Redeemed antagonist Leah
Leah (Christine Dunford) is the redeemed main antagonist from "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying to Be a Lesbian," episode 3.12 of What I Like About You (airdate January 21, 2005). She is the head of Marquee Management, a prestigious music firm.
The episode opening revealed that Holly Tyler was hired by Leah as her junior manager after meeting inside the women's restroom; with Leah liking Holly's taste in music. However, Leah's heel persona was established in her on-screen introduction, as she ordered Holly to get coffee for her, and as Holly described to her friends, she had Holly doing menial tasks for her, while constantly calling her "Pippi Longstocking." While Holly and the others took Val Tyler (Holly's older sister) to a lesbian bar to help her get over her breakup, she spotted Leah, who approached Holly and voiced her elation that they were "on the same team."
Under the belief that Holly was a lesbian, Leah (who was still closeted at the time) started treating her nicer, even agreeing to listen to a demo CD from Holly's client, Ben--a request Leah denied earlier in the episode. Leah also invited Holly to a live recording (the same recording that Holly felt that Dave, another junior manager, was more qualified to attend), and it was at this point that Holly--out of guilt over the reason for Leah's sudden genial treatment of her--told the truth and confessed that she was straight. Leah, in response, lashed out at Holly for lying to her, only for Holly to state that lying wasn't her intention and pointed out that Leah hated her at first but started liking her after Leah believed she was a lesbian.
Holly attempted to convince Leah to come out herself, with Leah brushing off her advice before Holly stated that no one would care about Leah being gay. However, Holly accidentally sat on the intercom button during her advice, resulting in Leah accidentally being outed. In the episode's final scenes, Holly was visited by Leah, who stated that she worked to keep her private life hidden, but later thanked Holly before expressing her happiness that no one cared that she was gay--even adding that some people said they already knew. Leah informed Holly that she would remain as junior manager, and the episode ended with Leah hooking up with Michelle, a woman who Val befriended at the bar earlier in the episode.
Personality[]
- While Leah doesn't do anything villainous, her treatment of Holly established her as the episode's antagonist. She was introduced as being demanding and belittling towards Holly, and it was only her mistaken belief that Holly was a lesbian that resulted in Leah being nicer to her. However, Leah did redeem herself after Holly revealed the truth, as well as her accidental outing, when she didn't fire Holly and thanked her for the outing.
Trivia[]
- Christine Dunford later played vengeful villainess Nicole Guzman on Crossing Jordan, as well as villainous conspirator Claire Koneff Deluth on Rizzoli & Isles, and the evil Andrea Ziv on The Purge.