Psychotic and vengeful villainess Lynette (aka Tessa)
Lynette aka Tessa (Willa Ford) was the villainess of the 2014 film The Nurse.
History[]
Lynette was originally born as Tessa, and the product of an affair between her mother Candice and the married Frank Sutton. Despite wanting to be a father to Tessa, Frank ultimately ended his affair with Candice for the sake of his wife and his daughter Cara (the film's main protagonist). Sometime after Frank ended his relationship with Candice, she and Tessa moved away, with Candice passing away sometime prior to the film's events.
Events[]
Vengeful against her father for abandoning her, Lynette plotted to take revenge on Frank, starting by drugging his drink while he was out at a bar with a drug that resulted in Frank suffering a stroke. Cara (now a well-known therapist/author) reluctantly took Frank in to recover despite the two being estranged, and Tessa adopted the name Lynette in order to become Frank's live-in nurse, previously having killed Frank's originally assigned nurse Ling Lu by chasing her to a cliff before stabbing her and sending her falling off the cliffside to her death. In addition to keeping Frank bedridden, Lynette also began using rifampicin she stole from the hospital pharmacy to counteract Frank's heart medication, setting Frank up to have another stroke.
All the while, Lynette made a good impression on both Cara and her husband, Brian, aside from a brief conflict between Lynette and Cara when the former allowed Frank (a recovering alcoholic) to drink wine over dinner. Over the course of Lynette's stay, she found herself in conflict with the Suttons' neighbor Mrs. Kiriazi and Frank's physical therapist Gregory, the latter of whom became suspicious of her after seeing bruises on Frank's leg (presumably caused by Lynette's actions). Lynette officially revealed her psychotic colors while tending to a groggy Frank one night, kissing him on the lips and later stabbing his numb thigh repeatedly with a syringe. Lynette later briefly tried to drown Frank while attending to him in the pool, only to stop when she was spotted by Mrs. Kiriazi, whose cryptic warning to Brian about her fell on deaf ears.
Lynette was invited to share dinner with Cara, Brian, and Brian's boss John Dasseau, stepping away after becoming upset at John asking her about her family. After briefly enticing Brian when he walked in on her tending to Frank, Lynette surprised John (who had developed a crush on her) by appearing in his car as he preparing to leave, goading him into sharing wine with her before letting him leave. Unbeknownst to John, however, Lynette had spiked his glass with a drug, with John dying in a crash caused by him feeling the drug's effects while driving. Later that night, Cara was confronted by deranged patient Martin after he killed his ex-wife and attacked her lover, with Lynette disarming Martin and beating him with a pool cleaning net before stabbing him in the chest with his own knife, killing him. Lynette killing Martin also allowed her to frame him for killing Mrs. Kiriazi, who she had killed herself by slitting her throat.
Climax & Death[]
Lynette after killing Ling Lu (shown via flashback)
In the film's climax, a suspicious Cara went to the nursing agency to investigate Lynette, having been advised to do so by Gregory. While Cara was out, Lynette went through her things, lying on the bed on top of her red scarf before having a breakdown and tossing aside the locket containing a picture of Frank and his wife (Cara's mother). Gregory later arrived at the house to check on Frank, discovering the stab wounds given to him by Lynette and revealing how he'd uncovered Lynette's theft from the hospital pharmacy. At that moment, however, the evil Lynette snuck up behind Gregory and killed him with a lethal injection, after which she injected Frank with a sedative to knock him out.
Brian later arrived back home, having learned about John's death, walking in on Lynette as she was getting out of the shower. As Brian attempted to call Cara, Lynette tried to seduce Brian, claiming that she knew Brian wanted to be with her and accusing Cara of being self-centered and seeing her marriage as a burden. Brian rejected Lynette's advances and blasted her for thinking she deserved to have him, after which Cara arrived home and confronted Lynette about her deceptions, having learned that her agency didn't know her and that Ling Lu had been missing for a week. At that, Lynette admitted to killing Ling and later John, with a flashback showing Lynette (in a hooded disguise) killing Ling. When Frank awoke and Cara and Brian ran to his side, Lynette attempted to come to Frank's side, getting into a struggle with Cara when she stopped her and subduing Brian with Frank's cane.
As Lynette stood over Cara, the deranged villainess revealed her history, with Frank (having begun to refer to Lynette as Tessa while groggy) recognizing Lynette as his long-lost daughter and Cara's half-sister. Lynette angrily stated that Frank was happy with her and her mother and accused Cara and her mother of taking him from her, with Frank apologizing to Lynette for abandoning her and revealing how she and Candice had disappeared when he tried to get back in contact with them. At that, Lynette revealed how she had drugged him to cause his stroke and insert herself into his life, referring to Cara as a "pushover" for taking Frank in before beginning to strangle her father with Cara's scarf. But before she could, Cara returned to the room armed with a gun and shot her psychotic half-sister. A stunned Lynette turned around and looked at Cara, but instead of backing down, her evilness and arrogance once more got the best of her and she charged at Cara to attack her. This proved to be Lynette's ultimate downfall and it led to the ultimate demise of both her evil plan of killing Frank and Lynette's own life, with Cara immediately firing a second shot at Lynette and ultimately killing her before she could even reach Cara.
Gallery[]
