Villainess Review: Bree Carson (Aurora Teagarden Mysteries)

I've fully processed the fact that the Aurora Teagarden films are no more, but I still don't like it. I'm a huge fan of all of Hallmark Movies & Mysteries' signature series of mystery films, such as Mystery 101, Hailey Dean, and Crossword Mysteries, to name a few. However, I really enjoyed Aurora Teagarden, and one reason is because the films were based on the novels written by Charlaine Harris, who gave us the Sookie Stackhouse novels that turned into the HBO hit series, True Blood. The main reason is obvious: that series was a villainess magnet. 18 films aired on TV between 2015 and 2022, 14 of them featured at least one villainess, with 15 villainesses appearing overall. Out of the 15 who appeared, I truly believe that the best one from the bunch appeared in the film series' tenth installment: A Game of Cat and Mouse.

The film opened with a woman being dropped off at home by her fiance, only for the woman, named Jessica Howard, to suddenly see that her house has been ransacked, with a random excerpt left at the scene. Her attempt to call for help is thwarted by a hooded figure attacking Jessica and killing her, and we later fast forward three years to the film's events, where we see a couple of things: the progression of Aurora Teagarden's relationship with Nick Miller, and a series of mysterious crimes occurring in the small town of Lawrenceton. The crimes ranged from Lilian's car and Aida Teagarden's laptop being stolen, to a near-murderous attempt against Sally Allison! Yikes!

In addition, excerpts from romantic novels were left at the scenes, though as the Real Murders club noticed, some of the excerpts were from detective novels. Aurora and Nick also received some help from Bree Carson, a forensic psychologist who worked as a professor (as well as Nick's superior), and it was Bree who unveiled the suspect as a woman. That left two suspects: Dina McMillian (Nick's assistant) and Valerie Wagner (Aurora's close friend), and the suspicion was mainly pointed towards the latter, as Valerie checked out a detective novel at the local library. It was believed that Valerie had an obsession with Nick, but after Valerie was found nearly deceased due to an apparent suicide attempt, Aurora eliminated her as a suspect.

The recovered Sally was sent to Corinth to talk to Andrew Morgan, a firefighter who was engaged to Jessica Howard, as the cases appear to be similar, while Aurora talked to Bree about the case. During that conversation, Sally came through with some vital information: Andrew dated another woman after Jessica's death, but he didn't really remember her name, only that it began with an "S." With Bree present, Aurora received a photo of the "S" woman, which drew shock from Aurora, but that wasn't all that was drawn. A gun was drawn as well, from none other than Bree herself, as she demanded to see the photo. Aurora presented the photo of two women, with Bree being one of them, and it was followed by the gun-wielding villainess revealing that her friends called her "Sabrina."

At that moment, Bree boasted about her using her profession to plan the perfect murder, as well as right the wrongs committed against her (in her mind). Dina emerged after Bree's reveal began, and it was at that moment that Bree deceived Dina by claiming that Aurora was trying to kill her but she gained the upper hand. She manipulated Dina into helping her subdue Aurora by placing her in the trunk of her car, but Bree turned on Dina as well, boldly admitting that she was using her as she held Dina captive as well. Bree drove both women to the home of Professor Heller, and it was there that Bree was revealed as Jessica's killer three years prior, as she had been insanely obsessed with Andrew and wanted to be with him. Her latest plan was to kill both women and portray the deaths as a murder-suicide committed by Aurora, who asked what she had done to "wrong" Bree.

Bree's answer centered on one person: Nick Miller. Nick became the current object of Bree's obsession, but because she was Nick's superior, she couldn't date him. Bree, being a stickler for the rules, quit her job to attempt to pursue Nick, but seeing Nick and Aurora together enraged her to the point where she committed her similar stalking techniques to target Aurora. The villainess accused Aurora of "cutting in line" to get to Nick, and admitted to killing Jessica to get to Andrew, but added that she couldn't stand Andrew grieving over his fiancee. She also claimed that both Valerie and Dina were in her way, and also claimed that Aurora was underwhelming as an opponent, though Aurora managed to disarm Bree and escape with Dina.

Bree pursued Aurora inside a barn, where Nick entered and confronted his former boss. His attempts to talk Bree down were met with deaf ears, as she raised her gun to Nick after stating that all he cared about was rescuing Aurora, who tackled the villainess and disarmed her once again--leading to Bree's arrest.

Aurora Teagarden Mysteries: A Game of Cat and Mouse aired on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries on August 4, 2019, and the film featured Tammy Gillis as the evil Bree Carson. To say I loved this villainess would be an understatement, but in order to accurately describe her, I have to put on my psychoanalyst hat just for a second. There's no question that Bree was an unhinged, vicious, narcissistic, and insane madwoman, and there's also no doubt that she masked it all with a prim and proper demeanor. What really stands out to me is how well (and how deep) Bree hid it. I've seen villainesses let their psychotic side slip out either a little bit or a lot while attempting to mask that persona, but Bree never did. Even when her evil side was revealed, Bree was too calm and collected throughout the climax leading to her arrest. That not only makes Bree Carson immensely villainous, it also makes her a bit scary as well. All of this makes Bree Carson the absolute best villainess from the Aurora Teagarden series, and it's also because of Tammy Gillis' portrayal.

Gillis' acted out Bree's kindness and professionalism very well, but the true shining moment was Bree's reveal. The way Gillis portrayed her character's calm insanity was chillingly epic, and Bree's dialogue about how much she hated Andrew's mourning of Jessica was just...wow! Gillis, in that regard, dove in to Bree's narcissism very well with that line; it was just a terrific performance overall. Tammy Gillis has done quite a few HM&M films, and she's also appeared in episodes of Motive, Supernatural, Continuum, and Van Helsing, and also recurred as Marissa Staub on the short-lived Freeform series, Siren.

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Check out Bree Carson's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!