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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 15981" data-attributes="member: 22">25 Dec 84: PAPER DOLLS: Episode 13 v. 27/Dec/84: KNOTS LANDING: Uncharted Territory v. 28/Dec/84: DALLAS: Odd Man Out v. 28/Dec/84: FALCON CREST: Suitable for FramingPAPER DOLLS bows out on Christmas Day with a never-ending fashion show and an offscreen plane crash. While there's not much in the way of closure, there is something pleasingly circular about reporter Mark Bailey, in his quest to find out more about Racine's elusive past, catching a flight to Dallas - the very place where Morgan Fairchild began her Soap Land journey as Jenna Wade.Speaking of Jenna, the path of her present incarnation diverges from that of Soap Land’s other missing mother, KNOTS LANDING’s Val, this week. Still being held captive by Naldo, Jenna is desperate to return home and there’s a tense scene where she frantically tries to phone Bobby, only for Naldo to intercept the call at the last minute. By contrast, Val is now so happily immersed in her new identity as Verna that when she hears a radio news report about her own disappearance, she shows not a flicker of recognition.Just as Val’s waitressing skills are proving a big hit with her new customers in Shula, Tennessee (she even has her own catchphrase: “okey dokey!”), her daughter Lucy’s less successful foray into the same profession draws to a close on DALLAS. “I see you finally got the hang of waitressing — after you quit,” quips boyfriend Eddie after she wakes him up with a cup of coffee. Val and Lucy’s respective attempts at domesticity also produce differing results. While Val scores herself a cute little kitchenette apartment on KNOTS — in terms of desirable Soap Land residences I could actually imagine living in, it’s up there with Gary and Abby’s Season 4 beach house and Nick Toscanni’s DYNASTY bachelor pad — Eddie makes it clear to Lucy that he doesn’t appreciate coming home from work to find her waiting for him in his apartment. Poor Lucy — after Gary making it clear last week that Val would never return to Dallas under any circumstances, not even to see her daughter, it seems like Lucy doesn’t belong anywhere in Soap Land anymore, not on KNOTS or at Southfork, nor even the Hot Biscuit or at Eddie’s place.Where KNOTS’ storytelling continues to sprawl in several directions at the same time, much of DALLAS’s present appeal comes from the way its various plot lines overlap and intersect. There’s both a strong emotional undercurrent and an irresistible comic book dumbness to this week’s ep, and it's that combination which feels just so quintessentially ... DALLAS. It’s a blast to see JR manipulating Bobby and Pam for the umpteenth time and having such a fun time doing it. No sooner has Pam arrived at Southfork to drop off Christopher on her way to San Serrano to look for Mark, for example, than he shows up with a drunken Bobby. "Bobby has vowed to search for Jenna until he finds her,” JR informs his clearly concerned ex-sister-in-law, “kind of like what you're doing for Mark Graison ... I just think it's so ironic — you're both searching for people you love.” "She [Pam] was here when I brought you home," he tells a hungover Bobby the following morning. "Hell, she was standing right over there, but she couldn't wait for Mama to take Christopher so she could go off and catch that plane. I used to think she really cared for you — until now. Sorry, bud.” He’s unable to suppress a smile as he turns away from his forlorn brother to exit the shot. And it’s just as pleasurable to watch Abby on KNOTS intercept Joshua's fan mail and realise, following the televised appeal he made to the missing Val in last week’s ep, that she has a potential star on her hands. Tickled pink, she urges Joshua to deliver another on-air sermon for his sister’s benefit. Running parallel to the wild goose chase JR has sent Pam on, this is another case of misdirection — Abby already knows Val’s whereabouts and that Joshua’s message will never reach her.The way the various plot strands slot together on DALLAS is immensely satisfying, even though viewed in isolation they can seem a little illogical. For example, there’s a scene where Jamie, currently working as a humble receptionist, decides that just because JR has been so nice to Bobby over Jenna’s disappearance, she won’t pursue her legal claim to a third of Ewing Oil — thereby sacrificing millions of dollars and the chance to restore her father’s reputation. (“My father always wanted to reconcile with Jock but he could never bring himself to do it,” she smiles dreamily.) Over on FALCON CREST, Melissa Agretti has exactly the opposite reaction when she learns that Lance has usurped her as Angela’s heir. (“It was my father’s dream that I be part of Falcon Crest!” she seethes.) The subsequent scene where she comes on like a film noir femme fatale and offers scuzzy Joel McCarthy $50,000 to discredit Lance in the eyes of his grandmother is great. It’s also a turning point equivalent to Abby’s passing comment at the beginning of this season's KNOTS that she wished Val’s babies would “just disappear”. In the same way that Abby could never have envisaged such a remark leading to the twins' abduction so Melissa doesn’t anticipate just how far Joel will go to frame Lance.DALLAS and FALCON CREST’s storylines featuring troublesome ex-husbands — Naldo Marchetta and Joel McCarthy — have each been treading water for some time. However, both reach unexpectedly violent climaxes this week, leading to near identical cliff-hangers. On DALLAS, Jenna is dragged to a Laredo hotel room by Naldo. On FALCON CREST, Lance is lured to a disused gas station by Joel. Jenna loses consciousness while Lance is tied up and robbed. At the end of their respective episodes, Jenna comes to and Lance is set free, only to each then find themselves in a compromising position while surrounded by armed police — Jenna is lying next to Naldo’s dead body with a gun in her hand and Lance is in possession of the car which has been used to push Angela's off a cliff.FALCON CREST aside, each of this week’s shows ends with a spouse contemplating their partner’s mortality. As well as Jenna finding her husband’s dead body on DALLAS, Mack MacKenzie finally learns about the bullet fragment lodged in his wife's spine on KNOTS. “I won’t let you die,” he vows. PAPER DOLLS, meanwhile, concludes with Grant Harper’s tearful announcement that the plane carrying his wife has crashed, with no sign of survivors. Given the melodramatic nature of the scene, the aeronautical theme and the fact that Grant is portrayed by Lloyd Bridges, it’s hard not to be reminded of Bridges’ performance as an increasingly befuddled air traffic controller in the spoof disaster movie AIRPLANE (“Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue!”) — which probably isn’t quite the note the producers of PAPER DOLLS were hoping their series would go out on.And this week’s Top 4 are …1 (4) FALCON CREST2 (2) DALLAS3 (1) KNOTS LANDING4 (-) PAPER DOLLS</blockquote>

Verification: Who played JR Ewing?