk and recurring villainess Sally Stukowski on Warehouse 13.