Chloe Spade

**Chloe Spade** (Lindsay Hartley) is the (redeemed) secondary villainess of the 2016 Lifetime film *Nightmare Nurse* (airdate March 5, 2016). She was set up as appearing to be the film's main antagonist during its progression, but this was done to hide the true main villain.

## Introduction/Events

Chloe is an in-home nurse and a physical therapist who was pre-approved by the insurance provider of the two protagonists, Lance Boston and Brooke Harmon. She was sent over to their house after the couple got into a car accident that fractured at least one of Brooke's ribs, left Lance's right femur broken, and killed a delivery truck driver in his mid-forties named Darren Wells. Subsequently, he required at-home care while he recovered during the next six weeks; upon meeting Brooke and Lance for the first time, she established herself as friendly yet professional.

During their interview, Chloe recounted having to look after her ill grandmother beginning when she was eight years old since her parents "worked a lot," which is when she realized that she wanted to be a nurse. Going to nursing school "right out of high school," she mentioned having taken care of 23 patients before being assigned to Lance. At that moment, Brooke was called in for her first day as the sous chef of a restaurant called Il Fonfina, and she accepted Chloe's offer to look after Lance as a "trial run" during her shift.

It went successfully, with Chloe going as far as to help the couple with their laundry. However, after excusing herself to go to her residence with her live-in boyfriend James, the first sign of her villainy came when she threw away a plastic bag containing a styrofoam takeout box filled with spaghetti and tomato sauce that Brooke gave her. More signals showed themselves during her tense conversation with James once she arrived, with the pair discussing an agreement they had for her never to see male patients again "after the last one" before engaging in a sexual tryst that began with consensual rape roleplay. Chloe's second shift was followed by her looking through pictures of Lance and Brooke on his Twitter account once she got home. James attempted to have another tryst with his girlfriend, only for her to knee him in his groin before going to bed.

Furthermore, hints about her amorous feelings for Lance began to surface when she decided to wear a pink scrub suit and Forbidden Romance—Brooke's favorite perfume. Her tactics also escalated, as she put a framed image of the couple face down, licked his right nipple as she was putting on a blue shirt (having intentionally gotten the previous one stained while he was trying to feed himself soup she made him), kissing him while he was sleeping on his couch, and even having a conversation during which she made several subtly suggestive comments to him—culminating in her trying to initiate sex with Lance after admitting that she broke up with James. He firmly rejected her advances and told her to "sleep on it," which was followed by her returning home and researching information on overdosing on oxycodone.

During her fourth shift, the seductive woman acted coldly towards him, with Lance's apology for his reaction the previous day not helping matters. When Brooke returned to their house early from her shift, she found her boyfriend unconscious and unresponsive; she told Chloe to call 911. In the waiting room of a Los Angeles County hospital, the female latter told Brooke she knew it "was [her] fault" after claiming that she was "doing laundry" at the time—even theorizing that what happened may have been a "bad [reaction]" to the oxycodone he had been prescribed. At that moment, a nurse named Barbara Stone asked for Brooke to follow her, recommending that Chloe "go home and get some rest" since she was not allowed to see him under "doctor's orders." While he was hospitalized, Lance told Brooke about Chloe's lustful actions, leading her to call the police and believe that she drugged him.

## Reveal/Backstory

Detective Thames informed the couple that Chloe had a dark backstory, as she had not only been abused by her father, but was also a manic depressive (a person diagnosed with bipolar disorder) on antidepressants. Furthermore, she developed romantic feelings for a married and successful actor when she was caring for him in Brentwood, with the two even having an affair. However, when she discovered he had a wife who was working on another film in Canada, Chloe "destroyed [their] house," along with "[leaving him] helpless and immobile without food or [a] phone." Even though her illicit lover dropped the charges against her, she "hooked on with another contractor" (in Thames' words).

Chloe attempted to visit Lance and give him a bouquet of flowers, but she was stopped by Brooke in the waiting room, which led to an argument during which she fired her in spite of the former stating that she was not responsible for causing the overdose. Before she left, the deranged femme fatale all but accused her of not appreciating what she had before getting into her car and leaving a tearful voicemail for Lance. Driving to their house, she broke in using a spare key and attempted to call him again, but when his girlfriend answered instead, she went into a rage and destroyed several of their belongings—along with stabbing a syringe into a framed picture of Brooke and Lance.

She later disguised herself as a hospital worker and requested to personally deliver another bouquet of flowers to Lance, but when she was turned down, she simply asked that he receive said flowers. After that, Chloe eavesdropped on the couple's conversation with their attorney Gwen. Overhearing that a restraining order was filed against her, that her behavior was to be ignored, and that she was "[going to] go away" (among a few other details), Chloe confronted her in the hospital's parking garage and angrily told her that "she [couldn't] take her job away" from her since "nursing is the only thing [she loves]." Gwen replied that she shouldn't "be so awful at it" and said she was calling the police, only for Chloe to shove her to the ground in anger—accidentally leaving her in a coma.

Stunned at what she had done, she fled the scene and went back to her home, where she complained to her pharmacist that her antidepressants were not working and that "she [needed] something stronger." Taking her pills and drinking some wine along with it, Chloe visited the couple's house again that night and rang their doorbell. Barbara opened the door and immediately asked her what she was doing there, with Chloe proclaiming that she wanted to see Lance and the former denying her entry before preparing to close the door on her. However, Lance had Barbara hold it open, allowing for their visitor to explain that she didn't poison him and that she wanted to work for him again. Even so, he told her to "check [herself] in" while Barbara outright told her she was no longer his nurse before closing the door and locking it.

## Redemption/Climax

Bursting into tears after getting back in her car, Chloe was found unconscious at her home by the police after she attempted to commit suicide by overdosing on oxycodone. She was visited in her hospital room by Barbara, who asked her how "[she was] feeling." Chloe said that she "[could] drop the holier-than-thou act," which led to the latter undergoing her own heel turn by grumpily reminding her that she paid her $2,500 to ruin Brooke and Lance's lives.

Scolding her henchwoman for disappointing her, Barbara disclosed that she replaced her antidepressants with placebo pills because she "had to tip the scales somehow" since "[her] sex appeal wasn't doing it on its own." Upon realizing her erratic behavior was facilitated by said pills, she denounced her co-conspirator as a "bitch" for making her act "so messed up," with Barbara hypocritically calling her out for using "such language" and claiming that she would make sure that she wouldn't "go to jail for murder." Chloe redeemed herself by voicing that she would not only tell the police everything about their scheme, but also stop working for her.

Failing to convince her to "let [her] do [her] job" in exchange for her silence, Barbara then indirectly confessed to Chloe that she killed James (and secretly planned to frame her for the crime), with the female latter passing out moments later because she had been slowly drugged by the former. Placed into a wheelchair and then moved to the back seat of Barbara's car, with James' corpse in the trunk—she regained consciousness, escaped the vehicle, and broke into the couple's house. It was there that she found her vengeful ex-employer trying to murder Lance as revenge on him for Darren's death; he was her fiancé.

After ordering her to back away from him while holding her at gunpoint, Barbara falsely promised to double Chloe's pay to $5,000, only to quickly subdue and then drug her even further. Although her fate was never divulged, Brooke decided to have herself and Lance "get her some help" after he inquired about what they should do with her. Her statement most likely indicated that Chloe was institutionalized offscreen.