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S3 EP22 Knots Landing Finale -Living Dangerously : The " Two Butterflies, One Suit and Zero Shame" Episode

• Jett Shae • Episode 317

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A door opens, a world flips, and suddenly there’s no room left for euphemisms. We’ve been watching the glances, the lunch breaks, the blue suit excuses—then comes the moment that turns suspicion into sight. We walk you through the Knots Landing season 3 finale beat by beat, from Val’s tight smile at a party she didn’t want to host for a book she’s not sure she recognizes, to Gary choosing the one room where praise drowns out consequence, to Abby’s calm as a blade wrapped in silk. We unpack Richard’s return and how “fine” can hide a storm: the sprinklers, the double features, the note in the trash that changes Laura’s calculus from hope to vigilance. We compare two master operators—Abby and Lily Mae—each relentless, but aimed in opposite directions. One seduces with permission and flattery; the other forces the truth into daylight with a straight spine and a steady stare. And we get into the publishing pivot that turns “A Family in Texas” into “Capricorn Crude,” where covers get sexier as the pages get riskier, and how Val’s edits become a shield against the conversation she doesn’t want with Gary. Then it happens: Karen at the threshold, Abby in the robe, Gary half-dressed, and Val arriving to see exactly what she refused to imagine. No speeches. Just motion—locks, drawers, keys, and a car cutting through the night while Gary runs beside a story he can’t narrate anymore. We talk fallout, dignity, and the practical questions that hurt the most: Who keeps the house? Who gets the kids you didn’t birth but helped raise? How do you rebuild a self after a public break? If you’ve ever clung to “I didn’t see it” as a life raft, this is your reckoning. Press play for a grounded, gutsy recap with sharp character insight, TV history notes, and the moments that make great soap feel uncomfortably real. If this breakdown hits, follow the show, share it with a friend who loves prime-time classics, and leave a review to help more soap fans find us.

SPEAKER_00:

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome or welcome back to Soaploor, the official gathering place for newbie, novices, and OG diehard fans of the Golden Age of Prime. I'm your host, Jet viewing and reviewing the Stoapian study of Prime Con Easy Finale of 1980. So whether you're new to this or true to this, get back and enjoy it. Tell it to if it's time to play outside or outside, don't take no questions, suggestions, or confirms for the next 25 to 55 minutes. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, this is so hello boys. Welcome back, my people, to another fun still advanced of Soul Floor. I hope your day has settled in and wonderful for you. Mine's doing alright. I need to apologize for leaving you guys hanging for so long. Had some family stuff we had to take care of, but everybody is back in order, and we are digging so deeply into this finale of Knott's Landing. Full disclosure, I don't I do know what I was expecting. We'll get into that here in a bit, but this has got to be the most curious episode of this show I've seen. And that's saying a lot, considering they had a whole haunted house episode. Let's pre-game a little bit with some fun facts, some fun fan mail, and casual observations from someone who has now watched over 300 episodes of vintage primetime soap operas. So go ahead and pour yourself up something bubbly and bright. I'm about ready to give up on the non-alcoholic sangria. I'm just gonna start recording later in the day or make sure all my tasks are done and I'm gonna pour it up because I got my mouth fixed for some sangria and it just it's flying off the shelves. I kid you not. I've been able to find it at Walmart lately, and I literally hadn't been in Walmart in like seven years, but made a little exception, picked up a cardigan and two bottles of the rose. And I swear to you, I checked again. They said they had it at Target. It was not at Target by the time I got there, it was gone. Said they had it at Walmart, by the time I got there, it was gone. So I'm just gonna have to figure out how to do the real deal and make it a date. It's starting to haunt me a little bit. Go ahead and pour up whatever you need to to get comfortable, put on your good shoes, listen to this while you bubble bathe. As we get into one of the soapest finales I've seen in a long time. Season three, episode 22, Knott's Landing finale whose name escapes me, and I'll look it up now. Episode is called Living Dangerously. I'll say. It's an enjoyable place. I have a good time. I hope you do too. My name's Jet. I am an elder millennial watching primetime soap operas of the 80s for the first time. I have watched seasons one through three of Dallas, Dynasty, and Falconcrest. I am on the okay, I guess. Wait, let me let me be very clear. No, I've watched seasons one through four. I have finished Dynasty Falcon Crest and Dallas up until the last episode of season four. Today I'm gonna finish the last episode of season three, Knott's Landing. So if you have information, please keep in mind that if there's a storyline later down the road, I don't know anything about it. I also don't know what other characters, other than I know Nicolette Sheridan. I figure that out at some point. Nicolette Sheridan isn't is in this show, which is cool. I still love her from uh Desperate Housewives. If you would like to reach out, you can send a text via the show notes if you're listening to this on a mobile device. Just go to the show notes and there is a link. You can send a text. Understand I can't send one back to you, but I will always acknowledge you. Or you can send it the old-fashioned way via email, which most people do and I love it. You can reach out at soaplore podcast at gmail.com. That's S-O-A-D-L-O-R-E P-O-D-C-A-S-T at gmail.com. All right, guys, let's get into some tea. I thought I had read this before, but I realized I probably edited it out accidentally. Some of the dynasty stuff on the Falcon Crest episode, I wanted to sort of match everything up, but I forgot to do this at the beginning of Dynasty, so let's jump into it. This is from my good friend in Oregon, and they say that recently Joan Collins revealed that John Forsyth had it written in his contract that he was to be in the middle of every group cast photo he was in. Tell me why. Not one part of that surprises me. I understand the man is an actor, and I know he's not Blake Carrington IRL. And I don't think I've ever seen him in anything else. I believe his voice is the voice of Charlie's Angels, Charlie. But something about his age, I'm gonna go ahead and go there. Something about his demeanor on camera that sort of he wears a little bit of a smirk. And it's in my head, he seemed like he might be a little bit of a diva, probably not an outright diva on the set, but definitely like if there's a cast meeting, there's gonna be a potluck and everybody's like, oh yeah, we're gonna have it's Italian themed. He would definitely go behind your back and sabotage it. Or he would go tell the directors he's walking if y'all don't have geez burns in the set, something like that. He seems, he seemed, pardon me, maybe a little bit difficult. And the T is also that they probably didn't get along, which I can totally believe. It says Sophia Loren, Jessica Walter, Elizabeth Taylor, and Raquel Welsh were considered for the role of Alexis. Ooh, I really like the thought of Elizabeth Taylor, which I feel like Joan Collins, I still want to call her Joan Crawford, mommy dearest, is one of my favorite movies. I was also too young to be watching that. I definitely saw that when I was like four or five and loved it. But I could see Elizabeth Taylor with a little bit more bite to her. I saw her in What's Eating, what is it? Um Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf? Whatever. She was incredible in that. So I could see her sort of flipping. I don't know much about Sophia Loren, and I'm not sure who Jessica Walter is. I know they're all beautiful in Raquel Welsh, so I'm not mad. It's it's just one of those things where I can't say, oh, she was cast perfectly. She's amazing and incredible, but I don't know what these other ladies bring. But I'm really glad it's her. Okay, this was the best part to me for some reason. John James, aka Jeff, originally auditioned for the role of Steven. Think about that. Steven is Jeff, Jeff is Steven. Why is there no difference whatsoever? Right? Think about it. If you change Steven and Jeff are the exact same person, I don't really see anything about it except Steven is gay. They've slept with the same woman a couple times, right? I'll guess they hadn't gone through Kirby together, but you know what I'm saying. They both got with Claudia, they're both kind of easily replaceable. It's literally the same character. That's wild. Okay, this has also kind of been bugging me. So it says that Dynasty was not the first television series that John Forsyth and Linda Evans starred in together, aka Crystal, and Blake. Forsyth had known Evans since she was a teenager. He was friend with her mother. Evans starred on Forsyth's 1957 sitcom, Bachelor Father, playing a teenager who develops a crush on Forsyth. That is interesting. I okay, okay. It's not creepy because so I read that first, right? And then maybe a week later I decided to dig into it just a little bit more because I'm thinking, okay, if he's older than her, how old is everybody on this show? I really did think Crystal was at least 50. And I assume Joan Collins was around the same age, somewhere 50, 53-ish. Somebody might have told me she was in her late 40s or 50s, but I don't really recall. So I looked it up and it says about this season, Joan Collins would have been about 49, and Blake, aka John Forsyth, would have 62, which seems about right for me. But that makes Crystal right around 3940. No shade. 40 in 2025, or even 40 in 2005, does not look like 40 in 1984, 85. I don't know what it is. I just assume Crystal was older, and I was enjoying that fact because I I hate when people hold youth up as some sort of trophy, as if there's anything you can do about what age you are. Absolutely nothing you can do about it. It's probably one of the least interesting things about you. I I was ex-I'm glad that these women are not, you know, 25 getting pregnant. Maybe it was a little unusual back in the day. I think a lot of friends I know were didn't have kids that are like 43. It's interesting. So I don't know. It's it's it's not weird to me that they're back on the show together and that she played a teenager that had her crush on him. It's just more surprisingly that she was able to play a teenager who had a crush on him, only to be cast as his wife later. And I I I feel a little, I don't feel bad, but I didn't really clock her as that much younger than him. She looks amazing, but I don't know. It's the 80s. Last little piece, y'all, and we'll go on and get into this show. I waxed poetic last episode about how beautiful Diane Carroll is and how beautiful Joan Collins is. Joan Collins is still a baddie. I saw a picture of her on Instagram the other day. She looks incredible still. But there's something a little bit creepy about Diane Carroll, and I know exactly what it is. She was in the movie Eve's By You as some sort of swamp bone reader, catbone reader lady. And she had beef with the other lady who had psychic abilities. It's her eyes. Because I remember I kind of cackled when I first saw her makeup, and I'm like, God, they just put her in Noxema and sent her out the door instead action. But the more I've I've seen it, it's she doesn't really blink and it freaks me out. And there was a moment where she was looking at Alexis with her head cocked to the side, and I thought, oh my gosh, she done. It it scared me a little bit because I'm still seeing her as cat bone lady. So hopefully that wears off. I don't know how many seasons she's on, but uh if she if she continues to stay on the show, I hope they I hope she blinks. I'm not quite sure where we should begin. When last we left, oh my iconic. Apparently, it was iconic. Thank you so much if you reached out to me and let me know anything about this. Apparently, this was the moment and it felt like it. This is the moment that Knott's landing. To me, it's already been popping, but apparently to the fandom, this is this is where they really get the ball rolling. I am like, I don't even know what y'all gonna bring up if this is where you get the ball rolling. This show makes me feel like a little kid for some reason, not in like a happy-go-lucky way. I've get I get so immersed in it sometimes that I feel kind of helpless, if that makes any sense. Like, I'm like, what the hell is going on? What I don't really know what to think about it. And I have to, it takes me a couple days to be like, okay, this is what I think. But this final episode was not quite what I had expected. Not quite. I think we'll go ahead and begin with Richard and Laura just to sort of get this out of the way. I don't want to say he's a bit player, but Laura brings up a very interesting point that I hadn't really considered. Shout out to my girl Elena. I forgot I just saw your email this morning, so pardon me. Um, I am not ignoring, I just saw it this morning. It seems like you sent it uh last week or so. Elena is watching this along with me. So I apologize if I'm taking a long time on some of these, but she's watching these for the first time with me. So, girl, I hope you enjoy this episode when you get to listen to it. If you've been watching from the beginning, Richard and Laura had a relationship where he was a bit of a smart aleck. There was some weird confusion about her sleeping with people or not sleeping with people. They seem to be okay with it. They were very vague with it the first season, and I didn't really understand what sort of relationship they had. As time has gone on, what you see is that it feels like Richard is very frustrated in his career, and Laura is the one place where he can sort of take that out on somebody. By and large, the neighbors weren't really feeling him. He wasn't as close to the guys as I thought he was. Seems like he was kind of close with Sid, but not with anybody else. But he hadn't been the most pleasant person up until now. With the death of Sid and the new friendship with Karen, he became more bearable. I suppose it's because he has another person to sort of pour into or talk to. He he he was the he was a shoulder to lean on, and it showed his sensitive side. This is my observation. After his nervous breakdown, with him entering the hospital and being able to come home, it's to be expected that things are gonna be a little bit bumpy. This is new territory for everyone involved, and what you see in this episode is that nobody really knows how to interact with him. Not quite, not yet. Laura has always kept up that smirk on her face, nothing's really getting to me. And it was because in my opinion, it's because she was so used to him. But this new version, she can't really tell if it's I don't think she thinks he's faking, but she implies it later on that she something is something feels amiss to her. My interpretation of this episode is that it it sort of toes in line between confidence, arrogance, and avoidance. Yeah, confidence, arrogance, and avoidance in varying levels. Richard is taking this in stride. Laura shows up more and more because she can't really relax with him being home. That's what it seems like. She can't relax at her house, she can't relax at his house. She's watching him because she can't quite tell if he is healing at the rate that he thinks he is, or if this is all an act. He's invading her thoughts even when she's not doing anything. That's all she can think about. So the the neighbors rally around him, and I'm sure they're doing Laura a solid. One night Ginger brings over baby two names. I didn't think baby two names in the flesh in a minute, since she was dangling off her mom's hip after the whole hostage situation. But Laura brings Ginger brings over baby two names in a stroller. Shout out to all the mamas who had babies in the 80s and you had to push them around in a stroller. This looked like a grocery cart, it looked very cumbersome. Clearly, you couldn't fold it and put it in a car. This was not one of those my dad calls them a Volvo, like the little the ones your baby dolls ride in, they kind of fold up and go in your trunk. Dude, strollers are a nightmare already. But this one was like metal, you know it weighs 60 pounds. Lord have mercy. Now that I'm thinking about it, I've never seen a picture of myself in a stroller. Maybe I didn't have one. Anyway, baby two names has one, and it's rather nice. Her mama's bringing over Richard some groceries. So she goes to the kitchen to put the groceries up, and Richard naturally sees the baby. So he's like, hey, baby two names. He picks her up, and they are having a good old time. He's putting the baby in the air, bringing her down. Baby Two Names is giggling with pure delight and glee. Ginger comes in and snatches the baby up. Get the hand of the baby. He's like, yo, dang, okay, damn. Sorry. I thought she overreacted, but also at the same time, you did pull out a pistol. Whether it was loaded or not is irrelevant. You held your wife and your baby hostage. The last thing Ginger's trying to do is be held hostage. I get it. Maybe it's not the reaction she wanted him to see, but it was her gut reaction. He seems to take it well. He didn't really get defensive. He didn't even look that defeated. He just looked like, damn. Okay, yeah, I get it. My bad. I won't pick up baby two names again. But Jinder is a first person who just sort of outwardly expresses what she's been trying to not, what everybody else is trying not to do. They don't know what he's gonna do. They don't know his state of mind. He seems to think he's fine. And by all intents and purposes, if he had not gone crazy, if he had not held his family at gunpoint, you could easily dismiss the activities this episode. It's just being a little bit forgetful, maybe a little bit impulsive. They're not, in and of themselves, things that someone does if they are losing their mind, but if someone has had a mental breakdown, it amplifies it. That's what it feels like this episode. He seems okay to me. He seems like he really is on the mend. So at one point he leaves for the movies, but he leaves the sprinklers on. Damn near floods the cul-de-sac. Lily May has to yell at the kids to go turn off his water. Before you know it, everybody's at his house waiting for him to come home. He comes home that night, like, dang, hi. Is this an intervention? Is this a party? What's going on? Richard, where have you been? We've been worried sick. He's like, Well, I went to the movies. Like, well, the movie should have been over a long time ago. He's like, Well, I wanted to see two movies in a row. That doesn't sound that bad. Like I said, if you were never had a nervous breakdown and you wanted to see two movies and forgot to turn off your water, that's just Tuesday. But here it is a sign of his unraveling. In another scene, Laura is on the phone with her dear old dad, and she's telling her dad that Richard is getting better. He's getting better, dad. Slowly but surely. Dad wants to know how long before Jason gets to see him. I I misunderstood that on the last episode, and I guess we'll touch on that now where we'll touch on it again. Before Val had that iconic moment where she went and slapped just the soul out of this woman. If memory serves me correctly, she and Lily May were en route to go pick up Jason from Laura's apartment. I guess the babysitter was there, and I thought they were going to bring him to Richard. Maybe I misunderstood that. I'm pretty sure that's what they said, but maybe they were picking him up from school. I don't know. The point I'm trying to make is that I didn't realize that he hadn't seen Jason at this point. Laura's dad wants to know, you know, what's her plan going forward? You can't very well keep the kid away from him, but I understand you need to take your time. And she's like, I'm with you, dad. I definitely don't want to keep the kid away from him, but also I need to know that he's really okay, okay, before I allow that sort of relationship to build again. And I think she's well within her rights to say that. But she didn't get to go any deeper than that because she has call waiting. I got a little bit confused on this scene too, because I thought I vividly remembered when call waiting happened. I thought call waiting happened circa 1995-ish. I could have sworn, but I think what I'm thinking of is caller ID. I think that's what it is. I think you've always had call waiting. She gets a call on the other line. She clicks over, and someone's like, Mrs. Avery, could you please get down here? I thought it was a school. No, no, no, no, no, no. It's Richard's old job. So he goes back to his old job to demand it back, and that the higher-ups, that vaudeville lay you on the train tracks and run you over villain type boss who ordered all the hookers and whatnot. He wants him to take a little responsibility. Richard walks in, like, listen, break down or not, I'm still a lawyer, pretty good at lawyering. So tell you what, dude, I won't hold it against you. I won't hold that ridiculous haircut and that mustache against you. If you give me my job back, I won't even press charges because you know I have a case. By this time, Laura's pregnant butt has got up the steps and she's like, Richard, let's go. Richard, let's go. This scene bugged me for a personal reason. Again, I'm watching this from the outside in, and yes, it's a television show, but damn it, if we're gonna get into it, we're gonna get into it. I feel like it undermined him. I don't think that's that crazy. I honestly don't think that's unhinged at all if you were set up, right? He literally did what the people asked him to do. So to go back at some point and say, give me this job back, I think it's a perfectly reasonable thing to do, especially if your profession is the law. That's just my opinion. And there's, I don't know. I guess I want him to I want him to have the space to do his job. I mean, that has to suck. Yeah, at the very least. If you don't go back to work for him, he needs to sue him, clear his name a little bit. Luckily, this is 1982. He could probably just lay low for a year or so if he has the money to do so and be alright. I don't know what I'm gonna call this episode, however, I think one of the other themes is once you really, really see something, you can't unsee it. Normally, it seems like Laura is struggling with this. It's not only the hostage situation, it's all the things that came before that. All of the blood, sweat, and tears that went into her decision to finally leave, all of the effort to set up a perfectly reasonable co-parenting situation, everything. Everything sort of came to a head. Then you have the breakdown, then he goes into the hospital, then he releases himself because of financial issues, and also he thinks he's okay. He's also not taking his medication. There's a part of her that had already been ready to let go that can no longer do that. Now she's stuck in this sort of loop of watching him. And in my opinion, it probably feels a little bit too familiar. This is not very different than the life she lived with him before when he was perfectly healthy. After the whole boss situation, Laura takes Richard home and, or maybe she follows him home. I'm assuming he drove himself there. She follows him home. They go inside the house, and for whatever reason, she wants to pick up her mail or something. She looks in the garbage can and she sees a note, and it's it's almost like a checklist. Richard is just word vomiting. Today we might call it mind mapping. He writes a statement that says, The next time I have a gun, it'll have bullets in it. So now all of the fears that she's had have sort of risen to the surface. It doesn't really matter if she was going to leave. Now she knows that he's still thinking about it. So he's not okay. I suppose she's thinking he's not okay because we're not there. Somebody needs to keep an eye on him. So she makes the decision quietly to move back in. At the end of this episode, he's not aware of that, but she does go over to Ginger and Kenny's house. They were on their way to Val's cocktail party, which we'll get to here in a minute. She tells him what she found and that she's gonna move in, and she asks them for their help. I'm so sorry, I know you guys are trying to get to Val's party. They're like, don't even trip. This is so much more important. We want to be here for you. What do we need to do? She lets them know what they need to do. How are you doing, Laura? She's like, you know what? Sometimes I feel like he planned this whole thing. That's an interesting take, and I kind of believe her. I can't tell if he's putting on at this point. He because, like I said, he seems so okay, he seems very calm. Shout out to this man, I forget his name, but he acted his ass off this entire season. I have really, really learned to enjoy like Richard. Did not see this spin on his character like this, but you can't help but be invested in him. I don't know exactly how she feels, but you can't help but be invested in him. And he seemed fine the first time he went off. You know what I'm saying? So is he putting on? Is he is he doing this for show? Is is this his way of getting what he really wants? If you've been in a relationship with someone who's been manipulative and sort of like a juggernaut, they just don't know when to quit bum rushing through your emotions, bum rushing through all your boundaries and stuff. Yeah, that's a perfectly reasonable explanation or thought. I think he's he he's he's weaponizing his breakdown. Who's to say? I guess I'll have to find out on the next season, but I do think that is a possibility, and I uh this sucks. That sucks. This is what I'm talking about. Like, I don't know what to say. I don't know what you would do in that situation. I think she's probably making the best choice for him, not for her. But at the end of the day, she'll have peace of mind. But I don't think there's ever gonna be a God, I would hate to be with someone who only is with me because they think I'm gonna harm myself. To me, that's not that's not the kind of relationship I want to have. But some people don't care. As long as you're there, that's all that matters. Okay, before I forget, I have been meaning to say this for a few months. One of you is sitting on a little secret. One of you has been very, very busy. I believe you're probably working diligently to produce a little show of your own. One of you guys has a podcast. Maybe a few months back, I got a notice from Buzz Sprout. One of you used the link. So if you I use Buzz Sprout for my podcast, and there is an affiliate link that you could put in your show notes. And I did that probably a year or two ago. I don't know if it's still there. I might throw it back on there. But if you have a podcast that you started, let me know. I will absolutely shout you out. No worries, no problem. If you use a show link, I do get a little bit of a kickback. And this person started a show. I have been waiting with bated breath to listen. I've been checking up quite frequently. I never remember to say anything until after I've recorded, but today is a different day. If it's you, please reach out to me through the text or send me an email. Soaploorpodcast at gmail.com, S-O-A-P-L-O-R-E, P-O-D-C-A-S-T at gmail.com. And let me know if it's you. What I'm thinking is that you've probably changed the name of it because I haven't been able to find it under the name that I saw. I want to know who you are, give you a great big thank you, and also let me know what your show is. We can give you a shout out. And if you'd like to be my guest, I'd love to have you. We can cut up and talk about your show. Okay, back to the regularly scheduled program. Like I was saying, some people prefer to have a partner that sucks so long as they have a partner. You'd rather have a person with you than live alone. It's easy to judge that every song you listen to, especially you know, girl power-ish songs, tell you to move on, you're better off alone, blah, blah, blah. It's easier said than done in a lot of cases. Ugh. I just hate the fact that she's gonna need to settle quite a bit in order to be there with him. I don't know for how long she keeps referencing the doctor. We're talking about Laura, by the way, the psychiatrist that Richard was seeing who told her, do not move back in unless you're gonna stay. Ugh. Also, I hate to even bring him up because I can literally feel the energy in my brain deplete with every word I'm saying. How much longer is Kenny Corney Rogers gonna be on the show? Can we please have an interesting character arc? I kind of miss the slutty Kenny at this point. I am not enjoying this Steve from Blues Clues sitcom dad. I don't understand how you suck at everything. I'm not saying he's a sucky actor, but I am saying Kenny as this Playboy made a lot of sense. He was just as corny, but at least he had some sort of vice you could hate him for. Now I just I just really don't care. And dare I say it, I'm almost a little bit disappointed when I see him come on the stream. I don't want to feel that way. I really don't. Can we drop this good guy shtick and get back to business? I would be so angry if I were the actors who played Kendra, Kendra and J. Yeah, I'm gonna call him Kenju. Kendra. Because at this point they're starting to mesh into the same personality. When Kendra shows up on the screen, I would be very offended if I were those actors, knowing that all I'm gonna do is have this alleged music career and be a dad who wants his wife to eat vegetables the whole time. It's dumb. They exhaust me. They really do. It was nice to see baby two names, though. She's adorable. Anyways, we all know what's up, we all know. Well, I assume those of you who have seen this show a few times, I assume the first time you saw that particular episode, China dolls that you thought the following episode would be almost just as explosive. And don't get me wrong, I understand you don't have to have fire all the time. Sometimes you gotta have ice, you know, it's a give and take, it's an ebb and a flow. I had in my mind an idea of what could happen and what should happen. It well, actually, let me scratch that. There was no doubt in my mind what was going to happen on this episode. And I was surprised once again. Not to go on and on and on, but let me go on one more time. I watched China Dolls for a third time. It still I still felt the same way. I was like, oh my gosh, it's such an interesting buildup that doesn't come out of nowhere, but it slammed into your chest, is how I felt. So you can imagine my surprise when I turned on the television to watch episode 22, Living Dangerously, and not much had changed. I made a rookie mistake. I made the mistake of forgetting that this show is giving a peek into each and every person on this cul de sec, well, the four families giving a peek into their lives on a daily basis. We, the audience, are going to be privy to things that the neighbors aren't privy to about one another. I didn't see this as being something that could be avoided, though. Everybody has been looking out the side of their eye. You know they're looking, you know they're thinking it, especially Karen. Someone at the top of the show, it would appear that nothing has changed. Seems like Val slapped the taste out of Abby's mouth, went back through her door, across the street, back through the gate, into her own house, collected her keys and her mother, and went to go get Laura's baby. Her baby boy, Jason. This is a thing. I've I've thought about this since season. Was it season one where Gary got with that one lady? No, because Abby was there. So that'd have to be season two. I thought all through season one, I did not feel that they had a real love story. Gary and Val. In season two, when he had that affair with that other lady, and she was woman enough to come and talk about it. Val was cool about it that one time. You know what I'm saying? She was cool. She accepted that nobody's perfect, blah, blah, blah. They love each other. We got to see their acting chops for real for real on the beach. Going into the second time, when something was pretty much right under your nose again, I expected a bigger reaction from Valen. She has been building her confidence. She has been strengthening her spine vertebrae by vertebrae by vertebrae. I was completely shocked to hear that not only has she not said anything to anyone outside of her family, immediate family, she hasn't said a thing to Gary. She hadn't said a thing to Gary, despite him hopping out of bed when she asked him about it and locking himself in the bathroom. How absolutely dramatic is that? That's all the answer you need. Unless it isn't. Unless it isn't, unless you are willing to hold on to that dream. And it's it's where Laura can't unsee what she saw with Richard. It's almost as if Val is like, Well, I didn't see it, so it's not real. I can't believe anything I don't see. Lord, Lord, Lord. God, I love TV. So Karen is in her Bob via. She's in her home and garden extraordinaire phase. She seems to be sanding down something in her garage. And Diana, Diana needs to get chin checked. I am beyond tired of this little girl. I had just said that she hadn't really got on my nerves as much this this season. Excuse me. She's been much more bearable. But this, oh, let me get to it. Mind you, this is a child, right? This is the most arrogant child on this show. She's not the most arrogant person. She's a very close second to Gary Ewing. In this particular scene, I thought Diana is knucking fuz. She is entitled AF, and she really does need a good just a thump in the chest, thump upside her head, something. So she has been clocking that all the adults are sort of whispering around her, something's going on. She's catching bits and pieces of the conversation. So she knows somebody is having an affair with somebody. You all know if you've been listening to me for a very long time, I was a very quiet child. Very privy to a lot of adult conversations, nine times out of ten, because they forgot I was there. I was just being quiet. But did I hear everything? You better believe it. You gotta learn to be nosy, and I'm really surprised that the oldest child is not very good at this. She she she don't have any snooping skills. She don't know how to ear hustle from the next room. She don't know how to pretend to put on headphones like you're listening to your Walkman or 8-track or whatever she would have been listening to. I'm sure she had a Walkman. And listen to the conversation for real, for real. She don't know how to do that. So instead, she storms into the garage while her mother's trying to create furniture or whatnot, unplugs a damn standard and says, Tell me who's having an affair. I know something's going on. And she's the demented look on this girl's face is enough to make you turn off the damn TV. If this show wasn't so riveting, if I was just a blind wanderer, just blindly going through channels, and I saw that chick screaming and she didn't get slapped in the face, I think I would change the channel. She's demanding that her mother tell her who's having an affair. And Karen's like, Well, what do you mean? She's playing dumb. I don't know about no affair. What you mean? You know what I mean, mother. Everyone's treating me like a child. That is exactly the sort of thing a child would shout. There's a way to tell people they're not treating you your age without shouting. Karen continues to be coy, and eventually she just tells Diana, Well, if I'm saying I don't know anything and you don't know anything, how do you know there's anything to know? Talks in 67 circles. Diana storms off. The audacity for me. It's so annoying. Diana does not have the ability, so it seems, to seek out the information that she desires. Two people on this show do, though. I don't know why I didn't notice this until this episode. Maybe it took this grand event, this man cheating with this woman and the mom's there, and the woman doesn't really care. Maybe it took that for me to finally see it, but I have grossly underestimated Miss Lily May. Stick with me just for a second, Odes. I promise I'm gonna bring this home. I know from some of your commentary that Abby is Abby is a villain. There's no question about that. She is absolutely the villain. She's not the villain because she's sleeping with Gary or that she slept with Richard. She is a villain because she is willing to do what needs to be done, and there's not a heavy cost for her. There's very little that stops her from doing what she needs to do. The only time I've ever seen her even look a little bit remorseful or annoyed is between when Karen makes a comment about what she's doing. And here's the thing Karen's never really lying about it, but it's there's something about Karen saying it to Abby that gets under Abby's skin, despite how true said statement is. So Abby is the villain because she is single-minded, she is focused, she will cover her own behind at any cost. She knows how to be deceitful, she knows how to use her beauty, she knows how to use sex as a weapon. She is equipped for whatever comes her way. She's not only intelligent, she is smart enough to use it to her advantage. Guilt-free, at least as far as we can tell. Lily Mae is the exact same person. Whether you see it this season or not, she has been a villain in Valen's life for a very long time. She was single-mindedly focused on her career, so much, in fact, that she was willing to bounce whenever the opportunity presented itself. We saw on that episode where she got the lounge singer position. She was a she's willing to say whatever she needed to. She was running game on uh the same dude who was running game on her. They were playing each other, and rather than get mad, she's like, game recognize game, let's put this together and let's get something we need from this. She's the exact same person. The strongest thing that a villain can have is a relentlessness, a single-minded relentlessness. It just so happens on this show, Abby's focus for the last season has been securing Gary Ewing. She's done it through flattery, she's done it through stroking his ego when it comes to business. To she lets him lead, you know, she she opens that space so that he can be the hero in his own story. So he feels good about himself. She clocked that very early on. In order to secure this man, I'm gonna need to be the exact opposite of what he has at home. I need to be enticing enough to draw him out of that. Now, Lily May, I would assume, was probably exactly like Abby when she was younger. Only now, not to say that she's not a beautiful woman, but she's not banking on beauty. She's banking on personality. She's using that southern charm to slip her way into anything. Think about it. What has Lily May not had access to this whole season? Nothing. She's in with the kids, she's in with the neighbors, she's in at the business. Anything she wants to know, she finds out because she understands how to maneuver in this world. So what we have is two villains with two focal points about to come to a head. And the odd thing is the people that they are standing, Abby for Gary and Lily May for Valen, those two people don't, they're not actually facing this thing. It is so curious, it's so confusing. So one of the first scenes we see this episode is Val and her mother walking at the beach. They're not walking in the sand, they're walking on the sidewalk. And Lily May is tired of it. Here's the thing: Lily May is a lot of things. She might be a hustler, a gambler, a lie, a cheat, a lounge singer, a country and western singer, a quilting extraordinaire. But where she's not is dumb. She don't miss a damn thing. So she says, Valen, Valen, Valen, Valen. When are you gonna do something about this? Your husband is having an affair with Avid Cunningham. Valen's like, no, Mama, Mama, no, no, that's not the case. Lily May can't believe her ears. Valen, are you for real right now? Be so for real. Please. Did you ask him about it? Yes, mama, I asked him about it. Well, what did he say? He says, no. Let Lily Mae tell it though. Valen has ducked and dodged all of her neighbors. She's sort of become a little bit of a recluse. She's not mixing and mingling. She's not talking to anybody. The neighbors are whispering as they're like, well, something happened because she's acting funny. She's a total opposite of Laura here. Laura saw something she can't unsee. Valen ain't seen nothing, so we're gonna call it good. Only her mother is now single-mindedly focused on making sure this comes to light one way or another. Lily Mae was one of the first people who clocked it. That day that Olivia had the father-daughter dance, and Abby comes running out of the house talking about she's gonna be pouring punch and jumps in the car with Gary. You it felt so funny at the time, but Lily Mae was the first one who said something, and she's been acting a little bit funny every since. Let Lily Mae tell her she's depressed. Every morning, every night. Same old, same old. She's also not talking to Gary, which makes it a whole lot easier to not face facts. So the whole point of the scene is Lily Mae knows something is up. Val is like, I didn't see it, so it didn't happen. Lily May leaves the port, I guess it's called, or the bay, I don't know, and decides, okay, you you don't want to, okay, you ain't seeing it. I'm a I see it. I see it. Even if I don't have proof, I see it. She also says that she's obsessed with the subject, which made me realize, oh my god, they're the same people. Lily Mae just disguises it as this, oh, I'm a sweet old country lady. I don't know nothing about nothing. And Abby's like, oh, I'm this precious lady. I don't know. You know, they both know. Everybody knows. And that's the thing, everybody knows they're playing them, but they let it happen. Part of Valen's ability to avoid this situation comes in the form of her book. Her book is in its second editing phase. And at this point, the editor from New York, Joe's friend, is in LA. They are going over everything. So she's super pumped. They're gonna have a party. So it's not that I didn't know this, but it's they've never really explicitly said anything. So nobody at this point, other than Valen, Lily Mae, Abby, Gary, and Joe, and the editor have read this book. No one else knows what's in it. They can assume, but they've never read it. And it seems like Val is starting to get more and more uncomfortable with them. She's she's sort of going back and forth with the editor because this book is it seems like the book is only popular because her name is Valen Ewing. She's getting more and more nervous about this party that's coming up on Friday. So there's a scene where Gary comes downstairs wanting to know where his blue suit is. Thou wilt not look at him. She's typing. Matter of fact, she can't even stomach making him breakfast. Mama, would you make Gary something to eat? And he asks where his blue suit is. Valine tells him it's at the cleaner, so you can wear it on Friday night. This mother lover. Oh, he makes me so angry. He tells her that he ain't going. I ain't going to no party on Saturday. Friday. I wanna go. They're gonna eat me alive. I feel like I'm thrown to the wolves. They're gonna ask me questions about my family. Grow up. 37, 38-year-old man. Grow the hell up. That's your woman, right? Don't you want to support her? Don't you want to be there for her? You know what this mother lover has the audacity to say? You know what he has the nerve to do? Put his hand on his hip, cock his head to the side, and say to this woman with a straight, disgruntled, goofy looking face, you have all the moral support you need from your editor. This irritates the crap out of me because he's doing that thing. He's already in the throes of this passionate affair. He's been working towards us whether he was completely conscious of it or not. At some point he knew what was going on, but he liked the attention. Abby called him out on that. All this was going, all this was in motion before that book was even a thing. Mind you, this woman wrote a paper for school. It was then hijacked, unbeknownst to her, and turned into something. But he's using the the mask of this book being the thing that's put that's coming between them instead of the what it really is. But they're both willing to play this game. I love Lily Mae in this scene because she's like, oh, Val, you need to wear this. You need to remember you are a young, attractive, talented woman. Val makes them comment about mama, this ain't my first date. Well, it could be. That's what she's she's letting Gary know. Please don't get it twisted. If Valie wanted to, if she wanted to, she could. This would be the perfect spot to play the song Outside by Cardi B, but we'll save that for a little bit later. Yeah, he got the nerves sitting up there with his hands on his hip, talking about that's all the moral support. What and then do you know where he goes? I want you to guess. Guess where he goes? He says he has a meeting to get to, and you can tell Valen is like not even breathing, she's just staring at her typewriter, focusing on the rewrite. Lily May looks like she's gonna vomit because she's looking at Valen's face. Now, how is she gonna you're just gonna sit by and watch this man do this to you, baby? Absolutely not. He's going to a meeting. You know where that meeting is. I am starting to believe that they have rented out an apartment. I'm I'm starting to believe that both of their names are on the lease. Unless Abby's friend is some sort of stewardess or she, I don't know, she's one of those people who never sees summer or never sees winter. She just sort of chases the season around the globe. I don't know, but she definitely ain't at home most of the time. Gary goes to his, you know, his meeting, if you will, with Abby. Willie May goes to the dealership with her purse. She's looking for Gary. Karen's there. And she said, girl, where's Gary? Oh, he's at lunch, blah, blah, blah. You know he ain't at lunch. Where is Gary? I don't know. Well, let's go to lunch. All right, fine. Let's go to lunch. Abby's not here either. Abby's not here either. These people are so knee deep in their affair that they bring like a change of clothes. They put on casual clothes, they can do they do the do. I have to check myself. Have y'all ever seen that meme of Kim Kardashian? She's like looking at a phone, and it goes when you read your old text and realize you're crazy. When I read my note to this, I realize I'm kind of crazy. But it's okay. I love it here. I don't love the disrespect. So Gary comes into the apartment. Abby comes running from across the room. She leaps in his arm. Kissy young. Yeah, yeah. They love each other, blah, blah, blah. Or whatever. I don't know if they love each other, but they like each other's bodies at the very least. He mentions having to go to a party on Friday. Abby's like, Well, if you don't want to go, don't go. They they have a quick little just sort of exchange with that. And he goes, Well, why don't you go to the party? You're the whole reason this thing got into play. And she just sort of smiles, like, well, you know, I had to do what I had to do. Keep that little caveat in mind, please. Keep that in mind for later on. So unbeknownst to them, while they're getting it in at lunchtime, across the street sit Laura, Lily May, and Karen. Lily May cannot let it go. I know he's boning that girl. I know they're having an affair. I just need to put eyes on him so my girl can put eyes on him. He's not going to embarrass my daughter. I will not stand by idly while he embarrasses my daughter. So across the street, let me be very clear. Across the street are these apartments. So that's on the east side of the road. On the west side of the road, there must be some beachside bistro, and they are eating out on the patio. They're eating outside because it's nice. They got that beautiful ocean breeze. Well, this is a perfect view. They just happen to be facing the street, and out comes Abby. And Lily may say, Well, look there, look there, look, little look. They look across the street. Oh my god. Laura is disgusted. Are you serious? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Karen's still, she's not, nobody's trying to save face, but also it's it's it's I think it's one of those things, it's so unbelievable. It's the worst case scenario. You're just praying there's another version of the story. Only there's not. So after Lily Mae walks out, everybody just kind of excuse me, Abby walks out. Lily Mae's like, I'm gonna count to 10. I bet you Gary's gonna come fluttering out after that. So she starts counting. She gets all the way to seven, and who do you see just force gumping his way out of this door? Freaking clown. So there you go. There is the ocular proof. Three people for a fact cannot deny it anymore. This is where I start to love Karen again. I always love her, but I love her, love her for this. She makes sure that she's not gonna treat Gary with any sort of respect for the rest of this episode as she shouldn't. Last little thing about Laura, I made a note that nobody cares about Gen X. And what I mean by that is I know they're the original latchkey kids. Well, I mean, the whole generation. It was more common for them, I guess, than before, because mama's working, daddy's working too. Do you know Laura leaves the instructions for a crib downstairs for Jason to put together? And I was like, Are you for real? He's like eight, nine years old, and he has to go get a wrench and put the crib together. I'm like, how y'all gonna get it upstairs? She was dead serious. You put it together. Damn, y'all should get double social security. Seriously. Okay, so, anyways, let's get back to Val. Val had this meeting right about the time her man was having a meeting, and the ladies who lunched were having a meeting. She was meeting with the editor, and he brings out the cover to her book. They changed the name. It's no longer a family in Texas, it is now Capricorn Crude. And they have like the shirtless guy and these people. It's very, it's very sexy. She's totally like, dude, why this is not what this book is about. Why what is this? So it's not just the Gary thing that she's uncomfortable about. I mean, obviously, she doesn't want to upset him, she doesn't want to disrespect his family. And I keep going back to this. This was like a diary entry. Her and one other person was gonna read it, probably someone who didn't know who Ewings are. Well, the selling point for this book, because she is a brand new author, is that her last name is Ewing. So the cover is quite suggestive. The editor is telling her as much, you know, you're new, we think a different title would do a lot better. It's called Capricorn Crew, the Saga of Conquest. She's not super mad about that, but she's like, okay, but why is everybody so half naked on the top of the book? Like, why do we do that? And his point is we really, really have to make a splash. You're new to this, nobody knows your name, they know this name. So we're really gonna have to push this. Not only are we gonna put the book out, but you're gonna have to make all these personal appearances and stuff. It's very clear at this point that she's gotten uncomfortable. There's a couple of things in the book. I guess one is about Sue Ellen. She feels uncomfortable writing about how promiscuous. She ain't promiscuous, she's getting her lick back as far as I'm concerned. But she feels a way about representing Sue Ellen in that way because she ain't never really done nothing to her. Plus, this woman is quite fragile. I'm sure they get all the tea from Bobby or from Ellie from somebody. Maybe she's getting all the tea from Lucy. She's starting to have second thoughts. This thing is getting bigger, but it's something that she can focus on since she can't focus on Gary. She goes over to talk to Joe, and of course, Karen is there, and she's telling him, like, dude, they're turning this into a sleazy novel. This is not at all what this book is about. Joe seems to think it's a great title, but she's like, No, you're not hearing me. You're not hearing me. They want me to flip everything around. So she has a character in the book called CR. Imagination she does not have. God bless her. So CR, there's a fire or something on chapter eight, and she wants to keep it as is. It's very vague. You don't know who starts the fire, but the editor's like, no, no, no. It's very clear that CR started it because he'll stop at nothing. He's very ruthless. You got to put that in there. She knows the consequence of that on the other side. So this is just it's it's mounting. It's mounting. Gary's running around, Gary's mad, he's having an affair. I'm gonna blow up his whole family spot. This is not a good thing. Joe's trying to talk her down. She's listening because it's like she doesn't really know any better, but she says something about Gary. Like he's gonna get upset if I do X, Y, and Z. And Kara's like, Ann, the last thing you need to be worried about is what Gary feels or doesn't feel. Let it let him. He wants to be upset, let him be upset. Joe leaves the room, and this is a golden opportunity for Valve to be like, Do you know something for sure? But she doesn't ask. She doesn't ask because she doesn't want to know. Also, when when they describe the book, and then they haven't really said a whole lot about it, I was thinking more like The Grapes of Wrath. Something like that. Mice of Men, something to that effect, or like the movie Giant. I didn't expect it to be romantic in any way, and it doesn't seem like it is. It seems like they're content to put that cover on her book just so people will pick it up and see her name and then be like, oh, I'm put two and two together, versus what the contents of the book hold. I I guess that's a sale tactic, but it seems like you can get in a little bit of trouble for that. Maybe today you could. Maybe not. I don't know. Maybe not. Guess that's why they say don't ever judge a book by its cover. Well, after their conversation, Val doesn't pry any deeper. She simply goes home. Gary's already got there first, right? Lily Mae comes out of the back like Tony Soprano. Hey. Hey ho, guess what? You see that blue suit there? You're gonna wear that. You're gonna put that ish on, you're gonna smile, you're gonna be a supportive husband, and you will be at that party on Friday. He's like, I don't wanna go. I didn't ask if you wanna go. You go into that party. I'm paraphrasing here, guys. You go into that party, or else he says, Lily Mae, are you threatening me? The audacity, right? She says, My favorite line this whole episode. She says, Well, score one for the blonde kid. He's like, What you trying to say? Well, if you don't go, I'm gonna tell my baby girl that I saw these two little butterflies flying around. He's like, You're gonna tell her you saw butterflies? He's so dumb. He's so cocky. You cannot be that he cannot be this confident. There's zero chance that he thinks he's that swab. He's six foot twelve running around with a lady wearing fluorescent red, neon red in the middle of the day. Anyway, she's like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I saw two butterflies fluttering out of an apartment building when they have a little meeting, supposed to be a lunch, blah, blah, blah. I saw it, Karen saw it, and Laura saw it. And Laura's baby saw it via Karen, Laura's eyes. His eyebrows start to wiggle. And right about that time, Val comes in. Mama's like, guess what, baby? Gary's taking his country ass to your party on Friday. And he's like, Yeah, yeah, sure. Am. Val wants to know. She asked Lily Mae, why did he change his mind? Mm-hmm. I don't know. Mm-hmm. Lily Mae's not done though. So that's one down, one to go. She sees Abby reversing out of her driveway the next morning and she runs over. This this is where Richard's Richard has gone to the movies because there's all this water in the cul-de-sac. Karen's boys are playing in the water. She had to tell him to go run, turn the water off. Anyway, she runs up on Abby, but Abby and Lily May are the same person. They know how to do country dumb better than anybody, and Lily Mae is wagging her finger in Abby's face. I want you to stop this mess right now. And Abby's like, yeah, I mean, yeah, I want global warming and inflation to stop too. Bye drives off. That's the first time I've seen Abby drop a car in a long time. So, okay, so think about this. Abby knows for sure that Valen is highly suspicious, which is probably what she wants. She doesn't care. She's going for him. This book will seal the deal as far as she's concerned. There's no way she didn't tell Gary about that. There's no way. So you know it's on his radar. He's not even clocking that his wife is no longer speaking to him because he's in this throes of this exciting new thing. I tend to agree with Joe. Joe said a couple episodes ago that the cheater, or excuse me, the gambler wants to get caught. He's behaving like that. He's reckless. They get into this apartment and it's like everything else fades away in the world. I'm not gonna call that romantic because it's incredibly reckless if you are sneaking around. It's real, real dumb. We gotta get back to Val because again, she's she's it's starting to get too hot to ignore at this point. But she just throws herself into this book. I'm sure she's upset about the book. Just like Gary is using the book as an excuse to not be supportive, not really talk to her about anything. That's kind of the mask that he's wearing. She's using the book and the contents of the book as a way to not deal with Gary. So anything, I in my opinion, anything she wants to say to Gary, she's saying to the editor. You're not listening to me. That's not right. I don't want this in this book. And she's not wrong, but she's not she's gonna be like Richard, she's gonna be in the hospital soon if she doesn't snap out of it. The editor is speaking in code, too. So the whole point of changing the cover, um, changing the name of the book is so that it's a little less on the nose. They have to toe the line of this being salacious enough to sell. At some point in the episode, he says there's no such thing as a somewhat salacious book. It either is or it isn't, and this book is. They don't want to get sued. So he's combing through the story, changing things, and to her, it's becoming less and less like fiction. Like, hey, um, I don't want to put that in there because I mean, that's very, very, very near to an actual event. He keeps telling her it's fiction, no one cares. It's Fiction. I mean it's fiction until it's not, right? Let's go ahead and get to the goods. There's no need to drag it out. So tension, tension with the book, tension, tension around. Gary knows that Karen knows now. Oh, did I even say that? Sorry, I think I left off that. So at work when Gary tries to stuff file cabinets, she gets up when he's trying to stuff it into the file cabinet. And he asks her flat out, is there something going on? You want to ease up on me? She's like, ease up. He's like, Yeah, you've been on me all day. Oh, I wonder why. Why you think I'm on you, Gary? He knows why, because Lily may already told him. He's cocky enough to tell her, Well, it's none of your business. To which she replies, It is my business. Val is my friend, and I love her, and I don't want to see her get hurt. So this mother lover has a nerve to tell her, Well, then I guess you won't say anything to her, will you? He has gotten so comfortable being blatantly disrespectful that he is now telling other people, you need to mind your business. You can't say a single word about this. How dare you? How dare you? As intertwined as everybody is in this in this little community, how dare you? Now let's get to the goods. So the night of the party finally comes. And somehow Diana has made the guest list. I'm not, I let me be very clear. I'm not siding with her about her being 18 and everyone treating her like a baby. I'm not siding with her, but also at the same time, why y'all inviting her to everything? She doesn't know the boundary, she doesn't know a child's place. So Valen is sort of fluttering around the room, and I swear to you, I'm not even joking. That dress is at Target right now, or it's at JC Penney's. Is it one of those? She's fluttering around in this red dress. She got her hair up all nice, and she's very uncomfortable because every editor at the party is asking her questions about the Ewings. And she's trying her best to not say it's about them. She keeps telling them it's a work of fiction, and they're like, Yeah, right, wink wink. They think she's being coy. And I guess she is, but she's also telling the truth. It's a work of fiction that is very, very, very much like the truth. I know in music, you just have to change a couple of chords so that you don't get sued for or like stealing someone else's music. I wonder in fiction what you need to do. Probably change the town, change the names a little bit. Yeah, you have to change just a couple things so that it reads as fiction, but at the end of the day, everybody knows what it is. So everyone is there. Lily May is there. Um, Diana somehow made the guest list. She's there. Oh, speaking of Diana, I forgot one other thing. Diana is babysitting her cousin uh Lily May. She's babysitting her cousin Olivia one night. So Olivia is trying to do some dance, and Diana is watching her and she's like, No, no, no, girl, do it just like this, do it like this. So Olivia starts doing it. And you know, they're having a good old cousin time. I love it. Diana tells Olivia, you're a great dancer. She goes, Thank you, Gary says so too. She goes, Well, how do you know? Like, oh, he's here all the time. She's like, Okay, Liv, come on, come sit down and finish your homework. She hands her the calculator. Olivia says, I gotta give this back to Gary too. This is Gary's calculator. Yeah, this is Gary's calculator. He's here. Basically, the baby spills the beans. He's here all the time. So Diana's like, uh, uh huh, uh-huh. I know exactly what's up. So at the party, everybody is there except you know who. Lily Mae is pissed. And so is Karen. So they're calling dealership nonstop, they're calling the house nonstop. Meanwhile, Gary is over at Abby's homegirl's apartment in bed, post coitus. He says, Hey abs, that was fantastic. What a word. I hate when people compliment themselves. You're all right, Gary. I just I don't even want to go there, but I doubt it. I doubt it. I'll say that. He tells Abby he needs to go. Here's where it gets a little bit sticky to me. You could say she is seducing him, but I I don't think that's the case. I think she is presenting an option and playing, she's playing to his reaction. So if he was like, it's the only place I want to be, I'm sure she'd say, Well, I'd never stop you from doing anything you want to do. She'd find a way to round it back out, to be like your wife would, but I wouldn't. He only says no one time. Like, no, I'd rather, would you rather be here or would you rather be there? I'd rather be here. He only says that one time, but the rest of the time he keeps saying, You know what it is. Don't make you know. Oh, come on. What kind of question? He dances around everything. And I notice Gary does that a lot. He never comes right out and says yes. You have to present the actual sentence to him, just like Valen won't accept this affair unless she lays eyes on it. He won't explicitly say yes to anything. You need to be extremely specific before he will. So there's back and forth, back and forth. He tickles her. He manages to get his shirt so he can get dressed. Mind you, he's supposed to be putting on the blue suit. So I'm assuming he came over there in his work clothes. He walked in with his blue suit, but he also has his baby blue cheerleading shorts on. So I don't know if those are underwear. I think they're baby blue cheerleading shorts. My point is, this man has two changes of clothes. Abby and he keep going back and forth. Why don't you stay where you want to be? Why don't you just stay where you want to be, Gary? Blah, blah, blah. He gets dressed. She crawls over to the side of the bed. They begin to kiss, and you see him drop the outfit. He's supposed to wear the Val's thing. So it's it's said and done. He's making his decision. Val is really suffering at this party. She's starting to spiral. Aaron had approached Joe a little before the party, saying, Why is the editor giving Val such a difficult time? Joe says, Well, the truth is he's up for this position in New York. So he his next move has to be his best move. Yes, I agree. He's out of pocket, but also this is the publishing world. Joe, being the stellar gentleman he is, sees that she's freaking out Val that is at the party. She's arguing with him. It's getting loud. He steps in and he starts talking to the guy, like, dude, I don't care what your new position is going to be, you know you're not really handling this the way you should. And the guy tells him, actually, I already got the job, so I don't really have to do anything. I'm hoping you will be my West Coast editor. So maybe Odysse can explain this to me if it even comes up ever again. I don't know if the guy was being difficult so that Joe would step in and be the editor, or if he got some news right before the party. Heron and Lily Mae still steady on the phone. Diana comes in looking like a poodle. I'm not even joking. Whoever did her hair hates her guts. She looked just like a little poodle dog. And she's smirking at her mama like, uh, I figured it out. I'm like, girl, you two affairs late. Ain't nobody surprised. And of course they got together. Gary made the cardinal mistake. He forgot that not only did Lily, Mae, and Laura and Karen see him come out of the apartment, he forgot what that meant. That meant we know your location, homeboy. So what do they do? They roll out. But as they're rolling out, Val sees them leave. She gives chase. Val go, and okay, now this is where we gotta do soap tack, soap tack, soap tack. This is an apartment building. I don't know how they would know which door they're at unless they knocked on every single apartment door. Well, they start knocking, right a tat-tatting. Gary has the audacity to hop up out of bag in his cheer shorts and walk to the door so the whole audience can see how fine he is. I know I'm not having it. Opens the door and it's Karen. Abby looks shocked, shamed. She starts trying to explain. Karen talks to her like a child, zip it, Abby. But Gary hasn't, he's got his hands on his hip again. Karen's not the one though. She steps right in his face. He kind of cocks his head to the side just like he did to Val. Like what the he- you know what? What? Karen. She's right in his face. Get dress, get your ass to that party. Before she can go any deeper, though, here comes Val. Val soap tax, soap tax, soap tax, runs up right behind her, and boom, she sees Abby in the 90, Gary in his draws, and there is literally nothing else to say. He finally has the decency to look to shame of himself. If I recall correctly, he wasn't ashamed. He was having a good old time. This is where I want to be. I'm not going to that party. That was his energy until he saw her face to face. Valen done say a thing. Have y'all seen that movie 1917? I think it's 1917, 1918. It's a war film, and one of the soldiers is supposed to go deliver a message to the other, I don't, I don't know what you call it, the other, the other soldiers on his team. But of course, he has to do this long before telephones and walkie-talkies and what have you. So there are literally bombs bursting in air, uh debris flying, people being killed left and right, and he's got to walk or run to this other station to let these other people know something. If you've ever seen it, you know exactly what I'm talking about. The way the guy is moving, it is perfect. You feel every bit of adrenaline, all the fear, and it's almost as if his body just took over. His mind is definitely somewhere else. But his body does this kind of weird jerky move. He's just trying to get through it as quickly as possible. He's before you know it, he's off to the races. That's Valen. She doesn't say a word. It's just body in motion. She runs out, gets in her car, drives home, runs upstairs. She has the wherewithal to double lock the door so this fool can't get in. I'm gonna give it to Gary. I'm gonna give him this. He's athletic. Now I don't know if he collected all of his clothing. I'm assuming he had to step up out of his baby blue chair shorts, put on his pants or the blue suit he was supposed to wear again, and put his other clothes in the car. I don't know, maybe Abby helped him. I don't really know. But Val takes off. She goes upstairs, she packs all the clothes. Gary makes it to the house and he's beating on the door like a crazy purse, acting a complete fool. She don't get in, she don't give a damn. She runs and she she jumps in her flesh-colored car right past him. And he says, Val, please, Val, please stop. Listen to me. We can talk. Val, please. I'm sorry, Val. You don't understand. You don't understand, honey. Listen to me, please. Please don't do this. Please don't do this. Don't do what, Gary? Have some self-respect. Again, his athleticism is quite impressive. He's holding onto the car as she's reversing. She is not taking it slow either. She's driving like a bat out of hell. He is keeping pace with it with his arms on the door. It is quite impressive, but that's all she can do. She can't look at him. She has to leave. She has to leave. This bastard is in the middle of the road just looking stupid. Don't vow her. End scene. Wow. It's it's disappointing. Not the story, actually, not the show. I I enjoyed this episode very much. But dude, I'm you got off easy, as far as I'm concerned. But also at the same time, you know she knew. She knew she knew the entire time. I'm glad she had to see it. I really am. I hate that it happened that way. I wish it was just a kiss because that is, I mean, there's no coming back from that. Unless there is. I mean, hell, who knows? But it just, I don't understand his carelessness. I go back to Joe. I have to agree with him. You wanted to get caught. You had to have wanted to get caught. There's no way you thought you were gonna get away to that degree, because he became more and more blatant and let the baby girl tell that Olivia tell it. He's over at their house all the time. Business with that stupid methanol stuff should have brought something to fruition at this point, but there's nothing to show for. Just leave. That's my thing. Why drag this out? You already are disrespecting her, you're already ignoring her, you're already embarrassing her in her face, you're already making it uncomfortable for everyone around you. What is the point of dragging on? I think he likes the attention. Period. Point blank. Abby called it out, and it's the Jane or whatever her name was, she knew it too. He even admitted he just liked the way she looked at him. He was a hero. I know this for sure. I know what I know. I know Valen better go back and add another revision. You upset? Oh, bet. I'd put six or seven more chapters on the the loser Larry Ewing on Capricorn Crude. Oh, what a sophine, there's only two questions I have at this point. There's there's only two things to discuss. Number one, he gotta go. Not only him, he and Abby gotta go. As far as I'm concerned, if that's what she wants, if that's who you want, cool. Take him, take him in two more years. See how, see if he's singing the same song. See if she's just as happy in two years from now. You get the yeah, you get the cheater one. You get the one sneaking around. It was it was a fun little game. I snatched him away from this bumpkin, made him feel like a real man. Yeah, okay, cool. Cool. Wait till he gets drunk one time, wait till he starts destroying your house, flipping stuff upside down, throwing a fit every 15 minutes. I don't think she put up with it. But you know, whatever. They gotta go. That's my point. They have got to move out of the cul-de-steck. There is no way I'm gonna watch y'all every day from my house. And she gets the house, as far as I'm concerned. I can't believe the show has me stressed out from 40 plus years in the past. Oh, they got her messed up. But number two, and most importantly, the thing I thought of this whole episode who gets custody of the kids? I'm not talking about Lucy and Mitch. I don't care about them. Who gets custody of Olivia and what's his name, Brian? Because as far as I'm concerned, those are Val's kids. They're the neighborhood's kids. She, how many come on now? She's taking this little girl on trips, and you're not even bad to die. Matter of fact, are you sleeping with my husband while I'm keeping your kids safe? She's buying her special birthday gifts, taking the time to pick out the perfect box. So you're gonna you're gonna take my man and you're gonna take the only kid she has now? Absolutely not. Who gets custody of the kids? All right, y'all. What a season. What an incredible, unpredictable season. Well done, Nas Landing. Well done. I just can't even believe it's gonna turn up from here. I can't even imagine where you go. It seems well, my heart's desire is that Kenny either get interesting again or get gone. It'd be great if they moved to San Francisco, which doesn't make sense to pursue the music career considering you're in LA, but whatever. Yeah, that gotta get interesting really quickly. Can't wait to see what happens with Laura and Richard and this sound right here. This he's gotta go quickly. She's keeping that free house. Clearly, she's not gonna sell it. She's keeping the house. I don't care. I hope that Valen sees for herself now. You have got to make a clean break. It's her husband, so I'm assuming they're gonna try to work it out. I don't imagine it'll just break off that easy. Not on this show. This was Dynasty, absolutely. You'll have a new partner by tomorrow, but not on this show. I imagine this is a love triangle for a little bit. However, she needs to fly. I hate that she is kind of rolled back into that timid woman. She was actually doing good. You know, she's going to school, she's finding her footing, she's discovering new talents. And the longer she stays to appease this idiot, the longer she's gonna end up staying in that shell. You know what? Good riddance. Get him out of there. Get him out of there. But they for real, for real, they gotta move off the cul-de-sac and she's keeping the house. And we're gonna work out custody for Olivia, or else I'm telling the courts about all this other crap. Oh, in California, oh yeah, that's a good state to be divorced in. She better get all his money. Actually, I don't even know if they have any money for real, for real, like that. I guess they have his regular salary and what they're not making with this methanol business, unless he's making money. But any money he gets, you know what? Actually, actually, don't divorce him, Val. Don't divorce him. Drag this out. Let's see if that uh the methanol picks up. If not, you get half of Abby's house too. Get half of her divorce settlement. You're gonna the least she's gonna do is walk out of here, fly. That's what you're gonna do. She needs to get somewhere, get her a freakum dress, go down to the disco and have a good time. It's it's so cal. You can't tell me she ain't gonna find nobody new. Quickly, too. All right. Thank you for listening to Jay. I enjoyed this, even if it doesn't sound like I did. I I thoroughly enjoyed it. Great writing, phenomenal. Can't wait to see what happens this next season. Join me next time as I jump back into some fresh vintage soap opera debauchery. Don't forget you can reach out in the show notes and send me a text, or you can email me at soapwarpodcast at gmail.com. S O A P L O R E P O D C A S T at Gmail.com. Stay hydrated, stay moisturized, believe it the first time you see it. Don't mind your business. Tell everybody and keep all of your drama on TV.