Rita Castillo

**Rita Castillo** is one of the main characters in the second season of Paramount+'s Why Women Kill. She is portrayed by Lana Parrilla.

She is the sardonic wife to the cruel but wealthy Carlo Castillo. As she waits for her elderly husband to die, Rita runs the Elysian Park Garden Club with an iron fist and spends much of her time engaging in an affair with a much younger man.

## Biographical Information

### Cause of Death

Stabbed in the front and back with a screwdriver (by Alma Fillcot) †

## Relationships

### Family

Carlo Castillo (husband, annulled) †
Catherine Castillo (stepdaughter)
Isabel Vega (cousin †)
Harry Jaworski (husband)

### Romances

Carlo Castillo (husband, annulled) †
Harry Jaworski

### Friends

Grace Berk
Joan (former)
Mavis
Brenda

### Enemies

Alma Fillcot †
Dee Fillcot
Catherine Castillo

## History

Rita Castillo was married to a man named Harry Jaworski before she met Carlo. Harry would beat and belittle her, and it is implied that he had just broken her arm when Rita and Isabel, her cousin, decided to leave while he was a work. Harry happened to come home early while they were still packing Rita's things, and became angry. He didn't believe Rita's excuse that she had to visit her ailing mother, and was about to beat her with his belt when Isabel shot him in Rita's defence. Believing him to be dead, Rita and Isabel fled and started new lives in Los Angeles.

With no money, Rita began working as a prostitute. Carlo was a patron of her brothel, but only ever visited the same girl (Gloria) until Isabel framed her for theft - stealing and selling Carlo's watch to buy Rita an expensive new dress. Carlo then began visiting Rita and she ended up convincing him to marry her, thanks to her good looks and Isabel's coaching. For Carlo their marriage was pure lust and for Rita, opportunity, but Carlo ended up living far longer than he or Rita had expected. Their marriage lasted fifteen years, and Isabel was forced to work as a maid for that time as it was the only way Carlo would allow her to stay in the house with them. Rita reinvented herself, lost her accent and pretended to have been born into high society so convincingly that no one suspected her previous life until Catherine had her investigated and found proof.

## Plot

Rita begins the series with power, notoriety and wealth, but trapped in a loveless marriage. When her elderly husband has a stroke trying to catch her with her young lover, her step-daughter arrives from Texas to take care of him. Instead of taking him back to Texas with her, as Rita had hoped and expected, Catherine decides to move into her father's house with Rita and take care of him there. Meanwhile Alma Fillcot is attempting to join the Elysian Park Garden Club, despite not being of the same social class as the rest of them. In Rita's personal life, she has hired Vern Loomis, a Private Investigator, to follow her lover and see if he's cheating on her.

Rita discovers that Scooter is not only cheating on her, but with none other than Dee Fillcot, to which she takes great offense. She leaves during her dinner with Scooter after ending their relationship. After an endorsement from Grace Berk, Rita decides to pay Alma a surprise visit to prove her unsuitability for the club. Thanks to advanced warning from Grace, however, Alma is able to prepare her home and entertain the ladies. Despite making several cruel remarks, Rita and Alma end up alone in the kitchen, where Alma's sincere compliments change Rita's mind about her. Rita convinces the other ladies to vote Alma into the club, but just as they're about to leave, she sees Dee enter their home and realises that she is Alma's daughter, burning the bridge between them. Rita humiliates Alma by sending her telegram letting her know that she was accepted into the club, only to have her arrive at Ada Coy's initiation. Alma confronts Rita and Rita laughs, revealing it was to ensure no one would believe anything Alma tried to say about her (including the revelation of her relationship with Scooter). She also reveals that even if Grace were to believe Alma, she knows of a "tawdry affair" that would prevent the woman coming to Alma's defence, proving that she has no qualms about blackmailing her supposed friends. In retaliation to Alma's visit, Rita destroys Alma's prised garden and threatens that "this will be [her] family" if she tries to threaten Rita again.

Rita's life begins to go downhill when Carlo beings to regain motor functions after his stroke. She has attempted to drown him and he knows of her relationship with Scooter, so she would be divorced and left with nothing if he found a way to contact a lawyer or communicate anything to Catherine. However, Catherine has revealed that there is a clause in her father's will that will prevent her from inheriting anything if she has an unsuitable relationship, so Rita devises a plan. She blackmails Scooter into seducing Catherine so Vern can take pictures of them in a compromising position. Scooter eventually agrees after Rita kicks him out of his apartment. Rita has also learned that Dee is pregnant with Scooter's child and, in a rare moment of compassion and sincerity, offers Dee money to help with the child after advising her not to tell him. Dee refuses to take the money but leaves without telling Scooter, and Rita returns to her lover.

On the night Scooter seduces Catherine into bed, Rita is upstairs getting drunk with the maid, Isabel Vega, who is revealed to be her cousin. They discuss the possibility of killing Carlo, and Isabel reveals that they have "done it before." Meanwhile Alma and her husband break into Rita's house and murder Carlo. Alma plants evidence to frame Rita, and calls Catherine anonymously the next day to throw suspicion on her. Rita is subsequently arrested for her husband's murder and is sent to prison.

Isabel visits her in prison and Rita instructs her to get the photos from Vern to blackmail Catherine into letting her get bail, but Catherine, in her search for the photos, has discovered incriminating letters sent between Rita and Isabel in Isabel's room. Isabel quits and tells Rita that Catherine knows they killed her ex-husband, and Rita realizes Isabel kept the letters to blackmail her. Despite affirming her innocence to everyone that visits her (Scooter, Isabel, and her lawyer) no one believes her, and Rita is advised to throw suspicion on Isabel to save herself. After much deliberation, she refuses, as Isabel is the only family she has. However, when she tells her lawyer this, he informs her that Isabel has committed suicide and confessed to Carlo's murder in her note. Rita is distraught, but released from prison, having been cleared of all charges.

Once she gets home, she learns Catherine had been digging into Rita's past and discovered that Harry, Rita's first husband, is actually still alive. Therefore, she is still legally married to him, so her marriage to Carlo is annulled, leaving her with nothing. She discovers Scooter is living with Catherine now as she is banished from Carlo's old house. Now homeless, Rita goes to the Garden Club Ladies for help (though we only see her asking Joan), but because Catherine and Alma have told them all of her past as a prostitute and her affair with Scooter, they want nothing more to do with her. Her cruel past has caught up with her, and she is truly alone. She begs for Scooter's help, and he finally relents, bringing her a suitcase of clothes and as much money as he could find. It becomes clear that Rita has learned from her past mistakes and wants to start over, and she is genuinely glad that Scooter is happy, even if it isn't with her. She begins crying and Scooter comforts her, but Catherine had followed him to their meeting, and shoots Scooter for betraying her. The bullet hits his shoulder, a stray bullet hits a passing by Bertram, and Catherine leaves with the help of her butler as Rita cries for help.

At the hospital, Scooter is ready to be discharged and he and Rita make plans to run away to New York and start a new life. When Rita leaves the room, however, Alma enters and tells Scooter of his unborn child with Dee, and Scooter confronts Rita. Rita reveals that she knew, and Scooter is angry, and says he needs to talk to Dee. Rita asks him to meet her afterwards, so she at least knows where she stands, and Scooter is non-committal. Waiting on a bench, Rita runs into Grace, who tells her how she has just left the Garden Club for good. She updates Rita on Alma's situation, telling her Alma is ruthless and that "no one benefitted more from [her] going to jail than Alma", realizing Alma killed Carlo.

Rita confronts Alma outside of the venue during her inauguration as Carlo's killer. During the confrontation, Alma accidently references that Isabel's suicide note was on a postcard. This detail wasn't revealed by the press, and so Rita realizes that not only was Alma involved with Carlo's murder, but that of her beloved Isabel as well. To keep Rita quiet, Alma stabs her in the stomach with a screwdriver she found in the alley, and again in the back as Rita staggers away. Rita collapses and dies alone in the alley as Alma returns inside, but some of Rita's blood was on Alma's white fur stole and Rita's body is discovered almost immediately. Alma runs but is apprehended by the police for her many crimes.

## Personality

Rita appears to be a cold and cruel woman who will do anything it takes to get what she wants - she blackmails the other Garden Club Ladies is well known to be ruthless, especially when she's in a bad mood. However, as the series progresses, we see a softer side to Rita. She deeply loves her cousin, Isabel, and has at least some genuine affection for Scooter. She is also surprisingly insecure and was genuinely touched by Alma's compliments. Were it not for Dee's involvement with Scooter, Rita would have actually befriended Alma, despite the difference in social class that she claims is so important to her.

## Relationships

Rita was married to Harry Jaworski in Galveston, but he was physically abusive. She planned to leave him while he was at work, but he came back early and Isabel shot him in defence of Rita. Both women believed him to be dead and fled to LA, changing their identities.

Rita met Carlo while working as a prostitute, and they married for fifteen years. However, this marriage was revealed to be invalid when Catherine discovered that Harry was still alive, and therefore he and Rita were still legally married. Carlo is a cruel man and a drunk, and it is implied that he was an abusive husband.

Rita took Scooter Polarski as her lover when Carlo continues to live well past his expected lifespan, and payed for his apartment out of the expenses allowed for the Garden Club. When this is discovered, she tells Catherine and the Garden Club Ladies that Carlo is a drunk and beats her, and the apartment is for her to escape to. Despite genuinely caring for Scooter, she doesn't trust him, and hires a Private Investigator - Vern Loomis - to follow him and see if he's cheating on her. When Dee interrupts their dinner and reveals that she's been sleeping with Scooter, Rita blackmails him into seducing Catherine so she can be disinherited. This plan works all too well, and Scooter leaves Rita in favour of her step-daughter.

Rita and her cousin are seen to have an entirely positive relationship from Rita's perspective, and Rita trusts her implicitly. She is hurt to discover that Isabel had been keeping incriminating letters in order to blackmail Rita if the need arose, but still refused to throw suspicion onto her cousin for Carlo's murder, despite the advice of her lawyer.

Her relationships with the Garden Club Ladies are up for speculation, as she refers to herself as their friend after her downfall, but consistently insulted, belittled and blackmailed them as the Club's president. Her true feelings towards them are clouded by the persona she created for herself.

Alma is Rita's primary adversary. When they first met, Rita was at first unimpressed by her middle-class background, but secretly envied her for being in a happy, loving marriage. She originally wanted her to join the Garden Club, but learning Dee was her daughter, she strong-armed the club into rejecting her and humiliating her, which eventually proved to be her downfall.

## Memorable quotes

"I started the day convinced I would never laugh again. And then you walked in... wearing that frock... oh, bless you, Alma!"

"I don't mean to sound callous, but I look so good in black."

"I'm the fucking widow."

"I don't want your fucking friendship."

"Please... die for Rita"

"I don't want your admiration. I want your fear."

”No one is truly beautiful until they learn to love unselfishly”