The evil and vengeful Claudia Blaisdel
Claudia Blaisdel (Brianna Brown) is a recurring villainess from the 2017 Dynasty reboot.
Backstory
Claudia Blaisdel is an engineer and the wife of fellow engineer Matthew Blaisdel, who performed his duties for Carrington Atlantic. Sometime before the events of the series, Claudia and Matthew were involved in a car accident, which occurred after Claudia found out that Matthew was having an affair with Cristal Flores--who later became engaged (and later married) to Matthew's boss, Blake Carrington. In order to keep Matthew from leaving her, Claudia feigned having a brain injury, which kept Matthew at his wife's side tending to her. She even received medication for her "injury," but she was taking a different drug instead, and she fired her nurse (assumingly) because she was suspecting Claudia's deception.
Events
By the events of the series, Claudia turned heel and planned her revenge on Matthew, and in the series' pilot, "I Hardly Recognized You," she rigged the Thumper truck, resulting in an explosion at the workplace that killed Matthew. The deranged villainess made countless appearances to the Carringtons loudly accusing them in her husband's death, while covering up her own role. It was revealed in the episode, "Company Slut," that Claudia was pregnant with Matthew's baby, and the episode saw a remorseful Cristal attempt to make amends to Claudia. The episode ended with Claudia walking away from Cristal (who was outside Claudia's home) in a fuming huff, only for Blake to accidentally hit her with his car. The scheming Claudia decided to use the accident to her advantage; not only continuing to fake her injuries from the previous accident, but maneuvering her way into the Carrington home in the following episode, "I Exist Only For Me." As part of Claudia's plan, she attempted to seduce Blake, pretending to "accidentally" encounter him in the bathtub to further her ruse.
Claudia's reveal came slowly in the episode, "A Taste Of Your Own Medicine," beginning with Cristal following up on Claudia's deceptive claim that her nurse was stealing her medication, only for Cristal to reveal to her nephew, Sam, that the nurse wasn't a thief and Claudia fired her. Claudia had been listening in on their conversation, and after this, she lured Sam to the Carringtons' gun cellar, where she knocked him out with a pistol and locked him inside. She also trapped Joseph Anders (the Carringtons' caretaker) inside the wine cellar, and in the episode's climax, the evil Claudia emerged in a stunning dress and held Cristal at gunpoint, officially revealing herself as a vengeful villainess.
Blake, Steven, and later Fallon Carrington all ended up held hostage by Claudia, and it was there that her entire scheme was revealed by Fallon. Fallon deduced that Claudia faked the brain injury to keep Matthew with her, but was bewildered as to why she kept the ruse alive after his death. It was there that they realized that Claudia did kill Matthew, and the ruse was kept alive after the murder to avert suspicion; as Steven had stated, no one would suspect a brain-damaged widow. Claudia's profession as an engineer linked her to the murder, with the villainess claiming that her intent was to only hurt Matthew. She revealed that her plan afterwards was to seduce Blake and later kill him so Cristal could experience the same pain that Claudia herself felt, and after this, Fallon managed to talk Claudia down and convince her to lower her weapon, but she was set on firing when she heard Anders firing a shotgun. The Carringtons wrestled the gun from Claudia's possession, and she ended up placed in a sanitarium.
Trivia
- Brianna Brown also played villainous femme fatale Megan Kane on Criminal Minds, as well as evil drug queen Krystal Markham on The Mentalist.
- Brianna Brown also appeared on Castle as the evil Eva Whitfield, and played anti-villainess Gloria in the Lifetime film, Secrets in Suburbia.
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