Cara Embler (Aurora Teagarden Mysteries)

The evil and psychotic Cara Embler

Cara Embler (Britt Irvin) is the main villainess from the 2018 Hallmark film, Reap What You Sew: An Aurora Teagarden Mystery, the eighth film of Hallmark's Aurora Teagarden series (airdate April 15, 2018). She is the best friend of Poppy Wilson (Aurora's childhood friend), as well as Poppy's co-host on their YouTube videos, which were about knitting.

Events

Though Poppy and Cara appeared to work well together, Cara harbored resentment and jealousy of Poppy. She felt that she was doing all of the real work and it was being underappreciated by Poppy, while also fuming over Poppy (in her mind) reaping all of the financial benefits. While discussing their latest project, Cara learned how much money that Poppy would receive for their work, and it was at that moment that Cara snapped and killed Poppy in a fit of rage. The villainess used a special pair of scissors to stab Poppy to death, and after the murder, the evil Cara cleaned up the weapon and placed it in her drawer.

Upon finding Poppy's body, Aurora suspected (among others) Poppy's stepmother, Nicole Wilson; due to the friction between them, while suspicion also turned to Lizzy Allison (Sally Allison's cousin), due to her anger over Poppy spending a lot of time with her soon-to-be husband (and Poppy's lawyer), Bubba Rankart, who was later suspected himself. Poppy's boyfriend, Dustin Sikes, was also suspected, but Cara's ability to lay low and her act as a concerned and grieving friend helped her avoid suspicion, as well as gain the friendship and trust of Jason Dell, who later helped her on Cara's tribute video to Poppy.

Reveal

Cara clutching the scissors during her reveal

However, that video would begin to expose Cara's villainous nature, as Aurora noticed that a different logo appeared at the video's end, which revealed that Cara had planned to go on her own for a while, in contrast to Cara's plan to go solo being spur of the moment. After Poppy's last video with Cara was played to Mayor Terry Sternholz, they saw Cara with the scissors and that she was using them with her left hand, two things that gave her away, as the killer was revealed to be left-handed. Meanwhile, Jason found the scissors in the drawer, prompting Cara to knock out Jason with a wine bottle, as he had uncovered her murderous secret.

Cara went on a crazed rant about Poppy, accusing her of holding her down and selfishly benefiting from her hard work, stating that as a motive for killing her. The villainess then stated to Jason that she would have to get rid of him as well, only for Aurora and Sally to appear to save Jason. Aurora knocked the weapon from Cara's possession, and shortly afterward, Arthur Smith (who was serving as the acting chief due to Lynn being on maternity leave) handcuffed and arrested Cara for Poppy's murder.

Trivia

• Britt Irvin also played villainous burglar Celeste in 2013's Garage Sale Mystery, as well as the villainous Kendra in 2017's The Wrong Babysitter.