Y&R: Old Articles

[yrfan1983]

Hi, I made it back to Paley and watched one more ep. I wasn’t going to watch it because it’s titled “Victor rescues Cassie” and I assumed Cassie was Sharon’s daughter and the ep was from the 2000s, which I don’t care to see… but @YRfan23 pointed out to me that “Cassie” is actually Cassandra Hall and the ep is from April 1990, which I definitely want to see!

 

All of the Cassandra scenes were incredible! So disturbing to see her lying there like a corpse, eyes open… and then she twitches and rises like the undead. It was gothic in that early ‘80s YR style… Vanessa’s suicide, Crazy Edward…

 

Something bothers me, though…a big part of Cassandra’s trauma is that she was drugged so as to be paralyzed with the gun aimed at her. So why then, by year’s end, is she so willing to drug Brad in her Las Vegas wedding scheme?

Also, where is Brittany…?? Cassandra is left all alone in her house at the end. That seems cruel, Brittany should have been with her.

 

The rest of the ep… meh. Not a Leanna fan and not a Peter Bergman fan…. so compared to the Cassandra scenes, I thought the rest paled in comparison. Nice to see Ashley Nicole Milan… prob one of her last appearances.

 

Here’s the recap:

 

Leanna and Jack in her room – Leanna excited about the debut of her show. Jack concerned about the Nikki situation. He says until he and Nikki share a bed, they’re not “really married”. Jack is sleeping in the guest room but Victor is under the belief that Jack and Nikki are already sharing a bed. Leanna jokes that Jack, Victor and Nikki should all be guests on her upcoming debut show and cracks herself up.

 

Ashley brings in the sales figures for Brad to review. Ashley is mad about the debut of Leanna’s show. Ashley can’t believe how Leanna has Brad and John wrapped around her fingers. Ashley calls Leanna a flake and not a good representative for Jabot.

 

Adrian enters Cassandra’s house. He calls out to her, asking if she’s home… and smirks.

 

THEME

 

Jack complains if Victor would butt out, then Jack and Nikki would have a clear path to romance. Leanna clarifies that little Victoria also needs to accept Jack. Leanna reminds Jack how persuasive Jack has been so far in getting Nikki to fall in loe and marry him, so it should be no trouble for him to get into Nikki’s bed.

 

Ashley compliments Brad on his business instincts, and therefore can’t understand how he is so blind re: the Leanna show. John enters.

 

Adrian enters the living room and sees Cassandra “dead”, sprawled on the ground with a bloody head, eyes open. Adrian talks to himself, “I’ve committed the perfect crime twice, first George, now Cassandra”. Adrian called the police, sounding distraught, saying she committed suicide. Cop says they’ll send a car.  Adrian hangs up and laughs.

 

John notes the mood in the room is tense. Ashley says she’s not opposed to the idea of the show but opposed to Leanna as the host.

 

Adrian talking to himself “I did it, I pulled it off – it’s all mine. Two for the price of one.” He notes that George hired him to kill George, but George probably didn’t imagine that Adrian would kill Cassandra as well. Adrian puts drops in his eyes to look like he’s been crying. He rehearses what he will say when the cops come. Cassandra’s head stirs. Adrian can’t believe what he saw. Cassandra starts moaning and then moving. Adrian freaks out. Cassandra starts to rise. Adrian grabs the gun on the ground (holding it with a napkin to avoid fingerprints) and shoots her multiple times.

 

Jack enters the ranch. He asks Miguel if Miguel can be flexible in welcoming Jack to the household. Jack notes that his style is quite different from Victor’s – Jack is less tense, more friendly.

 

John notes that he was disappointed in Leanna when he first met her – she didn’t seem like someone who could think on her feet. But that Leanna had changed John’s mind by jumping up and singing a song. Ashley is dumbfounded.

 

Victor enters. Adrian puts on an act about Cassandra shooting herself. Salena and Nathan enter. Adrian says I fired both of you, what are you doing here? Carl enters, and then Paul. Adrian continues his act while everyone silently stares at him.

 

Ashley can’t understand how Leanna changed John’s mind by singing a song. John says Leanna showed charisma and presence. John notes doing Leanna’s show is only a commitment to a pilot, and not a full series. Ashley remains skeptical.

 

Little Victoria says hi to her “uncle Jack”. Jack attempts bonding with her over her homework.  Nikki enters.

 

Adrian continues ranting. Cassandra rises from behind him and lunges toward him like a zombie. Adrian freaks. Carl and Salena pull out their badges. Nathan pulls out the tape recorder, which has all of Adrian’s rantings. Paul starts punching Adrian, until Victor pulls him away. Salena reads Adrian his rights. Carl explained the gun was loaded with blanks. Everyone exits but Paul. Cassandra is traumatized.

 

Nikki asks Victoria to finish her homework upstairs. Nikki tells Jack he is obvious in his attempts to make inroads with the family.

 

Cassandra is dazed… surprised that Paul didn’t leave. She says she is numb – she can’t believe it’s finally over.

 

Jack tries to convince Nikki to make their marriage a real marriage. Nikki wonders why Jack asks her to marry her. Jack says it wasn’t Victor – he does really love her. He says just because Victor came over recently to try to stake his claim shouldn’t stop them from progressing with their marriage. Nikki looks torn.

 

Paul cleans the fake blood off Cassandra’s head. She flashes back to when she was sitting paralyzed as the dry ice melted and the gun was about to go off… and Victor rushing in and pulling her free seconds before the gun went off. Back in the present, Cassandra cries in Paul’s arms.

 

Nikki tells Jack she has to consider Victoria’s happiness. Victoria prays each night that Victor will come home so they can be a family again. Jack understands – he doesn’t want to be Victoria’s father – he’s fine being her friend or “Uncle Jack”. Nikki is touched. She finally agrees that they can consummate their marriage tonight and start kissing.

 

Cassandra can’t believe that if Victor came one second later, it would have been too late. She tells Paul he can’t imagine what she was going through waiting for the gun to go off. Cassandra says she doesn’t know what life holds for her, but that she owes her life to Paul. But that the relationship they once had is gone- too much pain and awful memories. She will always cherish the good times they shared. Paul kisses her and tells her “goodbye my beautiful Cassandra”. Paul leaves – Cassandra says to herself “goodbye my love” as Nadia’s theme plays.

 

END

[DRW50]

Thanks. One of my first Y&R memories is Cassandra and the hot ice gun so I appreciate more fleshing out. 

 

I wonder if Bell didn't see a man being drugged as being the same as a woman. Many don't...

[yrfan1983]

I think you’re right...this was the same year that Sheila drugged Scott

[YRfan23]

Thanks for the great recap as always!

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  I think this originally aired April 11, 1990!

I only made it past the first 3 segments when I watched this at Paley, and I hate to say I remember finding the scenes where Leanna cracks herself up to be really funny! haha.....I know you usually can't stand the scenes at her room, but that scene was just so OTT I had to laugh too, LOL
I think it's so stupid that John told Ashley about Leanna singing which caused him to changed his doubts about her...

man the all the Cassandra scenes sound so good!! that seems so violent how Adrian just kept shooting Cassandra when he saw a hint of life in her! We would never get those scenes now.... 

so was the flashback of Victor pulling Cassandra out of the way, something that happen the previous episode or did they just show that so people would know how Cassandra escaped?

[YRBB]

I adore Leanna in her room, always reading letters and working, and found the uniqueness, inventiveness, and often hilariousness of her scenes, to be true standouts, with a great actress at the center of it. It feels like something only Y&R could pull -who else would dare do something like this?

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[yrfan1983]

I think the viewers are seeing it for the first time. I think at the beginning, the viewer is supposed to think she’s dead like Adrian does.

[YRfan23]

Ok that makes sense! what would be the point of seeing Cassandra "dead" if we knew she was already rescued....

I just miss seeing EVERYONE on that show looking like they were busy at work! Ashley in the lab, Lauren and Jill in their offices.....Bill Bell took those traits very seriously!

[soapfan770]

Victor should have fallen in love with Cassandra and married her, leading to years of volatility for the Newman Family.

 

Ashley and Brad fall in Love and marry in 1991. Jack exposes the truth that Ashely isn’t an Abbott with Dina’s return in ‘91 but John reveals he knew all along and doesn’t care about biology and wants Ashley as his heir apparent.

 

Can you only imagine the fireworks as a result from all of that?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[yrfan1983]

Victor and Cassandra would have made an amazing power couple. Shame that Nina Arvesen chose to leave in ‘91

[Dr Neil Curtis]

Was it ever in Bill Bell plans to reveal Ashley’s paternity?

[kalbir]

 

Interesting that you brought up Alexis Carrington, because when I watched the 1984 episodes I got the impression Bill Bell was attempting to create his own Alexis in Dina. Think about it. Dina walks away from her husband and children and lives a jet set life, then remarries a wealthy man, eventually becomes widowed, and inherits a corporation.

[YRfan23]

Haha that's a good point....wasn't Dina's Intro the same as Alexis's too with the dressed in black/veil!

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[Y&R21395]

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[OzFrog]

Thanks to pannoni4 for his awesome G+ collection of old Y&R episodes. A few observations and questions I had from watching all of this:

 

* Intrigued to see that at the end of 1984, Lauren and Paul were already together and yet she was still trying to cause trouble for Traci. Also surprised to see the Shawn storyline kicking off already (I know the Lauren buried alive stuff was a big one for 1985).

 

* Seeing as we were so close to 1985 by this point, were we still far off from Brad appearing on the scene? And did Traci move seamlessly from Danny to Brad?

 

* How did the storyline with Tyrone/Amy/Jazz eventually wrap up?

 

* As has been observed by other posters here, I also couldn’t help but notice all the foreshadowing that was going on with Victor/Nikki/Ashley/Jack in the 26 December episode. When did it really start to heat up between these four?

 

* And also all the Brent Davis stuff!! Particularly when Jack told Ashley what he was told by Marc Mergeron about Dina’s affair with Brent. I couldn’t help but think as Ashley reacted to that “oh boy, wait until you find out what REALLY happened”. Speaking of which, when and how did Ashley actually find out that Brent was her real father?

[yrfan1983]

I recently read all the SOD synopses from this time period, so can answer some of these…

 

Brad doesn’t appear until summer ’85. The first half of ’85 is a long painful process of Traci accepting that Danny doesn’t love her and finally divorcing him.

 

Tyrone created a new persona of a white man (!) who worked for the mob boss Mr. Anthony (who we saw in one of the Dec ’84 eps). By summer ’85, Mr. Anthony was dead and the story was mainly over. In early ’86, Tyrone left for a job in Hawaii. Amy considered leaving with him but stayed to explore a relationship with Nathan. I think Jazz just faded off with no goodbye.

 

Things heat up in the quadrangle in spring ’85 when Victor has to rescue Ashley after she loses her memory (due to the Brent Davis revelation), and they fall in love. Nikki feels neglected and is drawn to Jack.

Trying to remember – I think Brent Davis himself told Ashley he was her father, and then Dina confirmed it.