Villainess Review: Daisy Faulkner (The Secret Lives of College Freshmen)

One night after LMN gave us Secret Life of a Student, we received this amazing film, The Secret Lives of College Freshmen, which centered on Hannah Marks attending college in Oregon--a long way from her California home. She meets up with her best friend, Jodie Mays, who shows Hannah around the campus, with another student, Daisy Faulkner, doing the same. Hannah's elation increases when she finds out that the teacher in her writing class is none other than her idol, Andrew Hampton, who takes a liking to Hannah quickly.

I just want to say, it's very good to see Sarah Grey in a Lifetime film again, it's been far too long. Anyway, now back to our regularly scheduled review.

So, Hannah's elation turns into curiosity when she learns that her and Jodie's room was once occupied by Amy Hanes, who suddenly fell to her death three months prior. Though the death was an apparent suicide, Hannah figures out that Amy was killed, and she also finds Amy's journal, which reveals that she had found out that a student was committing plagiarism. All the while, Hannah's bond with Hampton escalates, and Jodie ended up chloroformed and abducted, while Daisy was shown to have scratches and bruises of her own. The main suspect is another student, Rachel Garber, who--according to Daisy--had an apparent crush on Amy, who didn't reciprocate. The ultimate shocker comes when Hampton himself is found dead--another apparent suicide, with a gold-filtered cigarette at the scene, the same ones that Rachel smokes.

So it definitely looks like Rachel is the killer, and it appears to be confirmed as a driver runs both Hannah and her mother, Nancy Marks, off the road. However, we later see Hannah tied up and gagged, as well as a pair of black boots entering the room, but the boots actually belong to Daisy, the true villainess behind everything.

So as Hannah figured out, Daisy was the plagiarist, and Amy found out and confronted her. Daisy faced expulsion from college, and to prevent that from happening, she entered Amy's room and pushed her out the window and to her death. She had avoided suspicion for three months, but when Hannah started investigating, Daisy abducted Jodie and bruised herself to cover her tracks, and she later murdered Hampton and planted the cigarettes to set up Rachel. In addition to voicing her desire to cover up her "mistake," Daisy voiced her jealousy of Hannah's bond with Hampton and was set on killing her, only for Nancy's appearance to allow both mother and daughter to take down the deranged villainess. Daisy continued her pursuit and was set on killing Hannah, but after being knocked out by Nancy, the madwoman ended up arrested.

The Secret Lives of College Freshmen aired on September 24, 2021, and featured Abby Ross as villainess Daisy Faulkner. Daisy was absolutely unhinged and maniacal, and she masked it all with a beautiful smile and a chipper demeanor. This was a young woman who was consumed with ambition, as well as a bit of jealousy, and she used both in her scheme to lie, cheat, and kill her way to her educational goal. Ross' performance as Daisy was just amazing; she played Daisy's cheery persona well, but really shined when it came to Daisy's insanity and viciousness. I really enjoyed seeing this villainess in action.

Abby Ross is very familiar to fans of Supernatural, such as myself. She appeared in the episode, "Ladies Drink Free," as Hayden Foster, a teenage runaway who becomes a vicious werewolf. Ross also played actress Tori Spelling in Lifetime's The Unauthorized Beverly Hills, 90210 Story, and again in The Unauthorized Melrose Place Story, and also appeared in episodes of Supergirl, the Charmed reboot, and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.

I feel like I should add a bonus here. Rachel Garber was quite a red herring in this film, to the point where we were treated to this amazing nightmare sequence in the film. Now, we all know why Rachel was suspected: she was the "outcast," and the perceived "outcast" often looks suspicious. Hannah's suspicions of Rachel reached the point where she had this brief nightmare that shows Hannah asleep in her bed, while a hooded and masked villainess enters her room. We see a switch between the scenes of Amy's murder and Hannah's sequence, with Hannah being woken up by the door closing, and later seeing the window open. Hannah attempts to close it, but she is later shoved out the window by the hooded villainess, who lowers her mask and reveals herself as Rachel, after which Hannah wakes up from her nightmare.

I do love a good dream sequence/alternate reality villainess, and this evil version of Rachel was absolutely amazing. Rachel's heel turn in Hannah's nightmare was due to the wave of suspicion against her, and while her villainous appearance in the sequence was brief, it was still impressive. Rachel was very lethal in this scene, and it came with the ultimate killer look: a masked and hooded disguise complete with black leather gloves. Rachel Garber was played by Max Chadburn, and her other credits include appearances in shows such as Lucifer, Once Upon a Time, and The Good Doctor. For a profile of Rachel Garber's evil dream sequence version on Villainous Beauties Wiki, click here.

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Click here for Daisy Faulkner's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!