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S2 EP13 Knots Landing - The Loudest Word: The "Tonight, On A Very Special Episode of" Episode

• Jett Shae • Episode 236

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Soap Fiends, grab a box of tissues and a stout drink it "In our feelings" season. What happens when a beloved TV show tackles serious themes with the intensity of a primetime drama? We explore this question as we revisit the gripping "Knott's Landing" episode "The Loudest Word." Prepare for a heartfelt exploration of Valene's health scare and the resulting emotional rollercoaster for her and her husband, Gary. Their journey brings to light the weight of familial responsibilities and the struggle to maintain hope in the face of potential loss. Meanwhile, tensions ripple through the Ewing family as they confront deep-seated emotional issues, providing a fascinating glimpse into the show's theatrical roots and its connection to the legendary "Dallas."

Witness the compelling dynamics as Gary seeks support from friend Karen, while Valene finds solace in a nurse who shares her experience. The tension crescendos during a heated moment on the basketball court that underscores Gary's internal strife. In the midst of the chaos, we’re reminded of the importance of cherishing loved ones and prioritizing self-care. As we dissect these poignant narratives, we also touch on lighter moments, including the potential of Lucy's upcoming wedding and the allure of "Falcon Crest." This episode promises an emotional journey that will have you laughing, crying, and reflecting on the absurd drama of "Knott's Landing.

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and houseplants. He's kicking over stuff. He snatches off the comforter, the over sheet, the thin sheet, the fitted sheet, pillows kicked, fitted sheet flipped. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome, or welcome back to another fun-filled edition of so Poor. I'm your host, jett. We will be reviewing the Sophia Sezia's primetime storyline of 1980 and 1981. So, whether you're new to this or true to this, sit back and enjoy. Tell the kids it's time to play outside or out of sight, tell them no questions, suggestions or concerns for the next 25 to 35 minutes, everyone else in earshot, be cool, quiet or kicked out, because we are discussing a very serious story. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, this is SoFlo. Hello party people and welcome back to another fun-filled edition of SoFlo. I hope you've been enjoying Northland as much as I have, because we are going to go for one more. That's right, three in a row Northlander.

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This episode is what we like to call on a very special episode. If you're old enough to have ever watched a TV movie in a lifetime I meant on one of the major networks at the time, nbc, abc or CBS then you also are old enough to remember watching very special programming. It's when a sitcom would take a more serious approach to a topic, whether it's bullying, drugs, divorce, runaway, you know that sort of thing, but it would be a little bit heavier. This episode is like this and I had to ask myself why and when new dramas do this. I think that in the case of Knott's Landing, since this is sort of an ode to scenes from a marriage, it's going to lean towards a little bit more serious, I think, than the other soap operas. They are a bit more bubbly. However, I think Knott's Landing, at this point, was starting to come into its own. This is just my speculation, because I'm doing my darndest to not give away too much of the storyline for myself. I'm avoiding all the major conversations. I'm not buying the books just yet, but I really, really want to. But I do think by this point the show is sort of holding its own. However, it is still a spinoff. So this episode reminds us of a couple of things. It reminds us that these are serious actors. They came from the stage, they are prepared to put on a show, so you're not going to be able to give them these cheap, fluffy, throwaway lines. These people are able to carry a story Number two.

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We're about halfway through the season. There's already been a lot that's happening, but it's starting to wane a bit. All the couples, by and large, are making up or on the verge of doing that. None of the kids are knocked up, none of the kids are missing. We got to bring in a new story. We need to introduce something that we could probably bring up later.

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Enter a very serious episode. We have to watch our girl, valene, the Vidalia Onion Queen, have a little bit of a health scare. We also are the obligatory crossover episode where, hey, we got to remind you that this is still a spinoff. Be sure to watch Dallas every Thursday night at 8 pm. And we are reminded of a couple more character flaws. Nothing I'd forgotten, obviously, but we get to dive a little deeper into one of the character psyche just a little bit. All right, pour yourself up something hearty. We're going to go through it. We're going to laugh, we're going to cry. We're going to go through it. We're going to laugh, we're going to cry, we're going to roll our eyes.

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Season two, episode 13, knott's Landing the loudest word. I'm going to get the throwaway line or the throwaway story out of the way, this episode, because by and large it is revolving around Val and Gary and Val's new diagnosis. Val had a little bit of a growth removed not so long ago, remember. She's been going to the doctor to see about getting pregnant so that she can carry another one of Gary Ewing's bombs. You know, we'll see how that one turns out. But yeah, she's been to the doctor. There was a little snap-o. We'll get back to that very quickly. Another woman who had visited a doctor not so long ago was our good sister Ginger. Now Ginger is still lying around in her home trying to figure out what to do about her and Kenny.

Speaker 1:

Now that Kenny knows that she's all prego-dago, he wants to be a family again. You know, I don't doubt that he wants like a real family. Just because you're like your sexual prowess doesn't really have a lot to do with how you parent. I don't think those two things go hand in hand. But this episode there was a little something going on with them. Kenny's going through it. He goes to a park pretty early on in this episode and for whatever reason, it's just like when you get a new car or you have a family member or friend get a blue car, all of a sudden you see that car everywhere. It's like that. Prego Radar is up, so he's in the park and he's seeing all these beautiful children and this pregnant cupboard peppered with children who are laughing and jolly jollying, frolicking through the park and his little old cheating heart just swells. He buys a hot dog and he's like God, I got to get my girl back. But Kenny has boundary issues.

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Do you recall when Ginger was on her job with Gen X, the kindergartners? They were at the zoo learning all the things they needed to learn, and Kenny shows up, showing out with an ape mask or whatever. He does that too. He accosts her as she's coming out of work. Actually he doesn't, he, mind you, this is 1980, was able to go up to a group of small children and recruit them into his grand scheme of getting Ginger back.

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As far as I can tell, all the kids were holding up papers that said something. But you know how kids are, they all just kind of bum-rushed her. When she came out of the building they were just rattling the papers on her face. You can't really see what they are. She knew immediately that this was Kenny's hand. God bless the 80s when a good-looking man could just walk up to rando children without anyone batting an eye. I thought that would be so inappropriate today, it'd be so weird. But after the children have accosted and surrounded Ginger upon her exit from school, he's so pumped to tell her oh my gosh, I saw this couple in the park and he was rubbing her belly and it's so cute, I can't wait to have all of you. She's like that's all fine, roland, good, but you are pretty unreliable unless it's in the sack. You are good, I'll give you that. You're good for good rolling the hay, but that's about it. I made up that part, but she does call him unreliable. We'll come back to that.

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We got to get to our girl, val, so the show actually opens up when valine in the kitchen frantically it's probably eight in the morning she's frantically making breakfast, spinning around telling her girl Karen how she has volunteered to be Ginger's Lamaze coach. Ginger is 14 minutes pregnant but she's already taking the classes. She's already doing all the things she needs to do. Well, val gets this phone call and it's from Dr Harper. Dr Harper is not her OBGYN, he is the OBGYN's friend who Val was sent to. And he says hey, can you come down to the office today? And she's like why? I was like I just want to talk to you about something you think you can bring Gary Gary. Why Gary? He says I just want to talk to you about something you think you can bring Gary Gary. Why Gary's at work. He's like yeah, y'all just come in. Karen is trying to be a good neighbor and not listen while listening. But Val is playing it off. She's chipper, she's moving around, sure enough. She calls the shop or the dealership, tells whoever answers the phone hey, tell Gary to be ready in about half hour I'm going to come get them.

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They go to the doctor and unfortunately Dr Harper says that the growth that they took out was actually malignant and surgery has to happen sooner rather than later. He explains this is all in her colon. Did I already say that this is her colon? So he thinks that there was a little something just above. He didn't feel like anything is spread. He just wants to be precautious, he doesn't want to give it the benefit of the doubt. He said we're just going to take out a little snip above the growth area and a little snip below. We're going to look it over, make sure everything's everything, put you back together again. But I have to tell you that if the cancer has spread. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to perform a colostomy.

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I am slightly embarrassed to admit that although I had heard of a colostomy bag, I never actually knew that was the name of that surgery. Didn't really give it a lot of thought. I grew up with a lot of elderly people, so I've seen different ailments, different you know. They would often have a different apparatus and several amputees. So it's not that I didn't know that people. This happened, I guess. I just never really thought about why it happened.

Speaker 1:

So this news is hard to swallow. It's difficult for Val. However, she's still putting on a really good front. She's not really. She's holding it together the best she can. Gary is, I mean, what would you do? This isn't any news anybody wants to hear. This is a young woman, this is a 32, 34-year-old woman not really expecting to hear this.

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So they of course, go back home and they tell Karen Now she's taking it serious, but she's a little better with her words than Gary is at the moment and Valene is just kind of bibbidi-bobbidi-booing around the kitchen saying that it's yeah, yeah, yeah. The doctor's very confident, they're just going to take a little bit out. The doctor says I'm going to be fine, I'm going to be just fine. But gary is like what she, he tells karen because he, him and karen are sitting at the kitchen table and he says what she's not telling you is that he might have to perform a colostomy. If they don don't get everything, then it's going to be a whole thing and everybody's just like oh my gosh, karen's totally upset, but holding it together for Val, she of course goes home and she starts telling Sid, the sex machine, about it.

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And Diana overhears a conversation and she's asking like well, who's sick? What's going on? And they're like oh, val's going to have a little bit of a surgery. They had a growth removed. They're just going to go back in and make sure nothing happened. But they're looking, they're giving that look, and Diana's not four years old, so pretty quickly she's like but there's more to it and Karen tells her okay, well, if it doesn't go well, they'll have to do a colostomy. Do you know what that is? And Diana's like yeah, I mean I guess I hate to admit it. She's damn near sweet this episode. She didn't get on my nerves not one time. Granted, she's not heavily in it, but it is what it is. So the gang mostly knows about Val's little diagnosis. Everybody's holding it together. It's worth knowing that nobody is taking it.

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Well, at some point we get to see Richard and Laura. They're basically like Laura gets a phone call I don't know who's on the phone telling her about it. Richard comes into the kitchen and she's like oh no, you know, val has to have this major surgery because of this, that and the third. And he goes oh, I know, and she's young, she's this, she's that, it's not cancer, it's just a growth. He's kind of being a jerk just a little. But then he catches himself and he stops and he's like I'm so sorry, laura, she goes, you don't have to apologize, I do. Though, like Ginger told me last night about it, and sadly the first thing I thought was wow, val has cancer. I'm so glad it's not Laura. He said a little more kind than that.

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Can we have the difficult conversation? Nobody in their right mind wishes cancer or any sort of ailment on anybody as hard as I mean. You might not say it out loud, but there's probably a little sense of relief when you understand that maybe your loved one doesn't have, or at least appreciation. This is the one time I thought you know what. You're not actually a douchebag, that's. That's a reasonable thought, even if nobody would say that out loud.

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He was in the privacy zone home, but everyone is not taking it well. I'm not taking it well, gary's not taking it well and i's not taking it well, and I temporarily put my disdain aside from him just for a minute. Val's in the hospital. She's being all chipper. They give her a little bit of literature to read, a little pamphlet, whatnot. Turns out there's a nurse at the hospital who also had the same procedure a year or so prior. So she's, you know, val's making sure that she gets in contact with her.

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Everything seems like it's on the up and up, but Gary decides he needs to go home and change and just kind of wash the day off of him. Now I'm with you. I'm with you when you're right, gary. So he starts driving home and Sid and his oldest boy, the middle kid, are playing basketball in the middle of the street, as one does in A Coldest Hug, no big deal. Gary comes flying up in that pea green coupe, honking the horn and whatnot, parking in his yard, and he yells at the middle boy. He yells at Sid's kid get out of the road, whatever he says. And then he storms off into his house.

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Sid has on a fresh navy blue turtleneck and matching pants from from JCPenney's, and he'll be damned if you bark at his oldest boy. So he starts skittering after Gary. Only, gary's really agile and really quick and also very tall, so he's able to leap up his steps in two or three bounds. He goes in the bedroom and you think he's just going to crumble in the middle of the floor and break down in front of my parents dresser set. I swear to you, if you're watching this in real time, my parents had that exact dresser set back in the day and I bet yours did too. All of this furniture on the show looks so familiar. Anyway, gary's looking at his reflection in the knickknacks on the dresser. Baby, it's a clean sweep.

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Gary starts bursting. I mean, he's throwing picture frames. He's snatching down stuff. He's punching houseplants, he's kicking over stuff. He snatches off the comforter, the over sheet, the thin sheet, the fitted sheet, pillows kicked, fitted sheet flipped, mattress tossed, flipped, turned about. He's acting a teetotal fool.

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Now, mind you, this is all in the backdrop of Sid beating down the door Boom, boom, boom, gary, gary. But then he can hear the commotion upstairs. He's like what the heck? I guess Sid took some taekwondo classes at the rec center because he revs back like he's on, get shorty or get whatever, get smart and he jumps and he kicks the power, kicks the door wide open off the hinges in the middle hinge, not the middle hinge, what is that called if you have those sort of fringe doors, whatever that middle beam is breaks. That it's, it's gone now and he takes off running upstairs. When he gets upstairs, gary's a puddle. He's crying in the middle of the floor.

Speaker 1:

Now, right before Sid kicked in the door, Gary had enough wherewithal and just enough energy to crawl over to the telephone. He calls down to Dallas and he talks to his mom. He's crying, he's all. He's completely beside himself. So by the time Sid gets upstairs and he sees the wreckage and he sees Gary crying in the middle of the floor, he's like, oh my God, this was. He came up there to beat his ass. He didn't know he was crying. So he has to call in the big guns, and that is of course Karen. I'm telling y'all. He kicked that door open like he was a cop in South Florida at a seedy hotel.

Speaker 1:

I was impressed. I want to see more action sequences with him. I still don't really know what to do about him. I hope he didn't fade into that whole Fallon thing where it's like there's something there. I saw the last episode. There's something there. The fact that he didn't say a lot says a whole lot. I hope they really expand on that says a whole lot. I hope they really expand on that.

Speaker 1:

All right, so Karen comes by and she sees the mess, but she again is holding it together and Gary just starts confessing he's been a bum a long, long time, that it's just so pathetic that Val got this. It really should be him, because he's the one who's been running away. She's wasted half of her life dreaming about being with him. And look, what does he do? He shuts her out. I lie to her, I cheat on her every chance I get. It's just I can't. I can't stand myself. This should have been me.

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He says that the loudest word he ever heard was when the doctor said it was malignant. He's beating himself up and I thought you know what, gary? I get it, bro. I get it. This is tough. Nobody wants to hear this. He's afraid that his wife is going to pass away. That's what I'm thinking, right? Well, anyway, karen and Sid are like hey, just come over to our house, you don't need to be alone right now. So they leave the tornado of a bedroom, they let gary go down first and karen turns to sit and is like girl, I don't think he's gonna make it. She didn't call him a girl, I don't think he's gonna make it.

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All the women folk end up gathering at the hospital to holler at their girl. Now ginger's out in the hallway. I'm gonna wrap up her story very quickly. She's out in the hallway for whatever reason, and kenny comes by, he's all giddy. And she's out in the hallway for whatever reason. And Kenny comes by, he's all giddy and she's disgusted, like are you serious? You have no shame. You already stopped me at work.

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You're already sort of harassing me, despite the fact that I sleep with you regularly. I don't know why you're not taking a hint, but you can be compared to harass about me while I'm supporting my friend crosses the line. He's like I'm not, I want. I care about her too. I'm just coming to see if she's okay, if I can do anything. She doesn't believe him. So he says you know what gender, I don't care. You should think higher of me. I don't want to be with you anymore. I don't even want to be your friend. Don't ever call me again. I don't even want to be your friend. Okay, kenny.

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So the women are trying to keep it light and bubbling. Side note, laura is always in lavender. Lavender is one of my favorite colors of purple. It is a lighter shade. I really enjoy it, but it's like that's the color of the year. I suppose she's always in lavender. Back to it. So they're just trying to keep it really light.

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Valene's keeping her heart rate nice and and low and calm and she says all right, y'all, now y'all gotta get out. It's almost time for me to have surgery. Don't anybody say anything, corny, I'll just go. I'll talk to you later. So they leave, everybody does, karen's, the last one out. But karen walks out of the door and then she turns on her heels. She comes back. She won't look at, she's looking at the floor and she says I love you. And damn it, wouldn't you know it? Damn it, karen.

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Me and the Vidalia queen are in tears. I'm not going to lie. I'm not ashamed to admit it. I boohooed. It was just so beautiful, a little embarrassed, and I'm like God, I would want to see my best friend. It's too much, I don't even want to talk about it.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so now that everybody left, I'm minding my business, watching this, thinking damn, surely they're not going to get rid of her. How serious is this going to be? Well, while I'm having this thought, guess who pops in Everybody's favorite little brother, brother, good brother. Bobby stops by and like hey, bob, what are you doing? What are you doing in LA? I was actually happy to see him, and so was the Vidalia. I didn't believe, but then she freaked out a little. Did you bring Lucy with you? And he says no, mama didn't think she should know about it.

Speaker 1:

We're not talking about Dallas, but we're gonna talk about Dallas. At what point do you? Lucy is not a four-year-old girl. At what point? How many things are y'all going to keep away from this girl? Anyway, bobby's there to make sure. Everything is everything. How you doing, val? You going to be okay. You look good. Okay, where's your husband? All right, I'm going to go talk to him. This is also the obligatory reminder that Dallas is the original and Nas landing is a spinoff. Let's flip over one time. I imagine, too, that Val and Gary are gonna be in Dallas at Lucy's wedding. I hope so they should be. If not, that's gonna piss me off. Actually Not about Dallas, we'll talk about that later.

Speaker 1:

So later, after Valene has been pushed into the OR, bobby tears into Gary for acting a teetotal fool. See, the truth is that call that he made to Ellie. It wasn't just a beautiful display of him wailing and crying and, you know, being upset about something. Apparently, this is Gary Ewing 101. His parents and his little brother perceive this as him falling apart, him spiraling and him not being strong for his wife. I didn't get that vibe. I thought, wow, he's just. It's upsetting news. He's not any more upset than anyone else, except in the bedroom. This seems normal. But let Bobby tell it.

Speaker 1:

He remembers growing up hearing his mom and dad, jock and Ellie, argue over Gary. Jock was disgusted because he said that Gary wasn't a real Ewing. He didn't know how to face anything. He was a coward. He said that Gary wasn't a real Ewing. He didn't know how to face anything. He was a coward. Ellie said well, thank God he's not a real Ewing because y'all are showboats or whatever. He's more gallant, he has a little more pride, he's got a little more grace in his humility, you ask. But the truth is Bob said Ellie didn't want to come face the fact that maybe Gary is a coward, because this feels just like all the other hundred times that he's run off when he couldn't handle something.

Speaker 1:

And I had to think back to it and say, okay, original brunette Gary, who's now a cop on Dynasty. He did flip out over spilled milk Quite literally. He stormed off. That was a story we heard off screen too. He stormed off when his family was attacking Darlene. We've seen him go on his little bender but I had somehow forgotten about that, not necessarily about the bender, but that that was par for the course for him, because it appears like he's a pretty okay guy, aside from cheating on Valene for no reason and taking the money Actually, what am I saying? Aside from cheating on his wife, taking the money, going on a three-week bender, being emotionally unavailable and incredibly immature. Despite all that, I didn't really clock that. He felt a way about Valene. I thought he was upset because she had cancer.

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But let Bobby tell it. The family, ellie and he are afraid that he is not going to take care of Eileen if she has a colostomy. That's the whole thing that he's going to be low-key, disgusted and not handle her in the way that she should be handled. And I'll be damned if he didn't agree. And that's the thing about this show. He didn't necessarily say yeah, yeah, you're right, but he's just super silent, as Bobby's like and weren't you, you were gonna leave, right, you were. Are you gonna take care of her? And Gary's like dude, like that's just, you're missing the point. So Bob gets pissed and he grabs him by his lapels and he's like you would rather her die than have her live with a colostomy. And Gary can't even look him in the eye because it's implied that that is the truth. And I thought you know what? I'll be damned, what a selfish. So I was speechless I'm still a little bit speechless, like that didn't even cross my mind. Like he would be so grossed out by her that he would prefer to be dead than that. So he has a little time to think.

Speaker 1:

Bobby sticks around, valene is wielding and luckily, by show's end, she's all fine. She's all well. It was, the doctor was right. She's healthy as a horse. They were able to connect everything. Everything looks Gucci and golden. But Gary did come to his senses. He had enough time to think about it and he said you know what? Her dying would be the absolute worst thing. Not the colostomy, she's here with a colostomy, she's going to be my colostomy bag wife period, point blank. I love her, ginger I got to just show this last little part.

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During the surgery, gary is sitting in like the waiting room or the cafeteria, whatever Ginger walks in, because she's like upset at home after the fight she and Kenny had or that he just wanted to be a friend. And when she walks in she sees that Kenny is just sitting with Gary Like he really was there just to be a standup guy. She walks up to him and she's like we need you, we need you. So I guess Kenny and his wayward you know what are moving back in the house. Congratulations, the wards are back together. But yeah, this all ends with Fowling, not having cancer, gary realizing that he was a serious douche canoe and he's going to be on the straight and narrow, at least until the next episode.

Speaker 1:

There's a tiny little part I loved out. Gary did indeed run off and Sid comes to the hospital to look for Gary, but then he's introduced to Bobby. They're like oh hey, I'm Sid and Bobby and Bob's like do you know where Gary is? Sid's like no, I don't, but I'll go find him. He's like cool, would you tell him that I didn't mean what I said to him? I actually did mean I'm in every word. But just tell him I didn't and I loved it. It is so good to see a little bit of tough love. Although I didn't know that he needed it, it was really good to see it. Gosh, there's some really staggering statistics about when a spouse becomes ill, like the rate of divorce goes up. I guess I knew that in the back of my mind but I hadn't really thought about that. That can be quite difficult, but Gary stepped up, at least for the foreseeable future, and we will have to wait and see what comes.

Speaker 1:

I hope you enjoy this episode. Join me next time as we jump back into Dallas. I'm gonna do that while it's fresh on my mind. We got to get Lucy Hitched. I believe it's a two-parter. I may just do both of them together and then we'll just compound. On everything else, I've already watched Falcon Crest. I have not watched Dynasty yet, but Falcon Crest was good, good, oh my God, it was so good. We got to talk about the fashion, the weird clever realness, the kookaloo hair, the Zsa, zsa outfits to bed. It's a whole mess. In the meantime, in between time, take care of yourself. I mean that you only get one body. Treat it well, stay moisturized, stay hydrated, mind your business and keep all of your drama on TV. Bye.