Character Relationship Map: Abandon

Characters

• Katie Burke (played by Katie Holmes) — protagonist

  Senior college student and main protagonist. Struggles with academic stress and a psychotic break stemming from childhood abandonment. She hallucinates her deceased boyfriend Embry and later Detective...

• Wade Handler (played by Benjamin Bratt) — protagonist

  Recovering alcoholic detective assigned to investigate Embry Larkin's disappearance. He becomes romantically involved with Katie but resigns and relapses upon discovering her severe mental illness and...

• Embry Larkin (played by Charlie Hunnam) — supporting

  Katie's wealthy boyfriend who disappears. Flashbacks reveal he was abusive and hostile to her friends. He ultimately ends their relationship, prompting Katie to murder him and conceal his skeleton in...

Canonical Relationships

Family, romantic, and professional connections based on plot evidence.

• Katie Burke → Wade Handler (Romantic Partner) — Their relationship briefly offers Katie emotional refuge before Wade discovers the truth.

  After Katie flees the country house and goes to Wade's home, she finds comfort with him and they begin a relationship.

• Katie Burke → Embry Larkin (Romantic Former Boyfriend) — Their romantic relationship becomes abusive and ultimately ends in violence.

  The plot identifies Embry as Katie's boyfriend and shows flashbacks of their relationship before his disappearance.

• Wade Handler → Embry Larkin (Professional Investigator) — Wade reconstructs Embry's disappearance through physical evidence and interviews with Katie.

  Wade is assigned to reopen the two-year-old investigation into Embry's disappearance.

Story Analysis

A traumatized student's fear of abandonment distorts memory, turns intimacy into violence, and repeats across successive relationships.

Plot Progression

1. The Unquiet Disappearance — Katie struggles with academic pressure while Wade reopens the investigation into Embry's disappearance. Her sightings of Embry and the unexplained travel evidence establish an atmosphere of uncertaint...
2. Evidence Against Memory — Katie gives Wade notes that she believes are recent, but forensic analysis dates them to two years earlier. Flashbacks increasingly reveal that her relationship with Embry was violent rather than pure...
3. Temporary Refuge — Katie fears that Embry has harmed Harrison and continues experiencing memories or encounters in familiar locations. After fleeing the country house, she finds comfort with Wade as their relationship d...
4. The Investigator Breaks — Wade resigns from the police force, but the forensic results reveal that Katie's perception is deeply unreliable. His shock leads him back to drinking and prepares the final confrontation.
5. Bodies Beneath the Hall — At the abandoned college hall, Katie remembers Embry's rejection and the murder she committed. Wade finds Embry's skeleton, then becomes Katie's second victim before her later professional life repeat...