Some villains earn our hatred. Nia DaCosta’s Hedda on Prime Video, on the other hand, shows a character study and a career-best performance from Tessa Thompson within a single night. It begins with a cornered woman and ends with a monster drowning herself after ensuring everyone is gone.Across four acts, our sympathy for her is methodically stripped away. She is revealed to be a person who revels in pulling everyone’s strings. Yes, she is frustrated in her marriage, but she reaches a point of no return.Let’s see how each act makes the lead harder to forgive.Spoiler alert, proceed with caution! Breaking down every act of Hedda till the end View this post on Instagram Instagram PostAct I - Her performance as the perfect hostessHedda basically stages her newlywed country estate. The opening act has her as a woman already using George and the staff in her “domestic bliss.” Her contempt for her husband’s ambition and their marriage doesn’t show up as boredom weaponized into humiliation. She's not exactly vulnerable. The party guests arrive, but Hedda’s attention lands on opportunity. When Eileen (her ex) and Thea walk in, the titular character should have been heartbroken, but she's electrified! She senses leverage and starts a strategy.Act II - She turns her resentment into a game View this post on Instagram Instagram PostAny remaining “maybe she’s misunderstood” energy is wearing thin. Hedda acts like she's nostalgic and encourages Eileen’s alcoholism while pretending that they are reviving old memories. She knows the manuscript represents Eileen’s rebirth after moving on from her and wants to destroy it.Her fixation on Thea is even worse as Thea represents someone else becoming central to the story, which is the worst thing the lead can imagine. But she sabotages other women’s futures via a competition among the very few women who actually escape patriarchy. Sounds insane, right? Act III - Is sabotage actually her agency? View this post on Instagram Instagram PostThis is the breaking point for any lingering sympathy from us. Destroying Eileen and Thea’s manuscript is VERY calculated. The document represents the pair's joint labour and Eileen's sobriety, among several other intimate yet rebellious things. Hedda knows all of that and lights the match anyway.Worse yet is that she pushes Eileen toward self-obliteration. She doesn't even do this so she can have some control over her own life; oh no, the protagonist does this just for the fun of it. The film dissolves the “patriarchy made her do it” defence by proving she understands the issue and still tortures others. Act IV - Her illusion of "freedom" View this post on Instagram Instagram PostBy the final act, Hedda is a prisoner of her impulses. Her entanglement with Judge Brack shows she hasn’t escaped patriarchal power and has fed it to further her own position. Brack even has a hold over her in the first place, as she engineered the very situation that lets him blackmail her.Side note: We are not condoning the assault, which was very much Brack's fault. And then comes the ending, the heroine now has rocks in her pockets, and walks into the lake to end her own life. She probably believes that death might give her a narrative she can control. But then someone screams and informs her that Eileen is alive. Hedda grins so devilishly, and we see that she never loves anything more than the thrill of causing damage. Not even her own life!She wasted all her agency on tearing down other women.Hedda is now streaming on Prime Video.NEXT UP: Did Tessa Thompson really call Chris Hemsworth “a baby with muscles” during the BFI London talk?