Annie

> *"She's Buttoned Up, Cap!" - Annie*
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Annie was played by Catie Osborn in seasons 1-6 of the Ships of the Northern Fleet TV show.

Annie's official title was ship's mechanic, but she was later promoted to Chief Technical Officer after her heroism during the Battle of the Blue Mast. She was partnered with Bosley, the ship's chief medical officer, and Wren. Annie was killed off in season 4 during a double-cross gone wrong. The showrunners' decision to stray from the book source material was met with mixed reviews.

### **Hellman's Gate:**

Annie started her career as a Cabin Girl on The Blazed Demon, where she was unexpectedly promoted to the role of Sailing Master. Eventually, she left the ship and the Necronauts to join the The Northern Fleet.

### **Season One:**

**Episode Three:** Despite criticism from both critics and fans for its overt and ham-fisted attempt at making Annie more relatable, the showrunners felt it necessary to give Annie a pet cat. Nathan Fillion was later quoted as saying "I don't know how they managed to write a cat into space, but we all had to deal with the bastard for four seasons". Annie discovers the cat at a market and is warned by Korandar that the cat's orange eyes portent it as a bad omen, a plot line that was never followed up on. In an act of defiance, Annie names the cat "Cat", but is occasionally overheard calling it "Dave" in many episodes.

### **Season Two:**

**Episode Seven:** This was a notable episode for SOTNF, particularly because large portions of the final edit were improvised by Osborn and the rest of the crew. Prior to filming, the writers had planned for Annie's sexual identity to be inferred, not directly specified, as producers were worried about pushback from more conservative audience bases. Instead, Osborn and the cast rejected multiple drafts of the script and ultimately worked to improvise large chunks of the dialogue that comprised the emotional last half of the episode. Later, Osborn was quoted as saying "we put our hearts and souls into that episode, and I think it shows".

**Episode Nine - *The* *Battle of the Blue Mast***

*The Battle of the Blue Mast* was one of the most technically complex episodes in the SOTNF series. It required hundreds of extras working multiple shifts and left the cast and crew exhausted. Osborn trained for months to execute the complex choreography for the sword showdown between Captain Hellman's son, Olaf, only to discover that much of the fight was removed in the final edit for time. After noticing an anomalous power spike in the rear containment propeller, Annie discovers that the ship has been monitored by a Brachtian Chromiton for weeks, allowing them to strategically and methodically plan their attack. Annie rewires the chromiton to new coordinates and draws the secondary fleet off of the ship just in time. She is awarded the Reynard-Morgan Medal of Bravery and promoted to Chief Technical Officer. She later reveals to Bosley that her father won the same award before his death at the Battle of Fryne Plains

### **Season Three:**

**Episode Nine - *I killed the Albatross***

After an attempt to get the ship's Neutonium Containment System back online in order to provide crucial life support to its external systems while the ship was under attack, Bosley and Annie were knocked from the ship. Bosley's harness rig failed, and Annie watched as Bosley fell to his death. His death led to Annie's sabotaging of her relationship with Wren and, ultimately, to a substance abuse problem that would go unnoticed until season four, when First Mate Biscuits notices a change in her demeanor and offers her his assistance.

**Season Finale:** The season three finale garnered massive pushback from fans when Annie sabotaged the ship and paid the Frynian Mauraders in order to keep the crew on Fryne long enough to save the solution to the Aurelian Equation from being stolen from her father's remains at the Temple of the Fallen, but ultimately, she was double-crossed by the marauder's leader and left for dead before she was discovered by Captain Hellman and taken back to the ship. Ultimately, he forgave her betrayal, understanding her motivations were good, if not misguided, and she is reunited with Wren.

### **Season Four:** **Fryne Plains Arc**

**Episode Three -** *The Prometheus Gambit*

One of the only "Holodeck Episodes" in SOTNF, this episode was written as an inside joke between many of the cast members and writers, who would often visit escape rooms after shooting ended as a way of bonding. Through a series of timeloops and portal variations, the crew finds the ship stranded on a strange planet inhabited by a quasi-Victorian society built on cooperative gameplay strategies. The crew is taken to the governing board and forced to participate in a complex gaming tournament. The crew comically struggles to work together cooperatively until they are threatened with death if they cannot escape the board's gaming challenges. Annie's mechanical mind gives her an advantage and she triumphs at the last minute and secures the trophy for the crew.

**Episode Eight** holds the record watch time for any episode of SOTNF as it famously included a lengthy, yet tasteful, orgy scene between Annie and several other crew members. After Korandar sells the crew a bad batch of fermented Zenen wine, its natural aphrodisiacal properties are enhanced and the crew finds themselves getting to know each other just a little more intimately.

**Episode 17:** **[ Episode Summary Under Construction]** After Annie learns that Wren left her an encoded message in MAVIS' mainframe system, she finds herself embroiled in a mutiny plot. A forgiven Annie dies in Hellman's arms, saying "you were right, Captain. I was never alone".

## **Season 5:**

Episode 2: After much criticism for Annie's death in season four (as well as a significant drop in ratings), the writers opted to utilize necromancy in order to bring Annie back to life. This decision was widely panned, as the necromancer plotline did not follow Annie's arc in the book, nor did it follow the basic rules of logic and technology specifically outlined in the source material.

## **Season 6:**

Episode 8: In this episode, Osborn was once again brought on board to reprise her role as Annie, this time, exclusively in hologram form. The plot of this episode was primarily pulled from the secondary series of graphic novels (Storms of Seasons Past), and therefore borrowed heavily from the Trelawny arc. Osborn has been quoted as saying, "It was really good to be back on set. The paycheck wasn't half bad either."

## Relationships:

Captain Hellman:

Captain Trelawney

Four Leg Frida

Marwolaeth

Meadow

Britner

Vlad

### **Character and Reception:**

Despite Annie's lengthy arranged marriage to Eurich Borden in the novels, Osborn fought to have Annie's story more closely parallel her own, which resulted in Annie coming out as openly bisexual in season two, and Borden was killed off early in the series to adapt to the new plotline. Annie and the ship's medical officer, Bosley, began a tenuous off-again-on-again relationship. Later, Annie fell for Wren, and the three formed a throuple.

### **Inspiration:**

Annie is heavily based on the real-life pirate by the name of Anne Bonny.

### **Behind the Scenes :**

Annie regularly wore glasses-- a nod to Osborn's own personal style. When filming began, the costume department fought to get the rights to showcase a pair of Chanel Frames chosen by the designer, but ultimately their request was rejected due to the unprecedented nature of SOTNF's subject matter. As a result, Osborn is seen wearing her own glasses in several scenes.

1. ↑ [1] Hellman's Gate [ch. 1]