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S2 EP14 Knots Landing -Moments of Truth : The "Baby Showers and Hostage Hours" Episode

• Jett Shae • Episode 243

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What if the heart of suburban drama was just a click away? With Knott's Landing now on Amazon Prime, we're ready to explore the layered world of this classic series, where behind every white picket fence lies a story of intrigue and emotion. Our latest episode takes you back to the golden age of crime time television, spotlighting iconic moments from season two that showcase the perfect blend of humor, suspense, and raw human experience. From the seemingly innocent setting of Val and Gary's baby shower to the heart-pounding hostage situation that follows, we peel back the layers of this beloved show to reveal the complex dynamics that have kept fans captivated for decades.

Join us as we unravel the intricacies of the relationships that make Knott's Landing a timeless saga. Dive into the simmering tensions between Kenny and Ginger as they navigate trust and betrayal, and witness the contrasting approaches to fidelity with couples like Val and Sid. Our conversation not only revisits the gripping moments of seasons past but also offers insights into the emotional resilience that defines the characters' journeys. Tune in to relive the drama, uncover hidden truths, and immerse yourself in the suburban secrets that make Knott's Landing a staple in television history.

Speaker 1:

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome, or welcome back to Soap Lure, the official gathering place where newbies, novices and OG diehard fans of the golden age of crime time. I'm your host, shep, the winning reviewer here, and I'm so pissed that the economy on Soap Lure is not going to be anywhere anymore. So, whether you're new to this or true to this, sit back and enjoy, tell the kids to play outside or out of sight, tell they have no questions, suggestions or concerns. For the next 25 to 35 minutes, everyone else in the air shop will require a kick out of your only option, because we have an exciting announcement. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, this is Cirque du Soleil. This is so cool. Hello Georgia, welcome back to so Cool and Fun, the most exciting, most exclusive, most popular video on the airwaves. Hope you guys are having a wonderful day. I am even later.

Speaker 1:

I didn't realize Christmas came early. This year Christmas came not on December 25th but on December 1st. I didn't realize this until December 6th and I was minding my business, riding in the car with my husband scrolling on my phone, and I noticed something that said Knott's Landing. Now, usually I jump over those. I avoid it. Sometimes I'll take a quick little peek at the title to decide whether or not I want to delve into it. Sometimes I'll take a quick little peek at the title to decide whether or not I want to delve into it, but this says Not Slamming is now streaming on Prime Guys. I have not. Oh my God. I'm so excited, I am so pumped. If you don't, if you didn't know that run, don't, walk to Amazon Prime. Borrow a password. For God's sakes. If you have to Do the free trial for seven days and binge it over the holidays.

Speaker 1:

Knott's Landing is back and it took so long. I'm wondering why these networks decide, or how they decide rather, what to release and not to release. I can't imagine why this wasn't released sooner. I saw a little clip on YouTube too. It's like it's 45 years old. It premiered 45 years ago, in November, so it's long overdue and people still enjoy it. New audiences can find this now. I am beyond pumped y'all and oh my God. So I think I'm going to entertain myself tomorrow by going back and watching season one again, now that I'm looking at everybody through different eyes to see if I, if it's as good as I think it is, which I know it is the character progression is giving everything it needs to. Every character is interesting. I would be upset if any of them left, even Richard, but I'm so excited.

Speaker 1:

Okay, enough about that, let's jump into season two, episode 14. This episode is called Moments of Truth. There's so much going on on this one. Grab yourself something bubbly and bright, borrow your friend's password, watch it for yourself and then come back here Tell me the show ain't the macaron. Season two, episode 14, moments of Truth.

Speaker 1:

Location really is so important when you think about where you're going to live or where you're going to shoot a movie or shoot a show. Knott's Landing, being a suburb of LA, makes this so much more interesting, because you can have an influx of crime. You can have times of peace because it's supposed to be quiet. You know it's a suburbs. This episode brings yet another piece of drama to the cul-de-sac. We've had dirt bags on dirt, bikes come through and run amok. So they clearly do not live in a gated community. Anyone can come and go as they please.

Speaker 1:

Well, on this particular night, the lady folks are all gathered at Val and Gary's house having a little get-together for Ginger having like a mini baby shower. They're actually having dinner and they're having a good old time. Abby's there, karen's there, laura's there and Diana shows up too. Val, of course, is hosting and they're talking about their food cravings, waking up in the middle of the night making grilled cheese, jalapeno sandwiches with onions, and I'm like that sounds good, even if you're not pregnant, of being pregnant. Abby's like oh my gosh, sex is so amazing when you're pregnant. Karen's like girl, please don't talk about this in front of your niece, not knowing. Diana has had her own little rendezvous, which they haven't brought up again, which I think is in good taste, because this isn't exactly a teenage soap opera. When Diana is full grown, I'm sure she'll be in heavy rotation. So while the women are enjoying champagne at Ginger's baby shower, ginger too is sipping on some champagne. I keep forgetting. The liquor laws are different. Nobody was concerned about a six month appearance. She's showing so she's at least six, seven months pregnant. Woman taking it to the head. No one cares.

Speaker 1:

The men folk are over at a bar and gary's still on the on the wagon, but he said richard and henny are just kind of chopping it up, talking about boxing, and there's a funny scene richard's trying to hit on this girl at the bar. She's giving him absolutely nothing because obviously she has a man. Her man walks up, he leaves, goes over to the table talking about, oh you know, booze and broads. This is such a wonderful thing. They're talking about the fighters. How this kid from Mexico was like the new Sugar Ray Leonard, it's amazing. And Sid stands up and he reaches over the table and he's like play boxing with Kenny. He's like hey, kenny can like, hey, kenny, can you fight? Blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 1:

And I'm thinking to myself Kenny's chin, whether he wants to admit it or not, still has the barcode on it. He just ripped that out, the plastic and had that installed. You can't punch a face like Kenny and run the risk of ruining that surgery. I don't know if it's surgery or not. He has a very distinct and very prominent chin that may or may not be organically grown. Either way, it looks fantastic and I'm thinking that face is way too pretty. Kenny has not been in any fights.

Speaker 1:

This episode made me realize something, though Gary Ewing is about that life. If ever there's smoke to be had, gary wants it. Maybe it's all that repressed Ewing energy. He's not quite a JR, not quite a Bobby she's. Oh, I'm so mad and people want so much from me. So when the opportunity presents itself to throw them bows, as we used to say back in the day, gary is ready, willing and definitely able, but we'll get to that soon enough. Able, but we'll get to that soon enough. So the men folk and the women folk are having their respective parties, celebrating the birth of ginger and kenny's new baby, who is yet to be born, but they're just celebrating their opening gifts at the house with val and valine, of course, brings out this really beautiful cake hey, girl, let's have a little cake. And the women are like yeah, yeah, yeah. So they send Karen, sends Diana into the kitchen to get dessert forks and dessert plates.

Speaker 1:

Timing is perfection. Have you ever almost did something and just stopped? One day I was about to leave for work and I was going to stop on the way and pick up coffee and breakfast, but I was like I just didn't really feel like it because I'm like if I stop once, I'm gonna have to stop twice. I'd really rather just kind of spend a little more time at home. I'll make my coffee here and I'll go. What would the amount of time that it would have taken me to gather my purse, go, start my car and then drive off.

Speaker 1:

I hear this really, really, really loud crash when I go to investigate it. This was years ago when I was owning an apartment. There had been like this massive pile up, this huge crash. I would have 100% been in that. But I'm like no, I'm just going to make my coffee at home today and then I'll head on into work. I was late but I had a great excuse. So I mean, I did actually end up getting coffee because I was my nerves were frazzled. What I did actually end up getting coffee because I was my nerves were frazzled. What was I supposed to do? Karen had that same little thing. Hey, diana, go in there, get some cake plates and cake forks and come on out. Well, no, sooner than she does this, diana goes in the kitchen.

Speaker 1:

Val starts winding up her old school Kodak camera, starts taking pictures to commemorate this party. When there's these very aggressive knocks at the door, the women at first think it's the men coming back. Well, why would they be knocking? So, val, she looks a little nervous. She opens the door. Two masked men come bursting into the house with shotguns. Everybody on the ground, everybody on the ground. Oh my God, everybody's sick to their stomach. But Diana is safely in the kitchen and luckily these fools were loud enough so she heard them. So she just kind of presses her body up against the wall so she can't be seen.

Speaker 1:

One of the mask men tells the other, the women, to take off all of their jewelry, wallets, whatever, put it in the bag. That mask man tells the other mask man hey, go check the house, make sure there's no one else here. He runs upstairs, he runs back down, he didn't bother going in the kitchen. He's like the coast is clear. So Diana knows that they don't know she's there. Well, the first mask man says well, go watch the door. So now Diana knows, okay, I can't slip out the front door. So she ends up slinking around the kitchen and going out of the window, running next door, calling the cops. And thank God she did, because after these people start getting what they want, one of them mentions that they need to just take care of these people. As in, you know, take care of them, take care of them. The women are freaking out, ginger of course the most, because, hell, she's pregnant. The last thing she don't want to be laying on her stomach. A, b. Nobody wants to be held at gunpoint.

Speaker 1:

There is a third masked man outside who has decided to take off his mask and just chill, because you know, this is before ring cameras, this is before cell phone. There's no surveillance. He has the freedom to just stand out there and smoke a cigarette for as long as he want, because csi ain't that good either in 1981. But he sees the cops start coming down the road. Now I don't know what the hell is wrong with the knots landing police department. I don't know why they can't drive and they don't understand the concept of like, turning corners. So you hear the sirens and then you see the cop car and he. It's like they drive down the road and they realize they've driven too far past. They have to reverse, do like a three point turn and come down the cul-de-sac. Now this fool had enough time to take a few more puffs off a cig, throws it on the ground, stamps it out and then he runs off in the house. Hey, the cops are coming. The cops are coming. Obviously everyone can hear it. So shout out to Diana for being on her scooby-doo-bee-doo mystery runaway. Slip out of the house before the bad guys are unmasked. She did her thing and right about this time the guys are at the bar and they're deciding it's probably time to go home. It's almost 11 pm. They're grown like me and you know we're over that y'all. I'm so embarrassed.

Speaker 1:

I had a Christmas party what was that? Last week that I was helping host and it was. We're having a good time, but I didn't realize that it was supposed to run to like 1030, 11. We started at six. Oh, I had to go home. I don't mind a good party, but I'm just like I've been out all day. Maybe if it was like a Saturday where I hadn't been doing much all day, I probably could hang. But God, this is for the birds. So me and the men folk feel like 10 o'clock, this is enough of this, let's go home.

Speaker 1:

So they, they pull up on the street and all the men can see is that there's cops everywhere. But I have to remember this is before cell phones, this is before anything else. They're not actually sure what happened. As far as they know, someone could have, there could have been an accident, there could have been a fire. So they're just kind of looking around and the cops are telling them they should leave. They're trying to explain that they live in this, in this area, and one of the guys at the sheriff, one of the cops, recognizes Sid. So he's like oh hey, diana didn't know how to get a hold of you. She comes running out of the back of the car and she explains to the gentleman hey, yeah, there was three.

Speaker 1:

Two dudes burst in the house with guns. They have everybody at gunpoint right now. So the cop says well, who lives next door to the fair gates? Richard said that's my house. He tells everybody just to go over there. So now the men are heading over there and they're fully aware of the situation at hand.

Speaker 1:

Only there's really not much they can do. They have to obey the cops. They have to just kind of sit back and wait. They even have to jump the fence in order to get to Richard's house. Don't really understand why. Even if the cops are blocking the driveway, they're still liable. It matters not. Just know that everybody is fully aware of the situation. The women are living through it. They understand that Diana's fine and that things are about to go down.

Speaker 1:

So, as luck would have it, the first officer that showed up showed up with a negotiator. So they've made contact. They've been calling on the phone, talking to the guys that are holding everyone hostage. This isn't going over very well. Matter of fact, these people are hella annoyed by all this chatter, chatter, chit-chat because they came to rob, possibly maim, shoot, destroy and be on their merry little way.

Speaker 1:

If you watch the show or if you're watching it in real time, I really, really, really hope that you guys go back and watch it first. You'll notice that on the cul-de-sac, val and Gary's house is unique because they are the only people who have a fence in front of their yard. Everyone else can run from their front door out into the cul-de-sac, but not them. They have this spiked bar fence. So if I'm a robber or a burglar whatever these people like to be called you would think that if you're going to do a smash and grab, or if you just want to do a little B&E, steal a little something and move on, why not pick one of the homes with a little less security? Why not pick a home that's empty? Because if everyone's gathered at Val's house, they can't very well be at their own house.

Speaker 1:

We learned through a small conversation that Sid and Karen's boys are off at basketball camp. Abby's kids are away at camp, jason who is Laura and Richard's son is at the babysitter. So they bypassed four other unlit homes and picked the one house that was not only well lit but there was a gate fortified. You already know these people are on a different level. They just didn't want to do a little B&E. They had a plan, they wanted to scare someone, they wanted to take a hostage, they wanted the whole, they wanted an assault charge, basically.

Speaker 1:

So the women are in the house and Ginger is not doing well. I don't know if she's going into like false labor, if she's, the stress is inducing labor, but she is not doing well and one of the kidnappers or burglars or whatever decides, instead of negotiating with the cops over the phone, they're going to parade Ginger out in front of everybody so that they can get their needs met. They're thinking, hey, we got this pregnant lady. If you don't want anything to happen to her, send us a van, we'll drop her off at the hospital. The negotiator feels like he's at the bazaar versus like a hostage situation. Well, what are you going to give me? Listen, I understand how these things work, but they're at a standstill at this point. It's as if he's calling their bluff, which would be fine if these were normal people. However, anyone who chose to do armed robbery, pick the house with people in it and then chose to do it, he's going to have people you can negotiate with.

Speaker 1:

Well as this person let's go ahead and tell it's a woman is parading Ginger around in front of the cops. Kenny gets wind of it because he can see out the window at Richard's house. So he comes bursting out of the house, takes a cop and two of the menfolk to hold him back. He's trying to get to his woman. He just can't even believe this is happening. But after he gets back he's like you know what, fellas, I was tripping. You're right, jet's right. This chin and me. I just I'm sorry, I don't know what. I don't know what got into me. I thought I could get over there. Cops, I really need you to do something. So when they see, it's almost as if every other man had that same reaction. They just didn't act on it. So when they go back in the house, they're talking to the guy, the cop, who's explaining the situation. They're wondering why is everything taking so long? How come nothing is happening? And he explains to them they need to take their time, they want to draw this out take as long as possible, because it incentivizes the burglars to not do any harm to any of the hostages. You know what I mean. They're already kind of surrounded, but the truth is they're waiting on SWAT to get there. So I'm assuming SWAT was very new at this time. Richard is the mouthpiece, kind of explaining to us what SWAT means and why they're there.

Speaker 1:

But the women are just more concerned with Ginger. Once Ginger gets put back into the house, the third burglar seems to have a heart of gold. So you have a woman, a man and then a younger man. Now the younger man is looking at gender and he's really concerned, like we got to figure out something, like she's not faking these pains, but the woman is is surprisingly cold and insensitive. So we get a little bit of a backstory. She and guy number one I got to give them names or it's going to get confusing.

Speaker 1:

So we have the woman woman, the woman boss who's running the thing, the ringleader she's married to 90s heartthrob haircut robber, who also happens to be hopped up on that stuff. He's on that smack, he's on them drugs. So he's extremely irrational the entire episode. It makes it so much more tense because you know he's not in his right mind and you really don't know what he's going to do. It's like he's going to accidentally shoot someone. He's kind of sweating. He's over there flirting with Abby. Abby's flirting with him, but the women are slowly coming to the realization that nothing is happening. Abby is, of course, flirting with 90s heartthrob robber. He's got the skeet over his haircut. He's got that Rider Strong, that quintessential 90s haircut in 1981.

Speaker 1:

As the ringleader boss lady is watching on, she gets annoyed. She tells Abby, just get the hell out of here. Turns out ringleader and 90s heartthrob used to be married at some point but she divorced him real quick because she knew he wasn't ish. She also can tell that he's high and she's pissed because he promised not to be getting high. She needs him in a clear state of mind. He needs to be conscious, he needs to be cognizant of all the things that are going on. But he can't do that without that dope and he's like I'm so sorry, baby, I just need this to get through. And now she's like crap. Like you can tell, she's kind of defeated but she's playing the game. The burglar with the heart of gold is just kind of off to the side watching everything, feeling guilty and whatnot. He is not meant for this. This is not his ministry.

Speaker 1:

In the kitchen, abby is drinking water from the faucet like she's five years old. When Laura swipes the faucet head the other way, starts filling up a glass because she's classy, immediately you get to see the difference between the two. Laura is disgusted. She's disgusted because she sees Abby flirting with 90s heartthrob robber. Probably she's annoyed too because she knows that Abby and Richard had a whole thing going on. So Abby gets is in her feelings because she wanted to continue to drink water from the cup of her hands. But she's like Laura, what is your problem? I was like you know what my problem is. You are my problem. You know my last nerve.

Speaker 1:

She and Abby go back and forth a little bit and before you know what, laura goes you're such a slut and slaps the taste out of Abby's mouth. Now Abby turns her head. It hurt, it hurt. You know what I'm saying. She's not going to cry, but it hurt. But she's holding her face and it's almost as if she's like okay, I'm going to let you have that one Because I know that. You know that. You know that. I know that I'm sleeping with your man or was. So I'm going to let that, I'm going to let you have that one, but I need you to understand something. I'm doing what I have to see. See, abby has already put it together in her mind. These people are crazy and they need an opening, and she's willing to do whatever it takes If that means he gets to fill her up. That means she's got to take one for the team so that they can maybe break through a window or something. So be it. And you start to see, even though Laura doesn't like her, she knows Abby's telling the truth. And we start to realize that Abby is not only like the neighborhood seductress. She weaponizes sex in many different ways and in this instance she's. I'll use what I got to get what I want, and I want an opening for us to get the heck out of here. The other women are really starting to feel that way too. They're starting to understand. It's taking way too long. Gender is getting worse, worse and worse. Eventually they're going to have to come up with a plan and get out of there themselves. No one is coming to save them, and that is super unfortunate because the drugs are starting to run their course.

Speaker 1:

Within 90s heartthrob burglar. He starts flipping out, tells the cop to have 15 minutes and he wants sandwiches and coffee. So he wants somebody to get in the kitchen and make it happen. He reaches for Laura, of course, karen being the superhero she is, she jumps up to wrestle him down and her wedding ring falls from out of her bosom. See, when they were dumping all of their jewelry and whatnot into that bag, she shoved her wedding ring in her mouth and put her other jewelry in there and then just stuffed it in her bra. Later it has come undone and this makes 90s heartthrob come undone. He reaches back to kenya, comes all across the atlantic, all across the continental us, and slaps her three feet back. She's freaked out because now they know this is just getting worse for wear.

Speaker 1:

It's not going any better over at the men folks house either. Gary is starting to get wound up. He's seeing all this commotion the whole SWAT thing did not go over well with him because he's thinking can't send people over there with automatic weapons and not expect something to pop off. I totally agree with him, but also agree with the negotiator. He's like these dudes know their job. I mean, it's been this long. This is kind of a formula. He's like these dudes know their job. I mean, it's been this long. This is kind of a formula. This ain't going to happen.

Speaker 1:

Now, somehow or another, this reporter manages to walk into Richard's house asking all these questions and he's like kind of giving them attitude, gary ain't with it. Like I said, there's smoke to be had, gary wants it. Plus, this is a hostage situation. There's a whole situation going on at his house. So he ends up attacking the damn reporter, laying hands on him, beating him off. It takes two, three, five cops to pull Gary off of this dude. He's about that action Jackson, but I mean it's a tense situation. He hasn't had a lick to drink.

Speaker 1:

Eventually you start to see how everybody really is feeling. Kenny is clearly upset, the women are clearly upset. Um, the redheaded lady, the boss. I forgot to mention this part. She did end up saving, caring because 90s heartthrob after he slapped her across the room he was about to butter in the face with the gun, but she went and she stopped him. But, like I said, this woman looks defeated this entire episode. She already knows her fate is sealed, but she's just doing. She's doing the bare minimum. She is quietly quitting a life of crime. They just have to make it through this whole fiasco. So I don't want to give away too too much Now that we all have kind of an equal playing field. This one is out there for everyone to watch. So I'm going to leave out a little chunk. But I'll say this this episode was so, so good. It was tense, it was dramatic. I love it. It involved the entire cast.

Speaker 1:

There's an unusual moment with Richard that is starting to pull me into him more and more. He has these little moments from time to time where you see his humanity, you see the sort of soft, gooey center inside his hard candy exterior and you know there's something there. I don't think he's a good person. I don't even think he's a hurt person. I think he's an egomaniac. But he has these moments where it's like I forget how dependent he really really is on Laura and then with Laura I just forget she's so go with the flow when it comes to him. I forget that there's actually maybe a little bit of tension. He's the only one who's ever really really going to show it. She always just kind of goes with everything and she's managing this whole thing with Abby well. But at the same time, I'm wondering why they don't confront each other. She didn't even confront her in the kitchen, she just called her a slut. We all know what she was talking about. It ain't really about 90s heartthrob, it's really about Richard. But I'm starting to enjoy that sort of tension and I'm starting to enjoy getting a peek at his psyche from time to time.

Speaker 1:

It's worth noting that Kenny and Ginger still don't fully live with each other. This episode she is making him work for it and it's interesting to see the contrast between how hard he has to work to get back into Ginger's good graces, even though she acknowledged that he'd had affairs before. But when it comes to some of the other couples, val is completely content to just let it go, not say a word. I don't know what's going to come up with Sid. I still really, really really like to know if Sid did the do. I kind of feel like he did. Hopefully that comes back up. I don't see Karen. I don't see her pulling a ginger and making him work to get back. Seems like the rest of the women are kind of content to just be like okay, this is life, this could be that Kenny and Ginger are the quote unquote newlyweds and so their fights are going to be a little bit more substantial. But yeah, this was a good episode. It was very tense the entire time. They made sure to make even though this is like a 45 minute show they made sure to feel like make you feel every minute of tension that was within the household while they were being held hostage. I'm going to leave off the end, hoping you guys go and watch this. That's it, that's all.

Speaker 1:

Join me for another fun-filled edition of Soap Floor as we explore another episode of Nod's Landing. We are season two, episode 15. Don't know what it's called. You'll find out with me next time. In the meantime, in between time, my God Set up the ring camera. Lock the door If three people walk into a room and five people are in that room. Make it a night baby. Make it work for a while. Make it a long night for everybody involved. If I'm going to sweat, baby, you're going to sweat baby. Then moisturize, stay hydrated, mind the things you do, lock the doors and keep all of your problems out of your head. Thank you, bye.