Reba McClane

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Reba McClane from Red Dragon.

Reba McClane is a fictional character from the Thomas Harris novel Red Dragon, the first in the Hannibal Lecter tetralogy, and also appears in the film adaptations Manhunter (played by Joan Allen) and Red Dragon (played by Emily Watson.)

Reba is a blind woman who attracts the attention of serial killer Francis Dolarhyde, her co-worker at Chromalux Film & Videotape Services, where Dolarhyde's work gives him access to the home movies which the company transfers to video cassette. She and Dolarhyde begin a romantic relationship. Dolarhyde's newfound love conflicts with his homicidal urges, which manifest themselves in his mind as a separate personality he calls "The Great Red Dragon," after the William Blake painting. Posing as a researcher, Dolarhyde enters the Brooklyn Museum, beats a museum secretary unconscious, and eats the original Blake watercolour of The Red Dragon which is kept there, believing that if he consumes the Dragon, he can stop killing and pursue a normal relationship with the kind, soft-spoken Reba who also cannot see his "ugly" face. Unfortunately, this only makes matters worse; the Red Dragon personality tries to kill Reba after seeing her with a fellow coworker and former lover (who she once described as possessing "the only thing I hate worse than pity; fake pity). Dolarhyde tries to resist, and apparently committed suicide to save Reba from his alter ego. In reality, however, he merely shot the already dead body of one his previous victims (Reba's former lover in the movie). Reba, being blind, did not know the difference.

Reba McClane from Manhunter.

In the end, Will Graham tries to reassure a traumatized and heart-broken Reba that she was not at fault: "There was plenty wrong with Dolarhyde, but there's nothing wrong with you. You said he was kind and thoughtful to you. I believe it. That's what you brought out in him. At the end, he couldn't kill you and he couldn't watch you die. People who study this kind of thing say he was trying to stop. Why? Because you helped him. That probably saved some lives. You didn't draw a freak. You drew a man with a freak on his back."