Paula Stronin (Gone)

Paula Stronin (Venus Terzo) is the true main villainess of the 2011 Lifetime film Gone (airdate June 27, 2011). She was a state health commissioner who was deeply in debt and had reluctantly went along with a conspiracy that her financial advisor, Duncan Hall (the film’s tertiary villain), came up with. 
The conspiracy involved Paula masterminding the theft of the current flu vaccine, with plans to sell said vaccine on the black market so that she could earn the millions of dollars needed to pay off her debts. Her actions likely contributed to the fact that least 12 people died from a particular strain of the influenza virus during the current flu season. Paula’s first appearance in the movie was when she was shown at a press conference in order to address the “shortage” of the vaccine, with her reply being that the matter was being addressed on both a regional and federal level.
On the day after she spoke at the press conference, Paula began to orchestrate the murder-for-hire plot on Ed Borden, a journalist who had caught on to her conspiracy. The conspiracy involved Duncan kidnapping Emily Franklin, the young daughter of main protagonist Amy Franklin, and also having Duncan make several threatening calls to Amy. Hall stated that if Amy refused to follow his instructions “to the letter,” Emily would be murdered.
Towards the film’s climax, Amy entered Paula’s home, where Paula was hosting a celebration of her impending retirement from public service. She also informed her friends about a “wonderful opportunity” to join her in creating a “new and visionary care facility.” Her speech was interrupted when corrupt cop Liz Cook rang her doorbell, having found out from Amy’s mother about where her daughter was. At first, Paula and Duncan doubted Liz’s claims, and both of them tried to reassure her that Amy was not present, unaware that she was correct.
Not too long after Liz entered Paula’s home, both she and Amy engaged in a brawl upstairs, with the pair of women falling down the stairs and landing right in front of Stronin, Hall, and their guests. As Liz attempted to arrest Amy, she pleaded with Paula to help find her daughter and also attempted to reveal Duncan as Emily’s kidnapper. After dismissing the aforementioned guests, Paula decided to take Amy down to her cellar, with Hall and Cook accompanying the pair. She revealed that her late husband (who had died 4 years before the movie’s events) used the cellar as a workshop. Though Emily was no longer inside the cellar since Liz had moved the 9-year-old to her car under Duncan’s orders, Paula scolded Hall for bringing the kidnapped girl to her home, exposing her as the mastermind behind the conspiracy. However, after Duncan threatened to show Paula how “real business” was done by killing Amy in front of her, the villainess simply went back upstairs, unsure of what to say to her co-conspirators. On the morning after Hall was killed by Amy and Emily was finally rescued from Liz’s car, Paula was shown on TV being arrested for her crimes.
==Trivia==
*Venus Terzo has played three other villainesses: Sonja in an episode of Supernatural, Valeria Crossley in an episode of Psych, and Susan Jennings in the 2006 Lifetime film Circle of Friends.
==Gallery==
Paula Arrested.jpg|Paula’s arrest
Category:2010s
Category:Boss
Category:Brunette
Category:Conspirator
Category:Greedy
Category:Live Action Villainess
Category:Murder: Indirect
Category:Murderer
Category:Opportunistic Corruption
Category:Villainous Reveal
Category:Fate: Arrested