Paula Bates

Paula Bates is the hidden main villainess of the 2013 Lifetime film The Wrong Woman (airdate December 28, 2013).

Paula was a police officer who encountered main protagonist Ellen Plainview during a routine stop, where she ticketed her. After Ellen successfully cleared herself of being charged with murdering Faye Walker, a prostitute who was beaten to death in an underground parking lot and turned out to be her husband Mike's mistress, she visited Faye in the hospital. There, Ellen received a voicemail message from Mike, who brought up Paula ticketing her and revealed that she was his partner on the job. However, when Ellen had asked Paula about Mike after she was stopped, the latter claimed that she didn't know him.

Ellen turned around and saw the delusional and psychotic Paula pointing a gun at her, stating that she was supposed to be in jail, marking the latter's villainous reveal. While taking Ellen hostage, Paula revealed that she had an obsessive crush on Mike, and even claimed that she knew that he felt the same way. Paula attacked Faye and attempted to frame Ellen for the crime to get them both out of the way—with a vengeful perjured witness unwittingly providing assistance in the frame-up—so that she and Mike could be together. Now knowing that Paula intended to kill her, Ellen fought the villainess off and eventually knocked her out before escaping. After that, Paula was (assumingly) arrested offscreen for her evil deeds.