Villainess Review: Emily (9-1-1)

One of my recent favorite shows is Fox's 9-1-1 series, which ended its fourth season and will be back for a fifth. I do love that for the most part, it seems like four or five episodes in one full hour (counting ads), as we see responses to many different emergencies, all with a similar theme. Regarding this episode, it was "Rage," and it kicked off with two women, Denise and Emily, at Happy's Rage Room, a place where customers unleash their pent-up anger by smashing various objects.

Emily wasn't very sure about doing this, but Denise informed her friend that she needed to get through her pending divorce from her husband, Eric, after which Emily agreed to participate. Denise motivated Emily all the way, telling her to think about all the ways Eric would anger her. One incident involved Eric leaving Emily to tend to the kids while he hung out with his friends, with Emily remembering and wielding the sledgehammer in response. Denise later tells Emily about how Eric would make annoying noises during sex, but that alarmed Emily. How could Denise know that?

It led to a surprise revelation: Denise was sleeping with Eric, and regarding Emily, she had suspected another woman was involved, but didn't think that it was her so-called best friend. Denise became the new focus of Emily's anger, as she went after Denise with the sledgehammer, prompting Denise to call 911 and state that her friend was trying to kill her. Sure enough, Bobby Nash, Athena Grant, and the rest of the LAFD unit arrived, but they had to rescue Denise--as she was stuck inside a barrel she was hiding in. Denise was rescued, while Emily was in handcuffs--arrested for the attempted attack. While Denise stated that she didn't want to press charges and blamed herself for Emily's heel turn, Emily lashed out at Denise, informing her former friend that she would rather be in jail than take anything from Denise, even her remorse.

"Rage" was the fifth episode of 9-1-1's third season, and aired on October 21, 2019. The opening segment of this episode was amazing, and it was mainly because the segment's villainess, Emily, played in stellar fashion by Dorian Brown Pham. I loved Emily's reluctance and quiet demeanor in the beginning, that was Phase 1 of that character. Phase 2 was Emily being reminded of how much Eric upset her, and it allowed us to see her as a frustrated woman with a lot of pent-up (and justified) anger. Phase 3 was Emily's heel turn after finding out that her own best friend was sleeping with Eric, as we saw her become an unhinged and maniacal villainess bent on harming and (possibly) killing Denise, with her villainous defiance remaining even after she was handcuffed and arrested.

In all regards, Brown played all of Emily's emotions wonderfully. She acted out Emily's quiet demeanor very well, and also portrayed Emily's frustration spectacularly, but in regards of Emily's rampage towards Denise, that was played to perfection. Emily went from 0 to 60 in just over two minutes of air time, but despite that little time, Brown's overall performance was just amazing and epic. This isn't Dorian Brown Pham's first villainous role; she played villainess Helaine Morgan in an early episode of NCIS: New Orleans, and she's made guest appearances on the original NCIS, Psych, and Supernatural, to name a few shows.

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