Villainess Review: Sheryl Anderson (My Sister's Double Life)

Lifetime has really been delivering when it comes to villainesses lately, and I mean really delivering. It's not just the type of villainesses, it's who they get to play them. Some faces have been new to me, some haven't, and a number of them are doing this whole Lifetime villainess thing for the very first time. Last year's bunch was delicious, but this year's has really been quite epic, and the year's nearly half over.

This latest movie, My Sister's Double Life, delivered in that regard for sure. The film centered on a pair of siblings, Chelsy and Hayley Ellis. Hayley worked as a waitress--a job she hated due to her boss, Tony, being a lecherous clown (messing around with another waitress, Melinda, while also trying to hit on Hayley). In addition, Hayley had been on the receiving end of harassment and threatening messages, and she vented to Chelsy (a reporter) about what she had been through, especially since the passing of their father.

After Hayley's seen being confronted by her so-called ex-boyfriend, she suddenly is abducted. Chelsy worries and is on the case, confiding in her police officer boyfriend Leo Thomas, only for both of them to be on the receiving end of scolding from Leo's superior, Sergeant Dore (I'll bet $$$ Dore has a problem with interracial relationships. As for Hayley, she's imprisoned. Chained to a bed, and shown being drugged by her abductor, whether it's flat out injection or drugging Hayley's meals.

Chelsy's suspect list was quite interesting. Ex-boyfriend was a bust. Tony and Miranda were strong suspects, but what concerned and angered Chelsy was the accusations against Hayley--the claim that she was messing around with all sorts of (married) men. This includes Sheryl, the park ranger who hadn't uttered more than a single sentence by that point, suddenly coming up to Chelsy and claiming that Hayley had "loose morals" and was messing around with married men. Oh boy.

Chelsy's look into Tony saw the latter struck by a car, though Chelsy was clearly the target. Things became shocking when Chelsy found the body of a blonde woman, fearing that it was her sister, and she stumbled upon Sheryl who called for backup. The woman wasn't Hayley, it was a missing hiker, but all of a sudden, Chelsy's suddenly arrested for obstruction of justice. Seriously?! She's bailed out, and afterwards, Chelsy suddenly sees photos of Hayley with Tim Anderson, who ends up confronted and taken in.

So yeah, Tim and Hayley were seeing each other, and it resulted in a pregnancy. Flashback revealed that Tim was the one who took Hayley, but that resolution comes with about 20 minutes left in the film. And Lifetime 101 states that when the big reveal comes with quite a bit of time left, it usually leads to an even bigger surprise reveal, though this one wasn't so surprising.

Tim is in Chelsy's car holding her at knifepoint and ordering her to drive, and when we see Hayley being served her latest drug-laced meal, we see the face of her capture, and "surprise, surprise," it's Sheryl, who reveals herself to Hayley as Tim's wife. Regarding the question I had in my head, "Was this jealousy and anger over the affair, or did she want the baby?," it turned out it was both. During Sheryl's reveal (which was about as shocking as the Minnesota Vikings choking in the playoffs--every single time; but much like that, I wasn't complaining), Tim tells the whole story to Chelsy. Tim and Sheryl had problems conceiving; too many miscarriages and fertility treatments were bleeding them dry.

Then, Tim meets up with Hayley. Of course, he doesn't tell Hayley he's married, and their affair results in a pregnancy. Sheryl found out about the affair and sent the threatening and harassing messages to Hayley, and of course, Sheryl was the captain of this deranged plan to abduct Hayley for her baby. Chelsy fights off Tim and heads to the hideout where Sheryl was threatening Hayley, leading to Chelsy fighting with Sheryl, who voices her rage over Tim giving Hayley a baby but not Sheryl. The fight continues after Chelsy frees Hayley, with Sheryl basically saying that she'd kill Hayley once the baby's born. Sheryl's taken down, but she rises up to stab Chelsy, only for Hayley to clock the villainess some more and hug her sister. The couple's arrested, Hayley has her baby, and she celebrates her graduation fron dental school with Chelsy and Leo.

My Sister's Double Life aired on Lifetime on June 29, 2025, and the film featured Anna Hopkins as the evil and insane Sheryl Anderson. I had Sheryl pegged from jumpstreet; she was this random character who was too quiet, and then she opened her mouth and bashed Hayley to Chelsy. That sealed it. The certain words Sheryl used made me think that she was some sort of religious nut, but I only turned out to be half-right; she's just a nut. Sheryl was so deliciously evil and unhinged; verbally attacking Hayley with threats before abducting Hayley and torturing her--all out of jealousy and her obsessive drive to have a baby. Anna Hopkins nailed this, which isn't a shock; she's amazing as hell in everything she's been in. Hopkins showed out in the climactic reveal, performing an elegant swan dive into Sheryl's entitlement and insanity as she wails over another woman carrying her husband's baby. She's definitely one of the best Lifetime film villainesses from this year.

This was overdue from Anna Hopkins. She's done some Lifetime before, but this was her first time being a villainess on the network. This isn't Hopkins' first evil role; she played one-shot villainess Ambrosia on SyFy's Dark Matter series, and that was very delicious! Hopkins also played Samantha Clayton on the Arrowverse, and has appeared in episodes of Killjoys, Defiance, and Ransom.

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Check out Sheryl Anderson's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!