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S3 EP10 Knots Landing- Three Sisters: The " Boo'd and Boarded, Valene's Haunted Dream Home" Episode

• Jett Shae • Episode 276

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The moment I pressed play on Season 3, Episode 10 of Knots Landing, "Three Sisters," I knew something felt different. Five minutes in, it clicked—this wasn't just another drama-filled installment of our favorite primetime soap. This was Knots Landing's bold venture into the supernatural. What begins as a simple road trip transforms into something extraordinary when Laura, Karen, Valene, Lily Mae, Abby, and Ginger arrive at a secluded mansion 100 miles from home. Laura's there on business, tasked with selling the estate, while the others tag along for what they believe will be a pleasant overnight getaway. But from the first unsettling camera angles and mysterious gusts of wind, it's clear this house holds dark secrets. The genius of this episode lies in how it uses paranormal elements to explore profound character truths. Through Abby's research, we learn the mansion's tragic history—three young sisters whose mother was murdered by their father, left abandoned for months before being raised by a governess, never truly growing up as they remained in the house their entire lives. As strange occurrences multiply—windows that freeze to the touch, doors that lock from nowhere, eerie music boxes playing on their own—it's Valene who forms the deepest connection with the ghostly presence. Joan Van Ark delivers a mesmerizing performance as Valene's maternal void (having lost her daughter Lucy years earlier) makes her uniquely receptive to the ghostly children. Her trance-like state and eventual journey to the roof, where she nearly sacrifices herself to "join" the children, creates one of the series' most intense emotional climaxes. It's Lily Mae who ultimately saves her daughter, speaking directly to the spirits and breaking their hold. The final reveal—a Polaroid showing three ghostly girls standing behind Valene—provides the perfect conclusion to this anomalous yet thoroughly satisfying episode. "Three Sisters" stands as bold evidence that even the most grounded dramas can successfully venture into unexpected territory when they remain true to their emotional core. Ready to experience this haunting side of Knots Landing? Grab something bubbly, keep the lights on, and join me for an unforgettable journey into the supernatural edges of 80s television drama. When you're done, share your thoughts—did this paranormal detour surprise you as much as it did me?

Speaker 1:

oh, my god becky, I can't believe my eyes. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome back to another fun-filled edition of soap lor, I beg your pardon, beg your finest pardon, for the intrusion. We'll get to the intro, maybe later, maybe not. I decided on a whim. Okay, I'm gonna go ahead and watch a little bit of Not Slanding today, decided to watch it on my laptop while I sort out some other See the name of the title and I'm like, oh, okay, I think I know what this is about. This is probably a ginger episode. We hadn't had a full ginger kitty episode since they had baby two names. I plan to watch this from top to bottom and then review it, but I'm going to watch it in real time. Five minutes, view it, but I'm gonna watch it in real time. Five minutes and 54 seconds into this episode, despite the conversation that has been going on, it finally clicks. Is this the haunted mansion episode? Are we really going paranormal on knots landing? Is this what this is? I think they're serious. I think they're serious and I think I am seriously delighted. So I'm going to switch from watching this on the laptop. I'm going to go ahead and put it on my TV. You guys, grab something bubbly and bright.

Speaker 1:

While we jump into season three, episode 10 of Not Slanding Three Sisters, all right party people welcome, or welcome back to another fun little edition of so floor. Usual warning in place be cool, be quiet or you will be kicked out. Especially today, because I need to get to the bottom of this. This seems unprecedented for me. I have never, in recent memory at least, or past memory, seen a drama do sort of a sort of a spooky episode again five minutes and 54 seconds into the episode, and I feel like that's where they're going with this. Looks like it's an all girls episode as well. I hope your day is shaping up bright and wonderful. You might want to listen to this with the lights on. Actually, I doubt it. I I like a good mystery, I like a little bit of suspense, so let me, let me get you up. Just let me catch you up.

Speaker 1:

The show opens, uh, in front of some house, kind of a stucco, looking pinky, peachy house, very nice. It doesn't look. It's not run down or anything. It does look like no one lives there and the music is. It's not quite haunting, it's just some music. I had to rewind it back. I'm going to be honest, because it didn't seem like it was important at the time.

Speaker 1:

The girls are all out in front of the cul-de-sac, they're packing up for a trip. Lily Mae has a comically large picnic basket, just like Yogi Bear, and she's worried about the sandwich spoiling. You hear from Valene? Okay, yeah, we're just going to stay overnight. They're giving us the whole dynasty rundown where they tell you everything you need to know within the first 35 seconds. Yeah, we're on a road trip. We're gonna go over 100 miles away. There's no point in driving 100 miles up, 100 miles back. We're just gonna stay the night.

Speaker 1:

Seems like they're all going with Laura to check out this house. I'm assuming it's the same house. Karen comes out and she wants to go, but she doesn't want to go, like she has to go to work. Then she starts to remember eventually that she's a boss. Plus, if she goes they can all jump in her station wagon. They don't have to worry about taking this little bitty car and being cramped. So they all decide to go.

Speaker 1:

Now I am a little bit of boo-boo the fool. They mentioned the house. They mentioned a little bit about the haunting. I didn't really pay that much attention to it until we get fully in the car. That's where we're at at the five minute 54 second mark they're headed upstate, I suppose up or down state, I don't know to check out this mansion.

Speaker 1:

Laura says that her firm is in charge of of dealing with the estate, although it's worth noting that abby invited herself. They don't really want her to go like that, but you know, they're polite, everybody's too polite to say anything wild to her. So she goes, and I'm glad she did, because Abby and it seems like everyone else in the car on the trip is fascinated with this house. She's gone to the library god bless the days before a phone and she's done a little bit of research and everybody's like oh yeah, the house is haunted, it's haunted. And she's like, well, no, not technically, she's reading this from a book. Technically, this is this house isn't haunted. There's never actually been a ghost sighting within the house. Seems like everything happens outside the house. People claim they hear children, but no one's ever actually reported seeing anything within the house. Now they're having a good old time, just you know, laughing kiki and eating snacks, counting blah, blah, blah. I'm not going to give you a full blow, blah, blah.

Speaker 1:

I think I need to watch at least half of this. I'll come back on and talk about it and then we'll finish up, but I can't remember any sort of drama doing anything like this. Not in my memory. This feels like that episode of Saved by the Bell where they go to the murder mystery dinner and I guess they end up staying a weekend and then they think something really happens. This sort of feels like that, but I don't know how to take it. This is a drama. This is unprecedented. Are they really going paranormal on this? Or is this like the Scooby-Doo and Shaggy and them, where there's a monster wearing a mask? I really don't know. All I know is I'm going to watch it. I'm going to be very honest with you. I do not enjoy horror per se, the exception of like scream, because I felt like that was a person's more slasher than horror. I'm not a fan of gore. I don't anticipate any gore on this, but this feels like it's about to be a good time. We're on the haunted mansion knots landing ride. Oh yeah, I don't care what anybody said. There's already too much mess. Immediately, this is definitely the haunted house episode.

Speaker 1:

So abby goes on to read within this library book. She, she reads basically that no one's ever seen anything. There's kind of here kids, people, passerbyers, neighbors, people like that. No one ever reported anything within the house. The lore is that this woman Mifflin, mifflin, something like that was either super, super wealthy and just a recluse who lived with all her cats, or she was poor and destitute and lived with all her cats. Either way, they worried about the cats at the house. Lily Mae wants to know how many cats. Laura doesn't really care. Laura's counting coins. She's like this is a mansion. I am a million dollar mansion seller. That's all I'm going to do is sell this. I don't care if there's 10 cats or none. Lily Mae's like no old ladies like that always have a bunch of cats, but everybody's just kind of having a good time.

Speaker 1:

You can tell they don't really believe that this house is haunted. It's interesting, though Abby seems to be hyper focused. She seems to be the one who's actually doing like the research, while everyone else is just kind of content to enjoy the weekend, go up to the house. So they keep showing shots of the house and I'm noticing the music is kind of tense. It's kind of mysterious.

Speaker 1:

The house in and of itself is actually quite beautiful. It looks like a small mansion, vaguely familiar, as most mansions are on tv. But there is a little bit of a heaviness to it. They're shooting it at weird angles or shooting it kind of low. They're shooting this episode totally different than any episode they've ever done. I have not seen this done fully on any of the soap operas other than on falcon crash where they had the gloved person walking around like planning stuff and chase's house and about to bust someone over the head with a candlestick. It's almost shot like a horror film, like you're right up on the women. It's shot a little bit lower, as if someone is watching them. That's what it feels like and the house in and of itself feels like it's like it's swelling a little bit, like it's breathing. It's not overgrown, it does not look like an abandoned mansion.

Speaker 1:

But they keep showing like the doors keep slamming. The windows, excuse me, are opening and shutting, opening and shutting. The French door windows keep opening and shutting, opening and shutting. You can hear the wind and this is in between shots of the women in the car and then you'll see a shot of the house at that weird angle and you see shots in the car. They finally get to the house. Laura's like Karen'll see a shot of the house at that weird angle and you see shots in the car. They finally get to the house. Laura's like Karen, I gotta get the key out. Karen opens the door, walks right in. Oh okay, it's not dusty. I mean, I suppose a woman just died. So there's not really a lot to to take in. It's just a house. It's quite beautiful, but also a little old, little dated. So Laura gets to work immediately. She's taking Polaroids of any and everything. Ginger says that she starts missing baby two names as soon as she walks in. Okay, yeah, yeah. Clearly they're trying to set the mood for something. It is worth noting that Lily Mae does not seem to be bothered. One way or another, she needs to go to the bathroom. Her and Val have to empty their bladders. Lily Mae finds a bathroom downstairs. She's like okay, girl, go upstairs. So Val goes upstairs and again the camera is is kind of in her mid back, like it's right behind her. You feel like you're watching her, even though we're watching her. You know what I'm saying. Somebody's watching her. This is what it feels. Like she gets up to the top. They take a picture of her and then, like a random breeze comes through. So I'm like, okay, okay, so these things could be a coincidence. Okay, maybe it's gusty, it's on top of the hills, have eyes. It's obviously out in the middle of nowhere. Maybe it's just a little more breezy up here. She finds an upstairs bedroom, opens it and there's all these weird like statues throughout the house. There's a weird looking lion. She goes to the bathroom to handle her business, but when she tries to shut the window or the French door window that keeps opening and shutting, she can't do it. Like she reaches for the door and it's cold, or the window. She's like, oh my god, like she's rubbing her hands together, it's cold. Then all of a sudden, the bathroom door will not allow her to leave. She's beating. She's getting progressively more and more worried, like first it's hey y'all, can somebody let me out? Come on somebody please. She's starting to panic a little bit. She starts hollering for lily may, for karen, for anybody. They eventually hear her and and tell me why valine has blisters on her hands. I'm like valine, what happened? She says, oh, I was washing my hands and then I tried to shut the window, but it was so cold. It was so cold, it froze my freaking hands 14 and a half seconds into living in this house. Are they going to sleep here? Clearly something's up. Couldn't be me. I'm sorry. This is I mean maybe okay, okay, maybe getting stuck in the bathroom I'd be okay, but once I start getting blisters in SoCal from wind, please, here's the thing. That was definitely weird. Karen's like girl. Listen, I would have been here screaming like a lunatic too had I got locked in the bathroom in a fresh, brand new, possibly haunted house. At this point everybody still doesn't, you can tell, they still don't really believe it's haunted. But Valene was thoroughly freaked out. But she started she sort of starting to calm down. Lily Mae is completely unbothered. Oh girl, I got some hand lotion downstairs. Laura doesn't seem to be freaked out. Laura doesn't seem to be freaked out about anything. Ever, very, very rarely, rarely. She has these like big moments, but she's never thoroughly freaked out. You know what I'm saying. Anyway, abby and ginger did not witness valine complete and total meltdown in the bathroom rightfully so, let the record reflect. I'm not judging her. Quite frankly, I don't think she did enough. I would have been back in that car. I said gary, get your narrow painted on pants up here and come get me. Ginger and Abby didn't hear anything because they had. Abby was like, hey, it's kind of musty in here. It's kind of like dank, I need some fresh air. I'm going to go out on the terrace. Ginger says yeah, I'm going to join you. This house is just kind of depressing. Let's go reading this book while everybody else is in the bathroom trying to convince themselves that the poltergeist is not about to rip this thing to shreds and bits and pieces. So the rest of the women join Abby and Ginger outside and they finally get to the bottom of it. Ginger's like hey, yo, look, this house is in the book we found it Now, the book that Abby had originally when she was in the car, the one she got from the library. It was a a mere footnote, what we learned at the beginning of the show about this, about this house. Mind you, we're only about 10, 11 minutes in. But this second book, the book, I suppose, that was in the house, unless Abby had a. It's unclear where the book came from, but just understand that this second book goes into great detail about the original owner of a house, of Mr Mifflin. Mr Mifflin was an old man. He went and married a young woman, not very uncommon back in the day. Well, this young woman was quite beautiful and she bore him three sons, three daughters, pardon me, and you know that she might as well have set his house on fire back then. How dare she not just spring strong, strapping males from her loins, as if his 900 year old sperm was doing any better? But you know, it ain't his fault, it's her fault. Matter of fact, he gets it in his head that the reason she can't produce any males is because she's too busy banging males. Mind you, they're up in the middle of nowhere back in the 1800s there's probably one person every six months that comes by the house. So the father gets upset one evening and he starts asking the little girls about what other sort of men comes up here? Who is your mom banging? Basically, little girls are little, so they don't know what he's talking about. Plus, they're like we've literally never seen anyone else, it's just us. He don't know what he's talking about. Plus, they're like we literally never seen anyone else, it's just us. He don't like that. And he's such, he's such a big, strong, strapping old man. He decides he's gonna beat on these little girls. Mind you, these girls are seven, like five and four. They are little bitty, they're under 10 years old. His young wife sees this and she's like, oh no, hell, no. She jumps on him, she tries to fight him off. She fights, fights him off and unfortunately he beats her to death. And if that wasn't enough punishment, he decides he's just going to bury her somewhere in the yard. Then he's going to bounce. So he beat the babies, beat the mom, bury the mom, then bounce, left the little girls in the house. It was months before anybody even noticed that they were there. Like I said, this is late 1800s. People aren't coming by the house every other day, so it's months before the girls are discovered in the house. Eventually, one of the rich relatives sends a governess to come and take care of them, and they end up living there for the rest of their lives. According to the book, they never actually grew up, though. They remained in little girls' clothing and dressed, and dressed with dolls, excuse me, played with dolls the rest of their life. That seems like a likely story, considering they had a guffiness. Now I'm thinking of movies I've seen with it sound of music. Uh, that helen keller movie where she reaches back to tuscaloosa and comes all across the Great Plains and slaps every taste bud that woman's mouth ever contained, ever Lord. She beat that woman half to death. Every other day I thought to myself about halfway through that movie Helen Keller ain't blind. I watched that as a little kid, probably second third grade, and I think we watched it again in high school and I was like no, she ain't blind. As a little kid, probably second third grade, and I think we watched it again in high school, and I was like no, she ain't blind, she was, she was. She formulated a plan and executed it with diamond-like precision. But that's neither here nor there. Governess, governess came raised, the little girls. Only they never really grew up. Apparently, two of the sisters died in 1940, 1940-ish. The other one, which is why they're there now, passed away very recently, at the time of this recording, 1982-ish. So that's quite a long time to live alone in a house by yourself, for whatever reason. Now, mind you, all the women are outside. That's Valene, lily, mae, laura, karen, abby and Ginger. Ginger's new hairdo is just not quite right. I really do feel like she needs that part. She pushed out the baby and decided she didn't want the side part anymore. I think she needs it back. Looks like she's wearing a wrestler's wig or something. Anyway, all the women are kind of looking back and forth at each other. Karen is a little bit uncomfortable, it's very clear. Val was uncomfortable, but something in her heart warms when she hears about these little girls, cause she said when she was upstairs I forgot to say this that she thought she heard little girls. She thought she heard some little girls but kind of talked herself out of it Like, oh man, you know, maybe I I was tripping, maybe I scraped my hands trying to close the windows. No, you didn't. No, you didn't. But something about the confirmation of this story in the book has everybody kind of looking to and fro. So Val's like oh well, that's, that's their sister. She's letting her sisters in, implying that the recently deceased woman is now or having a good old time with her previously deceased sisters, her sisters who've been dead for over 40 years. Val seems warm and comforted by and she's got those crazy eyes again. I listened to an episode I did a while back. I was trying to remember what my first impression of Val was and I really thought she was. She seemed a little bit frightening to me because of, like the way her eyebrows were and she wasn't blinking and I felt like they gave her like this weird silver lipstick or whatever. I call that woman everything but a child of God. I call her Vanita Val Valvoline, vaseline, vaccine. Well, valvoline is back. Vaccine is making everybody in the house uncomfortable. If I don't know anything else, I can tell by the shifty looks they're giving each other. Everybody else was weirded out by this story. Like man, this is really weird. Valvoline is like oh my God, the little ghost babies. Yeah, you think they won't have a party. Lily Mae is probably thinking, dang, I do need to put on a children's concert, but everybody else is looking to and fro. So you know there's going to be a private conversation later About Valene and her ghost loving tendency. I've always thought this I don't care what kind of relationship you're in. You want to know if your relationship with another human being is strong or not. Go on a road trip, see how they behave in a hotel. See how you behave with them in a hotel. See how they behave in a new city. It tells you so, so, so much about a person and I'm kind of wondering. This show, this episode in particular, seems like they're having a good time. I can't wait to do a little bit more digging, or maybe one of the OGs can tell me. Was this that one of the ladies directing it Is this? I don't know. I'm having a good time, even though I'm a little bit weirded out. I'm a little bit weirded out, a little bit freaked out, but it will be fun going forward to kind of see what is revealed so far. We're only what is a 17 minutes into this episode and right away I'm like OK, abby seems to be very focused, she's studious, she's in the books. Laura is like scared money, don't make money. She don't care if 16 demigods and ghosts and goblins and ghouls and whoever else come crawling out the chimney. As long as they're gone by morning. She can sign on the dotted line get this commission. It is what it is scared money, don't make money. Karen was cool. Seems like she was just about convinced that everything was going to be fine until she heard that story from Abby. Ginger looks like she's about to vomit, but she always kind of looks like she's about to vomit. Valene is giddy over the thought of ghost babies. Lily Mae is probably trying to work up a song, laughing, laughing. So, fiends, don't judge me. Actually, you know what? I'm a big girl, I can take it. You can judge me. It's the next day. I freaked myself out because I was home by myself. So I decided, you know what, I feel a little uncomfortable in my own home. So I decided, you know what, let me wait till everyone else gets home. So I'm back at it again, picking up where I left off. Now they know there's possibly ghosts in the house. Let's see what's going on. But, like I said yesterday, there's definitely going to be a private conversation. You can tell by the way they were looking at each other, especially Laura. Laura's always got that little weird smirk on her face. But they looking at Valene like, oh, does she say she played ghosts? Is she excited about? In my mind there's going to be a private conversation where they decide you know what Lily Mae's already weird. Valene is tripping. Let's go ahead and keep them downstairs just in case something happens. Let's give them the creepiest rooms and she's good with all the poltergeists and what have you. Also, I noticed this yesterday. I didn't say anything. I mentioned it before. I know Valene and Karen are close, but there is a tone sometimes I feel like it's not necessarily hateful. It's more like I'm a big sister. You know, big sisters tease their younger siblings. I feel like Karen treats and talks to Valene sometimes like she is country dumb. Dumb, but not in the, not in the good way. We all know country dumb means I'm actually very bright. I'm dumb, but not in the good way. We all know country dumb means I'm actually very bright, I'm taking in everything. She thinks she's just this dumb little pumpkin that fell off a turnip truck when Val was telling her. You know, she has physical evidence on her hand about it being so cold. Karen just sticks out her arm while it's warm. Now, I understand what you're saying. Yes, both of you are right. Well, I understand what you're saying. Yes, both of you are right, but can we not ignore that there are physical wounds on this woman's hand? She's not one to make up anything. She's not one to even exaggerate If she said I was locked in this bathroom, I was hollering for you, heifers. Neither one of y'all ran up here to help me, and my hands are physically damn near frozen. Somehow I need you to take me a little bit more seriously. It could be one of those moments, though, where Karen's just like okay, that's really freaky. Let me give the most logical explanation. It could be one of those moments, but it's just. It's dancing in the back of my head. This isn't the first or third or fourth time I've thought that, like dang, she kind of talks to her very dismissively. Is what I think very dismissive of her. See, now, there we go. Now you're talking some sense. There is a proper conversation down in the basement, the very, very empty basement, between laura and karen. Now they're going on. Oh, it's so disappointing. This house isn't haunted. No, no, no, man, too bad, we didn't believe, because then we could be relieved if we would believe us. No, no, no, yeah, yeah, yeah, I saw the look on your face. Y'all are weirded out. But let them tell that they're weirded out because Valene is suddenly believing in ghosts. The air has shifted, for sure, so let them tell it. And they're bravely walking through an empty basement, so maybe they're not afraid. They're like man, this is weird. Yeah, poor val, let's just keep an eye on val. Well, upstairs, valine is taking some sort of inventory or she's writing down. I don't know what she's writing. She's got a legal yellow pad, but lily may miss. This is nice. It's all of a sudden like, oh, I hate this house. This house is bad girl. We got to go, balene, let's take our country asses outside and sit down. I agree, lily Mae, oh God, maybe I'm just as country as them. But Lily Mae is like no, no, no, no, no, something ain't right. I am very uncomfortable, daughter, let's get our things and let's wait outside for these people. Oh hell, no See, okay, I hope the kids are playing outside or out of sight Y'all. I'm sorry Auntie Jed is going on one. They're going to make me turn this off today. I hate, oh party people. Listen to me, listen to me. Good, valene opens this ginormous. Now that I think about it, I guess it's a record player, but it. I'm glad everybody's home, but they better be quiet. Valene opens this record player and it's playing the sort of music young women like myself had back in the day, and probably our moms, in the little jewelry boxes that she would wind up on the bottom little cardboard box. Sometimes it'd be like a ballerina or something or something like that in it. One time I had one and it was like a. I guess it was a nutcracker now that I think about it, but I was really disappointed. It was a dude. I was like this isn't cool, I don't want to. What it was, what am I doing with this? Anyway, it's playing this song, that sort of music. You know what I mean? Valene thoroughly creeped me the heck out. She's all wide. Listen, okay, let me gather my thoughts. Let me gather my thoughts, and maybe I should have watched this all the way through. They're the acting. I have waxed poetic about this many, many times, but sometimes, specifically in this show and there's a few others, you don't have to say anything. The way the, the actors are emoting, you feel and hear everything they're not saying. Valene is enchanted, but her enchantment is. It makes me uncomfortable. I don't know why it just does. I'm a little on edge. I'm like, oh my God, there she go with that look in her eyes again. She ain't blinking. She looks like she's taken back to maybe being a little kid again. Lily Mae, who just said this house is diseased and they need to go outside and wait for the others, is looking at valine with that same look like. Okay, maybe it ain't the house, maybe it's you valine, maybe valine, my own child, good lord, my own child is creeping me out and that's the thing. Like with with houses. The thing that makes them creepy, or that makes any building seem creepy when it's empty, is that buildings were built for the sole purpose for human beings to kind of inhabit in some way, and when there's not real life there, there is something a little bit I wouldn't say necessarily scary or negative but it feels a little bit off because this is supposed to house life, and when it doesn't, it makes it feel a little bit uncomfortable. There's all sorts of statues in this house, there's all sorts of terrible taxidermy, so there's things that mimic life but there's not really any life in it. This music is creepy. This music is freaking me out. Then tell me why. The next scene is those dolls. Oh, you know exactly what kind of dolls I'm talking about. I'm not talking about cabbage patch, I'm not talking about barbie. We're talking about say it with me, folks that the victorian dolls, the porcelain dolls. One of those is fine, two is oh, that is lovely. Anybody who has a room full of those dolls, any kid, you, you name me one child who's not thoroughly freaked out upon entering that room. There's something off about it because it is once again something that mimics something that is alive but it's not, and there's something in that stillness that is so disturbing I had to push stop. It's only 20 minutes. Let me fight my compulsions. Actually I'm gonna have somebody come in here and watch this with me, which is so silly because I know it's not gonna be terrible. But oh, I'm not a fan of 150 dolls. I'll have to tell you about my grandma's neighbor who had one. She used to get super drunk and she would argue with her husband and they lived in this sort of pea green, no, no, no More of like a fluorescent, right before color becomes fluorescent or neon. It was like on the cusp, the stucco house, just square, stucco and that bright green, and they have this really sort of cool porch. Clearly they had not redecorated their home since the 60s. Now I enjoy this woman. I like talking to her. I thought she was pretty cool. But you go into her house and you could see it from the front door. There was a crushed velvet couch like a deep burgundy. There was a crushed velvet couch like a deep burgundy. She had deep burgundy drapes and like those 60 sort of amber glass lamps with the long chains, you know the ones that hung from the ceiling and whatnot, but their couch was covered, with no lie, 50 of those little like. They were smaller porcelain dolls. They used to freak me the hell out and I was a kid. I wanted to play with dolls. That was too much, was too much. I was like, lord, give me, give me them plastic dolls immediately. I can't deal with the porcelain. It's beyond freaky. And you know what? Abby's gonna end up in a chokehold by the end of this episode. Keep playing if you want to. Lily may's freaked out downstairs. Ginger sitting in the room with this terrible new hairdo damn, they're rocking back and forth looking at all these creepy dolls. She's like you think they slept in here together and I was like, well, I mean, probably is creepy. Terrible felt stuffed animals, terrible porcelain dolls. It is very, very creepy. Blah, blah, blah. Karen goes over to the shelf. She's like, yeah, I'm gonna get out of here this, I've seen enough. Tell me why. All the dolls fall off the shelf and there's just one hideous like corkscrew wooden doll or something, probably some sort of hoodoo mask at some point it's just chilling by itself. And then you see a hand snatch it back, y'all. I like to faint it. I like to faint it now. I'm talking like a 60 year old southern woman. Abby's country ass comes sauntering back from behind. Why are there curtains in this room that I'm thinking about this now. It's as if the wall was a curtain. She's like oh, I couldn't resist, abby, you're gonna end up in the trunk, you don't quit playing. I forgot that car didn't have a trunk. It has a back seat. Rip to abby's hips. She had to ride in the very, very way back. I've never been in the back of a station wagon but I have sat on a wheel well, of a truck or a painting van or painter van. It sucked real, real bad. I can only imagine how painful that was. For what? 100 miles takes about two hours to drive, ugh. Anyway, they're about to leave the house. Laura insists on taking a picture. The girls start lining up. Val looks up. She sees three and I do mean three blonde haired little girls, all about the same age, and like well, weren't there a little bit? That's irrelevant. She sees them. She didn't say a word. Val is slowly. You know she's. I know I said there'd be a conversation. I didn't think the conversation would have that much validity. Yes, it's all fun and games. Haha, val likes ghost babies. Val likes ghost babies. Val wants to keep the ghost babies, so they go and get in the car and guess what happens? You know what happens If you've ever seen any horror movie ever in life, at any point in the history, ever. Nothing works. It won't even turn over. And I'm thinking, karen, why is it taking you 45 minutes to put the daggone key in the ignition? I thought maybe she put her house key in it. No, nothing works. Everybody is thoroughly freaked out. Gender scared lily, may. Scared valine is not abby's just like damn, I'm hungry. So they end up going back into the house and of course, the phone doesn't work. The lights are on, but the phone doesn't work. Val is slowly giving given that that. Look, I hope you guys are watching this. Remember, you can jump on Amazon Prime at any time. I actually think some of Knott's Landing is on YouTube. I think it might be, maybe not the full episodes, I don't know. But figure out how to watch this. Borrow somebody's password, do something. You got to see this one. So they go back in and it is decided that I mean they don't really have a choice. They could either walk eight or nine miles down the road in the pitch black, dark, down a hill, or they can just vibe there and figure out what to do. Abby is like I'm. I said I'm hungry. Ginger's. Like I said I don't want to stay here. Lily may, seconds that. But what choice do they have? Luckily, lily may packed a comically large yogi bear, basically laundry basket worth of food she's. Oh, there's cupcakes and fruit in there. All right, lily may. So they're gonna sit down to supper. So they go into the dining room or dining hall or whatever. It is a mansion, after all. I want to be disrespectful to their rooms. Light some candles. Abby's flipping through the book. You hear footsteps, you hear people, you know somebody's rattling the door. So there's like all this freaking noise. Abby starts flipping through the book and she's like well, no, technically. And if you hear this sort of everybody's like abby, shut up, shut up. Do you want to end up in a chokehold, abby, I will turn you into an aberration. If you don't shut the hell up, I will smother you with a pillow and put you on top of that car. Do you want to be ghost, abby, or do you want to be breathing abby? Stop reading More seducing. Do something else. Every time you read a book or calculate numbers, something goes amok. Abby's like all right, cool, fine, whatever I'll sit here. But only she doesn't. The door starts jangling. Somebody's trying to get in the door. She's had enough of this bull. She snatches the door open. Tell me why some weirdo jack nicholson's nephew or great uncle, dressed as a lumberjack, comes bursting in quietly. I guess he's not bursting it. He comes in and he's just look. All he really showed up to do was say well, why are you here tonight? They're like who are you? I'm the groundskeeper. I take care of this place. Why was the door unlocked today? Doesn't matter. Can you give us a ride? I'm on foot. Will the neighbors give us a ride? I mean, can you help us? They're not going to come up here. Nobody comes up here unless they're stupid. Why are you here? Because I'm stupid. Okay, sir, you got to go. You are good and creepy. For absolutely no reason you have got to go. He looks at Karen. Everybody wants a piece of Karen. Remember when JR wanted her too. He's like well, I could stay the night if you want. She's like hard, pass on the way. I am not that hard up. I will never be that hard up. Valene is like man. He don't know nothing. She's the only one who's not freaked out by him. She's like hell. He might be a ghost. At this point Everybody's like whispering about Valene, because she is. She's be very creepy this episode. She even went outside at one point to get something out of the back of the car and my subtitles said something was saying mama, mama or mother. That's not what I heard. I just heard scraping, but allegedly it was saying Mother, she wants to be here. And Lily Mae made that comment. She was like it doesn't really matter if I believe in ghosts or not. I don't like this house. I'm ready to go home, but if Valene thinks some little ghost babies need her, then I mean that's a whole nother story. Mm-mm dude, I swear I've never seen this, but I'd be damned if I wasn't right. Valine is so eager to get the man gone. She doesn't care what he says, she's always just talking. He doesn't know what he's talking about. She's eager, she volunteers to sleep upstairs. I think I said earlier they just slept downstairs. But in my mind, if you crazy I don't want to use the word crazy lily may is peculiar. Valine is being mad creepy, absolutely. Y'all are gonna bunk together because y'all are family. The rest of us don't want anything to do with that and and I'm right, everybody else is asleep in the living room. Valine will sleep upstairs. Tell me why. She walks in the room and it looks just like the damn shining, except there's three little blonde girls sitting on beds smiling back at her. Lily Mae comes in. She doesn't see anything, talking about how creepy the room is. Valene is always so beautiful. Then they go, oh God, they go into another room to sleep, which might be equally as creepy. Now I feel like that might be debatable to some people. Do you sleep in the ghost kid room or do you sleep in the adult room? They go to the adult room and both of them posted up resting. Everybody else is asleep in the living room like nah man. We're going to be downstairs in case something pop off. Valene can stay up there with the ghost babies if she wants. Lily may have to, because that's her mother. Well, all of a sudden, that creepy music starts playing, the little jewelry box box music. Valine gets up and she starts floating. Not really, she starts humanly walking towards the window in a floating like manner. She's not floating whatever. I'm trying to pepper. I'm trying to paint a scene for you. You know what I'm saying. She's looking out the window. She sees something. She decides she needs to run out. If you hear kids, those are my neighbor kids. They're not at all creepy and they don't look like caroline from poltergeist. So lily may sees her daughter floating or walking in a trance like state side note. John man art looks amazing this episode. The lighting was lighting. She looks so beautiful, so, but creepy. I've said creepy 900 times this episode. The lighting was lighting. She looks so beautiful, so but creepy. I've said creepy 900 times this episode. She's making me uneasy. Let's use that word somehow or another. Val bypasses everybody in the living room who look like they're sleeping in very uncomfortable positions. She goes into a room. She starts having a conversation with absolutely nobody, saying okay, I'll go with you. And then you hear all this ruckus. Lily may is losing her mind, beating on the door, beating on the door. Now the other women are air quotes helping, but I can tell they're not. It's like if you ever had to lift a couch. You can tell who's fake lifting. Or perhaps you're trying to quote unquote. Hold the elevator. Only you really don't push the button, you just make it look like it. But can I, can I blame? Why, pray tell, would I allow either her neuroses, her psychoses or her ghosties come running up out the room? What does that got to do with me? By the time they get the door open, valene, or whomever has torn this room to shreds, it is. Things are flipped over. They are flopped over. Poltergeists has really come up in there and run amok. She's gone. She's run out under a cloak of darkness. Now they got to go run out and look for her. When I say they, I mean not Abby, not Ginger, and not Laura, karen, that's your girl. Lily Mae, that's your daughter. We go. I mean, ain't no sense in us all getting axed, murdered to death, right? So Lily Mae has to go into the house and light a candle, like it's 1814. Put on a hillbilly shawl and go out and holler Valene, valene, valene is such a good name to y'all, don't you agree? It's a great name. You're not going to mix that up with anything, unless you're me. Then I might be like vaccine Vanita, val-va-lene, vaseline, you hear me? Lean. Lean is long gone. If I'm not mistaken, lean is in the basement. How she got there from the outside, I'm sure I don't know. But lily may and karen spend the better. Well, lily may spends a better part of three hours searching for valine. Karen spends a better part of three hours chasing lily may's chasing Valene. Eventually, karen's like okay, lily, lily, lily, enough, she's gone. Now I'm thinking this is your best friend, this is your friend friend. Three hours is not nearly enough time to stop looking for somebody. But Karen's like to hell with that. This ain't even real ghost, ain't even real. I'm exhausted. Lily Mae, sit down. Your daughter's fine. She's gonna have to snap out of it at some point. And Lily Mae's like no, darling, don't you see? It's real. To Valene, she sees three little girls who lost their mother. Then they lived in the house all alone all those years, don't you see? Once Claire died, she let the other two in. Now they're looking for their mother. And Karen's like so you're saying they smelled the desperation in Valene, is that what you're saying? And Lily Mae's like so you're saying they smelled the desperation in Valene. Is that what you're saying? And Lily Mae's like yes, my girl had a baby taken away from her. She never got to raise a daughter, so she believes she has to be with him. It's the only way she's going to get to raise kids and Karen's like what are you saying? Lily Mae jumps out the window talking about she thinks she has to die to be with him. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Are we watching the same show? I don't know. Mind you, valene is in the basement with three little Carolannes running around her and it's so cute. One of them has great rhythm, one of them doesn't, you can tell. The last one was like God, I can't skip very long guys. Skipping in a circle makes me dizzy. I feel bad. I understand little girl. She gets a little bit off beat. But Valene is just listening to this music box, letting the three little girls skip to the loo around her in this very empty basement. Valene is eventually joining the girls in the ring around rosie. That turns into hide and go see who better to hide than girls. Children in a house that they lived in for the better part of 100 years. They know every nook, cranny and crevice and they are having the time of their afterlife, while valine is having the time of her current life. Meanwhile, upstairs, laura and abby and ginger are sitting in the living room just kind of discussing what's going on with Valene, when Ginger's like nah, man she's. I believe her. I believe she sees something, because as soon as I came in this house I felt it. I know there's something wrong. I started missing baby two names. Laura says well, you know, that would make sense, because Valene's mothering instincts are there, only she's never actually got to express them. So she's frustrated and repressed. The ghost can tell. Abby says you really think so, you really believe all this? Laura's like I don't know, maybe I do, maybe I don't, but I think it sounds good, makes a lot of sense. I tend to agree with Laura. That would make the most sense. However, in order to agree, I have to also point out what does that mean for Laura and Abby? Specifically, abby must not have any motherly instincts. She's like I'm hungry, she don't really care, and Laura was focused on the money. So it's like if it's a mothering thing, why aren't all the mothers feeling something? Karen might be on that cusp, but Lily Mae? I'll be damned if Lily Mae's instincts aren't 100% on point. I guess better late than never when it comes to mothering, because she just can't rest. She knows something is up. Sure enough, these little ghost girls have a plan A rather devious plan. Sure enough, these little ghost girls have a plan, a rather devious plan. They plan on ring around the rosy Valene halfway to death, all the way to death. Actually, they start running up the stairs. You know, hey girl, come on, val, I beg you, I beg you, watch this scene. If you don't watch anything else, make sure you watch the last 10 minutes of this. The acting is superb. It is unnerving, it is heart-wrenching, it is intense, it is impressive. Valene makes it all the way up to the roof and poor little Lily Mae, who's been running around for three hours, chases her up the roof. The three little Carol lands are on the ground. At one point they open the door. They're like hiding above the staircase and they open the door and the look on their face is very disturbing. They get up to the roof. Lily Mae is able to pull a rabbit out of a hat, convince valine not to take a flying leap off the side. This is not the place for a swan dog. My love them. Kids are looking for me, they're looking for me. So lily may calls them all by name and I have to admit there's something about her country accent calling their names. It made me believe like yeah, okay, they're gonna cut the crap now. And they did. So all is well next morning. Valine is, you know. She's grinning and bearing it like well, mama, you saw the girls too, didn't you? And and I know she's lying, I know lily mae is selling wolf tickets again, but that's what she does and she does it. Well, she said, of course, why would I lie? I saw karen can't read the room. She's like well, why are you asking her if you saw him? Why do you care if she saw? Basically, like valine, are you sure you saw them? And valine said well, I I'm sure. I'm sure I did. I just I would feel like a crazy person if I didn't. And I don't feel like a crazy person. And she's smiling in that sweet valine. She's lost that weirdness in her eyes, though. So they go outside all of a sudden. The car works, but laura and the rest of the girls are flipping through the polaroids and laura's low-key disappointed in the group photo. She was hoping to see the little ghost girls. She sees nothing. Abby's like well, you know, don't be so disappointed. Calm as the day is long. She hands over polaroid. Tell me why. It's the one that laura took at valine when they first got there. She was about to get locked in that bathroom picture of valine. Tell me why? There's three little girls right behind her. The big question here is why was abby so cool about that? Is abby a ghostbuster? Is she a ghost hunter? Did abby put some sort of voodoo on this woman? I don't know, but now I'm looking at her out the side of my eye. This was as good as I thought it was going to be. Actually it was even better. What a clever way to slip in a little paranormal activity and let it be the. I guess it's mother's pain, it's it's it's valine's state of mind, which is very interesting. I've been waiting for her to not break. Necessarily I don't want her to break down, but it's like I want her to break out. She's. She's had to handle everything for so long and we see these little glimpse of her greatness. You see little glimpse of her greatness. You see little glimpse Of her standing up for herself, of her having a voice, and I feel like she'd gotten really far. Then Lily Mae showed up and she kind of had to fold back into herself a little bit. Is Val unwell? No, I mean, since there's picture proof, she's not. But also, that void Is a very, very dangerous void. It pushed her to the limit. She almost took a swan dot off the side of a haunted mansion. I don't know what this means for the rest of the season, but I love this one in there. I was a little bit nervous that by episode in episodes in this would they would have found absolutely nothing and then Val would have to carry the scar of being like y'all. Remember that time Val went crazy. We went on that road trip. I thought it'd be one of those situations. I'm kind of glad it's not. Man, what a good time. Well done, knots Landing. I did not see that coming. It seems so random. I've never quite seen a show like this where you throw paranormal activity into the storyline, but it makes sense. All right, guys, this is a fun little naughty break. Join me next time as we jump back into some more vintage primetime soap opera debauchery in the meantime. In between time, if you get locked in a bathroom and ice comes through the window, all you need to see ever again is your booty and your elbows. That's country for saying you need to just start breaking out running. You need to run, stay hydrated, stay moisturized, don't get haunted, mind your business, especially in a haunted house, and keep all of your drama on TV.