Soaplore

S4 Ep5 Knots Landing: Catharsis-The " Who knows? No-No’s and Now That You Know I Know, I Want To Know Why You Didn’t Want Me to Know!!” Episode

Jett Shae Episode 333

Send us a text

A bad mic can’t dull a razor-sharp plan. We kick off with a wink to the audio gremlins and then dive straight into a Knots Landing hour where control, courage, and quiet manipulation reshape the board. Karen shines as a strategist hiding in plain sight: she pulls a $25,000 trigger, acts normal when nothing is, and lets the right people follow the wrong clues until the Don himself steps out of the car. It’s not brute force—it’s reverse engineering. When the “admin” mobsters beg for arrest to survive their boss, you feel the smart trap snap shut.

On the other side of the cul-de-sac, a 6 a.m. telegram rattles Gary. Abby clocks the will before he opens his mouth, and that silence becomes the story: money vs loyalty, charm vs truth. Val packs warmth for a tour and freezes proximity, proving you can be kind and still draw a line. Gary floats the possibility of inheriting nothing and Abby hedges with grace, but his planlessness nags. Is he playing anyone or just drifting? The tension simmers under lunch, massage oil, and the kind of sleepy grin that says everything and nothing.

We add texture with music and money. Ciji’s earworm drills through living rooms as Ginger names her envy and stakes her claim, while Richard unveils a white-tablecloth gamble that looks expensive and sounds like avoidance therapy. The room at Daniel’s buzzes with side-eyes, flirtation, and subtext, and the host translates each micro-beat with humor: safari jackets, pilfered shorts, oil-slick sheen, and the ancient art of reading a face that says “I’m fine” while the plot says otherwise.

It all resolves in a quiet release. Karen laughs, eats like she’s earned it, and lets the blood pressure drop: catharsis not from tears, but from a scheme executed cleanly enough to close a wound without reopening another. If you love soap opera strategy, mob intrigue, character chemistry, and the joy of catching men in their own silence, press play. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves Knots Landing or smart TV recaps, and leave a review with your favorite moment—we’re reading every single one.

SPEAKER_01:

Hello, gorgeous. Welcome back to another fun fold edition of Soap Lore. Listen, this is Editing Jet, and I've gone through this entire episode, and I need to give you fair warning. You're gonna have a good time. You will laugh, Lord Willing. You might cackle even a little bit. I know I had a wonderful time watching this episode. However, in my excitement and in my haste, I decided to record outside of my normal area, and the sound quality took a hit. It's not horrible, terrible, awful, but it ain't great. Think of it this way: pretend it's 1975, and you and your cousins were fist fighting or arguing over something and bumped into the big old TV. Maybe one of y'all kicked the speakers a little bit. It's it sounds a little muffled, but it's not awful. I edited the entire thing and I kind of got used to it around the 10-minute mark. I just want to give you a fair warning. You might need to listen to this a little bit differently. I don't really know what the trick is, but there's no way I couldn't warn you before you got started, okay? I appreciate your time. I appreciate each and every one of you who listen. So, per usual, we're gonna make a do-it-a-do. Go ahead and pour yourself up something bubbling and bright and listen to this semi-underwater kicks 1972 Floor TV speaker sounding episode of SoapLore. Ladies and young boys and girls, welcome and welcome back to another edition of SoapLore. I'm your host, Jessica Vince, so we have studies storyline of 1982.

SPEAKER_00:

Hello, you my beautiful beautiful creatures. Welcome and welcome back to another fun addition of still four. Woo! Baby. Baby, baby, baby. You ever have a plan and you think through it really well and you organize it, and then your execution comes, it fumbles and fumbles and goes kap.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's kind of my situation, but it ain't no thing.

SPEAKER_00:

It ain't nothing. Ain't nothing we can't work through. Pardon any background noise you might hear today. I am in an unconventional place recording, but I'll be damned if I let a lost document keep me from doing. I had this whole episode all scripted to take out. I had notes, I had real names, I had the the storyline down to a T. Here, I don't know what happened.

SPEAKER_01:

I have no clue what happened, but it's okay. I'm gonna wing it. I don't remember these people's names, so be it. You know, if I say salmon square pants, you know that's one of the mafioso types. If I say not quite Jerry Seinfeld, I'm talking about the other one. We're gonna figure it out. We're gonna put two and two together and make it work. This episode was exceptional and completely opposite of me today. It it was it's about a well-laid plan. Go ahead and pour yourself up something bubbly and bright as we jump into season four, episode five, Knox Landing, Catharsis. Catharsis is an incredibly fun word to say. I definitely don't say that that often. I think it's one of those situations where I might not say it a lot, but I definitely have moments where I just release. I I tend to cry, as you may or may not know if you've been watching the show for excuse me, I've been listening to the show for a little bit. It is a good release for me. Had to look up catharsis just to make sure I am reporting this properly. Like I'm Barbara Walters or something, but the process of releasing and thereby providing relief from strong or repressed emotions. Huh. I'm not sure I really got that theme this episode, but that's neither here nor there. We are getting down to the nitty-gritty. This is all about a well-laid plan. This is about being able to focus, reverse engineer, and make-ish shape when you need it to. Let's jump on in. I'm gonna be real. I had a whole document set up. I don't know where it is. I cannot believe it in save, so I'm gonna have to refresh my memory in real time. So at the top of the show, we have a shower scene. Opening scene, Karen comes out of the shower glistening like she is completely lathered in baby oil or castor oil or vegetable oil, whatever oil was readily available that day on set. She comes out, sits on the edge of the bed, takes a sphone call. It is, of course, weird wings on her, everything's going down. She needs to go ahead and bring the money. She says, Okay, I'll begin in a little bit. You can tell right away that she feels a little bit uncomfortable. She's definitely nervous, but why wouldn't she be? Think about it.

SPEAKER_00:

She has been combing through the court records for weeks by this point.

SPEAKER_01:

She is agreeing to buy stolen parts, although unbeknownst to the people selling her stolen parts. They don't know that. They don't know that she knows that she's buying stolen parts. But she knows that and she knows she needs this to go just so. So what does she do? She pretends to be normal. The thing from the scene that grabbed my attention is obviously not the fact that she's freezed down and smacked up, flipped up, and rubbed down. It's that baby girl's face is still beat. It is all the powder. Her face might as well be on another planet compared to her body. Now, how does a girl get in the shower like that? I scoffed, but then I remembered something I saw on Aaron Parsons' makeup channel. Back in the day they used to sell these caps you put over your face. Now, I think we all know those tricks. If you're a girl who's ever had to save a a night of makeup, or a man who does beautiful makeup, whoever. Sometimes you can put a shower cap, poke a couple holes in it, but then what what tends to happen is it gets foggy and it ruins it. So you gotta just take a cold shower. You know what I'm saying? You gotta take a cold shower to salvage a good face of makeup. Please don't act like you ain't never done it. Listen, I have definitely gotten a good face of makeup and then decided I would just sleep on my back as to stay with for the next day. That's when you nice you take a nice lukewarm shower as to not create any steam. I would assume that's what Karen did, but maybe she was putting on baby oil. Maybe she likes to be extra moisturized. I'm here for it. Anyway, the whole stolen parts from her husband's murderer is going down on today. Meanwhile, across town, Gary Ewing is sleeping on his stomach at the butt crack of dawn when someone comes ratty tat-tatting on his door. It is none other than a messenger delivering a telegram. I would like to know when telegrams went out of fashion. I don't know why I've never looked this up. But he gets a telegram and the dude delivering it is really on one. It is all of six in the morning. And Gary is is you know I don't make excuses for Gary, but I mean, damn, he is out of a deep sleep, 6 a.m. stumbles to the door, has to sign for something. He's trying to comprehend what the kid is saying. The dude's like, hey, uh uh, could you read later and pay me first? Pay you? Why would he pay you? I guess it's supposed to be a tip. I would have slammed that door in his face. It is way too early for all of this. That doesn't really matter what I would do because Bobby needs to excuse me, Gary needs to decide what he's gonna do. He decides not to punch telegram Ted in his face, although that would have been completely warranted. He goes ahead and he opens to read it. Real quick aside, actually, two quick asides. Karen is a phenomenal actor. What's her name? Michelle Lee. She's speaking over the phone to Weird Wayne, and you could obviously tell that she's she's uncomfortable. You can see it in her body language, but she manages to keep her voice very cheerful. That is some good acting. She is selling it in her voice, but her body language to the camera is very uncomfortable. Way to go. Way to go to acting school, way to follow through. She's she's so tense it makes you tense. And she's hella greasy. I can't, I cannot stress that enough. Anyway, back to Gary. Forgive my manners. Pardon my manners. I forgot to mention that he is in his infamous baby blue booty boy shorts. But he has the decency to throw a robe on because he, I mean, he didn't know who was gonna be at the door. It's early in the morning, you know what I'm saying? Don't nobody want to see all that. But I mean, some somebody wants to see that. I mean, I don't mind, but anyway, he reads it in in in 4.2 seconds. Hmm. He don't strike me as a reader, but maybe he is. He's a middle child, maybe he spent a lot of time in his room reading books. But after he reads it, he immediately goes to put on his clothes. You can tell he's a little uncomfortable, again, emphasizing the emotion without words. So he slinks back into the bedroom, but on the way to the bedroom, he puts the telegram, telegram, what the hell, whatever. He puts the message under one of those old-fashioned clocks that everybody's grandparents had in their house. Just wood and gold face, whatever. He puts it under the clock. Although Gary doesn't read the telegram, the message on screen, Abby comes in a little bit later and she reads it quietly to herself, but opens it up wide enough for us all to read. And it says Gary Ewing, Dallas, Texas. Tried to reach you by phone, no luck. To tell you Daddy's will will be read on the 29th at South Fork. Sorry for short notice, but Mama wants it over and done stat. Call me for details, Bobby. God bless a baby brother, right? Let me reach out. Let me put you in, Gary. Gary? Uh they're gonna read the will soon. You need to make your way down to Dallas. ASAP, call me. Now Abby reads this, and it you might as well play money bags. Um, all I do is win whatever celebratory song you would want playing as you signed your lottery check. She falls out with excitement, like, hell yeah! I knew this was gonna pay off someday. She lets out a little hoop and a little holler, falls back on the couch, and spends the rest of the day patiently waiting for her hero to tell her that they are rich, rich now. Only what she don't know is that her man is halfway across town to harass his soon-to-be ex-wife. Two things are abundantly clear during this scene to me. Uh, number one, Val is embracing the author's life. She is looking forward to going on tour, even if it's just a suppressed tour, getting away from Nas Landing. She hadn't been able to run away like I think she really wants to. You know, she's trying to mend, she's got a broken heart, but she's also got to be strong. And putting a little distance between her and Gary is a really, really good idea. And she seems to be very content to go. Number one, she is not bringing Lily May around. Lily May is gonna stay right where she is in that cul-de-sac and ear hustle and watch people from the streets. She's gonna do all the nosiness she's gonna do in Knox Landing and now with Valen, which I think is a fine idea. Lily May is fun, but she's also a handful, and I know she has two or three snuts planned for this trip. Absolutely not, Mama. I just need to be by myself. I need you to stay here. While I'm watching Valen pack, the second fact is is made very clear to me. Valen is packing all of her clothes, you know, this and that, odds and ends for clearly warm weather. She happens to pack a very short pair of pink shorts that look a whole lot like Gary's baby blue shorts. Gary is a clothing steve. Clothing steve. I would like to go out on limb and be loud and wrong, although I'm not wrong in this case. Gary Ewing has 100% been wearing Valve's booty shorts this entire time. And if she lets him back in that house, he's gonna put his hands on the pink one. How do I know this? Because Gary Ewing steals clothes. I have seen him on three different occasions in other people's clothing. I know that these soap hoppers borrow writers from time to time. They clearly borrow wardrobe. Oh, speaking of Gary, somebody goes knocking that rat-a-tat-tatting at the door. Lily Mae goes downstairs, and wouldn't you know it, it is Gary Ewing. Do you know what Gary Ewing is wearing? God no, he's not wearing the baby boom shorts. Come on now. Told you he put on a rope. But he is wearing J.R. Safari jacket. Mm-hmm. Little brothers like to steal sometimes. Sometimes little brothers look up to you and they idolize you. Sometimes that means stealing clothes. Did I steal my sister's capas? I absolutely did. I couldn't wait for her to go to school. I couldn't wait for her to go on trips. I would hide them under the bed and then when she'd leave, I would wear those. Oh my god, I thought I was so cute. Only they hurt the hell out of my feet. But did I stunt when I could? I absolutely did. Did I steal her skirt on a few occasions? Sorry, sis, if you listen to this, I I had to do it. I 100% did. Couldn't wait for her to leave the house so I could walk around in her heels like I was grown. Couldn't tell me nothing. And I stole her jellies. I didn't actually steal them because we lived in the same house at the time, but when she did move out, no. I think the cape was made in. I actually got ketchup on it, and she still didn't know why. She thought she did it. I didn't do it. I did do it. I'm sorry. Anyways, back to the task in hand. Gary, what the heck are you doing here? I just I don't want any trouble, Lily Mae. I just want to see Valen. She doesn't want to see you. Well, Valen hears the the ruckus downstairs, and I guess she thinks it's a cab. So she comes down and she sees Gary and he's like, I don't want any trouble, but they're reading Daddy's will soon, and I think the family might want to see you there. Sir, that sounds like a favor. I absolutely am not doing that. Valine says, What family? I don't have any family in Dallas. You got a whole daughter. Gary says, Come on, Val. Daddy always liked you, and the family still considers you family. I think they'd want to see you. Just put a pen in that. Okay? He just put a pen in that because I still don't really know how I feel about that. She tells him to please vacate the premises immediately. She don't want nothing to do with them. So he leaves, but not before telling her at some point they're gonna have to be cordial. Sir, that is plenty cordial. It's just not accommodating, which he's very used to her being. So he dips. Valina is upset. You know, she she barely told him to step off the first time. Now he comes showing up to her house. She knows that that's his daddy. You know she already cares. You know. She might not love his family, but to know that he's probably hurting by that is is not gonna be easy. But she has to do what she has to do for her. So she says, I can't believe he showed up here like she's visibly upset. Lily Mae comes up and hugs her and she says, it's probably just now hitting him that his dad's gone. He probably wants to be with someone who loved him. She goes, you know what? Well, he can go talk to her. That brings up an interesting point. Why didn't you go to her first? We know who her is. Why not? Anyway, over at Karen's house, it is almost 8 30 a.m. and she's at the table crunching numbers, looking over checks, looking over her books. In walks Joe, her baby brother, tells her to pour him a cup of coffee, and uh he said, Did I hear the phone ring at before 6 30 a.m.? Who in the heck was that? So she tells him, Oh, somebody from work. Goes, my god, were you even able to talk before 6 30? I've never heard you say anything comfort. Anything that made sense before that. She's like, Yeah, I took care of it, no problem. So he's picking up on the fact that she is answering the questions a little bit quickly and she seems a little bit different. So he starts staring at her and then he looks over at the clock. He says, Wait a minute, why aren't you at work? Oh, uh, I need to go to the bank when it opens. Well, I'll go to the bank for you. No, she's jumpy. Now, normally this wouldn't be worth mentioning, but I think you all would agree. If you have a sibling, nobody, and I do mean nobody on earth, is better than a younger sibling at reading your emotions and getting under your skin. Nobody. So he's immediately clocking this something is amiss. Val is a bit player this episode, and so is Richard. So we're gonna make this really quick. Richard's restaurant is just about ready to open. We are day of opening, day before opening, something like that. He is spending$30 a glass, which seems that seems like bad business to me, right? Even in 1980, like, dude, it was you don't buy in bulk?$30 a crystal glass. So his restaurant is fancy fancy. I thought this was gonna be a mom and pop, but no, there tends to be chefs. There is a very sophisticated menu that appears to change quite often. And uh some things change, some things don't. One of the things that doesn't change is once Richard is locked in on an idea, he is locked in, he's honed in. Laura comes in concern because he has not been going to his psychiatric appointments. He is supposed to meet with his psychiatrist, psychiatrist, three times a week. He ain't been in about a week in change. She says, now why wouldn't you? Why would you do a full thing like that, Richard? He tells her, Well, with you back in my life and a fresh new baby and Jason and a fresh restaurant, I don't really have time to go crazy. I am quite booked and busy. This is just the medicine I need. She says, Dude, you've had a nervous breakdown. He said, I had a nervous breakdown because I wasn't dealing properly with my emotions and I was bitter and resentful. I'm no longer those things. So there's no chance of me having a nervous breakdown. That remains to be seen. Kind of seems like a one-off to me, but who's to say? Okay. So the rest of this episode, I have to do it. How am I gonna do this? So we'll focus on Karen, we'll focus on Gary. We'll focus back on Karen, we'll focus back on Gary, and then it'll all come to a head at the end of the episode. Karen. She does indeed go to the bank to collect this check for$25,000. Karen's got a lot of money. But it takes her a while to realize after she left the bank that she is being followed. She's able to get to the car dealership without incident, hand over the check, but it's very clear that she's nervous while she does it. And Weird Wayne even picks up on it like, are you okay? And she she blows it off by saying, No, okay, I'm fine, I'm fine. It's just this is a lot of money. The big deal. I've never had to do anything like this. Just feels kind of weird. He smiles and he agrees. So the thing with Weird Wayne that I got wrong earlier is that it's not that he doesn't want the mafioso types to know that he went through with the deal. I made that mistake. It's that the mafioso types don't want the dawn of the mafia to know that they are still running this scam because they were given distinct orders to stop after Sid was killed in the car accident. They were told to just kind of be cool, let this all blow over, please don't ruffle any feathers. And they're doing the opposite by going back into the stolen parts biz. Now the guy that they've been buying the stolen parts from, he don't want nothing to do with it. He feels very uncomfortable, but it feels like he's strong arm into it. Okay, so let's keep all that in mind. The mafioso types are popping up just to check on Karen here and there. She's unaware of it. Another quick aside, have you guys ever noticed, you OGs that is, have you ever noticed that Marcia, the secretary in this series, looks just like Nancy from Sid and Nancy? Was that just the look you think? You think that's a coincidence, or were we sending a subliminal message here? So remember how I told you that Joe, being a little brother, is easily able to pick up on the fact that his older sister is is is a is a little nervous, maybe even a little scared. Well, what does a little brother who loves his big sister do? He goes straight over to Mac's office to chastise him for not doing more about this case. Karen is acting weird, dude. You gotta do something about it. Now Mac is in the middle of lunch, and I I have to I sympathize with him because he's trying to take Joe seriously. However, in some horrible, horrible turn of events, somebody forgot to give him his damn hot sauce for these tacos. The hell am I eating? They're not even tomato on here. These look like dry, crispy, crumbly tacos. I don't see no grease, I don't see no flavor. So he's he's flipping through the tacos. Joe is going off, going ape-ish about how dangerous this whole thing is and what the heck is Karen doing. And I know she's doing something. She took out money, she was scared. Why don't you do something, Mac? Why don't you arrest her? Why don't you get off her and get in there and do something? Mac's like, I get I don't have no taco sauce. What the hell do you want from me? Joseph, I want you to arrest her. That's what I want you to do. You better not let her die, you creep. Storms off. Mac is appalled. How dare you call me a creep? I offered you one of these sauceless, tomato-less, crumbled, cold tacos, and that's how you treat me? You're a creep. Next time you come here, you better have ID. Friend passes is revoked, homeboy. Speaking of not being friendly, the guy who is selling the parts to the mafioso types is not comfortable dropping off stolen parts in broad daylight, as one would imagine. But the mafioso types are pressuring him. He feels like he has to do it. It is also worth noting that based on my extensive research on mob movies and documentaries, I knew right away these guys were low level. They're basically secretaries. If the mob has an admin department, they're in the admin department. They're seeing no action, never, ever, ever. Plus, they mentioned they make like$6,000 a month and they want to keep that nice and cushy. And the way to do that, they have to keep it away from the Dawn. If the Dawn finds out about this, he's gonna put their head on a stick. Now, while they're pressuring this poor man, I really it doesn't really make sense the more I think about it. He's still gonna deliver the parts. He ain't saying no. Fiji's saying, can I not do it in broad daylight and get arrested? By the way, six thousand dollars in 1982 is the equivalent of around$20,000. My gosh. Ladies and gentlemen, we have entered the musical portion of our program. There is no way that Fiji CG is not a real singer. They are pushing this so hard. So Gary comes home after being dumped again in some way by Valen to listen to Ah Got a Holy My Heart. The song isn't stuck in my head, by the way. Well, he's jamming to it. He he walks in and he sees a note from Abby that basically says, Oh my god, I love being stood up, shooting you lots of poison darts and arrows, something like that. And I guess to take the edge off of being rejected and then letting Abby down, he he blops out in the seat and listens to CG, but across town, back at the cul de sick, Kenny's country behind is doing the same thing. He had the audacity. This would actually piss me off too. He had the audacity to come home for lunch and blast that ish all through the living room as Ginger is in the kitchen preparing the lunch. Well, he's listening to it over and over again. Like, I don't know if I should turn up the bass at the end. I think personally they need to edit it. There's like a weird abruption in the song that they need to work on, but that's just me. Ginger says, hey, you push play one more time. I'm gonna I'm gonna turn that ish into spaghetti. I'm gonna crack that tape wide open over your head. You better not push play on that. He's like, honey, I have to. I just can't just want to work. I need to work on this. So eventually she lets it out and let the cat out of the bag. I want to shout out Jupiter for dropping a new word into my vocabulary that I have had to fold in over the last few days. Fantastic word. Ginger has a hate buller for CG. That is the perfect, perfect description of the sort of hate I'm sure she is dealing with. And she's right. She she finally tells Kenny, listen, I sing probably better than CG. Yeah I'm gonna have to go back to Ginger's episode and listen to her. I don't know about all that. I don't remember her being bad, but I certainly, I don't know. I think CG's stage present is a little bit better. But Ginger doesn't give a damn. I am your wife, I sing better than her, I look better than her, I'm your wife, and here you got me raising this baby. Mind you, they're in this baby's nursery. Now they didn't finish fighting in the kitchen, they went to baby two names' room while she's trying to enjoy her playtime. And Kenny explains, well, honey, I needed to come home because I needed to, I wanted to play with baby two names, but she was asleep. So she was asleep, so you blasted music throughout the house. It's also worth noting that they don't have that same state-of-the-art sound system that they had once before. I'm assuming they removed it because they had baby two names, but that didn't stop him from blaring the music. Baby Two Names is minding her own business. Kenny insists that, oh honey, you're gonna you're supposed to raise a baby for three years before we do anything more. This is a rock in a hard place for a ginger. She only wants to sing, in my opinion, because she's not teaching anymore. She's not teaching anymore because she and Kenny at some point must have agreed that she was gonna stay home with baby two names. Once she realized how absolutely mind-numbing and boring that is, it can make everything that other people do seem that much more glamorous. I'm not saying that she's wrong in wanting to be taken seriously as an artist because I do think she's talented. But also, that man ain't gonna never take you seriously. I'm sorry. There's no way you are his wife and the mother of his child, and he wants to make sure that baby's at home with a mom. You better believe. I wouldn't be surprised if this man is not necessarily sabotaging her, but definitely putting her up on the shelf. But Ginger lets lets him know, in not so many words, CG ain't ish, it's really me. There's no contest. This is a Mariah and and mother loving Betty Boop. You know who the star is. Stop playing with me, Kitty. Record my demo. So as Gary is listening to CG holler upside his head while he tries to take a nap. I guess CG is a lullaby. Did I miss that part? Guess so. Abby comes walking in, bearing gifts. She's bought two giant thick meat salami sandwiches and a Bellon's roast meat or something. I don't know. Two sandwiches, two copes, and a bottle of massage oil. You know it's going down. He's gonna get a sandwich and a little loving later on. So, but she's kind of waiting for him to drop them. So, hey honey, how's it going today? Anything interesting? He doesn't say anything. She's still smiling, like, okay, he must be waiting for the right time. Let me tell you what, Abby has to put in that work. After they get a gut full of protein and carbs and chase it down with a little high fructose corn syrup, she has him lay on his belly and she massages every inch of his body based on that stupid look on his face. He is almost as greasy as Karen was at the opening of this. I mean, she put in work and then she got to work. Only to have this mother lover pass out, sleep on his stomach, still not spilling the beans. But Abby is a woman of she can only go so far. So once she uh sloughs off all the the baby oil or whatever there's on her hand, puts back on her clothes without greasing them down, she nudges him awake. Hey, fool, don't forget we got Richard's thing tonight. Were you gonna tell me something? You know what Gary does? He plays dumb, not country dumb. There is a distinction between playing country dumb and just being dumb and country. I'm not sure which actually, let me let me not say that. I was gonna say I'm not sure which one he is. He is not country dumb. That's what he's not. That's what I'm gonna tell you now. He ain't that clever. But also, he's not dumb dumb. So, Gary, what the hell are you actually doing? Abby says, I saw the note. I know good and well your daddy's will's about to be read, and I'm trying to figure out why you didn't talk to me. Now that you know that I know, how come you didn't want me to know? Abby, what are you talking about? Death with the gaslight. He drives me nuts with the gaslighting. What are you talking about? What are you talking about? You know what she's talking about, and we'll talk about that in a little bit. Let's get back to Karen. So at some point during the day, uh, Karen realizes that she's being followed, and my baby brother would be very proud of her. He told me, I remember when I moved out. He told me, if anyone's following you, don't be brave, drive right to the police station. Like, you know what? That is a brilliant idea. That is fantastic. Let me tell you what, y'all. My girl Karen was shook. Once she realized she was being followed by an unmarked or nondescript baby blues nan, she's hitting them corner. She's driving like almost at Jeff Hardy. You know what I'm saying? Not Jeff Hardy, the wrestler. Jeff, whoever drives race car. She's hitting them corner. She's she drives straight to Mac's office, breaks out running all up the stairs, without breaking the sweat, by the way, was very impressive. She runs up the stairs. Mac is talking to two people. She burst in between them. Hell, hell, shades me. They go in his office, and the dude keeps walking, like the dude who's been following her, follows her right into Mac's office. She gets behind him. She's like, You're not gonna do, you're not gonna shoot me in broad daylight, are you? No, the guy's not gonna shoot her at all because he has been hired by Mac since the jump. You see, since Karen was so nosy, and she read over all of the um court papers, and she's heavily involved in this ongoing case, which seems to be done, but it seems like there's still an investigation. That part is a little bit, that doesn't really make sense. Mag basically tells her since she first visited him, she's he's been having her follow just in case. What do you say, ladies and gentlemen? Is that a red flag? Is that a green flag? I don't know. Garen doesn't know either, but she does know she has something she wants him to hold. And it's a sucker punch. She punches him right in the stomach. Hold that. He grills over a little bit, but then she doubles over because her hand hurts and he's like, oh, I work out. Prove it, Mac. I doubt that. God, I tell you what, I know bro culture, gym culture in the early aughts, and even the the 2010s was God, insufferable. You 80s booze are taking it to the next level, though. Y'all ain't that fine. Maybe a little. Anyway, after the sucker punch in the stomach, he explains that he has been having her followed because this is dangerous, and you're messing with the mother-loving mob, Karen. What are what part of dangerous murderer mob family do you not understand? So this next part was I'm gonna kind of explain this as quickly as I can. Joe, although he's a little brother, he's a little bit slow. It took him a whole lot of time to get to the to get to Max's office. I forgot that part. So at some point during the day, Joe couldn't shake the fact that Karen was being weird. So he goes to non-sanding motors, and just as she's leaving, he he sees her drive off, and then he sees a blue sedan following her. So when she was ripping and running it and going through it, he was chasing her. But it took him significantly longer to get to Max's office and it did her. And once they're both there, they're both chastising her for being so reckless. Well, she goes, Well, somebody had to do something. You guys didn't catch my husband's killer, so I set up a whole sting. They're gonna buy these stolen parts. I already paid for them. You guys can come in and catch them. Something along those lines. Max, like, be so for real, Karen. Please tell me, please tell me you're making this up. She goes, No. He goes, Do you know you could be arrested for this? Do you know what entrapment is? I tend to agree with Karen. She's like, but I'm not a cop. Exactly. Max says, That doesn't matter if you're not a cop. You started talking to me about this right about the time you start setting this up. So it even if you didn't, even if even if you're not a cop, it looks like entrapment because you definitely spoke to a cop first or the DA or whatever the heck he is. And then went and did a full thing like this. She's like, oh no, oh man. I don't know what to do. They're gonna borrow, they're gonna drop all the parts. Also, don't be late for Richards tonight. Everybody's going to Richard's tonight at 7 p.m. Get to eat them. So Joe and Mac are sitting in his office. Mac is like, I guess, pondering over, oh my God, what do I do? It's five o'clock. We can't, oh my gosh, we just we just can't get caught up in this. But Joe is sitting in the cut and he's like, wait a minute. This just doesn't feel right. I know my sister likes the back of my hand. She's not that dumb. There's no way that she would get into bed with these people without thinking there's gonna be some major consequence. Well, while Joe is is losing his mind, Mother Loving Matt gets on the phone and he calls an informant that he has who is close with the dawn. And he basically says, Hey, I don't know, but I do know something. I think y'all might want to be at this place. We're gonna check something out, okay? Mac hangs up the phone. Joe and Mac head over to Richard's or Daniel's restaurant, pardon me. When they get there, to my surprise, CG is sitting her country ass at the table. Why is CG there? With Ginger and Kenny. Kenny's in the middle. Ginger's in the prom dress, looking very annoyed. I don't think CG is feeling Kenny, but I I understand the frustration. Like it ain't even about them sleeping, them sleeping with each other. It's like, I can't believe you brought your protege here. Well, I still don't have a demo. I got babies spit up all over them. On the other hand, Abby and Gary are there. And Gary is explaining, Well, I had to go talk to Valley. Oh, I forgot that part. So, right before Abby walked out on him, she goes, Where's the first place you ran to? Was it Valen's? And he had that stupid look on his face. She's like, You are so pathetic. So, what he's telling her over dinner is like, listen, girl, listen, baby, listen, listen. Valen and I are technically still married. My father really liked her, so there's a pretty good probability that my inheritance is based on my daddy wanting me to stay with Valen. I just want you to be prepared, baby. I might walk away with nothing. I might be a broke boy. I might be even more broker boy than I am right now. Abby gets all these stars in her eyes. She's like, baby, listen, I knew you were broke the minute I saw you. Don't you worry. I want you to take your time. I want you to go to Dallas, bury your dead daddy, and get my money. Or or or if you don't get the money, I'll take you back anyway. Don't worry about it. We're in this together. Are you though, Abs? Are you? Real quick. Richard brings out uh sea captains to serve food. They have those little things on their shoulders. That doesn't seem like a sh like a waiter to me. But anyway, they're serving all of this fancy food. And in block, Joe and Mac. When Mac is making his introductions, Abby finds the opportunity to be shady. She's never met him before, but somebody's oh, she's seeing you know, I'm this is Mac, this is blah blah. Oh my god, are you the guy Karen's obsessed with? Gosh, she must be so interesting being with an older woman. Well, he says, an older woman, and then he looks over at Ginger. He's like, or a younger, kind of gives her the what's up, and then looks at Abby. And I think he goes, or a sexy one. Like basically, like, I'll take all three. I don't know if it's the New Yorker or East Coast in him or if he's flirting, but I guess time will tell. Seems like he was kind of into it. Like, I mean, whoever's down is down. I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do. And I don't, that's not her man, man, right now. But yeah, he seems like a flirt. He can get away with it. Anyway, right about this time, they realize that Karen is not at the restaurant, which means she can only be in one place. She's at Nas Landing Motors. So what do they do? They've room room back over there, I'm assuming in the wagonier. So at Nas Landing Motors, the two mafioso admin guys come in. Karen decides to be Captain Save Home. She runs over to Wayne, who's always stalking something in the stock room. And she says, I want my money back. These parts are stolen. The super secret mafioso secretary club comes up behind her and says, Hey, this feels like you tried to set us up. Why is it a problem? You don't want, you don't want my stolen parts? No, I don't. Give me back my money. And they like, hey, let me let me holler at you for a second, Karen. So one of the mafioso secretaries grabs her up, gently by the arm, leads her into the shop, to the yeah, into the shop, and they start making these idle friends. Let me tell you who's not scared. Karen Fargate. She may be baby oiled down and wearing a silk blouse, but guess what she's not? She's not folding. That's what she's not doing. She's not sweating. There are no pit stains on that light pink shirt. Right about the time they get her where they want her, somebody pulls up in an extended Lincoln Town card. Who is it? Well, baby, when you believe it's the Don himself. And he's like, well, well, well. I smell stolen parts and shit. What are you three fools doing here? Didn't I specifically tell you not to go back into the stolen part business? Now you done brought this broad in here with this pink shirt. They're like, no, man, no, man, I'm not still no, nothing, nothing happened. We're not doing that. No, no, no. This is my girlfriend. Right about this time, Matt comes in like he's the man with Joe and one. I repeat, Uno. O N E. Swing one, not Uno. Officer of the law. And he says, Hey, Don, yeah, you might want to bounce. So the Don turns on his heel and we see one more officer of the law for a total of two. The Don gets back in his car and Mac turns to the mafioso secretaries and weird Wayne and says, Hey guys, why don't you let Karen go and then you can also leave? Why don't you just walk home? And they're like, Walk home. If we go out there, he's gonna kill us. Not my problem. Wait, now, wait, wait, wait. Arrest us, please. Can't arrest you unless, of course, you and confess to tampering with evidence and killing Sid Fairgate. Then yeah, I can get you arrested. And we're like, cool, bet, we'll do something like that. Don't worry about it. Well, Karen has heard all she can hear, and she takes off running back into the showroom. Joe follows her, thinking, oh my gosh, she's finally breaking down. This is probably so traumatic for her. These are the guys that killed her husband. She wanted so much more out of this. Let me go make sure my big sister's okay. She's kind of in this weird days, and he goes, honey, there's no way you're not thinking anything. What are you thinking right now? No, she's thinking is Dad Gum and I haven't eaten all day. Starts laughing. And I guess what makes this a cathartic moment is that she is releasing whatever she's been holding all day. Not necessarily the painting of Sid, but just the nerves of trying to set some what set someone up to get justice. Okay, so they get to the restaurant, and baby brother Joe is watching Karen stuff her face. She even likes she's going to the electric chair. Oh my God, Richard, Richard, Richard, Richard. This is so good. Mm-mm-mm. And her brother's looking upside her head and he's adding and subtracting and carrying the one, carrying the three. And he comes to this conclusion. He's like, You're not that dumb, and there ain't no way. This whole thing was a setup. You set up every part of this. She just keeps eating her food, like, oh no, I don't know what you're talking about. Apparently, Karen is a mastermind. With all of the reading she did about the case, I'm assuming she just realized, okay, they were not, they were acquitted on a technicality. So all I have to do is reverse engineer, figure out what the technicality is, and make sure that's not even an option this go round. They will be caught red-handed with stolen parts. They will be caught lying to me. And then I'm going to string along this guy I've been seeing with little bits and pieces of information because he's a detective and he's kind of nosy like me, and there's no way he cannot look into that. He's going to come look into it. He's going to reach out and use all of his resources, and these guys are going to get served the justice that the first they ducked out on the first time. Not bad. I mean, takes a smart woman or somebody who can just reverse engineer it quick enough and be like, okay, if you were off on a technicality, let me just make sure that technicality didn't happen. I like Karen Fairgate San Diego. But what I don't like is Gary, the mother-loving Ewing. It's not even that I'm going on. I'm not even tripping on Gary being a scumbag this episode. I think I said on the last one that, God, like when he approached Valen to get back together, like, I'm way too intrigued to be upset by this.

SPEAKER_00:

What exactly are you playing? I don't think Gary has a game plan.

SPEAKER_01:

It's clear that he doesn't trust Abby as much as he trusts Valen. Maybe Lily May is right. He just wanted like a familiar shoulder to lean on. But back in the back of his mind, something has got to be like I thought, okay, is he playing a game? And if so, what is the game? Why are you? I kind of think he's lying to Abby. I really, really do. I did not expect in a million years that he would reach out to Val and be like, I want to get back together. And I also didn't think that he wouldn't tell Abby about this possible inheritance, especially considering she already knows it's coming up. Maybe you guys thought it was a month away. Seems like it's been moved up a couple weeks. What difference does it make? She's obviously going to be asking you about this. Is he that dense that he doesn't think that far ahead? I think, I think not. I don't think he's dumb at all, actually. But I also don't think Gary has a plan. It is gonna be very interesting to watch his character develop over the next few seasons because as of right now, you still see hints of that immaturity that he was very open with with Valen. He doesn't seem to do that with with um Abby, but it it's possibly because she she doesn't want to fight with him. She is held bent on seeing him as a grown man and not necessarily a hero, but you can tell there's a lot of admiration there. Gary Ewing is a strange, strange person. Alright, guys. Thank you so much. That's it. That's all for this episode of Soaploor. Join me next time as we jump into unduble stup of the Crest of Falcons. In the meantime, in between time, put away your telegraphs. If you don't want your new jump off to know that you're about to come into a whole bunch of money, hide that information. Also, if your husband is a man form, hide your booty shorts because he's for sure gonna steal. Stay hydrated, stay moisturized, like Kieran. And keep all of your drama on TV.