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S3 EP15 Knots Landing: Best Intentions- The" 1-6-9-7-5 Seaview Circle" Episode

• Episode 291

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Ever wondered what happens when you finally find your voice but no one's listening? "Best Intentions" delivers a masterclass in the painful evolution of relationships when one partner grows while the other stays stuck in old patterns.

The episode weaves together two powerful storylines about women discovering new parts of themselves. Valene uncovers unexpected writing talent through a journalism class assignment that morphs into a 500-page manuscript detailing her experiences with the Ewings. When her mother Lily Mae and neighbor Abby conspire to get it published, Valene must decide whether to embrace this new identity as a potential author, despite Gary's dismissive attitude toward her ambitions.

Meanwhile, Laura faces the ultimate dilemma: pregnant with Richard's baby while planning to leave him. Her growing success as a realtor has strengthened her sense of self-worth, making his dismissive behavior increasingly intolerable. Richard's temporary transformation after learning about the pregnancy quickly deteriorates, proving that awareness of one's flaws doesn't automatically create lasting change.

The episode brilliantly captures that moment when you realize someone isn't capable of being who you need them to be, no matter how much you wish they would. Laura's ultimate decision to leave despite her pregnancy reflects the painful reality that sometimes even the deepest connections can't survive when growth happens unevenly.

What makes this storyline resonate so deeply is the subtle performance work – Laura's face slowly changing as Richard rambles about wine tours, completely missing what she truly needs. It's a masterful portrayal of the moment someone realizes they've outgrown a relationship that once felt essential.

Have you ever had to choose between outgrowing someone or shrinking to make them comfortable? Share your thoughts by texting through the link in our show notes or emailing soplorepodcast@gmail.com.

Speaker 1:

Don't come at me with good sense and applicable life lessons. I don't want to hear that right now I want to be mad and I want to go home and I want to be mad. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome, or welcome back to SoFloor, the official gathering place for newbies, novices and OG diehard fans of the golden age of primetime. I'm your host, jed, viewing and reviewing one of the sopiest, studziest primetime storylines of 1982. So, whether you're new to this or true to this, sit back and enjoy. Tell the kids it's time to play outside or out of sight. Tell they have no questions, suggestions or concerns for the next 25 to 35 minutes, everyone else in earshot, cool, quiet or kicked out Only options. You got, baby, because we are watching our stories. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, this is Soap Lure. Hello, gorgeous, welcome and welcome back to soap floor. I hope your day is shaping up well. Mine is amazing now that we're back together. We're jumping back to the west coast for a little bit of nice landing.

Speaker 1:

We we're watching season three, episode 15. Episode is called Best Intentions and this one really hit home, I think, if you've ever had a situation where you felt like you were between a rock and a hard place. You're going to relate to Laura this episode. I'm also really glad we're back on the Laura and Richard storyline because he's been dancing in the back of my head this whole. I don't even know what you would call it pimp by proxy. I guess it's not proxy, but he's been turned into a corporate pimp, much to his chagrin. All the dude wants to do is be a good lawyer and you start to finally see this tension bubbling up. Okay, before I get too deep into that, go ahead and get comfortable. Grab yourself something bubbly and bright. I had the nerve to put on a little makeup today, did my hair. You know what I'm saying. So I'm feeling real cute. So I'm going to put a straw in my Soleil, but you drink whatever you want to drink.

Speaker 1:

As we jump back into season three, episode 15 of Knott's Landing Best Intentions, I really enjoy this episode because it answered a couple of questions that have been kind of dancing in the back of my mind. Number one was really going on with Richard. As you know, I have changed my mind about him because of his I guess his tenderness that I thought he was showing this season, especially towards Karen. We all know sometimes the face you put on in public is not the same face behind doors. Got a little bit more clarity on Laura and a lot more clarity on my girl, valene, who I would love to start with. So in the last episode, I think, one of the opening scenes you see Valene. So in the last episode, I think one of the opening scenes you see Valene.

Speaker 1:

She's feverishly typing on a typewriter while Lily Mae is kind of hovering around her in the background. She's like mama's cute skedaddle. I thought she was paying bills and then I thought about it. I'm like she's not on a computer, she doesn't have a calculator. But then there were books open around her. So I'm like, oh, she's doing like a book report.

Speaker 1:

Happy to report that my girl is still in school. I was really wondering about that. They hadn't really said anything in a long time. But she's in school and apparently she's had this project that she's been working on. Now let her tell it. It is supposed to be a personal journal of sorts. So she's been working on this nonstop. She's been in the zone, she's been focused. She knows that she has like a ream of paper I'm talking 500 pages. It looks like talking about this is her project that she has to turn in for her English class. It is a personal journal. Now she's telling this to Lily May, who was still hovering in the background.

Speaker 1:

Lily May is what I like to call a professional looky-loo. She's going to ear hustle, she's going to eavesdrop, she's going to peek at all the inappropriate times. Sometimes it's going to get her in trouble. This episode, I think it does a little bit. But Valene explains like hey, this is just. This is a project I'm working on for school. I need to have this turned in. Mama, please don't look at this.

Speaker 1:

Lily Mae's like well, what is this about? She said well, it's a journal about my life. I used to think my life was so boring until I started writing this. Then I started to realize it's pretty interesting. So I wrote about the Ewings, change the names and whatnot, but mama just don't say anything. So maybe it's English, maybe it's a creative writing class.

Speaker 1:

If you're writing a personal diary, who can tell you whether or not it's true? So I guess there will be no fact checking. But whatever the case, she has decided to go ahead and turn this in, or she will turn this in. She puts it in a box, she hides it in the buffet and she's like mama, please don't go looky-looing through my stuff. I mean I don't want nobody to read it In the words of Erykah Badu I'm an artist and I sensitive about my ish. Please don't look through my stuff. Lily Mae's like all right, baby. You know I want to. I never dreamed of it. Tell me why she couldn't wait for Val to leave. She waits until she hears the engine rev up, goes into the kitchen, prepares herself a teenage snack and spends the rest of the afternoon devouring all of Valene's very deep, very personal, very intimate tellings of her life on the run from the UN. Now, I am assuming that's what this says because of the reaction that it gets from Lily Mae and later Miss Abby.

Speaker 1:

Quick little side note I am loving the hair in 1982. 1982 does not want to be 1972 or 1979 for that matter, but they are struggling. So every episode I'm starting to notice with the exception of Eileen, you know she is dedicated to that, just for me. Perm box, one little piece of hair snatched back into a ponytail, I guess, to appear youthful. I really don't understand. I can't wait till it. Well, actually I can. I'm really enjoying the ride with Knox Landing, but once I'm done, I have so many questions, matter of fact, maybe I should do this about season five. I need to talk to stylists. I need to understand what the perception was with this particular character, eileen, and her hair. Anyway, I am loving the struggles because, you see, ginger's hair is flipping around. Abby's hair is flipping around. Abby seems to be the most consistent. She's giving Farrah Fawcett, but then she has the scrunchiness of the 80s. I love 82 because they just don't know what to do quite yet. It's so much fun to see these women come on and off the screen with totally different decades worth of hair every episode.

Speaker 1:

I digress when it comes to Lily Mae and the fact that she is. She's a looky-loo, she's nosy, but she is also sort of making up for lost time. I think her seeing Valene actually write something that turned out not to be just a couple of pages, which a normal book report would be. I think she, she, she akin it to the way she goes through her songwriting process. So, as Val is trying to hustle out of the door and get to school or wherever she's going, val doesn't know what it is. She's like mama, I don't know what it is. I mean it's. It's a report, that's what it is right now, but it just feels so good to get all this out. Lily Mae akins that to her songwriting and I think she sees a little bit of an artist in Valene, based on her actions later on. So, like I said, she spends the entire afternoon on the couch going through every single page, reading this front to back, loving the ish out of it. But she has a big greasy bag of Lay's potato chips. So all I'm thinking is she's getting greasy fingerprints all over this. There's no way she's going to be able to lie to Valene and say that she didn't read it. Well, unbeknownst to her, abby needs to stop by the house to gosh.

Speaker 1:

I guess I need to talk about Gary and Abby real quick, so you know how. They have the whole weedahall or what is it? Whatever? Alcohol, weed, gas, gas the whole situation going. Gary's trying to do two things at once he's trying to be the manager of Knott's Landing Motors and he's trying to get this company off the ground. So he's managed to get a cold this episode and because he is so busy, he can't be everywhere at once.

Speaker 1:

So Abby stops by and I'm almost convinced almost, but not really almost convinced that there's nothing going on, because she didn't really flirt with him the last episode. She's kind of giving him flirty eyes, but that's about as far as it goes. It's almost like she likes to see him blush, like, okay, you don't want me to hit on you, but remember we kissed, it's kind of that thing. So she comes in and she's like, well, what can I do? And he says something about a copier. Either they're going to drop it off at his house or she needs to pick up something from his house. I can't really remember how that goes. So she's giving him the kind of wiggle, wiggle eye and he's like, oh, he kind of goofily smiles at her and then she goes about on her business. I'm almost convinced because of something that happens a little bit later on.

Speaker 1:

So Abby ends up going by Valene and Gary's house and he told her if no one's home there is a key in the little potholder, tell me why. She rings the doorbell, knocks one time, mind you, lily Mae is in the living room on the couch, and then she proceeds to open the door with the key. So when she gets in, lily Mae is all flustered. She's trying to close the Lay's potato chip bag. All the papers go flying. So Abby obviously clocks that.

Speaker 1:

Lily Mae is nervous. All of a sudden she's like well, what are you reading? Lily Mae spills it being well, it's Val's report. But girl, this is so good, this is a page turner. I was just going to read a little bit but turns out this is so juicy. Abby's like for real, what's she talking about? Oh, she's talking about the Texas Ewing's. Now, she changed all the names, of course, but she's talking about the Ewing's. So Abby's like word.

Speaker 1:

Hmm, say Lily Mae, I know some people in publishing. Why don't you let me read it? And I can, you know, maybe put it in the right hands? Everybody is forgetting the fact that this is this girl's homework. She needs to turn this in to further her education. Abby says how about this? Why don't I make a copy? Then Val wouldn't know I have it.

Speaker 1:

Because Lily Mae is like no, she won't allow anybody to read it. She doesn't want anybody to read it. So, okay, my heckles are. I don't know. I'm usually pretty good at reading people, but I just like part of me is like I'm not going to forget that after the whole incident in Mexico where you know Abby and Gary made out.

Speaker 1:

She did come over the house to start some ish. They're carrying on like they're flirting, but it doesn't really seem like anything else is coming of that. You know what I'm saying? Nobody seems they don't seem interested in each other to me. You know what I'm saying. They don't seem interested in each other to me. But then it's like do you really want to help thou, or is this just another way to stir the pot a little bit? I don't know. She's done nice things sometimes. I don't know, I don't know. So I'll just. Why don't I just leave it at that? I don't know what she's doing. So anyways, I do know that she decides to make a copy and she reads it. She sits at her house and she's like yee-haw, she reads it. I'm hoping Val has the page's number, because I can't figure out for the life of me how Lily May threw this huge pile of papers up in the air and they both managed to kind of scrape it back together and it's all in order, with grease stains all over it, by the way. I hate a half-hearted attempt. So I just went back and rewatched it. I feel like she's stirring the pot.

Speaker 1:

After Abby reads it, she tells Lily Mae. Hey, this is just a thinly veiled expose on the Ewing family. I think they would try to stop her if she were to publish this. This, as they say in the country. Lots of fire upon Zulime's ass and she decides you know what To heck with them? They can kick rocks in flip-flops. My girl's going to be an author. If it's the last thing I do, go on and take this to one of your little friends, abby. Make sure you get this published for my girl, my girl's, a star. Truth is, abby don't have no friends in publishing, but what she does have is a sister-in-law who has a little brother who teaches college, so maybe he knows the literary types. Ah, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 1:

Karen's baby brother, joe. Joe, or Uncle Joe, as he's affectionately called by the children, has just shown up from the east coast. He has a teaching gig at UCLA which puts him smack dab in Knott's Landing so he can keep an eye on his sister, his niece and his nephews. I'm really, really glad Joe's on the show. Oh my god, I think I'm bl. Really glad Joe's on the show. Oh my God, I think I'm blushing. I like Joe. I like Joe on the show. I hope he stays for a long time.

Speaker 1:

But Joe's eating breakfast, karen is trying to leave house. Abby calls, karen answers the phone and she's like hey girl. Abby says hey, is Joe there? Can I talk to Joe? Sure, so Karen hands him the phone.

Speaker 1:

But Karen has a takeover spirit, just like Lily Mae, she can't help. She's also a looky-boo, a peek-a-boo, an ear hustler. Only this is her brother. So she's just gonna be real shameless with it, her little brother, mind you. So she gets as close to his ear as she possibly can.

Speaker 1:

While he's holding the receiver, abby has a little conversation with Joe. He's like yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely I can do that for you, no problem. He goes back down to eating his breakfast and Karen's like hey, what did Abby want? He's like none of your business. Man, quit playing. Tell me what did Abby want. I'm not telling you nothing. Tell me, joe. He's like give me $5. Man, she tries to leave the room but she's so nosy she can't. She's like oh my God, she stutter. Steps like 10 times. He's like all right, fine, ponies up the money.

Speaker 1:

Now Joe knows how nosy his sister is, so he was teasing her a little bit. She's like man, what does she want? He goes. She wants my body, she wants company. What do you think? So I'm like which one? He eventually tells her well, she has a manuscript, she wants me to read it and, if it's good, get it to a publisher. She's like man, that wasn't no $5 secret.

Speaker 1:

I love this because there's that magical moment, especially if you're a younger sibling, where you have a little bit of power. It's like, oh my gosh, I just feel so good not to say anything. But I've also been on the other end of that where you're just like oh my God, I just have to know. I just have to know. Now, joe seems to think there's nothing wrong with healthy curiosity. However, having your curiosity satisfied all the time does not build any character, I tend to agree. The older I've gotten, the more I've been able to be like. You know what? My name is, cousin Ben, and I am in it, even though I'm really really curious. I don't like to go digging, but I always want to know. Let the record reflect that I always want to know.

Speaker 1:

So Joe ends up reading the manuscript and wouldn't you know it? He's like hey, you got something here. This is really good. Abby goes on to ask him would you say this is book worthy. He's like yeah, I'd say you definitely have a book, for sure Would it be a bestseller? He's like I don't know about all that, but I would say you have a book. She goes okay, cool. So you know publishers and stuff, right? He's like yeah, a lot of my students have published books. Now, joe don't look very old to me. Joe can't be any older than about 30. Can't imagine he's been teaching college that long. But let him tell it, not only has he been doing that, he has students who are authors. So, yeah, we can make this thing shake.

Speaker 1:

So now the only thing left to do is to tell Valene that she could be the next Danielle Steele or Earl Stein. Hell, I don't know what the book says, I really don't. But if it's based on her life here I am forgetting for about 10 seconds that this is a TV show I would love to read Valene's book. I would devour it. Okay, I almost forgot.

Speaker 1:

When Joe tells Abby this wonderful news, you know she's pumped. This is excellent news. They're kind of leaning in towards each other because they're out on campus speaking, so I mean they have to be a little bit close in order to talk. But tell me why she kisses this man all on his mouth, got his dimples showing. He's like what's up, abby, you're the only eligible bachelor on the coldest side. What's up? So I don't know, I don't know, hell, I don't know. I think she just likes flirting. I think that is just how she moves in the world. She didn't actually. I mean, this is actually shady. I know what she's doing now is very shady because of Rewound it, but I think that's just how she operates. She's going to flirt until the end of her life.

Speaker 1:

So they go and tell Val and rightfully so. She's like what the what is wrong with y'all? What part of personal Scratch that? What part of diary Scratch that? What part of personal diary that I need to turn in for a grade tells you to Xerox it and flash it all over Southern California. And they're like girl, I know, but we knew you wouldn't do it. Lily Mae was just trying to help, had to hook up Val it. Lily Mae was just trying to help have the hookup Val. You got something here. You have got to get this out. Like I know you're scared, go ahead and put this out. So eventually she starts thinking about it and she was like you know, did it feel kind of good to get it all out. I don't know, I don't know y'all, I just don't know it felt good to do it. And this is where Lily Mae comes back in.

Speaker 1:

The artist, the starving artist. She's like baby girl. That is a God given talent. To be able to sing, to be able to write, to put things together the way that you did is a gift and it'd be a sin for you not to do it. She brought the Lord into it, brought the Lord into your scheming laced potato chip hand thieving stunts. So she's like well, I ain't really trying to upset the Lord and I mean this is my story. I mean I did write all that time. It'd be a shame to not do something with it. All right, give me a day or so, I'll go ahead and get it prepped and I'll get it sent over where it needs to send. So Valene could possibly be an author, be an author.

Speaker 1:

I'm also kind of wondering. No, that can't be the case. I was going to say I'm wondering if somehow Abby wants it will get it sent to the Ewing's. But I don't think that's going to happen because Val puts it in the mailman's hand. Personally, she makes sure that it's going to get to New York. So somebody is going to read over it. So I mean, I don't think they would bring that up, unless it's going to turn into something. Now that I'm really sitting back thinking about it, this is a pot stirring moment. This is either a pot stirring moment or she's going to use this for leverage. I'm talking about Abby, by the way. I don't really know.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to talk very briefly about Gary. If you want to freshen up your drink, then we got to get into the lore situation. Gary is sick. Gary has a cold, probably brought on by a lot of stress. You ever notice that if you're dealing with a whole lot all at once, your body just kind of breaks down on you. Well, the gas, a whole thing is taking its toll, like it's not really coming together the way he thought it would and he's having to find time to work on this project.

Speaker 1:

He wants to be true to his word, probably especially since he made the deal with the mafioso types before and got Karen's business in trouble. He's making sure he's fully devoted when he works with her, so he ends up staying late to work on the gas haul. Now I have a lot of older country people in my family and you know there's a lot of home remedies I was thinking what he needs to do is, instead of putting alcohol in the gas tank, he needs to pour that in glass, put a little lemon on it, heat it up over the stove and take it to the head and sleep for 12 hours or so. You'll be just fine, gary. You would think he knew that on the ranch, but for whatever reason, he needs to show up in the tightest of clothes to make sure everybody knows he's still fine, fine. So remember how he reacted when he came home from Mexico after slobbing Abby down, the way he reacted when Valene didn't do backflips over his information. Okay, we get to flip the tables now.

Speaker 1:

So after a long, hard day of work and a cold, she makes him an ice cold sandwich for dinner. He can't even enjoy it with chips because Lily Mae has eaten them all and left the crumbs all over Val's beautiful manuscript. So she gives him a little hot sauce and a sandwich. Correction, just look at my nose he eats ketchup on a sandwich. What a weirdo.

Speaker 1:

First she tells him that Abby got her manuscript over to someone to read and they thought it was really good and he's like oh really, that's cool. Then she goes on to say that well, he thinks it might even be a bestseller. Now, I don't believe that. But he goes oh, let me guess who is this guy? She goes, I don't know, just somebody Abby knows. And he goes let me guess he just needs a thousand dollars to do it like implying that it's a scam. And she's like Gary, why you gotta say stuff like that? No, like I'm really good. Even in my class my journalism class that's what it is, not English, my journalism class everybody says it's really good and he says, no, I don't doubt it, but like it takes years to become a really good writer, you, you really think you're going to be able to do this this quick, like it just seems kind of fast.

Speaker 1:

This pisses her off. So she goes upstairs like a lady to go to bed. She don't even curse him out, really. She stands up for herself a little bit more. He obviously feels bad and he comes upstairs and he's like listen, I am proud of you, good luck, I hope this works out. I'm just. I'm just, you know, I'm just concerned. I don't want anybody taking advantage of you, more or less so, while they're having this heart to heart. She keeps trying to tell him like I really wish you would read it.

Speaker 1:

Well, no sooner than she says that phone rings, mind you, it's late enough to go to bed because she's got on a whole gown and, like I said, he's been staying late at the at the dealership to work on the gas haul project. So the phone rings and it's Abby and he's like damn, it's late. She goes. No, we need to go to the office right now. Some of these numbers are fudged, which we knew because there was a scene with he and Karen. Karen noticed he was staying late and he was just like yeah, well, I can't work on two things at once. She's like listen, don't overexert yourself. If you need to work on gas haul during the day here, I don't mind, just Just, you know, take it easy. He's like I will, but I just got to finish these books. But she calls him at night and sure enough he gets up to go back to work under the cloak of darkness.

Speaker 1:

I keep talking myself out of my own arguments. Now I'm starting to believe that perhaps Abby is playing the long game. Let me build a wedge, let me separate these people. Brick by brick, board by board, dismantle the institution of their marriage so that I can do what I need to do. On the other hand, since when has marriage ever stopped her? If she really wanted to? I really do feel like he likes the attention, but he don't like her. Plus, they got to get this business up and running.

Speaker 1:

It's still interesting nonetheless, though. You have two partners who have two separate dreams. You know, valene is slowly finding her dream. Gary is slowly finding his. His stride Like he's finally understands what he's good at. He wants to expand that empire. She's finally finding something else to pour herself into, and I've thought for a very long time, like ever since the first episode where he cheated with what's her name, judy Ever since he cheated with Judy, even before that, I've wondered how long Val would be able to kind of play that game.

Speaker 1:

This can go one of two ways, I think. If they both have something to kind of pour themselves into, they'll either celebrate each other's victories, help each other through the losses, or it just won't work. But I think it's a little too soon to say anything that wild. But it can be. It can be a strain on any relationship when two people have different interests or different levels of success, which is more of the case with Laura and Richard. Relationships can be difficult, whether that be a relationship with your spouse, a relationship with your siblings, a relationship with your friends or your boss. It's going to take work and it has to be based on mutual interest, at minimum.

Speaker 1:

This episode opens up with Laura. She seems to be coming off of showing a house to someone. She walks into their realtor building and she's frustrated. Now we know that she's pregnant. She knows that she's pregnant, but she's not. She hadn't really told anybody. First order of business in her mind is okay, let me go and tell Scooter. So, mind you, scooter has that office with those big, giant window panes. She goes in and she's like hey, I think we need need to end this, not because I don't care for you, but I'm pregnant. He's like he gets a little excited, thinking oh my god, we made a baby. She's like no, no, it's Richard. He goes, are you sure? She's yeah, because I'm almost three months along. We're, we're pregnant. And he's like wow, okay, well, what are you gonna do? He's still being her friend, which I love. She says she doesn't know.

Speaker 1:

Her original plan before finding out this news was that she was going to walk in the house, she was going to leave him. She had it all planned out and then the baby threw a wrench in her plan. So Scooter asked the obvious question Well, what did Richard say? I haven't told him yet. And he's like oh, I mean well, what are you going to do? She's like you know what? I can't answer all these questions for you because I really don't know. All I want to do is be by myself.

Speaker 1:

So she's kind of upset this whole episode. She got a little bit of attitude and she ends up talking to Karen about it because I mean, who else Karen is being an excellent friend? She's just kind of chilling as Laura tells her I don't want this, I don't want any of this, I'm ready to leave this fool. I don't want this baby, I don't want, I don't want the marriage, I don't want anything attached to him. Now Karen doesn't really know how to respond to this because it's very clear that Laura is. She's going through a lot. She doesn't know what she wants to do, decision fatigue, and these are major decisions. It's also important to note that I think a lot of her reaction is based on the conversation that she had with Richard before this.

Speaker 1:

So she left work early. She canceled the rest of her day's appointments so that she could go home and talk to Richard when she gets home. There was this whole situation where they had a stray dog tear up their living room. So the whole living room was in shambles. There's paper everywhere and Richard is just kind of focused on the activity at hand. Top of this podcast.

Speaker 1:

I said that a leaf had turned for me as far as Richard. I found him to be much more personable this season. I find myself rooting for him a little bit more. He seems so much more likable. But that's on the surface, that's on the outside. We've only seen a few moments with him, allure, and he seems fine.

Speaker 1:

But as she walks into the house you get to see Richard from seasons two and one. He's a little frustrated on the phone, so I'm not really holding that part against him. That's a natural reaction, right? It's the dismissiveness, though. When she comes in he's like what are you doing home so early? She tells him that she canceled her meetings for the day so she could come home early. He's like, oh, and he makes a sarcastic jab. So you see, okay, he's still that guy, but it is a dig at her Like, oh my gosh, your highness graced us with your presence.

Speaker 1:

She wants him to not take the call so that she can handle business. He's too busy. He's already picked up the phone. He's already calling the pound. They're putting him on hold and stuff. So the point of all that is that he's distracted. She's still in the background like, hey, please hang up the phone, hang up the phone, hang up the phone.

Speaker 1:

He eventually gets the appointment set for the next day. But then when he hangs up, he immediately turns to her and says you know what? None of this would happen if you were at home, like you should be when the kid gets home. None of this would ever happen. I wouldn't have picked up the dog, this, that and et cetera. This is basically all your fault. I would not. I don't hold him sort of ignoring her because he this is a chaotic experience. It didn't like she walked into a calm home. It's a little bit out of the norm. He was already focused on one task. Okay, yes, we've all done that. We've all missed important things because we're hyper-focused on something else. But the way that he greeted her and then, after he got the appointments, that the fact that he was still willing to take his frustrations out on her. Ok, I understand what she's saying now because she's mentioned before this season that they hardly talk. They're not really getting along. You finally get to see it.

Speaker 1:

Laura's always been this character. You know I'm an expert now after you know 30 episodes. She's always been able to take him. She's never taken anything he said too serious, like he scoffed. He said way worse to her in the past and she just sort of smiles through it. But I think her having her own thing, her having something that she can pour herself into, her having success in something that was unexpected, it hasn't given her a big head. I think it's kind of stiffened her spine and, truth be told, she's always had grit, she's always had that spine.

Speaker 1:

But now you know that saying you can never go home again. Well, they say that because once you're out on your own, once you've kind of lived your life, you're going to see things through a different lens. It's not that you can't go home again, you just can't be the person you were before you left home again. And that could be for better, that could be for worse. Laura was at home in this sort of dysfunction. So now that she's gotten a taste of success, now that she understands there's more than one way to skin a cat, as they say, you don't have to take this. I don't have to be with a man who belittles me. I don't have to shrink to make him feel bigger. I can be my best selling, best, presenting self, and it pays dividend. I am rewarded when I go out and I show my full self. But here he still wants me to kind of fold into that. I'm sure he's going through his own stuff, but it just it doesn't sit well.

Speaker 1:

So back to her and Karen. She's just frustrated. She's like I don't want to have to make these decisions and what is implied is that if you have a baby with your husband, you have to stay with your husband. I can only imagine in 1982, how frowned upon that would be to walk out pregnant with this man's baby. Karen's like girl. I don't really know what to say. What does Richard say? She goes. I haven't told him anything. I haven't told him I'm leaving him. I haven't told him I'm pregnant. I just haven't said anything. So she gets up and she storms out because she's just kind of overwhelmed and frustrated.

Speaker 1:

As Laura is leaving. Karen chases her outside and she's like listen, if you don't do anything else, just tell him. I'm not telling you not to have an abortion, I'm not telling you to keep the baby, I'm not telling you what to do, except that you have got to let him know everything. You got to let him know that you're leaving him and you got to let him know that you don't want the baby. You have to tell him Go home and think about it. See what comes up. And Laura's like you know what? I hate you Really, meaning I love you Like damn girl. Don't come at me with good sense and applicable life lessons. I don't want to hear that right now. I want to be mad and I want to go home and I want to be mad. Also, food for thought the robes on Knott's Landing suck in comparison to the robes on Dynasty. That's all Laura decides. You know what? I'm going to stay home from work. I'm going to go ahead and tell Richard about this, or maybe it's Saturday, I don't really know. She decides to go downstairs in her robe next day and be like yo, I need to talk to you.

Speaker 1:

I was blown away by this scene. Not by the obvious, not by the acting, not by the tension, none of that. Oh, I'm sorry, it's not the next day, it's night, it's that night. I am blown away by the fact that Richard is sitting on the couch playing a video game. I forget how normal that is. I don't remember life before I mean okay, let me not say that I remember having computer games very early on Carmen Sandiego and a couple others and my cousin had a Nintendo with a duck hunting and all that. But I forget how normal that is to have like a console or have someone playing a game in my lifetime. It is the absolute norm for grown men to do that and I've made arguments before in the past. You know girls have to stop playing with dolls at some point. It's perfectly socially acceptable. For a man to play games Will shut my mouth wide open In women game too, obviously, but I just I've never seen anybody over a certain age do it. This is wild. He's playing like a little handheld game. It's really annoying.

Speaker 1:

Insert reason number 47, why I hate the 80s, or do I? Well, anyway, another sort of sign of the times on this episode is that when Laura comes downstairs she's basically telling Richard that Jason is upset that they found the dog's owner. The dog is back with his rightful owner and he goes. What's that? Is that supposed to make me feel bad? She's like no, he just doesn't understand why he can't have a pet and he goes. Because they grow up. You have to take care of them. You have to walk them. I can't put a dog in daycare like I can't a kid. Only you can. I see dogs at daycare all the time. You can put a dog in daycare.

Speaker 1:

Now she goes on to just be like dude. Could you just talk to me, maybe, without talking out of the side of your neck? Can we just possibly have a normal conversation without you making some wisecrack at me? They get into what marriage is. She's like this marriage sucks. I hate it. It's whack. I don't really like it. And he goes. Well, you know why you don't like it Because your expectations are too high. You think it's supposed to be dates and flowers and ish. No, this is marriage. Me sitting on the couch curled up, playing a video game, halfway reading the paper. This is marriage. She's like dude. You're missing the point. I'm sick of you. You don't understand what I'm saying. I'm pregnant. He keeps on talking. I'm pregnant. He keeps on talking. Once again. You see him just kind of. He doesn't listen to her. And now that she has had a taste of the other side of us, she's like guess what, I don't have to take this. Plus, she's also selling Sunset. She really don't need money like that.

Speaker 1:

Well, this revelation of a fresh new baby in Richard's mind means a fresh new start. So of course, the next morning he brings her breakfast in bed. He's like babe, I hear you, I'm so sorry. I hear you. I want things to be good between us. Let's just start fresh. We can take a vacation, we can go wherever you want.

Speaker 1:

He starts making all these plans and you can tell she likes it. Like, okay, this is the guy I love, this is a man who I fell in love with. She likes what she's hearing. I suppose it's later that night because they're sitting in front of a fire and Richard is so pumped he has made, I'm assuming, hot chocolate. I don't really know what they're drinking. But he says hey, laura, do you think I can convince you to take a month off before you get too big? I'd like to take you to Europe. She goes okay, well, what did you have in mind? He has this whole itinerary plan, his whole wine tour. If you were new to this, hi, welcome to the show. I know we are nearing the end of the show, so thank you for listening and thank you for listening this long. I am jack.

Speaker 1:

I am reviewing vintage primetime soap operas of ago and I reviewed a show a couple of years back called the Yellow Rose. Now, I was absolutely gobsmacked when on the Yellow Rose, which was filmed in 1981, 1982, there was a kid named Wit I think he's about 17, 18 years old. He's walking in a bar drinking. I could not believe it. You could drink that young in a bar. Now, I don't know how much of that is fair. I guess the drinking age probably changed right about that time. But another thing I noticed from 1981, 1982 is that nobody's wagging their finger at a pregnant woman having a drink or two. Now I know doctors tell you now you could have a glass of wine.

Speaker 1:

But this man, richard, wants to take his pregnant wife on a wine tasting tour for over a month. It's still hard for me to understand that. Well, as he's telling her his plans and he's pulling out all of these pamphlets and he's giving her the itinerary, he never stops talking. She asked if they could possibly go to Chateau Villeneuve and I know I said that wrong because I don't speak French. I also think side note that this is the actor's opportunity to prove that they took French courses at some point. But when she makes the suggestion, he's like oh no, their wine sucks. And he just keeps talking and talking and talking.

Speaker 1:

And she's holding that sort of Laura resting face where it's a little bit of a smirk, but as the scene goes on, it's oh, I'm getting not getting chills. It just makes me so happy. She's doing that knots landing thing. Where she did you just slowly start to see her. Her face is changing. She's realizing in real time why she said what she said in the first place. I love the subtleties. Even if this is a soap opera, she's not overly animated. She's just kind of sitting there and the more he talks, the more her face drops. Her facade is dropping. She's realizing if I go through with this, it'll be more of the same. He's still not listening to me. This is all about him. She's saying all this, but she never says a word.

Speaker 1:

Richard, on the other hand, is pumped. He runs into Kenny one night on the cold a second. He's like hey bro, baby two names is going to have a play buddy pretty soon and Kenny's like Baby Two Names is going to have a play buddy pretty soon. And Kenny's like who, why where? Richard's like me and Laura About to have a little bambino, and it's funny that it's these two talking about how babies save marriage. Kenny is congratulating Richard. He's like you know, I almost lost Ginger, but luckily I knocked her up with Baby Two, two names and it was the best thing that ever happened to me. That would have been the biggest mistake of my life to blow that. But kids really do change things. Kids really do bring people together. Both of these men have hookers in their Rolodex. Now they can make one phone call and have 16 different flavors of women of the night, like that. But yeah, let's have babies to save our marriage, because that's the plan.

Speaker 1:

Well, it doesn't really matter what the plan is. It doesn't really matter what Richard wants, because at the end of the day, laura is the one who has to really make this decision. She's frustrated because that new leaf that was turned over wasn't even turned over for a full 24 hours before he went back to being who he is, which one could argue. He's always been, he hasn't changed up anything. She's the one changing it up. But she decides you know what, I can't take it. She goes upstairs or wherever she goes, and she comes down with a crushed velvet robe that my mom had. I swear my mom's was teal, but it's like this crushed velvet old lady choir robe.

Speaker 1:

It is once again Richard's incessant talking that is driving her nuts. He's talking about how he was when Jason was born, how he was hands off. He wants to be hands on. We're taking courses, we're doing Lamaze class, all this and she's just like enough, having a baby doesn't fix anything. You can't bring me breakfast in bed, plan a trip and think everything's gonna be gucci and golden, not fine. Well, what do you want? She even tells him that she wants to move out and he's. He's basically trying to fight because he's like, okay, and that's when she shouts that she doesn't love him anymore and he goes, okay. So I mean, what does that mean for us and the baby? She goes well, I'm going to have an abortion.

Speaker 1:

I was watching his face when this happened and I'm so glad I did. This man was acting. Let me just tell you that he's kind of rocking on his. You can see I can't even really describe it he kind of goes up on his toes. He's rocking back and forth right after she says it, it's like it knocks the wind out of him and just something else takes over. It's very subtle, you have to watch it. But next thing, you know, he reaches out, he slaps her across the face. They go out on the patio and he's like I'm really really so sorry, but just when I heard the word abortion, all I could think of is Jason. I just thought of my kid right now and I reacted and I guess she's thinking the same thing Like okay, yeah, I could see how you can get to that conclusion.

Speaker 1:

I know that he goes on to say that it wasn't just that. He's like damn, she doesn't want my baby, my baby, I'm so sorry. He apologizes to her for slapping across her face and she ends up telling him okay, I want the baby, I'm not gonna have the abortion and I forgive you, but at the same time I need a little space, would you please leave me alone. And he goes. Oh my god, I'm so relieved, I'm so sorry. He starts inching towards her, touching all on her face. I love you when all she asked was to be left alone.

Speaker 1:

I related to this scene so much not because of the subject matter but because I think a lot of times people don't understand that when you hurt someone's feelings or you hurt them in a way, maliciously or accidentally, and you feel bad about it, sometimes a hug or conversation doesn't work right away. You don't really get to dictate how someone receives the action in which you acted upon them, if that makes any sense. Yes, you slap me. You probably feel really bad about it, but please don't come touching me right now. I just need a little space. I need a little bit of time to think. So it seems like everything is cool.

Speaker 1:

Richard goes to work. There's this really awesome scene with he and Carrie. You know they're best buddies now they're having lunch and I guess he knows at this point that she knows that Laura's pregnant. He uses the example of hearing your voice recorded on something like hearing it back and it just seems so weird. But he says this is how every. He realized that that's how the world hears him and over the last couple of days he feels like he's finally been able to hear what the world is hearing. That is a worthwhile skill to develop, being able to see yourself the way other people see you. Now, by the time lunch is done, he kind of snaps at her a little bit, but then he realizes what he just did and he backtracks a little bit. He's like, okay, see, I just heard myself again. I'm sorry, karen. She's like, don't worry about it, you're a good guy. He's like, no, I'm not, but I'm trying my best to be.

Speaker 1:

So by the time he gets home it's late. The house is dark. He starts turning on lights. He's calling out for Laura. He's still looking around opening drawers. They're empty. Her closet is empty, jason's closet is empty. And you get to see the sort of panic start to rise as he's more and more frantic, as he moves from room to room to room, runs down to the kitchen and he flicks on the light and he can see right there she was standing right there that morning like right by that counter there is an envelope with a letter.

Speaker 1:

Oh boy, I can't say that I'm that surprised. I understand where she's coming from, especially knowing who this person is, and sometimes you just don't have the patience to wait for him to be ready. Either way, fantastic, superb acting. So much of this show. They didn't really say the words, but you got the essence of the scene and it was really just all about being heard. Do people hear you when you talk? You look at a Karen who has a voice and is not afraid to use it. Sometimes it gets into trouble, sometimes it doesn't. You look at Abby, who has learned how to talk to people in a way that they will hear, but it's something that hasn't really happened for Laura or for Val. Interestingly enough, they are two women who are kind of developing, learning a little bit more about themselves.

Speaker 1:

I liked this one. This will be interesting to try to explain, but this wouldn't be the first time on the Coltasect that someone moves around or has marital issues. All right, guys, that was pretty good. Join me next time. I'm so sorry I didn't get to get any fan mail today. Join me next time as we jump back into another salacious episode of Soap Lure deep, diving into vintage debauchery. Check the show notes to send a text about your thoughts and opinions. What do you think of this episode? Are you rewatching this in real time? Check the show notes for the. Send me a text link. I'd love to hear from you. You can also email me at soplorepodcast at gmailcom. That's S-O-A-P-L-O-R-E-P-O-D-C-A-S-T at gmailcom. In the meantime, in between time, take your personal notes, diaries and otherwise private thoughts with you. There's always a Lay's potato chip ear hustler waiting to devour all of your personal deepest, darkest secrets. Stay hydrated, stay moisturized, mind your own business and keep all of your drama on TV. Bye, thank you, bye.