Margaret Hallman (Teri Polo) is the main villainess from "I Love You, Tommy Brown", Episode 7.17 of Criminal Minds (airdate March 14, 2012).
History[]
In 2007, high school teacher Margaret Hallman began an affair with student Johnny Lewis. His parents pressed charges against Margaret when they discovered the affair, but they were eventually dropped. Three years later, Margaret got a job at another school and began another relationship with a student, Thomas "Tommy" Brown. Before their affair was also uncovered, Margaret became pregnant with Tommy's child. She gave birth to the baby in prison and was forced to have the child placed in foster care. Margaret was released from prison in 2012 due to overcrowding and began a killing spree of the various foster families that housed her baby (whom she named after her first lover Johnny) in an attempt to get him back and start a family with Tommy.
Prior to the events of the episode, Margaret killed couple Mark Daniels and Ben Priestley and the episode began with her murdering John and Heather Miller.
Events[]
Margaret's next victims were Brian and Gayle Gilbert, killing them mere hours after she killed the Millers. Later, Margaret tried to call Social Services to find an address, but hung up when she was put on hold. She later interacted with a pregnant woman and her young daughter, but is stopped when the woman became uneasy about her odd behavior. Margaret then approached her next victim, Sandra Montgomery, under the guise of being a social worker. After being invited in, Margaret asked if she had Johnny. When she learned he had been moved, Margaret held Sandra at gunpoint and forced her to give her Johnny's file. She forced Sandra to strip her clothes, cruelly scoffing when Sandra told her that she had been a victim of rape. Margaret prepared to shoot Sandra while using a pillow as a muffler, but Margaret became enraged by Sandra's praying and instead shoot her multiple times, killing her.
Using Johnny's file, Margaret tracked down Johnny's current foster mother Karen Wilson and kidnapped her at gunpoint from a park along with the infant. During the drive, she taunted Karen with the information she had read about her and affectionately talked to Johnny. When Karen revealed that she had named the baby Ben, Margaret screamed that his name was Johnny. Later, she had Karen pull over and (non-fatally) shot her before stealing a separate car and taking Johnny to Tommy Brown's house, now dressed in Sandra's dress and necklace. Tommy is happily surprised to see her and their son, and the two make out. Margaret then revealed that they had to leave so that no one could interfere with their relationship. Suddenly, Tommy's classmate Julie Parker arrived at the house, Margaret at first believing her to be Tommy's girlfriend. Tommy tried to talk to Julie at the door and have her leave, but Julie heard Johnny crying and walked in to find Margaret. When Julie told Margaret that she had raped Tommy, Margaret claims that they had made love, a point Tommy supported. After having Tommy take Johnny to her car, Julie attempted to call the police only for Margaret to non-fatally shoot her in the back before leaving. During the drive, Tommy confronted Margaret about shooting Julie and Margaret went into a speech about how everyone had been trying to keep them apart and how their relationship was completely normal. She pulled over and told Tommy to get out if he wasn't willing to be with her, but Tommy insisted he was.
The two go to an isolated house (which is revealed to be Johnny Lewis's old house, having been purchased for Margaret by her sister) and the two begin to get intimate when the BAU arrived. Thinking Tommy called them, Margaret briefly pointed her gun at him before having him go outside with the gun to get Agents Morgan and JJ to leave. The two then reveal Margaret's past affair with Johnny Lewis, angering the villainess. Despite her promising Tommy that he was the only one, he dropped the gun to surrender to the agents. In a last ditch effort, Margaret grabbed the gun and made a move to shoot Morgan and JJ, but is non-fatally shot by Agent Hotchner from behind. As Tommy knelt over Margaret on the ground, she said to him, "I love you, Johnny Lewis", officially revealing to Tommy her villainous nature. Margaret was presumably imprisoned or institutionalized off-screen.and tommysmmother Obviously got custody of Johnny because of his adoptive mothers death and tommy her son was the father and because he hadn’t been notified the adoption was illegal becaus neither he nor Margaret consented to it because he was not notified immediately of the pregnancy.
Trivia[]
- Teri Polo also played villainess Stephanie Briggs on Monk, and later played villainous politician Diana Underhill on Royal Pains, evil therapist Dr. Leary in 2018's Deadly Delusion, and psychotic villainess Olivia Jansen in 2019's Deadly Switch.
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