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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 207112" data-attributes="member: 22">18 Jul 12: DALLAS: Collateral Damage v. 18 Feb 15: EMPIRE: Our Dancing Days v. 08 Nov 15: BLOOD AND OIL: Fight or Flight v. 29 Nov 17: DYNASTY: A Taste of Your Own Medicine On this week’s DYNASTY, Steven takes a keen interest in his father’s so-called charitable activities. “I’ve seen the books. I know that donation isn’t all going where you’re saying it does,” he tells Blake. Later on, he confides to Fallon that he’s “pretty sure Dad’s been using foundation money to pay off Stansfield.” On BLOOD & OIL, Wick learns that his father Hap is also under suspicion. “A classified geological report was stolen from the North Dakota Oil and Gas Office,” two FBI agents tell him. “We believe your father was the recipient of that document.” They try to enlist his cooperation in building a case against Hap, but Wick tells them to stick it up their collective ass.As always, the importance of family is a recurrent theme. The focus on EMPIRE is a “make or break” investor showcase. “Nothing can go wrong,” Lucious declares. He is advised that the best way to appeal to his biggest potential investor is “through family. He’s a real family guy.” “Well, Empire is family,” Lucious replies. “That’s what we’re selling. Family is the whole showcase.” On BLOOD AND OIL, Hap plays the “family first” card too as he rallies his clan to keep the Feds from finding out any inconvenient truths about the company during their investigation. Meanwhile, it’s Thanksgiving on DYNASTY. “Today’s about family and winning this football game,” says Blake referring to the annual “family versus staff pigskin toss”. (It’s nice to see the Carringtons kicking back and hanging out for once instead of continually moving from one glossy crisis to the next. I also like how Blake’s staff have no choice about how they spend their Thanksgiving holiday. “I’m only here because I have to be. For some reason, your father thinks we actually enjoy this,” Michael grumbles to Fallon.) Over on DALLAS, John Ross also attempts to play the family card. “Lucy, you were and always will be my favourite cousin,” he declares before asking Lucy to use her influence with Gary to get the Southfork mineral rights away from Bobby in return for “a significant stake” in Ewing Oil. (The cousins also find time to reminisce about the time Lucy found John Ross passed out drunk for the first time. “All the grownups were drinking — I wanted to be grown up too,” he reasons. New DALLAS has already made reference not just to Sue Ellen and JR’s history of boozing, but other family members' as well. “I can hardly remember half of the parties I was at here at Southfork,” Lucy admitted a few weeks ago. “That’s because you spent most of them sneaking liquor from the bar,” replied Ray. Meanwhile, Christopher recently described Jock as “an ass-kicking, hard-drinking son of a bitch.” Maybe, looking back at the Ewings’ alcohol consumption in the ‘80s from a 2012 perspective, they all qualify as drunks.) Ultimately, Lucy disappoints John Ross by siding with Bobby. “Is she in your pocket now?” John Ross asks his uncle. “How’d you play her — tradition, family, Miss Ellie and all that crap?” “These charges are bullshit!” growls Bobby after he is arrested for the slap he gave Harris Ryland last week. (Swearing on DALLAS — I just love it.) His lawyer then explains that Harris will drop the charges if he apologises. “Ryland is a smug son of a bitch and I refuse to go to him and kiss his ring!” Bobby snarls, before accepting that he has no choice. A similar scenario occurs on DYNASTY when Blake tells Fallon she will only be welcome back at the manor if she apologises to Cristal for leaking her sex tape. “You can’t just waltz back in here and expect everything to be forgotten,” he says when she turns up uninvited for the family football game. Cue two somewhat half-hearted expressions of regret. “I apologise,” Bobby tells Ryland through gritted teeth, before adding a clarification: “My apology doesn’t mean I take back what I did. You mess with my wife in any way and I will beat you into next Sunday.” “I’m sorry for ever having seen your sex tape — and for leaking it,” Fallon tells her stepmom grudgingly. Before Cristal can graciously accept this apology, they are interrupted by a succession of football players eager to greet Fallon with a kiss and/or cuddle. Most of these players give off a “real-life person playing himself” vibe, which probably explains why they don’t all play tonsil hockey with Fallon as freely as those in the equivalent scene back on Old DYNASTY (during Blake and Krystle’s wedding reception) did. Nevertheless, Cristal gets the idea. “The whole team,” she observes drily. “And yet not one sex tape,” replies Fallon sweetly. At this, Blake snaps and sends his daughter packing. “If you can’t respect this family, everyone in this family, then you can spend Thanksgiving with another one,” he tells her. Some interesting titbits emerge about various characters this week. For instance, Olivia, the woman who turned up at the end of last week’s EMPIRE claiming to have Jamal’s daughter turns out to be his ex-wife. (“Why would you make him marry some stupid-ass backup singer? … He was eighteen, a baby!” yells Cookie at Lucious.) We also learn that DYNASTY’s Michael was a promising football player until a back injury brought his career to a premature end, Claudia Blaisdel was an engineer, Anders’ middle name is Winifred and the C21st version of Cecil Colby is better known as Prisoner 2F529. (Oh, and he’s Jeff’s father rather than his uncle.) Over on DALLAS, Bobby learns that JR’s private eye Bum has a criminal record and JR discovers that Frank Ashkani was “plucked off of the streets of Islamabad” circa 1982 by Cliff who “took a real shine to the kid.” Most intriguingly of all, it appears that Ann Ewing harbours a major secret involving a baby. “There’s a lot about Annie you don’t know,” Harris Ryland tells Bobby gloatingly.Just as Jamal is doubtful that he can be Olivia’s baby daddy (“The kid can’t be mine — I slept with that girl once!”) so Christopher Ewing greets Rebecca’s claim that she is carrying his child with hostility and suspicion: “You’ve been lying to me for the past two years. How am I supposed to trust a single word that comes out of your mouth?” Adding to Jamal's and Christopher’s frustrations, the children they refuse to claim nonetheless serve as obstacles in their romantic lives. “Elena, I still wanna be with you,” Christopher insists. “You and your child, I can’t get between that,” Elena replies. For Michael on EMPIRE, who is already feeling sidelined by Jamal’s career (“I love you but you’re in love with your music”), the arrival of a long lost daughter is the final straw. “It’s better to end this now before I have to walk out you and a kid,” he tells Jamal tearfully. Back on DALLAS, medical tests prove that not only is Rebecca telling Christopher the truth, but they are expecting twins. One look at the ultrasound and Christopher melts. Back on DYNASTY, Blake is also getting broody. “I think we should have a kid,” he tells Cristal. “This is our chance to put everything behind us and start something new.”As Michael moves out of Jamal’s place on EMPIRE, his DYNASTY self Sam is becoming more and more ensconced at the Carrington manor. This week, a disapproving Anders finding him in the kitchen cooking “a Venezuelan dish my mom makes for the holidays — pan de Jamon” in preparation for Thanksgiving and later on, Blake even ropes him in as Fallon’s replacement on the family football team. Trend of the week: the Rise of the Ex-Wives. JR is surprisingly laid back when Bum tells him about John Ross’s problems at Southfork. “A hundred-year-old trust is not gonna hold up in court,” he assures him. “If my boy doesn’t find a way to dissolve it, his mama will.” This casual reference to Sue Ellen tells us more about JR’s faith in her abilities than all those romantic “You’ve changed, Sue Ellen, and so have I” speeches we got used to hearing on the old series. Lucious similarly puts his faith in his ex-wife when, midway through the investors’ showcase, he is struck down by a symptom of his ALS that leaves him unable to deliver his all-important speech. “I need someone who can go and excite these people,” he croaks, ignoring his fiancee and eldest son and looking straight at Cookie. “I need you to go out there and remind them that Empire is a family business built for our sons.” Both Sue Ellen and Cookie rise to the occasion. When Elena is reluctant to help John Ross keep his head above water by supplying enough crude to the scary Venezuelans “to tide them over until John Ross can get his operation [at Southfork] fully going”, Sue Ellen turns the screws ever so slightly. “As the sole investor in your growing enterprise, I hope you will always make the wise choice,” she tells her with a cold smile. Next thing we know, Elena is offering John Ross all the oil he needs. Cookie, meanwhile, goes off-script to deliver a characteristically ballsy yet sufficiently soapy speech that has the rich old white guys reaching for their cheque books: “I’m not gonna be standing up here telling you all what a fine man my ex is … Lucious and I had three sons before he dumped me … He’s also a crazy son of a bitch that had a dream … Empire is more than one man’s dream. It’s a dream come true that’s ready to be passed down to the next generation and the next. And you all can be a part of it.” BLOOD AND OIL, meanwhile, introduces yet one more former wife. This one has bags of money and a score to settle with her ex: “Well, Hap Briggs, look at you — every bit as handsome as the day you walked out on me … I’m coming after you.” To that end, she explains, she has teamed up with Billy LeFever. “Annie Briggs — well, at least it won’t be dull,” Hap chuckles.The climax of both EMPIRE and DYNASTY is a family gathering where a dramatic secret is revealed. We viewers have been in on one of these secrets since Day One, but the other comes as a complete surprise. Following the showcase, Lucious finally sits his sons and ex-wife down and tells them that he’s dying. Meanwhile, the Carringtons assemble for Thanksgiving dinner whereupon Claudia pulls a gun on them. During the subsequent showdown, Fallon deduces that it was Claudia who killed Matthew way back in Episode 1. Whereas Fallon is pretty much unfazed by “the crazy lady with a gun,” Lucious's sons fall apart when they hear of their father’s illness, first turning on and then embracing each other. The reaction of Andre, both the most ruthless and the most damaged of the three, is particularly moving. He angrily storms off and his wife later finds him sitting in the shower, fully clothed and hyperventilating. (It goes without saying that we don’t get to see this kind of naked vulnerability on New DYNASTY, not even when the characters are being held at gunpoint.)Lucious’s bombshell brings him and Cookie closer and, with Anika out of town on business, they wind up in his bed. However, Anika returns home unexpectedly and sees them together — but makes sure they don’t see her. Likewise on B&O, Carla discovers that, despite Hap’s assurances to the contrary, he is still sleeping with Jules. So she makes good on her threat to ensure Wick finds them together. Like Anika, he does not confront them directly. Instead, he heads back to the FBI agents investigating his father. “OK, I’m in,” he tells them. “What do you need me to do?” There’s a similar moment near the end of DYNASTY where Steven calls Jeff Colby to ask for his help: “I’m going after the police chief, Stansfield.” “Blake’s pocket cop? … I’m down to hear more,” Jeff assures him.It’s bye-bye to Soap Land’s two psycho bitches. DYNASTY husband killer Claudia is escorted to a sanatarium over Steven’s objections (“What are you doing?” he asks his father. “Her fate isn’t up to us. You can’t make a plea deal in the living room!”). But as one whodunnit is resolved, another begins as Fake Marta falls, jumps or is pushed from the window of a hotel room that has John Ross’s fingerprints all over it. We know he’s not responsible, but there’s still a satisfying inevitability in the final scene as the police arrive at the ranch to take him away — Bobby, Ann and Elena looking on gravely. Meanwhile, two nondescript characters on BLOOD AND OIL — Ada and Kess — are hastily written out when somebody notices they’re still on the show. They decide to go back to where they came from (Nigeria) after Kess is caught peddling drugs from their food truck to pay his gambling debts. There are more food-truck-as-a-cover-for-something-nefarious shenanigans at the end of DYNASTY as a Venezuelan bad guy (not to be confused with the Venezuelan bad guys seen approaching Fake Marta’s hotel room shortly before her death) stops by a truck selling arepas to ask about Celia Machado (aka Cristal)’s whereabouts. Vera, the proprietor, pulls a gun on him and tells him to “get back to whatever hole you live in.” Then she calls Cristal to warn her, but Cristal and Blake are busy making babies in soft focus.And this week’s Top 4 are …1 (2) DALLAS 2 (3) EMPIRE3 (1) BLOOD AND OIL4 (4) DYNASTY</blockquote>

Verification: Who played JR Ewing?