Portrait

Photos

Profession : Businesswoman

Terri Treas :
May 27 1986 (# 466) to June 25 1986 (# 487)

Sheila Carlyle is from Boston, and her arrival in Santa Barbara coincides with the arrival on the west coast of the Capwell cousins, Madeline and Courtney. Sheila is a determined woman, willing to play many roles to get what she wants. And now she wants David Laurent. Having become his mistress does not seem enough for her, she wants more. For this, Sheila plays with David a real chess game, where both try to do checkmate.

Justly suspected of being David Laurent's mistress, Sheila is a figure that appears on fake photos, in compromising situation with David; starting point of the game that she will play with him.

In the game of cat and mouse, Sheila seems to excel and she moves her pawns with a real tactic, to achieve her ends. Sheila plays the role of a vague associate in David Laurent's business when Mason Capwell comes to question her. Sheila then proves to be distant, little inclined to help him in his investigation, swearing not to have any vital information to provide him. If she admits to be the woman on the photos, she denies having the slightest affair with David and assures not to be involved in the murder of Madeline, since she was then in Italy. She then moves other pawns to create a doubt around David's innocence with, as ultimate point of her strategy, becoming the capital witness that would allow to exonerate or to condemn David. So she has David at her mercy. For this, she voluntarily leaves her lipstick in David's bedroom for Julia to find it. She also leaves in evidence a love letter which she wrote to the attention of David during his meeting with Courtney. This same letter is then easily found by Cruz during a search of his room. The highlight of the game is the trial where Sheila tries to appear as a woman in love, rejected by David.

Multi-faceted woman, aware that she is losing David, she drops her last card during a final face-to-face with David and Julia, after the trial. Armed with a revolver, she tries to regain control over the game and David. But David proves to be more skillful than she and, even if she distorts the truth, she does not succeed in demonstrating David's double or triple game. Sheila loses David. Definitely. And it is in tears, downcast after her defeat, that Sheila leaves the city.

However, another facet of Sheila is guessed when she meets Pearl Bradford. They both know each other from Boston, where they went to the same privileged environment. Sheila does not understand the changes in "Michael / Pearl". Yet she seems genuinely intrigued by the reasons for her friend's metamorphosis. Unfortunately, too focused on her relationship with David, this aspect of Sheila will not be developed.

Woman of character with a strong potential of interaction with several characters (Courtney, Julia, Pearl), the character of Sheila Carlyle was too quickly restricted to her relationship with David Laurent. Throughout the episodes, her character has lost its multidimensional aspect to be limited to that of the jealous mistress. Sheila could have been, for the year 1986, an intriguer or an ally for Pearl in his relationship with Courtney or with Brian, during the reunion between the two brothers...

Portrait written for this site by Lilian

Read also : Madeline Laurent's death