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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 18922" data-attributes="member: 22">18/Dec/85: DYNASTY: The Roadhouse v. 19/Dec/85: THE COLBYS: A House Divided v. 19/Dec/85: KNOTS LANDING: All's Well v. 20/Dec/85: DALLAS: Curiosity Killed the Cat v. 20/Dec/85: FALCON CREST: False HopeEvents on DYNASTY and THE COLBYS now seem to be happening concurrently. While Jenna Wade laments that she “can’t go back in time and be with Bobby” on this week’s DALLAS, time travel’s no problem for Adam Carrington. He sticks around for the first seven minutes of THE COLBYS — long enough to get into an unusually sweaty (by Soap Land standards) fist fight with Jeff — before catching a flight back to the previous night’s DYNASTY, showing up two-thirds of the way through the episode for a meeting with Bart Fallmont, the would-be senator behind the pipeline injunction.That the explanation for everything that’s happened to Fallon during the past two years — her paralysis, her headaches, her hallucinations, her disappearance, her amnesia and the accusation of rape levelled at her brother — should turn out to be “a guilt fantasy your subconscious created to explain feelings you couldn’t accept, feelings your mind labelled incestuous" is both giddily insane and surprisingly satisfying.There’s an exchange between Jason and Sable as they mull over these latest developments that mirrors a moment between Gary and Abby during their confrontation about Empire Valley in last week’s KNOTS. Whereas Gary felt a moral obligation to stop whatever was happening at the site, even though he had done nothing to cause it, all Abby wanted was to take the money and run. “God, are we different,” realised Gary. This week, while Jason is worried for Fallon herself, Sable’s main concern is that Miles will lose out to his cousin: “Jeff wants Fallon back and the Carrington fortune that goes with her.” “My God, that girl’s walked through hell and all you can talk about is her money,” says Jason, regarding her with the same level of dismay that Gary did Abby.The titular scene in this week’s DYNASTY, where Alexis encounters the real Krystle in the Big Oaks Lodge, feels like an equivalent to the scene on KNOTS almost a year ago where Val served Abby coffee in the diner in Shula, Tennessee. As well as the novelty of seeing Abby and Alexis in less than salubrious surroundings (“Is this the new ‘in’ place?” asks Alexis sarcastically), we're also presented with the unusual sight of Abby and Krystle trying desperately to communicate with their arch enemy — Abby to ascertain when and if Val is planning to return to California, Krystle to convey that she is being held against her will — but without success. All Val can see is a stranger with real pretty eyes, while as far as Alexis is concerned, she has caught Krystle in flagrante with a man who claims to be her doctor. (“Psychiatrist, no doubt,” she says archly. Could this be a reference to Nick Toscanni?) If anyone is suffering from Verna-style delusions in this scene, it’s Joel Abrigore, who seems to believe that he and his hostage are out on a genuine date.There’s an equivalent double-identity scene on this week’s DALLAS where Pete Adams’ detective partner Sam Barker sees Grace at the Oil Baron’s with JR, Pam and Angelica and realises his temporary secretary is an imposter. Thus, Sam becomes the DALLAS equivalent of KNOTS LANDING’s Frank Elliot — an innocent bystander who stumbles onto something that neither he nor we fully understand and must be disposed of. When the news of his death in an automobile accident makes the morning paper, Angelica congratulates Grace on a job well done. “I don’t know why they say that auto-mechanics is a masculine hobby,” drawls Grace in her light Dutch accent. “I’ve always thought it was rather useful." A ruthlessly efficient Girl Friday who seems to enjoy her work, however murderous it becomes (although it’s hard to be certain as she is so coolly inscrutable), Grace is a character one might more typically expect to find on cartel-era FALCON CREST. On DALLAS, she and Angelica are a welcome astringent antidote to the increasingly cosy Ewings.“What a dump,” says Alexis, quoting Elizabeth Taylor in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf quoting Bette Davis in Beyond the Forest, upon entering the roadhouse. “A stupid little trick … from an old movie. It never works,” says Joel of Krystle’s attempt to alert Alexis and Dex to her plight by writing HELP on a matchbook. “I feel like I’ve died and gone to a science fiction movie,” says Mack on KNOTS when Gary shows him the futuristic control centre at Empire Valley. "I saw you on the four o’clock news, you looked as handsome as Robert Redford in The Candidate,” Emma tells aspiring senator Greg on FALCON CREST.Still coming to terms with her past and now caught between Jeff and Miles, Fallon describes herself as two people. She’s not the only one. Joel’s decision to furnish Krystle’s attic with a TV set backfires when she sees news footage of her imposter on Blake’s arm, causing her to lose control and smash the set. I’m not sure Soap Land gets more meta than this — a fictional character on a TV programme watching an even more fictional version of herself on a fictitious news programme, then destroying a representation of the medium on which they both appear. The meta-madness continues on FALCON CREST as Maggie’s novelised version of events in Falcon Crest is serialised in the New Globe. The amused reactions of everyone but Angela reflects the comedic tone of both the storyline and, increasingly, the series itself. Chase’s description of Andrea Chandler, the book’s villainess, as “a hoot” also mirrors the recent shift in the show’s depiction of Angela from sinister to comical.As one amnesia-related mystery is resolved on THE COLBYS, Maggie’s novel sparks another on FALCON CREST. If all the characters in her book are based on people she knows, does the heroine’s mystery lover mean that Maggie had an affair during her period of memory loss? Chase fears the worst and Maggie has no recollection of that period with which to assuage his anxieties.Marriages “in name only” are this week’s big trend. “It’s clear we’re married in name only,” Blake tells his fake wife on DYNASTY. “Right now you’ve got a marriage in name only," Jeff tells Miles on THE COLBYS. And while the opening scene on DALLAS reestablishes JR and Sue Ellen’s new-old arrangement — presenting a united front as they put their son to bed before returning to their separate bedrooms (or in JR’s case, the beds of Mandy Winger and Angelica Nero) — THE COLBYS ends with Jason refusing to sleep in the same room as Sable. "I don’t think I know you anymore and I don’t sleep with strangers,” he tells her.Although Blake and “Krystle’s" present estrangement feels like a pastiche of all of their previous marriage-in-crisis storylines, it is nonetheless played completely straight. In contrast to the overtly comedic tone on FALCON CREST, there is nothing in the acting, direction or score to signal whimsy or comedy to the audience. Quite the opposite, in fact. “Am I going to have to force you into remembering what we have together?” snarls Blake, grabbing Rita, pinning her to the bed and kissing her against her will. Then he stops himself. “Once before, just this way, I almost destroyed what we had,” he remembers. How utterly fascinating that it should be in this parodic storyline that Blake recalls something one assumed had been whitewashed from DYNASTY’s history — his rape of Krystle in Season 1. Meanwhile, Blake’s Hall of Mirrors counterpart, Joel Abrigore, tries to force himself on the real Krystle. She manages to fend him off — for the time being. “You can’t begin to know what it’s like to be loved by a man who knows women the way I do, but you will,” he promises her, sounding laughably absurd and genuinely threatening at the same time.Over on KNOTS, Abby also becomes a hostage of sorts when Gary takes control of the threat hanging over his family. After sending Olivia and Brian into hiding, he instructs Abby to join him at Empire Valley. (“They’d never think of looking for us there.”) When she refuses, he explains that she has no choice: “You’re coming with me if I have to tie you up and carry you. You got me into this mess and you are, by God, gonna be with me when it’s over with.” Thus, she must clamber into the shapeless overalls he has assigned her and allow him to smear mud over her immaculately made-up face. (Alexis isn’t the only soap diva slumming it this week.) When they infiltrate the underground site at Empire Valley, it feels like we’re back in Bionic territory. Specifically, we’re in one of those crossover episodes where THE SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN and THE BIONIC WOMAN join forces -- only in this episode, Steve and Jaime are really, really pissed off with each other. When Gary orders Abby to train a gun on a security guard, there’s a fleeting moment where it looks like she's considering using it on him (Gary) instead.The other main storyline on this week’s KNOTS is the continuing aftermath of Joshua's death. Whereas Jenna gratefully accepted Miss Ellie’s invitation to stay on at Southfork after Bobby died on DALLAS, the prospect of remaining under the same roof as Joshua’s family fills Cathy with dread. She tries to explain as much to Lilimae in a brilliantly awkward post-funeral scene in Val’s kitchen: “I thought it might be good for me to get away. There are a lot of memories in this house and they’re painful.” Belatedly, Jenna finds herself in a similar situation this week. “I’m stuck, Miss Ellie,” she admits. "I can’t go back in time and be with Bobby and I can’t seem to go forward.” While Ellie gently advises her to look to the future (“Don’t punish yourself for having new, different good times with someone else”), Lilimae is less willing to let her daughter-in-law move on with her life. “Cathy, I would dearly love for you to stay here ... I know Joshua would want us to be together. Family always came first with Joshua.” When Val and Karen take Cathy’s side, the scene erupts into a terrific four-way argument. “You stay out of this, Karen Mackenzie. You are not family!” barks Lilimae.While Cathy gratefully accepts Ben’s offer to stay at his beach house, Jack Ewing takes Jenna’s request to leave her alone to heart. “I’ve got to get away, alone,” he decides before taking off for some unknown destination. It's reassuring to know that such well-travelled guys as Ben and Jack have their priorities sorted. “Would you water my plants?” Ben asks Cathy on KNOTS. “I appreciate that you’re gonna come by and water the plants,” Jack tells Jamie on DALLAS.Just as Jack’s feelings for Jenna prompt him to leave town, thereby abandoning his new post at Ewing Oil, so Father Christopher’s feelings for Melissa on FALCON CREST cause him to take a leave of absence from the priesthood. But whereas Jack’s trip takes him offscreen and out of JR’s reach (much to Angelica’s frustration), Christopher ends up at the heart of his show as he moves into Falcon Crest itself. Meanwhile, the convalescing King Galen moves into Alexis's penthouse on DYNASTY, and Ray and Donna move in with the rest of the Ewings at Southfork after their own house is flooded due to a plumbing-related mishap. While a suspicious Dex strongly resents Galen’s presence, the Krebbses’ move is greeted with uncomplicated laughter from all concerned, even though it’s only a matter of months since Ray bitterly informed Donna that she belonged in “the big house” and he didn’t.Minor trend of the week: men of a certain age offended at the idea of taking financial help from their women. On THE COLBYS, Hutch Corrigan is annoyed when Constance deposits $200,000 in his bank account and insists she take it back. (It is this flurry of monetary activity that alerts Sable to their relationship.) Meanwhile on DALLAS, Clayton Farlow, having admitted to his lawyer that he is in serious financial trouble, is angered by the suggestion that he should turn to his wife for help. Interestingly, Miss Ellie’s hesitant, eager-to-please behaviour towards her clearly preoccupied husband this week is very similar to Donna Reed’s when she and Clayton first returned from their honeymoon. This suggests Reed’s and Barbara Bel Geddes’s instincts weren’t that far apart after all when it came to playing the new Mrs. Farlow.In contrast, when Steven Carrington defends his father against Bart Fallmont’s allegations of raping the land and poisoning the environment on this week’s DYNASTY, he could just as easily be arguing against his Season 1 self. "I think you sold this country out,” Al Corley’s Steven told Blake back then. "You didn't develop this country's resources when you had the chance to. No, you developed the Arabian fields instead because it was cheaper. You made billionaires out of the oil sheiks.” “My father’s a man who's done a hell of a lot to make this country grow, to create jobs, to supply necessary energy where there was none,” counters Jack Coleman’s Steven this week.While Bart’s bid for the senate on DYNASTY mirrors Greg Reardon’s political aspirations on FALCON CREST, his environmental objections to the Carrington/Colby pipeline parallel those of Bliss’s boyfriend, and Clean Earth campaigner, Sean McAllister on THE COLBYS. “You are your father’s daughter,” teases Sean when Bliss comes to Jason’s defence. “You’re your father’s son,” says Bart contemptuously when Steven comes to Blake's. Whereas Bart’s family background is well known (both his father and grandfather were senators), it emerges this week that Sean is the secret nephew of Zach Powers who harbours an as yet unexplained grievance against the Colbys.Gifts of expensive jewels and jewellery recur throughout the week. Blake tries to bridge the gap between himself and “Krystle" with a pair of diamond earrings. Rita’s tearful reaction ("No man’s ever loved me the way he does and it isn’t me he loves!”) is very funny. Meanwhile, JR presents Mandy with an equally glittering bracelet as compensation for Sue Ellen moving back to Southfork. After finding out he has spent the night with Angelica Nero, Mandy flushes it down the toilet. Elsewhere in the same episode, Pam opens a package sent for Bobby containing a large uncut emerald, “the first return on Bobby’s investment.” Phyllis explains how Matt Cantrell, an old friend of Bobby’s, stopped by Ewing Oil a year earlier and asked him to finance his emerald-hunting expedition. Overriding JR’s objections, Bobby agreed. Much like the pivotal altercation between Fallon and Adam on the night of her wedding to Jeff, none of the events Phyllis describes were depicted onscreen at the time.This week’s KNOTS culminates with one of those classic scenes where several different parties converge on the same location at the same time. Previous examples include Gary's ranch, the Belmar Hotel, and the Fisher residence. This time, the destination is the transmission tower adjacent to the Empire Valley complex, and those headed towards it are Gary and Abby, Greg, an anonymous hitman and the Mackenzies. This time, instead of anyone getting shot or driving off with a baby, Gary pulls the rug out from under the rest of the characters (and us) by blowing up Empire Valley. Even when you know it’s coming, it’s still a thrill. In a way, this is KNOTS’ belated equivalent of DYNASTY’s Moldavian massacre or Katherine running over Bobby on DALLAS — a moment, a possibility, a symbol of extreme grandeur, absolute happiness, ultimate power (or some combination thereof), shattered by an act of wanton violence and destruction. In each case, there’s a sense of a price being paid: this is what happens when you fly too close to the sun.And this week’s Top 5 are …1 (2) THE COLBYS2 (1) KNOTS LANDING3 (3) DYNASTY4 (5) DALLAS5 (4) FALCON CREST</blockquote>

Verification: Who played Sue Ellen in Dallas?