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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 18134" data-attributes="member: 22">30/Oct/85: DYNASTY: The Gown v. 31/Oct/85: KNOTS LANDING: A Question of Trust v. 01/Nov/85: DALLAS: The Wind of Change v. 01/Nov/85: FALCON CREST: Ingress and EgressDuring this week’s KNOTS LANDING, Lilimae quotes “that old saw, ‘Keep your friends close and your enemies closer'” — a motto previously attributed by Sue Ellen to JR on DALLAS. Sammy Jo Reece and Karen McKenzie each adopts this advice as part of her respective show’s central storyline this week. On DYNASTY, Sammy Jo pretends to befriend her Aunt Krystle so she can keep tabs on her in the days leading up to her kidnapping, while on KNOTS, Karen makes nice to Jill Bennett, to whom she suspects Mack is attracted, even going so far as to invite her to a family dinner.In both storylines, an item of clothing figures prominently. Sammy Jo needs to have a duplicate made of a gown Krystle intends to wear to a charity ball so that Rita can take her place without anyone realising. To that end, she meets with “the best dress maker in Denver”, Mr. Beaumont — presumably the same James Beaumont who came to the mansion to discuss Krystle’s wardrobe in Season 1 (only now he’s played, somewhat eerily, by Mark St Clare from the Wolfbridge Group).Meanwhile on KNOTS, the amount of thought Mack puts into his choice of tie indicates that he cares more about making an impression on Jill than he would like to admit. When Jill later makes reference to Mack's taste in ties, it suggests that she is similarly interested in him. In the closing moments of the episode, following Jill’s surprise departure for Sacramento, a frustrated Mack tosses his tie onto his desk and it lands on the corner of a wedding photo of him and Karen. This freeze frame echoes the end of "Let Me Count the Ways”, the Season 1 episode where Karen comes close to cheating on Sid. That ep closed on a shot of a flower given to Karen by her admirer next to a nonstick pan purchased by Sid earlier in the episode. In each ending, the symbols of marital security (the pan, the wedding photo) and temptation (the flower, the tie) are placed side by side.While Mack and Jill’s investigation into the twins’ kidnapping draws to a close quicker than expected (“I didn’t think we'd come this far this fast!” exclaims Mack), Sammy Jo and her partner-in-crime Joel Abrigore are forced to implement their kidnapping plan a week earlier than intended after Krystle, arriving unexpectedly at Delta Rho with the gift of a second gown for Sammy Jo, comes face to face with Rita.Up until now, the Rita/Krystle storyline has been a bit of a lark. Linda Evans imitating an airhead imitating Linda Evans is just such a silly pleasure, but when Joel knocks Krystle unconscious after she has seen Rita, events take a turn for the genuinely dramatic. This is the point of no return. “From this second on, you are Mrs. Blake Carrington,” Joel tells Rita gravely. She and Sammy Jo both look terrified, but now there’s no going back.Jeff Colby and JR Ewing both announce their intentions to take their sons and move away from Denver and Dallas respectively this week. Jeff’s off to Colby Enterprises in California while JR, bitter over Pam selling Bobby’s share of Ewing Oil to West Star, is headed for parts unknown to start his own company. While the Carringtons react positively to Jeff’s news (“I can’t tell you how proud I am of you,” Dominique tells him, "I know how hard it is to leave the people you love, but that’s what sets you apart, Jeff. You’re willing to move on. You’re not afraid to say goodbye”), as far as Miss Ellie is concerned, JR leaving home is the end of everything. “Now, besides Ewing Oil coming to an end, the Ewing family is too,” she concludes mournfully.Both of this week’s Ewing-verse episodes have an unusual feel. The script of KNOTS, the second credited to Bernard Lechowick, is light and witty without seeming insubstantial. Running concurrently to Mack's investigation is Karen’s preoccupation with decorating the Mackenzie kitchen. Such domestic subplots can sometimes feel artificially imposed on KNOTS in an attempt to make the characters seems more “real”, but here it feel natural and unforced, the everyday details interlocking with the more dramatic moments very neatly.This week's DALLAS, meanwhile, is quite fascinating. The camera work is unusually dynamic for such a traditional-looking series, so full of energy and inventiveness that it almost feels like a different show. A breakfast scene staged on the Southfork balcony is a particular highlight. Even the perennially prepubescent Charlie Wade gets the bug. "Mom, you look outrageous! Jack is gonna die!” she excitedly tells Jenna as she prepares for the Oil Baron’s Ball, sounding authentically teenage for the very first time.In the scenes dealing with the news that the Krebbses' unborn child has Down’s Syndrome, DALLAS cross-cuts back and forth between two discussions — one between Jack and Jenna who reflect on the matter quite calmly, the other between Ray and Donna whose response is far rawer and more emotional. KNOTS employs the same convention, crisscrossing between an intimate kitchen heart-to-heart where Karen confesses to Val her insecurities about Mack and Jill, and Mack and Jill themselves enjoying a raucous game of pool in a bar.The cultural references on KNOTS and DALLAS are also in sync. On KNOTS, Karen has picked up Mack’s habit of referring to Jill as "Dracula’s sister" while on DALLAS, Jamie contemplates some caviar hors d’oeuvres. “Beluga — what a terrible name for food,” she remarks. "Sounds like that actor that always plays Count Dracula.”By the time we get to the Oil Baron’s Ball, this episode of DALLAS is shooting off in all directions — from slapstick (Jamie pushing a cream cake in Cliff’s face) to social issues (Jenna and Jack discussing alternative terms for Down’s Syndrome: “mongolism” is out, apparently, but “retarded” is just fine).Just as he did at last year's Ball, JR spies Mandy Winger across a crowded dance floor. Back then she was elusive, an obscure object of desire. Now she’s suddenly compliant. “I won’t make any demands … I’ll be your girlfriend, I’ll be your mistress, I’ll be your wife or I’ll be anything in-between because anything’s better than nothing,” she tells him breathily. This is such an 180-degree turn from the Mandy we’re used to seeing (“I won’t be a kept woman!”), one wouldn’t be surprised to learn that she’s been replaced by a lookalike too.Since its first appearance three seasons earlier, the Oil Baron’s Ball has grown increasingly grand with each passing year. At the point in this year’s Ball where a freshly sober Sue Ellen appears, causing heads to turn and camera bulbs to flash as if she were Elizabeth Taylor or Liza Minnelli making her Hollywood comeback after a spell in the Betty Ford Centre, it reaches an apogee. The Academy Awards feel continues with the presentation of the Oil Baron of the Year trophy. With emotional speeches, standing ovations and Bobby’s posthumous win doubling as the In Memoriam section, all that’s really missing is #OilBaronsSoWhite trending on Twitter.Following her surprise announcement that she has decided not to sell Christopher’s shares to West Star after all, Pam is approached by JR who fully expects her to sell to him instead. “I’m not selling at all,” she explains. "From now on, it’s going to be you and me. I’ll see you at the office, partner!” When Jason Colby offered to buy Jeff’s share of Colby Enterprises two weeks ago on DYNASTY, he received a similar response: “Instead of buying me out, you just bought yourself a partner!” "Jason Colby’s never had partners,” says Blake this week after Jeff tells him the news. "You’ll come as quite a jolt to him.” Mack Mackenzie, a self-described "nerd who likes to work alone without a partner” would surely sympathise.Lydia, the psychic who confirmed Pam’s belief that Mark was still alive during last season’s DALLAS, does pretty much the same thing for Alexis regarding King Galen on this week’s DYNASTY, only this time she’s dressed as a Moldavian nun and calling herself Sister Therese.There’s more resurrection news on FALCON CREST. Pamela Lynch was believed to have died in a car crash three weeks ago, but now she’s back. It turns out she’s the one who planted the bomb in last season’s cliffhanger. She makes her reappearance during a Katherine Wentworth-style attempt on Richard’s life while he’s lying in a hospital bed, supposedly recovering from a gunshot wound (a ploy set by Richard himself to catch his would-be killer). Like Fallon upon her recent return from the dead, Pamela has a new face, but this time, the change is acknowledged on screen. Her explanation (“Just a little trick I learned from the cartel — how to kill one identity and give birth to a new one") beats even Mark Graison’s recent remark ("It's not as hard as you may believe to assume a new identity — with my resources there was no problem at all") for understatement. “Not a bad job. You even sound different,” acknowledges Richard casually — his equivalent to Joel Abrigore’s response upon Rita's transformation into Krystle on DYNASTY: “Same engine, different chassis.”Refreshingly, Richard does not hand Pamela over to the authorities. Instead, he grants her her freedom in return for the $30,000,000 she tricked out of him, Chase and Angela back when she was played by Sarah Douglas. The $10,000,000 the Moldavians are asking for King Galen suddenly seems quite reasonable in comparison.Meanwhile, on this week’s Battle of the Amnesiacs, merry-go-rounds and marriage proposals figure prominently. During a fairground montage in last week’s FALCON CREST, which included a ride on a merry-go-round, Maggie succeeded in reconciling with Chase, even though she still doesn’t remember being married to him in the first place. Chase’s solution to that is that they re-marry and Maggie agrees. Over on DYNASTY, Miles presents Fallon with a miniature carousel which causes her to flash back to the strange headaches she suffered when she was played by Pamela Sue Martin. He too proposes, but Fallon turns him down. Meanwhile, Maggie ends up jilting Chase at the last minute after Angela tells her that he was unfaithful to her.DALLAS and FALCON CREST each introduces an exotic-looking (i.e., non-caucasian), flamboyantly dressed Special Guest Star this week, Angelica Nero and Apollonia respectively. From her first appearance, we learn nothing of Angelica other than her interest in Jack Ewing. She is shown comparing a photograph of him with one of an almost identical man with silver hair, which suggests DYNASTY’s Rita isn’t the only lookalike in town. Apollonia, meanwhile, is introduced as a down-on-her-luck singer aspiring to the big time. Lance Cumson runs into her at a club and is soon playing Gary Ewing to her Ciji Dunne.And this week’s Top 4 are …1 (2) DALLAS2 (1) KNOTS LANDING3 (-) DYNASTY4 (3) FALCON CREST</blockquote>

Verification: What month follows July?