Marcus

**Marcus** is a character appearing in the first season of the Apple TV+ series *Shining Girls*. He is portrayed by Chris Chalk.

## Throughout Series

In Cutline, it's 1992 and Marcus is introduced as a photographer who shares a crush with Kirby. Marcus brings Kirby some photos that one of the reporters wants to be filed. As he leaves, he turns around and playfully takes a picture of Kirby saying that there's a good one of her on his roll.

After Harper murders Jin-Sook, Kirby arrives home to the apartment that she shares with her mother, Rachel, but finds that instead of living with her mother, she lives with Marcus, who is now her husband.

In Evergreen, Kirby is still trying to deal with the new reality that she is married to Marcus. As she searches for sanity, she sees a wedding photo of her and Marcus, and then as she examines her current notebook, finds the entry that says she is living with Marcus - her husband.

The next day, Kirby arrives home to find Marcus testing some new film in his camera. There is a cold plate of food on the table and Kirby asks when she should have been home and upon being told a couple of hours ago, wonders why Marcus isn't mad at her. He says that she appears to be going through something since she messed up his birthday and went to see her mom for the first time in months. He's worried about her, not mad at her.

In Overnight, after Dan and Kirby pull an all-nighter going through old police records looking for similar cases, Marcus brings Kirby a change of clothes. Kirby asks Marcus if they can go over some old photos of the previous murders. After Kirby identifies a photo that may help her case, Marcus expresses his fears that Kirby is re-living the trauma she went through while recovering from her attack. Later, Marcus confronts Dan by pointing out that he has a history of building up people's hopes and then letting them down. He tells Marcus that he hopes he won't do that to Kirby. This causes Dan to storm out of the building and head over to a club where he proceeds to become very drunk.

In Attribution, Marcus attends an editorial meeting where Dan is laying out all the evidence that they have collected about there being multiple victims. After the meeting, Dan is upset that Marcus was at the meeting as it seemed that he was there to intimidate him. He seems angry with Kirby as he tells her that if she wants to help, that he needs someone to go pick up the enhanced audio recordings that were found on Julia Madrigal's phone answering machine. Running into Marcus, Kirby expresses her displeasure with him about his attending the editorial meeting, but Marcus says that since she wasn't there, he wanted to be there to represent her. Marcus then tells Kirby that he will go with her to collect the tapes.

On the way, the ice between Kirby and Marcus seem to thaw a bit as Marcus playfully takes pictures of Kirby. Arriving at the audio specialists office, they get the tapes but Kirby asks him if he can play back the tape with the background noise on it. They realize that what they originally thought was an electronic echo was actually a delayed recording of her actual voice as if someone had played a recording of what she said before she said it.

On the way back to the Sun-Times office, Kirby tells Marcus that he doesn't have to go down the rabbit hole with her, but he counters that he should be the first person she should go to so that he doesn't have to learn about what she is going through in an editorial meeting. Kirby takes Marcus to Sids, the club where she used to work while Rachel performed. They go into the green room and Kirby uncovers some writing on the wall that causes her to flashback to when she was in there with her mom, and then her answering a phone call that plays sounds of the band a split second before the band actually plays them. As she snaps out of the memory, she tells Marcus that she never said anything about it because it would sound like she was crazy.

In Screamer, Marcus comforts Kirby after she is accused of tampering with the evidence in order to affect the outcome of the investigation. At their apartment, Marcus makes Kirby one of her favorite sandwiches - Bacon and peanut butter with grape jelly. She said that she has never had it before which leads to an argument with both of them admitting that they are tired of the way things are between them. However, she insists on eating it and tells Marcus that it is surprisingly good.

Later, Kirby asks Marcus if they can look at some of his old photo albums. There is one that contains pictures taken when Marcus was in the Army and deployed to Viet Nam. One picture in particular catches Kirby's eye. It is of a soldier with a tatoo on this upper chest that is eerily similar to the tatoo that she saw on Harper's chest during his attack on her at the laundromat/bar. This may help Kirby identify Harper through his Army records.

In Offset, Dan tells Kirby that she should bring Marcus up to speed with all the details regarding her attack and what she has been going through since. Kirby runs into Marcus while she is looking for information regarding the meat packing plant Teenies. Marcus says that he shot photos for a unionization story at Teenies that Dan was working on, whereas Kirby says that Dan never worked on a story about Teenies. Kirby sits down with Marcus to explain her bizarre shifts in reality; specifically how she doesn’t remember any of their history together prior to his birthday party. She may not know him intimately now, but they’re together because she was likely going to fall in love with him in the future. Marcus is completely thrown for a loop by all this. He also comes to the conclusion that the case (and working with Dan) is severely affecting his wife’s mental health. Realizing that Marcus is nowhere near ready to understand what’s happening to her, Kirby squeezes her husband’s hand and leaves.

Obviously upset over the discussion he had with Kirby, Marcus confronts Abby about Kirby's mental state. Marcus shows Abby his wife’s notebook of seemingly mundane observations. He previously thought she wrote it in simply to clear her head, but he’s justifiably concerned now after what she said to him earlier. He also attributes Kirby’s mental deterioration to the story she’s working on with Dan and asks Abby to remove her from it. When the editor refuses, Marcus tells her about how uncharacteristically angry and vengeful he became after learning what happened to Kirby in 1986. The sensation made him feel like someone he didn’t even recognize — and he wasn’t even the person who had to suffer through it. Now he’s having to watch the attack destroy Kirby all over again, this time in front of his very own eyes. Marcus’ earnest plea then takes a forceful turn when he pointedly asks who he’s supposed to tell about Kirby’s mental state if Abby won’t listen to him. After hearing that Kirby has been placed on Leave of Absence, Marcus clears out her desk. He pleads with her to come home and work on rebuilding the good life they had together. Kirby replies that the life he knows isn’t hers. She also refuses to give up on the story; even if it means doing it on her own without the backing/resources of the Sun-Times. The pair part ways with Kirby saying she’ll get her belongings out of their apartment that evening.

In 30, Marcus is no longer married to Kirby. Kirby finds Marcus while she is looking for help in deciphering the tattoo that Harper has. He’s extremely kind/friendly with her, but not in the same way as before. He tells Kirby that there may be records about locals who fought with the 28th Regiment, but they would take a few days to find/pull. Kirby then notices Marcus’ wedding ring and asks how his wife is doing. He responds that Vicky is great. As Kirby attempts to hide her pained reaction, there is a reality-shifting shudder. When she looks down, the picture of a house that Marcus had been developing before is now a portrait of the lately deceased Dan Velasquez. Kirby then looks around and notices that all the pictures in the darkroom are of Dan. When she asks Marcus about it, he tells her that she’d previously asked him to pull the negatives for a piece the paper was running about Dan’s murder. Kirby then asks if she’s the one covering it. When Marcus says she isn’t, Kirby realizes that this new reality has her working in the Sun-Times‘ archives again. Kirby returns to the newsroom, looking for Jinny, who she left at another reporter's desk. She spots Marcus talking to one of the other reporters and asks what happened. He tells her that a woman came in off the street and had to be removed by the police. He then asks Kirby who she is.