World Cup Tournament World Cup of 80s Soap Cliffhangers

[Angela Channing]

The poll is now open for you to choose which cliffhangers you would like to win each of the next 2 matches to go through to round 2.

You may vote for a winner of either match or for both matches but remember you are voting for your favourite cliffhanger, not your favourite episode or favourite soap opera.

Stating the reasons for your choices is encouraged as this makes the contest more interesting and may help others in making their decisions. However, this is entirely optional and you can just state your chosen winner of each match if you prefer.

Match 1

Dallas season 4 (Cliff finds a dead female body in the Southfork pool while JR looks down from the balcony from where it appeared she fell) vs Knots Landing season 14 (It’s just like old times as Abby returns to the cul-de-sac having bought Claudia’s house).

 

[Angela Channing]

Match 2

Dynasty season 7 (Alexis drives her car off the side of a bridge and the Carringtons are taken hostage by a gang lead by Mathew Blaisdel) vs Knots Landing season 8 (Abby buries Peter’s body on a site at Lotus Point that’s about to be concreted. Shortly afterwards Karen notices a crack in the concrete).

The poll will close at midday on Tuesday 3rd May 2022.

 

[Angela Channing]

My votes:

Match 1
The Dallas season 4 cliffhanger seemed relatively low key after the heights of the "Who Shot JR" climax of the previous season. I immediately thought it was Kristen face down in the pool as she was a bit like a Star Trek red shirt, re-introduced to proceedings to be a convenient victim. The only unknown was whether or not JR pushed her and I didn't for a minute think they would have JR being guilty of murder. So it was an interesting cliffhanger but it didn't quite hit the spot.

Over in Knots Landing it was nice to see Abby and Valene return and it made for a fitting conclusion to the series. The final scene was well written with a touch of humour and an appreciation of what the fans of the show wanted. The responses of the Ewings and the MacKenzies to Abby's return wasn't entirely realistic but that didn't matter, it worked in the context of the scene. Although not my favourite finale of a prime time soap it was still very good. My winner of match 1 is:

Knots Landing season 14

Match 2
I didn't really like the Dynasty cliffhanger. Tearful Alexis driving away from what looked very much like a studio set rather than a real location with the catering staff member uttering with corny cliched line "Hey lady, that's my car" as she sped off seemed a bit out of character for Alexis who was usually much stronger than that. The return of Mathew was an interesting twist but I felt Dynasty had moved on from his character so I didn't really have a lot of interest in him coming back for Krystle like she was his personal possession.

The Knots Landing cliffhanger was one of my favourites from that show. Abby in her designer outfit burying Peter was memorable and we all thought she got away with it only for Karen later to notice the crack in the playground surface and suggesting the ground would have to be re-concreted was as touch of brilliance which nicely set up the next phase of the storyline for the next season. My winner for match 2 is:

Knots Landing season 8

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Round 1 - Week 4




Match 1

Dallas has the thankless task of trying to follow up the previous year's Who Shot JR? And it takes a fairly unoriginal route of hitting many of the same notes but reversing the outcome ("various enemies threaten JR and one of them apparently carries out their threat" vs. "JR threatens various enemies and apparently carries out one of them"). I wasn't a Dallas viewer when this first aired and so first experienced it through repeats where there was never any doubt about the outcome. Indeed, I remember watching repeats of the following season years before this episode, and so the reveal of the actual victim was ingrained in my mind before I ever watched. There probably wouldn't have been any real doubt even if I'd watched it blind. All the same, I'm very fond of it. Dallas cliffhangers are best for me when they're simple and formulaic, and this one has everything I enjoy in a season finale, not least a bit of mystery and a lot of raised voices, raised emotions, frenetic music and dark threats. Just a general sense of excitement and event, really. When I was young, it seemed quite daring to me to end on the line "You bastard". Especially the way Ken Kercheval chewed the line up and spat it out.

Were we doing a battle of Series Finales, this Knots ending would be a thoroughly deserving winner. It was a wonderful way to bring the series to a close with a sense of coming full circle and coming home. But, like the RTE and Dallas Mini-Series endings, this doesn't fit the category of being a true cliffhanger in my mind.

Due to its enthusiastic fanbase, Dallas is going to win this round (and probably claim the whole World Cup with one of its cliffhangers). On principle I want to give Knots a loyalty vote, but in the interests of consistency, the winner is...


Dallas - Season "Four"







Match 2

Despite coming pretty much at the nadir of the entire series, this Dynasty episode manages to be a fun one. Yes, as @Angela Channing pointed out it looks el cheapo at times (the outdoors indoors studio business, the stock footage usage, which required the contrivance of Alexis stealing a battered old boat of a car in which she wouldn't be seen dead). But I quite enjoy the over the bridge cliffhanger, daft as it is, along with the cheese-fest of attempted mid century sensibilities with Alexis talking to herself about being lonelier with a man than she's ever been without as she wipes the glycerine tears strategically placed on her cheeks. I've always found Matthew's resurrection pretty naff, and I can't stand that flutey, pan-pipey music that accompanies the storyline. Plus there are those feeble, clunky attempts at mystery and foreshadowing with the "M" that could be a "W" (and if you turn it sideways, it could be an "E". Or a "3") which make absolutely no sense.

This is one of those Knots cliffhangers that didn't get to resonate with me as much as it should, since it was one of those occasions when the BBC was half-heartedly attempting to catch up by running seasons without a break, so it wasn't clear to me that this was the last episode until the revamped Ninth Season opening titles came along a week or two later. But it is a great episode. As with previous Knots cliffhangers, the big shocking death happens in an earlier episode with Peter's impaled bloody body being discovered, along with his killer, apparently (that it could be either of the two depending how one reads it being a stroke of genius), and this final episode focusses on character-based responses to the situation. Working in the black comedy of Abby in her impractical finery trying to hide and then dispose of the body, à la The Trouble With Harry gives the episode a fun USP. And that final moment, with oblivious Karen's innocent question that carries with it a deeper implication for Abby is one of those that I really wish I'd experienced with a few months for the situation and its potential outcomes to bounce around in my head. Being Knots, we get to have our cake and eat it with some fun and shocking situations that are presented in the classiest way possible. It's a wonderful cliffhanger, probably greatly underestimated in the grand scheme of things.

In case you hadn't guessed, my vote goes to...


Knots Landing - Season Eight

 

[Michelle Stevens]

Week 4-

Match 1- Dallas Season 4
Match 2- Knots Landing Season 8

 

[Monzo]

Match 1: Dallas season 4

Match 2: Knots Landing season 8

 

[Willie Oleson]

Match 1.
The Knots finale isn't very coy about playing the nostalgia card, and Abby's return has a whiff of comedy (e.g. the way Val steers her husband back into the house).
Karen looks as if she's thinking "should I be worried or not", kinda like she's not sure if what happened in those 13 seasons was real or just a dream - especially since Abby originally arrived in Knots Landing in an equally cheerful fashion.
To watch Abby moving back into one of the cul-de-sac houses has a bizarre sense of "not being able to move on" which exposes the soap opera for all the fakeness that it is, but in a fascinating way.
Seeing how it all comes full circle also gives it a sense of off-screen continuation, which was confirmed two decades later in Next Generation DALLAS (although they didn't say that Abby was involved, but who knows?)

Dallas has a traditional prime time soap cliffhanger and I guess that makes it the winner by default. But I'm not in the mood for default.
Since I didn't watch it when it aired for the first time I find it impossible to say if I could have guessed who the dead person was, or at least wasn't.
Therefore I have to give it the benefit of the doubt that it really worked as a "who died?" mystery.
But it's JR's non-reaction that undermines the situation, something that could easily have been avoided if he had shown up on the balcony being obviously drunk (he was holding a drink anyway).
It doesn't make sense to see him react so indifferently to Cliff's horrific discovery (if he hadn't dunnit) or to his crime being exposed, by Cliff Barnes of all people (in case he dunnit).

Match 2.
Knots' season 8 cliffhanger puts a last minute twist on brilliantly mind-boggling murder mystery and that alone informs us that the story isn't over yet. Definitely something to look forward to.
I've re-watched most of Dynasty's season 7 finale episode and even though it still has a lot of that mushy stuff in it that makes this Dynasty season so be-hated I was also surprised to see how incredibly soapy it is.
Clay and Leslie doing a great goodbye scene, Ben sneaking out as unnoticed as he sneaked in (before he removed hid disguise), Blake is upset about Steven's lifestyle but this time from a different angle, Adam gets adopted, something I used to hate but this time I realized that they'd never get rid of him no matter what he'd do.
He vows to never let them down again - well, tell that to Alexis S9 who's going very down from the Carlton balcony.
The wedding is lovely and it makes Dominique accept Brady's proposal and everything is just too lovely to be true.
Alexis' reaction to Dex' "lonely lady" speech is so melodramatic it's kinda bad but at the same time it's interesting that Dynasty would question the image of the unbeatable, greed-is-good, big shoulder-padded power bitch.
Then she crashes her someone's vehicle of sorts off the bridge and into the river, 9 days before Falcon Crest's Melissa plunges her car into the bay.
Such a sad end for the Lonely Lady, or is she not lonely after all?
The invasion of mansion by the jungle goons has more than a whiff of Moldavia's wedding disaster but it's so great that things are not so lovely anymore.
Blake and Krystle, who are upstairs and unaware of what's going on in the iconic hallway, are alarmed by some noise but instead of seeing for themselves what's happening, Blake phones Gerard to inquire about the situation - if there is one.
His line "the line is dead" almost suggests that they won't find out what that noise was all about, because nobody is going to tell them, and trying to locate the staircase is not an option.
A character who had vanished into thin air 6 years ago suddenly pops up in the library. He's coming back for what belongs to him, what Blake stole from him.
It's not his life, it's Krystle. How shocking and bewildering!

It's probably not intentional but I like how the wall with painted flowers and trees sort of coincides with the jungle flute music.

Everything about this cliffhanger screams that this is definitely NOT how it should end. Little did I know that the worst was yet to come with an even more exciting cliffhanger that would put an end to our weekly Denver saga.

Match 1: Knots Landing
Match 2: Dynasty

 

[Victoriafan3]

1. Dallas

2. I watched this episode of Dynasty at the time and thought how ridiculous it was for all the reasons mentioned and then some. A lot of viewers at the time wouldn’t even know who Matthew was, as he was only in the not as watched season one.
I never watched Knots Landing but this already looks better than that Dynasty finale. So my vote goes to

Knots Landing season 8

 

[colbyco]

Match 1: Knots Landing
The best end of the big 4. So great Val, Abby and the gang are back in their cul-de-sac. Just great!

Match 2: Dynasty
Abby looks great in her KL cliffhanger -but without Dynasty´s fashion influence she probably wouldn´t have looked so good.
Seeing Alexis stealing a car and having an accident + a little massacre in the Carrington mansion lead by an old ex lover of Krystle is great.
Writing this I think about the possibility Adam beeing the one who "invited" Matthew after Adam got adopted. "Take Krystle with you but kill
the family ...."

 

[Seaviewer]

Were we doing a battle of Series Finales, this Knots ending would be a thoroughly deserving winner. It was a wonderful way to bring the series to a close with a sense of coming full circle and coming home. But, like the RTE and Dallas Mini-Series endings, this doesn't fit the category of being a true cliffhanger in my mind.

Those are also my thoughts. The "body in the pool" does suffer from immediate comparisons with "who shot jr; but it has its own drama so. reluctantly voting against Knots, Match 1: Dallas season 4.
On the other hand, underrated it may be, but the line "what do you think, Abby?" still resonates in my memory so there's no question that it's Match 2: Knots Landing season 8.

 

[Jock Og]

Match 1: DALLAS season 4.
The KL episode was one of the best, as a series conclusion. However the lifeless body in the pool and Cliff stating the worst possible outcome, with J.R. looking down at him receives my vote.

Match 2: KNOTS LANDING season 8.
The Seaview Circle saga nudges past the lonely lady and the old flame, from the area home to part of the Rocky Mountains. Abby you and that crack.

 

[James from London]

Dallas season 4 (Cliff finds a dead female body in the Southfork pool while JR looks down from the balcony from where it appeared she fell) vs Knots Landing season 14 (It’s just like old times as Abby returns to the cul-de-sac having bought Claudia’s house).

This episode of DALLAS was the first I ever recorded - onto ye olde audio cassette, and I played it over and over throughout the summer. I think this is when DALLAS started to feel like my thing, as opposed to everybody’s thing. It was still big at this point, but nowhere near the phenomenon it had been a year earlier with all the "Who Shot JR?" hoo-ha. As far as I could see, no-one cared about "Who's the dead woman in the pool?" as much as I did. I loved this whole episode — it has that thrilling this-whole-show-is-teetering-on-the-edge-of-a-cliff vibe that all the best season finales do — and I thought the switch from “Who tried to kill JR?” to “Who did JR kill?” was terrifically clever. I was a sufficiently unsophisticated viewer in those days for it not to occur me that neither Pam nor Sue Ellen could possibly die because they were in the opening credits. (It wasn’t until Ray Krebbs didn’t perish in the Southfork fire two years later that the penny finally began to drop.) But even if they did survive, Sue Ellen's banishment from Southfork and Pam earning JR’s wrath by abducting John Ross each felt like huge point-of-no-return moments. It was all just too exciting.

Fast forward to the KNOTS series finale. Of course, none of the ‘80s super-soaps were constructed with an endpoint in mind. Instead, they were fuelled by endless hate, endless passion, eternal feuding and unfulfilled ambitions. Wrapping things up neatly would necessitate a blunting of those passions; a loss of momentum and urgency. KNOTS’ finale cleverly circumvents that. Just when it looks like Gary’n’Val’n’Karen’n’Mack are gonna live suburbanly ever after, along comes Abby to turn the whole thing upside down. Gary’s gobsmacked reaction to her return is all it takes to turns the clock back thirteen years, but before you can fully formulate the realisation that "oh my god, the whole crazy saga's gonna start all over again!" the theme music's playing and the whole crazy saga is suddenly over. That’s the way to end a soap opera - by not ending it. (Needless to say, the subsequent discovery in the reunion that Gary’n’Val’n’Karen’n’Mack has managed to co-exist peacefully with Abby without anyone’s life or marriage getting ruined was somewhat deflating. But, as Willie points out, this was at least partially rectified by New DALLAS letting us know that Gary and Val were still capable of screwing up both their own and each other’s lives).

DALLAS!

Dynasty season 7 (Alexis drives her car off the side of a bridge and the Carringtons are taken hostage by a gang lead by Mathew Blaisdel) vs Knots Landing season 8 (Abby buries Peter’s body on a site at Lotus Point that’s about to be concreted. Shortly afterwards Karen notices a crack in the concrete).

This season finale of DYNASTY was unusually conflict-free. Adam and Dana’s wedding was Soap Land’s most harmonious since Pam Ewing and Mark Graison’s the year before, with all the Carringtons, including Alexis, acting like one big happy family. It’s only in the last three minutes of the episode that things go suddenly nuts. While Alexis’s car plunges off a bridge and into a river, a bunch of men speaking in a foreign language, each with a strange insignia on his hand, infiltrate the mansion and proceed to take the Carringtons hostage. Oh and Matthew Blaisdel makes a shock return from the dead in the final few seconds — just as Bobby Ewing made a shock return from the dead in the final seconds of the DALLAS season finale almost exactly a year earlier.

Like the end of KNOTS Season 4, KNOTS’ Season 8 finale revolves around a murder mystery, but with an even more subversive twist. While S4’s cliffhanger ignored the question of who done it to focus on the psychology of the prime suspect, S8 doesn’t even bother letting the audience know that there is a whodunnit. Instead, we assume, along with Abby, that Olivia is responsible for Peter's death — and the finale episode is all about Abby going to extraordinary lengths to conceal that fact (even though it isn't a fact — but we won’t know that until next season). Her cover-up proves successful — until the very end of the episode when all her efforts start to unravel and it looks like she’s back to where she was at the end of the previous episode. It’s the very futility of her heroic efforts that makes this such an excruciatingly satisfying (and unusual) cliffhanger.

KNOTS!

 

[Willie Oleson]

This season finale of DYNASTY was unusually conflict-free. Adam and Dana’s wedding was Soap Land’s most harmonious since Pam Ewing and Mark Graison’s the year before, with all the Carringtons, including Alexis, acting like one big happy family. It’s only in the last three minutes of the episode that things go suddenly nuts

I think what makes this cliffhanger so great is that it could almost have been a happy ending for the Carringtons, including Alexis' comeuppance when it was pointed out that for all her villainous and narcissistic shenanigans she ended up "saaaaad and alone" (to quote W&G's Beverley Leslie), kinda forshadowing JR's fate at the very end of DALLAS.
A happy ending? Oh no they won't, as those last minutes remind the Carringtons that they are still very much in SoapLand.
But because the episode - heck, the entire season - felt significant weaker than Knots' season 8, the Dynasty cliffhanger seemed more satisfying by comparison.
That's a compliment and at the same it isn't.

until the very end of the episode when all her efforts start to unravel and it looks like she’s back to where she was at the end of the previous episode. It’s the very futility of her heroic efforts that makes this such an excruciatingly satisfying (and unusual) cliffhanger

Isn't it almost the equivalent of a secret soap letter or document that refuses to burn in the fire?
Of course it's all very high-stakes but considering how it all came about one could also view as a dark comedy twist.
But for a soap that was consistenly good, at least for the most part, I think that their season finale cliffhangers were less of a selling point than in the other soaps.
Dare I say that the more traditional cliffhangers (e.g. Ciji's dead body) could have cheapened the effect of Knots' impeccable narrative if they were used in the season finale episode?
After all, Sid's death in the hospital was far more gut-wrenching than the accident in the cliffhanger of the previous season. Like PEYTON PLACE, it was a soap that excelled in character-based reactions or aftermath rather than whatever spectacle or disaster. Joshua and Lilimae's last scene being one of the best examples of that (imo).

I loved this whole episode — it has that thrilling this-whole-show-is-teetering-on-the-edge-of-a-cliff vibe that all the best season finales do

I mentioned JR's non-reaction and until now I had never realized how much of that resembles JR's ambigious reaction at the end of mini-series/season 1, which also happened to be a night scene.
"Are you sorry that she lost the baby?" could be replaced with the question "Are you sorry that someone drowned in your swimming pool"? In both situations, JR's (non) reaction doesn't give away anything. And perhaps therein lies the true cliffhanger: how seriously fuk'd up is Jock Ewing's firstborn?

This week's cliffhangers are all great for different reasons, as described by various tellytalkers, and it only goes to show how difficult these battles matches are.

 

[Barbara Fan]

Match 1
Dallas S4

Match 2
Pass

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

Match 1 - Dallas season 4: I love Knots Landing and I love how the show was wrapped up but this is another one of those endings that could fall into the "conclusion vs cliffhanger" debate that we've discussed previously. It felt like that while life in the cul-de-sac would carry on offscreen, there was a full stop there to signal the end for viewers. Dallas season 4 is something of a simplified and pared back cliffhanger but it has the elements that I feel a cliffhanger should have. There was the suspense of whose body was in the pool (I know it was probably pretty obvious that it wouldn't be a main cast member) and the intrigue of how it would play out the following for JR. Also, I've always loved Cliff's "She's dead. You bastard!" final line.

Match 2 - Knots Landing season 8: Peter's death is one of my earliest (albeit vague) Knots memories. Abby dragging his body off to that side room then throwing coffee (I think) over the blood and getting caught trying to clean it with her designer jacket. Then there was some issue with music stalling in the restaurant and someone having to go into said side room to restart it, potentially finding his body (again this is all a very vague memory). Anyway, the point is, this stuck with me over the years and while I'm not super familiar with season 8 (yet), I do love these scenes and the subsequent settling crack cliffhanger. It's so simple yet so full of potential doom and drama. Dynasty's season 7 cliffhanger is one of it's weaker one's in my opinion. We all know they're not going to kill off Alexis, so there's no real drama to her going off the bridge. Meanwhile, as other's have pointed out, the impact of Matthew returning was probably lost on a lot of viewers who only came to the show later, so it didn't quite have the wow factor that other returns from the dead may have had.

 

[James from London]

Isn't it almost the equivalent of a secret soap letter or document that refuses to burn in the fire?

Yes ... if you'd spent an entire episode trying to burn the letter, thinking you had and then finding out at the last minute that you hadn't. (And if the letter was really big and heavy.)

Of course it's all very high-stakes but considering how it all came about one could also view as a dark comedy twist.

Oh yeah, it's definitely funny putting Abby in such a physical situation. Imagine Alexis or Sue Ellen dragging a body around for a whole ep! (I find it easier to picture Angela or Melissa doing the same thing; I think that's because FC already had a more random "anything goes" approach to its storytelling so it wouldn't have had quite the same impact.)

I think that their season finale cliffhangers were less of a selling point than in the other soaps.
Dare I say that the more traditional cliffhangers (e.g. Ciji's dead body) could have cheapened the effect of Knots' impeccable narrative if they were used in the season finale episode?

Yes. I think KNOTS was less shackled to the cliffhanger convention. It had the confidence not to put a cast member in physical jeopardy at the end of a season if the long term storytelling didn't warrant it.

I mentioned JR's non-reaction and until now I had never realized how much of that resembles JR's ambigious reaction at the end of mini-series/season 1, which also happened to be a night scene.
"Are you sorry that she lost the baby?" could be replaced with the question "Are you sorry that someone drowned in your swimming pool"? In both situations, JR's (non) reaction doesn't give away anything. And perhaps therein lies the true cliffhanger: how seriously fuk'd up is Jock Ewing's firstborn?

Ooh yeah! It's probably an even more ambiguous situation. We know JR didn't push Pam out of the hayloft, but we can never be 100% certain he didn't push Kristin.

 

[Angela Channing]

I mentioned JR's non-reaction and until now I had never realized how much of that resembles JR's ambigious reaction at the end of mini-series/season 1, which also happened to be a night scene.
"Are you sorry that she lost the baby?" could be replaced with the question "Are you sorry that someone drowned in your swimming pool"? In both situations, JR's (non) reaction doesn't give away anything. And perhaps therein lies the true cliffhanger: how seriously fuk'd up is Jock Ewing's firstborn?

Wow, this is such an interesting comparison between the 2 season endings which I hadn't previously considered.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Abby dragging his body off to that side room then throwing coffee (I think) over the blood

One of those super-satisfying Knots moments that made me cheer, literally.

We all know they're not going to kill off Alexis

I also didn't think they were going to kill off Chase Gioberti (boo hiss!) but, yeah, in the case of Alexis it seemed very unlikely.
Nevertheless, it's a tricky situation to escape from so at least there's the question who/how/what is going to save her.

so there's no real drama to her going off the bridge

But at least it's Laura-pushes-Nellie-Oleson-down-the-hill kind of fun, and appropriately humiliating.

the impact of Matthew returning was probably lost on a lot of viewers who only came to the show later

But that's not really Dynasty's fault, And what if someone had started watching during season 3? Then they also couldn't bring Toscanni back.
If anything, it would make me very curious what the fuss was all about!

 

[Carrie Fairchild]

I also didn't think they were going to kill off Chase Gioberti (boo hiss!) but, yeah, in the case of Alexis it seemed very unlikely

Like, the season prior, I knew Blake wasn't actually going to murder Alexis at the top of the stairs but it was such a dramatic culmination to their battles that season, that it worked as a satisfying cliffhanger. I think season 7's climax just felt a bit random and was a case of "we need to do something to put Alexis in peril. Let's randomly run her off a bridge". Granted, the accident was caused by her upset at all the men who'd screwed her over in the past but it wasn't the conclusion of a layered season long arc like some others were. Which, not all cliffhangers need to be but I still just get lazy vibes off this one.

But that's not really Dynasty's fault, And what if someone had started watching during season 3? Then they also couldn't bring Toscanni back.
If anything, it would make me very curious what the fuss was all about!

I'm probably being a bit tough on Dynasty as we're comparing it to Knots in this situation but I still feel Matthew's return lacked imagination. Had he been brought back while Claudia was still on the show, there was obviously a lot more dramatic potential there, whereas in this case, he was back for a quick 3 episode jolt of "he's back!/who's this guy?" and then he's gone again. Also, season 7 had already seen earlier season characters Culhane and McVane being brought back, so Matthew's being the third comeback kind of watered down the shock. I have the complete boxset and plan to watch the show in sequence for the first time soon, so I may feel different about this once I've rewatched Matthew's return episodes. On the subject of Toscanni, was it rumoured that producers wanted him back instead of Matthew for the season 7 finale or is that just a suggestion that I read on here?

 

[Willie Oleson]

I think season 7's climax just felt a bit random

but it wasn't the conclusion of a layered season long arc like some others were

But was there a season long arc to derive a somewhat logical cliffhanger from? It seems to me they were dreaming harder than Pam did in DALLAS.
Therefore the something-has-to-be-done finale serves a different purpose.
Although this modern trailer doesn't look so bad (CAREFUL! It's uploaded with loud volume).
Dynasty Trailer Season 7 - YouTube

The KNOTS cliffhanger also mostly refers to the final episode itself, with the exception that Peter Hollister had been a season(s) long character.
It was almost a "Mark Jennings" death because Steven was convinced he had seen Alexis. Then how could it not be true?