Villainess Review: Miss Mitchell (Killing for Extra Credit)

Per usual, when March Madness hits the National Hockey League, Lifetime comes through with some amazing and surprising villainesses in their films. This film, Killing for Extra Credit, was no exception. The central character was Marybeth Morris, and as we see in the introduction, she's gone through a bit of a ringer. Her return to school comes for the first time since she was relentlessly bullied on social media after racy photos of Marybeth were leaked to the public. As the backstory also revealed, the leak came just as Marybeth was running for class president, but she had to drop out due to the embarrassment.

Marybeth's allies came in the form of her two good friends, Sophie and Ray, and all three despised the class president, Toby Dandridge, as he was involved in the leak. Another ally was Marybeth's teacher, Miss Mitchell, who served as a means of emotional support for Marybeth during her introduction. The plot begins to thicken when someone known as "extracredit" is exposing all sorts of secrets about the school students, and among them was quite a shocker: Sophie, Marybeth's own BFF, was behind the leak of the photos.

Marybeth is stunned by this, and ignores Sophie's pleas for innocence. Sophie is shunned by the rest of the school, and later on, she's found deceased. The drama doesn't end there, as Marybeth is on the receiving end of threats to halt her investigation, but she and Ray march on, including a confrontation with Toby that revealed that he blackmailed Sophie to release the photos. So what dirt did Toby have on Sophie? Well, she was adopted, and the process was, well, less than legal.

As for the "extracredit" identity, all suspicions were pointed towards Toby, and regarding Sophie's adoption, Marybeth, Ray, and Josh (Marybeth's boyfriend) did some digging and found a photo of baby Sophie with Miss Mitchell. So Miss Mitchell was Sophie's birth mother, but Marybeth and Ray's visit to their teacher's home saw the reveal being met with anger from Miss Mitchell, who loudly ejected the pair. However, it didn't end there. An attempt to call Toby saw Marybeth and Ray hear Toby's phone from inside Miss Mitchell's garage. They entered and saw Toby tied up to a chair, but their attempt for free Toby was interrupted by Miss Mitchell, who knocked out Ray and wielded a knife as she made her villainous revelations.

So regarding Sophie, Miss Mitchell was forced by her father to give her up for adoption, and that resulted in Miss Mitchell's father basically selling Sophie to the Arredondo family, who couldn't conceive. As the madwoman revealed, Sophie being placed in her school was happenstance, and as for Sophie, she confided in Miss Mitchell that she was being blackmailed by Toby and forced to send racy photos of Marybeth. Miss Mitchell took Sophie's phone and deleted the photos...or so Sophie thought. As it turned out, Miss Mitchell leaked the photos, doing so under the veil of protecting her daughter. However, when "extracredit" mentioned the leak, Sophie confronted Miss Mitchell, who officially revealed to Sophie that she was her birth mother.

The villainous teacher ranted that she expected Sophie to understand her and voice her gratitude, only to be scolded by Sophie, who ran out of Miss Mitchell's classroom in tears. It didn't end there, as Marybeth realized that Miss Mitchell was the mysterious hooded figure who displayed the threatening signs towards Marybeth, and it was followed by Miss Mitchell and Toby accusing each other of being "extracredit." Miss Mitchell attempted to kill Toby, but after being fought off, she ran out of the garage, only to be followed by Marybeth. This led to one more reveal: Sophie's death was caused by Miss Mitchell, as she arrived at the rooftop after Sophie texted Marybeth, and it led to another argument that ended with Sophie's accidental fall over the rooftop. Miss Mitchell fretted over Sophie's death and blamed herself for killing her daughter, only for Marybeth to to inform the villainess that Sophie's death was an accident. Miss Mitchell ended up arrested, but regarding "extracredit," the person behind that account was none other than Ray, who carried a torch for Marybeth and became "extracredit" in a crazed attempt to get Marybeth's affection.

Killing for Extra Credit aired on Lifetime on March 17, 2024, and the film featured Amy Trefry (they/them/she/her) as the evil Miss Mitchell. I was definitely not expecting a villainess in this film. I had watched Reel One's trailer and none was revealed, so that--again--shows that Trailers Don't Always Spoil. Even if a villainess had appeared, I definitely wasn't expecting one as amazing as Miss Mitchell. Miss Mitchell was introduced as the ultimate ally for Marybeth. We saw her comfort Marybeth many times in this film. Little did we know that under that kindly and caring veil was an insane and maniacal villainess who was capable of just about anything, including this:

Very nice of Amy Trefry to don the "hoodie of evil" in this flashback scene, but along with the evil hoodie, another reason why I loved this is because it truly showed what Miss Mitchell was capable of. This was a villainess who was willing to sabotage one of her students for (in her mind) the sake of her daughter, and as we saw in the moments leading to the revelations being uncovered, the hints of Miss Mitchell's insane persona were slowly coming out. What I find fascinating is the lack of remorse when it came to leaking the photos. Usually when a villain is someone who appears to have the hero's back, there's a bit of remorse for plaguing the hero. In the case of Miss Mitchell, there wasn't. She truly didn't care about the damage she had inflicted on Marybeth's mental well being; in fact, she was willing to kill Marybeth (among others) to keep the truth hidden. All of this made Miss Mitchell quite evil and deranged, though there was some remorse when it came to Sophie's death.

Amy Trefry was amazing as Miss Mitchell; their performance as the villainess was just absolutely awesome. Trefry acted out Miss Mitchell's kindness so well, that it made Miss Mitchell's heel turn an absolutely big time shocker. From that point, Trefry was absolutely golden when it came to Miss Mitchell's psychotic demeanor, it was just deliciously epic!

If you like this story and review, click the heart and the subscribe button, and feel free to comment below. Tips and pledges would be greatly appreciated, but only if you want to do so!

Check out Miss Mitchell's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!