CHARACTER
Final Girlsby RIley Sager

Tina Stone (posing as Samantha Boyd)

Tina Stone

Quick Facts

  • Bold role: Antagonist and catalyst; an impostor posing as “Samantha Boyd” to expose the Pine Cottage truth in Final Girls
  • First appearance: Chapter 5, outside Quincy Carpenter’s apartment
  • Aliases: “Samantha Boyd”
  • Key relationships: Quincy Carpenter; Joe Hannen; Franklin Cooper (Coop); Lisa Milner
  • Background: Killed her abusive stepfather as a teen; institutionalized at Blackthorn Psychiatric Hospital
  • Signature detail: “SURVIVOR” tattoo in bold black on her wrist; punk “Riot Grrrl” armor she can shed for a disarmingly clean look

Who They Are

Tina Stone is a shapeshifter who weaponizes survival. Arriving under the mask of “Samantha Boyd,” she insinuates herself into the Final Girl mythology, not to bask in notoriety but to pry open a sealed narrative. Her fierce loyalty to Joe—born in the crucible of Blackthorn—drives a mission that fuses devotion with manipulation. Tina operates in the liminal zone between Truth, Memory, and Deception, forcing buried memories to the surface and refusing the comfort of forgetting. She frames survival not as healing but as combat, a worldview steeped in Trauma and Its Aftermath and the relentless performance of The 'Final Girl' Identity. As a character, she embodies the unsettling hinge of The Duality of Good and Evil: her ends (truth and justice for a friend) are pursued by corrosive, violent means.

Personality & Traits

Tina’s persona is both mask and mirror. She mirrors the rage others hide, then uses it as leverage, while constantly shifting her own mask to suit the moment—punk menace one minute, sympathetic confidante the next. Her ethos is simple and brutal: the world won’t save survivors; survivors save themselves.

  • Manipulative strategist: Poses convincingly as Samantha Boyd, lifting details from the real survivor’s life; engineers a tabloid “reunion” photo via Jonah Thompson (Chapter 25), then spins it to box Quincy into a public identity.
  • Volatile, impulsive edge: From arrests and fighting to pushing Quincy toward shoplifting and vigilantism, she courts escalation—because escalation reveals who people really are (Chapters 14 & 18).
  • Fierce, isolating loyalty: Calls Joe her “only fucking friend” and builds her entire crusade around exonerating him, even when it endangers her and others (Chapter 39).
  • Cynical survivor’s creed: Views institutions (family, media, psychiatry, police) as predatory; categorizes herself and others as “damaged goods,” turning injury into armor (Chapter 11).
  • Resourceful and street-smart: Adept at lock-picking, theft, and social engineering; tailors her look—combat boots and liner to intimidate, “cleans up nicely” to charm and manipulate—depending on the mark (Chapter 5).
  • Symbolic body: The “SURVIVOR” tattoo is both a dare and a definition—she refuses invisibility, staking claim to a hard-won, confrontational identity.

Character Journey

Tina arrives as a mystery: another Final Girl who might understand what polite society cannot. She quickly shifts from ally to provocateur, prying at the seams of a carefully curated life until suppressed fury spills out. Each stunt—vigilante gambits, media traps, seductions—drags the past into the present, dismantling the myth of tidy recovery. When she pulls Quincy back to Pine Cottage, Tina’s own mask cracks: the impostor is Tina Stone, Joe’s staunch defender, and her manipulation was a single-minded bid to restore what she believes is the truth. She dies unchanged—unyielding, enraged, and loyal to the last—but the blast radius of her presence transforms others, forcing a reckoning with what survival actually costs.

Key Relationships

  • Quincy Carpenter: Tina locks onto Quincy’s need to seem “fine” and detonates it, coaxing out the rage Quincy refuses to acknowledge. Their bond is a toxic alloy of attraction, kinship, and coercion—Tina as dark mentor, Quincy as the student who must learn she’s capable of violence to recover the truth.
  • Joe Hannen: Joe is the fixed star of Tina’s moral universe. Her devotion—born of shared institutional trauma and profound loneliness—justifies every deception; clearing his name becomes synonymous with validating her own worth as a survivor and friend.
  • Franklin Cooper (Coop): Sizing up Coop’s protective streak, Tina turns him into “insurance,” performing a softer version of herself to siphon authority and cover. The near-seduction is tactical: if Quincy won’t be controlled, the cop who shadows her might be.
  • Lisa Milner: By infiltrating Lisa’s life as Samantha, Tina harvests intelligence about the Final Girls and Pine Cottage. When Lisa glimpses the con and ejects her, Tina pivots—taking what she learned to New York and raising the stakes with Quincy.

Defining Moments

Tina’s story unfolds through controlled detonations—acts that rupture façades and force buried truths to surface.

  • Arrival as “Samantha Boyd” (Chapter 5): She appears at Quincy’s door in full Riot Grrrl armor. Why it matters: Instantly reframes Quincy’s life around the Final Girl narrative and establishes Tina as an agent of disruption.
  • Vigilante test in Central Park (Chapters 14 & 18): Tina goads Quincy into confronting a predator; Quincy’s violent response confirms Tina’s theory about her. Why it matters: Becomes a shared secret and a proof-of-concept for Tina’s belief that rage is the key to memory.
  • Tabloid manipulation (Chapter 25; confirmed in 31): Orchestrates a media “reunion” and steals from Lisa’s files to control the story. Why it matters: Shows Tina’s media savvy and the breadth of her deception, tightening the psychological vise on Quincy.
  • Seducing Coop as leverage (Chapter 32): Engineers intimacy to weaponize his authority. Why it matters: Demonstrates Tina’s readiness to sacrifice boundaries—and others’ reputations—to keep her mission alive.
  • Return to Pine Cottage and death (Chapters 38–42): Forces Quincy into the original crime scene to unlock the truth; reveals her identity and allegiance to Joe before being shot by Coop. Why it matters: Collapses performance into confession; Tina’s death cements her as catalyst, not convert.

Essential Quotes

“You’re messed up. So am I. It’s okay to admit it. We’re damaged goods, babe.” — Chapter 11
This credo distills Tina’s survival philosophy: acceptance through defiance. By normalizing damage, she licenses transgressive behavior and rejects the expectation that healing must look gentle or private.

“I came because I wanted to see if you’re as angry as I am.” — Chapter 11
Tina isn’t searching for sisterhood; she’s testing for rage. The line reframes her visit as an experiment—if Quincy’s anger matches hers, the past can be forced open.

“You’re a fucking Final Girl. That’s why I went to Jonah Thompson. So you couldn’t hide anymore. So you could finally live up to the name you’ve earned.” — Chapter 25
Here, Tina uses the mythology of the Final Girl to corner Quincy into performance. Public exposure becomes a weapon: by collapsing Quincy’s private denial into a public role, Tina compels action.

“My secrets are your secrets. And Officer Cooper might not like yours.” — Chapter 33
Leverage masquerading as intimacy. Tina binds Quincy through shared wrongdoing, then threatens that bond to control her—a classic manipulation of trust and fear.

“He was my friend. My only fucking friend. Ever.” — Chapter 39
A raw confession that explains everything else. Tina’s ruthlessness is the helpless logic of a lonely survivor: loyalty to Joe is not a choice but an identity, the one truth she will not betray.