Dr. Raine Van Aiken (Judith Hoag) is the villainess of "Welcome to the Club", the pilot episode of Women's Murder Club (airdate October 12, 2007). She was a doctor who ran a free clinic and the wife of restaurant owner Miles Van Aiken.
As a result of Raine's hectic schedule, Miles began having multiple affairs, something that Raine learned. Raine made a habit out of following her husband's mistresses, and did the same when she learned that reporter Theresa Woo was having an affair with Miles. But sometime prior to the episode's events, Raine learned the truth about Theresa's relationship with Miles: she was working on a story regarding Raine.
As revealed in the episode's climax, Raine had begun a lucrative scam at her clinic after a poor health department score resulted in Miles' restaurant struggling financially. The scam involved Raine opening up a program for the homeless, which consisted of homeless people registering their medical information in exchange for food. After that, Raine would use her patients' information to falsify medical charts in order to receive government money for "treatments". Not wanting Theresa to expose her scheme, Raine killed Theresa on the roof of her office building, shooting her three times in the torso before shoving her body off the roof. The evil Raine later killed Walton James (a man who had been stalking Theresa), holding Theresa's dog at gunpoint to force Walton to write out a confession letter before strangling him and placing his body in a noose.
Claire Washburn, however, was quickly able to prove that Walton's death was a staged suicide due to the bruise patterns on his neck, and it was through Theresa's coded notebooks that Raine's clinic scam was discovered. Realizing that Raine was Theresa's killer, Lindsay Boxer brought Raine in as Warren Jacobi interrogated Miles, accusing him of killing Theresa and claiming that he would receive the death penalty. The scare tactic eventually worked, as Raine confessed to Theresa and Walton's murders, ranting that Theresa's story would've destroyed her and her husband's lives before being arrested (off-screen).
Trivia[]
- Dr. Raine Van Aiken is the first villainess of Women's Murder Club.
- Judith Hoag made two villainous appearances on Murder, She Wrote as villainesses Gretchen Price and Nancy Godfrey. She also played hidden villainess Patricia Reid in Lifetime's Sexting in Suburbia, kidnapper Sandra Boatwright on The Mentalist, and the evil Cynthia Hamilton on Castle.
Quotes[]
- "First, I thought it was just another affair, so I followed her, like always. I watched her walk into my house...with my husband! She found everything. She would've destroyed our careers, our lives! I had to protect us!" (Dr. Raine Van Aiken confessing her motive for killing Theresa)
