Susan D. Snell is a fictional character created by American author Stephen King in his first published 1974 horror novel, Carrie.
She is a popular teenage girl dating Tommy Ross. After tormenting Carrie White in the locker room, Sue begins to feel remorse for her actions. She asks Tommy to do her a favor and take Carrie to the prom in an attempt to make Carrie feel accepted and to ease her own conscience. In this, she has been described as the "godmother" in King's "dark modernization of Cinderella". The disaster that takes place at the high school prom is set in place when Tommy accepts.
Sue also appears in the 1999 film sequel, The Rage: Carrie 2, played by Amy Irving reprising her role from the 1976 film version of King's novel.
Novel
In the novel, King uses commentaries by Sue Snell as one of his innovative narrative techniques to tell Carrie's history. Sue is a popular student at Ewen High School. When Carrie breaks down emotionally after having her first period in the shower, unaware of what menstruation is, Sue joins her classmates in gleefully taunting her and pelting her with tampons, repeatedly chanting, "Plug it up!" Their gym teacher, Rita Desjardin, who broke up the incident and calmed the panicking Carrie down, says that Sue is not a bully by nature and therefore her participation in the shower incident is out of character. It is implied that Sue only acted under peer pressure, being one of popular girl Chris Hargensen's friends and therefore under the pressure of Chris to avoid becoming a potential victim herself. When the prank happened, Sue had been dating Tommy Ross for six months. While preparing for the prom, purchasing a gown and accepting Tommy's invitation, Sue begins to plan for Carrie to go to the prom in her place.
Staying home on prom night, she begins to doubt her own motives: worry about her late period – she both fears and hopes she is pregnant – and the possibility of Tommy falling for Carrie. When the town whistle begins blowing, Sue looks out her window, sees the fire at the school and rushes to her mother's car. Speeding towards the school, Sue is horrified when the school explodes. She slams on the brakes, and the car screeches to a stop, throwing her against the steering wheel. She gets out of the car, and is knocked down by the explosion of a gas station nearby. She later flags down a deputy sheriff, who interrogates her. The deputy later recalls Sue stating "They've hurt Carrie for the last time", indicating that she had no part in what happened.
Three hours later, Sue finds Carrie lying by a wrecked car driven by Billy Nolan and Chris Hargensen, near death from being stabbed by her mother Margaret. Sue and Carrie have a brief telepathic conversation as Carrie uses her telepathy to communicate with Sue, in which she convinces Carrie she had no part in Chris's plan. Carrie cries out for her mother and dies, every detail of her death witnessed by a horrified Sue, who later identifies Carrie's body for the official records. As Sue flees the scene, her period begins, insinuating that the trauma of the night has caused her to miscarry and that she is not pregnant.
Sue is soon targeted by a blue-ribbon panel investigating the "Black Prom" as a partial instigator of the setup to humiliate Carrie at the prom. Sue accuses the commission of wanting a scapegoat, admitting that she only wanted to help Carrie have a normal life and that schools should do more to prevent bullying. In 1986, she publishes a book, My Name is Susan Snell, which details the events of the prom from her perspective, reminding readers that "we were kids" and apt to make faulty choices even while trying to do right.
Adaptations
1976 film
In the original film adaptation by Brian De Palma, Sue is portrayed by Amy Irving.