Villainess Review: Rachel Knox (Mystery 101)

At times, I find myself wondering which batch of movies has better villainesses: the Lifetime movies or the ones on Hallmark Movies and Mysteries. Both batches have pleased this fan of villainesses with some incredible ones in recent years, and regarding HM&M, they have delivered with some fantastic film series, with one of them being Mystery 101. Another HM&M series with a great pairing; in this case it's Jill Wagner (of Wipeout and Teen Wolf fame) as college professor Amy Winslow, and Kristoffer Polaha (who I loved in Fox's short-lived series, Backstrom) as detective Travis Burke.

The subject in question is the series' fourth film, Dead Talk, which centered on the murder of Mitchell McHale, a famed tech CEO. As we saw, it wasn't just Travis and Amy on the case, it was also Lt. Rachel Knox of the Seattle PD, who was Travis' former colleague in Chicago. While Knox was elated to see Travis again, her feelings about Amy being in the investigation weren't so warm; the whole Amy being a civilian thing was a red flag. She did warm up to Amy eventually, and gave a name as a potential suspect: Billy Poole--McHale's friend and the Chief Operating Office of his company. Poole was having an affair with McHale's wife, though both halves were eliminated as suspects as Travis and Amy had found out about the murder of lawyer Ray Sweeney, and realized they were connected.

Travis and Amy learned from Sweeney's former girlfriend, Vicki Lin, that Sweeney had been going on a big winning streak, but suddenly kept losing cases left and right. The statement ended up leading to the revelation that Sweeney had a cop on his payroll helping him win cases, and Travis and Amy had the perfect suspect in Danny Roma, a detective whose unfriendly demeanor made him an easy suspect. Regarding Knox, she was informed about Roma by Travis and Amy, with Knox being shocked to discover that Roma was corrupt, and had been planning to confront him. However, Travis stated that Knox's reaction was exactly what he was looking for, as it was actually evidence that the actual corrupt cop and killer was none other than Knox herself. Wow!

As it turned out, Knox's father was the reason for her corruption; he had owned a restaurant in Chicago, but borrowed money from the mob to fund it, leaving a massive debt that needed to be paid. Knox agreed to help Sweeney win his cases for a payout, but after her father passed away, she ended her alliance with Sweeney. The losing streak occurred as a result, after which Sweeney demanded Knox's services once again. Knox arrived at Sweeney's home, but did so to eliminate her former ally, doing so by shooting him to death. The murder solved one problem for Knox, but she had another one: McHale caught the villainess covering up her actions and blackmailed her. Knox shoved McHale off a building to silence him, and regarding her meeting with Roma, the villainess planned to kill Roma--as he suspected Knox's corruption. Knox attempted to claim that she was getting rid of two bad people, but that excuse wouldn't fly, as she was arrested for her various crimes.

Mystery 101: Dead Talk aired on September 22, 2019, and featured Tegan Moss as the evil Rachel Knox. I remember this vividly for two reasons. One, Tegan Moss appeared in a Chronicle Mysteries movie as a woman who was on trial for murder, and I remember pulling for a twist where she actually did it. Of course, that didn't happen, so Moss makes up for it with a heel turn for this HM&M role. The second reason is simple: IMO, Rachel Knox is Murder 101's best villainess; she was a corrupt cop who was willing to kill to cover up her villainous past, and even in her climactic reveal, Knox was planning on eliminating another obstacle before Travis and Amy stopped her with her unveiling as a sinister villainess. Moss played Knox's villainous demeanor very well in this film; it was quite an amazing performance.

The sister of fellow actor Jesse Moss, Tegan Moss appeared in a total of four HM&M films, and she would don the villainess hat once again, this time on Lifetime. Tegan Moss appeared in 2021's Secret Life of a Student as villainess Nadia Sterling, so she joins a list of actresses who have played baddies on both Lifetime and HM&M. For my review about Nadia Sterling, click here.

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Click here for Rachel Knox's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!