Villainess Review: Diana Lassiter (Ghost Whisperer)

Very recently, many were stunned with the heartbreaking news of the passing of actress Markie Post at the age of 70. Post is best remembered for being part of the cast of the hit NBC series, Night Court, playing defense lawyer Christine Sullivan for the show's remaining six seasons. The character served as the object of affection for Harold T. Stone (played by the late Harry Anderson), though Dan Fielding (John Larroquette) had his eyes on her as well. Post also co-starred with John Ritter on the CBS series, Hearts Afire, and had many TV and film credits to her name, which included appearing in 18 episodes of NBC's Chicago P.D. as Erin Lindsay's mother, Barbara "Bunny" Fletcher. Markie Post's passing comes less than a month after the death of her Night Court co-star, Charles Robinson, who played Mac for all nine seasons and actually appeared with Post and Anderson in a mini-reunion on an episode of 30 Rock.

As a fan of villainesses, I was elated to see Markie Post playing a villainous role on Ghost Whisperer, happening to catch the episode while binge-watching. The episode, titled, "The Woman of His Dreams," featured a young woman named Eva Turner as the central spirit, though she actually appeared to Jim Conrad, as Melinda Gordon was out of town visiting her mother. Images of an operating room suddenly appeared, revealing that Eva (a model) died on the operating table, with the procedure originally believed to be an appendectomy. As it turned out, Jim and Melinda actually learned while talking with Eva's mother, Marybeth Kaminsky, that Eva was undergoing plastic surgery.

In addition, Eva informed Melinda that her then-agent, Diana Lassiter, helped with the surgery, and after Diana was briefly shown attending Eva's funeral, she was later visited in her office by the couple, who confirmed Eva's statements. Diana also informed Jim and Melinda that she attempted to convince Eva to not go through with the surgery, but couldn't do so due to Eva's obsession with her looks. She also revealed the true cause of Eva's death: she was on diet pills at that time, and that mixed with the anesthetic caused a reaction that killed her. Diana claimed that Eva intentionally failed to inform the doctor that she was on the pills, but her visit to the Kaminsky household ended up revealing everything.

As Eva revealed, nearly everything Diana said was true, but she left out one little detail: the surgery was all Diana's idea. Diana had urged Eva to undergo the surgery to "add 10 years to her career," and regarding Eva's use of diet pills, Diana ordered Eva to cover it up--because the doctor wouldn't perform the surgery if he found out about the pills. The villainous agent (who also represented Eva's younger sister, Linda Kaminsky) continued to portray Eva as a woman obsessed with her looks and repeated her claim that the surgery was all Eva's idea, doing so after her callousness was revealed, but to no avail. Eva's appearance was to basically warn Linda about Diana, while also making peace with her mother, whose harsh criticism of Eva's looks in the past led her to change everything about herself prior to her passing. As for Diana, well, her fate wasn't revealed, but her true evil demeanor ended up exposed to both Linda and Marybeth.

"The Woman of His Dreams" was the sixth episode of Ghost Whisperer's second season, and aired on October 27, 2006. Markie Post truly shined as the villainous Diana Lassiter; I had hoped that Post had played a villainess at least once, and she didn't disappoint in this episode. Diana was very callous, ruthless, and deceptive; she was willing to endanger Eva's life to further her own career--while using the guise of furthering Eva's career to mask her evil ambition. Of course, Diana's insistence regarding the surgery ended up resulting in her death, and knowing this, she decided to portray Eva as a woman obsessed with remaining beautiful to cover up her complicity--more evidence of Diana's self-serving nature. Post, unsurprisingly, portrayed Diana's grief very well in her introductory scenes, but when the mask was removed and Diana's villainy was uncovered, the episode would later see Post perform magnificently when it came to acting out Diana's callous demeanor after her reveal.

Click here for Diana Lassiter's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!