Villainess Review: Cathy and Skylar Driver (Cradle Did Fall)

Lifetime took a break away from the batch of true crime films with this thriller, Cradle Did Fall, centering on Taylor Lewis and her infant daughter, Maya. Taylor later meets Cathy Driver, who introduced herself as a baby photographer, and offers to snap photos of Maya, with Taylor accepting. Cathy displayed a charming demeanor and continued doing so while introducing her daughter, Skylar, who was expecting. Similar to Cathy, Skylar turns on the charm, but as Cathy discusses her plans regarding Maya, we see Skylar head into the bathroom and open the window wide open.

Turns out, late that night, we see Cathy enter the house through the window and quietly creep around the house before drugging Taylor's drink and taking Maya out of the house. Taylor wakes up on the following morning and shrieks over Maya not being in her crib, leading to her calling the police. However, we see Detective Gallagher voice his suspicion towards Taylor to her friend, Linsey Walsh, and after Taylor informed Gallagher about the Drivers, he informed Taylor that he had spoken to Cathy and she claimed to have never seen Taylor before. Oh man.

So Taylor and Linsey go on their own investigation, and they end up learning more about Skylar after finding her old workplace. It turns out that Skylar was once married, but it ended due to Skylar's obsession with motherhood getting to her, which was triggered by her inability to have children. The obsession also resulted in Skylar losing her job, and while the pair of protagonists were investigating, Cathy and Skylar were in their car with baby Maya, watching them. During this scene, Cathy reveals her own secret: she had abducted Skylar when she was weeks old, revealing that she did so due to her belief that Skylar's actual mother wasn't capable of raising her, and adding that Taylor wasn't capable of raising Maya.

Cathy decided to visit Linsey to see what she learned about the pair, doing so while posing as a detective, and after Linsey reveals everything, she notices that Cathy had known that she and Taylor were at Skylar's house. Cathy, realizing that she slipped up, strangled Linsey to death with her scarf, and it was Taylor who found her friend's body and called Gallagher. Upon arrival, Gallagher informed Taylor that he found evidence that Linsey abducted Maya: in the form of a sweater that Maya wore on the night in question. He even asked Taylor if Linsey had children of her own and babysat Maya at any point, while suggesting that jealousy of Taylor served as a motive for Linsey becoming a villainess and kidnapper. Clearly, that sweater was planted by Cathy.

Cathy is relishing over the success of their scheme, but stated that Taylor was the only obstacle in their way to living as a family. Under Cathy's orders, Skylar entered Taylor's home to kill her, but Taylor attacked Skylar, as she sensed her presence. We later see a hooded figure leaving the house after Cathy received a text stating that the job was done. However, Cathy was stunned to see Taylor as the hooded figure, leading to Cathy being chased inside her own house by Taylor, who searched for Maya. After being fooled by a baby doll and Maya's cries through a baby monitor, Cathy attempted to kill Taylor with a pair of scissors, only for Taylor to use that same weapon to kill Cathy in self-defense before regaining her daughter. As for Skylar, Gallagher revealed that she was hospitalized but later placed in a mental hospital, where she was shown cradling a baby doll which she named, "Maya."

Cathy Driver: Other than the appearance of Ali Liebert as Taylor Lewis, the reason I was excited for this film was Kirsten Robek playing the film's main villainess, Cathy Driver. Robek has played a number of villainous roles (in fact, her appearance in this film comes just over a month after playing a villainess on Legends of Tomorrow), but she had never done the Lifetime villainess thing until this film. Cathy was very charming, cunning, and manipulative, but as we saw, she also had a ruthless side to her. Robek has a natural charm of her own, so it was easy for her to portray Cathy's chipper demeanor prior to the character's true colors being revealed. She also portrayed Cathy's vicious and ruthless nature very well; this was truly an amazing performance.

Among many other roles, Kirsten Robek has appeared many times on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, playing villainess Janet in one of the Murder, She Baked films, and playing regular character Gretchen Divoss in the Morning Show Mysteries series, while also playing another villainess, Linda Bennett, in an Aurora Teagarden film: "A Very Foul Play."

Skylar Driver: While watching the preview of this film, I was pleasantly surprised at the appearance of a second villainess in the form of Skylar Driver, and I figured that Skylar may have a Freudian Excuse or redeem herself. That was not the case. While the film revealed that Skylar was a kidnap victim of Cathy's and had been drilling ideas about motherhood into her head, the film showed that Skylar was every bit as evil and deranged as her "mother" was, as she was a willing participant in Maya's abduction, and had no problem planning to kill to fulfill her goal in becoming a mother herself. This was a stellar performance from Matreya Scarrwener, as we see her act out Skylar's charm as well as her mental deterioration. It has me hoping for a sequel where Skylar is out and continues her villainous quest to become a mother, as I believe Scarrwener could shine as a main villainess.

Matreya Scarrwener guest-starred on Once Upon a Time as Dorothy Gale, and she was a regular on short-lived series such as Ties That Bind and Imaginary Mary. She recently made a guest appearance on the second season finale of The CW's Two Sentence Horror Stories.

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Click here for Cathy Driver's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki, and click here for Skylar Driver's profile!