Jennifer Mapplethorpe

Casting

Shortly after she returned to Australia from a four month stay in London, Garner was offered the chance to audition for the role of Jennifer. Of her casting, she said "It looked like a strong production, the cast was exceptional, the chance to play a strong female lead on a commercial network on a show I think has a lot of credibility; it wasn't something to turn down." Garner filmed the pilot for City Homicide in 2006. The Seven Network commissioned the series the following year and Paul Kalina of The Age commented that the network bosses were "very pleased" with Garner's performance. Garner revealed that it was "nice" to be working in her home town of Melbourne, as it meant she could go home every night instead of returning to a hotel.

In 2008, Garner became pregnant with second child. She continued filming until a couple of days before her due date. She told a Herald Sun reporter "I was originally going to finish up after we complete this current block, but then they decided to write me into the next block. So my final day of shooting will be two days before my due date." Garner took an eight week break from the series after she gave birth and her character was absent from four episodes.

Development

"Jennifer's an ambitious, intelligent woman, and her ability to think on her feet is what makes her an ideal Homicide Detective. Jennifer's sensitive, without being sentimental and she has a strong ability to read people - crooks and cops alike."

Garner spent time with real homicide detectives to help her get a sense of the role. She told a Daily Telegraph reporter that there is a long waiting list to get into the homicide squad and that the people who chose the career had a strong morality. Of Jennifer, the reporter stated "Garner's character Mapplethorpe puts her career ahead of everything. She's lucky to get a gig on the sought-after homicide squad and she's not giving it up." Superintendent Bernice Waverley (Noni Hazlehurst) becomes supportive of Jennifer because she thinks she adds something to the team.

Storylines

When the series began, Jennifer was new to Homicide and had previously been in the Fraud squad. She was meant to only be a temporary replacement for Duncan Freeman but eventually became a permanent member of the Homicide Squad.

In the season 1 episode "Lie Down With Dogs" Jennifer suffered a traumatic event when she had to shoot a teenage boy dead in self-defense. However in the next episode The Return, a meeting with the boy's mother, who eventually understood that Jennifer had no choice, helped her overcome this.

In the season 2 episode "Guilty As Charged", when a man on trial for murdering his wife and young daughter was found not guilty, Jennifer became determined to catch him at another crime. The man soon became as obsessed with Jennifer as she was with catching him and started stalking her and cornered her in the bush and tried to kill her. Matt and Duncan arrived in time to save her and the man received 5 years for attempted murder. Her colleagues all thought this sentence was too light, however, Jen stated that once his fellow inmates found out that he was suspected of killing his daughter, prison life would probably kill him, as men who harm children do not do well in prison.

In the season 4 episode "Reunion" it is revealed that Jen and Nick Buchanan worked undercover for the SIS as Trish and Wesley Claybourne in the past and that is how they first met each other. They were both forced to go back undercover by the SIS to help prevent a terrorist attack and in the episode "Undercover" Jen is shot in the shoulder by Travis Abbott but it was just a flesh wound so she survived.