Villainess Review: Shannon Steerman (Alert: Missing Persons Unit)

I have really enjoyed Fox's Monday night lineup in recent years. Usually, the 9-1-1 shows dominate Mondays, but there's also other programming when they're off. In this case, Fox has the Fantasy Island reboot, followed by one of their newest series, Alert: Missing Persons Unit (often simply known as Alert). It was easy for me to be all in on this, and I have two main reasons. Firstly, the show reminds me a bit of Ransom, the international series that aired on CBS for a few years, and second, the main stars. The series stars Scott Caan (son of the late, great James Caan) as Jason Grant--ex-military. For Caan, this is his first series after spending a decade on CBS' Hawaii Five-O reboot. Dania Ramirez is the other main star, portraying Jason's ex-wife (and co-worker in the MPU) Nikki Batista; of course, Ramirez is best known for being one of the titular Devious Maids, as well as being part of the final season of Once Upon a Time.

While I am still waiting for Fantasy Island to come through with their first villainess (the show's in its second season), Alert has definitely delivered in the villainess department. An amazing one appeared in the episode, "Shannon," which kicks off with a woman practicing her violin before a man barges in and threatens her. Moments later, said woman, revealed to be named Shannon Steerman, is missing, and that is MPU's latest case. An interview with Linda Steerman revealed that Shannon was adopted by Linda and her husband, but it was not a happy home, as said husband (who is deceased) abused both Shannon and Linda, with the latter having a bad drug habit as well.

A recording of the argument is played, and we do get a name for the man: Rory Stanz. So they have a suspect in the disappearance, but there's one problem: Rory was murdered, so they're back to square one. Meanwhile, we see a woman resembling Shannon being confronted by a fellow violinist, and Jason and Nikki's encounter reveals that the woman is actually Georgia LaCava, Shannon's identical twin sister. Similar to Shannon, Georgia was also adopted, but they each had separate families and hadn't seen each other until three months prior. Georgia insisted that while she had a much happier upbringing than Shannon, the sisters were very similar.

Shannon's body is found, and a search of her phone uncovered what appeared to be a suicide note, which revealed the sisters' reunion and portrayed Shannon as feeling that the world only needed Georgia, who she referred to as "the better one." We later see Georgia (with her fiance, Luke) and Linda at MPU after Shannon's found, though it's a tense encounter, as Georgia lashed out at Linda for failing to protect Shannon, though Linda is left as her own harshest critic. However, an inspection of the body revealed that Shannon's death wasn't suicide, but murder, and as the episode progresses a bit, Georgia appears to be the main suspect.

Nikki decides to take a deeper look into the twins, doing so by asking Linda if Shannon was ever hospitalized due to injuries. Linda, sadly, stated that Shannon was hospitalized twice for a broken left arm, caused by her adoptive father's abuse. Nikki later asks for the autopsy report on Shannon, and wouldn't you know it--no sign of a broken left arm. Meanwhile, Georgia is celebrating getting first chair with Luke, but the make-out session sees an insulin pump emerge from Georgia's person. Georgia attempts to state that she's diabetic and never told Luke, but here's the thing, the actual diabetic between the twins was Shannon. Nikki found out the truth, and now Luke knows that the woman in the car with her was actually Shannon Steerman.

Shannon informed Luke that Georgia was cheating on him and that she could love him better...before trying to strangle Luke with his seatbelt. Luke escapes, but Shannon tries to run him down, only for Jason to provide a roadblock for the unhinged madwoman. So once Shannon's taken in, everything was revealed. Shannon met Georgia when she watched one of her performances, and from that moment, she idolized and adored her twin sister--to the point where she continuously stalked Georgia. She found out about her relationship with Luke, and also learned that Georgia was having an affair with Rory. Shannon also learned that Georgia ended the affair, causing Rory to threaten to tell Luke, only for Georgia to pay him off.

That, unfortunately, didn't work, as Rory demanded more money. He even followed Shannon thinking she was Georgia, and Shannon used that opportunity to kill Rory to (in her twisted mind) impress Georgia. Shannon finally introduced herself to Georgia and told her what she had done, but as Nikki correctly pinpointed, Georgia was horrified and threatened to call the police, leading to Shannon bludgeoning her sister to death and tossing her body off a cliff before taking her identity. It was at this point that Shannon's true bitterness comes out, and when it came to murdering her sister, the villainess uttered the following:

"Georgia and me, we were the same person, but because of a random decision at a foster home when we were babies, she got everything and I got nothing. What she had, I... deserved it as much as her! I wanted it as badly. I worked as hard to get it. But the only way I could was by doing what I did, so no, I didn't kill my sister, I took what was rightfully mine."

"Shannon" was the seventh episode of Alert's inaugural season, and aired on Fox on February 13, 2023. The episode featured Emily Kinney pulling double duty as Georgia LaCava and her evil twin sister, Shannon Steerman, which was epic in itself. I knew one of the twins would be evil, and yeah, I did sense that "Georgia" was actually Shannon at the episode's midpoint. I do love an evil twin story; in fact, this is my third story about an evil twin villainess. Like the other two, Shannon does prove that not all evil twins are created equal. Some plague their doppelganger siblings for money, some for jealousy, but in the case of Shannon, it was actually for acceptance.

Shannon admitted this; when she finally saw Georgia for the first time, she adored her, and all she wanted was to be welcomed by Georgia. However, she decided to take quite a bloodthirsty approach. She actually believed that if she killed Georgia's ex-lover to save her sister from being harassed and blackmailed by him, then Georgia would be so grateful. Not the case. Georgia was horrified, and with that, Shannon eliminated her sister and decided to replace her. Kinney, as usual, gave a wonderful performance. While we don't see much of her as Georgia, we see her act out Shannon's desperation and her cunning demeanor very well, while saving her best performance for Shannon's confession. Shannon Steerman was tragic at first, but her murderous actions definitely did not have a Freudian Excuse, making Shannon a truly cold-blooded and villainous madwoman, played wonderfully by Kinney.

I've seen Emily Kinney in so much in so little time. She's done the villainess thing quite a few times, most notably in the Arrowverse as Brie Larvan. Kinney also played Tess Larson on the unfairly short-lived ABC series, Conviction, and it was because of that show that my fandom increased. She also appeared on shows such as The Following, Forever (as villainess Jennifer Schroeder), and the ABC miniseries Ten Days in the Valley (as villainess Casey Collins).

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Check out Shannon Steerman's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!