Lydia Layne's Better Half
Story By: John Harrison and Greg Nicotero
Written By: John Harrison
In a Los Angeles skyscraper, Lydia Layne (Tricia Helfer), a successful corporate executive and owner of a large private equity group, is meeting with a man and a woman, deciding on which of the two is to be the company's new Chief Financial Officer. Lydia ultimately chooses the man, Tom Harding (Michael Scialabba), leaving the woman, Celia Mendez (Danielle Lyn) immensely bitter about her decision. Celia, who happens to be Lydia's lover, accuses Lydia of intentionally denying her the promotion to keep her as a sidekick instead of letting her move up in the world. As Lydia is noted to be a proud supporter of women's empowerment, Celia calls her out for her utter hypocrisy.
The argument between the two women soon turns physical, and Celia is killed when Lydia shoves her over the couch, causing her head to be impaled on Lydia's "Woman of the Year" award. Frightened, Lydia puts Celia's corpse in her office chair and tries to discreetely move her to the elevator. Along the way, Lydia catches Celia's corpse angrily glaring at her. Once inside the elevator, Lydia plans to frame Celia's death as the result of a car accident. Suddenly, an earthquake strikes the building, causing the elevator to lose power.
As a result of the blackout, the elevator is stuck between floors. Lydia gets no signal on her phone, and thus attempts to escape through a hatch in the ceiling. Using the wheeled chair Celia is sitting in as a stepladder however, causes her to fall and be rendered unconscious. As time goes by, Lydia begins to hear Celia's voice whispering to her, and notices that her corpse is continuing to glare at her. Rescuers soon call in on the elevator's emergency phone, but Lydia is hesitant to answer them out of fear her crime will be exposed. The isolation and supernatural happenings with Celia's corpse eventually causes Lydia to go mad, and she lashes out at the body, confirming that she indeed intended to deny her the promotion because she didn't want her own glory to be taken from her.
24 hours later, Lydia notices that Celia's corpse has begun moving by itself. The award she was punctured on forces its way out of her head, and a hand suddenly lunges out of the hole and grabs Lydia by the throat when she goes in for a closer look. Deciding to make a break for it, Lydia pries open the doors to discover a narrow opening leading to freedom. Before Lydia can fully escape, Celia's corpse stands and grabs her by the hair. She also does this just as the elevator begins moving again, resulting in Lydia being decapitated. A pair of first responders make their way to the bloodied elevator as it opens up, whereupon they discover Lydia's severed head in the lap of Celia's corpse, which now has a smile on its face.
This episode contains examples of:
- Accidental Murder: Lydia pushes Celia when their argument turns physical, which causes the latter to stumble backward, fall over the couch, and land headfirst on Lydia's spear-shaped Woman of the Year Award.
- Actor Allusion: Lydia, played by Tricia Helfer, is heard uttering the word "Frak" under the pressure of the situation.
- Always Someone Better: Why Celia accuses Lydia of denying her the promotion, stating that she's younger and smarter than Lydia and therefore a threat to her. It's proven that this is actually true during Lydia's rant at her corpse.
- Ambiguous Situation: While Lydia's relationship with Celia turned out to be one long string of lies and manipulation, we don't know Celia's end of the story. Was she genuinely upset that Lydia lied to her and broke her trust? Or was she pissed because Lydia kept her from continuing her own rise up the corporate ladder and assuming her own glory?
- Asshole Victim: After all the abuse and denial she heaps onto her lover, Lydia ends up decapitated by the vengeful spirit of said lover.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Lydia ends up stringing her girlfriend Celia along with promises of moving up in the world, but instead of following through with said promises, she turns her back on her by denying her the promotion, wanting to keep her as a "sidekick" to make herself look good.
- By the Hair: Celia's reanimated corpse grabs Lydia's hair before she can completely exit the elevator. When the car starts moving again, the resultant pressure decapitates her.
- Cigarette of Anxiety: Lydia lights one up during Celia's furious rant at her.
- Didn't Think This Through: Lydia using her office chair to reach the hatch in the elevator's ceiling, without locking the casters on the wheels. Predictably, the chair shifts and Lydia falls, rendered unconscious.
- Dies Wide Open: Celia dies with her eyes open, and they keep re-opening several times to show that she isn't done with her ex-lover, no matter how often Lydia tries to close them. When Lydia ends up decapitated, her eyes are similarly left open, whereas Celia's are now closed for good.
- The Dog Bites Back: Celia returns from the grave to exact bloody revenge on the lover who screwed her over and denied her the promotion she's been craving.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: As established by Celia, Lydia has such an easy and successful life, and therefore has her head so far up in the clouds, that she thinks very little of Celia's problems, such as stating that a CFO position is something that can be achieved more than once.
- Elevator Failure: The elevator Lydia drags Celia's corpse into gets stuck between floors as a result of an earthquake.
- Evil Hand: When Lydia observes the empty hole in Celia's skull, a hand suddenly lunges out and grabs her by the throat, intending to strangle her. When Lydia escapes its grip and looks back, she finds the hand gone and the award back in Celia's skull.
- Failed a Spot Check: Lydia doesn't seem to notice the large pool of blood Celia's death left behind on her coffee table. Even if her plan to get rid of Celia's body went off without a hitch, someone else could easily spot the blood and deduce what happened.
- Flat Character: Tom, who mainly exists to get promoted and to set off the confrontational argument between Lydia and Celia.
- Foreshadowing:
- In the beginning of the story, a minor earthquake over in Palmdale is felt in Lydia's office, who pays no mind to it. The same earthquake (or possibly an aftershock) strikes the building a little later, trapping Lydia and Celia's body in the elevator for over 24 hours, and leading to the former's eventual death.
- Earlier, after hearing from Lydia that Celia has supposedly been made depressed by his promotion, Tom assures Lydia that Celia is a tough woman who'll easily "bounce back". His statement comes true when Celia returns from beyond the grave for revenge on Lydia.
- Go Mad from the Isolation: Lydia, once she's stuck in the elevator for hours on end with the body of the lover she accidentally killed.
- Go Out with a Smile: After she exacts vengeance on her traitorous former lover, Celia's corpse is seen with a smile on her face.
- Guilt Complex: The episode frames the apparent supernatural happenings as hallucinations that stem from Lydia's guilt over the murder, up until the end, where it's proven that the hauntings are genuine.
- Hypocrite: Despite being a strong supporter of women's empowerment, Lydia ultimately passes over Celia for the position of CFO, essentially forcing her to be stuck as her "sidekick". Celia wastes no time calling her out on this. It's also ironic since it's implied that Celia had motivations similar to Lydia's.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Celia ends up dead after she is impaled through the head on Lydia's "Woman of the Year" award.
- Irony: Lydia accidentally kills Celia by puncturing her head on her "Woman of the Year" award... after the huge argument they had where Celia reveals she's actually a hypocritical fraud.
- As she's stuck in the elevator with Celia's body, Lydia checks her phone for service, showing that her wallpaper is a selfie of her and Celia happily smiling for the camera.
- It's All About Me:
- The true reason why Lydia denied Celia the promotion. She rants to Celia's corpse that she's the only one who deserves to "be her" and that she always wins.
- Celia also seemed to have this attitude, mentioning how her position as CFO would've been the start of her own rise to power, hinting that Celia did not genuinely love Lydia and was only using her relationship with her boss as part of her own plot to scale the corporate ladder.
- Jerkass: Lydia slowly transitions into one through the duration of the story. While denying Celia the promotion was a manipulative move, her murder truly was an accident. This changes once she's trapped in the elevator, and she yells to the body that she fully intended to deny her the promotion because she's the one who "always wins", finally revealing the selfish and petty glory-hog she truly is.
- Laughing Mad: As soon as Lydia witnesses her award force itself out of Celia's skull, she starts brokenly laughing, figuring that she's cracked up and has started hallucinating.
- Lipstick Lesbian: Lydia and Celia. The latter especially, who has long hair and a very nice blue dress. Lydia, though she wears slacks and a shirt instead, still has a very regal feminine look, along with long hair. Both are very stylish overall.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: While in the elevator, Lydia voices to herself about her plans to frame Celia's death as a car accident.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The first instances of paranormal activity by Lydia's corpse go this route, set up to look like hallucinations from Lydia's guilty conscience. The ending reveals that the hauntings were the real deal.
- Mythology Gag: The ashtray from "Father's Day" is seen on Lydia's desk.
- Offhand Backhand: Lydia gives Celia one when her tirade goes on for far too long.
- Offscreen Teleportation: Celia's corpse moves when Lydia doesn't watch it. It's usually just the eyes at first, but as time goes on, the whole body is capable of moving on its own accord.
- Off with His Head!: Lydia ends up having her head ripped off by the descending elevator car.
- Psycho Lesbian: Celia comes back from the dead to get revenge on her girlfriend Lydia, who killed her accidentally after they fought over Lydia's denying her a promotion.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Celia, upon realizing that her lover just passed her over on the promotion to CFO, utterly tears into Lydia, calling her a hypocritical fraud who pretends to support women's empowerment, but ultimately sees her as nothing more than a "sidekick" or an "appendage", which Celia deems unacceptable.
- Scare Chord: A particularly haunting one, sounding like a high-pitched ringing and the screeching of several violins, is played when Celia's corpse's mouth pops open.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: Lydia promptly makes a break for it after the above-mentioned Evil Hand chokes her.
- Shout-Out: Lydia's full name is a mashup of Lydia Deetz and Lois Lane.
- Sleeping with the Boss: Lydia and Celia, a respective boss and her employee, are in a romantic relationship that no one else knows about. The relationship is proven to be insincere from both parties, as Celia implies that she only did it to get herself moved further up the corporate ladder, and Lydia admits that she wanted the latter kept as a "sidekick" to make herself look better.
- Sore Loser: In case it wasn't spelled out before, Celia does not take the news of Tom's promotion well.
- Tranquil Fury: When she hears Lydia promote Tom, Celia's face doesn't change from her unblinking stare. When he leaves, she gradually starts whispering (amping up to shouting) at Lydia for screwing her out of the promotion she's been craving.
- Trophy Violence: Celia's death by way of Lydia's "Woman of the Year" award puncturing her skull.
- Twofer Token Minority: Celia is a Latina lesbian.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Lydia is one of the most successful businesswomen in the country, if not the world, and is also presented as a staunch supporter of women's empowerment. The minute she promotes Tom instead of her lover, said lover slowly reveals that Lydia is actually a manipulative, egotistical, and two-faced Control Freak.
- Woman Scorned. Celia gradually goes off the deep end once Lydia denies her the promotion she's been craving. She proves to be even more unhinged when she returns from the grave.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Tom and a bunch of other employees gather downstairs to celebrate the former's promotion. Since we never hear from them after Lydia enters the elevator, one can only hope they survived the earthquake.
- Whispering Ghosts: Celia whispers Lydia's name as she's trapped in the elevator, and does so over and over as her corpse goes in for the kill.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Just as Lydia manages to nearly squeeze herself through a narrow opening beyond the elevator's doors to freedom, Celia's corpse comes alive and grabs her by the hair as the car begins moving again. The resulting force ends up severing her head.
- Younger and Hipper: Celia flaunts the trope to Lydia's face, saying that her youth and intelligence labels her as a threat to Lydia's status.
