Reviewing Sara Canning's Pair of Munchausen by Proxy Villainesses

I've watched my share of crime shows and thriller films, and I have also followed my share of true crime stories, and in all my years of doing so, the story that always astounds me involves the sinister case of Munchausen by Proxy. Munchausen by Proxy is a different form of the usual Munchausen Syndrome, as the latter usually involves using oneself for attention. In the case of MBP, the person uses others, and the case is often the same: the person brings harm to another person usually for attention.

In Munchausen by Proxy stories, it is mostly women with the affliction; often bringing harm their children for attention, sympathy, and even money, and while it's mostly mothers, there are cases of aunts and even grandmothers as well. I've seen my share of these villainesses in scripted TV and film, and regarding this review, it centers on two of them; both of whom were played by the same talented actress: Sara Canning. They are as follows:

Tracy Blaine

One of my favorite episodes of the Canadian series, Motive, was "Interference," and the episode's cold open introduces its victim and killer. The victim was Tracy Blaine, a blogger who was the second wife of Steven Blaine, a juice company owner, and served as the stepmother to Steven's son Owen. Her killer: Cindy Vernon, a music teacher. As the episode progressed, we see Cindy obsessively following Owen, and I remember thinking that Cindy was portrayed as a woman who was obsessed with having kids of her own. We saw Cindy at the grave of a young boy named Aiden Harris, leading viewers to believe that Aiden was Cindy's son, and the fact that she had taken Owen increased the earlier belief. However, it turned out that Aiden was actually Cindy's student, but that was just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Aiden's father, Martin Harris, was revealed to be Tracy's previous fiance, and it led to a very sinister unveiling: Tracy had actually killed Aiden. As it turned out, Tracy continuously gave Aiden fruit-flavored (and sodium-filled) antacids under the pretense that she was giving him candy, and she did so to make Aiden sick and get his attention. She dumped Martin after her evil actions killed Aiden, and after marrying Steven, the villainess committed the same habit with Owen, and even used his illness to get attention from her bloggers. Cindy had known that Tracy was responsible for Aiden's death, but she couldn't prove it. After learning that Tracy was in Owen's life, Cindy tracked them on the day in question, and it saw Tracy berate Cindy and order her to stay away from them. This led to a struggle that ended with Tracy impaled on a branch, and in response to Tracy's pleas for help, Cindy further impaled Tracy, doing so to save Owen from her evil handiwork.

"Interference" was the sixth episode of Motive's fourth and final season, and aired on April 26, 2016. Tracy Blaine is one of my favorite villainesses from the series, not only because of how demented and insane she was, but also because of her ability to mask her true persona as a madwoman. Canning acted out Tracy's feigned kindness very well in the scenes where she was on her blog, but her best moment, IMO, was the flashback to that day in question, as we see Tracy's psychotic demeanor unveiled. In that regard, Canning acted out Tracy's insanity to perfection; her performance is why I loved Tracy Blaine as a villainess.

Check out Tracy Blaine's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!

Sheila

Five years later, Canning played another Munchausen by Proxy villainess, this time on the hit series, 9-1-1. In the episode, "Suspicion," a young boy named Charlie calls 911 regarding his mother, Sheila, being stuck on a balcony, and after she was rescued and hospitalized, Sheila informed Eddie Diaz that she needed to be with Charlie, with Eddie promising to look after her son. Eddie fulfills his promise, and regarding Sheila, she recovered and returned home to see that Eddie had cooked for Charlie, leading Sheila to inform Eddie that her son had a sensitive stomach. In response, Charlie stated that he was feeling better, as he and his mother had been moving from town to town and seeing various doctors.

It was also revealed that Sheila had started a "Fund Me" page to pay for Charlie's care, but it was revealed as a total scam. That's not all: it was also uncovered that Charlie's illness was intentionally caused by Sheila, as she had been poisoning him with eye drops to gain attention and money from his illness, doing so in various cities. In the episode's climax, Charlie caught Sheila dosing one of his meals with eye drops, leading to Charlie literally giving his twisted mother a taste of her own tainted medicine. After Sheila fell ill, Charlie called 911, leading to each one being taken in an ambulance of her own, with Sheila begging to be with Charlie, which clearly wasn't going to happen for a long, long while.

"Suspicion" was the penultimate episode of 9-1-1's fourth season, and aired on May 17, 2021. Regarding Sheila, she was immensely deranged, and Canning portrayed her very well. I had never seen an actress play two of these types of villainesses until I watched Canning in this episode, which caused this fan of villainesses to compare her two roles. Both characters were twisted and insane, but from what I saw, Sheila wasn't as sociopathic as Tracy Blaine. While both characters were immensely evil, at least Sheila gave some small semblance of a motherly demeanor, while Tracy (in my estimation) saw her victims as a means to an end. Just like she did in Motive, Canning gave a brilliant performance as Sheila in 9-1-1; doing an absolutely stellar job acting out Sheila's obsessive nature when it came to Charlie.

Check out Sheila's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!

Sara Canning has quite an extensive résumé. She played the regular role of Jenna Sommers on The Vampire Diaries, and also appeared on Nancy Drew as the title character's deceased mother. Canning also guest starred in episodes of Smallville, Take Two, Republic of Doyle, Supernatural, and Big Sky (among others), and in 2019, Canning played main protagonist Annie in the Lifetime film, Amish Abduction.

If you like this story and review, click the heart, and click the subscribe button for more of my stories! Tips and pledges would be greatly appreciated, but only if you want to do so!