Character Analysis
Alias
Brigid O'Shaughnessy is no Jennifer Garner, but she does have a few aliases of her own. She enters Spade's office as Ms. Wonderly. She takes a hotel room as Ms. LeBlanc. But her real name is Brigid O'Shaughnessy. What's her deal? Why does she need so many names?
We're not sure even Brigid knows. We have no idea how she got into the business of stealing artifacts for Gutman as his "agent," but she's been on the run ever since she tried to double-cross her own boss and her partner to keep all the riches for herself. She is not a woman to be trusted. Brigid will do anything she can to keep the Falcon for herself, until her back is against the wall and she has no other choice but to go to Spade for help.
Brigid tells Spade, "You're absolutely the wildest, most unpredictable person I've ever known." But maybe she's trying to compliment his masculine side. Both Spade and Brigid are predictable in that they'll both always put themselves first. (That is not a good recipe for a love affair, kids.)
Bye Bye Birdie
Brigid doesn't need a shovel (or should we say a spade) to dig herself a hole. She lies herself into a deeper and deeper hole over the course of the movie. And each time she betrays one of the men in her life, she burns a bridge until she has nowhere else to turn.
Brigid's main lie is that her partner, Floyd Thursby, betrayed her. But eventually it comes out that Brigid betrayed him, not the other way around. When Spade sees what she did to one man, he knows he could be next at any time. Ironically, it's Gutman, who is supposed to be Spade's nemesis, who gives him the best advice:
GUTMAN: I dare say you're going to give her some money but if you don't give her as much as she thinks she ought to have, my word of advice is, be careful.
That's two words of advice, but they're good ones. Brigid is known as a femme fatale for a reason. We don't think she'd hesitate to double-cross Spade if there were money in it for her. Spade tells her early on, "You don't have to trust me as long as you can persuade me to trust you." Once he finds out she betrayed Thursby, her power to persuade him to trust her is over.
Her pleas to Spade about love are less about love and more about desperation. She once tells Spade, "I'm not heroic. I don't think there's anything worse than death." When she learns she might hang for what she did, she throws all of her cards on the table, saying she loves Spade. He knows she's full of it, and turns her in. This chick is going to be a jailbird.
Brigid O'Shaughnessy's Timeline