Vee

That track is even more relevant than it was then and still so good. I much prefer the original version to the remix from a few years ago.

Episode 3 (Nowhere to Run): Laura: Why do you stay with her? Gary: I said I loved her, I didn’t say I trusted her. Gary Ewing Enterprises is here! And so is "Westfork" (again, really, Gary?). Westfork is way more grand than Southfork AFAIC; Southfork is one chintzy pool/patio set and tacky yellow furniture from the '70s with a seemingly painted backdrop. This place, however, is vast, has multiple expansive vistas, a much larger pool (sorry, J.R.) and it's at the very least the match of our poor departed beach house. Abby seems less than enamored of it (but has real estate plans of her own), but you really can't ding the place in any way - I'm almost a little surprised Lorimar or whoever let them flex as much dough as this place looks like it cost to show a gigantic ranch on something other than the mothership soap. It makes Dallas look like a roadshow production. Diana’s turn towards Bonnie Parker/Squeaky Fromme didn’t wholly shock me due to spoilers, but I didn't know when or how it happened, or how intense it got here where she's actively committing crimes. I really didn’t think Ms. High School Dramaturgy Scourge '79-'83 could shrug off Chip's earlier behavior on the road so easily. What an idiot. It seems the turn must have come when Chip showed vulnerability, spun his story and allowed Diana to put herself into it as the maiden. What's more interesting is how Diana becomes the rock of the two when Chip begins to break down as they hit troubles. It leads one to suspect that Diana, the loud and obtuse overachiever, views this all as another grand adolescent rebellion, another brassy Fairgate ingenue project: Go on the lam, love her man, prove to the world she's a strong adult who can beat the odds and make grown-up choices. It’s completely nuts - it’s Karen's ethos curdled. That's the only way I can begin to understand and process what she's doing, that and Stockholm Syndrome. Folks over at Knots Blogging suggest that, just as with Karen's equal and opposite reaction to recent events, Diana is also reacting to the triple-blow of Sid, her mother's remarriage and now the Chip reveal. I think that could be true as well. Doesn't make me want to choke her out any less. That is Gary Grubbs as the cowboy auto dealer who rips the un-dynamic duo off btw, a prominent character actor in a zillion things. So this is not the first time they’ve shown it in the series so far, and I really, really want to try Valene’s chicken. Anyway. More Westfork real estate porn: I absolutely adore the rock garden courtyard. Laura gets off a great line as she greets Gary and Abby by the pool: "For us proletariats it’s the middle of a workday." As she runs down various real estate options, Gary the tycoon proves to still also be Gary the rancher and the man who loves nature, calm but forthright; his various selves seem increasingly more joined and synthesized this season ever since he got sober and chilled out a bit. Given his roots he’s doubtful about snapping up huge swaths of forestland (again, still relevant), but Abby just hears the cash register. Hmmm. More refreshing candor between the budding Gary and Laura relationship: Abby’s like high speed auto racing, Gary tells Laura, and he does love her. One could argue his passion for Abby, knowing how deceptive and controlling she can be, admitting to Laura he loves the risk, is how Gary sublimates and manages his own addiction drives when he's not drinking or gambling. I do think Shackelford and McCashin still have real, unexpected chemistry; that would be an unusual and fun pairing. Either way, I'm thrilled they'll be working together. There's a really sweet little scene with Eric and Karen as he punches through her perpetual edge of hysteria, reminding her she's not the only one who cares. Michele Lee, as almost always, picks the right moment to give ground to the kids in a scene, say Karen's been wrong and be tender with him. I don't know when exactly they write the boys out for awhile, or if they do with Michael at all (I've seen him in several main ensemble shots as he gets older) - I know both sons return as adults to play the story with Lar Park Lincoln from Friday the 13th Part 7, though I don't know all the details - but they should’ve kept them as long as possible. They may not be master thespians or central casting hunks, but they are talented and cute enough for their parts and they really ground so much of the show for me. (Diana can leave forever, and it's my understanding she does fairly soon.) I also really like Michael and Mack’s bond. Karen’s somewhat twee, play-to-the-house reaction to getting location news on Diana was a bit too coy for me. Either way, off she goes to try to apprehend Chip and Diana herself, leading to a scene of surreal pleasantries as Karen calls home on the wiretap she watched the cops set up, having gone rogue. She's just off the spool and I can't blame her, but I am glad to see Mack able to function as her support, quiet and easy, able to calm her down at least a little bit. A funny extended bit with just Michael and one of the cops back at the house bantering about guns is nestled in the hour here - another little grace moment they didn’t need to do but that this show excels at. Cute. From Chip and Diana’s hideout shack to the L.A. marina and a glorious new office space! Abby takes Westmont, her Iago (now played by the original actor again), to what is her gigantic new waterfront lair which I swear to God looks like something out of The Spy Who Loved Me or Octopussy. This is a stunning series of sets (if it's all sets) and it looks like some sort of Bond villain branch headquarters for Abby Inc. Abby's clearly already loving showing this off, and who can blame her? It’s another subliminal seduction of Westmont to get what she wants too, as she hangs off the winding staircase (“do you want to see the rest?”) which is both near-identical visually to how she slowly transformed her house at the cul-de-sac but also likely a redress of that living room set. Abby's clearly planning to build her own empire inside Gary’s, but this time her claims of doing it to protect his fortune from his rash choices ring totally false to me. Gary is free, sober, making moves and demonstrating entirely too much closeness to Val, and likely soon others Abby can’t control (Laura Avery, an old foe). So this is Abby's palace and we’re on her time now. I do wish/hope we could see more of the Abby who openly desired the aspirational Gary for the strength and passion he could express himself as a fully actualized Ewing, as opposed to the Abby trying to yoke him to fit her enterprises. Then again, it's possible Abby's just never fully made the distinction between the two herself - maybe that's the fatal flaw in her love. The standoff, as stage managed by Diana as another of her high school plays, starring her in every key role! Lord. Diana is now the aggressor and instigator as the state police arrive, while Chip is increasingly the inept, sniveling weasel. Ol' Chip’s starting to look like this whole thing has gone too apeshit even for him and he's begun to regret getting involved with a clear alumni of Broadway Kids. When they're finally apprehended though, Chip instantly comes back to life under the glare of the cameras, flourishing and vamping as press agent par excellence - I loved that, it happens with creeps like that all the time. And what do you say about the ending tag? "It's not Ms. Fairgate. It's Mrs. Tony Fenece!" Ship her to Mars!

Well, now I want to walk into the sea just looking at that place. So stunning.

I do too. But really, Westfork has more big, lavish exteriors than Southfork on Dallas, which looks rinky-dink by comparison. The new ranch is vast and gorgeous. Was it really a money issue?

Not entirely chronological, and not all of it, but enough. The NYT link lays out the rest.

This one's for you, @DRW50.

I never believed Trump would pay legally for anything beyond the ultimate humiliation of losing the election and being impeached twice, the shame of a nation. I know how things go in our bureaucracy and for a long time I was more than willing to accept that. Now I'm pretty livid. DOJ should act.

Steve looks rough as hell. I do like that his character may or may not be an actual villain here. Steve can play that but he's never really been allowed to.

"Confused" indeed! You don't have to worry about spoiling me, as I've said it's a 40 year old show, an all-purpose thread and I know a fair bit of major stuff. Make your own choices but it doesn't matter to me if you mention something from years later.

It's a troll, I think.

Episode 1 (The People vs. Gary Ewing): So, here we are. There's a scene I don't recognize from Season 4 in the recap at the opening of this episode: Laura in the cul-de-sac, hysterical over Richard leaving and telling Mack he killed Ciji. Did SoapNet cut it? I didn’t realize Baines would last into Season 5, but I'm happy to see Joanna Pettet even if the detective is increasingly ineffectual. Lankford/Houghton/Pleshette are gone but Claudia Lonow is in the (even more musically amped-up) opening credits now, which is probably an early warning sign of the end times in some other cultures who have more foreknowledge than the rest of us. Plus Doug Sheehan, a.k.a. GH's Joe Kelly! I've been waiting for this and I've heard a lot about him as Ben. I've always really, really liked Sheehan any time I saw him on classic GH episodes, and wondered why that show never made better use of him; others who are more versed in that era of GH can differ or correct me, I just was surprised it seems like they didn't go for supercoupling with him and say, Jackie Zeman or somebody, as opposed to keeping him yoked to Heather Webber and his lusty stepmom til his exit. Anyway, I'm very happy to see him; he's always both hunky and earnest, sexy and sweet. (Even if Sheehan did apparently complain his way off the show years later) Lord, Abby is really out here preaching her horny corporatist gospel about “a sense of destiny” (courtesy of J.R. Ewing, whose name she invokes to impress) in order to shine temp recast attorney Jim Westmont on, hoping to make him be her puppet lawyer to send Gary to the cracker barrel for what she deems His Own Good. She’s through the looking glass here, just like she was last time, and I’m pretty sure she believes at least half her bullshít about destiny too. She’s at her moral worst in this hour, right after her braying to the prison guards that '[Gary] never wants to see Val again!' in the S4 finale. When Gary's original, far more skilled layer Mitch Casey (played by cozy character actor Barry Primus, who I know best from recent MST3K '70s disaster campfest "Avalanche" with Mia Farrow and Rock Hudson) turns up at the hearing, Abby panics and starts literally begging Gary to fire Casey and take her fake shemp on instead. Embarrassing for her! How do they get married after this?! I am still down for more Gary/Abby but this is kind of A Lot. Val looks amazing at the courthouse BTW, all sleek jet-black glam with shades. She really has fully transformed and I'm all for it. The highlight midway through this episode is Val and Ben Gibson's meet cute as he helps her escape the reporters. Sheehan won me over here with his chemistry with JVA in about 15 seconds. What a hoot. They notably don't give his name in this episode, IIRC. Hot take: Laura and her incredible black and white power suit of marital vengeance should hook up with Baines. They look sporting together. But Karen and Laura's conflict over Richard is getting ugly fast, because Karen is completely losing it over Diana's vanishing act with Chip. The extreme close-ups of Mack and Karen's eyes as he shakes her back to some semblance of functionality are unsettling, as is Karen later coming apart at the dinner table in her bathrobe in front of the boys. I’ve never seen Karen like that and it’s sudden, jarring and scary, and very well-played by Michele Lee. We also see Laura alone in this episode with Jason, trying to carry the load without Richard. It's a nice little scene and the most we’ve ever seen them alone together, I think. I did think they were chemistry-testing her and Mitch Casey in that scene where she goes to visit him at his home and implicate Richard. I've no idea if we see him again. “Is there anything that we’ve done that [Gary] shouldn’t see?” Abby is really in it now, trying to cover her tracks with Westmont, but it turns out she hasn't done anything too nefarious with Gary's business (yet). While talking with him, she brings her overbearing scheme re: institutionalization and firing Casey back to Gary's drinking. I believe she partly believes that's the reason she has for doing these things, at least (in truth, it's about so much more than just his alcoholism), but she still comes off utterly brazen and off her railroad tracks. Westmont brings it back to putting a ring on it to protect her own position, an idea he first raised last season, and for Abby the wheels are turning once again. Karen asks Val about Lucy! Wow. It's lovely to see them reminiscing about the early days of Season 1; it's this connective tissue to the past that’s so different from the show in Seasons 4-5 that is important. I love the changes in the show but I think these kind of throughlines are essential, like any soap. And the devastating reveal at the end: Karen: Val. How long has it really been since you’ve talked with Lucy? Val: Not long. Seven or eight months. Anyway, Gary's hearing is great fun, though poor Baines is probably in for it with her boss for telling the truth about this cockeyed case. And the final shot is killer as Gary looks to Val, not Abby, over Abby’s shoulder on the freeze frame. The game with these three is still on, but in a much, much more interesting way than Val's brief relapse at the end of last season before she got her game face on in the finale. Episode 2 (Fugitives): After the Gary Ewing fail, Baines and the LAPD is still taking it hot from Karen over Diana. We have never seen Karen like this, even when Sid died and it is staggering to see her disintegrate. People are not doing enough for her right now. From Tommy Krasker's indispensable blog (I have not read all of this S5 entry; I am very judicious on carefully reading bits and pieces of these until I finish a season): Is this Karen reacting with a kind of PTSD to the double-whammy of Sid and Diana too close together, as Krasker suggests? I can buy that. It's really jolting and at times hard to watch, if spellbinding. I would love to say more about it but honestly I'm just in awe of the unhinged performance, which doesn't feel like too much to me, it's just incredibly disturbing because it's so unlike the Karen we know. Back at Gary and Abby's, it's also going bad! Once again the show makes wise use of the Cunningham kids as a kind of onstage audience, watching Gary and Abby go at it (not for the first time) over her insane machinations re: his case. She clearly lays out her reasons re: his drinking and depressive state and how it could've potentially landed him in prison for murder if she hadn't tried to intervene, but that's not the half of her motives vs. the Val and the empire-building of it all. Still, it's good for Abby and the audience to at least attempt to make them understand she is still a nuanced character, even if I think this is her worst move so far as a person. Gary's the one who finally points out the presence of the kids and takes them out of there. Abby got emotional during that confrontation, though - she believed what she's saying. Or at least part of it. I laughed at Ben trying to come off casual running into Val on the beach and jogging with her - I know who he is and it’s obvious he’s no runner. They’re really playing Sheehan for comedy, and he has great facility for it. I was also thinking Ben has a pretty remarkable home for a hustling reporter, but then we discover he’s actually a world-class globetrotting journalist. Everything's going great for these two til Val learns the truth. There's a great moment where JVA snaps, "I know now what I’m worth!" She won't put up with bullshít any longer. I know it doesn't stay this way forever with Val as a character, but I really love to see it. I also already quite like them together. Gary clownIng with Abby's kids, including the increasingly mischievous Bobby Jacoby as Brian (later to become an infamous troublemaker in a ton of classic '80s/early '90s film and TV such as Tremors), was sweet. We’ve never really seen Gary with them acting as a real parent before, it’s new and interesting to see how he relates to children in that role. He’s pretty straight up with them about what's gone on with him, which is an interesting tack to take, and smart work from Gary. They can sense he's no bullshít when he chooses not to; kids have a sixth sense for that. He could’ve been good for Lucy as a father, if Lucy had half the brain cells of Olivia and Brian combined. Another surprise combo this week: Gary and Laura, at a... ranch! This is apparently the much-touted future site of 'Westfork' (really, Gary?) which I’ve heard some about, and per the opening credits with Shackelford looking absolutely jacked in a nicely snug tee astride a horse on his own fertile land, this is Gary's next stop. I hear the amazing beach house set is leaving us and I will seriously miss it; it seems like a waste for it not to be kept by someone. What a set! But this also makes sense for Gary - it's a working ranch, just like he always wanted to be part of on Dallas, just like Miss Ellie longed for him to come back and do on the homestead like her father. I wonder if Miss Ellie ever visited Westfork offscreen and got to see it. I hope so. I hadn't realized at first this is Laura acting as the realtor again! (I wonder what happened to poor Scooter, they haven't mentioned him since his last episode which did not write him out.) Gary and Laura's connection is relatively new, and they both seem like a kind of a pair - wounded, damaged people with a kind of sardonic candor about their past mistakes and injuries. Their bonding over the shared fascination with Ciji was neat. I like watching them together, and even a hook-up might be interesting. Is Richard really calling Laura at the house? Eeesh. Olivia is becoming a real force; she’s distancing herself and sees through Abby, as was implied in last season’s finale, shrugging her off as she goes to bed after spending a day with Gary. Abby rolls with Gary's ranch news (and props to the writers for remembering the brief ranch beat with the both of them from last season, which Abby brings up) but looks almost as crushed to be saying goodbye to the beach house as I am. Uncle Joe calls Karen! Good for him. Meanwhile, Chip and Diana are on the lam at what initially seems to be an increasingly atmospheric series of neon and pastel roadside stops a la Wim Wenders' "Paris, Texas". Chip is already starting to deteriorate as he tries to cut off any points of outside access. Diana should not be this stupid but she never surprises me anymore. But hey, even she's got a limit because there he is on TV as Tony Fenece! Diana's lame attempt to cover for her obvious terror by making up something about a 'news story on baby seals' is one of the worst dodges I've ever seen. She's got zero poker face from then on, and Chip sees through her ruse to call home immediately, leading to a harrowing sequence with poor Diana (how often do I get to say that?) weeping in bed with her back to her deranged man as he keeps spewing increasingly objectifying Hallmark platitudes, “I knew right then and there that I had to make you a part of my life," Chip coos. "That you had something - " - then corrects himself - "that you were something that I had been looking for all my life.” While Karen talks about Diana's determination and strength since she was a baby with Mack in a really touching interlude, Diana is completely trapped. Even when he confesses to removing the car battery to prevent Diana's escape, Chip almost never lets his mask slip, not fully. As a person he is an unbroken, placid mask of cheerful, loving control and overbearing intimacy; he just keeps smiling and soothsaying, but almost seems to get off on glibly admitting his machinations to Diana (as he previously did at times with the exec he hoped to impress, or Ciji on occasion) while wrapping them around a syrupy rationale. Almost like challenging her, or Lilimae or Ciji before her, to break from the pleasantries and cordial, loving tone and see what happens. The only time he changes tactics is when Diana almost calls out to a passing cop on the road - he pulls over and bursts into tears, telling a tall tale about the circumstances and claiming "I killed Ciji for us to be together!" The end shot of Diana makes me wonder if she's even dumber than I thought. "Keep her on the line for five minutes"? Jesus, sign of the times. Also: I haven't read all of this given it reflects on her entire run, but I'm fascinated Camille Paglia interviewed Donna Mills. God knows Paglia is a polarizing and thorny figure, but there's a lot to unpack here in a great read.

Josh Duhamel (Leo, AMC) plays the player character, a convict in space, in upcoming space horror video game The Callisto Protocol.

We know how.

Yeah, Jason is easily the least important of the neighborhood kids. I had heard Laura takes their boys to Richard, wherever he is, and leaves them with him when she dies. I'd hoped that would lead to a final series of scenes with Pleshette and McCashin and went looking for them (I haven't watched any actual episodes ahead) but it seems that's all actually just background information given after the fact unless I'm mistaken. I don't think he necessarily had to go, unlike Pleshette, but I'm not sure what he could've done next so I guess that's that. Plus, William Devane is coming on and I've seen plenty of William Devane in other shows and films I've watched to know how much of a powerhouse presence he is. That's gonna be a shift. I will say I don't think Shackelford has gotten enough credit for some really great performances this past season, especially when he begged Abby to be honest with him and talk things through before fully going off the wagon. I've already begun S5 and his Gary is even better now, sober and more increasingly assured in himself.

Episode 21 (The Burden of Proof): This is John Pleshette's last episode as a cast member - I didn't realize he left before the season finale, and I wasn't prepared. Richard evidently is already planning to split as the episode opens, cashing out his insurance policy for Laura, etc. (God knows what becomes of the restaurant.) I'm not sure what was the straw that broke the camel's back (and Richard's noted denial last time) between last episode and now. Was it Ciji's death? The realization of her mortality and how he treated the innocent young woman while trying to cling to a marriage in tatters? Or something else? Another great Pleshette moment: Richard sardonically quipping to baby Daniel, "you're gonna have to learn how to cook, you know." Interesting too that Laura is pleasant enough to Richard this week but seems to be on autopilot at the house; is she staying, is she still going? She also bluntly makes it clear she will not take over running Daniel when he floats the idea. Is she just back to checking out on him, continuing their studied apathy in the wake of Ciji's death? It's hard for me to say. Whatever reasons spurred this sudden shift, Richard takes to his final hours by finally making all the fixes to the house he always promised Laura he would, lurking in the background of other scenes in the cul-de-sac, tinkering away the minutes and seconds. His final interlude with Karen, giving her more helpful advice then watching her leave, is great. I also loved his last scene with Kenny, hilariously gonging that imbecile offscreen with the new garage door slamming down behind him. Richard's fixing everything up one last time while still letting his friends and neighbors plan for nights with him and his family that will never come, and it's very poignant to watch. Gary is still adamant: No Dallas crossovers! Okay then, nobody's calling Miss Ellie. He's sober and just plain surly now, until it's time for Gary and Val's dual returns to the scene of their alleged 'crimes' with the LAPD, and both JVA and the Shack promptly go hogwild when it's time for the suspect traffic jam at Ciji's and the exes are reunited, both screaming and hollering and throwing fits. Embarrassing. Am I supposed to want them back together like this? I don't! I feel for Val's pathos but I think it's a regression from who they have become, at least at this juncture, and I wonder when exactly in this process the writers decided that no, they would not be reuniting Gary and Val at the end of this saga after all, which is clearly the original trajectory for at least part of this storyline. I wonder when they broke that down: Before or after Season 4? Abby laughing at Val’s confession and her subsequent reaction to it is hysterical - "it’s so Val! It’s just the kind of thing she’d do!" Abby is right and she should say it, and props to the writers for seeing through that part of Valene. Even funnier that Abby then slips up and implicates Gary a bit more. That said, as much as I like Joanna Pettet's classy demeanor this investigation is a shítshow so far. Baines and Great Value Harvey Bullock are flailing here: Hold both Gary and Val, who clearly has no clue what she's saying and no real evidence she killed Ciji, when it's clear those two couldn’t premeditate their way through sneaking into the movies. I don’t see a clear theory the cops have settled on, and Mack was right to tell Baines so. (An interesting beat, BTW, when poor simp Val is booked: The booking officer is both gentle and firm with her as he takes her mugshot and it's a layered performance that feels very true to life.) With Ciji dead and Val simping hard for her drunken ex, Kenny and Ginger now are the apple of offscreen Jeff Munson's eye and pondering their equally offscreen future. Again: Wrap it up! Can no one come sit with Lilimae at the LAPD for hours, days?? At least she finally went home, just in time to finally unload on Chip. I saw it coming in Julie Harris' repeated performance several episodes ago and I was right - she just tick-tick-ticks away at the dinner table with them, then explodes and tells him to GTFO. And thank God! St. Julie really sends it. A great throwaway line by Karen as Chip passes by with Diana back at the house: "I can't stand that schlub." Karen and Mack have another great scene at their house running through all the suspects in the cul-de-sac while also bantering about dinner, cooking and Mack keeping in shape. I laughed at the cut from Mack protesting that he couldn't get Karen in to see Val and Karen giving him the eye to Karen right there with Val downtown, just in time to hear Val's hopeless and frankly pathetic testimony to Gary's lingering love for her because hey, why else might he have moved Ciji's body, Ciji who I clearly did not kill? Karen has more patience with this than I do. Please God, I prayed, move Val on soon, but they did something stronger - and more surprising for me personally - in the season finale (below). There's another wonderful, layered interlude for Abby late in this episode as she struggles to tell Olivia the truth about Gary's drinking. It's the kind of scene few other soap bitches in that era or later would often get with their children, and she's allowed to be vulnerable and open, then struggling, both during and after Olivia leaves and she loses her cool. Later, Abby works the phones, spinning the case to Miss Ellie. The question now, like so many questions with Abby this season, is does she choose to keep the Ewings out of it in order to respect Gary's (stupid) wishes, or in order to keep Gary inside and away from Valene - or both? Richard's final scenes with his family are beautiful and lovingly understated as always from John Pleshette, who only loses composure once when Jason Number Whatever's face is turned away from him. His work on the show is consistently gritty, grounded in unprecious and unfussy reality, plainspoken even when Richard is being either grandiose, viciously sarcastic and wounding, charming and sweet or simply broken. Even when this vaguely unsavory, balding careerist was the show's de facto antagonist early on, even at his darkest, when you thought he could kill, Pleshette never lost an inch of authenticity or consistency in what is a very flawed, very difficult but very layered and soulful struggling man - it's all behind the eyes. I will miss Richard terribly. I'm still wondering why he chooses to leave now specifically. His last moment with his family is Richard watching Laura with Daniel, giving his second son a little one-finger goodbye, and it's perfect. Richard was always a meticulous planner, often a control freak, and he ends his engagement with his wife and children on his terms just as he attempted to last season, only not with a gun and instead, as a thief in the night. I am already dying to see Richard again though I know we don’t for many years - I’m almost tempted to peek ahead. The picture left behind of Richard is him lost in half-shadow with his son, leaving what could've been a mystery to his children forever. The only other question I have is, was his emotional exit partly meant as a red herring on Ciji. Episode 22 (Willing Victims): Gary: I will never be not guilty. Kind of sums him up, doesn't it? Season finale time. This episode is written by S4 showrunner Peter Dunne and surprisingly directed by series creator David Jacobs, and Knots Blogging astutely points out that it - like the premiere, which was a kind of soft reset for the show at large from the first three seasons - begins with Val jogging into the future. And Val's reset again a bit as well this episode, dressed to the nines, looking amazing, and now tough as nails with Mack in some great scenes downtown, shrewd enough to ask if Gary's lawyer is working for him or Abby, planning to get through to Gary out of his ennui and spiraling mental state. This is a shift from the soppy, struggle Val of the last few episodes who has been preoccupied with Gary-Gary-Gary at the expense of all of her new, better self, and it is a portent of what's to come in this absolutely boffo episode. Jacobs also plays beautifully with the shots and editing, cross-cutting back and forth from Val’s run to the various homes in Seaview Circle, including Laura and Justin discovering Richard gone. Jacobs' style and choices are very assured throughout, particularly in the pair of swooning dissolve shots at the close of this episode which I will discuss later. LEAVE, CHIP! How is he still in this house?! It's day! Get out! But I digress. Over in the hoosegow Gary's still lost in himself, with Abby watching him watch the visitors' aisle beside them when she and their absolutely put-upon lawyer Mitch Casey come to visit yet again. A dreamy sort of series of angles and pans on this whole sequence give it a distanced touch c/o Jacobs. Back at the beach house, Abby (looking fabulous in a Billie Jean music video-esque ensemble) tells her attorneys that Gary will be "drunk in an hour" if he's released and will get himself convicted in his current state. She's probably right. But the question continues to linger: Is Abby doing all this because a) she knows Gary is going to self-destruct and either get himself convicted or drink himself to death without intervention, b) because she's trying to get access to the Ewing money or c) because committing will keep him from Val? The lazy answer would be the latter two options. I think it is ultimately, as it so often is with Abby, a bit of all of the above. She loves Gary in her way, on her terms, cares for him, suffers and cries for him, we've seen it in the last few eps - she wants him to survive and thrive, and believes she can do what is best for him (and herself, and his money) by keeping him from destroying himself by any means necessary. That that loving if conditional and flawed motive dovetails with the other more mercenary and cold ones is simply convenient. But I'm sure many people watching and maybe some of the writers thought Abby did this all for the green or all to keep him from Val. I don't. I could be wrong. Late in the episode, Olivia watches Abby plot to commit Gary, with Jacobs utilizing some amazing slow zooms and hide-&-seek angles from the beach house stairs, then Olivia's bedroom doorway. Upon learning that Gary will likely walk, Abby reacts and decides to fire Casey, all but guaranteeing she have Gary committed. She says it's about Gary and booze, but it's at least as much about Gary and Val, and Abby and control. She’s seen enough now to decide that if she can’t control him in the way he thinks he needs to be controlled and kept healthy, and keep him the way she wants to keep him, then she can’t let him out. This is not really very defensible, though I do think Abby's motives are nuanced as I've indicted above. It's Abby’s foulest move on the show yet by my reckoning, and Olivia heard it all. “Wouldn’t you like to understand?” a fearful Abby asks her daughter later, in another moment of unguarded candor as she fishes for how much the little girl knows. “I don’t have to know everything," Olivia replies enigmatically, but I'm pretty sure she does know. "I'm just a kid.” Back at the cul-de-sac, something else is in motion. "Gary Ewing kills people," Lilimae says, echoing Janet Baines' suggestion that Gary should be put away guilty or not. "He's killing you now, Valene!" She has a point. Val: Wanna know what I see? I see my mama who sooner or later, in her own way, taught me how to love. Lilimae: I should've taught you how to stop. Val goes on to defend her lasting love for Gary and her hope that it can be put back together after that exchange, but that's the part that stuck with me. Nonetheless, Val goes from strength to strength throughout this episode and has found her new power once again. I was not pleased with the turn back to sadsack simp for Val in the last few eps, though I understood it in terms of the character, but here she's all fire. More on that shortly. The Wards are off to Nashville, finally, to make bad country music for Jeff Munson. Finally. Their last scene was kind of sweet and touching, so I'll give them that. Goodbye forever! Laura’s creeping doubt as she talks to Ginger, then hears from the maitre'd at Daniel and realizes Richard is gone gone is great. "The pears, Mrs. Avery!" Her blowout with Karen, sure Richard killed Ciji, was also a long, long time coming: "Don't tell me who I'm talking about!" She finally gets to rail in public about all he's done to her, the hostage-taking, everything else and she's right to do it. No one understands Richard the way she does. Funny to hear Diana mention going to visit Uncle Joe in NYC. I did love the other cop's comment when Val hustles her way in to see Baines: "Somebody oughta buy the film rights on this." Another great knockdown dragout between Karen and Diana over Chip/Tony/whoever - it’s been too long since Karen whupped that ass. But there's other explosions, too: Laura at Daniel, trapped in the kitchen signing for produce orders, locked inside Richard’s dream, finally combusting and trashing the place before Jacobs' unbroken handheld camera shot. A brilliant sequence beautifully played by Constance McCashin, who as Laura allows herself to have a rare moment to crumple against the shelves not once but twice while tearing the place apart. Chip finally leaves the Ewing house, but his final moments with Lilimae are a stunning work of manipulation, as he waxes rhapsodic about their first meeting, her New Age beliefs and charms her one more time. His monologue is a lovely song that’s almost poetry in his dialogue, clearly rehearsed by an expert con but beautifully done, and heartbreakingly reacted to by Julie Harris. “Goodbye, butterfly.” Is Lilimae really not going to drop the dime on Chip after being so strong? Oh, Lilimae. The sight of her wearing that butterfly pin on her lapel, wrestling with the truth about Chip when the P.I. arrives and after, is a lot to take. At the station, Gary and Val finally come face to face, and despite my frustrations it feels earned because she’s so strong here, giving an absolute barn burner of a speech that redeems everything I've had issues with in the last couple eps, where she discards all her weepy homilies and platitudes from her past ride or die days for Gary and calls him what he is: A self-pitying manchild wallowing in his shame and doing absolutely nothing for Ciji. It’s enough to make you almost root for them together again (which I am 100% open to doing!) because Val is now, truly stronger than him. She probably always was but never allowed herself to comprehend it. This confrontation brings the end of last season and the start of this one full circle too, because ultimately so much of Gary’s spiral down in Season 4 goes back to losing Val the way he did, disgracing himself and their marriage. For her to stand there and tell him he’s 'not guilty' means the world. It's the definition of payoff for this couple, whatever comes next (and I know a little about that, but not much). We end on some gorgeous, silent cinematic dissolves from David Jacobs, into Abby in the sunset, Val in the dark in her living room, and Gary in his cell burning to sepia, suspended in the summer cliffhanger. The Abby/Val dissolve was so iconic I see it ended up in the Season 5 opening sequence and possibly more for years to come. This has been an incredible and transformative season for KL, as promised, and easily its best for me so far, unsurprisingly. I will be moving ahead very shortly indeed, though I may take a few days' break once we're a few in, and I don't know how long I can keep up this pace period or go episode by episode anymore, but we'll see. I thank you all for tolerating me. BTW: We're at the close of Season 4 and Michael Fairgate's voice has finally fully broken. Congratulations to all involved.

Episode 20 (The Fatal Blow): Abby: Gary, more than anything I want you home. Gary: Abby, more than anything I want a drink. Okay, so why on earth did Gary want to plead guilty? Does his self-loathing run that deep? He doesn't know for certain that he killed Ciji any more than Val does. Both of them are made for each other in some ways (and completely not in others), in that they have several fatal flaws that sometimes link together: To them as they are now, suffering is still always honorable in the face of injustice; even if it's undeserved, they somehow feel it's what they deserve or are meant to do. Anyway, the word is out about Ciji Dunne and Gary Ewing, and reporters are swarming the cul-de-sac (is its official name Seaview Circle? I'm not sure it's ever been mentioned onscreen thus far) for the second time in a year, with Lilimae peering out from the curtains at the kind of attention even she doesn’t want. There's other neat little uses of the ever-present and ever-versatile suburban arena stage that the show sits on here too, with Eric being accosted while putting the garbage out. The newly wealthy Val has really turned the house into a miniature manor at this point vs. the humble little home with donated furniture she and Gary first moved into, but now it's under siege. They did not fùck around on showing Gary in detox - Shackelford looks beyond awful. The seizures, the convulsive vomiting all feel too real. I’ve rarely seen anyone drying out on TV, especially network TV, look that bad or get that ugly, even years later. I wonder how many watching back then had; it feels almost like a gritty period documentary of the era. To the writers' at times unsung credit this season, they also do not play Abby like the conniving, disdainful executrix only out for herself here, looking to see if her ailing beau is mentally competent to sign papers or sign over stocks or whatever else, a la an Alexis Carrington or Amanda Woodward on Melrose Place (who had a heart but rarely let hers show in public even in the most extreme situations). When she sees the state Gary's in Abby is clearly shaken, horrified and beside herself. She manages to put on a bright face for him, though: “You’ll be better than ever," she promises. "I’m your partner, remember?” To Abby, future success is part of how she expresses her love. I am glad they addressed the Ewing of it all and brought up Dallas, but while I can believe Gary and his shame spiral personality would try to keep the family out of it I cannot believe that the Ewings wouldn't know about the developing case, which would make national news (though it's not clear here if they do know or don't), or that they wouldn't act independently if Gary and Abby failed to. We haven’t seen Knots Landing Motors in forever! (Well, we saw it very briefly last episode but still) I was surprised and thrilled to finally see Richard and Karen together again as a duo; it’s been too long. He's his old self with his old friend, but it disturbed me that Richard is still in denial about Laura, suggesting they’ll go away together any day now, unable to accept the reality of their finished marriage - just like he was last season, except then he had a gun. I’ll miss Richard and Karen together, and even the car lot whenever it goes; it already feels like a bit of a remembrance of a wistful past. There are a duo of shockingly unexpected and beautiful bonding moments with the Averys this week, even after they've long since hit their bottom. First and foremost there's the story about Richard's brother; John Pleshette's emotional yet underplayed monologue is very good and some of his very best work on the show. The camerawork and his performance, as well as Constance McCashin's teary reaction shots, are understated and incredibly touching. It's the last thing I expected from Richard and the show re: Richard at this point, but it keeps surprising me. Then there's the scene with Ciji’s Bible Belt mom, a surprise visitor at the dead girl's apartment, in which he passionately defends the young woman to her scornful mother. Richard is being wonderful here, and that's the fascinating thing about him and Pleshette's work on the character, here or with Karen or others, he’s such a complex chameleon, with so many facets and possibilities within himself and for love, yet keeps succumbing to his worst self. He should’ve let Laura go and not taken the easy way out on his therapy and rehab in Season 3; maybe then they’d have had a shot to reconnect for real. This episode is one of his shining hours, even if it may have been intended to cast more suspicion on a possibly penitent murderer Richard. Another moonlit confessional as Karen amusingly fishes for info on the case in bed with Mack - all the fear for Val is very effectively in Karen's eyes. There's more suburban noir in this episode too, sleekly directed by Larry Elikann throughout, as Val’s newly stately house is plunged into darkness with the reporters still endlessly chattering outside. It's the suburban manse as prison or nightmare dungeon of fear, with Val glittering in her still new finery and hairstyle but trapped inside. The twinned glamour and shadowy expressionism evoke not just the films of Douglas Sirk, a common touchstone for these sort of things, but also Nicholas Ray and his series of very dark suburban dramas, most specifically "Bigger Than Life" with James Mason (Google it). Anyway, it looks like it’s the Apollo Theater hook for Jeff Munson. He's not setting the world on fire, but he actually turned out to be a real classy guy with a charming streetwise candor. The look on Jon Cypher's face as Munson tells Val he’ll always be there for her is very open and really something. I think he also sheds a tear in his last, half-shadow closeup. A bit dull and old for her or not, Val is a bit of a goon to give Munson up for Gary. Midway through the show- “Next on Knots: Val is held in police custody!” Thanks again, SoapNet. Anyway: The card game with the women at Val's is neat, with them low-key processing Val’s losses alone in the kitchen. But events quickly escalate, just like SN promised, as Val tells Karen everything and then spills the beans to Mack. But will Val hire a lawyer? Will she take that lawyer to the LAPD with her? Of course not! She's Val, and in her and Gary's vision of their lives they are made to suffer and sacrifice. It's pure opera in the cul-de-sac's suburban arena again at the close of the episode as Val heads out to foolishly incriminate herself ("I killed Ciji." Please!) while Lilimae rightly pleads and begs for her to stop. It's absolutely heartbreaking work by Julie Harris, who ends up no less than clinging to the house's iron fence. Funnily enough, it's almost a parallel to the finale of Season 3 here. Then, Val sped out of the cul-de-sac to get away from Gary Ewing. Here, she's speeding towards attempting to doom herself, for Gary Ewing. Oy vey. What a relapse.

That sketch is hilarious. Another reason I enshrine the late '80s/early '90s cast.

Not Steph! @DRW50

Jesus! That's what I was thinking of.

I understand doing some sometimes, but I could've sworn GG had way more than that lol. Family Ties sounds egregious.