Villainess Review: Sadie Becker (9-1-1: Lone Star)

The middle of the 2019-2020 TV season gave us 9-1-1: Lone Star, the spinoff to one of Ryan Murphy's many successful series, 9-1-1. While the original takes place in Los Angeles, the spinoff emanates from Austin, the capital city of Texas, and centers around the 126, led by captain Owen Strand, played by Rob Lowe. Similar to the original, Lone Star has seen some success since the show premiered on January 19, 2020, though its third season kicked off with the fallout from the 126 being shut down.

Many of its characters dealt with the fallout, and in regards to Owen Strand, he was in Hill Country during an ice storm that hit the state of Texas. The four week arc kicked off with the season opener, "The Big Chill," which saw Owen encounter his neighbor in the area, Sadie Becker, who introduced herself as a woman who had finalized her divorce. The following episodes, "Thin Ice" and "Shock and Thaw," see Sadie learn about Owen's profession, as well as being caught along with Owen in a perilous predicament that centered on Owen's attempt to provide shelter to migrants, and a corrupt sheriff's deputy, Roy Griffin, coming close to killing Owen, Sadie, and everyone else involved.

Everyone involved survives the terrible ordeal, as well as the ice storm, and in the time that has passed, Owen begins a relationship with the governor's aide, Catherine Harper, who was the victim of an attempted chemical attack in episode 3.11, "Prince Albert in a Can," though it was revealed that the "chemical" was baking soda. The episode ended, however, with Owen and Catherine finding a pig's head on the former's bed, with the words "Toxic Pig" written on the wall (in the case of the attack on Catherine, a note saying, "Now you're really toxic," was found in a card that sprayed the baking soda in Catherine's face).

As for Sadie, she returned in the following episode, "Negative Space," which began with the terrible shock that Roy Griffin was released from prison. Because of this, Griffin was suspect #1 in the attacks, and regarding Sadie, Owen and Marjan's visit to her art gallery saw Griffin encounter them, leading to Owen decking Griffin. Later on, Sadie's gallery suddenly catches fire, leading Owen to take Sadie to his home, where she meets Carlos, TK, and Catherine. While Owen and Catherine are staking out Griffin's place (where his car blows up; Griffin survives), Carlos and TK are dining on pho (a Vietnamese soup) prepared by Sadie, while looking at the footage from the attack in the previous episode.

As TK walks off after feeling a tad unwell, Carlos attempts to prevent Sadie from looking at what he had discovered, but the truth does come out: Sadie was shown on camera leaving Catherine's office. The footage revealed that Sadie was behind the faux attack on Catherine, with Sadie also revealing her obsession with Owen, voicing her belief that she belonged with Owen. She stalked him based on her delusions, and not only did Sadie commit the attack, she entered Owen's house and vandalized his bedroom, and she burned down her own gallery because, by her own admission, Sadie knew that Owen would come for her.

At that moment, Carlos suddenly felt woozy, leading Sadie to reveal that she laced Carlos and TK's dishes with oxycontin. She is later encountered by Marjan, who becomes suspicious after entering the house, after which Sadie stabbed Marjan's shoulder. Marjan managed to knock out Sadie, who woke up and saw Owen looking down at her, with Sadie voicing her belief that he was there for her. In actuality, Owen had figured out that Sadie was behind everything and had called the police, who arrested the villainess. After the arrest, Owen provided one more reveal about Sadie: her ex-husband's severed head was found in her freezer. Yikes!

The character of Sadie Becker appeared in four episodes during the show's third season, with Sadie's heel turn episode, "Negative Space," airing on March 28, 2022. Julie Benz appeared as Sadie, and this was another villainous notch for the former Buffyverse star, who is best known for playing evil vampiress Darla on both Buffy and Angel. When we first see Sadie, she's sweet and warm, though I did think that it could be a front, but that was too early in the season. When I saw Julie Benz's name in the opening credits of "Negative Space," that increased my hope that Sadie was evil, and boy, did she really deliver! The reveal showed that Sadie was immensely unhinged, psychotic, chaotic, and yes, even murderous (that final reveal that she killed her ex-husband). Sadie truly had conviction in her delusional beliefs.

The fact that she drugged Carlos and TK, the latter being Owen's son, showed that Sadie was willing to harm anyone who served as an obstacle to her goal. Benz played Sadie's insanity very, very well, and that part is no surprise. Other than Darla, Julie Benz has played her share of villainesses in her career, including (but not limited to) Alison Kingsley in 2000's Satan's School for Girls, and evil church leader Dawn Sterling on Law & Order. Benz has also done some Lifetime movies such as Circle of Friends and Held Hostage, and in 2021, Benz played real-life murderess Celeste Beard in Lifetime's Secrets of a Gold Digger Killer.

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