I’ve been watching The Bold and the Beautiful for a while now, but I watch a lot of television for work and there’s no doubt in my mind that Sheila Carter (Kimberlin Brown) is one of the messiest villains on TV.
Historically, when it comes to villains on television we tend to think about the ones who really stand out for their villainy, including the Borg in the Star Trek Universe, Abu Fayed (Adoni Maropis) in 24, Kilgrave (David Tennant) in Jessica Jones and Constance Langdon (Jessica Lange) in American Horror Story. These characters, like so many others, never hid their villainy.
Sheila Carter is on another level when it comes to villainy. Major credit has to go to Brown for playing Sheila so well. She might look like a mild-mannered grandmother, but she’s an absolute predator who stalks her prey with a smile on her face.
This entire week on The Bold and the Beautiful, in the buildup to Sheila’s wedding to Deacon (Sean Kanan), Sheila has been talking about how having her son, Finn (Tanner Novlan) would make her wedding day complete. When Finn rejects the invitation, citing his wife’s concerns, Sheila starts playing her sad violin as she lamented having such a wonderful son who has a wife who hates her. (To be fair, Sheila shot Finn and his wife, and she terrorized his wife’s family, so these aren’t baseless feelings!)
When Finn showed up at Il Giardino to pick up pizza in the May 23 episode of B&B, thinking that Sheila and Deacon’s wedding was at the beach and not the restaurant, Sheila instantly rushed to her son’s side and thanked him for showing up, making things so awkward that he was left speechless.
If you look closely, Sheila’s hands were like talons in his arms. She was dragging Finn into her delusions that he was there for her when he was really picking up pizza. That’s what makes her so messy as a TV villain. No matter his reasoning for being there, she’ll be able to tell everyone that her son was there to support her and this will no doubt cause tension in Finn’s marriage. Sheila wants tension in her son’s marriage. The only path to having her son and grandson in her life is to drive Finn from Steffy (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) forever.
I’m still trying to figure out how Sheila tricked her doppelganger, Sugar, into kidnapping her and attacking Steffy. She claims she was the victim, but Sheila Carter is no victim. I can’t believe she didn’t orchestrate the whole thing. I just can’t. Sheila ended up getting exactly what she wanted when Deacon and Finn rescued her and were so happy to see her alive. Finn, whose connection to his birth mother was tenuous at best, kept calling her “mom” to her delight, and mere week’s after being rescued she’s getting married to Deacon and flaunting her relationship with him for all to see.
The only thing missing for Sheila was having Finn at the wedding, and she managed to get what she wanted there, too. She might be smiling at her son, but there’s no doubt a part of her that’s celebrating her little victory; by having Finn there, she’s winning the war against Steffy.
When it comes to TV villains, sometimes the best villains aren’t the ones who come straight at you but the ones who sneak up behind you. And right now Steffy needs to watch her back because Sheila is coming for her.
