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Lucy Carlye is the serial killer mother of Hope Chance and the daughter of Dale and Margine Carlyle and a minor character in Raising Hope. She is portrayed by Bijou Phillips.

Character Biography[]

Early Life[]

Lucy was born to Dale and Margine Carlyle on May 12th of an unknown year. Her father is a psychiatrist and met her mother Margine while treating her for depression.

The Series[]

Season 1[]

Lucy is a serial killer who murders her boyfriends and then changes her name to avoid getting caught. She meets Jimmy while running from a boyfriend she tried to kill. Lucy's original boyfriend forgets her birthday, and she tries to strangle him with shoelaces. As Lucy flees the scene, she notices Jimmy in his van on his way to buy Maw-Maw some bubble-gum ice cream. She calls out to Jimmy for help and Jimmy (believing her boyfriend was about to murder her) lets her jump into the van before racing back to his house. Once the pair arrive at Jimmy's place, Lucy flatters Jimmy, calling him her hero and telling him he's cute before seducing him and they have sex in the back of the van. The next morning, Jimmy wakes up in the van.

He goes into the house where Burt and Virginia are cooking breakfast for Lucy, having taken a liking to her. When Lucy goes to the bathroom, Jimmy and his family see a TV news report, where Lucy's original boyfriend is being interviewed and it reveals that Lucy is actually a serial killer. When Lucy returns to the kitchen, Virginia knocks her unconscious with the television set, much to the rest of the family's shock.

Jimmy later visits Lucy in prison, and discovers she is pregnant with his child. Lucy tells him that it's okay and she expects nothing from him, that she only wanted him to know. She has been sentenced to the death penalty but isn't concerned, because "there's no way they're going to kill the mother of a six-month-old child".

Lucy is given the electric chair six months after giving birth, and Jimmy receives custody of their daughter who is temporarily named Princess Beyonce. (The child is Hope.)

Lucy appears briefly in the opening of the show during the first two seasons and the page reads "See mom get busted."  In this illustration, her hair appears blonde, rather than brunette.

In the episode "Family Secrets," it is revealed that Lucy made videotapes for Hope to watch after she's gone. These were given to Jimmy along with other items she had in prison. The tapes, recorded by Lucy and her cellmate, contain messages for Hope, such as how to survive in prison and how to dance sexy. It is also implied that Lucy may have had "graphic lesbian sex" in these videos.

Lucy is mentioned in the episode "Meet the Grandparents," in which Lucy's parents come over to the Chances' house. It is revealed that Lucy's father, Dale, was her mother's psychiatrist before he was her husband, and that neither parent is entirely emotionally stable.

In the season 1 finale, "Don't Vote for This Episode," which flashes back to five years prior to the start of the series, Lucy is shown at the grocery store with her boyfriend, who would become her first murder victim. She tells him she wants to name her future daughter Princess Beyonce, and when she says she's considering becoming a vegetarian, her boyfriend mocks her by saying "I can't kill anything!" and calling her a softie. Shelley overhears and advises Lucy that she may want to think about "getting rid of that guy". Lucy says she just may do that, and later returns in order to buy bleach so that she can get murder stains out of the trunk of a car.


Season 2[]

In the episode, "I Want My Baby Back, Baby Back, Baby Back", it is revealed that Lucy survived her execution. She claims that during her death, everything "went black" and she went down a hallway and saw heaven, where God appeared and told her she didn't belong there. After, the Devil chased after her, and then she woke up. The shocked guards overreact and start to beat her, and to make sure she doesn't sue they give her money. As part of the settlement the courts and prison agree to drop charges on her for killing her boyfriends.

Lucy then tells Jimmy that she wants Hope. She later comes to Jimmy's house and informs him that they are "still married" since she didn't die. She says she won't go to court if Jimmy agrees to move with her and Hope to Tibet. Jimmy refuses.

Lucy takes the Chances to court for custody of Hope. Since they they now have no admissible proof of her being a killer, the jury awards Hope to Lucy.

When Lucy finally takes Hope, Jimmy reluctantly agrees to go with the two of them to Tibet. As they are driving away, Jimmy looks out the window at Sabrina. Lucy sees him, pulls over and says, "You love her, don't you?" to which Jimmy replies, "Yes, of course I do. But I love my daughter, so this is what has to happen." Lucy looks back at Hope and then tells Jimmy, "I want you to know that what I'm about to do, I'm doing for my daughter." Lucy then gets out of the car, pulls a knife from under the seat and starts running after Sabrina. During the pursuit, Lucy gets hit by a bus. Hope is given back to the Chances.

Season 3[]

When Burt and Virginia need Lucy's death certificate for Jimmy and Sabrina's wedding, it is revealed that Lucy survived the bus crash and has been living with her father. He brought her home believing she would die, but she made a full recovery. However, she suffered brain damage caused by the crash that puts her in the mindset of an 8 year old child instead of her old serial killer self. As a result, her father keeps her locked in her old room with a shock collar to prevent her from harming others or ending up in jail. Her father forges a death certificate for them in order to maintain that she is dead. She later escapes after hearing about Jimmy and Sabrina's wedding on the news. She attempts to kill them with a samurai sword, but her father, with the help of Burt, knocks her out with a stone tablet and manages to remove her without anyone seeing her.

Trivia[]

  • It is revealed that Lucy was extremely smart. She graduated college and was able to evade the police for years.
  • As a child she showed signs of becoming a serial killer.
  • In "Don't Vote for This Episode", Lucy was shown to be very mousy and in a verbally abusive relationship with an unknown boyfriend. After Shelly advises Lucy to "get rid of him," she kills him and starts her murder spree.
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