Meredith Blake is the main antagonist of the 1998 remake of The Parent Trap. She is a young gold digger who plans on marrying Nick Parker for his wealth. She is nicknamed Cruella De Vil by the twins because of her sophisticated and antagonistic personality.
Role in the film
Meredith is very rich and spoiled, and she was planning to marry Nick Parker just for his money. He is first seen when Annie and Hallie are switching places. She is a publicist from San Francisco whom Nick hired to do some publicity for his vineyard and they wind updating and eventually get engaged. She has an assistant named Richard, with whom she plans to get rid of "Hallie" (actually Annie) by sending her off to a boarding school in Timbuktu. She reveals to "Hallie" that whether the latter likes it or not, she is going to marry Nick, and shows her true colors as a greedy, manipulative and controlling woman. This is much to her disappointment, because the twins plan on getting their parents remarried and because Meredith is 15 years older than Annie (she is 26). She also reveals to Annie her true plot, which is that she is only marrying Nick for his money.
At the Stafford Hotel, Meredith introduces Nick, Annie, Chessy, and Sammy to her parents, Jesse, and Vicki Blake. Another time, when Nick and his ex-wife, Elizabeth James, are together again at the pool, Meredith is astonished to meet Elizabeth. She is also shocked to find out that Annie and Hallie are two people (twins) when she sees one on each side.
Elizabeth talks Nick into taking Meredith camping instead of her. Because Meredith isn't used to the altitude of the mountains, Annie and Hallie play a trick on her by putting a lizard on her water bottle and rocks in her backpack. She is handed the bottle and freaks out at the sight of the lizard. Then, as she threatens to make Annie and Hallie's lives miserable starting the day she gets married if they pull another trick on her, one calls her "Cruella". Meanwhile, another has put the same lizard on her head. She freaks out when she finds it, and it gets in her mouth, causing her to choke.
That night, Meredith reveals that she doesn't eat trout and ends up being bitten by mosquitoes after being given a bottle of sugar and water from Annie and Hallie. After she gets into her tent to sleep, they pull her mattress out and push it into the lake. The next morning, as she wakes up, she finds a bird perched on her and ends up screaming. She also does so when she finds out her mattress is on the water and falls off of it. Soaking wet, she kicks a pot and angrily tells Nick that the day they get married is the day she ships "those brats" off to Switzerland. She then demands him to choose between her and them, and he, realizing her true nature, chooses the latter. She angrily freaks out in a tantrum and calls off the engagement, throwing her engagement ring at his head. It is unknown what happens to her afterward, but it is likely that either her parents or Richard came and picked her up and she presumably left California for good.
Trivia
- Twenty years after the film's release, Elaine Hendrix gave an interview on E! portraying her role once again describing Meredith from a different perspective from how she was portrayed in the film as just determined and opportunistic.
- Meredith, despite being rich and fancy herself, tries to marry a rich man for his money. This is just like Clarice Kensington's goal from the 1995 film, It Takes Two when she wants to marry Roger Callaway just for his money.
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