Knots Landing

[Forever8]

Coincidence or not? 

 

[Vee]

Episode 15 (To Have and to Hold):

I loved Diana's hat and scarf, etc. look at the beginning of this one, '80s fashion at its outre best. And I laughed at the whole bit with the boys' oversized suits: "They look like those guys who announce the Friday night fights," right down to Michael immediately launching into a cute WWF announcer riff. The Fairgate boys have a real sense of comfort and fun onscreen. I understood why Karen didn't invite Abby (Val) but I still thought it was a shame given Sid and the kidney transplant. I would've told Val to suck it up, personally. Seat Abby in the back! Their Vegas elopement complete with the eternal Dick Miller was cute enough - I would've liked to see a proper ceremony with the family, but let's face it, this week their big wedding was the B-plot.

Ciji and Laura have yet another lesbian-adjacent scene this episode. Here it strikes me that the age gap between them, with Laura as the more 'butch' type, is not predatory but more wistful in how McCashin plays it, perhaps for Laura's own lost youth and spontaneity, and how Lisa Hartman interacts with it. There's something fizzling between them and a connection that goes beyond the dialogue.

Anyway, as to the Gary and Abby of it all: The scene with Kenny (who still has about two emotions, but never mind) and Gary was great, with Gary driving up in his sleek sports car he could never have afforded to drive into the cul-de-sac a year ago and pleading with Kenny for sympathy and absolution. "I remembered who you really are," Kenny says, and lays it all out, basically reminding Gary that he pretty much got Sid killed, ran out on Val, and cutting to the core of his born [!@#$%^&*]-up/Ewing pathology. The original, natural canvas of the suburban cul-de-sac as a public arena for the ensemble cast plays well here once again as Val and Lilimae come outside to see Kenny still rightly haranguing Gary as they head to his car: "You're a weak, spoiled coward who never stands up for anyone or anything!" Kenny may have exactly two emotions and expressions to his name, but he's not entirely wrong about Gary or who Gary's always been, along with the darker, more cunning flipside he's yet to fully grasp or actualize (but that's another paragraph). There's another great beat here too, where Gary and Val, mostly out of each other's orbits since the parking lot confrontation early in the season, meet eyes as Kenny throws him out, Gary x-rayed through with his moment of pain and shame.

Things are getting darker for the ultimate early '80s power couple all over, both at home and work, as Gary continues to slowly tailspin in the grip of Abby's machinations. She has pulled him further and further over time towards embracing what Kenny calls "a real Ewing" within, but even she can't fully control the darker side I mentioned, the rage J.R. warned her and I think Val (or maybe one of his other relations) about more than once over several seasons and two different shows, along with the self-loathing and addiction/death drive. She's had him under her yoke which has kept him stable, but I don't know what a pitch-black, fully Ewing-ized Gary would look like. I'm not sure he is capable of that vs. simply spiraling out.

More to these points: Over at Munson's studio, Gary's dreams of being the first/next Dr. Luke are shattered by Munson pulling rank. On the bright side, Abby's masculine red suit and bolo tie business mogul drag is extremely on point! She's totally transformed herself from the divorced sister doing the books at her brother's used car lot, she's in her moment. Gary wants to be a creative, but it seems as though - if we're subscribing to the most nuanced and sympathetic read of Abby possible, which I'm not sure the writers wholly intend though they do write Abby with nuance and layers - that Abby just wants the money and empire-building this business can offer them. She doesn't think Gary's own (silly) musical aspirations towards this particular end are as important as their simply continuing to make money and consolidating more power in order to 'build bigger dreams,' like she told him a few episodes back. In this, Abby is what Tori Amos once called 'the glory of the '80s' incarnate. This win is not enough - they have Ciji and Munson now, and Abby wants Gary to stay out of their acquisitions' way and collect the percentage so they can keep climbing higher, together. Which brings us back to an existential riddle I see often in KL blogs online: Does Abby love Gary, does she love the power and promise in him, or both? I still think it's both, but it's obviously an extremely open question as we go. Knots Blogging posits that Abby will do anything to keep Gary isolated in their little bubble of success and power as well as love which she can control at this point in time, while advancing her and their aspirations. I suppose maybe that's true.

Imagine being music mogul Jeff Munson and picking up your phone to hear your secretary tell you cornpone AARP hustler Lilimae Clements is on the line. Would you take the call? What a guy. He's got it bad for Valene. He's a sweet enough transitional man for her, if a bit staid despite his streetwise charm. I do know who is coming for Val, and I've always enjoyed seeing him on '80s GH.

I was not expecting the Val Ewing uncensored book leak! Still a relevant plot point today c/o TMZ, Deuxmoi, Gawker, etc. There's a particularly nasty and clever angle here too, with Thornwell (Chip's new boss) turning out to be behind the leak as Val's prospective new agency, essentially running a protection racket scam on her to ensure her clientele. For some insane reason Chip then decides to start a burning hot rumor about Ciji and Gary - I'm not entirely sure why he did this, maybe to cover his tracks in case Ciji decides to carry the baby to term? There's a great, slow panning shot in the Chip/Lilimae stuff here across the entire Ewing kitchen set that I don't think we've ever seen like this before, and it's bigger than I realized given how they usually shoot it. Anyway, more public arena stuff plays out beautifully from this in the cul-de-sac as Gary returns to harangue Val and gets his ass beat by another of her new men, this time Munson himself, humiliating him in front of all their neighbors including young Michael who gleefully riffs on it like the WWF announcer, calling the score. I loved that whole sequence, including the tag with Gary and Val sharing looks of woe. It shows how far they've come from the pilot, and how far he's fallen down in everyone's eyes. 

Gary is desolate about how his business machinations have damaged their lives and pleads with Abby for transparency and honesty here, "at least with each other," to put right what once wrong as Quantum Leap always said. But Gary and his tiny shorts are denied solace once again, as Abby flakes on their planned day together to talk things out - she's off to buy a fuckin' cable franchise! Holy shít. The glory of the '80s. Is it any wonder that Gary's going for the booze in the final, stirring shots of the episode, with him on the balcony with a full glass as the camera pulls out to reveal the amazing vista he's bought and paid for, the beautiful home, and Gary lost and adrift before the sea?

Next up: The return of the great Bill Duke and a KL legendary moment I have heard a lot about.

Edited June 20, 2022 by Vee

[DRW50]

I do think Abby loved Gary. You can tell the difference in how Abby is with men she used and may have been fond of but didn't love, and how she was with Gary. It's just that Gary was so much to deal with, and was never as able to be honest about himself as Abby was about herself. 

[titan1978]

I always thought so too.  She was in love with him and used him to help her build a life that utilized her business acumen more than she had been allowed to before.  I also see it in how she behaves towards him after they are divorced- she clearly plays a fondness for him that is different than other pairings.

@Vee, these very detailed recaps are great.  I hope you are enjoying the show as much as it seems.  This thread is keeping me engaged here, as the soaps currently airing are not.

[Vee]

Abby definitely is trying to control and manipulate him here, though. I do agree she's in love with him, or I'd like to think so, but I think it is at least as much with the vision of the man she sees that Gary can be, with power and empire at his disposal as her ideal mate and where he can take her and vice versa, as with the man's she with now, if not moreso. And I think she'll do whatever she has to to him or anyone else to get him to where she believes he can and should be, in her mind. At least that's my take so far.

It is wild to me that they still get married after all this going down right now. I can't wait to see It.

If I didn't, I wouldn't be doing it! And same here. I try to keep these to less recap and more thoughts on the episodes though. No one needs me recapping 40 year old shows they've seen.

Edited June 21, 2022 by Vee

[titan1978]

Oh her manipulation gets much more direct as she moves more into building herself than building Gary up.  But that’s not where you are yet.  I wish Knots was streaming somewhere in full!

[Vee]

Episode 16 (A New Family):

Another Bill Duke-directed episode! Which means it's time for the Bill Duke sign:

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He'll bleed you! Real quiet! He'll carve his name into Chip Roberts! Anytime! (Apologies for the Predator references if someone doesn't know legendary character actor and director Bill Duke, but they will not be stopping any time he appears in the credits)

Thanks to the teaser, I knew this episode notably featured a classic KL moment I have heard @DRW50elude to several times before. But we'll get to that. First things first: Karen and Mack return from their Vegas elopement, and the kids' reaction is adorably sweet and enthusiastic. I liked Mack's bashful little speech to them a lot. Man, Michael has grown like a weed. Poor Eric is going through it though, feeling snubbed about the wedding (as he should be) and in the household, and it doesn't seem like this character beat is through yet - which I'm glad for. 

I'm not sure I'm up for a 'cinnamon coconut' cake, despite Lilimae's enthusiasm. I did love everyone taking turns giving their opinion on Mack's easy chair. And LOL at Lilimae enthusiastically spilling the tea about Gary and Ciji's alleged affair right in front of the Fairgate kids. She couldn't give a fùck!

There is a great synth musical cue I've never heard on the show before as we go to Gary Ewing's beach house of whiskey, exposed chrome and regret - pure '80s. The music even more delirious as Gary goes to the crystal and starts boozing even more - it's the kind of score this show has never had before, going from faux-Giorgio Moroder to something right out of a horror movie, and it's great.

Once again Laura has next to no interest in fūcking Richard, and is focused on time with Ciji. Ciji, meanwhile, seems too butch for Chip when she asserts herself, but together the women fit like a glove. For me that cryptic relationship is often a question of performance choices, rapport, and angles as well as in-camera stylization, like Duke's choice of a slanted two-shot of the women's heads together bookended by a vaguely sapphic modern sculpture at the other end of the room in Ciji's apartment. The visuals and Constance McCashin's soulfulness and quiet storm opposite Ciji's sort of raw spark are what make the bond and potential erotic connection for me much more than the actual dialogue in their scenes so far. It's the performances and the direction.

A lot of this same analysis carries over to of Ciji herself for me personally as a viewer - when you boil it down, what do we know about her, other than she wants to sing and be a star, then she wants to have a baby, and now she wants everyone to stop fighting over her and let her make more music and have her baby? Maybe there's more to come, I don't know, but to me Ciji is oddly like some of the pop idol characters from classic anime like Macross/Robotech: So much about her is conveyed through her musicality, stunning song numbers, pure force of personality and its effect on the characters around her, and Lisa Hartman's charisma, earnest spunk and feeling onscreen with her scene partners, more than anything else. I think Ciji is a incandescent mirror for other people's desires and drives, which she reflects in her own music and passion onstage as well as whenever she gets riled up or concerned about someone or something. Maybe that's why the character took off, more than anything about her being a particularly unique or nuanced character IMO (again, so far and who knows what's to come, but she ain't got long left) - the power of her performances, igniting the feelings of not only the characters but the audience who loved and invested in them.

Laura's terrible new haircut is not a substitute for more lesbian subtext, but God knows it's trying. That being said, there is actually plenty more subtext beginning to play out here as Laura continues to be viscerally uncomfortable being touched by Richard anymore - the placebo of the Daniels just aren't doing it for her anymore after being trapped in the dying/dead marriage again by her pregnancy, and maybe it's reflected even more for her judging by her quiet facial reaction when Ciji mentions being pregnant too. You have to suspect Laura could be thinking about a young career woman being trapped by a child she can't give up but that will weigh her down nonetheless, just as Daniel did for her. Richard calls her on it and the first real fusillade about Laura and Ciji that I can recall kicks off, as Richard finally loses his cool with his wife again. I don't know how many Jasons we're on by now, BTW, but I'm not sure I've seen this one before. They really went through 'em. 

This brings us to the scene of the episode, a series classic I have heard much about and a high camp tour de force, as Ted Shackelford goes Grape Ape, with Gary crashing the studio recording session and howling through the glass to Abby: "We're hurting people! We're ruining liiiiveeessss!!!" The Ewings and Val always warned us that the young Gary was a wild and uncontrollable drunk, something we saw glimpses of in the Season 1 finale arc as well as his mortifying zoo animal rampage during the Val cancer episode in Season 2. Now it seems Gary may in fact be the most apeshit drunk on the face of the earth, anywhere, as Shackelford takes it to 11 for no real reason other than because he can, but tbh I am Living For It. God bless, let's play every drunk scene like Gary's on PCP; why not? He's always been a ticking time bomb anyway.

The glorious Satanic red lighting in this sequence, straight out of a Dario Argento movie, is what I will credit again to the Bill Duke touch. Duke has an incredible command of lighting, shadow, color and angles all throughout this episode (including the early beach house scenes, with Gary at the window with the blinds and amidst the crystal decanters) and his prior ones. There was more lovely work with angles, lighting and background with the Averys in bed, as well as in the scene in Val's darkened living room, bathed in shadow, the stunning seascape on the balcony behind Gary and Abby the morning after his drunken binge, and in the blue twilight and slow pan in on Mack and Karen's first(?) night in their marital bed, or Eric and Karen in his room. It's almost a Douglas Sirkian touch in addition to the heavy Italian horror vibes, really, not only with the aforementioned stuff (crystal bottles, hot lights, etc) but Val turning the lights back off and plunging into the dark in her formerly sky blue/newly pink living room when she hears Gary's fallen off the wagon. The horror-tinged music keeps ramping up after that and getting more and more menacing as the drunken Gary returns to his darkened one-percent palatial fortress and attempts to descend the stairs with all the awkward struggling of an astronaut on the moon, shot from a low angle, while Abby drops down from the rafters and maze of staircases like a wraith, something out of German expressionism or film noir. It's pure style this week, and it's not lost on me that Bill Duke co-starred in Paul Schrader's style-drenched American Gigolo not long before this, a key influence on all things '80s, before later going on to direct shows as diverse as Knots, Dallas, Falcon Crest, Hill Street Blues and Miami Vice.

And now, another side note: Most people know Duke from his film/TV roles like Predator, Commando, Gigolo and a lot more (or his appearance in a classic Busta Rhymes video), but Duke was and is an accomplished filmmaker. He was also apparently one of the only Black TV directors in this era; he credited Larry Hagman and Jane Wyman with their kindness despite apparently facing a lot of racism on his sets. (Speaking of Falcon Crest, Ana Alicia has spoken highly of his work with her character.) Anyway, his skill with the craft here makes me want to watch or rewatch some of his films, like Deep Cover with Laurence Fishburne, which has been physically released by the Criterion Collection (and is streaming on Tubi, if you're curious).

I did crack up at Abby sort of twitching and jostling in her scene trying to stiffly bop along to Ciji's song about 'gamesters' - another banger, and clearly meant to thematically tie to Abby herself. I also laughed when Gary crashed to the floor in the studio and Abby just stood there watching. I have to wonder what she was thinking, other than perhaps about this affair mess with Ciji. Even more priceless: Chip's "holy shít!" smirk marveling at the whole thing.

Lilimae finally cottons on to Chip near the end - almost. Julie Harris gave an amazing performance though, while Sabatino continues to kill it as Chip the sociopath.

Another great, pure opera moment: The muted business meeting with Abby's lawyer as Gary sits there, frozen and wracked with turmoil, white-knuckling it, with the music drowning out the lawyer's dialogue as he links Abby and Gary even more irreparably together. Duke's camerawork and the music along with Shackelford's performance say more than any scripted lines.

Edited June 21, 2022 by Vee

[DRW50]

@VeeSuch detailed descriptions of the directorial choices and their impact on lighting and shadows - something I never take enough notice of. I'll have to try to skim through this episode. 

I think you are right about Ciji's appeal to viewers - in some ways she is a prototype Laura Palmer in how she appeals and repulses to many who can only see her the way they need to see her. 

The Gary scene is a real howler, and more of a fit of the Knots that could only exist in the early '80s (although Kevin Dobson has some overacting in the late '80s that rivals it...).

[Franko]

I don't have much to add except to say how brilliant these reviews are. Also, "Games" was not only sung by Lisa Hartman, but Cher. Lisa's version is best.

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[titan1978]

I love this comparison.

[Vee]

Yeah. I think there's similarities in terms of the exterior effect both characters have on the larger canvas, but Laura of course became much more fleshed out in the spinoff material and later works (the film, etc). Lynch/Frost began discussing the rough concept of the Twin Peaks storyline maybe 4-5 years later.

[Vee]

Episode 17 (The Morning After):

Gary, the world's angriest drunk, awakens in what must seem like the dreamlife for him: Naked or mostly naked in Ciji Dunne's bed, with her waiting on him with breakfast in bed while not wearing any pants. The weary soulfulness of Shackelford's performance plays off Hartman very well - it's wise to keep putting them together, and not just because of Gary's barely sublimated psycho-erotic obsession with her. "I get mean, Ciji," he warns her with pitiful helplessness, and it's absolutely true but never so plainspoken by him or anyone else on the show before, except perhaps J.R., who saw this coming from years off and told both of Gary's women so (though Val has obviously seen it all up close, both when they were young and again today).

Back at the homestead a la Vogue: "Marriage is the safest contract," Gary/Abby's lawyer advises her re: tying their financial dealings together, and I think I can now see the seed of how their seemingly improbable (atm, anyway) union will happen here, though I also think Abby at this point does love Gary and want the best for him - or at least, what Abby perceives to be 'the best' for her chosen power mate. Namely, material-financial symbiosis between them and measured control, in the hands of Abby to eventually give some to Gary, when she deems fit. At the same time though, she makes it clear to him in their verbal sparring match that she has no intention of either punishing him or saving him ('like Val'), which suggests a survival of the fittest approach applies to Abby's partner as well as anyone she cares about on that level.

For a counterpoint to this semi-charitable take, Tommy Krasker's brilliant KL essays posit that Season 4 lets Abby down by leaving her motives muddled and often coming off merely scheming and predatory for the sake of it this season. I don't know that I agree with that completely, or with some of the other measured but largely positive critiques of Season 4 on his blog, but I do think it's all a fascinating read (he seems to have done every season, and I'm only reading them in full when I wrap each one) even when I don't cotton with every opinion. I do think there's more to Abby's behavior here than just simple bitchiness. But I also think the writers aren't entirely sure of where they're going with her now - this all currently seems like setup for 'wicked Abby' to lose Gary after driving him to the bottom and taking over his life so Val can pick him back up again, which may have been the original plan for the storyline. But seeing as I know little but enough to know that's not going to happen, the pivot (which Krasker seems to suggest only happened late in the game when they realized they could play Val/Gary/Abby for many years) is a fascinating open question, and I'm dying to see how we get from the current catastrophe to Abby becoming Mrs. Gary Ewing, especially since many have said Abby's character is better defined in Season 5.

The Gary/Abby question is further complicated by scenes she shares later with Olivia and then Gary: Abby lies to Mack that Gary's come home while lying forlornly in their bed, then greets her daughter, whose nightmares (which Olivia's had since her debut in Season 2) have returned. Olivia is clearly struggling with the glam trappings of the beach house and another absent paternal figure, but there's another role reversal with Olivia and Abby later in the scene, like the one earlier this season where Olivia skewered her mother with a look after an argument with Gary and made Abby vulnerable and relatable as she played the clown for her kid - here, Olivia becomes almost the parent to the lonely Abby, telling her mother a bedtime story. Later, as Monsieur Gary's Wild Ride continues, Abby finds him passed out in his car outside their place. She then takes on the Val caretaker role she vowed she wouldn't, coaching him as he takes a beach run to clear his head and then pulled into another carefree, loving moment in the surf as they swear they'll get it right today, the kind of hopeful striver against the odds scenes he and Val used to have often when Gary would fùck up. I think Abby's role this year isn't quite as narrow as Krasker opines, though I do think there's definitely a drive towards painting her as the loser in a resurgent triangle they may have intended to close here originally.

Mack's quiet amusement re: Gary's drunken antics at Daniel cracked me up, while Val watching Ciji play out the drama of her younger self's past with him was a lovely grace note. This week marks the return of Ciji's absolutely incredible space age, Jetsons-style magenta outfit from early in the season, complete with arched fins as futuristic shoulder padding. I think I'll miss it most of all. Watching Ciji stand up to Chip here, not for the first time, makes me wonder how she fell for him in the first place (let alone when exactly). And Tony Fence! What a name. They couldn't be making it more obvious Ciji is gonna get got, and they've been heavily telegraphing it with various characters since Ginger weeks ago, which makes me wonder why the audience was really so shocked even in 1983.

Ciji and Laura make a matched set again this week while Chip fans the sapphic flames for Richard, who finally loses his cool and asks the immortal question: "Which one gets to be the man?" The women then tease Richard with the possibility while seeming to confirm for the audience in private that they are platonic, but I suppose you can read it many ways, and I know the actors have their own opinions. I do think McCashin and Hartman have great chemistry.

Why has Val not thrown Chip out yet? Come on. That is all.

Closing things out, I wanted to talk a bit more about the key triangle of the show, which the writers seem to be circling back to and, just as Krasker implies, seemingly intend to conclude soon at this juncture. But I think the seeds of more are hidden in the dialogue, whether they realized it at this time or not.

Val: When I look at Gary and see what he's become, I blame you. Whatever failings he may have had at least he was strong, he was healthy and he knew who he was --

Abby: And he left you.

Abby keeps circling back to this no matter what Val throws at her during their confrontation at the police station, and she's right, IMO. Gary went to Abby when stone cold sober, even if the rush of power and the excitement was, as Val opines, a kind of drug to him. Val says that Abby is incapable of feeling, but we've seen in this very episode with Olivia and Gary that she isn't, to the writers' credit. While I do think Abby's personal narrative and motives are a bit murky at times this season, she's really come into her own and they seem committed to keeping her fleshed out. I just don't know when they came to their conclusions about the triangle, or how long they originally intended it to run, or when they changed their minds.

More of a bow is put on this with the very touching and incisive scene with Mack and Val on the beach - I love seeing Mack interacting more with Karen's friends as his own man. He tells Val he thinks she's still in love with Gary and always will be. Krasker suggests this is the voice of the writers at the time, re-centering the then-planned narrative before they switched it up. I think it's very possible, but I also think Val's own dialogue suggests a possible third way. "He's a weakness," she says. "He is to me what alcohol is to him." No matter how rich, successful and independent Val has become, she's pulled down by her love for Gary. And then: "Might as well put my hair back in braids for all the changing I've done." I don't think this is a wholehearted commitment by the writers to the love of Gary and Val. And I'm curious who knew what, when and how.

Edited June 21, 2022 by Vee

[DRW50]

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This led me to Google to remind myself of when John Pleshette passed away. I was sure he had. Kind of thrown to realize he is still with us, but...good for him!

Edited June 22, 2022 by DRW50

[DRW50]

@Vee That blog always has such incisive takes breaking down a season's themes, similar to your strong takes. I don't agree with all of them (I am a big fan of Linda Fairgate, which they are decidedly not), but I still appreciate seeing such detailed analysis on a show that deserves it. 

Like you, I do think this season does a better job with  Abby than given credit for there. The main problem is when Abby is around to move the plot along, she loses some of her layers. Some of the better years for the character are when she is just a cog in a wheel but still able to keep her vulnerability and  her edge, all at once. 

[Faulkner]

Michele Lee turns 80 today.