| Julia Woodward | |
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| Actress Tuesday Weld depicted Julia in the webseries era | |
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The Basics
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| First Appearance | Chapter Three, Book One |
| Last Appearance | Chapter Five, Book Five |
| Age | 31 (Deceased) |
| Cause of Death | Drowned by Brett Woodward |
| Spouse/Partner | Brett Woodward
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| “ | I’ve been thinking, Jeff, and this needs to stop. Right now. I feel so terrible about this and...I have to tell Brett about it. I think you should probably tell Carol, too. | ” |
— Julia Woodward, Book Two
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Julia Dawn Woodward, née March (September 25, 1934 - July 25, 1966) was Brett's estranged wife, Jeff Howard's "Aphrodite" and a pillar of the community, due to her husband's status as pastor of First Baptist of Haven Park.
Early life:
Julia was hardly born into privilege, coming from a modest family in Cottage Cove. Still, she dreamed of one day being able to help the less fortunate, and hoped to achieve some measure of success in her life. She moved to Haven Park at 18, to attend college, where she earned her teaching certificate. She has taught high school English for years, and is very active in the community and the church her husband has pastored since 1963.
Julia first met Brett when she was 21, at the hardware store where he worked. Per book three, she was immediately taken by his good looks, but believed that he would never want anything to do with her, so she immediately left, without speaking to him. Her father, who'd sent her to the hardware store to pick something up for him, was furious and sent her right back, where she encountered Brett again. She was charmed by how unassuming and kind he was and the two quickly began dating, but their relationship was not without its troubles.
Julia had trouble reconciling that her boyfriend was something of a rebel and systematically set out to tone him down. She insisted that he get rid of his prized motorcycle and discouraged his dreams to become an actor. Interestingly, Brett did not balk at her demands and under her guidance, pursued ministry instead of stardom. The couple married in 1959, and have no children.
Julia settled into a comfortable life with her husband, pleased with the transformation he'd undergone, and the status his position allowed her. Still, she began to grow restless -- especially when it seemed that Brett cared far more for his congregation and his troubled sister than he did her. This prompted her to seek solace in known ladies man Jeff Howard. Initially, all they did was talk, but soon their relationship escalated in a white hot affair that Julia immediately felt great guilt about. In the days before Jeff's fiancee Carol was murdered, she pleaded with him to call off the affair and tell their respective spouses the truth, but Jeff wouldn't hear of it. Desperate to sever her ties with Jeff and clear her conscience, Julia planned to break things off once and for all on the night of July 4 -- the same night that Carol was murdered.
Carol's murder and aftermath:
Julia surprised everyone -- most notably her husband -- with how quickly she leapt to Jeff's defense, while the whole rest of the town was speculating that he somehow had a hand in his fiancee's death. She even paid a visit to him on the morning of Carol's funeral, saying they needed to talk. It was revealed in book two that the two shared their final tryst that morning, and Julia was finally able to make Jeff understand how much of a mistake their affair had been. For the first time, he admitted she was right and implored her not to make his same mistake, before leaving for the church.
Julia raised eyebrows by her disheveled and frantic arrival at Carol's service, within minutes of Jeff, but the attention was quickly stolen by Jeff and Shane's fiery altercation. Julia accompanied Jeff outside and offered a small amount of consolation before going back inside to calm down the firestorm.
Later at the wake, Julia made nice with the ladies of the church, talking about how much Carol would be missed -- something that sickened her sister-in-law, and Carol's best friend, Terri. Terri was reminded how much Carol actually despised Julia, even going so far as to call her a cheap hussy, and Brett a damned fool for loving her despite it all.
A few days later, Julia joined her husband in the office and finally voiced what had been raging through her mind for days -- that Brett could not expect to solve all of Terri's problems for her. He did not take that well, telling her that he viewed himself as all Terri had left. Julia attempted to apologize, but the damage was already done, and the situation only grew worse when they emerged from the office to find Jeff sitting at Marnie's desk. Julia immediately froze, and Jeff got out of there as quickly as possible, but Brett still seemed to pick up on the tension between the two, asking Julia what that was all about. Julia managed to play it off, her heart pounding.
Brett/Julia/Jeff:
Later that evening, Julia found Jeff in the park where they often met and slipped him some cash, having heard Brett and Marnie discussing his situation. Jeff told her that he planned on leaving town, and a horrified Julia did her best to remain stoic, but she found she could not contain her surprise. She tried to convince him to reconsider, but Jeff seemed rather set on the idea, and the two bid one another a brief, but painful goodbye. Later that night, Julia went home and cried beside her sleeping husband, remembering the road that had led her here, and trying to reconcile her true feelings for Jeff.
The next morning, Julia found his unusually sour mood suspicious, and her paranoia only grew worse when she realized that he was not wearing his wedding ring, but she was quick to remind herself that there was no way that Brett could possibly know about her affair -- despite the pointed reference he made to her two hour "trip to the store" the night before. A few days later, Jeff surprised her by showing up at her door, just when she was determined to forget she'd ever known him in the first place, and she surprised even herself by inviting him in. He told her of his change of plans, and how Stanley Rogers figured into them, all the while the tension between them crackled like wildfire. Jeff attempted to get Julia to admit that she had feelings for him, but instead, she only told him to leave. Before he could, however, Brett arrived home. Thinking quickly, Julia explained away why he was there and Jeff made a hasty getaway. Brett made more than one reference to how much Jeff must hate him, to immediately flee the room whenever he walked in, and despite Julia's attempts to steer the conversation in a different direction, she could tell he was very angry with her. Brett unleashed a sarcastic tirade in his wife's direction, ending with the pointed, "But I guess when you have company, you just don't want to be disturbed", a reference to how the phone had been off the hook for most of the day. Horrified, Julia realized that he knew.
Brett left before they could talk about it, spending the night drinking and crying on his best friend Shane's shoulder. The next morning, Julia called him there and asked him to come home so they could talk things through, though she had no idea how to even begin to approach the situation. Brett made it known rather quickly that he knew about her affair and confronted her on it. Julia stumbled over herself to apologize, but Brett did not want to hear it and even asked if she wanted him to move out, or if she wanted to be the one to go, implying that viewed their marriage as all but over. He also asked Julia if she loved Jeff, something she denied, before retreating into the bedroom to ease his hangover.
The next day, relations between them continued to be tense, as Julia weighed the best way to work things out with her husband. She was paid a surprise visit by Detective Michael Goldman, who needed her to corroborate Jeff's alibi for the night of Carol's murder. Julia wanted to deny the whole thing, but realized that she could not and emotionally confirmed that she'd been with Jeff at a motel on the night his fiancee was killed.
Brett's stabbing and aftermath:
That evening, Jeff phoned Julia to attempt to explain why he'd spoken with Michael, but Julia insisted that she understood that he had to do what was best for himself and the children. Jeff then told Julia what she meant to him, a statement that took her by surprise, as she'd always believed he was only interested in sex and held no real feelings for her. She asked Jeff if he really loved her and he emotionally declared that he loved her enough to let her go, because it could never work between them. He urged her to work things out with Brett and to be happy, because that was all he ever wanted for her. Julia told him that she loved him too, a confession she'd never made to anyone before, but Jeff immediately argued that she loved Brett, not him. Before she could tell him the truth, Brett arrived home and Julia hung up the phone to find that her husband had been stabbed. Horrified, she phoned for an ambulance and did her best to keep him calm, and keep herself calm in the process.
Shane arrived, just in time to save Brett from choking on his own blood, and noticeably said little to Julia. This told her that he knew all too well about her affair. She was later comforted and escorted to the hospital by Officer Brinks, and was joined after sunup by Marnie, who did her best to keep conversation light. Julia realized how controlling she'd been with Brett, and how desperate he was to please her. She felt terrible for the sacrifices he'd made for her sake -- especially in light of her betrayal. Marnie told her that she knew she'd never hurt Brett on purpose and that Brett knew that as well, which told Julia that she knew about the affair as well. Before she could respond, however, a doctor interrupted to tell he her husband's condition was very grave and advise her to pray very hard, because things did not look good.
Distraught, Julia paid a visit to Jeff, where she cried about the whole ordeal. She attempted to bring up their conversation from last night, but Jeff brushed it off, putting his focus on her well-being. He offered to let her stay with him, as she did not want to go home, but Julia realized quickly what a big mistake that would be and offered to go see her mother in Cottage Cove instead.
Later, when Brett regained consciousness in the hospital, Terri made sure to keep Julia out of the picture, which told Julia that she also knew about her affair. Feeling alienated, Julia left, only returning when everyone else was gone and Brett was sleeping. He soon awoke and asked her where everything had gone wrong between them. He asked if she'd ever loved him and Julia insisted that she had, but Brett did not appear to believe her, decrying their marriage as nothing but a "sick game" and telling her that he wanted a divorce.
Starting over and death:
Determined to put her feelings for Jeff behind her, Julia retreated to the safety of her mother's home in Cottage Cove. She couldn't quite stay away from Haven Park, however, and returned to the church to pick up a few of the things she left behind in Brett's office. She saw Jeff there, and though their reunion was brief, it still shook Julia to the core. Later that night, she was surprised when someone came to her mother's door and hoped against hope that it would be Jeff, though she also chided herself for being so hung up with him after everything that had happened.
The visitor did turn out to be Jeff, and he drunkenly told her that Stan knew about their affair and had kicked him out of the house as a result. Julia's heart ached for the agony he was going through, and she told him that she loved him. At first, Jeff didn't seem to believe her, but once she offered her wedding ring as an item for him to sell in order to rent a place nearby, his doubts were silenced. Julia promised Jeff that they were in it together, and even lied to both him and her mother, letting him spend the night with her. Well into the night, Julia worked out a game plan that included appealing to Mona to let Jeff still see the kids and talking to her cousin about getting him a job. When Jeff awoke, he was surprised that Julia was still there and expressed misgivings over the whole situation. Julia affirmed that she'd meant every word she said the night before, though he didn't seem very convinced.
Having sold the ring and secured a small rental home in Cottage Cove, Jeff and Julia settled onto the couch and slept as it began to rain. When she awoke, Julia was struck by how subdued Jeff was, despite all of his good fortune, and began to wonder if he was serious about her. Jeff confessed that he was wondering the same thing of her and again, Julia affirmed that they were in this together. She mentioned that she'd even spoken to Mona, in an attempt to plead his case. Jeff told her that she shouldn't do that, but Julia insisted that she was not going to give up.
The next day, Terri paid a visit to Julia, bringing her some of the things that she'd left behind when she moved out of Brett's home. Terri used the opportunity to confront Julia on her affair and a verbal altercation ensued. Terri called Julia a slut, and Julia came back at her with her own infidelities. Undeterred, Terri vowed that she would make sure the whole world knew that Julia was not the saint she made herself out to be.
In Cottage Cove, Julia helped Jeff decorate his new home and then made them a fancy meal to celebrate, but Jeff was too shaken by his encounter with the kids to fully enjoy it. Even a romp in the sheets didn't appear to improve his mood, and long after Julia fell asleep, he stewed over Stan's words: you never cared about those kids, because if you did, you never would have put a whore ahead of them! Aside from regarding Julia as a whore, Jeff had to admit that Stan had a point, and wondered if winning her in the end was worth the pain they'd caused to get there.
When Julia awoke, promising that everything would work out as long as they had faith, Jeff called her on it, asking once and for all if their situation bothered her. She said that it didn't, which led him to remind her that she was the one who'd gone on and on for weeks about how wrong their affair was. Surprised, Julia asked if he believed their relationship was wrong, and after a bit of hesitation, Jeff admitted that he didn't...but he believed the way they went about it was. To that end, he announced he wanted her to go talk with Brett and try to clear the air, because he didn't like the way they'd left things. Julia seemed convinced he wasn't going to want to talk to her, but agreed, if only to ease Jeff's mind, promising that she would go see him in the morning.
As promised, Julia went to see her soon-to-be ex-husband, but debated whether or not she should leave before he opened the door, because she wasn't sure why Jeff was so adamant she pay Brett a visit in the first place. Before she could talk herself out of it, he came to the door and after a tense initial exchange, he agreed to talk to her. Relieved, but nervous, Julia made an awkward attempt at small talk, and was surprised when Brett revealed that he'd resigned as pastor of First Baptist the day before -- in the middle of a service. The conversation grew more heated than there, with him encouraging her to spit out whatever it was she wanted to say, so they could both move on with their lives. Julia blurted another apology, but Brett didn't seem interested, reminding her that they'd been over that, several times, but it didn't matter how sorry she was, because the situation remained the same.
Flustered, Julia tried to explain that she never meant for her affair with Jeff to happen, and that she never wanted to hurt him -- she just felt so alone. An unexpected phone call derailed her train of thought, and after dramatically slammng the phone down multiple times to regain her attention, Brett confronted her about her flippant dismissal of his aspirations to move to New York and become an actor. She tried to apologize and explain that she only did that because she was concerned about what the inevitable rejection would do to him, but he accused her of being more worried about herself, because over the course of their ten-year relationship, she had never given him one thought. With that, he told her he didn't want to talk about this anymore, and to see herself out, but Julia followed him into the kitchen, insisting that he listen to her. Despite his protests, she again told him that she never meant for anything to happen, but she felt so alone because Brett was gone all the time, and admitted that when she confided that in Jeff, he made her feel something.
This served to upset Brett more, and he reminded her that the reason he was gone was to give her the status she'd always wanted, but even that wasn't good enough, because then she had to leave him for Jeff. Julia again attempted to apologize, saying she didn't think he would ever know, and Brett revealed how aware of her affair he'd actually been: he knew every time she snuck out of the house, every time she came back and every time she cried about it beside him. When asked why he didn't say anything about it sooner, he said he didn't want to believe she'd do that to him any more than he'd wanted to believe something else, but refused to elaborate on what he meant at first. After a little prodding, he asked if she remembered the time six months before they got married, when she got sick and could barely eat, but still managed to gain so much weight she had to fasten her skirt with a safety pin. Horrified, Julia realized this meant he also knew about the abortion she'd procured years ago, and insisted the only reason she'd done that was they were so young, and she was scared he was going to leave her if he found out. Brett argued that he wouldn't have left her, because that meant everything to him, before coming to the sad conclusion that the reason she'd never told him was it wasn't his child. Julia tried to deny this, but he only grew angrier, accusing her of cheating on him even then because she was always a "(expletive) whore." Without thinking, Julia slapped him, and hyperventilating, he latched onto her wrist. She tried to pull away, but he refused to let go, and that was when she saw the change in his eyes and realized that he was going to kill her. Julia put up quite a fight to stay alive, and succeeded in wounding Brett significantly with both a skillet and her nails, but ultimately, he overpowered her, and drowned her in the kitchen sink.
The Lost Interlude: Another Place and Time:
In part one of the lost Another Place and Time interlude, taking place in the alternate timeline of 1981, Julia is not shown, but is mentioned as Brett's ex-wife and the mother of his ten-year old daughter, Kate. Her attitudes do not appear to have changed much, as she expresses disapproval of her ex-husband's lifestyle and pregnant girlfriend Tina, despite having a new boyfriend named Dan. Julia also habitually comes up with excuses to keep Kate away from Brett, which he believes are due to his lifestyle. It is mentioned that in this timeline, she took three years to admit her affair with Jeff, and another five to have another one, though it is unclear whom she had this second affair with.
Character conception and representation:
In the original version of the story, Julia wasn't that much different of a character. She was still a very upstanding woman, well respected in the community, but she did not harbor the same secrets. She was nowhere near as interesting as this version, and mainly served as a background character, offering moral support where it was needed.
This version of Julia is very conflicted, and far more engaging. On one hand, she adores her husband and remains incredibly devoted to him, but there is something about Jeff that she cannot seem to resist. She doesn't want to hurt Brett, and would never do so intentionally, but she cannot control herself when Jeff is around.
During Independence Day's webseries era, actress Tuesday Weld served as Julia's visual representation.