Villainess Review: Patty Weyland (Crossing Jordan)

I remember Crossing Jordan, and to be honest, this was an underrated show. I've seen a handful of episodes of this NBC series, and I enjoyed what I watched; the stories were gripping, and the cast was absolutely amazing. The show had its memorable episodes, with one of them being, "Blood Relatives," which featured quite a tragic case. The episode centered on the sudden deaths of a woman, Patty Weyland, and her two young sons, Jonah and Brad--all of whom were found stabbed to death.

The patriarch of the family was Mitch Weyland, a hockey player who was revealed to have had a violent history and a pair of domestic disturbance instances against him. So naturally, Mitch was suspect #1. Honestly, I find that offensive as a hockey fan; a negative stereotype I've heard for years is that hockey players are violent and mentally disturbed hotheads who take their attitude home with them. This is not true. But I digress.

One person who didn't believe that Mitch was guilty? Jordan Cavanaugh, of course. The investigation did reveal something quite shocking: Mitch had a double life. That double life emanated in Pennsylvania, and it included another family, as he married his high school sweetheart, Nora, and had a daughter--17-year old Dena, who actually encountered Patty at her home prior to the murders. Because of this, Dena became a suspect, with the belief that she murdered her father's other family out of anger.

So we have two suspects in the form of Mitch and Dena, and this left Jordan and her father, Max, to reenact two separate scenarios: one where Mitch is the killer, and one where Dena is the killer. Surprisingly, both theories ended up squashed, but Jordan realized that Patty was home alone on the night in question, and there was absolutely no way that she would allow her husband to get to their children. This was left with one shocking and grisly conclusion: the true killer was none other than Patty.

The confrontation between Patty and Dena served as a revelation to the former; she had found out that Dena was Mitch's daughter and that he had another family out of state. Patty was heartbroken over the discover, but that night, her heartbreak turned into rage--as she actually took a letter opener and stabbed both of her sons to death while they slept. The episode's flashback showed Patty after she committed her murderous act, and it was followed by the unhinged villainess stabbing herself to death with her weapon of choice. The cuts on her hand were originally believed to be defensive wounds, but they were caused by the weapon sliding as she committed suicide. As a result of this discovery, Mitch was fully exonerated, though he had to live with the horrible aftermath that took place after his double life was unveiled.

"Blood Relatives" was the 12th overall episode of Crossing Jordan, and aired on January 14, 2002. The episode's true main villainess, Patty Weyland, was played by Rae Ritke, and this was quite a chilling performance from Ritke. The episode's climax was a definite game-changer, as in one fell swoop, Patty went from being believed to be a murder victim to being revealed as a maniacal villainess. It isn't revealed whether or not Patty intended to actually frame her husband in a final act of her twisted revenge, but that's really irrelevant here. What is relevant is that Patty allowed her bitterness and anger to turn her into an evil and insane madwoman, and regarding Ritke, the few scenes she had prior to the reveal were acted well. Regarding Patty's heel turn in the flashback scenes, that was also stellar acting from Ritke, as she portrayed Patty's insanity to perfection.

Rae Ritke appeared mostly as a guest actress on TV shows, though her appearance as the villainous Patty Weyland was one of her earliest. Following this, Ritke guest starred in episodes of Family Law, JAG, Criminal Minds, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent, just to name a few shows.

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