Liz Hamilton (Paula Trickey) is the secondary villainess of the 2013 Lifetime film The Cheating Pact (alternately titled Cheating Pact; airdate September 28, 2013). She is the mother of Kylie Hamilton (the film's main villainess) and the wife of Greg Hamilton.
Liz was shown to be a strict parent when it came to grades, with her first appearance in the movie seeing her hound Kylie for scoring poorly on her college entrance test and for not measuring up academically with her eldest daughter Kathleen (who was attending Yale University). The ruthless woman then went behind her daughter's back and signed her up for an upcoming retake, much to the latter's dismay. Later on, while Kylie was bathing, Liz informed her that if she didn't get into college, she would be forced to move out and start supporting herself—an idea the latter smugly informed the former was Greg's.
Liz found out that to pass her exam, Kylie had hired classmate Meredith Porter to take said exam for her, as well as for her then-best friend Heather Marshall (the film's main protagonist) and boyfriend Jordan Coleman, and accidentally killed Meredith after she intentionally failed her exam—making the discovery after finding the ID cards used by Meredith to take the tests. After confronting Kylie and learning everything from her, the evil Liz lied to the police and claimed that Kylie was at her house with Jordan at the time of Meredith's death. She also burned the ID cards as part of her plan to cover her daughter's tracks. Afterwards, however, Liz rejected Kylie's attempt to hug her, indicating that the former's turn to villainy was based on a desire to protect her own reputation rather than to protect her daughter.
When Heather became a suspect in Meredith's unintentional murder, Liz went along with the suspicion and was unresponsive to Heather's mother Brenda when she came to talk to her, accusing Heather of trying to frame Kylie for said murder. The film's climax began after Kylie stabbed Jordan while he and Heather were confronting her, leading to Heather being arrested when it appeared she had committed the act. Following the attempted murder and its immediate aftermath, Kylie locked herself in a bedroom and only allowed for her mother to enter. After assuring Kylie that Jordan would never turn against her, Liz told her spoiled daughter that they were not going to talk to the police, stating that she had to protect herself and being coldly unsympathetic to the fact that Heather would end up imprisoned for crimes she hadn't committed. However, when she and Kylie came out of the room, Brenda pleaded for the latter to tell the truth, eventually resulting in her making a tearful confession to the police despite her mother's attempts to stop her. The film ended without revealing if Liz was arrested and imprisoned like her daughter presumably was. Liz was never arrested, because she did not kill Meredith but she did felt responsible for turning her daughter into a killer for all the pressure she gave her.
Trivia[]
- Liz is similar to Claire Werner from the 2009 Lifetime film Accused at 17; both of them are wealthy women who try to help their villainous daughters get away with the murder of a classmate (though in Claire's case, she tries to help Fallyn get away with two murders). In both cases, Cynthia Gibb plays the protagonist's mother.
- Paula Trickey previously portrayed unfeeling murderer Lori Tinsley on CSI, and later portrayed cult leader Marty Fowler in the 2014 Lifetime film Crimes of the Mind.