Lanie Bouchard

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* The Birch
* Lanie Bouchard

**Spouses**

* Thad (ex-boyfriend) †

**Children**

* Laura Bouchard (daughter) †
* Evie Grayson (adopted "daughter" and prisoner)

**Other Relatives**

* Mitchell (adoptive uncle)

**Formerly**

* High-school student

**The Birch**, formerly known as **Lanie Bouchard**, is the titular character and anti-hero of the 2019 Facebook Watch series *The Birch*. An orphan girl adopted by a childless couple, Lanie was born with the power to control nature. At seventeen, she was pressured into sex by her then-boyfriend Thad and later gave birth to a baby girl, whom she named Laura and developed an attachment to. Upon learning that her adoptive parents killed Laura to maintain their reputation in the public eye, she killed her adoptive parents, transforming into a nature demoness in the process.

She is portrayed by Brady Romberg as The Birch, Midori Francis as Lanie Bouchard, and Lilah Johannes as a child.

## Physical Appearance

### Current

The Birch is a humanoid being that stands eight feet tall. As her name suggests, her body is made of birch wood. The upper half of her head ascends into a "crown" of large branches wrapped with vines reminiscent of horns. She has no legs, but has long fingers made of branches and twigs. She has a skeletal face, deep soulless eyes, and crooked teeth.

### Human

As a human, Lanie was a seventeen year-old Asian-American girl. She had dark-brown eyes and black hair.

## Characteristics

The Birch is said to be a vengeful protector, of both the forest she lives in and those who ask for her aid. Her primary goal is to protect those "with love in their hearts", slaughtering anyone who threatens the safety of those who summoned her. In her debut, The Birch brutally slaughters Kris as he was bullying Shaun. However, the Facebook Watch series reveals that she wishes to keep the one who summons her as her own child to fill the hole in her heart that was left by her own daughter's death.

## Background

Lanie was born in 1962 to a family of druids. She was later adopted by Rachel and Don Bouchard, the former of whom was the mayor of the town of Elkford. From birth, Lanie manifested supernatural abilities that allowed her to control various aspects of nature, such as making small flowers grow and making branches fall from their trees. Her adoptive parents, fearful of her abilities, found a drug that would suppress her abilities and made her take a drop every day.

In 1979, the seventeen year-old Lanie began dating a boy at her school named Thad. Some time after they started dating, Thad pressured Lanie into having sex with him, then broke up with her after taking her virginity. Lanie fell pregnant with her daughter Laura from the encounter, and her parents, fearing that a teenage pregnancy would sully Don's reputation as mayor of their town, forced Lanie to give up Laura so her parents could raise her as her sister.

Lanie's adoptive parents tried to keep Lanie away from her daughter, incarcerating Lanie within an underground hospital under the care of the family doctor, Dr. Sampson. This plan eventually failed when Lanie killed Dr. Sampson. Now free from her prison, Lanie located her adoptive parents, and killed her father, Don, by using vines to tear off his jaw. Rachel poisoned Laura with nightshade, and attempted to kill Lanie. After she failed to do so, she desperately tried to convince Lanie that she still loved her; Lanie responded with a lethal embrace, crushing and suffocating the last of her family as she transformed into the monster her family believed her to be.

An article about Lanie's disappearance was published on September 13th, 1979, which perpetuated the belief that Lanie murdered her parents and then killed herself.

## The Birch (2019-2021)

### Season 1

#### Through The Woods

After finding The Birch's talisman in the woods, bullied teen Evie Grayson tries to find information on the symbol. After searching on the Internet, she finds a video posted about the symbol. The video reveals that some time between the events of the series and the short film, a teenage boy discovered The Birch, and he became so invested in her that he wrote a journal about her, only describing her as "her". The boy then went missing, and his sister, a girl named Kelly Bernstein, found his journal and tried to summon The Birch to find out what happened to her brother. Evie tries to summon the demon herself, and is met with success.

## Powers and Abilities

The Birch can be summoned by fashioning a talisman out of sticks, and speaking the phrase "For thee who makest me, I shall come. Thee who breaks me shall come undone." Simply put, The Birch will protect whomever creates the talisman, and will kill whomever breaks it, be it intentionally or by accident.

### Natural Abilities

* **Ecokinesis:** The Birch has complete and total control over nature and the environment. She appears to have been born with this ability.
	+ **Transformation:** The Birch is able to turn living beings into trees, as seen with Sebastian Polk.

### Skillset

* **Superhuman Strength:** Even while she was a human being, The Birch possessed an innate amount of superhuman strength. She was able to kill her ex-boyfriend by shoving him up against a tree trunk, though this was not intentional.

### Unique Abilities

* **Precognition (presumably):** The night she gave birth to Laura, Lanie had a prophetic dream that her daughter was set on fire. The aforementioned event later happened in the series, but whether this power is legitimate or a one-time thing is not yet known.
* **Longevity:** The Birch appears to have some degree of immortality.
* **Regeneration:** The Birch has a superhuman healing ability.

## Relationships

### Laura Bouchard

Before she was The Birch, Laura was Lanie's infant daughter. Her adoptive parents kept Laura away from Lanie for fear of her powers getting out of hand and hurting the infant, and they told Lanie to stay away from her daughter under the guise of not getting attached to her so they could put her up for adoption. In the end, it was Lanie's love for her daughter that pushed her over the edge, and her death mentally destroyed her. Lanie's desire to protect her daughter helped to trigger her transformation into The Birch, and that desire lives on, now transferring to those who summon her.

### Rachel Bouchard

Before she was The Birch, Rachel was Lanie's adoptive mother.

### Thad

Before she was The Birch, Thad was Lanie's boyfriend. He raped her one night and got her pregnant, and Lanie used her powers to murder him in revenge.

## Trivia

* Lanie is based off of The Birch, the titular character of the 2017 short film of the same name.

## Gallery

View the gallery for Lanie Bouchard here.

## Site Navigation

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## References

1. ↑ *The Birch,* Season 2, Episode 7, "Into the Roots". Capps, Truman and Casey Modderno, J. (writers) & William Ross, John (director) (May 7th, 2021).
2. ↑ *The Birch*, Season 1, Episode 1, "Through The Woods". Casey Modderno, J (writer) & William Ross, John (director). October 11th, 2019.