Reviewing a Hat Trick of Villainesses from the Season Finale of "Alert: Missing Persons Unit"

School House Rock said it best: three is a magic number. On the night that Alert: Missing Persons Unit's season finale aired, I watched the Colorado Avalanche (the three-time Stanley Cup Champions) win 3-0 over the Vegas Golden Knights. That aforementioned episode delivered with not one, not two, but three villainesses in the two-hour double episode event. It was quite thrilling from beginning to end, and here's what occurred.

The finale event began with the first episode, "Briana," which centered on Briana Williams, who is set to be married to her fiancé of three months, Trevor Melfi. On the wedding day, Briana is attacked and abducted by a masked culprit, and the investigation into the crime reveals that Briana is a cam girl, which Trevor--for some reason--objects to (my goodness). The quest leads to the home of one customer, Henry Starkey, who spent a load of money on Briana...over $47,000. The visit was because of angry messages sent to Briana, with the belief that they came from Henry, who revealed that he was upset that the woman he saw as Briana was actually a bot.

However, a look into the messages revealed that the actual author of the angry texts was a woman, with little differences between the sets of texts being the determining factor. It was deduced that there was only one woman who could have done this, the only one with the connection to Henry's money: his wife, Gloria Starkey, who we briefly saw invite Kemi into the house to speak to Henry. While Kemi and Mike made their deduction, we see Gloria walking to the shed and putting on her mask before approaching a beaten and tied up Briana, and it's followed by the heel-turned Gloria lashed out at Briana and accused her of destroying her marriage to Henry, while revealing that she forced Briana to give her the access codes so she could get the money (the couple's retirement fund) back. Because the money was returned, Gloria freed Briana, but the victim fought back against the villainess, who shoved Briana through a window.

Afterwards, Gloria approached Henry and asked for her help, only for Henry to see a bloodied Briana and realize that his wife abducted her. Gloria forced Henry to help bury Briana, but while they do so, they suddenly see Briana revived. She is--somehow--alive, but Gloria plans to shoot Briana to death, though Henry attempts to stop her. The enraged Gloria sees Henry's attempt to reason with his wife as a defense for Briana, and her rage sees her shoot Henry before she pursues Briana. Jason arrived and attempted to get through to Gloria, which even included stopping Gloria from committing suicide. As for Henry, he survived the gunshot; barely, but he did.

While that was a great storyline, it was not the main focus the episode, as the spotlight was hurled towards the very person who abducted Jason and Nikki's son, Keith, six years prior. The end of the first half revealed the abductor as a woman named Beth Colt, who we see with another of her victims, Joe Maxwell, and this is a smooth transition to the second half, "Max," which centers on the pursuit of Beth. We first learn Beth's backstory; she was a trauma surgeon and a single mother of one son, Noah, who was diagnosed with amyloidosis at age seven. Despite Beth's efforts, Noah didn't qualify for various transplant lists, because, as Nikki sadly put it, if he received a new kidney, he'd need a new lung three months later.

Noah's fate wasn't unknown at that point, but even so, Beth resorted to abducting various boys and killing them by harvesting their organs. Max was Noah's latest victim, while Keith managed to escape. Beth was tracked by Jason and Nikki, though the latter ended up abducted by Beth, and taken to the same place where Max was held captive. Nikki managed to help Max escape while she herself broke free and went towards where Nora was laid up, but she was in for a frightening and gnarly surprise. Noah was not only dead, he had been for quite some time, yet the organs were going into his overly stitched up body. Yikes!

Beth drugs Nikki and prepares to take out her heart, but she is stopped by Jason, who comes very close to killing her, but Nikki talks him down. All is well; Keith's abductor is finally caught--until she isn't. So Keith is run down and taken by an unknown woman, and as for Beth, she's suspected of having an accomplice in her crimes. However, not only does Beth deny taking Keith, she doesn't even recognize him when she is shown a photo of the young man. Something's up. First off, they look into the woman; her name is Evelyn Hadley and she has a rap sheet longer than a football field. Jason and Nikki head to the house and find Keith, but Evelyn arrives and tells the pair to get away from her son.

I'm sorry...WHAT?!

So the cat's out of the bag. Keith isn't Keith, but we all knew this. Well, Sidney did...throughout the entire season. "Keith" was actually Evelyn's son, Lucas, and he was part of his mother's scheme to get money out of Jason and Nikki: with the scheme seeing Lucas pose as Keith Grant and acting as if he was being held for ransom. Evelyn would collect the ransom from Jason and Nikki, but one thing complicated things: Lucas was happy with his new family, much better than the abusive environment he was raised in. He bonded with his newfound parents and even his suspicious "sister," and that drove Evelyn into a rage. Evelyn continued to lash out at her son and blame his quest for happiness and a better life for the situation he was currently in, which was being held at gunpoint by his crazed mother. Her increasing anger over Lucas' devotion to Jason and Nikki actually ended up resulting in Evelyn actually shooting her own son, who took his last breath in Nikki's arms.

Evelyn was arrested, and the season long mystery about Keith Grant was finally closed, weeks after Sidney revealed that Keith drowned in a lake on the day in question. As for how Lucas pulled off the ruse, he learned everything about the Grants from newspaper clippings, and actually burned himself to create Keith's scar. Also, Lucas' claim that he was used as a blood bag for Beth? It actually happened to his friend, Oliver; Lucas took that story as part of his ruse. Amazing ending to this season, I truly hope this show gets renewed. But until that time comes, let's talk about the villainesses featured in this episode.

Gloria Starkey

The double episode season finale, "Briana" and "Max," aired on February 27, 2023, and featured Olga Montes as the first half's main villainess, Gloria Starkey. I absolutely loved this villainess! Gloria Starkey was scorned, vengeful, unhinged, bitter, and yes, petty. Especially petty. As ruthless as Gloria was in her quest to abduct Briana and hold her captive for the purpose of regaining the money that Henry spent on her, she was even more relentless on forcing Henry to cover for her when she thought that she had killed Briana. The emotional blackmail was strong with that one, and a line of hers definitely stayed with me. When Henry stated how insane his wife's scheme was, Gloria's response:

"You want sane? Don't cheat on your wife."

I had a statement of my own: "You want sane, Gloria? Divorce him when he does cheat."

Of course, Gloria was also nice enough to don the sinister balaclava (face mask) as part of her on-screen heel turn and unveiling as Briana's abductor, and that whole scene was golden. Montes portrayed Gloria's unhinged vengeance very well, especially in the scene where she berates Briana and blames her for deceiving Henry and ruining their marriage. Even as her victim complex became large enough to fill AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Gloria was quite the amazing villainess, the best one from Season One, and it's all thanks to the stellar performance of Olga Montes.

Check out Gloria Starkey's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!

Beth Colt

The transistion between both halves of the finale gave us Beth Colt, played with chilling depth by Bethany Anne Lind. To say that Beth was deranged and insane would be an absolute understatement. Now, her backstory was immensely tragic. Her son had a deadly disease as a child, and it was killing him, and even worse, there was nothing that Beth could do to save him. However, with her actions afterwards, Beth took her Freudian Excuse and chopped it to bits. I read a comparison to villains on Criminal Minds in a recap about the episode, and it's pretty apt, as I recall seeing an episode of that show with a similar baddie.

Beth's Freudian Excuse wasn't the only thing that was far gone, sadly. Noah was as well; he had been gone for who knows how long, yet in Beth's twisted mind, he was still clinging to life. Beth's crimes were gruesome, as was her delusional mindset, but Lind's performance was beautiful. She went all the way when it came to Beth's madness and her ruthless drive, and she never even thought to look back in her portrayal of this immensely demented villainess. Bethany Anne Lind has also appeared in episodes of Stranger Things, The Game, The Walking Dead, and Ozark (among a few others).

Check out Beth Colt's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!

Evelyn Hadley

The twist climax of "Max" gave us one more villainess in the form of Evelyn Hadley, who was played by Edie Inksetter. Evelyn was an absolute piece of work, and I'm being generous when I say this. It wasn't enough that she had to commit all sorts of different crimes, she decided to commit one that toyed with the emotions of a family that was already suffering from the disappearance of their child. Even worse, Evelyn forced her son to serve as the centerpiece of her greedy scheme, but what she didn't count on (though she should have, I mean, come on) was Lucas actually being happy to be with parents who actually loved him and not use him as a punching bag.

I'm not a therapist, nor do I play one on TV, but if I had to guess, Evelyn's anger over Lucas' bond with Jason and Nikki has to stem from an unwillingness to accept the truth: she was a terrible and abusive mother. That was shown in Evelyn's brief scene, as she repeatedly blamed Lucas for everything and resorted to not only holding her son at gunpoint, but killing him as well. Inksetter's appearance was brief, but it was enough time for her to truly act out Evelyn's self-serving and abusive personality in such spectacular fashion. The Canadian-born Inksetter has appeared in a lot of her nation's notable programs, such as Private Eyes, Schitt's Creek, and Coroner.

Check out Evelyn Hadley's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!

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