Villainess Review: Sofia Elias (Killer Daddy Issues)

Last February, Lifetime gave us Killer Daddy Issues (also known as Overlook), which centered on the wealthy Douglass family--mainly Carrie Douglass (played by Jillian Murray in her only heroic Lifetime film role to date). Her close friend in the Douglass house is Sofia Elias, who is the daughter of housekeeper Maria Elias, though as the film progresses, things between Maria and Sofia suddenly become chilly. This comes after Carrie learned about her widowed mother, Grace, suddenly becoming married to Reed Hayden--a younger man, as well as Grace suddenly falling from her horse and being placed in a coma.

Following her mother's accident, Carrie quickly suspected Reed as the culprit, but while this was going on, Sofia continued arguing with Maria after learning a shocking family secret: Sofia was the product of an affair between Maria and Daniel Douglass--Grace's late husband. Though, Daniel denied Sofia as his daughter, and Sofia voiced her anger not only at her (and Carrie's) late father, but she lashed out at Maria for not telling the truth about Daniel and allowing him to deny her as his daughter. More tragedy ended up striking when Maria was suddenly killed while driving Carrie's car, as the brakes failed and she ended up crashing.

As for Carrie, she survived an attempt on her life, as she was shot while riding her horse, though Grace returned home from the hospital later on. Even with the good news about Grace's return, Sofia's antagonism continued, and regarding Grace and Carrie, they learned that Maria was actually set to inherit the ranch, with Sofia being the heiress in the event of Maria's death. Their attempt to contact Sofia was unanswered, and a search for her at the ranch ended with Sofia making a distress call and claim that her car was stuck miles from the ranch, with Reed and Luke (the latter being Carrie's husband) rushing to help her.

As it turned out, however, Sofia was parked at the ranch, and she was shown giving a sinister smirk as she watched Reed and Luke leave the house. This began (or cemented--I'll explain later) Sofia's heel turn, and afterwards, Sofia entered the house and pointed a shotgun at Carrie, while revealing herself as Carrie's paternal half-sister and voicing her bitterness over Carrie living in luxury while Sofia was hidden by Daniel for her entire life. Carrie fought off Sofia and escaped to the stable, only to be pursued by her evil half-sister before Grace arrived and held Sofia at gunpoint.

It was during this point that Sofia confessed everything; she sabotaged the saddle on Grace's horse in an attempt to kill her, and she was the one who tampered with the brakes in Carrie's car in an attempt to kill Carrie, but after Maria took the car and was killed, Sofia made a second attempt on Carrie by shooting at her. Sofia was informed by Carrie that Daniel left the ranch to Maria and Sofia in an attempt to make things right by them, but even that didn't appease Sofia, who continued attempting to kill Carrie. After Grace held Sofia at gunpoint again, Sofia surrendered and was later arrested.

This was a good Lifetime movie with a terrific villainess in the form of Sofia Elias, who was played by Kristina Reyes. Regarding the earlier statement about Sofia's heel turn in the film's climax, it was clear that the film was definitely not trying to hide that Sofia was a villainess. Reed could have been a good potential red herring, but the film didn't really focus on Carrie being suspicious of her mother's new and young husband, and just decided to suddenly turn Sofia from a friendly person to an angry and antagonistic woman shortly before the film's midpoint. Even so, Reyes portrayed Sofia's anger and bitterness very well, and in her climactic reveal, Reyes really did an excellent job playing out Sofia's villainy and viciousness.

Though while watching this film when it aired last February, I did have one huge hope: I was hoping that Maria would be the true villainess. I was pulling for Maria to have already known about her inheritance and eventually become a villainess bent on eliminating Carrie and Grace, with Sofia either acting as a villainous accomplice, or as an innocent woman who would be unaware and later shocked over Maria's heel persona. The reason: Maria was played by veteran actress Lisa Thornhill in the film, and among her roles include some interesting villainesses on shows such as Diagnosis Murder and Charmed, so I was hoping she would deliver a villainous performance in this film, but it was not to be. Sofia shined as the sole lead villainess in this film, and Reyes played her wonderfully. Kristina Reyes has appeared in 10 episodes of Blindspot as Avery, and she has also guest starred on shows such The Blacklist, The Following, and Shades of Blue.

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