Cathy Thornton
Background
Catherine "Cathy" M. Thornton is a medical doctor in South Australia. Her father is Professor Bernard Thornton and her mother is in hospice. Cathy is in a relationship with Geoff.
During the events of The Dreaming (1988) played by Penny Cook
Cathy is waiting outside when Warindji arrives on a stretcher brought in by two Hospital Aides who are surrounded by two Detectives. A Young Nurse tells Cathy that no one knows what happened to Warindji and that she was unconscious when the police found her. Dr Graham walks into the operating room with a Policeman. Cathy wonders to Sister if Warindji was unconscious before or after the police found her. Graham suggests they get her looked at quickly, but Cathy insists they do a thorough job.
Cathy and Graham look at the x-rays and while Cathy is staring at them, the image starts to move and Warindji starts to squirm on the stretcher and then codes. Cathy has a vision of Whalers attacking an Aborigine camp and she is chased into the cave by the leader of the Whalers. Warindji dies and Cathy tells Graham that she wants to do an autopsy. Cathy thinks she sees a gash on Warindji's shoulder, but when Graham checks her body, there is no gash wound. As Cathy is leaving work, she notices a tattoo pattern on her wrist. She goes to the library where the only other person there is a Cleaner and while taking notes on Aborigines, the clock stops working and her hand starts to move on its own and draws out a pattern. She drives home and Geoff asks her where she has been. He tells her that they are supposed to have dinner with the Maoists. She tells him that she would rather stay home and he calls her selfish and arrogant, just like Bernard. During the night, Cathy has a nightmare and when she wakes up, realizes the pattern she drew out matches that of an island. The next day at the hospital, Cathy asks the Admissions Officer who brought Warindji to the hospital. While they are talking, Najira steals the bracelet from the nearby table. Cathy's pager goes off and she calls Bernard and he tells her that her mother died and when the funeral is.
At the funeral, the Priest gives the final prayer while the Undertaker holds the umbrella for him. After the funeral, Cathy goes to speak to Bernard and when she gets into the car tells Geoff that she hates Bernard. Cathy tells Geoff that she is going to walk to work and as she is walking, she sees Najira arguing with Bernard about who the artifacts belong to. Cathy follows Najira into a bar where a Drunk is playing cards. She follows him outside past a Small Boy and shows him the mark on her wrist. He walks away from her and she hears a crash and walks to where the noise came from and sees a Truck Driver staring at the impaled body of Najira. She goes to Bernard's house and hears the phone ringing. She picks it up and Dr Richards asks to speak with Bernard and says he heard from some Students that Bernard went back to the island. Cathy finds a map in Bernard's house and drives away.
Cathy drives to an inn which she saw a photo of on Bernard's wall. She gets a room for the night from Alf and asks to rent a boat. During the night she thinks she hears a female guest crying and walks towards the lobby and see the Whalers harassing the same Aboriginal woman from the dream. She wakes up and takes a boat to the island. She finds Bernard chopping wood and she tells him that Richards was asking where he was and he tells her that he isn't leaving the island. She tells him about her visions and he suggests she might be working too much. While Cathy is on the beach she finds a mutilated sea lion. While she is taking a bath, Cathy has a vision that Geoff is hunted down and killed by the Whalers. Geoff arrives on the island and when Cathy sees him, she yells that he is dead. Later, Cathy hears Geoff scream and finds the diary with artifacts surrounding it. She reads from it and reads the entry where the Whaler leader talks of the murder of the men and his rape of the Aboriginal woman who fled into the cave of the dead. Bernard, now transformed into the leader of the Whalers attacks Cathy and she runs away. She finds Geoff's body tied up and impaled and runs to the lighthouse. Bernard follows her and tries to rape her and she grabs his weapon and strikes him with it. Bernard falls out of the window and falls to his death below.
