Prostitute
Michael Stappord - Late Husband
Unborn Child
Katy Stappord - Adopted Daughter
Unnamed Sister
Unnamed Mother-in-Law
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You have your health, you have money to pay your bills and someone who adores you. In the grand scheme of things, an ex-wife's throw pillows aren't much of a problem.
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| Marisol Duarte, "Pilot" | ||
Taylor Stappord is one of the main characters on Devious Maids. She is the young and beautiful trophy wife of Michael Stappord, but Taylor's life of glitz and glamour isn't all that it's cracked up to be. Always having to fight her husband's ex-wife for attention, Taylor ends up befriending her new maid and tries to conceive a child. Ultimately, she loses the child due to a gunshot to the stomach, leaving Beverly Hills and planning to adopt with her husband. They end up with Katy, a young girl with "emotional problems", and return to their old home with a new mystery in tow. Olivia takes advantage of the new tension in the Stappords' marriage and sets Taylor up to be unfaithful, which, inadvertently, eventually leads to Michael's death. Taylor ends up running away with her daughter, adopting the alias of Abby Parker.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
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I was 20 when I came to LA, and I just knew I was gonna be in the movies. The closest I got was a diner across the street from Paramount.
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| Taylor Stappord, "Wiping Away the Past" | ||
 Taylor seduces her future husband. ("Walking the Dog") |
Taylor was born in Iowa in 1982, deciding twenty years later to move to Los Angeles so that she may fulfill her dream of becoming an actress. However, the only job she's able to land is that of a waitress, working for six years in some diner across the street from Paramount, barely able to make end's meet on such a salary. But, one day she is approached by Adrian Powell, and he tells her that he has a lot of lonely rich friends in need of... company, offering Taylor a way to make some easy money. ("Wiping Away the Past", "Totally Clean") This leads to her becoming a prostitute in Beverly Hills, and Adrian sets her up with his unhappily married friend Michael Stappord, a successful lawyer. Unintentionally, Michael and Taylor fall in love with one another and their affair becomes long term; he ends up leaving his wife, famous decorator Olivia Rice, and marrying his mistress, but he is submissive in his divorce and his new bride is forced to sacrifice beloved maid Lupe to Olivia. ("Pilot", "Walking the Dog")
Season 1[]
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Marisol... you have a job here, for as long as you want one.
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| Taylor Stappord, "Pilot" | ||
 Marisol is allowed to stay. ("Pilot") |
Taylor and Michael interview a new maid, Marisol Duarte, following the reluctant departure of Lupe. The beautiful blonde is initially hesitant to hire such a well-spoken newcomer, wanting her old maid back, but Marisol agrees to work on a trial basis, saying that if the Stappords are unhappy with her services after one week then she'll leave. Marisol later happens across a crying Taylor and wonders what's wrong. Taylor doesn't believe that Marisol would be able to understand the kind of problem she's having, but the maid disagrees, assuring her new employer that she gives excellent advice. Caving, Taylor admits that her problem stems from the first Mrs. Stappord, Olivia Rice; Marisol recognizes her name and knows her to be a famous interior decorator, hearing that everything in the household was personally selected by her prior to the divorce. Taylor wants to change things and make her home more to her taste, but Michael is worried that this might offend Olivia, hence her tears. Marisol assures her that in the grand scheme of things, she's still the winner, and an ex-wife's throw pillows hardly compare to the likes of good health and an adoring husband... which only confirms Taylor's suspicions that Marisol wouldn't understand her problem. At Michael's birthday dinner, Olivia drops in and makes a scene, throwing a crystal heart against the wall as a visual metaphor for how her heart was broken when Michael left her for a younger model. Taylor begs that her husband do something, but it is Marisol who steps in. She manhandles Olivia out the door, to the applause of the party guests, and this convinces Taylor that her new maid is worthy of a full-time position. Unbeknownst to her, however, Marisol is actually undercover, trying to exonerate her son of Flora Hernandez's recent murder. ("Pilot")
 Adrian threatens his former... employee. ("Setting the Table") |
Marisol approaches Evelyn Powell and offers to work for her on her days off, already having cleaned the room in which Flora was stabbed, and Evelyn would be delighted to finally land a new maid... but first Marisol must secure Taylor's permission, because it is absolutely unforgivable to steal a woman's maid in Beverly Hills. When Marisol asks, Taylor wholeheartedly denies her consent, assuring her new employee that the Powells are in no way her true friends. However, when Adrian hears that he's lost the chance to have the mysterious and beautiful Marisol working in his home, he approaches Taylor and threatens to expose her past as one of his prostitutes should she continue to deny him access to her maid. When Marisol returns to the Stappord mansion, she finds Taylor crying due to this conversation before saying that she can work for the Powells whenever she so wishes. Marisol wants to know what Adrian said to Taylor to change her mind, but Taylor replies that all Marisol needs to know is that Adrian can be very persuasive when he wants to be... and cruel. ("Setting the Table")
 Taylor is outed as a whore. ("Wiping Away the Past") |
Taylor goes shopping with Marisol to prepare for a dinner party and, at the supermarket, they run into Olivia. The latter apologizes to Marisol for the way she acted at Michael's birthday party, and Marisol accepts the apology, but urges her to apologize to Taylor as well. However, Olivia refuses to, and reveals that Taylor used to be a prostitute. Later, over drinks, Taylor explains to Marisol how she got into the sex trade business, and Marisol recommends that she tells Michael about Olivia's knowledge before the latter spreads it. Taylor requests that Marisol be by her side when she tells him. When they finally break the news to Michael, he decides that they all should leave to New York, an idea that doesn't please the women. Marisol later tells Michael that she can't move because of personal reasons, and suggests that she talk to Olivia and find out how she discovered the truth and what her intentions are. Later, Marisol stops by Olivia's with the pretext of bringing her some mail, and starts complaining about Taylor, hoping to ingratiate herself to Michael's ex-wife. Olivia asks her in for tea, and Marisol tells Olivia that Taylor is terrified that she might tell people the truth, and that the Stappords want to move to New York. She then lies and tells the old woman that Michael is still in love with her and will probably want her back, so it's best for Olivia if they don't move. Olivia decides to write Taylor a letter to let her know she won't tell anyone. She then asks how Olivia found out about Taylor's past, and Olivia reveals that she was told by Evelyn Powell. Marisol tells Taylor, who is delighted, and she then asks her boss to explain to her what is going on with Adrian and his prostitutes. Taylor explains that he hires women to seduce his inebriated friends during intimate get-togethers, while the friends have no idea of what is going on, and then he simply disappears when the time for love-making comes. Marisol is confused, and wonders what Adrian could get out of this... ("Wiping Away the Past")
 Marisol tells the Stappords what she found over at the Powell residence. ("Walking the Dog") |
When Marisol is snooping around the Powell house, she comes across one of Adrian's many DVDs which features Michael and Taylor having sex from when the latter was a prostitute. She is forced to abandon viewing due to the sudden appearance of Evelyn, and when she returns to continue collecting evidence, the DVD has been moved. Therefore, she decides to go in another direction: she makes martinis for Michael and Taylor and reveals to them that Adrian has a collection of DVDs of Taylor's sessions. Marisol offers to steal them, but she'd have to know where he keeps them stored. Michael keeps drinking, and Taylor asks them if he knew anything, but he doesn't respond and storms out. The women follow him to the Powell house, concerned, to find Michael beating up Adrian and demanding to know where the DVDs are. Evelyn shows up with a baseball bat, however, and intimidates Michael into stopping. She then takes Marisol to a room hidden at the end of a hallway where she sees a camera pointing at a one-way glass, on the other side of which is the bedroom where the prostitution sessions took place. On the walls are several shelves filled with an extensive collection of DVDs. Evelyn picks up the Taylor collection, on their way, Evelyn tells Marisol that she is fired. ("Walking the Dog")
 Awkward. ("Minding the Baby") |
Marisol realizes on her way to the store that she's forgotten her wallet, but when she returns to the Stappord mansion to retrieve it, she is shocked to discover Taylor and Michael making love atop the kitchen counter. They fall off in disgrace and try to apologize, ingratiating themselves in their maid's eyes by revealing that they're trying to get pregnant. Because of this, Marisol offers to take her boss to a fertility clinic she's familiar with, and Taylor is grateful for such an opportunity, having been worried that Michael might leave her if she's barren the same way he left his childless marriage to Olivia. Marisol assures her against this, knowing that Michael adores her, and, at the clinic, Taylor asks her friend how she knew of such a place. Marisol reveals that she herself found out she was infertile there, but it was okay because she and her husband simply adopted. This comes as a shock to Taylor because she thought Marisol had no family, and so the fake maid quickly fabricates that she had to give the child back after she divorced her ex. An apologetic Taylor then bumps into Joan Fisher, an old friend of Olivia who has no qualms in telling the first Mrs. Stappord that Michael is attempting to impregnate his new wife. Olivia is distraught and appears in the Stappords' kitchen, only to be warded off yet again by Marisol who is forced to break the old woman's heart all over again by revealing that she lied about Michael still having feelings for her. ("Minding the Baby")
 Michael's reaction to Olivia's suicide attempt upsets Taylor deeply. ("Hanging the Drapes") |
Taylor is pregnant and can't wait to share the news with absolutely everyone she knows, but Michael is worried about word getting out because of how Olivia might react. To avoid her having to find out the hard way, Michael pays his ex-wife a visit and amicably breaks the news that he's successfully starting a family with Taylor, to her dismay. Marisol, meanwhile, convinces her beautiful blonde employer to have a dinner party to announce the pregnancy officially, having an agenda that involves talking to her son's old catering colleague about something to do with Flora's murder. Taylor is at first hesitant by the amount of guests who end up arriving, but everything turns out for the best and the Stappords are able to joyously announce the good news to all their friends. The festivities are cut short however when Marisol spots something horrifying outside... Olivia Rice is hanging by the neck from a tree, attempting suicide due to Taylor's pregnancy. Everyone is shocked and Michael quickly works to have her cut down, crying over the possibility of his former spouse's death. Taylor is deeply saddened to see how much he obviously still cares for her. ("Hanging the Drapes")
 Taylor catches Marisol acting suspiciously. ("Cleaning Out the Closet") |
Michael misses Taylor's first scan, where she heard the baby's heartbeat, because he was busy visiting Olivia in hospital. Taylor is very unhappy with how often he's been doing this and they fight about it, leading the beautiful blonde to seek out Marisol for some of her legendary good advice; however, the maid is absent from the house because she's secretly meeting with someone. The next day, the undercover maid suggests that Taylor go with her husband on these visits to prove her support and remind him of her presence in the marriage. Taylor commends Marisol on being so smart and wonders where she was last night, pointing out that she tells her everything about her life while she knows nothing about Marisol's. Marisol assures her employer that her life just isn't that interesting; meanwhile, she's been setting up a "surprise" meeting between Michael, Remi Delatour and her lawyer Ida Hayes, all in her efforts to exonerate her son of Flora Hernandez's murder. The meeting does not go well and merely makes Michael suspicious of Marisol, for she didn't exactly try hard to keep Ida from entering his home. Taylor later discovers Marisol eavesdropping outside her husband's office, which she finds strange. She decides to follow her maid's advice and go to the hospital with Michael, to his joy, and while there she tells him of what she found Marisol doing, wanting to think nothing of it because of what a good friend Marisol has been to her since she was hired. He tells her to keep an eye on their maid... he believes she could have some sort of an ulterior motive for working for them. ("Cleaning Out the Closet")
 Philippe Delatour claims another victim, by mistake. ("Getting Out the Blood") |
Curious about Philippe Delatour and his involvement with Flora's death, Marisol asks Taylor a few questions, knowing Philippe to be one of Michael's most faithful clients. Taylor doesn't really know anything, only that Philippe pays Michael a grand wealth of money, and grows suspicious when her maid continues to press the matter. Because of this, Taylor decides to phone her husband and tell him the kind of things Marisol's been asking, leading in turn to Michael telling Philippe. With the latter's private investigators at his disposal, Michael is able to find out that Marisol's real surname is Suarez: she is the mother of the boy arrested for the murder of Flora Hernandez. This too is told to Philippe, who assures his lawyer that he's already "taken care" of the matter. Michael now knows that Marisol is in danger and confronts her with the truth, advising her to leave as fast as she can before Philippe's gunman can track her down. Taylor, awaking from the nap she took due the tire of being pregnant, also becomes wary of the truth about her maid, not caring so long as Marisol never lied about being her friend, which she didn't. She insists that she stay so that they themselves can protect her, but when she goes outside to retrieve Marisol's bags, Philippe's gunman confuses her with his target and Taylor is shot in the torso. She collapses to the ground, blood pouring from her wound, and Michael is devastated to find her in such a state. With her employer's life in critical condition, Marisol rushes away to phone an ambulance. ("Getting Out the Blood")
 Taylor convinces Michael to tell Marisol what she needs to know. ("Totally Clean") |
With a bullet in her stomach, Taylor is rushed through hospital with Marisol and Michael fast in her wake. The latter warns the doctors that his wife is pregnant and they promise to do all that they can to preserve the baby... but they can't. Taylor is left miscarried and Michael is utterly crushed by the news. After hearing about this herself, Marisol enters her employer's hospital room and begs Michael to tell her about Philippe, needing to exonerate her son. Michael refuses, pointing out that he's Philippe's lawyer and so nothing he tells the undercover maid will hold up in a court of law; all that would happen is he would be throwing away his legal license and Marisol still wouldn't be able to touch Philippe. However, a previously unconscious Taylor utters her husband's name, and she orders him to tell Marisol what she needs to know. Michael warns her against this, but she points out that Philippe killed their baby, and so he deserves what's coming to him. Adhering to this point of view, Michael asks Marisol where he should start, and so she requests that he tell her about the night Flora Hernandez was murdered. ("Totally Clean")
Season 2[]
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When we get settled in D.C., Michael says we can finally start talking about adoption!
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| Taylor Stappord, "Crimes of the Heart" | ||
Following the death of Philippe and the subsequent exoneration of her son, Marisol quits her job as the Stappords' maid and returns to her work as an English professor at a university in California. However, while her cleaning career may be behind her, Marisol remains close with her former employers. ("An Ideal Husband", "Crimes of the Heart")
 Taylor reveals she and Michael are moving to Washington, D.C.. ("Crimes of the Heart") |
Three months later, Taylor stops by Marisol's new home, which so happens to be a extensive mansion belonging to her former maid's new fiancé, Nicholas Deering. While there, Taylor reveals that Michael has been offered a good position as a lawyer over in Washington, D.C., meaning the two of them will be leaving Beverly Hills very soon; furthermore, they've been talking recently about adopting a child, garnering much congratulations from Marisol. The two of them discuss the latter's engagement, with Taylor calling Nick a "hunk", as well as her new maid Opal, who serves them in a seemingly begrudged manner. Taylor picks up on this but Marisol assures her that everything is fine... but Taylor can't help herself, knowing there to be gossip afoot and needing to hear it all. Marisol reveals her suspicions that Nicholas and Opal had an affair, resulting in Ethan, Opal's son. Taylor advises her maid to dig around her fiancé's financial records, for if Ethan is his son then he will surely have put some money aside for him. However, Marisol cannot do this because a prenuptial agreement never took place, meaning the records were never available to her or her lawyer. Taylor is shocked by this, and Marisol says that it's because Nicholas trusts her. The beautiful blonde sees this as ironic, because if Nicholas didn't trust Marisol then it would be far easier for Marisol to trust him. ("Crimes of the Heart")
Season 3[]
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I was... lonely. Michael was gone all the time, I had Katy all to myself; she seemed so unhappy. I felt like a terrible mother, I just needed someone to talk to... Anyone.
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| Taylor Stappord, "Anatomy of a Murder" | ||
 Taylor meets a mysterious stranger. ("Anatomy of a Murder") |
Taylor and Michael head to Mexico when the latter is hired to work as part of an international media group. It is there that they come across a man who's planning to publish a book on organized crime; unfortunately, he never gets the opportunity because he is killed by members of the Gaviota Drug Cartel. While this goes on, his daughter Violeta watches from inside the closet, hearing when the men who kill her father say that they will dance in his blood, and this instils her with some severe emotional problems. Taylor and Michael are in love with this little girl though, and since the cartel is looking for her too, they decide to smuggle her out of Mexico and pretend that they adopted her as their daughter since they were already looking into adoption anyway. They change her name to Katy Stappord and move back to their old house in Beverly Hills. Unfortunately, Katy isn't a fan of Michael's at first and a great amount of tension is created within the Stappords' marriage, leading Michael to believe that his wife might be having an affair. Olivia Rice prays on this by hiring a man, Sebastien Dussault, to approach Taylor in the park and sweet talk her into having sex with him. This is when Katy is acting terribly unhappy and Taylor is feeling like a bad mother, meaning she just needs someone to talk to - and there he is. ("Bad Girl", "Suspicion", "Anatomy of a Murder")
 The Stappords make their return known - all three of them. ("Awakenings") |
Katy wanders into the garden of Evelyn Powell and begins to paw at her roses, to Evelyn's deep concern. She tries to scold the little girl, only to then realize that she is the new daughter of Taylor and Michael. Not having been aware that they moved back to town, Evelyn invites them into her home to catch up, and Taylor lies that they adopted Katy from Argentina. When Michael questions this, she points out that they can't exactly tell people the truth. Later, Marisol sets the Stappords up with a new maid: Blanca Alvarez. She witnesses the strained married couple almost enter into a fight after Katy ruins another one of Michael's things, but Taylor continues to make excuses for the child before proceeding to take her to Marisol's book party, hosted by Evelyn, along with Michael. While there, they are approached by Genevieve Delatour, and she notes how smart they were to adopt an older child because it means that Taylor doesn't have to worry about getting her figure back, nor do they have to endure all the difficult parts of child-rearing. Michael assures that they're not missing all the difficult parts, at which Genevieve says that it may be none of her business to mention, but it's natural for a new child to bring some strain to a marriage. Taylor tells her that she's right: it's none of her business. ("Awakenings")
 Taylor's affair could about to be exposed, unless Sebastien… ("Anatomy of a Murder") |
That night, Taylor takes Sebastien up on his offer and, while Michael is on a flight to Boston, has him over and sleeps with him. Everything is going fine until they're caught by a man named Louie Becker, who Michael hired to spy on his wife because he thought she was having an affair - and it looks like he was right. He has photos of the two of them and so Sebastien starts to attack him, unable to allow his wife to discover that he's been cheating on her; however, the fight gets out of hand, and Louie ends up falling atop the glass coffee table and smashing it… with a shard protruding through his torso. He is dead, at which point Katy wakes up and sees her mother with her murderous lover. While Taylor puts her daughter back to bed, Sebastien takes matters into his own hands and uses kitchen utensils to begin chopping up the body. He spreads the parts all over town to throw the police off the trail, leaving Taylor with an incredibly bloody living room. Unfortunately, Blanca chooses this time to move her stuff in and, despite Taylor's best efforts to stop her from seeing the gruesome scene, she ends up discovering all the blood and demands to know what the hell happened. ("Awakenings", "Anatomy of a Murder")
 Blanca poses a problem for Taylor and her secrets. ("From Here to Eternity") |
Blanca helps to clean up the Stappords' living room after being told by Taylor that the blood belonged to a burglar whom she stabbed following his breaking into her home. While Blanca accepts this, she doesn't quite understand why Mrs. Stappord doesn't just go to the police, at which Taylor confesses that Katy's adoption wasn't exactly legal and so if the police sniff around too much then they could take her away. Marisol visits Taylor later, taking note of all the trash bags and such covering her formerly blood-stained couches, and Taylor quickly lies that Blanca is just doing some deep-cleaning for her. When Marisol asks how Blanca's getting along and where she is now, Taylor answers in turn that her new maid is a very hard worker and is currently out with Katy because she needed a break from motherhood. She says how Katy has been having trouble sleeping due to nightmare and Marisol says that her own adoptive son, Eddie, was the same, and that Katy just needs time to adjust. She notices something up with Taylor when she is unable to say when Michael will be home, but proceeds to hug her anyway and mention how glad she is that nothing has changed in regards to their strong friendship; Taylor replies that she feels the same way, but of course she is lying. Later, Taylor is approached by Detective Figueroa, and Blanca overhears when he mentions that a chopped-off leg was found on the front lawn of the Powells' house. Taylor lies her way out of it, but all of this is just far too complicated for Blanca, and so she packs up her things and leaves. Taylor asks if she'll go to the police, but Blanca doesn't give a clear answer, which is why Taylor is so relieved when she returns and offers to work for her again… in exchange for her paying her college tuition. Taylor is happy to reach this compromise, but Blanca is further irked to discover a bunch of paintings by Katy of a man bleeding to death. ("From Here to Eternity")
 Taylor accidentally leads to her maid getting kidnapped. ("The Awful Truth") |
Taylor has to comfort Katy back to sleep following another nightmare, after which Blanca shows her boss the paintings the little girl dead of a man being stabbed. She thinks Katy must have seen the intruder, but Taylor sees this as impossible, taking the drawings and promising to talk to Katy, as well as Michael once he returns from Boston. Later though, Blanca discovers the paintings having been thrown into the trashcans outside, and so she fishes them out and takes them to Katy, who says that the man depicted in them is her daddy (Blanca takes this to mean that Katy killed Michael, when in actuality the painting is of her biological father who died in Mexico). Blanca is now certain she knows the truth: Katy killed Michael accidentally and Taylor is covering for her; as such, she confronts Taylor about the whole thing, but Taylor is happy to reveal that Michael is alive and well and home from his business trip, to Blanca's shock. Blanca tries talking to Michael about the things that occurred in his absence, and Taylor eavesdrops all the while, interrupting by sending Blanca to the pharmacy to get her prescription pills before she can reveal anything too major. However, Michael is now suspicious of his wife, especially when she goes outside to make a mysterious phone call (to Sebastien). Later, after returning from Zoila's wedding, Blanca is kidnapped in the Stappords' home, despite Sebastien telling Taylor that he was merely going to pay her off to go home to Arizona. ("The Awful Truth")
 Carmen wants her dress back... uh oh. ("Since You Went Away") |
Carmen, a friend of Marisol's, comes to Taylor's house in search of Blanca, who borrowed her dress for Zoila's wedding. Taylor tells the maid that Blanca returned home to Arizona, to Carmen's fury, and she begins to rage about how she thought she could trust her. Taylor says that that makes two of them, before closing the door and feeling very ill-at-ease, and later Michael questions Katy to find out if there were any men in the house while he was away on his business trip in Boston. Katy reveals that there was, recalling the glimpse she caught of Sebastien following Louie's murder, and so Michael confronts his wife about this. He starts by blaming himself for her loneliness, before revealing what Katy told him, and Taylor is disgusted that Michael would use their daughter to get information like that. She tells him that the man Katy saw was just the Thai food delivery guy, before assuring him that she loves him in spite of their strained marriage and that she would never have an affair. Marisol later calls Taylor about Blanca, promising to send her a new maid soon, but Taylor grows distracted by the news on her TV, which mentions how more body parts have shown up around Beverly Hills. Thanks to a hand discovered in the shrubs of Gail Fleming, the body to which these parts belong is identified as Louie Becker's. ("Since You Went Away")
 Katy's attempt to make mommy happy goes awry. ("The Talk of the Town") |
Michael is watching the report about Louie Becker on the news which is promptly turned off by Taylor, who makes the excuse that she doesn't want Katy accidentally listening to such an awful story. Her husband reveals that he was with Genevieve earlier because she's a person of interest in the case, though he has no doubt she's innocent in the whole charade. He tries asking Taylor what she remembers about the night in question, but she insists that it was quiet, despite this being the night that Blanca was supposed to move in. She claims not to really remember and Michael asks if she's heard from Blanca since she moved back home; Taylor tells him that she has not and that she'd rather not discuss Blanca anymore because she wasn't a good fit for them and she'd just like to forget about her. Katy later sees her mother taking some prescription pills and asks if she's sick, but Taylor explains that these pills are specifically for grown-ups to make them happy when they're feeling sad, like her. Michael learns from Marisol that Blanca is missing and confronts Taylor about it, having discovered that his wife was giving their maid extra money, and he thinks that it was to keep her quiet. He knows she knows something about Louie's murder because he hired him to spy on her on the night that he died. She refuses to divulge a single thing, causing him to storm out to his hotel until an unknown point in time. Taylor phones Sebastien about what he did to Blanca, having a glass of wine at the same time she is taking her pills. Katy sees how upset her mother is and, knowing the pills are designed to make adults happy, she slips more than a few extra into Taylor's glass. This causes Taylor to overdose and Marisol discovers her passed out on the couch, getting her friend to a hospital just in the nick of time. ("The Talk of the Town")
 Taylor's marriage dissolves after Blanca's death. ("Cries and Whispers") |
Taylor returns home from the hospital following Blanca's "suicide" and "confession" over the murder of Louie Becker (all staged by Sebastien). The Stappords' new maid Rosie tries eavesdropping as her bosses speak with the police, a talk which gets Taylor very upset and causes her to go lie down for a while. She remains very sad about Blanca's death, which is worsened when Michael shows up with the deceased's necklace, revealing that Rosie gave it to him because she discovered that Katy found it on the night that Blanca initially disappeared. In spite of Michael begging his wife to be honest, she claims she has no idea how the necklace got there, and she says in all genuineness that while she and Blanca never got along she never ever wanted anything bad like this to happen to her. Later, Taylor is in front of the mirror when she notices someone sneaking around outside; she alerts Michael who discovers it to be none other than Rosie's husband, Ernesto, who claims he was worried about his wife's safety since she thinks that Blanca was murdered. Taylor snaps that this isn't true - that Blanca killed herself - and later Michael asks her who she thought the man outside was. He continues to pump her for information which finally makes her snap and exclaim that she wants to tell him things, but that would make him an accessory to her crimes and then they would both go to jail were these crimes to be exposed, leaving Katy parentless. She tells Michael that he will have to make her peace with her secrecy, but he can't, and the next morning Taylor cries in Rosie's arms as she reveals that her husband left her. ("Cries and Whispers")
 Spence and Taylor share a secret relationship. ("Bad Girl") |
Rosie tries to get her son Miguel to clean up his part of the room they share in the Stappord house, and Taylor compliments her maid on what a good job she did raising him because he's such a sweet little boy, especially to Katy. However, the reason he is so sweet to Katy is because he has a crush on her, and later when he tries to kiss her she pushes him away and exclaims that if he ever tries that again then she will kill him and dance in his blood. Rosie asks Taylor about this incredibly worrisome behavior, at which Taylor comes clean about some of Katy's past; she explains how she was hiding in the closet when she witnessed her father's gruesome murder, and that the people who killed him said the exact same thing that she said to Miguel earlier. Rosie feels incredibly sorry for the little girl. Later, Michael meets with Marisol to discuss the fact that he thinks Taylor's been having an affair, but he doesn't know who it's with; this is at the same time that Rosie meets with her ex, Spence. When she leaves, Spence heads into his room, where Taylor is hiding. She asks if he thinks Rosie knew she was there, but he assures that she has no idea. ("Bad Girl")
 Taylor assures Rosie that Spence really is a good guy. ("Whiplash") |
Rosie grows suspicious when Taylor comes home from the "gym" and her story keeps on failing to check out, leading her to believe that she's having an affair with her mysterious trainer. She talks this over with the girls in relation to Blanca's murder, thinking that maybe Blanca died because she found out about the affair, but Marisol refuses to believe that Taylor could kill anybody, and so Rosie suggests that perhaps it was her lover who did the deed. As such, she becomes determined to find out just who this "trainer" is, proceeding to follow Taylor the next time she goes to the "gym". She is shocked beyond belief to see that her boss is meeting with none other than Spence. As Rosie spies on them, Taylor slaps Spence for an unknown reason, and Rosie goes to visit her ex at his apartment to confront him about the apparent affair. While he maintains that he and Taylor aren't sleeping together, she doesn't believe him, and she ends up slapping him too. However, Spence tells Taylor what happened and she explains to Rosie that Spence is her sponsor in an addiction support group she started attending following her overdose, and the reason she slapped him is because he wanted to cease his support because he felt that with Rosie working for her that things were getting too complicated. She assures Rosie that Spence really is a good guy. ("Whiplash") Taylor goes out of town with Katy and allows Rosie to throw a birthday party for Miguel in her absence; one thing leads to another and Rosie ends up discovering the old blood-stains on Taylor's couch. ("Terms of Endearment")
 Marisol wants info, but Taylor refuses to budge... for now. ("Suspicion") |
Katy is given a Virgin Mary statue by Rosie to help soothe her through her nightmares, and Taylor thanks her maid for having been such a great help. However, Rosie proceeds to ask her boss about the blood stains on the couch, but Taylor insists that it's red wine. After talking to Marisol about it, Rosie learns that if she pours Hydrogen Peroxide on the stain and it bubbles then she'll know for sure that it's blood. When she returns to the Stappord house though, wanting to put this theory to the test, Taylor has replaced all her living room furniture. This is highly suspicious, even to Marisol who constantly defends Taylor, and so she decides to take her friend out for a few drinks to see if she can loosen her tongue. When Marisol starts prying into the idea that Taylor was having an affair, however, Taylor sees through her ruse and, after learning that Olivia set her up to have an affair in the first place, she storms away, exclaiming how she refuses to be the subject of Marisol's next book. When she returns home, she is shocked to hear from Rosie that a man broke in and attempted to kidnap Katy, and she knows him to be from the Gaviota Drug Cartel. She explains to her maid how she and Michael came to adopt Katy in the first place, and when she reveals the cartel's name, Rosie realizes that her husband Ernesto had something to do with her failed kidnapping. Meanwhile, Marisol pulls Taylor's old couch out of storage and confirms that the stain really is blood, and she insists that now Taylor has to tell her the truth about the night Louie Becker died. ("Suspicion")
 Meet Abby Parker, and her daughter Rosie. ("Anatomy of a Murder") |
Taylor heads over to Michael's hotel room to pick up Katy, but he refuses to let his wife anywhere near their daughter due to all the shadiness she's been swimming in since Louie's death. She is furious, and her fury is added to when she is visited by Marisol, who once again begins to question who Taylor was having an affair with. Not in any fit state to deal with this right now, Taylor declares that Marisol is no longer her friend and proceeds to throw her out of her house, before going on to call the police and tell them that Michael is the one who killed Louie and Blanca. This means that he is arrested temporarily and that Katy is resultantly returned to her mother's custody. However, Marisol witnessed Michael's arrest, and when she returns to Taylor she is far more demanding. Eventually, she manages to break down her old friend's secretive barriers and gets her to confess that she was having an affair with a man named Sebastien Dussault who went on to murder Louie accidentally and then kill and frame Blanca so that he could cover his tracks. Now that the truth is out there, Taylor can't very well stay in Beverly Hills, and so she abandons the house along with Katy, who leaves behind Rosie's Virgin Mary statue along with a drawing which states that she will miss the maid dearly. After cutting and dying her hair, Taylor shows up at a motel with her daughter and drops Marisol a call, explaining how she's sorry to say goodbye over the phone but Katy is her everything and she'd do anything to protect her. She proceeds to check into the motel for the night, needing to get back on the road as soon as possible, and claims that her name is Abby Parker. She then introduces her daughter, who's assumed the alias of Rosie. The two of them proceed to live happily with one another. ("Anatomy of a Murder")
Later Life[]
Eventually, Taylor discovers Michael was killed by Sebastien. She feels a mix of shock, sadness and guilt, but she chooses to keep focusing on Katy.[1]
Trivia[]
- In an early script for the series' premiere, Taylor and Michael's surname was "Slate".[2]
- Taylor's new alias, "Abby Parker", is what Katy's adoptive mother in that third season storyline was originally named, before one of the writers came up with the idea to bring the Stappords back.[3]
- Of the main characters, Taylor has only formally met with Marisol, Rosie, Carmen, Valentina, Evelyn, Adrian, Michael, Spence, Remi, Genevieve, Opal, Sebastien, and Ernesto.
Gallery[]
This is a gallery of photographic stills released to promote the character.
References[]
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