Darla "Chardonnay" is a character in the novel Final Destination: Looks Could Kill. She is a famous model in New York City and a survivor of the Coral Clipper sinking. Growing up, Darla's mother always pressured her to be the best at everything she worked at, especially her beauty. Whenever anything went wrong, her mother would usually blame her for it and scold her for no reason whatsoever. At the age of twelve, she lost her father when he was drunk driving, and was devastated after the accident when her mother ignored her to go find another man to marry. Naturally, she began to rebel against her (i.e., cutting her hair at a wedding, trying to get a tattoo, etc.). During her teenage years, she discovered she was a lesbian and fell in love with a girl named Cynthia, and once her mother found out, she only became angrier at her. Eventually, after she was caught riding with friends carrying drugs, her mother sent Darla to New York City, and she lived with her cousin Wendy. While in New York, she met Pier Merlot and accepted a job as a model. This was where she began her drug habits, trying every drug she could in order to drive away any painful memories of her past. However, after Wendy died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks while catering brunch, she was deeply devastated and did even more drugs. From that point on, she stayed with her drug habit and kept her lesbian life a secret, severing almost all of her ties with her family.
One day in her studio, Pier announces to the models that Stephanie "Sherry" Pulaski was to be the spokesmodel for a line of perfume, and she decides to celebrate by hosting a party on her yacht. In Miami during the evening, Chardonnay is aboard the yacht, sniffing cocaine, when Sherry has a terrible vision of the boat foundering after another boat called the LookSea crashes into it and kills everyone on board. Sherry freaks out and manages to drag several of the models and a photographer off, including Chardonnay. While standing at Pier 13, they all look at the yacht and are shocked when the crash happens, just like Sherry said it would. During the crash, fiery debris comes spiraling into the air and maims Sherry's face.
Four months after the accident, Chardonnay and the models host a "Welcome Home" party for Sherry after she comes out of the hospital and gives her a mask to cover her badly scarred face. Appalled, she shouts at everyone to leave her apartment.
Chardonnay appeared at Shirelle "Shiraz" Edelstein's funeral after she was brutally internally decapitated and quickly left the funeral to avoid the scene, where she runs into Sherry at a bar.
Darla is the third survivor of Coral Clipper to die.
Death
After Sherry agrees to go over to Chardonnay's suite, they reconnect on the living room couch. Sherry makes a comment to Chardonnay about how she never felt a woman during her coma, and Chardonnay takes it as a chance to make a move in her hot tub. She rushes to her room and puts on her bikini, secretly stashing a vibrator in her pubic region, and goes to turn the hot tub on. Before getting in, she tries to get a leaf out of the water after she removes the lid, and in the process, she brushes against the wall of the tub and turns on the vibrator. She twitches and falls inside, just as the lid begins to close. Before she can get out, the lid smashes on her skull and traps her inside. Chardonnay bangs on the inside of the tub for Sherry to help her, but she merely stares at the concealed tub until the banging stops, ultimately leading to Chardonnay dying from drowning, exsanguination, and boiling to death when the temperature rises. The morning after, her body is discovered by her maid, and her right arm comes off when she tries to help her out of the tub.
Signs/Clues
- In Sherry's vision of the boat sinking, Chardonnay dies when she jams a glass straw in her eye and brain after the LookSea crashes into the boat.
- During Shiraz's funeral, Chardonnay runs into Death (disguised as a funeral director), telling him he nearly scared her to death when he snuck up on her.
- Hebel Federman warns Gunter Nonhoff that Azrael, the Angel of Death, had spread his wings and cast a shadow upon him and his friends, indicating they were going to die soon.