V.C. Andrews’ Dark Angel: Let’s talk about that jaw-dropping plot twist

If you’re keeping up with Lifetime’s five-movie adaptation of V.C. Andrews’ Casteel series then you saw the latest film, Dark Angel. We’re still in shock.

The saga of the Casteel family continues in the second movie of this five-movie adaptation. Dark Angel contains the biggest shock yet and we’re only on movie number two! I can’t imagine what’s still to come in the next three films.

When we last saw Heaven Casteel, she was fleeing from her old home in Winnerow to find her mother’s real parents. She arrives at “Flarthy” and meets her drunk of a grandmother, Jillian (the always fantastic Kelly Rutherford), and her step-grandfather, Tony (Jason Priestly unlike you’ve ever seen him before).

At Winnerow, Heather blossoms into Heather Van Voreen, a young woman with status and wealth. She is accepted at a prestigious new school and excels and achieves the honor of top of her class. All the while she nurses a growing relationship with Troy, Tony’s brother, who lives in a weird cabin hidden away in the hedge maze.

More from Drama

• The Serpent Queen season 2 release updates and everything we know
• Is Quantum Leap on tonight? (November 22, 2023)
• Is Magnum P.I. on tonight? (Nov. 22, 2023)
• Miss Scarlet and the Duke returns for season 4 at the top of 2024
• The Way Home season 2 trailer reveals 1800s storyline and release date!

Her relationship with Troy is forbidden by Tony for some strange reason but it doesn’t stop them from sneaking around and ultimately getting engaged!

Incoming: Major plot twist alert

For once, everything is finally going well for Heather. Sure her visit to her siblings isn’t as happy as she would have liked (more on that later) and maybe she does still harbor feelings for her ex-boyfriend, Logan, but for the most part, she’s happy and in love with the sweet, sensitive artist, Troy.

Aside from the age gap, Heaven is only 18 and Troy is clearly a grown man, there is an even more insidious reason why these nuptials aren’t meant to be. Heather returns from her trip to an angered Tony. He tells her she must call off her wedding to Troy immediately.

Why would he do that when Tony already admitted he had played matchmaker between them? Because he spoke with Troy and realized Heaven had lied about her age upon her arrival. On her first day at Flarthy, Heaven claimed to be only 16-years-old.

Upon realizing she is, in fact, 18, Tony does some math and comes to the final conclusion. Heaven is his biological daughter. Let’s take a moment to digest the massive amounts of squick factor here.

For starters, this is a V.C. Andrews story so I suppose I was expecting some incest but still, massive EW. Not only has Heaven been sleeping with her uncle, but both Heaven and the audience realize that Tony actually raped Heaven’s mother, Leigh.

Tony doesn’t see it that way. Neither does Jillian. They blame Leigh for seducing him but we all know the truth.

This disgusting reveal drives Heaven away from the Van Voreens, although she does sleep with Troy again. WHY, HEAVEN, WHY?

Then Jillian tells Troy about their blood relation and Troy goes and drowns himself in the lake? That’s why this movie is called Dark Angel, apparently, Troy deals with suicidal ideation quite often and calls it the “darkness” within him. Okay so they have enough money for therapy, surely that would have been smarter than sending him into a hermit cave in the middle of a hedge maze. But, I digress.

With Troy dead, Heaven goes off to college. She’s received a full-ride scholarship and has plans to return to Winnerow afterward and become a teacher. The film skips ahead four years and Tony appears in her life yet again. He wants to get another chance at being a good father to her because his wife is “worse than dead.” She’s an absentee alcoholic, as we’ve seen.

Will Heaven let Tony back into her life? What’s next for this sweeping saga?

Odds & Ends

• If you were curious about what happened to Fanny, well she’s living in a trailer somewhere and she basically hates Heaven now. She blames her for everything wrong with her life.
• Fanny also sold her baby, Darcie, to the gross preacher and his wife for $10,000. She begs Heaven to get her baby back but Heaven realizes Darcie might not be better off with her sister. That decision may come back to bite.

The third film of the Casteel saga premieres on August 10th at 8/7c on Lifetime.