Newlywed and Dead (2016 Lifetime)

Newlywed and Dead (2016 Lifetime)

Stars: Shenae Grimes-Beech, Christopher Russell, Samantha Ferris

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Synopsis (via Lifetime)

Young newlywed Kristin begins to doubt her husband Jay’s love when his aunt and rival is found murdered. Kristin starts to investigate the death, and Jay’s checkered past only becomes his next target.

Thoughts

A mother disciplines her crazy looking son on the stairs. He isn’t having it and pushes his mother down the stairs, killing her.

Cut to a grown-up and hot AF, Jay marrying a woman named Kristen in a courthouse. Then they return to a ski lodge or something that Jay owns, and Kristen works as a hospitality manager. (She married her boss.) Everyone celebrates, the news even makes the front page of the paper. The next morning a shirtless and yummy looking Jay suggests that Kristen invite her mother to the lodge.

Kristen calls her mother, who is a deputy sheriff, and might be a lesbian! (Representation matters!) Since Annie is a cop and a mother, she does a background check on Jay and finds a criminal past. (He had an abusive charge.) Annie and Kristin’s sister Caitlyn arrive and are impressed with Kristin’s outfit, the lodge, and Jay.

The visit is short-lived. A few scenes of Annie and Caitlyn riding horses and having fancy dinners with Kristen and Jay, and then they are off. They are planning on returning for Thanksgiving.

Kristen receives a wedding gift from Jay’s Aunt Barbara. They have lunch together, and Barbara fills him on Jay’s parent’s divorce, his estranged relationship with his father, and the family manor. Barbara is legally fighting with Jay to stop the resort from expanding. (Is this a Hallmark movie? What is going on.)

Barbara takes Kristen to visit the family manor, and it is beautiful. It is also where Jay’s mother died. When Kristen sees a photo of Jay’s mom, she realizes they look very similar. Barbara tells her that she just wanted her to be aware of who she was marrying. Jay is livid and threatens Barb. Then Jay returns to Kristen and cries about his mom’s death. He promises it wasn’t his fault. (Even tho, it was!!!!)

Kristen talks to her co-worker/gay-friend, Gus, about Jay turning her into his mother. He agrees it is creepy.

Barbara interferes with Jay’s plans to expand the business and then confronts him about trying to manipulate Kristen as he did with his last girlfriend, Ashley. Jay can’t control his anger and backhands Barbara sending her flying headfirst into the kitchen counter. Jay calls a friend to help get rid of the body and cover up Barb’s murder. Then he cleans up and causally comes home to Kristen and has dinner. The sheriff in the town rules Barbs murder as an accident when Jay tells him to do so.

Kristen is skeptical of the autopsy and thinks it is strange that Barb died of CO2 poisoning when she lives in the mountains and usually has her windows open. Jay tells Kristen that it wasn’t an accident; it was suicide. Kristen is even more confused and reaches out to her mom for help.

Kristen breaks into Barbs’ home and sees an uncleaned up crime scene. She also finds a file on jay that includes information about his ex-fiancee Ashley. Kristen sends the data to her mother.

At Barbara’s funeral, Jay makes an emotional speech and spreads her ashes. Kristen leaves early to “run errands” and goes to San Francisco to find Ashley. Ashley tells Kristen that Jay physically and emotionally abused her and has a severe anger management problem. She says that Jay tried to kill her.

Kristen calls Gus, and he tells her to be careful. She decides she needs to talk to Jay before making a decision. When she shows Jay the article, he gets angry and calls Ashley a liar. Kristen says she is trying to understand and asks him to explain it to her. Jay tells Kristen she is a hypocrite and knows about Annie looking into Barb’s death. He tells her to be a good wife and play her part. Kristen says she doesn’t trust him and breaks it off.

Jay is shocked to learn that Barbara left everything to Kristen and calls his friend to take care of her. The friend gives Kristen a ride to Jay’s mansion. Jay demands that Kristen sign over her the land to him. He pulls a gun on her and takes her phone. He holds her hostage in the mansion where he killed his mother. Kristen tries to work the angle that she loves him and agrees to sign any document he wants, but he isn’t falling for it.

Jay tells Kristen that he killed his mother and Barb because they made him mad. Then he locks her in the basement. Kristen is resourceful and uses a hammer and a screwdriver to take the hinges off a door. She makes a run for it but is stopped by Jay’s friend with a gun.

Let’s not forget Kristen’s mom is a Sherriff, and she becomes worried about her daughter. Kristen recruits Guy, the gay friend, to help her figure out where her daughter is. They confront Jay in his office, and Jay takes Annie to the manor. He almost kills Annie but then thinks better of it and uses Annie to get Kristen to sign the papers.

Kristen convinces the man holding her hostage and turns him against Jay. Annie jumps on board and says her department knows where she is and that they are on their way. Jay shoots his friend, and Annie uses it as an opportunity to run outside to her car. Jay is about to shoot Annie when Kristen steals the friend’s gun and hides it behind the papers. She brings the documents to Jay and shoots him instead.

Police arrive on the scene and collect the evidence. Jay is taken to the hospital and will be serving 25 years to life. Kristen and her family all move into the town to help fun the lodge they inherited.

Side Note

Minority Report: Caitlyn, Judge, Cop,

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Overall rating

🔪🔪 (2 Knives)

🍷🍷🍷 (3 glasses of wine required.)