Villainess Review: Amanda and Shelly Davis (Magnum P.I.)

Since Day One, I have really enjoyed CBS' Magnum P.I. reboot immensely. When I first heard about this back in 2018, I was in, even though I had never seen an episode of the original until about a year later. The show premiered in the fall of 2018 and was a Monday series at first, but the second season saw a move to CBS' Friday night lineup, where it currently serves on the 9PM slot before Blue Bloods, which (ironically) features the original Magnum, Tom Selleck, as one of its lead stars. The show is also part of the famed "Lenkov-verse," along with CBS' reboots of Hawaii Five-0 (which ended in 2020 after 10 years) and MacGyver (which was cancelled in the spring of 2021 after five seasons). In addition, the Magnum reboot has had its share of sinister but amazing villainesses, with a glaring example being featured in the episode, "Those We Leave Behind."

So the episode began with Juliet Higgins in a session with her therapist, Dr. Linda Ogawa--a session that sees Linda mention another patient of hers, Ani Rogers, who suddenly committed suicide. Higgins and Thomas Magnum end up investigating Ani's death, which quickly sees them meet with Ani's parents, who blame Linda for the loss of their daughter. We also see the pair at a memorial for Ani, with a trio of girls in attendance. One of them, Amanda Davis, mentioned that Ani had a boyfriend, Will, though this was in contrast with Linda's statement that Ani wasn't in a relationship.

The core reason for the investigation was Ani's social media: it was suddenly gone...then it was back. It became very serious when Colette, one of the girls at the memorial, was suddenly found in her bathtub in a suicide attempt. Of course, Magnum and Higgins figure out that Ani's social media was hacked, and they found the hacker, Romeo Kekoa, in his apartment and interrogated him. Romeo revealed that his lawyer gave the order, and provided a name: Shelly Davis. The pair recognized that name, as she was Amanda's mother and had appeared at the memorial, but in response to the pair's statement that Amanda was Ani's friend, Romeo provided yet another reveal: Amanda was the one who caused Ani's death.

Magnum and Higgins' visit to the Davis home saw them unveil mother and daughter's twisted and evil connection to Ani, while Magnum's detective girlfriend, Lia Kaleo, revealed the rest. Regarding Ani and Will's relationship, that was part of a cruel bet orchestrated by Amanda. Magnum presented video of Amanda making a bet for Will to "hook up" with Ani, doing so after Will boasted that he could hook up with any girl he wanted. As the video revealed, while Amanda and Ani were friends, the former stated that their friendship was over, but as for Will, he developed genuine feeling for Ani, and upon finding out about this, Amanda became furious and sent the video to Ani, who coldly and cruelly told Ani to commit suicide.

The drug found in Ani's system was Xanax, with Amanda providing her mother's prescribed medication to Ani--even going as far as telling Ani that she left it for her for that very purpose. As for Shelly, she found out about her daughter's evil actions and became evil herself; ordering Romeo to hack into Ani's social media and even colluding with Amanda to go after Colette. As the confrontation progressed, Shelly remained defiant and arrogant as her husband, Steven Davis, became horrified over his wife and daughter's actions, with Shelly berating her husband in response and stating that Magnum and Higgins weren't cops and couldn't do anything. However, the arrogant villainess was informed that the police did learn the truth, and it resulted in both mother and daughter being arrested.

Amanda Davis: "Those We Left Behind" aired on October 22, 2021, and was the fourth episode of the show's fourth season. It was also the first episode of the season to provide villainesses, and we saw a pair of truly cold and evil ones in the form of Amanda and Shelly Davis. Regarding Amanda, she was completely disturbed. While Lia referred to Amanda and the other girls turning on Ani as "standard teen idiocy," it was clear that it was worse than that. We didn't get a concrete reason, but one's not needed; Amanda was just cruel and callous, that's all we need to know.

Amanda Davis was played by Nikki Hahn, and in this role, Hahn portrayed Amanda's feigned mourning well, but the video showed Hahn acting out Amanda's viciously callous nature to perfection. Regarding other acting roles, Hahn appeared in the 2016 remake of Adventures in Babysitting, and also appeared in episodes of American Horror Story, Pretty Little Liars, and American Housewife.

For Amanda Davis' profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki, click here.

Shelly Davis: Behind every wicked teenage girl is an equally evil mother who will use whatever power she has (no matter how immense) to cover for her. That was definitely the case with Shelly Davis, who was played by Christina Souza. As the episode revealed, Shelly used her position as a lawyer to cover for Amanda after learning about her cold-hearted and cold-blooded deeds; going as far as to order one of her clients to get into Ani's social media, and even resorting to colluding with her daughter in targeting one of her teenage girl's own friends. My goodness.

In all regards, Shelly was ruthless and diabolical, and the reveal saw Souza give a terrific performance as she acted out Shelly's arrogance and her vicious conduct; portraying Shelly as the person she truly was: a villainess who believed she was above suspicion and above the law. Souza has also made guest appearances on shows such as NCIS, Boston Legal, Medium, and fellow "Lenkov-verse" series Hawaii Five-0. Earlier in 2021, Souza appeared in a bit role in the film, Jungle Cruise, which starred Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Emily Blunt.

For Shelly Davis' profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki, click here.

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