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Lee Harris (née Miller) is a former no-nonsense police officer struggling with sobriety and the sole survivor of "Return to Roanoke". She is a character in Roanoke primarily portrayed by Adina Porter. In most of her "My Roanoke Nightmare" experiences, she is portrayed by actress Monet Tumusiime (who is portrayed by Angela Bassett).

Background[]

At seventeen, Lee Miller had a daughter she named Emily. When Emily was four, during the 4th of July, Lee needed to run to the store for some sauce, for just five minutes. Lee left Emily in the car and, when she returned, Emily was gone.

At some point, Lee marries Mason Harris and they have a daughter, Flora Harris. After being shot in the line of duty as a police officer, she became addicted to painkillers and was fired as a result. Her addiction also caused the breakup of her marriage, and she lost custody of her daughter.[1]

Personality and Appearance[]

Lee Miller is a hardworking and determined woman who suffers from addiction to pain pills and alcohol. She is also protective of her family and is cautious of her brother's wife, often judging her.

She wears a short wavy bob haircut and casual fitting clothes, when she worked as a police officer she would wear her usual uniform.

Unlike everyone else when confronted by traumatizing events, Lee manages to push through and places survival first. She exhibits care for other people to a large degree, being the first person to offer to look for Sidney so Shelby gets medical help (Despite tensions high between the two) and not leaving Audrey behind on two deadly occasions. She does, however, have her own agenda, and is prepared to keep her secret a secret. Lee has an immense and unconditional love for her daughter, which she would do anything for her.

Story[]

Matt asked his sister, Lee, to move into their house after he became concerned for the safety of his wife (Shelby). Shelby's more liberal lifestyle clashed with Lee's, and Shelby's frequent wine drinking bothered Lee's attempts to stay sober. During an argument between them, the house was breached while Lee was unarmed. Lee urges that the family stay and confront the intruders when they return.[1]

Matt returns, and they show him a video they found playing in the basement during the home invasion, which he thinks is a fake to intimidate the couple and scare them away. Shelby wants to leave, Lee suggests they stand their ground, and Matt pleads that they have nowhere to go, as they've invested everything. 

Shelby decides to leave on her own and takes off in her own car. She hits a woman who stands up and walks into the forest. Shelby follows her in and becomes lost. Moments later, Lee's car almost runs over Shelby as she runs out of the woods. While Shelby was taken to the hospital with Matt, Lee stayed in the house. 

Lee's testimonial expounds on her custody arrangements as her ex-husband Mason brings Flora for a visit. Flora begins exploring the house and talks to an unseen Priscilla, whom Lee believes is an imaginary friend. Flora relays that Priscilla offered to make her a bonnet if the family will help make "all the blood" stop. Soon after, Lee finds a bonnet amid a broken vase. 

Shelby is wary of Lee's choice to let Flora visit, and Matt wants to fight for their homestead until they have an opportunity to sell. Mason comes to pick up Flora who is hiding under a stairwell talking to Priscilla. When asked what she was doing, Flora responds that they're going to kill them all and save her for last. Believing Lee to be a threat to their daughter, Mason grabs up Flora and promises Lee will never see her again. 

Lee ends her sobriety, and Matt finds her on the kitchen floor with the kitchen knives impaled in the kitchen's high ceiling. Shelby calls after Matt to confirm that there is indeed a woman outside the window; the spouses leave to track the apparition to a cellar under a trapdoor while the ghostly nurses watch over Lee. Lee experiences being watched, and leaves her bed to see twitching bloody "pig" tails nailed to the wall. She stumbles backward and catches sight of the Piggy Man in a mirror. 

While Matt and Shelby dealt with the bank representative, Lee slipped away and returned, having absconded with Flora in violation of the custody arrangement. Shelby draws Flora away so that Matt can discuss Lee's actions with his sister. Shelby speaks to Mason on the phone, trying to smooth over the situation that Lee knows she botched. Meanwhile, Flora sees her friend beckoning her outside. 

The Millers search the woods and find only Flora's hoodie at the top of a tree, at least a hundred feet over their heads.[2]

Lee, Matt, and Shelby have the police search for Flora. Because Lee was previously a police officer, she is well aware of the likelihood of finding a missing person after they have been unaccounted for in 48 hours. They are eventually notified that a body had been discovered in the woods, apparently terrifying Lee. It turns out to be Lee's ex-husband Mason. The trio continues spending a few evenings looking for Flora within the woods, wherein Shelby sees Matt sleeping with Scáthach. Furious from her discovery of Matt's supposed infidelity, Shelby informs the police of suspicion of Lee's involvement in her ex-husband's death.[3]

Lee is interrogated at the police station for hours on end, hoping to find any discrepancies in her account of what happened the evening Mason went missing. When the Police fail to do so, Lee is released and finds texts from Matt saying that they have found Flora. Surprised and relieved by the news, she rings Matt, only to Matt, Shelby and Flora's horror as the Polks can hear his phone ring whilst they are hiding from them. This reveals their hiding spot and they are captured again.

Receiving no response or message from Matt, Lee drives to their house to see what's going on. Flora is about to be murdered by the Butcher when her son Ambrose stops her. The three manage to escape and drive away from the scene into town, where they spend the night in a cheap motel.[4]

Following the success of My Roanoke Nightmare, Lee had been subject to many accusations about her involvement in Mason's death. These accusations have also sparked hate towards the actress who played her, Monet Tumusiime. When Sidney Aaron James confirmed a sequel to the show which will star the actors and the people they played, Lee confidentially addresses her return so that she can prove that she had nothing to do with what happened to Mason. If the rumors about her are clarified, she may be able to win custody over Flora who is currently staying with her ex-husband's sister, who is also fighting for custody. Unbeknownst to Lee, Sidney intends to set Lee up to look like the murderer in the sequel.

During their first evening filming the sequel 'Return to Roanoke: Three Days in Hell', Shelby tries to apologize to Matt for her infidelity, prompting Lee to defend her brother's distance. In the heat of the argument, she broaches the fact that Shelby never cares about the consequences of her actions, mentioning how she carelessly got her into trouble with the police.

Later that night she notices that Monet has been drinking, and offers to help or talk to her about it as she was also an alcoholic too. Monet angrily refuses her help, attributing her alcoholism to Lee. This is due to the fact that she had become unable to cope with 'living in the head' of a murderer for six months. Lee responds stating that Monet chose to play her out as a murderer.[5]

The next morning when Shelby is injured by Agnes in her attempt to kill her, Lee wants to go find Sidney to get medical assistance. She also reveals that she brought a gun to defend herself. Monet doubts that Lee will be able to actually get help, so she offers her services as well. Audrey recommends that they go through the tunnels of the house, just to prevent encountering the murderous Agnes.

Whilst in the tunnels, they spot a distant figure. Assuming that it's Rory, Audrey calls out to him, only for the trio to realize that it's actually the ghost of Edward Mott. They frantically leave the tunnels into the woods, where Audrey and Monet question what they saw. Lee reminds them again that the whole Roanoke story is true, and that all of the spirits and demons do exist.

By nightfall they finally reach Sidney's trailer, only to find him and his coworker's disemboweled corpses. Lee asks them to see if the car still works but it's dead. While contemplating whether to push to town which is 5 miles away or return to the house, Agnes appears, planning to attack them with a cleaver, but Lee shoots her before she can get to them. Suddenly they witness the Roanoke mob approaching. Lee, somehow managing to still have her wits through the ordeal, gets them to hide off the road. Whilst hiding, Audrey discovers Rory's corpse looming over them. Lee asks Monet to capture the body as proof of what has just happened. Monet refuses at first but reluctantly starts filming. The mob eventually spots them hiding, and they are forced to run once more. They escape the hands of the mob but are captured by the Polks.[6]

The Polks keep Lee separated from Audrey and Monet as they intend to eat her. Slowly and painfully, the Polks cut off the smallest pieces of flesh from her and force feed it to the other women. Whilst Mama Polk and two of her sons are torturing Audrey and Monet, Mama Polk assigns Jether with watching over Lee.

She realizes that unlike the other members of his family, Jether is more emotional about what he does and seems to recognize her as a human being (although he states that the Polks are the only people there are, he seems to forget the whole situation between their captives and themselves). She plans to exploit this trait of his to initiate her escape. She notices he has issues with his mother, due to the fact that in his youth he wanted to be famous, only for his mother to knock down his dreams. Lee promises that she'll make him famous and label him a hero, under the condition he releases her and the others. Jether shuts her up, telling her that there's no hope for her escape and for his big-time success. In order to ease the pain of the next time she's injured, he gives her drugs.

Lee, having been brutally injured and with little hope of surviving, begs Jether to record a last message from her to Flora. Jether agrees and covers up her injuries so Flora does not know her mother's true fate. Lee admits that she did kill her ex-husband and that nobody else was involved in his murder except her. Once they've finished recording, he tells her that Mama said that he'll get to kill the next victim, which is Lee. When Lee asks if he wants to hurt her, he says he does not and admits that he likes her.

Lee seduces him, only to get him in a vulnerable and distracted state so she can get out. He removes the restraints on her, allowing her to kill him at first chance and leave. When Audrey is in the middle of having her teeth ripped out from Mama Polk, Lee hits her on the head. She helps Audrey out of her restraints, who reveals that Monet managed to escape earlier on and left her. Audrey murders Mama Polk as revenge for allegedly killing her husband. The two escape and try to return to the house, unable to find Monet before the Polks could.

They use the tunnels to enter the house through the basement, unfortunately discovering Matt's corpse. Audrey convinces the traumatized Lee to keep moving forward, but as they enter the house they see it's been rampaged. Audrey gives Lee some more cocaine to ease her and leaves to get some water from the bathroom as Lee doesn't want to be alone. Lee comes to Audrey's aid when she hears her screaming, finding Shelby's corpse and a bloodied Dominic in the corner.

Dominic tells the truth about how Shelby killed Matt because Matt admitted he was in love with the Scáthach, and that she committed suicide out of guilt. Lee and Audrey don't buy his story, both claiming that Shelby was in love with Matt and that she was too self-absorbed to commit suicide respectively. Since the two believed he had something to do with their brutal deaths, they punish him by locking him out of the safety of their room. They immediately hear Dominic being killed by the Piggy Man, causing Audrey to regret her decision and ask if she can open the door, only to Lee's cold response that he is the reason her brother and sister-in-law are dead.

The two wake up in disbelief the next morning, having survived the duration of the blood moon. Audrey's joy at surviving is cut short when Lee reminds her that they have footage of Mama Polk's murder. Audrey states that it was in self-defense as they were being tortured and forced into cannibalism, but Lee states that it won't matter as long as the remaining Polks only show her killing an old lady. They plan to go back to the Polks, who are now unable to get support from the spirits.

Lee refuses to go through the tunnels and see her brother's corpse, so they walk to the front door and meet with Dylan (the actor who played Ambrose) who is dressed as the Piggy Man.[7]

The remaining three survivors try to escape with one of the Polks' old trucks. While Dylan tries to get it going, Lee and Audrey go into the house in search of Monet and the incriminating footage. While Audrey and Monet flee, Lee is attacked and manipulated by Scáthach to do her bidding. After that, Lee wanders through the woods when she meets three teenagers who are filming in the area for their fansite on "My Roanoke Nightmare". Lee kills one of them with a cleaver and later goes to the Roanoke House, where she kills Monet and tries to do the same with Audrey, but only manages to hurt her badly. The next morning, Lee is apparently in shock and seems not to remember anything when the police officers ask her about what happened. Audrey is found a few feet away, also alive. When she sees Lee, Audrey tries to shoot her but is gunned down by police officers, and Lee becomes the sole survivor of the massacre.[8]

After the controversial airing of "Return To Roanoke", Lee Harris is put on trial for the murders of Jether, Monet, Todd Allan Connors, Sophie Green, and Milo. She is acquitted of all crimes, as the defense links her murderous behavior to a hallucinogenic strain of weed found on the Polk's farm. She is then tried again for the murder of her ex-husband Mason Harris, where her daughter Flora Harris testifies against her, telling the court that she saw her mother kill her father with a rock. Despite her testimony, Lee is acquitted again, as the defense links Flora's story to her child-like imagination. Although Lee walks free, Flora despises her and Mason's parents win custody of her.

Sometime after the joint trials, Lana Winters asks Lee for an interview, to which she says yes. After some banter between the two, Lana asks Lee why she chose to come to the interview. Lee tells her it's because of who Lana is, and the fact that she killed her son Johnny. Lee thinks she'll be able to relate to her more than any other talk show host. Lee tells her she also wants to tell Flora something through the cameras. Lee tells Flora she loves her and will do anything to see her again. Lana asks "Where is Flora?" Repeatedly, stating that Flora went missing an hour before the live show went on the air. Lee seems surprised by this, just as Lot Polk busts through the door carrying an assault rifle. He knocks Lana out and just as he's about to kill Lee, a police officer shoots him down.

A ghost hunting show, called "Spirit Chasers" goes to the Roanoke house to see if the ghost stories are true. After some frights they find Lee searching the house. She tells them that she's looking for Flora and if they are smart they'll leave the house. Everyone filming the show dies, (including Ashley Gilbert, the actor that played Cricket Marlowe) and Lee finds Flora roaming around the house.

After Flora and Lee stay in the house for a couple of hours, the police and news reporters start treating it as a hostage situation. Lee argues with Flora when Flora reveals she wants to sacrifice herself to keep Priscilla safe from The Butcher when Lee goes in Flora's place wanting her to have a whole life, telling her she can come to visit her and Priscilla when she's older but not on The Blood Moon. Priscilla and Lee then burn the whole house as Flora walks out watching the scene. Flora then waves goodbye to the now deceased Lee and Priscilla as they walk off into the woods. As Flora is driven away in a police car, The Butcher's colony begins to march toward the flame-engulfed Roanoke house.

Notes[]

  • Lee is the second character portrayed by Adina Porter. For a complete list of her characters, see Cast.
  • The reenacted Lee is the fourth character portrayed by Angela Bassett. For a complete list of her characters, see Cast.
  • In the fictional documentary My Roanoke Nightmare, Lee is dramatically re-enacted in-universe by actress Monet Tumusiime, who is in turn played by real-life Angela Bassett. During scenes where she is describing her experiences, the "true" victim is portrayed by Adina Porter.
  • It was revealed in "Chapter 9", and later confirmed in "Chapter 10" that Lee was the last remaining survivor of the Roanoke incident.
  • Lee Harris (née Miller) has the same name as Lee Miller, a historian who actually wrote a book hypothesizing about the disappearance of the Lost Colony. The book is called “Roanoke: Solving the Mystery of the Lost Colony.”
  • There is a theory that Lee's first daughter, Emily, who went missing, is Emily Campbell from Apocalypse
  • Due to having sold her soul to Scáthach, Lee is possibly controlled and commanded by her after becoming a ghost. 

Quotes[]

  • Regarding Shelby: "My brother married one jumpy bitch!"
  • Shelby Miller
    I wish you still had your badge and your gun.
    Lee Miller
    Well, I may not have my badge, but mama's still packin'.
  • Lee Harris
    How do you know about Emily?
    Sidney James
    All participants on the show are subjected to extensive background checks. Death certificates are a matter of public record.
  • To Shelby: "You are a weak, self-involved little girl who does whatever you want without giving a damn about the carnage you reap. You destroyed Matt but that wasn't enough. Thanks to your reckless bullshit, everybody thinks I'm a cold-blooded murderer."
  • To Audrey and Monet: "How many times do we have to tell you this is real?! Do you believe us now? Or do you want to deny what you've seen with your own eyes?"
  • Lee Harris: "She is the queen of every hive. She is the tree and the lighting that strikes it. The land will weep with blood and their souls offered as sacrifice."
  • To Lana Winters: "Because of you. Because of who you are and what you've been through. I mean, Jesus, you killed your own son, Bloody Face."
  • To Flora Harris: "You know when you're drawing a cat or a house and you picture that cat or that house in your mind and it looks so perfect but you just can't get your hand to live up to that picture in your head? That's what it's like to be a parent. You picture how you want to be and it's so wonderful and flawless but you can't ever live up to that picture you imagined."

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Episode: Chapter 1
  2. Episode: Chapter 2
  3. Episode: Chapter 3
  4. Episode: Chapter 5
  5. Episode: Chapter 6
  6. Episode: Chapter 7
  7. Episode: Chapter 8
  8. Episode: Chapter 9
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