Villainess Review: Adele Bensimon (Bull)

CBS' hit series, Bull, recently celebrated 100 episodes and later ended its fifth season, with a sixth on the way. It's an amazing show; I binge-watched a few years ago and now I watch live on Monday nights. It was on September 20, 2016 that this show began its run with the episode, "The Necklace."

Dr. Jason Bull's case in this premiere involved the murder of Alyssa Yang, who was killed during a yacht party and whose body washed ashore. The accused killer was Brandon Peters, whose father, Pete Peters, owned the yacht, and during the trial, Bull met with Brandon's mother, Gail, and Adele Bensimon, who was the mother of Alyssa's friend, Taylor Bensimon. Both mothers indicated that Taylor and Brandon were an item, and regarding Alyssa, Adele claimed that Taylor begged to have Alyssa at the party, while also suggesting that Alyssa only befriended Taylor to get to Brandon.

Taylor ended up under suspicion after it was revealed that she gave a necklace (gifted by Adele) to Alyssa, and later sent an angry text to Alyssa afterwards. Brandon had been denying the claims against him but refused to reveal anything else until he later spoke privately to Bull, which saw Brandon reveal that he was gay. In addition, Brandon--who was closeted--revealed that he was with a man at the time of the murder, but didn't reveal the identity of his lover. Brandon ended up acquitted afterwards, while Adele rushed to get Taylor to her therapist's office. Bull noticed that Brandon exchanged glances with Adele's husband, Freddie Bensimon, and it was during the final scenes that Freddie revealed himself to Adele as Brandon's lover, with Adele scolding him over the affair.

It was not the only reveal, though, as Adele later went to her dresser and opened her jewelry box--and took out the necklace, the very same one that Taylor gave to Alyssa. The scene revealed that Adele murdered Alyssa, as she had wanted Taylor and Brandon to be together, though Adele was unaware of Brandon's sexual orientation. Adele strangled Alyssa to death after seeing her as an obstacle in her daughter's happiness, with Adele stating that she couldn't stand to see Taylor unhappy before hearing police sirens outside her house, and seeing Bull standing outside as well.

Tammy Blanchard played Adele Bensimon, who served as the first villainess on the series. Adele is a fascinating villainess, as while she was immensely malevolent in her murderous actions, there was that hint of humanity in her villainous rationale due to the fact that (in her mind) she was committing her actions for Taylor. Due to the whodunit factor, we don't really see Adele's villainous persona until that reveal in the very end, but even in her reveal, we see emotion in Adele after her sinister scowl emerges. Blanchard acted out Adele's reveal so wonderfully; that even mix of diabolical villainy and motherly emotion as she utters her statement: "I just couldn't stand for you to be unhappy."

Tammy Blanchard has done the villainess thing quite a bit in her career. She's played villainous roles on Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Blue Bloods, and even played a Lifetime movie villainess; portraying Jessica Parker in 2018's The Wrong Son. Blanchard has also appeared on the original Law & Order, as well as SVU, and recently played Lana Cassidy on USA Network's short-lived series, Dare Me.

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