Ariel Vargas

Ariel Vargas is a main character in the TV series, Hartman.

Biography

Born in San Diego, California in October 1995. Ariel is the only child of Ellis and Diego Vargas. Her parents divorced when she was six years old and her father died in a car accident not long after.

When Ariel was eleven, her mother began to dating Gordon Fontana, who Ariel never truly liked. They got married two years later and Ellis become pregnant with Gordon's child (Ariel's half sister, Angela) the year after. Shortly after Ariel's 15th birthday, things took a dark turn for Ariel when Gordon turn violent and raped her in her bed one night and threatened to kill her if she told anybody afterwards.

Vargas at 15

Ariel attempted to act nothing happened, but Gordon continued to secretly abuse her for years. When she was 18, Ariel moved out of her family's house for college. Years later, she joined the police academy and was put on she was put on uniformed patrol duty. Despite moving out, Gordon still routinely abused Ariel and forcing her to sleep with him, under the threat of doing the same abuse to Angela as well.

In the eighth season, a newly promoted Ariel got involved in a case where two police officers were accused of raping a female colleague. Ariel caused trouble at first when she insults Detective Beth Greico and Mike Ramsey after seeing them together at crime scene. Ariel and Beth got into a squabble, which resulted in Beth forcing Ariel to leave under threat of arrest, not knowing at the time that Ariel is an undercover detective.

The squad detested her meddling until Sergeant Chloe Hartman discovered that Ariel is D.A. Fontana's daughter and also a witness to the rape. Ariel testified against the officers along with other civilian victims who came forward, resulting the rapist officers' convictions and imprisonment. Captain Thorne decides to keep Vargas on until the detective she filled in for, Linda Young, returns from her leave of absence.

In Ariel's first case with the MCU, the squad investigated the brutal stabbing of a woman in her own home. While the squad and the D.A.'s office suspected the victim's abusive ex-husband as a killer, Vargas did her investigation and listened to a couple of 9-1-1 calls which the victim made and realized that the ex-boyfriend of the victim's close friend is the killer.

Ariel and Hartman track the victim's friend, finding her just as her ex turned up and was about to kill her. Ariel bursts in and stops him and she and Hartman arrest the killer. Ariel finished her day and returned to her apartment where she found Gordon waiting for her. Ariel wasn't happy to see him; Gordon said he just wanted to talk, but then made a sexual advance towards and began touching and kissing her. Ariel, out of fear, ended up ultimately gives into Gordon's unwanted advances again.

At the start of the ninth season, Gordon had been on a busines trip for three months, giving her some degree of normalcy. But when babysitting Jack and Lauren's son Jason, Gordon returns, breaks into her apartment and holds Jason in his arms. When Ariel discovers them, she and Gordon confront each other as Ariel threatens to go public with his ongoing abuse against her, but Gordon not-so-subtly threatens harm against the Hartmans (and Jason) and her mother and sister if she does. After he gives her Jason and then leaves, Ariel, having had enough, declares war against her stepfather.

Ariel hired a group of teenagers to vandalize Gordon's car as her "first strike". The next day, she was forced to investigate the vandalizing of Gordon's car with other detectives. Ariel is satisfied when no evidence linking her to the crime turns up and is delighted about the teenagers over-vandalized the car but later, Gordon secretly confronts Ariel at police locker room over the vandalism.

Ariel strongly denies having anything to do with the crime, but a serious Gordon warns her that she will be sorry if he finds that she's lying and then zipping her trouser, as a warning that he may sexually assault her again as punishment. Gordon leaves, as Ariel promises he will be more sorry then she will. Couple weeks later, she end up spending time with Gordon after he invite her to lunch at his house. Ariel tries to leave but Gordon wants to take things further. Remember Gordon's threat from couple weeks ago, Ariel tries to reject Gordon but Vargas sees Gordon's office keys and end up to seeing an opportunity, she allows him to have his way with her again. Later, Ariel stole Gordon's office keys and then leave Gordon's house without anybody seeing her, but Deputy District Attorney Morgan Shane spot her and confronts Vargas over Gordon.

Ariel tells Morgan everything and her ongoing abuse but left shocked when Shane reveals that she was raped by Gordon when she was teenager. Ariel tells Morgan that she wants Gordon to pay for everything that he's done before Morgan told her that she wants in. Morgan and Ariel plotting against Gordon for months but Gordon attempts to control both of them and he has Morgan arrested for stealing drugs but later released.

Hartman gets involved in Vargas and Shane's recent secret activities after the colleague got suspicious. Hartman confront Ariel and Morgan who come clean about Gordon and the abuse they've suffered because of him. Horrified and disgusted, Hartman decides to help bring Gordon to justice, but is sworn to secrecy over the abuse until further notice.

Personality

Despite being a police officer, Ariel secretly struggles with her stepfather's ongoing abuse of her which has been on-and-off over. Ariel is scared of telling anybody, worried about her mother and half-sister's safety and fearing her own life, due to Gordon threatening to kill her twice in the past.

It's revealed on Season 9 that Ariel was pregnant with Gordon's child twice but the first time; she had suffers a miscarriage and the second time; she had an abortion.

Relationships

• Diego Vargas (father, deceased)
• Ellis Henderson (mother)
• Gordon Fontana (step-father)
• Angela Fontana (half-sister)
• Graham Henderson (uncle)
• Diane Henderson (aunt)
• Alison Henderson (aunt)

Trivia

• Service weapon: Glock 17