Victoria Paige (Fatal Lessons: The Good Teacher)

Victoria Paige (Erika Eleniak) is the main villainess of the 2004 Lifetime film Fatal Lessons: The Good Teacher.

History[]

Intelligent, sophisticated, and extremely conniving, Victoria Paige was a sociopath who took on different identities and used various methods of inserting herself into families. She would then kill the maternal figure of the home and take her place in the family before murdering them once she grew bored and wanted to move on, finding a new family to worm her way into once the money she had leached from the previous one ran out. Victoria also made chemicals in a homemade science lab and detailed her cold-blooded conquests in a diary she kept on her computer. She also had a previous lover in Daniel Eliot, who was aware of her dark secret.

Events[]

The beginning of the movie showed Victoria leaving her latest "family", where she was known as Mrs. Johnson, and moved to a new neighborhood and became a teacher, going under her new alias. She quickly became known as a tough teacher, being very strict with her students. After giving student Molly Stephens an F on her report card, Victoria got a visit from her mother Samantha, winning over her friendship and eventually becoming Molly's private tutor. On their first session, Victoria prepared to use a curare to kill the family dog Brooks, but was stopped when Molly came in. Victoria was able to play the situation off by going along with Molly's assumption that she was diabetic and the syringe contained insulin. She eventually killed Brooks by luring him out of the Stephens home late at night with steak before killing him with a poison (her signature weapon). She then began her method of working her way into the Stephens family by faking a work call to Samantha's friend Jane Robson, causing her to miss babysitting for Molly and Samantha's son Jake and allowing Victoria to take over.

Late one night, Victoria was at a bar and went to a hotel room with a guy who flirted with her. Just as they were about to have sex, the man said "You be good to Daddy," upsetting Victoria. The villainess injected him with curare, paralyzing him and allowing her to drown him in the bathtub. Victoria furthered her deceptions, ruining Samantha's friendship with Jane and sabotaging her marriage with her husband Nick. She also began giving Samantha drugged tea and intentionally broke her ankle (disguising it as an accident) to prevent her from going on an upcoming ski trip, allowing Victoria to go in her place. The tea Victoria gave Samantha began giving her memory lapses, further destroying her relationship with her family. At her hotel, Victoria was confronted by Daniel Eliot, who took all of Victoria's money and the book detailing her crimes to use against her. When she learned that Daniel was planning to meet with Samantha to reveal Victoria's secrets (Samantha thinking he was referring to Jane), the evil Victoria went ahead of her and shot Daniel to death, putting his body in his van and letting it drive into the lake after retrieving her book. She then lied to Samantha and said he was a man hired to find her by her abusive husband.

After learning that the house Victoria claimed to be buying had already been sold to another family and getting a call saying that the real Victoria Paige had died, Samantha went to Victoria's hotel and found more evidence of her evil schemes. Samantha returned home and sent Molly to a friend's house before calling the police, but was stopped when Victoria arrived and disconnected the phoneline. She led Samantha at gunpoint into the study, and when she refused to give Victoria the manuscript she'd taken from her apartment, Victoria tied her up and injected her with a smaller dose of curare to keep her quiet. When Nick arrived home, Victoria completely paralyzed him with the drug, intending to kill him later. But at that moment, Samantha managed to free herself and attack Victoria, leading to a fight between the two women. Victoria was ultimately defeated when Samantha shoved her back, causing her to fall on her own needle of curare, paralyzing her. Victoria was last shown being wheeled away in a stretcher, glaring at Samantha. She was presumably arrested offscreen.