I’m up to September 30, 1997.
Holly sees Abby in the hospital and it triggers memories of Roger raping her, just as she bumps into Roger in the hospital. She reminds him that her rape is something she will never forget, even though he keeps telling her they’re both meant to be together. Meanwhile, Abby is released from the hospital and goes home to Goshen for a week to be with her parents and recover. She returns to Springfield and Rick takes care of her, but she starts having nightmares and visions of her attacker. She feels broken and is having a hard time getting close to Rick.
Cassie continues to enjoy Josh, Billy and Reva and has turned on Alan/Annie, however Alan continues to blackmail her and use his power over her ability to see Tammy to keep her in line. She finds out Alan had Tammy removed from the foster parents she’s used to and she takes it very hard. She goes to the bar, gets drunk and starts stripping for men on the pool table. After having a bad fight with Dinah due to her insecurities and fears about getting Vanessa’s disease, Hart goes to that same bar and watches Cassie dance. He ends up removing her from the bar and gets her away from the ogling men she’s dancing on and takes her home. Next morning, Dinah comes over to apologize, but sees Cassie in Hart’s shirt having breakfast and she flips out thinking they slept together (they didn’t). Hart explains what happens and Dinah apologizes and they kiss, but the seed is planted. Later, Cassie prepares to move into the boarding house and Dinah sees Cassie with Hart and Peter yet again. There is a fantastic cat fight in the Company bathroom between Dinah and Cassie and I’m really enjoying this rivalry. Dinah continues to take her birth control, keeping that secret from Hart, who wants to make a baby. Dinah is still worried she’ll have Vanessa’s hereditary disease and doesn’t want to have a baby because of that.
Wow - Alan/Annie go to Reva/Josh and Annie tearfully tells them that HB passed away last night at Cross Creek. He died of a heart attack, doing what he loved - fly fishing. It’s very moving watching Josh cry and break down over the news. Billy joins Josh and Reva and they continue crying and remembering HB. Billy mentioned he ‘finally got a hold of Hamp and he’s doing a world tour with Kat’ (his daughter). I’m happy we finally have some reference to Hamp after all this time (even though by now, the actor has sadly died). Billy then goes to Vanessa and tells her about HB and they hug. Later, Ross brings HB’s will over and Josh reads it aloud. He gives Reva all his personal shares of Lewis Oil stock, so I guess this is how Reva maintains some sort of independent wealth going forward.
HB’s memorial was on September 11, which was really well done and had nice flashbacks. Billy, Bill, Reva, Vanessa, Marah and Josh all spoke. There was a fun flashback during Bill’s speech with Henry, HB and Bill as a child. Mindy surprised everyone by coming, and it’s not the actress I was familiar with in 1995 (Crampton), so must have been another actress from before then. Dylan also shows up and he brought Peter, which was finally nice to watch Vanessa see and hug him again. Bridget couldn’t come because she started classes (boo). Reva tries pairing Rusty up with Cassie (ha). I’m not really sure why Cassie is even there considering she’s brand new and just a secretary, but she and Dinah verbally spar a bit and that’s likely why. Trish arrives just as the memorial starts, who I’ve learned is HB’s daughter and Josh and Billy’s sister. She and Ross hug and they clearly have a past that he quickly jokes about with Blake, I’ll have to look that history up later. It ended with a lady named Barbara singing an interesting version of Amazing Grace, which honestly sounded a little pitchy to me, but it was effective nonetheless. Even Hart and Dylan separately had funny looks on their faces when she was singing haha.
Before HB’s memorial, Annie had to go back to the psych ward, and Jenna/Harley work to get inside so they can get more information on Reva’s sister (they’re still working the case for Reva). Jenna surprises Harley by making up a story that Harley is her little sister and needs medical attention and should stay in the ward. Harley is pissed about it, but has to go along with it, and now Harley is stuck in the ward with Annie. This is my first time enjoying Harley because she’s actually pretty funny playing a silly little crazy girl named ‘Caitlin’ who annoys Annie, but continues to get closer to her. She’s had to escape Alan seeing her a couple times, and Alan starts to warn Annie about Harley (whom Annie hasn’t met yet in person), because Reva has hired her to find out more about her sister. Phillip visits a couple times and Annie catches Phillip and Harley making out, so Phillip tries to pretend that crazy ‘Caitlin’ forced him into the kiss but Annie is starting to question it all. She eventually finds a dry cleaning receipt in Harley’s pocket that says Cooper, and then she secretly has Alan identify her and they realize it’s Harley. So, Annie starts to make her life hell all while still pretending not to know her and it’s really funny. Annie is finally scheduled to leave the ward, so that morning she secretly updates ‘Caitlin’s’ doctor’s orders to administer Harley medication, so as Annie walks out, the nurses give Harley a heavy drug. She resists but the meds start taking effect and she goes crazy. Phillip, Buzz and Jenna eventually storm the ward to save Harley.
The next morning, Phillip goes to Spaulding Mansion and rages at Annie about it, so I guess that friendship is sadly over. But Alan is secretly mad at Annie for doing something he wasn’t aware of and harming Harley. He rages at her, tells her he’s cutting his loses with her and kicks her out of the mansion. After he leaves, Reva and Blake knock Annie out with a chloroform handkerchief and they take her (wow!). Alan returns and asks the maid to pack up Annie’s stuff, just as Josh storms in and punches him. They later find the handkerchief Reva/Blake accidentally dropped outside the mansion. Blake exits this storyline after helping Reva tie up Annie. Reva drives a tied up Annie to Cross Creek. Then, Reva forces Annie to look at all the places she and Josh had sex, their names carved into the wooden mantel, her wedding album LOL. Reva then surprises Annie by revealing Fran, who tells Annie that Alan paid her to testify against her, which made her lose everything. Annie doesn’t believe it, but Alan and Josh finally show up. Alan confesses, Annie slaps him, vows never to get back with him and she runs off alone.
Buzz has gotten a few secret admirer-style notes, flowers and cookies and Nola is involved in helping him figure out who it is. Oh wow, a few days later, there’s a stalker watching Buzz and Jenna. He enters their home through the window and looks at pictures and eventually takes a picture of Buzz and Cooper, but we can’t see who it is. It’s pretty creepy and intriguing… Oh my gosh, it’s revealed to be Nola when she escapes and realizes she’s missing an earring and has a flashback to running from the fire escape. That totally seems out of character, so I’ll be interested in seeing what her motivation was. Now she’s alone and ripping up photos of Buzz and Jenna, what is happening haha. She seems like a very sad, lonely woman who just watches old romance movies and fantasizes about Buzz and her acting out those scenes. She then dreams of Buzz/Jenna getting married and stopping the wedding and running off with Buzz. This is all so random haha.
Vanessa gets tests done at the hospital to see if her condition is getting better or worse, and Rick tells her she’s in remission and everything is ok with her disease. However, she is pregnant! Wow, I wasn’t expecting that LOL. Ah, but then Rick and Michael tell them that if she keeps the baby, the risk of her disease coming back is too high. Vanessa pretends like it’s ok and she wants to have the baby, while Matt strongly disagrees because he doesn’t want to lose her all over again. They start to fight about this, but Vanessa finally agrees to terminate the pregnancy.
Drew is jealous of Dahlia and Sugar’s attention over her, so she’s starting to find ways to get rid of Dahlia altogether. She takes pictures of Dahlia and Sugar dancing during rehearsal and mails the pictures to Marcus who rages about it. Dahlia meets with Sugar about it, but he ends up kissing her, she slaps him and says she’s done and doesn’t want his contract anymore. Drew’s dad has taken notice of Dinah too and keeps trying to take her out, even though she keeps saying she’s engaged to Hart.
Michelle has another vision of Maureen with Ed this time, who is now played by the original actor, Robert Gentry (not Peter Simon, who I’m used to in the mid-90s). Michelle is going to Springfield U now and she’s still in love with Jesse. Jesse gets a job waiting tables at Company, but isn’t good at it. Michelle revisits finding her mother’s heart and mentions it to Jesse that she’s looking for someone from Point Lester near Jesse’s house with the last name of Diaz. He asks when her mother died and he starts to freak out, as if he knows who it may be, but he doesn’t tell her. Meta calls Michelle and asks her to come home because her father, Ed Bauer, has come back home (9/30). We see Michelle and Ed hug, and the actor again is Robert Gentry (not Peter Simon). In the next scene, Jesse is alone in the Company bathroom, looks in the mirror, opens his shirt where you can see a scar on his chest, and says he has Michelle’s mother’s heart and he can never tell her! I called this from day 1. Jesse is so hot btw.