Rachel Richards (Caitlin Carver) is the main villainess of the 2017 Lifetime film The Rachels (alternately titled Infamous; airdate January 15, 2017).
Backstory[]
Rachel was a junior and also one of the two most popular girls at Hills High School in California, with the other being her best friend since what can be presumed to be her childhood, Rachel Nelson. Furthermore, both she and Nelson were once friends with another girl named Rachel (her last name was never revealed), who would later become better known by her nickname Roxie after Richards kicked her out of the Rachels for unknown reasons during the trio’s freshman year.
The teenaged villainess reveled in the popularity and dreamed of being a famous celebrity someday. Additionally, Richards also became jealous when Nelson began to outshine her both socially and athletically (the girls were both on the school’s track team). After Nelson was then named one of three girls who would represent the junior class on Hills High’s sweetheart court, Richards confronted her at a party taking place at the apartment complex where the former lived.
After taking her to said complex’s roof deck, the pair had an argument when Richards accused Nelson of being ungrateful for making her popular. As she began to storm off, Nelson tried to stop her, resulting in Richards accidentally pushing her off the roof. Nelson managed to grab the rooftop's fencing and cried to Richards for help, but instead, the latter chose to leave. Additionally, Richards was aware that another villainess also chose to deliberately ignore Nelson’s tearful pleas for help, with her decision ultimately sealing the latter’s fate when Nelson finally lost her grip and fell to her death.
Events of The Rachels[]
Following her friend’s demise, Richards was ecstatic at the chance to be the sole queen bee of her school, putting on an act of a grieving best friend. She even made attempts to seduce Nelson’s love interest Tom Danvers, which failed. While being interviewed by Channel 11 reporter Sami Summers about Nelson’s death, Richards faked tears and falsely implied that Nelson's death was actually a suicide. Determined to stop her, Roxie worked with Tom to undermine Richards’ attempts at gaining popularity, angering the self-absorbed villainess.
Things eventually came to the point that she confronted Roxie in one of the school’s hallways just prior to the climax of the film, claiming that she wanted to repair their friendship and also do the morning announcements together. Once they were inside the office, however, Richards revealed her true intentions when she locked both herself and Roxie in the room, with the pair then having a heated discussion that Roxie broadcasted over the PA system for the whole school to hear. Once she caught on, Richards spoke into the microphone and claimed to have intentionally pushed Nelson to her death, wanting to achieve infamy through her arrest. Roxie then turned off the PA, with Richards proceeding to recall that the latter was also present during the final moments of Nelson’s life and was also the other person who chose not to help her; this plot twist revealed Roxie as being the film’s hidden secondary villainess.
After Richards claimed to Roxie that she won, the latter quickly became enraged to the point that she slapped the former, leaving bloody scratches on her left cheek. The two then got into a brief fight, and as Richards tried to strangle Roxie, police officers burst into the office and arrested her. As she was led out of the school in handcuffs, Richards looked at the crowd of students that were watching her being led away, and also imagined them giving her applause. She wickedly smiled, having supposedly succeeded in becoming “immortal,” before breaking the fourth wall by looking directly at the camera and posing for what is heavily implied to be a picture.
Quotes[]
- “There’s no room in Hills High for three Rachels.” (Richards to Roxie as the former backstabs the latter during their freshman year and kicks her out of the Rachels)
- “I’m Rachel; I’m the only Rachel, and this is finally my time! This is my school. I make the morning announcements. I’m the star of the track team, and I am gonna be the queen of the sweetheart court. I’m gonna be famous. Sami Summers says there’s an interest in a reality show... and then I will write my book, and I will tell about everything that happened that night. I’ll call it The Plunge From the Penthouse.” (Richards displaying her fame-hungry and delusional personality to Roxie at the film’s climax)
- “(Roxie: “I do. I know what you did.”) What would you like me to say? That I lured her out on that roof, that I waited for the perfect moment? You’re right, Roxie. Rachel Nelson didn’t jump. I pushed her, and she deserved it.” (Richards’ false confession to “murdering” Nelson)
- “And what exactly is the truth, Roxie? (Roxie: “Not that you pushed her! But— but that you didn’t try to help her either!”) Neither did you.” (Richards initiates Roxie’s villainous reveal)
- “She was reaching for you! I was too far away. I tried to help her! (Richards: “Well, only you would know.”)” (Richards pokes holes in Roxie’s attempts to defend her involvement in Nelson’s death)
- “It doesn’t matter because in the end, I’m gonna be immortal... and you’ll still just be invisible. You all will. Everyone is gonna be forgotten. It’s just the way the world works. Nobody ever remembers the victim... but everyone always remembers the villain. I win, Roxie.” (Richards’ monologue to Roxie about the former will be remembered due to her being “the villain”)
- “You bitch!” (Richards to Roxie after the latter slapped the former)
- “This is my good side.” (Richards breaking the fourth wall; also her last words in the film)
Trivia[]
- Caitlin Carver also played villainous bully Becca Arrington in the 2015 movie adaption of Paper Towns, as well as psychotic sociopath Alexis Palmer in the fifteenth episode of Stalker.
Gallery[]
