Roxie's Hitlist

Roxie Druthers, a 35-year-old cancer nurse with a razor-sharp wit and a caustic worldview, introduced in a graphic, darkly comic sequence where she banters with patients and butts heads with the son of her favourite patient - the violent addict, Cal. When Cal savagely attacks her, Roxie spirals through trauma, fantasies of revenge, and entanglement with one of her less-than-favourite cancer patient's, the intimidating Vladimir Stalinsky (a former Soviet “Red Wolf” assassin) and his charismatic, but unhinged right-hand man Rockabilly Joe. By the midpoint, Roxie is abducted into Joe’s bizarre torture-basement world and forced to confront Cal in captivity. The episode builds toward her shocking moral collapse, culminating in Roxie shooting Cal after a disturbing cycle of hesitation, fantasy, and emotional manipulation. The ending escalates further, pulling her into Russian espionage entanglements, betrayal, and violent cliffhanger confrontation—positioning her between survival, complicity, and a larger criminal underworld. Roxie’s world is set in Brisbane, Queensland (Australia). We will eventually see her travel to other locations (interstate/overseas) when her contract-killing skills improve. We see Roxie caught between two worlds: nurse vs. assassin (care vs. kill) which will be a constant source of conflict for her as she's basically living a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde existence. When we first meet Vladimir, his judgment is clouded by chemotherapy. When he begins teaching Roxie how to kill, he thinks he’s helping her to stand up for herself. But as Roxie becomes more proficient as an assassin Vladimir recognises that Roxie is heading down the same path that cost him his own humanity, something he is trying to restore. However, his efforts to pull Roxie back from this dark journey causes much conflict between them. The engine of ‘Roxie’s Hitlist’ is Roxie's clumsy and conflicted journey into the 'assassin- world' including her tense relationship with Vladimir, all the while not losing her humanity. Central themes to be explored: Family, belonging, and finding one’s own identity: Roxie had a dysfunctional and emotionally neglectful upbringing. In believing she was not worthy or important, Roxie allowed herself to be mistreated her whole life. In her new journey as an assassin, she must learn self-control, balance, and accept that she is 'enough', but this is often skewed, especially when she finds validation from a father-figure with a dark/secretive/criminal past.