The evil Lana Brown
Lana Brown (Kimberly Sustad) is the main villainess from the 2019 film, Morning Show Mysteries: Death by Design, the fifth film of Hallmark's Morning Show Mystery series (airdate April 28, 2019).
Events[]
Lana Brown is a lawyer and a friend of Jasmine Tywell, who was the wife of Aaron Tywell--the owner of Tywell Industries. She was also one of many investors in Aaron's company, using (assumingly) fraudulent means to obtain the money to invest. However, the company was going under, though Lana believed that she would regain her funds due to Aaron being a beneficiary in Jasmine's life insurance policy. An obstacle suddenly came when the beneficiary was changed from Aaron to Marian Robbins, Jasmine's twin sister, and now seeing that she wouldn't receive a dime, Lana resorted to murderous means to regain her money.
Lana's evil plan began on the night of Jasmine's birthday party, which she attended before making an attempt to run down Jasmine in her car. The villainess' first attempt failed, but on the following evening, Lana later mugged Jasmine and strangled her to death with her gloved hands, while also taking Jasmine's necklace--a birthday gift from Aaron. Later in the film, Lana was shown discussing the murder with friends Stacey Walker and Riley Tanako--the latter of whom was suspected due to an argument with Jasmine at the party. Riley caught Lana revealing that Jasmine was strangled, which wasn't revealed to police, and to silence her, the evil Lana killed Riley and planted Marian's medication at the scene in an attempt to frame her and stage Riley's death as a suicide.
Reveal[]
Lana's climactic villainous reveal
Marian was heavily suspected, especially after it was revealed Jasmine talked their parents into investigating into Aaron's company, which left them unable to pay their mortgage on their home. Stacey and husband Zach Walker were each suspected when it was revealed that Stacey had been sending threatening emails to the company after Zach was accused of and fired for sabotage. Detectives Ian Jackson and Vinnie Hawkins' investigation ruled out Marian when a clause prevened a murderer from benefitting from his or her crime, but revealed that the investors would become beneficiaries.
This began Lana's reveal, and it was cemented when she was showing in her villainous disguise at Riley's shop, as she received a text from "Jasmine" asking her to meet. In actuality, it was Marian posing as Jasmine, and after Billie Blessings came out, Lana's murderous and greedy scheme was revealed. The villainess confessed to killing Jasmine and Riley--killing the former for monetary reasons and not due to an affair (which never happened) and killing the latter because she knew too much. Billie revealed another thing that gave Lana away: a green dress that she and Jasmine to a party some time ago, and it was at that moment that Lana snarled over Jasmine wearing that dress to copy her.
At that moment, Lana pulled out a gun and pointed it at Billie and Marian, stating that she wouldn't let them get in the way of her plans before firing her weapon at the pair. Even after Ian and Hawk entered, Lana was hellbent on wielding her gun before she was tackled by Billie, after which Ian arrested Lana for Jasmine and Riley's murders.
Trivia[]
- Kimberly Sustad also played villainess Perry Quinn in 2018's Past Malice: An Emma Fielding Mystery, and appeared as the villainous Helen Foley on The Twilight Zone.
Gallery[]
