Regina Saldanha Junqueira is the main antagonist of the Brazilian telenovela Cúmplices de Um Resgate, based on the central antagonist of the 2002 Mexican telenovela of the same name but actually going way deeper in the evil than the original version ever tried to be.
She was portrayed by Maria Pinna.
What Makes Her Pure Evil?[]
- Separated the twin sisters Isabela and Manuela as babies, kidnapping Isabela in order to pass her off as her daughter and deceive her husband, Orlando.
- She was always an abusive mother to Isabela and when she discovered the real mother, Regina made Isabela hate her, lying and convincing her that she had been abandoned by the real mother. Because of this, Isabela mistreated and hurt her mother several times.
- She celebrated when her husband, Isabela's adopted father, Orlando, who was not a bad husband, fell ill and passed away, showing that she not only never cared for him but hated him.
- She kidnapped Manuela when he discovered that she knew how to sing and that she could pass as Isabela and make her profit from the career of "daughter", although, until then, it was never in favor of Isabela to realize her dream of singing.
- She was exploiting and abusing Manuela, also threatening to harm (possibly kill) her family, friends or anyone in the village where she lives, if she does not obey her.
- During one of the punishments that she applied to Manuela, she forced her to stay late into the cold night cleaning the mansion's windows, which made her sick.
- When the boyfriend of the twin's biological mother discovered the truth about the two, Regina tried to kill him, first, causing an automobile accident, then by turning off his devices at the hospital.
- When Marina, the Isabela's babysitter, confronts Regina about her actions and threatens to expose her, she attempted to kill her by throw her off the stairs.
- When the twin friends went to Regina's mansion, she took the youngest, a child under 10, and threatened to throw him off the stairs.
- Along her brother Geraldo, Regina worked in DO RÉ MUSIC (Geraldo worked there for years before the story started, while Regina just for half a year). While this time, they stolen huge amounts of capital from the record company that almost caused a bankrupt. The heroes tried to fix this problem for all possible ways until the end of the show while Regina and Geraldo took all that money for themselves. Geraldo just spent his money around with his criminal schemes (that were not successful at all) while Regina storage her money to her plans that were indeed successful, showing that she was a competent planner, making more damages in her future strikes against the twins.
- She held the twin Isabela in a dark room, tying her up and making it impossible to eat and drink water and was willing to let her go hungry, thirsty and cold until she died alone in that place. When Isabela manages to escape (thanks to the help of Manuela's pet rat Tum Tum) and confronts her, Regina attacks her, strangling her until she passes out.
- That would be an especially dark and cruel way to kill someone in a TV program aimed to kids and families, killing a teenager by starvation where none could listen her pleas for help while (in a sadistic twist of irony) Isabela was all along hidden in the basement of the record company where half of the heroes of the show spent most of the time, always to close and yet not knowing that their friend's corpse was there after falling to rescue her.
- After her first defeat, Regina was believed as death by everyone and had the perfect opportunity to escape free for her actions (being a Karma Houdini), and for some time, everyone, including the public believed that she was indeed death. But about two months later, she reappeared disguised as "Paola" and soon retook her plans to ruin the lives of her enemies just out of hatred, without even a shade of a way to steal Isabela's fortune.
- Regina started herself a record company and (while a hidden character) stolen several musicians not just from DO RÉ MUSIC (the company where the most of the story took place) but from others that undergo financial problems to harvest the next steps of her plan. To do so, Regina offered bigger incomes than they would have in their current companies with a contract full of restrictions and preventions against them even trying to turn their backs to Top Records (her record company).
- One could say that the big incomes that Regina offered was a good thing, in special because some of her workers were under financial needs at the time they choused to give up their jobs to work for her; but it was just another way to lure more pawns to use in her strikes against the heros. Indeed, Regina used those musicians as rivals to oppose against the twins and their friends without care in the least about they well-being.
- When André, one of the twins' friends, was under intense stress from the toxic ambiance where he was working, Regina managed to increase the stress that the boys was under by pressing him remembering that he was the best way of his family overcome their financial problems while Regina did nothing to help him dealing with his growing emotional problems to the point where André cheated between the two record companies to keep a regular income and have the chance to stay with his friends.
- When Regina discovered the cheating, she took the opportunity to make a complete victory, where she busted André for his cheating and in place of just firing him and his mother (who was her housekeeper at the time) in retaliation and ruin the financial health of his family, Regina just let him out of the hook to look good at her enemies' eyes and play as a kind heart woman while letting his band discover it and bully André as much as they pleased. Regina aways took a pragmatic approach when dealing with her company, making sure that she used every opportunity to lure, deceive and manipulate her enemies while not letting them figuring out her true intentions.
- As Paola, she directed her record company in a particularly savage way, neglecting all emotional needs of the musicians, letting internal fighting happens and doing the minimal possible to prevent them to happens again. Regina even encouraged Benjamin (a troublemaker musician) to keep his destructible attitudes. That kid was already prune to arrogance and selfish behaviors, but under Regina's command, he got worse and worse, bullying not only C1R (the rival band), but even his collages from his band, committing vandalism acts to try to frame C1R and never facing any consequence inside Top Records. And Benjamin come from a home already full of negligent, so his destructive behavior was perfect to be under Regina's control to all strikes against the heroes.
- Along all soap opera, Regina tried her best to destroy the relationship between Otavio and Rebeca. Regina in her original persona and like Paola never stopped to poison them in every possible angle, exploiting Rebeca's insecurities and Otavio's nice and gentle personality to sabotage them in what could looks like a form of love at first, but the time proved it as wrong. Regina never tried to care about Otavio's problems, his goals or even if there were something that she could do to help him in a selfless way. Regina saw Otavio as a brilliant and competent businessman, but it was the same that seeing him as a prize, a trophy to her because Otavio was a man good enough to be with Regina. Inside of her mindset, Regina was such an amazing woman that Otavio was among the few who deserved to be by her side. The very same while opposite logical made Regina despite Rebeca as much as she did. To Regina's point of view, Rebeca was such a pathetic and stupid woman that Otavio was more than she deserved in lots of ways.
- One could say that after faking her death, Regina become less heinous and used plans not as lethal as before, but it would be a weak prevention when considering the impact of her actions. While at first Regina was directly cruel to everyone, mistreating everyone and using all ways to achieve her personals goals at the same time she posed as a good and considering woman. But her actions went to the point where she had problems hiding her true personality in a way that it become impossible and her several enemies went after her to avenge all damage she done. After she faked her death, Regina become aware of the consequences around of her actions, and instead of changing her mind (as explained above) Regina wasted that opportunity to restart her villainy, but now in a smarter way. Instead of striking directly, Regina used her pawns to took the responsibility of all actions she orchestrated, chousing a less visible and more pragmatic approach to destroy the hero's lives, again, out of hatred.
- Regina is particularly hideous for a light children's show like Cúmplices De Um Resgate. And this particular show had a length especially long, from an average half year (like most soap operas) to over two years. And even like this, Regina had zero preventions against become a PE, in spite of it, she just went deeper in the evil path without even a signal of regret her choices and how they harm everyone.
- Regina is a complete version of all possible angles to a woman be a soap opera villainess: She is a femme fatale, a seductress, an abusive mother, an uncaring sister, a tyrannical boss, an expert manipulator, a businesswoman using her company to self-serving goals, an elitist oppressor, a greedy and ambitious wealth huntress always looking for money and, to complete the sequence, a hidden killer able to murder and blend in the society.
Trivia[]
- Regina Junqueira is one of the Brazilian soap opera villains to be Pure Evil, along with Santiago, from Avenida Brasil; Josiane Sobral, from A Dona do Pedaço; Magnólia Costa Leitão, from A Lei do Amor; Julia Zaccarias, from Os Mutantes; Flora Pereira da Silva from, A favorita; and Livia Marini, from Salve Jorge.
External Links[]
- Regina Junqueira on the Villains Wiki