.jpg)
Soaplore
Ever wondered what you missed out on before the golden age of streaming? Welcome to Soaplore, the podcast where we dive headfirst into the wonderfully over-the-top world of vintage soap operas from the 80s and 90s. I’m Jett, a TV-loving Millennial who’s finally escaping the monotony of modern shows and embracing the drama, the shoulder pads, and the catfights of yesteryear.
Join me as I experience the soapy sagas of "Dynasty," "Dallas," "Falcon Crest," and "Knots Landing" for the first time, episode by episode. With over 200 shows, we’ll laugh, we’ll cry, and we’ll probably question our life choices—just like the characters do, but with slightly less fabulous wardrobes.
Whether you’re a Xillenial who grew up with these iconic series, a Millennial like me who missed out the first time around, or a new fan discovering the glorious chaos of primetime soaps, "Soaplore" is your time machine to the melodramatic past. Tune in, relive the magic, and let’s marvel together at how people ever survived without binge-watching.
Pour yourself a glass of something strong, because, trust me, you’ll need it. This isn’t just nostalgia; this is Soaplore—where every episode is a rollercoaster of emotions, and nothing is ever as it seems.
Soaplore
S3 EP11 Knots Landing : Power Play -The “Gary Ewing: A Trifling Tour De Force VS Jett's 45 minute Rage Rant" Episode
Sometimes a single moment can change everything we thought we knew about our favorite characters. That's exactly what happened in this unexpected reaction episode to Knots Landing Season 3, Episode 11 "Power Play" – a game-changing installment that left me gasping in disbelief and rushing to record my raw, unfiltered thoughts.
What begins as Gary's passionate pursuit of a methanol fuel business opportunity quickly spirals into something far more provocative. When Karen refuses to invest the $200,000 needed for the venture, Abby Cunningham strategically positions herself as Gary's biggest supporter – offering money, encouragement, and ultimately, a betrayal that rocks the Ewing household. The seeds of discontent have been subtly planted throughout the season, but watching them bloom into a forbidden attraction in a Mexican barn filled with repurposed moonshine equipment is nothing short of shocking.
The real heartbreak comes through watching Valene's genuine attempts to support her husband while maintaining reasonable boundaries. Her thoughtful preparation of a special dinner upon Gary's return, complete with candles and a new dress, juxtaposed with his cold behavior and constant praise of Abby, creates a devastating portrait of a marriage under siege. When Gary ultimately declares he needs "a friend" and doesn't have one in the room, we witness the power play in its most raw form – the calculated manipulation of a man's ambition to drive a wedge between husband and wife.
Whether you're a longtime fan of Knots Landing or discovering this dramatic turning point for the first time, this episode analysis captures all the emotional nuance, character motivations, and neighborhood dynamics that make this series so compelling. Join me for an unfiltered reaction that's equal parts analysis and visceral response to one of the most pivotal moments in the show's history. And remember – it's always better to keep your drama on TV!
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome, or welcome back to Soap Lore. I am jumping on here totally unexpectedly. I'm sitting down to watch season 3, episode 11 of Knott's Landing Power Play, and usually my routine is I might push play If I'm watching on a laptop, I don't really worry about it as much Just fast forward through the title sequence. They do this little thing where they give you several scenes from the show and, by all intents and purposes, I've been avoiding that as much as I could. Today, however, on a whim, I thought let me watch Knots Landing so that I can go ahead and get a feel for it.
Speaker 1:The show has not started, but the gasp, I just gasped. You have got to be shitting me. Okay, lord, have mercy. I need it. Abby, let me. So please forgive my stammering and stuttering. Let me just say this I don't know what to say.
Speaker 1:I don't know what to say. I don't know what to say Like. Yes, she was into him, right For a little bit. That was just an episode or two on the previous season. I really thought that thing was closed. She didn't seem to be all that interested in him. She did show a little bit of interest at the beginning of this season, however, why? Why Girl? Okay of this season. However, why why girl?
Speaker 1:Okay, let's do the intro and then I'm gonna watch this, lord well, and I can get through this without accident. T total fool. In the back of my mind I'm thinking, okay, flirty, flirty, abby, no big deal. I didn't think Gary would go for it. But in this opening you know synopsis sequence thing damn it, I can't believe. I'm mad at myself, first of all for seeing it. It wasn't as if I wasn't going to see it, but now I got to watch this with that knowledge in the back of my head. Now, pardon my language, y'all. Let's get this show started. Screw this, my language, y'all. Let's. Let's get this show started. Screw this, I'm not gonna be able to do it. I made it four minutes and 21 seconds.
Speaker 1:Cute little guy. Do you remember the gasahol episode? Or yeah, I think it's called gasahol, that cute little guy with the mustache. He's back and apparently he has been very chummy with gary. And they're working on turning gas a hole, or methyl, whatever alternative gas options.
Speaker 1:I can appreciate Gary's excitement. However, they have the entire shop with these. You know it's super loud. They're revving engines or they're running these diagnostic tests Looks like everybody's hooked up to one of those heart monitoring machines which clearly now it's probably for a car. But there seems to be quite a bit of pomp surrounding this particular project and in all the excitement, abby seems to be there. She's reading the test results. She seems just as excited as gary and the short gas guy. So they go to karen's office and they're trying to convince her to I don't know reach where into her blue blood bank account that I didn't know she had and pull out two hundred thousand dollars. Short gas man says he has a little farm, he doesn't have enough money to do whatever he needs to do.
Speaker 1:And something occurs to me. First and foremost, I'm so pissed off at myself. I wish I hadn't seen that. Now I'm forced to sort of look at I don't know what I'm trying to say. I know that Gary is growing right. He's this mother. He just got back on my not good side, but okay side, like he's keeping his mouth shut this season. Keeping his mouth shut, shirt off. I can deal with you. However, what I'm seeing I don't necessarily dislike. He seems to be very focused, he's very passionate, he's very excited. Oh, I just don't like that. Abby's in the mix like that. Aren't you supposed to be cooking the books? I know what I was gonna say.
Speaker 1:I don't like the ganging up on Karen presenting this information. I understand you guys are excited, but then I remembered isn't this what Sid sort of got killed in behind? Maybe not the necessarily that particular engine, but his engine? Well, no, I guess that didn't have anything to do with it. Gary's various activities with the mafia is what eventually got Sid killed. If you really think about it Not trying to, I mean, you can't directly blame him for the accident itself. Someone made a choice to cut the kids breaks and he unfortunately didn't survive that. But the last time there was a harebrained scheme or a get rich quick or any sort of moving parts in and out of the dealership that weren't 100% legal or 100% legit, gary was behind it. It's annoying to me to see he and Abby so gung-ho in Karen's face. The fact that she trusts either of you is a miracle. Had Sid never passed away, I'm pretty sure this wouldn't have worked out the way it did. But it's the audacity.
Speaker 1:For me, the thing about Gary is yes, you are ambitious. Yes, you are on the mend. Yes, he's had a rough time time. He's had a very rough emotional life and I'm not trying to take away from that. However, this is a big deal. He ends up getting a little bit upset at karen because she and she decides she's not going to take, she's not going to jump in bed with p. That's his name, beautiful, short, mustachioed man. She's. She's not sid. You know what I'm saying. She's very, very new to this business, so she's never going to be able to she. Let me take that back. It's not that she will never be able to make the same decisions he would have, but he would be making the decision off of experience and know-how and just kind of a really, really good understanding of vehicles and how they work. I do tend to believe he may have gone for it because he was already building this alternative engine.
Speaker 1:But here's a kicker Abby's coming in a little bit too hot for me personally. She's pissed. For whatever reason she is, she's wanting to get in on this deal. This is the first time in my memory that I remember her saying anything about money. She seems to be ambitious in that way. It also occurred to me that she has the blueprints for Sid's engine. Don't think anybody else remembers that she has that or that she gave them to JR rather so stanza say, perhaps there's been some dirty dealings behind back.
Speaker 1:I hadn't seen another Ewing in about four episodes or probably due for a guest appearance at some point. Starting to forget this is a spinoff. Only I'm not Coming from money like Gary did. I can understand him wanting to take the risk. He sees the opportunity and, yes, he has a little bit better knowledge than Karen about the car business, but I don't think it's so much the car as it is the business. Now he's also from oil, so he understands energy, but he doesn't understand big risks, or maybe she doesn't understand big risks. I just think him coming from the family he came from. Yeah, you're probably used to throwing money away. People don't have 200 extra, 200,000 extra dollars to toss at anything.
Speaker 1:Karen's whole thing is like I have 75 employees and and kids. The last thing I want to do is put myself in a bind and not be able to get out of it. I don't have the know-how. I don't have a wherewithal for that. Sid did I? I'm not Sid Abby's pissed. She's like you know what. You're being very disrespectful to my brother and you're trying to pin this on me because Karen's whole thing is like Abby. Why are you in the mix like this, karen? I mean, abby claims she is just like Sid. Now the Sid I remember was not that ambitious, do you guys agree? I mean, he seemed 100% invested in that engine but he didn't really seem to be business savvy.
Speaker 1:Gary came in, remember. Gary came in and set up the infrastructure and understood the assignment, but with this being Karen's business and her money, she has a right to say no. So he's chewing on this, he's thinking about it and and he decides he's going to go into business with Pete himself. He just has to come up with the money. Val is supportive. She and Lily Mae are like oh my god, gary, this is so wonderful, this is so awesome. But oh my girl, val, she's listening to him and he's, you know, he's super excited, he's super up. He's talking about the millions and then the billions of dollars they're going to make and he jumps up from the dinner table to go make a phone call. He wants to catch Pete before Pete decides to sign a deal with this oil company that wants to buy him up.
Speaker 1:Now Gary's thought is like no, they don't want to buy you out per se, they're not going to put the methanol out there, they're going to shut you down. What better, what better way to do that than to buy up your company so that it never sees the light of day. So Val is talking to Lily Mae and she's uncomfortable. This woman's instincts are on point. It's not just the instincts, but remember she. She's been with him on more than one bender. She's been with him with his high highs and his low lows. It's as if she sees this pattern.
Speaker 1:So he's on the phone, he calls Mexico, he's trying to talk to Pete's wife, but he don't speak any Spanish, which is very hard to believe because in Dallas all of the staff that works for him are Spanish speaking people. So I can't understand why he didn't pick up some. Especially in texas in the 70s or 60s. There's got to be vaqueros all over the branch, I would think, but he don't. He doesn't know how to speak spanish. So he put, to my shock, all in surprise, he put valine the vidalia onion queen. Vidalia, the onion queen is bilingual, she habla espanol, just like that. What is onion in spanish is that cebolla. She's la lena, la rena cebolla, I think.
Speaker 1:Anyway, her and mrs pete are trying to communicate with each other. He wanted her to say tell pete not to talk to the oil company in Spanish. And Balleen is like listen, baby, listen, my Spanish is pleasantries and and less. I can't really say a whole lot like that. Forgot she was a waitress. Maybe she picked up a little something when she was traveling across the country.
Speaker 1:Well, while she's on, the Abby comes waltzing into her home, hyped up, saying listen, I can put in $50,000. You can mortgage your house and then you can get the money. That way, your money, my money. Together we got $200,000. And all this occurs while Val's on the phone.
Speaker 1:She eventually is able to communicate with Mrs Pete and say hey, tell Pete to call Senor Gary Ewing. Next thing, you know, he's running upstairs. He's like I'm going to go talk to Pete now. I'm going to fly down to Mexico. So he runs upstairs and Valene runs behind him like wait, what the actual F? What just happened? I'm on the phone for 30 seconds. You're making big plans. This ain't adding up. Now this is where things can start to get a little bit sticky. This is where he pisses me off again. I'm going to try my very best to be I can be diplomatic. I don't have to try that hard. I can be diplomatic. I don't want to, but I will.
Speaker 1:Gary is good at business. Gary has brought Sid's business back from the dead. He has pumped new life into that car dealership and he's probably the reason Karen is able to make a decision. She's in a position to say no because Gary has done so well at the business. Okay, I fully accept that. Having something on his own, he seems to thrive. He's hardworking enough, he's tenacious enough, he's creative enough to be successful. With all that being said, it still doesn't mean that Valene would share that exact same sentiment.
Speaker 1:She's looking at this from the other angle. She's asking all the right questions. Quite frankly, I was impressed with her line of questioning Gary why so soon? Why would you mortgage out our house? And he's like it was a gift from my mom. He's right. She says okay, okay. She's thinking this is security, this is not a home. She's never had a real home. Think about that. Gary grew up in the lap of luxury, although it was dysfunctional luxury. There's luxury Even when, in his wild, wild days, he could always come back home to that ranch. She has never had that, so obviously she's going to be protective of it. But she says Gary, listen, if $200,000 will get you into this business, obviously I want you in the business. But, baby, all I'm saying is is there a reason methanol isn't bigger? Is there a reason it's not the most popular thing going right now? She's just asking questions as someone who was about to have her house mortgage dropped.
Speaker 1:I will give Gary a little bit more credit. He tries to be understanding, but then he flips it on her. He starts gaslighting her as if every time he has a harebrained idea, she looks down on him. You know what? Every time you have a harebrained idea, it turns out to be a harebrained idea. This woman has supported him. She has given him the space to grow and you can tell she's stiff. She's back to tiptoeing around him upstairs.
Speaker 1:I will give him credit. He did try to control himself. He wanted her to pack his drawers so that he could go to the airport. That that come on, gary. Okay, it was just a this is right before. He took off his shirt, by the way.
Speaker 1:So, yes, now we're all thinking about your underwear. You're shirtless, we get it. I get it, not slanding, I get it, but you just I hate to see this woman fold into herself, and you know what I'm actually getting pissed off, the more that I think about this. They just did that hocus pocus halloween special where we saw kind of the fragility of her mind, the the hairpin trigger she's on emotionally and now, as she voices a very relevant concern, he's oh, you don't believe me. You never believed me. Gary, you can. That statement is true about almost every other person in your life, but it ain't true about valine. It ain't true about the vidalia onion queen.
Speaker 1:So next thing, you know, I thought this mofo supposed to be getting on a plane. Valene called the airport and made his reservation. Can you imagine? Oh my gosh, called the airport, made the reservation. Why is the next scene in Abby's house? Now, I got pissed halfway through. I'll admit I made it 19 minutes. I'm so mad at myself. I'm so mad at myself.
Speaker 1:If you are a newbie, do better. I made it this far. I've been watching this stuff for three years. I've made it this far without having that happen. I understand the rhythm of these shows enough to leave the room or fast forward or have someone else do it. I got comfortable today. I thought you know what I have to fill out all these stupid packages. Let me do this while I'm watching, not saying anything, and look at myself. Now I've already I've formed an opinion, but the show is still revealing itself.
Speaker 1:Gary also calls her a wage slave Not Abby, but Valene, sir. What if you ever heard a more privileged statement out of anyone's mouth, a more come on now. All she was saying is like, look you, you're doing well, you have a good job. You have this like, yes, at risk. You should be nervous when you're taking a risk. That's part of it. But I can't stand this month. I can't stand him. I can't stand him. He's back on my list. Let me shut up so I can watch this and be mad all over again.
Speaker 1:And when did Abby become Dr Frickin' Phil all of a sudden? I know you, gary, you've got it in you. I know you. I don't mean to pry, but Valene just wants to keep the status quo. Bitch, why don't you put Jeff's money where your mouth is? Why don't you come up with the full $200,000 in your free 99-ass house too? That's the problem. She and Gary don't really pay no bills. You don't live in the real world.
Speaker 1:There's nothing wrong with having a little bit of doubt when someone has this magical gas. It's gonna. It's gonna take over the world. Plus, she's sitting on a secret with that engine. Come on now. I'm so mad, I'm so upset. I understand, like I knew she was a bad girl. I know this now I know this.
Speaker 1:But what the fuck do you want with? My mouth is horrible today. There's gonna be so many beeps during this. What do you want with Gary? Is it the money? Is this? Is that what I'm missing? Because she is talking to him like my third grade teacher when I wanted to audition for the choir and I didn't make it because I sounded like that faint baby goat. You just keep trying. No, no, no, bro, it's okay. It's great to believe in him, it's great to step out on this venture, but put your or Jeff's money where your mouth is. Put up all the money, since you believe in Gary Ewing so bad. That's the thing.
Speaker 1:She didn't see him when he was acting a teetotal fool at the end of season one, when he was ripping and running all up and down drinking mouthwash beer on the beach with the hobos and losers and whatnot. She don't remember that. Remember he almost got in a fist fight in the liquor store, almost sold his Cadillac to a hooker with a heart of gold, or he did sell it, didn't he? I'm not going back to watch that. We got to focus on the task at hand, abby ain't. Let me just say that right now, paint my girl as no loser. She's not a loser.
Speaker 1:But in the same breath I'm going to say this it might be time for Val to either pop off or walk off, because tiptoeing around this man is not sustainable. His whole thing while he's at Abby's house is like. You would think she'd be excited to see a little ambition in me, sir. When has she not been your biggest cheerleader? She celebrates your ambition. She even bigs you up like dude. You're doing a great job here. But this is risky. I'm all for it. I know I could be out of house and home if you don't make, if you're not successful. Of course Abby can do that. She had an ex-husband, she's living on alimony and she's got a job where she she went to a job cooked the books and still has the same job. Talk to me like that. I just talked to all that ish.
Speaker 1:And then gary gave a little slice, he gave a little fly smile on the couch and I'm like okay, I get it. God. Pull yourself together, jed. I'm gonna say this now, at 20 minutes and six seconds. I'm telling you now. I'm telling you now if this becomes a real thing, I will never, ever, ever forgive them. I will never, ever, ever forgive them. I will never forgive them. Who wrote this? I'm calming down. I'm calming down. Thank you very much. He's just smiling all in her damn face like a Cheshire cat. Oh, there he goes. Now he wants to go back home. I've reduced myself to putting this on mute and just reading the subtitles, because every little thing he does is pissing me off.
Speaker 1:Vowels was on the phone like a good little wife, making his whole plans for his flight. Why is this fool wearing a suit jacket at night? He's a clown. He's a clown. He's a joke. No, it is. Is you gotta dump people? Sometimes you just gotta.
Speaker 1:Vali needs to scrape her entire social plate all the way off and then scoop back in who she wants. She can get a little scoop of karen. Laura seems to be cool. She can stick around. Jinder ain't really bothering nobody. It has also been. It has also come to my attention that I may or may not be throwing shade at. I really don't have any intention of doing that towards her. I think it's more towards kenny than anything. But I'm gonna stop being as dismissive as I am when it comes to gender. I apologize. I really don't have any animosity towards her, but kind of A little. I guess this episode.
Speaker 1:Lily Mae left her mixtape At Kenny and Ginger's and he snatched it out. I can't relax with this. So he puts on some sleazier music, lovely. But Lily Mae comes downstairs, gary goes back home and it's tense, tense. Valene is calling who she needs to call to make sure he can get on a plane to go have this raggedy deal and she apologizes once again. Stop apologizing, he is a big boy. If he can't take it, that's not your problem. So as he's leaving, you know he ain't. He was just smiling all you see all of his teeth when he was smiling at abby. But when it's valine, he walked, damn near walked, to the door like you're not gonna kiss your wife, goodbye, you can't be bothered to. To comfort her, he does eventually walk over. They hug I love you, I love you. He leaves.
Speaker 1:Lily may was ear hustling surprise, surprise from the top of the stairs. She comes downstairs and she's like you want, want my advice. You got to stand by your man, not on top of him. Okay, patsy, debit card declined. Did you stand on top of your man or beside him when you left Balene in that holler with a dead body on Christmas? No, you didn't. She's not wrong, but she's not right in this. Stop gaslighting. If one more person gaslights by a lean, I'm going to have a fit. I'm gonna drown this woman. So there was a whole lily may interlude. But damn it, I'll be damned if abby didn't get on a plane and get down to mexico. So the next day I don't even remember where I was when I stopped talking.
Speaker 1:Gary's in mexico. He calls abby the next day to explain hey, it doesn't. It looks like he went with the. Pete went with the corporation, not us. She decides she's gonna fly down to Mexico. She calls Richard, goes over there and talks to him like okay, is there anything we can do, gary and I, to stop this deal from going through? Richard explains the legality of everything. Ie, if someone at the corporation was listening in on the conversation that was had with Pete, that's technically a legally binding contract. Blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 1:Well, laura comes in because this is early in the morning. Laura comes in. She hears a little bit. She knows that Abby's going to Mexico. So she's like hey, richard, why don't you go with her? Abby gets all offended Like why Isn't that jumping the gun, isn't isn't that too much? No, you didn't say that when it was time to cough off the money for this here experimental gas thing. So it, laura. I don't know what Laura's play is. She seems to have completely gotten over the fact that Richard and Abby banged regularly just a few months ago. She's over that. She's like no, no, no, you show up with a lawyer. It could, just, it could work in your favor. I think you should. I'll go ahead and make the reservation. She reserves a ticket for Richard. He and Abby head on down to Mexico. When they get to Mexico, the deal with the corporation and Pete has already fallen through. Pete got the banks in Mexico to say they couldn't do the deal because it was with an American company, something like that.
Speaker 1:The whole point is it looks like everything's free and clear for Abby and Gary to step on in, so later that night. You know they're smiling at each other. They're just so cute. It's so cute Taking a look at the grounds. They go into the barn and we get to see the equipment that is making the methanol. Am I slow Because Gary's explaining to Abby that Pete's grandpa used to run a moonshining business back in the day and all this equipment is now used to turn the wheat into grass, wheat into alcohol.
Speaker 1:Is this running on booze? It's the same thing, right? I guess maybe it's not distilled, it is technically moonshine. I know there's somebody from Tennessee or Georgia or something listening to me. Let me know Not that I'm saying, let me be clear, not that I'm saying. Let me be clear, not that I'm saying people from tennessee and georgia drink moonshine. But I know if you're in tennessee you probably know a lot more than I do about distilleries and whatnot. It's a bigger business. Plus, you know moonshine got them good mountains, that good spring water. Anyway, it's really bugging me because back in California Valene shows up to the dealership.
Speaker 1:She shows up the next day looking for Abby From the night previous when she hugged Gary to get on the plane. She shows up that next morning and not landing motor to talk to Abby because Valene had heard from Gary all day. She just wanted to see if Abby had due to their business relationship. Only when she gets there. Laura and Karen are about to go to lunch, karen's like oh no, abby's down in Mexico. Valene's stomach drops. She leaves Later that day.
Speaker 1:She and Karen are having tea. She's telling Karen listen, I just don't like it. I mean I can't seem to say anything, right, he thinks I don't believe in him Anything. Abby says he's jumping up and down. She's basically like I have a really bad feeling about this. Karen's like girl Abby acts like that with everybody. Gary is not interested in Abby, as far as we know. This is just business. He don't want her like that. And she tries to fix her mouth to say and Abby would not, but she can't even say it, she just swallowed it down. Like you know, abby's just being Abby and Valene's like yeah, no, so flashback, let's go back to this barn scene. She's Abby's now touching all the 1920s distillery equipment.
Speaker 1:Oh my god, I can feel it. I can feel it. She's's getting all. She's building up momentum. I see what you're doing, I see you, baby.
Speaker 1:Now side note, this is bad girl one-on-one. I can hate the game. I'm starting to hate the player a little bit, but she's oh my gosh, I can feel it. Touch it, gary, touch it. She's being somewhat sensual. The more she talks. You can see that he's getting exciting. We grown here. Okay, I'm not saying that kind of excited, but he's definitely. He is mentally excited, he is enthralled with her. He is like, yeah, yeah, yeah, she's hyping him up. Touch it, gary. I got a feeling. I just want to feel this. I want to feel how it feels right before this moment. I know this is a special moment for us.
Speaker 1:For us, you know what she reminds me of not what, whom of Lucy in this scene. There's something about her giddy nature. There's something about her excitement. There's something about the tone in her voice. It reminds me of Lucy. I know what's going to happen because, oh my god, so this is ridiculous. I can feel it, gary. I can feel. I can feel it inside of me, gary, can't you? I know it's going to happen because, oh my God, I'm so ridiculous. I can feel it, gary. I can feel it inside of me. Gary, can't you Come on now? This country, bama, backwoods, burnt barbecue, eating highfalutin hillbilly lets out this whoop, ridiculous whoop, in this damn barn. I can't, standary, i'ma choke him out y'all. I swear I'm gonna do it.
Speaker 1:This mother lover after making out, let me go ahead and put that out there. For those of you didn't know, they make out in the distillery in front of the weed hall. Alcohol, methanol, whatever the hell it's called. Make out in front of that. He, you know who the voice of freaking reason is richard. You know you're in trouble when richard who the voice of freaking reason is richard. You know you're in trouble when richard is the voice of reason. So they go back to the house and they're walking back to the house, he and abby, and she's like aren't you gonna talk about it? There's nothing to talk about. You know, he does that little prune thing with his mouth. He don't want to say nothing. He's acting like everything is gucci and golden. But then they give each other this warm sort of look like oh, we're knowing, we're knowing I'm. Oh.
Speaker 1:So later that night gary is sitting on the front porch looking like mr rogers, full, uh, button down shirt, long sleeve shirt in mexico, come on now, sitting out on the porch, richard comes out and he's like you know about me and abby last year, right? Gary's like yeah, what of it, don't don't. What of it, boozy, you're gonna listen to me, rummy. Richard tells him in not so many words you, you know me and Laura weren't doing the best. I thought I would never cheat. But then I did and I thought it was fun for a little bit. But guess what? It was not. It was a bad idea, it was trouble. I'm telling you this quietly, sir, on this porch in Mexico, it was trouble. Do with that information what you will do. You know what he does with this information. Do you know what he does? He suppresses it, he stuffs it down inside. Then he has the audacity to take his narrow ass home.
Speaker 1:The next day, valine is dressed in a pleated silk, uh, pink gown or old lady dress. It'd be an old lady dress today. She has dolled herself up and she's like hey, gary, how was the trip? He don't even say hi, bella, he's trying to go upstairs. Oh, abby will be over here in a minute, oh, and Valene's trying to say something, but he ain't really listening. She's like well, dinner's ready. They cut the corner. She has a candelabras lit. It is a warm, you know, quiet setting. She got dressed up for him. She got dressed up for him. She told him specifically, she got dressed up for him.
Speaker 1:This fool want to sit down and start talking about the whole trip. Oh, we call this and this and there's so much room and Abby is so smart she can put all these. Can you believe this has the nerve to talk about how wonderful Abby is and how clever she is and how great ideas were and it's just so wonderful. This, that and the third and she forgot her bag, but she'll be over in a minute. You had all this conversation about and two and four, another woman, but you couldn't call me when you was in mexico.
Speaker 1:And this mother lover has a nerve to walk into the house empty handed. How you going a whole ass business trip and not bring your wife back anything anyway eventually. Valine's like garrett. You are unfreaking, believable. Don't you see dick? Do you not see the obvious? Do you not see this dress? That that I did? She even cut out her ponytail today and did it in a little Nubian knot on the side of her head. You know how she likes a whimsical hairdo. And also, do you know how difficult it is People may not know this. It is very difficult to sit in a silky skirt on a silky seat. She is slipping and sliding, trying her best. You know how strong your thigh muscles have to be to hold yourself upright to listen to this bull.
Speaker 1:You want to talk about Abby the whole time? Then this How's the nerve? I had to stop it. I had to stop it. He has a nerve to be like what are you jealous? Are you for real? This is why I can't stand him. This is exactly what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1:He is a child. He is a grown man child who has no focus for anyone or anything but himself. All of a sudden he thinks he's him. What you? He's a flaw. Y'all I could. You're lucky I wasn't born when this came out. Ewing, this would have been a problem. Oh, she's good, this one. I've underestimated that. Oh god. Okay, pull myself together.
Speaker 1:Oh my god, before I get too worked up, I just want to say that my girl, lily Mae, has a slippery teed her way into Kenny's business. She showed up at his studio to to say hey, kenny, what did you think of my mixtape? He was like can't sing you, I'll beat you this, that. And the third. She was like okay, but what you saying, though? When can I expect my record deal, sir? She's like yeah, she's heard worse, but she's like what I'm not gonna do is be inside of a music studio and not make no music, baby, I'm gonna make her do what it do?
Speaker 1:Lily Mae from Tennessee. Lily Mae hits a corner and she finds, um, lionel Richie's cousin. I get the feeling this man might be a star. I'll have to go look him up. I don't remember his name Not on top of my list right now but she starts chatting with him and he hears her accent.
Speaker 1:This lovely black man looks like Lionel Richie's stunt double. Let's call him Lion Wealthy, lion Wealthy. He has a little tickle in his throat. You know you can't hardly sing and he's. It's a mighty long road and lily me and lily may hears this. She's like all right, all right, all right, all right, let me, let me put, let me put a little tennessee magic on that. So she, she feeds him a line. He's like where are you from? I'm from tennessee. You sound like you're from the bayou. Oh, I've been with the bayou. Then she starts naming all these famous black acts from back in the day on the children's circuit. You're like okay, little man, I see you. So next thing, you know, she's like listen, sing this part, blah, blah, blah. She sings a little something. He sings that. He likes it. Lily may, won't you have a seat, darling? She shows up later on that week or the next day with the tea for his his tickly throat.
Speaker 1:So by the end of the show, right before this scene I'm gonna go off on, kenny goes into the studio to help lion wealthy start his musical number and there's several people in the studio. Well, he thought it's a mighty long road and you can hear the background singer. It's a mighty long road. Tell me why my girl, lily may, is sitting in between two background singers and leather pants. Lily may has slithered her way into the studio. What you're not going to do is keep a good woman down and you're never going to out hustle a hustler which brings us to abby. So during the dinner, after he grew jealous, she finally you're jealous. She finally says I'm not jealous. But I'm trying to figure out why you're having this reaction to Abby. The way you react to her makes me very nervous. It makes me very uncomfortable. Gary, you have nothing to worry about, I love you, I love you.
Speaker 1:So Abby comes over later that night and Val is trying her best to take her mother's advice. She's not trying to stand on top of him, trying to give the man a little bit of space. Abby is talking about going public. If we go public, we don't really need Pete. Well, val hears this and that's all she can take, because what she's not going to stand for is you hustling another hardworking person out of that money. She don't like that. That's not in her blood, that's not her DNA blood, that's not her DNA. She's not gonna take it. Abby says that out loud and then turns to Gary and says well, why not? Let's think big, why should we think small? I'm not trying to cut Pete out, but you're a Ewing. So he jumps up and he's like now, wait a minute. Now Val said no, no, wait a minute. Val, done, got buck. I'm like there we go. Girl, that's what I need to see. Come on pink, come on Val, the momentum going. So she comes downstairs and she gets right up in Abby's face.
Speaker 1:Abby has no respect for anybody in their own home. This is the second time she tried to tell Karen how to run her business. She's trying to tell Valene how to run her home. So Gary thinks, because he is a spoiled child and he's used to having someone jump in and defend him ie, valene, I guess he's not to having someone jump in and defend him. Ie, valene, I guess he's not used to someone defending him. He's used to Valene defending him. She said, gary, no, this ain't about you, this is about Pete. I'm not going to watch you cheat a good man out of his money.
Speaker 1:Gary has a nerve to feel like he is the authority figure as Abby and Valene are going back and forth. Now wait a minute, wait a minute. Wait a minute. You two are unbelievable. You think I can only do it. He's basically going off on both of them. You think I would act this way. You think I'd cheat him because I'm a Ewing and you only think I'd make it because I'm a Ewing. Well, I am a Ewing, I'm Gary Ewing. I'm the only Ewing, gary Ewing I know. Excuse me, sir, actually just two short episodes ago we met Gary Ewing the first. Okay, but it doesn't need a hand, or there he's pissed. He's big man, no-transcript.
Speaker 1:Abby knew exactly what to say to get him all riled up, to get him all in his feelings, to get that blood boiling. She looks quite satisfied. He goes off. He's about to storm out of the house. Val's like where are you going? I'm going to call Pete. I guess he wasn't storming out of the house then was he. Whatever, he's headed towards the back. My bad. I'm going to call Pete because I need to talk to a friend, someone who believes me, and then he looks at val. He's right in her face too. She's just mouth open, like what just happened? He's like I need to talk to a friend and I don't have one of those in this room. Abby's just sitting there smiling as if that was exactly what she wanted. So here's the thing. The title of this episode makes a lot more sense now. Power play wasn't at all about the methanol, it was all about this.
Speaker 1:I don't coming into a show blind, does a couple of things? Number one you really are just kind of willy nilly out here. Luckily, I'm not. I mean, I'm old enough to know anything could happen and I'm not necessarily surprised that it did. However, with not watching, I'm like well, how serious is this? And I'm thinking back over um, anything I've seen I hadn't seen.
Speaker 1:You know, on the show it shows a couple of different stills. I've't seen. You know, on the show it shows a couple of different stills. I've never seen them together. I think I saw a picture. I was watching it in the living room the other day and they have a like when you pull it up on Amazon there's. It's where I'm at. On season three, you got a picture of Karen. Look like she robbed Prince, and then some lady with big hair doesn't quite look like Abby. I don't know who it is. I'm thinking I probably haven't seen more than maybe six photos ever of Knott's Landing. So I I don't know. I said this a few episodes back, I think if Abby wants you, you're God period. If a bad girl picks you, you're just picked period.
Speaker 1:Now, where does this leave Valene? It's interesting that it's so easy to sow dissension in their family. I didn't feel like that conversation warranted his reaction, but Abby knew that. So you know what? Maybe she does know him. Maybe she don't know him personally, but she knows a man like him, a man like him with a little bit of a bruised ego. She knows how to coax that. She just needs to be contrary to whatever Valene is.
Speaker 1:Now. Normally that will be very, very hard, because Valene is so accommodating or whatever. So the opposite of that would be you know, know, be standoffish, be kind of hateful towards him. But that's not the case. All it took was a little bit of belief in a fresh idea and she was all and he's all over it now. He's mad now, but I guess that's where I'm getting stuck. I shouldn't keep trying to predict this, but I can't help myself Now. Normally I would be like, okay, it's over, it's done, that's it, that's all.
Speaker 1:However, the look on Abby's face and as I'm thinking back over the episode she came over with the idea about mortgaging the house she clearly would have been thinking about this. Him being angry is just him being angry. It's still too exciting and they're business partners now. So now she has an end. There's a reason she needs to be around him all the time. But also when that all went down with Sid, when, when the mafioso types were exposed and Gary was then exposed, she got off scot-free, she threw him under the bus in his face and he still went in for it. I think that's. That's probably what I'm just kind of gnawing, chewing on right now. She played him in a glorious and very public fashion, and look where we are on episode 11.
Speaker 1:I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, gosh, I don't know how I feel about this one other than being royally pissed off at his immaturity. I just don't get it. Why Gary? Why Gary? And as a writer on the show. We're really gonna have her running through everybody on the block. Sid's dead. Only person left was kenny. Kenny was should have been a shoe and I'm very surprised that never happened. But the night's still young, I suppose. Damn, nah, nah, I I think there's gonna be something. Because he hid this, he he didn't come clean. He could have come clean. You know what I'm saying? This would be the second woman. It is what it is.
Speaker 1:Gary, why are you effing with women that are so close to your wife? Why and that's another thing Valene is raising Abby's kids? I just, I don't understand the, the boldness. But damn, this is a new level. This is a whole new beast. I have grossly underestimated this woman because that is damn. That's trifling with a capital t. Oh, all right, guys, I would apologize for the raggedy nature of this episode, but it is what it is. Sometimes you just got to jump on and say what you got was on your mind. This is that. Not be freaking, kidding me. All right, guys. Thankfully, I was blessed with a beautiful rendition of several songs from Lily Mae this episode, actually two songs. She was entertaining Val got a little bit of a spine. It ain't quite sturdy, as it should be. But she'll get there, lord willing. In the meantime, in between time, stay moisturized, stay hydrated, mind your business. Don't pour Maker's Mark into your gas tank next week. It will not work, or will it? And keep all of your drama on tv.