Villainess Review: Maeve (iCarly)

I just want to say, I really love Paramount+'s iCarly reboot! This is coming from someone who never religiously watched the original series, but I have seen enough episodes from the original run to know how amazing that show was. So when I learned about a reboot coming to Paramount+ (formerly known as CBS All Access), I was all in. It was amazing to see a vast majority of the original cast back, though the main difference is that the reboot features Laci Mosley as Harper Raines, who serves as Carly's roommate and best friend, filling the void left by the absence of Jennette McCurdy as Sam Puckett.

From the first episode on, Harper mentioned her cousin, Maeve, who had been missing for four years, with the added information revealing that she was held captive at sea by pirates. After much mention from Harper, the opening scenes of episode 1.10, "iTake a Girls' Trip," saw Maeve suddenly appear at Harper's doorstep, with Harper being very elated to see her cousin back in her life. What followed was Maeve expressing her trauma over her ordeal, even going as far as stating that due to being held captive at sea for so long, spraying sea water no longer calms her. Harper removes herself from Carly's planned girls' trip to stay with her cousin and attempt to make up for lost time, but that hits a snag when Maeve meets Spencer, and sparks start to fly.

Maeve and Spencer share quite a few similarities (one of them being that they both love the 1997 film, Titanic), and as we see in the following episode, "iCan Fix it Myself," their relationship progresses. However, we also see Maeve provide a very shocking confession: she faked her kidnapping. Maeve revealed that her family lost all of their money back them, and she went on a cruise to get away from paparazzi and (more importantly) debt collectors. She staged her abduction for all of those years, and she mentioned the sympathy she received as a "kidnap victim," and continued playing up the role during her "re-emergence," but added that she came clean because she really loved Spencer and couldn't deceive him anymore.

The revelation didn't scare off Spencer, but they had another problem: Harper's reaction to the truth. The pair planned to tell Harper at the right time, but after seeing Harper's happiness over getting a huge styling job with pop diva Dutch, Maeve decides not to tell Harper. Unfortunately for the pair, Dutch overheard their conversation and started singing about Maeve's actions, leading Spencer to crash Harper and Dutch's meeting to attempt to keep Dutch from spilling the proverbial tea. When Maeve enters, Spencer stated that he "spilled the tea," after which Maeve confessed everything. It wasn't until it was too late that Maeve learned that Spencer literally spilled the tea, but the damage was done, and Harper was livid. She was angry over being deceived by Maeve, but the final scenes saw the cousins reconcile after Maeve's apology to Harper, after which they sung Harper's charity song, Save Maeve, together.

Maeve (so far) has appeared in two episodes of the iCarly reboot, and she is played by Lyric Lewis. Despite her sweet-natured demeanor, Maeve was a villainess--as her backstory and truth behind her "abduction" revealed. I was (and still am) surprised that Maeve actually did have a villainous side to her; it was a very shocking reveal. In regards to her past, Maeve was quite deceptive, as not only did she keep a lie going for four years, but her falsehood really affected Harper greatly. Even in her on-screen debut, Maeve's heel persona remained with her act as a survivor of a years-long abduction, but we did see genuine remorse in her second episode, as she didn't want to continue deceiving others due to her guilt and her love for Spencer. Lewis portrayed Maeve's feigned trauma very well, and her scenes with Spencer were just a delight to watch, from their shared interests being displayed to Maeve's revelation and guilt over her actions. It seems like a safe bet that we should see more of Lyric Lewis on the show, and with the Season 2 renewal, I wouldn't be surprised if she becomes a regular.

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