Villainess Review: Nadine Massey (Medium)

No wonder Carter Pewterschmidt loves this show. I remember Medium airing on NBC for five seasons, and then moving to CBS for the final two, with the CBS episodes airing on Fridays. I had seen my share of episodes when they actually aired on TV, as well as the reruns, and I had always been fascinated by the storylines...as well as some of the female baddies. Some of them are tragic, and a big example was featured in the episode, "The Reckoning."

The episode's opening dream sequence featured Allison DuBois driving at night before running over a young girl. It's later followed by Allison encountering a woman named Nadine Massey, who appears to be distressed, leading to Allison giving her business card to Nadine. Shortly afterwards, Nadine starts popping up in Allison's dreams, and she appears to be haunted. Also, the same song repeatedly plays (You and Me by Lifehouse), and it's followed by a panicked Nadine venting to her husband, James, about wanting to confess something, which begins to anger James before Allison wakes up. That following day, Allison learns that Nadine committed suicide, and another dream occurs; a continuation from the last one, which ends with a gunshot being heard.

So what about the dream that began the episode? As it turns out, there was a connection. After Allison drives past a memorial for Melanie Davenport (the girl from Allison's opening dream) and learns that she was killed in a hit and run a year prior, she has a vision of the events that led to the tragedy. In the vision, James and Nadine are driving home after celebrating the latter's birthday, and their good time is interrupted by James running over Melanie. Nadine wanted to call 911 and help Melanie, but James suddenly stops her, adding that they were both drinking and voicing against ending up in prison. So instead of helping Melanie, James drives off and forces Nadine to keep their incident a secret, and as a result, Melanie succumbed to her injuries. James is later questioned and asked about the night in question. His response: the accident led to Nadine's suicide, because she felt guilty over being behind the wheel that night and running over Melanie. This guy's a real piece of work.

So after Allison vents over James throwing his deceased wife under the bus, she later has one last dream that reveals what really happened on the night of Nadine's suicide. After James heard the gunshot, he rushed to his wife's side and was about to call for help, but after Nadine voiced her desire to tell the truth about the hit and run, James hung up the phone and told Nadine that help was on the way, adding that she should hear the sirens. Of course, he was lying through his teeth; James clearly decided not to call 911, and opted to let Nadine die so his terrible secret could die with her. Allison drives to the house at night and is visited by Nadine's ghost, who revealed that it took 27 minutes for her to die, and James sat there for the entire tenure while waiting for sirens that were never coming. She also stated that Melanie's ghost had moved on, and she had been appearing to Nadine to get her to tell the truth, even setting up Nadine's encounter with Allison.

Nadine vented over her failure to confess and live, and she also stated that James had the same chance, but also failed. She stated that it was up to her, leading Nadine to utter the following:

"He's not afraid of flickering lights or music. But if someone, or something, was to blow out the pilot light in the old stove in our kitchen--and James would have a cold, not smell the gas, let it fill the room, and James were to light a cigarette..."

As Allison heard sirens getting louder, Nadine coyly asked what they were about, and if Allison smelled something. I believe she does, Nadine. I believe we all do.

"The Reckoning" was the 10th episode of Medium's 2nd season, and aired on November 28, 2005. Nadine Massey, the guilt-ridden wife turned ghostly and vengeful villainess, was played by Suki Kaiser, and she was a woman who is easy to feel for. Nadine Massey was a woman who carried a terrible burden for a year, and had to deal with a jerkass husband who was too much of a coward to own up to what he did. It took Nadine's actual death for her to reach her breaking point, as James' refusal to call for help after learning that Nadine still wanted to tell the truth led to Nadine delivering a villainous last word to James. Nadine's heel turn may have been enacted under tragic circumstances, but even so, her actions showed that she was quite sinister, sadistic, and fiendish.

Suki Kaiser portrayed Nadine's emotion and guilt very well; again, it was very easy for viewers to feel for Nadine, and it was also easy for viewers to see that she was suffering under James' obsession over hiding the truth. Nadine's heel turn in the climax with Allison was beautiful, because in that moment, Nadine was portrayed as a woman who hated James for what she had been through in the final year of her life, and that cryptic reveal that she killed James was terrific, especially Nadine's evil smirk. In that regard, Kaiser acted out Nadine's vengeful nature to perfection; it was an amazing scene.

Suki Kaiser has played some interesting villainesses in her career: sinister terrorist Donna in Red Scorpion 2, corrupt businesswoman Janet Carroll on Arrow, and even played a villainess on Supernatural--appearing as Rose, an evil werewolf pack leader. Kaiser has also appeared on episodes of The Commish, Poltergeist: The Legacy, and Nash Bridges.

If you like this story and review, click the heart, and click the subscribe button for more of my stories! Tips and pledges would be greatly appreciated, as they help support my writing, but no pressure!

Check out Nadine Massey's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!