Really enjoying these writeups, @Vee whatever the length. I had forgotten Karen's pill story was this season rather than next season. Definitely some of Michelle Lee's best work.
The interweaving of stories here with the combination of personal and psychological traumas and corporate power is a gambit that the show had to take, and one that fortunately continues to pay off for a number of years.
I do wish we'd gotten more with Millie Perkins, who has a lot of potential and plays a woman a world away from the ladies of Seaview. As I'm sure you know we get a little more several seasons down the line, but, again, not enough. Sumner had so much story packed into the remainder of the show's life, but it was processed in a way that tended to limit breathing.
I think you hit on what dooms Laura in their relationship - Devane and McCashin have wonderful chemistry and there are many wonderful scenes between them, but because so much is always going on with Greg, she just ends up being one part of his life, with her own point of view less and less important.
This is also where the show, or Donna Mills, draws the line between Abby the bad girl and the genuine antagonists on the show, which probably needed to be drawn more than I realized until your recaps.
This is pretty much the high point of interesting material between Greg and Mack.