A packed show tonight with all the plots flying high and a couple descending for landings.
One just taking off is the Tracy Kendall subplot of planting a scandalous story with her bed buddy Jeremy, an editor at a fictional knockoff of the National Enquirer. This unclad, clandestine meeting raised among other things a question about the timeline. How many days and weeks transpired between Tracy's bedroom meeting with Jeremy and the actual story being written, published, and distributed to newsstands? Two interesting takeaways. Kendall came close to overplaying her hand here when Krystle zigged instead of zagged as planned. But I agreed with Tracy that Krystle too blithely dismissed the hit piece and its possible ramifications. The second takeaway was surprise that DYNASTY would take a swipe at the grocery store tabloids, which I vividly recall being big promoters of the prime-time soaps. My mother always bought "The Star" and while I wasn't interested as a teenager, I recall Joan Collins and Linda Evans being among the celebs regularly featured (albeit not always flatteringly, which perhaps provoked this show's slap down).
The scene with Tracy and Jeremy was filmed so carefully to reveal as much without revealing anything. I laughed at the shameless attempt at titillation when Tracy got up to mix a drink and the spoilsport director placed so many obstructions in our view. Come to think of it, Jerome Courtland's direction was just really weird all throughout this episode. What was with the shot of a woman exiting a store and walking to her car while we hear a voiceover of Jeff? Huh, what's going on? It was disorienting until the camera finally zoomed in on Jeff's passing car, cutting to him inside playing Mannix yakking on his car phone. Then came that shot in La Mirage that started on a gaggle of guests then panned to the fireplace and then zoomed through the fireplace to Claudia and Alexis talking. Talk about taking the scenic route through the set. If that was an ambitious attempt at avant garde, its reach exceeded its grasp!
Then twice Courtland filmed meetings in Blake's office from what appeared to be the uppermost reaches of the ceiling corner. First Dex and later Adam appeared, each man standing what looked like fifty yards away from Blake. With Adam I was suddenly reminded of "The Obsolete Man" episode of the TWILIGHT ZONE with Adam standing in for Burgess Meredith awaiting judgement to fall from an imperious Blake. What was Courtland going for with those yawning chasms between Blake and Dex and Adam? Visually demonstrating the unbridgeable distance between Blake and these men? C'mon, guys, as we learned in the commercial break, "now don't be shy / you can get a little closer / with Arrid Extra Dry!"
On the subject of Blake, I noticed in the last show and again in this one that John Forsythe's head just isn't in the game. Last week in "A Little Girl" when Gordon Thomson was giving a heartrending performance in the hospital chapel, Forsythe appeared tuned out and disengaged. And that sleepwalking performance carried over into tonight's show. When he was having heartfelt talks with Krystle and later Alexis, I kept thinking how obvious it was that Forsythe was merely acting. That oomph that lends emotional impact to a scene was missing... and was sorely missed. Even the closing "Oh, my God" was spoken so flat, as if he were reading the line off a cue card. Midseason doldrums? I hope he snaps out of it.
I see the writers successfully drawing parallels between the show's starry-eyed star-crossed lovers. Sam Dexter via Blake tries in vain to warn Dex about Alexis, and a virtual Greek chorus is warning Fallon about Peter. I was going to write that all such warnings fell on deaf ears, but in that stirring scene right after Fallon learned the truth all those warnings raced back and rang in her ears. I thought of an old favorite Frank Sinatra song that warns against falling in love with love that I'm asking Casey to send to Fallon as a long-distance dedication: "I fell in love with love one night when the moon was full / I was unwise with eyes unable to see / I fell in love with love, with love everlasting / But love fell out with me!"
While one romance sputters, another sparks. Or is it more akin to lighting a wet firecracker? What provoked Dex to propose to Alexis? The fact his father and Blake are opposed to this unholy union? Dex's revealing that his father Sam once slept with Alexis brought to mind the biblical account of King David's ambitious son Absalom who slept with his father's concubines to both shame and usurp power from his father. That didn't end well, and I see this revenge romance "riding high in April, shot down in May," as in May-December romances are often just "falling for make believe," as the aforementioned song well stated.
Speaking of King David... I am confident when recent episodes were being written there was a Bible opened to 2 Samuel as the story of Adam and Kirby boasts so many striking parallels to the sordid story of David and Bathsheba. Adam as David was attracted to and took by force another man's wife: Kirby as Bathsheba. Jeff played the hapless husband Uriah whom David consigned to death just as Adam attempted to do to Jeff. Even though David and Adam expressed remorse afterwards, a price had to be paid: the life of the child conceived in sin. Drawing a plot from such an iconic story certainly lent it tremendous heft.
A few random notes: Did you notice the new music cue for La Mirage? Kinda somber. I already miss the old bouncy one, but perhaps it was changed to reflect the fact there's no joy in Mudville or at La Mirage these days between Claudia's simmering crackup and Fallon's abrupt breakup. If one is watching HOTEL back-to-back with DYNASTY (as they aired in '84), Claudia is fast becoming this series' answer to Connie Sellecca's Christine Francis. Embittered ex-congressman Neil McVane is mentioned but not seen (perhaps busily plotting off camera?).
And finally, with the episode titled "The Accident," it was just a matter of waiting to see upon whom it befell. Once that drunk guy stumbled out insisting on getting his own car, I knew it was a'coming. Yeesh, just as Kirby was recovering, we start all over again with endless scenes of a character languishing in bed, hovering between life and death. Not to be flip, but c'mon, we've been there done that so many times on this series. I'm guessing Aaron Spelling took a long lease on that hospital set and is determined to get his uttermost farthing's worth.
