Ellen Renfield (Tales From The Crypt)

Ellen Renfield (Patricia Charbonneau) was the hidden main villainess from "Strung Along," episode 4.12 of Tales From The Crypt (airdate September 2, 1992). She was the wife of aging puppeteer Joseph Renfield.

In the beginning of the episode, Ellen supported Joseph after he received an offer to do his classic puppet act, but she also worried about him, as it was revealed that Joseph had heart problems. Ellen advised Joseph to have someone help him with the act, and after Joseph acquiesced, Ellen introduced him to David, stating that she knew him from her acting classes. Joseph and David bonded, but their bond began to upset Ellen, who began accusing David of taking over his act.

In response to Ellen's verbal lashing, David accused Ellen of cheating on Joseph, leading to Ellen demanding that Joseph fire his new protege. David walked out instead, leading to Ellen snapping at Joseph over his past jealousy over his wife's male friends. Joseph had suspected Ellen of having an affair during his odd conversations with Coco, one of his puppets, and a letter found by Joseph confirmed his suspicions. A drunken Joseph vented to Coco that he was going to leave Ellen, but late one night, Joseph saw that Coco was gone and he heard Ellen screaming. Joseph rushed in to see his puppet stabbing his wife, and the shock caused Joseph to drop dead of a heart attack.

However, Ellen turned heel when she was shockingly revealed as the mastermind of an elaborate ruse to kill her husband for his money, with David revealed as not only Ellen's co-conspirator, but her lover as well. David entered with a remote control that operated his "Coco" creation, after which Ellen laughed and embraced her lover, who she introduced to her deceased husband as Rick--the same Rick from the letter Joseph found. The villainess stated that Rick was also a puppeteer, and that they would use Joseph's money to fund Rick's profession. At that moment, the real Coco came to life and killed David/Rick, and afterwards, the evil Ellen entered the bedroom and saw that her lover was not only deceased, but had become a puppet controlled by Coco. Ellen ended up stabbed to death when Coco controlled Rick into wielding the knife into her, and the final scene showed the villainous couple hanging onto puppet strings.

Trivia[]

Patricia Charbonneau appeared as Clara in the 1990 episode "Who Framed Roger Thornton in the TV series "Booker".
The episode was based on the story of the same name in the 1953 comic book "The Vault of Horror #33". Ellen Renfield is named Nora Zargono in this version and she does not have a secret lover, but otherwise her role, motive and fate are very similar.