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S3 EP3 Knots Landing - Aftermath: The "Karen (can't) Explain It All" Episode

• Jett Shae • Episode 258

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Can unspoken emotions reshape our lives? Join us as we examine the powerful narrative of Season 3, Episode 3 of Knott's Landing, where tragedy forces characters to confront their deepest feelings. We delve into Karen's journey through grief after Sid's passing, capturing her determination to stand strong for her children and community. This episode paints a compelling picture of silent sorrow, particularly in how characters like Laura, Ginger, Val, and Gary express their heartache. Together, we uncover the poignant theme of resilience in the face of loss, as Karen takes on the mantle of leadership at Sid's dealership.<br><br>Our discussion extends to the complex web of guilt and growth, focusing on Gary's struggles and Valene's remarkable composure. With Karen's unspoken decision to sell Sid's hot rod adding tension to family dynamics, we explore the critical role of communication in navigating grief. As Karen eventually finds a cathartic release, we reflect on the universal necessity of acknowledging and expressing one's emotions. This episode isn't just a narrative but an invitation to embrace vulnerability and the healing power of a heartfelt cry. Tune in and discover the emotional truths that Knott's Landing so beautifully reveals, reminding us all of the strength found in vulnerability.

Speaker 1:

She needs your strength more than ever right now. Sulk in the shower, man the hell up, squeeze into your jeans and your shirt and everything else, walk around, make this money and then move on. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome, or welcome back to another fun-filled edition of Soap Floor Hopefully fun-filled. I'm your host, jet, viewing and Reviewing one of the silkiest, sudsiest primetime storylines of all times. Most likely, we are back in Knott's Landing for Season 3, episode 3. 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 babe no questions, suggestions or concerns for the next 25 to 35 minutes. Everyone else in earshot, cool, quiet or kicked out. Those are the only options I have. I have nothing left to give. You Can't get with it. Get out, because we are watching our stories. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, this is Soap Lore. Hello party people. Welcome back to another fun-filled edition of soap lord. Oh, how you doing so clean. How you doing friend, you good. I am so curious to see what the newbies. If you're watching this in real time, were you you in shock? Did you really think he would die? I did not think it and it was a possibility, but I wasn't really thinking it'd go there. I thought he'd probably be in a wheelchair for most of the rest of the season or something like that. Did not see that coming in. Trust me say we'll be eulogized. However, at a time of this recording, I just finished watching that yesterday, so I need a minute to sit in my feelings. But I thought you know what, jill, let's persevere, let's go ahead and get through this, and that's exactly what I intend to do.

Speaker 1:

On season three, episode three. It's something about the tertiary seasons. Like you understand that you're probably popular enough at this point. I haven't done a lot of digging with with Nonslaining, because I don't want any spoilers. That's the difficult part about watching this blind. You just never know what's going to pop up. And, by and large, what I'm finding is that people who love the show love it and they want other people to love it. They don't want it spoiled. So shout out to everyone who texts or gives me little tidbits I love it so much. Thank you for never, ever, ever spoiling and I promise you, on the next episode we will definitely eulogize Sid first. But I just kind of want to get through episode three because fool me once, fool me twice. I can't do this a third time in shambles. Considering Sid is gone, I fully anticipate this to be a very sad episode. So I'm going to go against the grain this time. Watch it to completion and then come back and we'll discuss it a little bit. Okay, grab yourself something bubbly and a comfortable blanket. Probably should be sitting down. I hope you're sitting down. I guess it doesn't matter, you could be at home listening to this. That's irrelevant.

Speaker 1:

Let's jump into season three, episode three of Nos Landing Aftermath. Wow, okay, the best way to describe this episode is that it is really all about Karen. When the show opens up, we are at Sid's burial. We're graveside. She and the children are surrounding his casket. The rest of the gang are sort of flanked in various spots around the cemetery as the preacher reads his final words.

Speaker 1:

You're just kind of looking at everyone. You can tell they're watching Karen. She hasn't shed a tear. She's not crying. The kids aren't crying either. If I'm being fair, and I just thought this is probably that they're all cried out. They didn't cry on the way home from the hospital, they cried that one time I really thought she was going to pass out. I thought for sure she was going to faint once the doctor told her he died, but she didn't. She just sort of dug deep and she is being strong for the children Now. Obviously you know she's in grief, you know she's in pain, but she has the best poker face, except at the grave site. So she looks a little bit like she's in a trance or just someone who is in shock. And as we look around, Laura's actually crying, ginger's getting a little bit upset, val is watching Karen like a hawk, like a hawk watches it pray, and so is Gary. Only the look on Valene's face is like okay, okay, when she breaks I'm going to jump in and catch her. Gary's just like oh my God, I did this to you.

Speaker 1:

This episode is so rich and so good. I really hope you watch it for yourself, because Knott's Landing is doing that thing that they do so well, that sort of unspoken, just beautiful expression. There's so many times that I've watched this show and nobody's saying a word. It's just like those moments where you catch people by themselves, the way they're thinking, and just not saying a word. But you can. You can hear everything they're thinking, you can feel everything they're feeling. This episode is very, very heavy on that. So Sid is buried. Karen's looking around the crowd herself. She kind of makes eye contact with Gary at one moment and it's like he almost burps down. He doesn't cry but it looks like he really wants to. But as they say, the show must go on.

Speaker 1:

So the next time we see Karen she is at the dealership, or having like a rally morning muster, if you will, and it seems as if everyone at the dealership is not only sad that Sid is gone it's an awful tragedy but they're worried that the shop, the business, is going to close. She called this meeting first thing in the morning so that she could let them all know that's not the case. We're going to carry on as usual and I need your help. I thank you guys all so much. We're a family here. We're just going to keep persevering, it'll be fine. Abby walks in and I didn't realize that she was late or anything at first. But once the meeting is over, karen goes to her office to look at the books and walks Abby. Karen has let Abby go. She decided Abby, you don't work here anymore. Such an interesting dynamic because it's like they obviously love each other.

Speaker 1:

But it's very, very clear that Karen has always felt a way about Abby. She didn't. From what I gather, from what we've seen so far, abby has never really had to carry any responsibility. And that might be cute when you're a kid, but when you are an adult and you still sort of behave that way, it puts a bad taste in your mouth. And if you remember, sid never saw anything Abby did as wrong, while Karen watched her be manipulative and felt away.

Speaker 1:

So when the time came and Karen knew that she needed to continue on with Sid's business, that selling it was not an option, she had to pick between the two lesser evils. Yeah, gary did a bad thing, so did Abby. And that's Abby's point. She's like, okay, you just said you needed help, but how come you won't let me help? You're struggling over these books? She's like, okay, you just said you needed help, but how come you won't let me help? You're struggling over these books. It's going to take you all day, it'll take me like five minutes. Karen's like I'm just sorry, I can't do it, abby, and Abby's like you're mad because I doctored the books. That's what a bookkeeper does. Gary gets to stay. How come he gets to stay? And at made the money as where you hid the money. I mean, y'all both lie, but at the end of the day, I'm able to feed my kids because Gary is good at business and I dislike him less than I like you. Finally, karen just comes out and she says it Abby, I don't trust you and I don't think I ever will.

Speaker 1:

Abby goes into this thing, which I thought was very interesting, because everyone at the funeral or at the burial was waiting for Karen to collapse, to break down. She hasn't. Everyone in the dealership is now looking to her as like the new leader. What are we going to do? She's just as cheerful as ever. We're going to keep this business running. Everyone's either leaning on her for emotional support or waiting for her to need to be held up in some sort of emotional support. Or waiting for her to need to be held up in some sort of emotional support.

Speaker 1:

Abby, which I didn't even think about, says I need to mourn. I don't feel like I can mourn. Karen finds this to be a ridiculous statement. Of course you can mourn Abby's like. No, this was my big brother. I loved him too. He's gone. My children are gone. I don't even have a job to go to anymore. I'm sitting at my house alone and I need some sort of support. She says that in so many words and you can tell like, on one hand, karen wants Abby to have to sort of not necessarily mourn by herself, but she's like I don't, I'm not in charge of that. You have to figure that out.

Speaker 1:

What people are failing to realize, especially the ones very, very close to her, from my perception on the beginning of this episode, is that this is a new thing she is. There's no book for this. There's no book for how to actually handle grief. Grief is not linear. It's going to be different on different days and she's doing the best she can. But she is such a strong pillar to so many people that they are now looking at her like hey, hey, I want to cry but I don't really feel like I can.

Speaker 1:

It's so interesting because it's obviously it's obvious that Karen pulls weight in the neighborhood and that she is such a support system for everyone. I don't know. I didn't really think about her being a role model of how to handle everything. It's not just Abby, it's the kids too. So, interestingly enough, diana, who I have found to be a huge brat, again has taken over Karen's role Right away. She stepped in. Baby boy what's his name? Michael Michael is handling the grief by reading the obituaries every single morning. Even five weeks later he's looking for his dad in the paper. Essentially, diana cooks, she makes breakfast. She kind of watches the kids a little bit more. She's definitely stepped up as a partner for her mom. She's helping her mom out the best she can. I fully expected Diana to be a little more bratty and flip out on her, so I'm really really glad that she isn't. But there's still more to come.

Speaker 1:

Now the middle boy, eric, or the middle Eric, is quietly crying in the garage as the show proceeds. You understand that nobody is crying in the house because they're not really talking to each other. They're not really talking about it. Diana can only take so much. So she confronts mom One time at the beginning of the show. She's like hey, I think we should talk, don't you think we should talk about this? And Garrett's like no, everything's fine, everything's great, but it's not.

Speaker 1:

See, she's having these moments at the dealership, where she can't even sit in Sid's office. His door is closed. She has to go in there and get some books at one point and you just watch her breathe everything in. You know it still smells like him. You know it does. He had a closet there where he kept a clean change of clothes so he could come out of his coveralls, put on his good clothes and go home and be with him and she just kind of she walks in that space and it's almost like it's a sacred place, which is why I'm thinking she's probably not going in there as much as she wants to, but then she can't really escape it because when she goes home it's the same thing. It's his house. Her bed is empty, his clothes are still in the closet, his toothbrush is still in the bathroom, but she's just maintaining this sort of stoic not necessarily stoic, it's. More of this won't bring me down. I'm going to be as mildly cheerful as I possibly can be.

Speaker 1:

As the episode progresses, we get to see the family and how that unit works, and it's not much different than it was when Sid was there. Only now Karen is gone most of the day. She's not just picking up the slack at home. That's not that different. That's what she's always done. What's different now is that she is she's had to absorb Sid's role almost completely at work, so she's staying later in Laker and there's a scene where Michael calls her and it gave me this fun sort of nostalgia, like I remember having to call my mom when we came home from school. And I mean, kids still call their moms. We call each other all day, every day anyway. But it used to mean if you called your mom at work that meant you were at home. I just kind of miss that now. When kids call, now they can be anywhere, I be anywhere, but it's that sort of connection. But the thing is he's lonely, like where are you coming home? What's happening? What are you doing this? So in a sense the kids have lost their father completely and because of that they're sort of losing their mom too.

Speaker 1:

After one particularly rough dinner where Diana makes this beautiful feast and then she gets pissed at her brother for ruining the way the chicken by just kind of hacking through it, it all comes to a boil. Diana confronts Karen and she basically tells her we're sick of the way you're acting. We're all looking to you, we don't know how to act because you won't actually say anything. Or are you going to say like, give us something so we can get through this? We're like you're the only parent we have. Do something, say something. Karen says I can't say anything because I'll get mad. Now this is where I did want to pop Diana in her mouth. Don't forget your place, little girl. I don't care how many hamburger helpful meals you make, I'm still the mother. But Diana gets upset because Karen says she's going to get mad and she's yelling like a teenage brat. But like I said in the last episode, you got to give her a lot of grace because she just lost her father. So she's screaming all upside Karen's head about how she should say something. She should talk. None of us talk because you don't talk to us. Karen finally flips out like I'm mad at your father because he just had to be this noble person. He had to be the goody two shoes. He had his freaking morals, always trying to help and save. So basically she calls him Captain Save-A-Hope. And as she's saying this, she's getting more and more impassioned. But Diana's like okay, I didn't realize this was the smoke I was going to get. I don't want this anymore. So they're yelling back and forth at each other. Diana runs upstairs, much like Karen.

Speaker 1:

My favorite person in the world, mr Ewing, himself, is also struggling with all of this. Of course he's still working, he still feels this tremendous guilt, but he's also not really saying what he needs to say. Feline cocks this one morning as she's making breakfast. She's like oh my gosh, I'm so worried about Karen. I don't know how she does it all.

Speaker 1:

Gary is sulking at the table. Now two things can be true at once, people. Now two things can be true at once. I totally understand why he's sad and why he blames himself and he's always sulking. It's old Valene sets this beautiful I'm assuming oatmeal dish in front of him with fresh blueberries, and he's like I'm not hungry. I was pissed. I'm like why didn't you tell her that when you saw her cooking, you know what she was doing? He ain't said a word. And she calls him out on it, not the breakfast.

Speaker 1:

But she's like now, gary, I'm about tired of you moving around here with this guilt. If Karen's over, you need to be over it. He says well, no, because I'm the one who has to carry the guilt. Oh my god, gary, I get it. This is grief. You get to feel how you feel. I would never tell anybody how they should feel about anything. However, comma, comma, pause. Let's stop making this. Your entire personality. Oh my God, I'm the guy who was done wrong. I'm brooding, it's all my. Yes, it sucks, it sucks, but this woman needs you to show up at your best. She needs your strength more than ever right now. Sulk in the shower, man the hell up, squeeze into your jeans and your shirt and everything else, walk around, make this money and then move on. That may be a little bit insensitive, but that's just kind of thing she's like listen, she got over it. She has her own guilt. She had to sign the papers. She has guilt too, but she is still showing up. She needs to break down, but she's still showing up.

Speaker 1:

Richard in his new campaign I am loving Richard, these first three episodes at least. He tries to stop by the dealership to take her out to eat. Take Karen out to eat. She didn't want to go. So everything seems. Gucci and golden, diana and Karen have that argument. Valene tells Gary to snap out of it. He and Karen go to work. Now this has nothing to do with nothing, but gary and jr love a good safari jacket. Maybe that was just what was going on at the time, 1981. Maybe they borrowed from each other, but I noticed gary puts on the same safari jacket that jr likes to wear in dallas. Karen goes to work, sits in Sid's office. Now, he has no idea this is a faux pas. He has no idea there's a problem with it.

Speaker 1:

Karen, after click going off on her daughter that morning, walks into Sid's old office and Gary's in the chair. He's just working, he's just doing his job. He spins around and, before you know it, tasmanian devil spirit took over. She starts swinging on him. Pow pow, pow, pow pow. Unfortunately, she didn't get him in the face, but it's okay, I understand. She just lost it. She freaking, just blitzed lost it.

Speaker 1:

Gary gets up and he runs home. Gary don't want no smoke. He runs home and he bursts in the kitchen and talked to Valene, the Vidalia Onion Queen. He runs inside, he starts washing his face. Val hears him. She comes down. She's like what happened? He's clearly pissed off, right? She's like what happened? What's going on, what's wrong with you? And he's like nothing.

Speaker 1:

Eventually he tells her Karen hit me. She's like oh, my god, why. Then he snaps at her. Now here's the thing I just said can't tell anybody how they need to feel, especially during grief. However, valene is not the doormat anymore. Okay, she is not the punching bag. She is not the person you release all your crap onto and she just has to take it. So she's, she's being very cool. He tells her to grow up. Stop acting so happy-go-lucky, like everything will be all right if. If everybody smiles and bears it, everything's gonna be perfect.

Speaker 1:

I was so proud of her in this moment because she's like I I know what you're trying to do. You're trying to provoke me and guess what? You're not going to get it from me. You're not going to get me yelling and screaming at you, since you can absolve yourself from this guilt. You're going to have to work through this by yourself, gary, you're going to have to suck.

Speaker 1:

Got up and turns up, starts walking out. She's like where you going and I'm going back to work. She didn't fire me. I just love this. I love the growth, I love the tension, um, and it's interesting that he popped off on her. I guess that's part of love, though you don't always say the perfect things. You just need to say the real things, and that's sort of the underlying length, the theme of this episode. It hurts. Composure is important, strength is important, but so is anger, so is pain, so is losing it a little bit release, it's that thing. So eventually Karen comes around to the house.

Speaker 1:

Actually before we get to that, diana made me proud in one scene too, because she's talking to Eric letting him know it's okay to talk, but he's he's pissed because Karen went off and sold Sid's hot rod but she didn't tell anybody. That's the thing. She's not really communicating, and I see what they mean. She's not saying anything. It's not that they're just not talking. She's not saying anything to anyone. But Diana tries to convince him listen, give mom the same grace, because she's doing the exact same thing you're doing. She's running away from her pain, wants you to know I'm here if you need me.

Speaker 1:

So after Karen's outburst she does show up at Gary and almost said Gary and said at Gary and Valene's house to apologize. And to my surprise my girl Valene is a little bit pissed when she answers the door. She loves this man this much. She's like you know, what you're not gonna do is hit my man. I thought we was going to have a good old fashioned Kentucky knuckle fest, but that didn't happen. Karen decided she was going to apologize and vowed letter.

Speaker 1:

She basically finally is able to express it to somebody that there are too many emotions. She feels everything grief, anger, the pressure. She's feeling all these things and she is sorry that it came out on Geary. She also sort of sadly admits that she just tries not to think about him, which has to be the world's worst torture. This is someone you've been in love with. You have his family, you have his children. You see his sister Like she has to see him in everything she does and her coping mechanism is let's just not think about it. I think I'm going to stop there and just let you know that by the end of the episode, karen does have proper release. She's able to finally cry and let it out like she needs to, but it's for a very, very good reason.

Speaker 1:

I like to keep a little bit of this under wraps in case you watch it, so you have something to look forward to. This was so good. I don't think everything needs to be explained. I don't think you can explain everything. You don't always understand your own emotions and I find the older I get, the easier it is to talk yourself out of fully expressing yourself. You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1:

Like you, you put on these different masks or these different capes. You are someone's hero, someone's villain, someone's this or that, and when you need to really, really sit with yourself sometimes, that is just such an overwhelming, overpowering emotions. It's the one thing you can't physically walk away from. I think that's why emotions are so difficult. Well, you can try to exercise it in different ways. You can cover it up, you can pretend, you can convince yourself for a small amount of time that nothing's wrong, that you're strong. You just have to keep going on, but you will eventually break. That's just how life crumbles and this episode did a really, really good job of expressing that. So much tension, so much kind of underlying sadness. But they didn't just go for the heartstrings on this one. They let it happen naturally, and I'm really glad they did so.

Speaker 1:

Let's end it here. Let's keep this episode short and sweet. I believe we're going to jump back into one more episode of non-slanding just so we can get a. I need like a solid number at the beginning so that we can just do it three episodes at a time going forward. All right, guys, that's it, that's all. I hope you enjoyed this show. I hope you're watching it for yourself. Oh, I do need to clear up something. I keep saying it's on Amazon Prime, which it is, but it's under, like the Discovery app, within Amazon Prime, so you can get it and check out the show for yourself In the meantime. In between time, be good to yourself. Go ahead and have a good cry, let your emotions out. There's more room out than in. Stay hydrated, stay moisturized, mind your business and keep all of your drama on TV.