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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 14988" data-attributes="member: 22">11/Apr/84: DYNASTY: The Check v. 13/Apr/84: DALLAS: Turning Point v. 13/Apr/84: FALCON CREST: Win, Place and ShowThe race to the end of the season is on, with each of this week’s soaps just four episodes from the finishing line. While DYNASTY and DALLAS are still fun, there’s a slight sense of them slowing down in pace. Their respective eps end similarly to last week’s, with Blake still on the brink of financial ruin and Jessica still behaving sinisterly at Southfork for reasons yet unspecified. Nor are there many major plot advancements in-between. This leaves the field open for FALCON CREST to gallop into the lead with an action-packet instalment that includes a wedding, a murder attempt, a life-changing medical diagnosis and the return of a killer. One of the advantages of FC’s habit of juggling so many story-lines is that one can never be certain which are going to take precedence in any given episode. In this regard, it is arguably Soap Land’s least predictable show (the renegade YELLOW ROSE notwithstanding).Probably the most significant development on this week's DYNASTY is Mark Jennings’ blackmail of Alexis. He is lurking on the terrace of her penthouse where he overhears Blake accuse her of colluding with Rashid Ahmed to destroy Denver Carrington. Alexis passionately denies any involvement with Ahmed and Blake appears to believe her. The scene ends with a rather nice profile shot of Mark smiling knowingly as he sips champagne on the balcony. (There’s an equivalent reveal on this week’s DALLAS after Clayton corners Jessica in the upstairs hallway at Southfork and warns her against JR: “He's had detectives looking into my past." "They won't find anything," she whispers. "You don't think I’d be fool enough to tell JR our little secret?" It’s only then that we discover JR listening from behind his bedroom door.)Mark extracts $100,000 from Alexis in return for his silence about her meetings with Rashid in Hong Kong. “How far do you think a hundred thousand goes these days?” snaps Afton on DALLAS after Cliff accuses her of squandering the inheritance she received from his mother. Mark seems happy enough with his windfall, however. "I'm on top of the world, kid," he says to Krystle when he stops by her office to tell her he’s leaving town. "Where will you go?" she asks. "I've always liked New York," he replies. Laura Avery asked the same question of a departing Cathy in the KNOTS season finale two weeks ago. “Alaska," she replied. “They say it’s the land of opportunities."Speaking of New York and opportunities, we catch a glimpse of Sammy Jo’s life in the Big Apple this week. When her chance of an exclusive modelling contract falls through, she tries to blackmail her overweight married lover over their affair just as FALCON CREST’s Terry did her elderly rich john back when she was living in New York at the beginning of the season. But where Terry’s boyfriend meekly complied, Sammy Jo’s sends her flying across the room with one punch. "You little whore, you're out of your league!” he snarls at her.DYNASTY’s Blake and DALLAS’s Cliff Barnes are facing parallel business crises. Each has invested a fortune in an offshore oil deal with potentially huge dividends — Blake's is in the China Seas, Cliff's is off the Gulf of Mexico. Each is also the target of a scheme engineered by his worst enemy — Alexis and JR respectively — to deny him access to that oil and plunge his company into financial ruin. As has already been established, Alexis paid Rashid Ahmed to claim that Blake’s investment was a front for an arms deal, which means that Blake cannot commence his oil exploration until he clears his name, while JR secretly has control of Cliff’s bank loan and his site foreman. Both situations take a turn for the worse this week: On DYNASTY, the government with whom Blake is in partnership refuse to either refute the accusations against him or return his initial $100,000,000 investment, while on DALLAS, JR instructs Vaughn Leland not to loan Cliff any more of the money he desperately needs to continue drilling.The pressures both men are under lead to key scenes with the women in their lives. In DYNASTY's closing scene, Blake tries to make light of his troubles for Krystle’s benefit but she won't stand for it. "Stop treating me like a toy wife," she tells him firmly. "I am big and strong enough to share the bad news as well as the good.” This situation is reversed on DALLAS. "I need all the money I can lay my hands on!” Cliff insists when Afton catches him rifling through her bank statements. She isn’t impressed. "I have enough money left ... to rent my own apartment and make my own way without you!” she tells him. Only at the end of the scene does her attitude soften. “You’re really in trouble, aren’t you?” she asks. But whereas the DYNASTY scene concludes with Blake opening up to Krystle ("Every dollar of that hundred million that I raised had a condition attached,” he explains, "a time limit on the exploration: if I can't start the search for that oil before the time limit, the creditors can call in for their money … and time is running out”), Cliff ends up turning away from Afton. “I’ll handle it,” he tells her coldly.Two of Soap Land’s brides-to-be, DYNASTY’s Fallon and DALLAS’s Pam, suggest quickie weddings due to Denver Carrington’s financial crisis and Mark's illness respectively. "I just don't know if it would be right to go through with a big wedding with everything the way it is,” frets Fallon. “How about five minutes at City Hall this weekend?” proposes Pam. Their future grooms won’t hear of it, however. “The last time we ran off and got married with nothing but neon and plastic flowers,” remembers Fallon. “When Bobby and I got married, we got married in front of a justice of the peace in New Orleans - I think the whole ceremony just took about ten minutes tops,” recalls Pam. An equivalent scenario takes place when Terry and Michael elope during this week’s FALCON CREST. There is yet another addition to the Soap Land marry-go-round when FALCON CREST's Phillip, taking a leaf out of Peter De Vilbis’s book, announces his engagement to Angela before he’s even proposed to her.Also on this week's FALCON CREST, Melissa endures stomach cramps as mysterious as Fallon’s headaches on DYNASTY. A trip to the doctor’s office reveals that her recent miscarriage has left her, like Pam and Krystle before her, unable to have any more children. Melissa uses this information creatively. Whereas Alexis, who had caused Krystle’s miscarriage in the first place, then used Krystle's status as “the empty-armed madonna” to taunt her for the next two seasons, Melissa turns her own barrenness into a weapon with which to torment the woman she blames for it, an already guilt-ridden Linda Gioberti.This season's YELLOW ROSE, EMERALD POINT and DYNASTY have all included scenes of its prosperous characters enjoying a day at the races, while DALLAS has had Mark Graison introduce Pam, Cliff and Afton to the delights of the polo circuit. Now FALCON CREST has its very own racetrack as Tuscany Downs opens for business, beating KNOTS LANDING’s similar project, Lotus Point, to the punch and putting its nearest Soap Land equivalent, DYNASTY’s La Mirage Hotel, in the shade in terms of scale. Not only is this the pay off for Richard Channing’s season-long drive and determination but it also feels like a victory for his former self, Michael Tyrone, who was intent on bring a near identical gambling operation to Truro during his stay on FLAMINGO ROAD.Richard inviting a reluctant Chase to the podium to make a speech during the opening ceremony feels like the reverse of Punk Anderson's unenthusiastic welcoming of Cliff Barnes to the stage at the Oil Baron’s Ball. During his speech, Chase manages to turn the tables on Richard by congratulating him for his generous donation of "15% of Tuscany Downs' gross profits to the people of the Tuscany Valley.” This comes as a surprise to Richard but he has no choice but to comply. Ambassador Lan Thon pulled a similar move on JR during the senate investigation into the counterrevolution at the end of DALLAS Season 3.An aura of murderous intent permeates this week's Soap Land. “I’ll kill you, JR!” vows Katherine in DALLAS after he tells her he’s played a tape of them having sex to Bobby. “She did say she hated you and you deserved to die,” Julia’s psychiatrist tells Angela on FALCON CREST. “He’ll be dead within the week,” predicts cartel leader Norton Crane of Richard Channing, also on FALCON CREST. Meanwhile on DYNASTY, there’s a nicely moody shot of Kirby fondling her gun in preparation for her execution of Alexis. In the event, however, both Norton Crane and Kirby bungle their murder attempts badly. Kirby lures Alexis to her father’s house but fails to keep her there long enough to get her gun out her purse. Even more humiliatingly, Crane attempts to detonate Richard's explosive-rigged trophy on the opening day of Tuscany Downs, but in a last minute twist reminiscent of a Roadrunner cartoon, blows up his own car instead. The week’s most ominous death threat comes right at the end of FALCON CREST when a disguised Julia hitches a ride back to the Tuscany Valley. “I have to bury my mother,” she explains to the driver with a smile on her face. Yet another murder, this time in the past, is alluded to in the closing moments of DALLAS. “Amy died so we could keep the Southern Cross not sell it!” an angry Jessica blurts out to JR. And this week’s Top 3 are …1 (2) FALCON CREST2 (3) DYNASTY3 (1) DALLAS</blockquote>

Verification: What month follows July?