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

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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.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:03):
Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls,
welcome or welcome back toSoaploor, the official gathering
place for newbie, novices, andOG diehard fans of the Golden
Age of Prime.
I'm your host, Jet viewing andreviewing the Stoapian study of
Prime Con Easy Finale of 1980.
So whether you're new to this ortrue to this, get back and enjoy

(00:24):
it.
Tell it to if it's time to playoutside or outside, don't take
no questions, suggestions, orconfirms for the next 25 to 55
minutes.
Ladies and gentlemen, boys andgirls, this is so hello boys.

(00:52):
Welcome back, my people, toanother fun still advanced of
Soul Floor.
I hope your day has settled inand wonderful for you.
Mine's doing alright.
I need to apologize for leavingyou guys hanging for so long.
Had some family stuff we had totake care of, but everybody is
back in order, and we aredigging so deeply into this

(01:14):
finale of Knott's Landing.
Full disclosure, I don't I doknow what I was expecting.
We'll get into that here in abit, but this has got to be the
most curious episode of thisshow I've seen.
And that's saying a lot,considering they had a whole
haunted house episode.

(01:36):
Let's pre-game a little bit withsome fun facts, some fun fan
mail, and casual observationsfrom someone who has now watched
over 300 episodes of vintageprimetime soap operas.
So go ahead and pour yourself upsomething bubbly and bright.
I'm about ready to give up onthe non-alcoholic sangria.

(01:58):
I'm just gonna start recordinglater in the day or make sure
all my tasks are done and I'mgonna pour it up because I got
my mouth fixed for some sangriaand it just it's flying off the
shelves.
I kid you not.
I've been able to find it atWalmart lately, and I literally
hadn't been in Walmart in likeseven years, but made a little
exception, picked up a cardiganand two bottles of the rose.

(02:20):
And I swear to you, I checkedagain.
They said they had it at Target.
It was not at Target by the timeI got there, it was gone.
Said they had it at Walmart, bythe time I got there, it was
gone.
So I'm just gonna have to figureout how to do the real deal and
make it a date.
It's starting to haunt me alittle bit.
Go ahead and pour up whateveryou need to to get comfortable,
put on your good shoes, listento this while you bubble bathe.

(02:45):
As we get into one of thesoapest finales I've seen in a
long time.
Season three, episode 22,Knott's Landing finale whose
name escapes me, and I'll lookit up now.
Episode is called LivingDangerously.

(03:05):
I'll say.

(03:27):
It's an enjoyable place.
I have a good time.
I hope you do too.
My name's Jet.
I am an elder millennialwatching primetime soap operas
of the 80s for the first time.
I have watched seasons onethrough three of Dallas,
Dynasty, and Falconcrest.
I am on the okay, I guess.

(03:48):
Wait, let me let me be veryclear.
No, I've watched seasons onethrough four.
I have finished Dynasty FalconCrest and Dallas up until the
last episode of season four.
Today I'm gonna finish the lastepisode of season three, Knott's
Landing.
So if you have information,please keep in mind that if
there's a storyline later downthe road, I don't know anything

(04:11):
about it.
I also don't know what othercharacters, other than I know
Nicolette Sheridan.
I figure that out at some point.
Nicolette Sheridan isn't is inthis show, which is cool.
I still love her from uhDesperate Housewives.
If you would like to reach out,you can send a text via the show
notes if you're listening tothis on a mobile device.
Just go to the show notes andthere is a link.

(04:32):
You can send a text.
Understand I can't send one backto you, but I will always
acknowledge you.
Or you can send it theold-fashioned way via email,
which most people do and I loveit.
You can reach out at soaplorepodcast at gmail.com.
That's S-O-A-D-L-O-R-EP-O-D-C-A-S-T at gmail.com.
All right, guys, let's get intosome tea.

(04:53):
I thought I had read thisbefore, but I realized I
probably edited it outaccidentally.
Some of the dynasty stuff on theFalcon Crest episode, I wanted
to sort of match everything up,but I forgot to do this at the
beginning of Dynasty, so let'sjump into it.
This is from my good friend inOregon, and they say that
recently Joan Collins revealedthat John Forsyth had it written

(05:16):
in his contract that he was tobe in the middle of every group
cast photo he was in.
Tell me why.
Not one part of that surprisesme.
I understand the man is anactor, and I know he's not Blake
Carrington IRL.
And I don't think I've ever seenhim in anything else.
I believe his voice is the voiceof Charlie's Angels, Charlie.

(05:40):
But something about his age, I'mgonna go ahead and go there.
Something about his demeanor oncamera that sort of he wears a
little bit of a smirk.
And it's in my head, he seemedlike he might be a little bit of
a diva, probably not an outrightdiva on the set, but definitely
like if there's a cast meeting,there's gonna be a potluck and

(06:00):
everybody's like, oh yeah, we'regonna have it's Italian themed.
He would definitely go behindyour back and sabotage it.
Or he would go tell thedirectors he's walking if y'all
don't have geez burns in theset, something like that.
He seems, he seemed, pardon me,maybe a little bit difficult.
And the T is also that theyprobably didn't get along, which
I can totally believe.

(06:21):
It says Sophia Loren, JessicaWalter, Elizabeth Taylor, and
Raquel Welsh were considered forthe role of Alexis.
Ooh, I really like the thoughtof Elizabeth Taylor, which I
feel like Joan Collins, I stillwant to call her Joan Crawford,
mommy dearest, is one of myfavorite movies.

(06:41):
I was also too young to bewatching that.
I definitely saw that when I waslike four or five and loved it.
But I could see Elizabeth Taylorwith a little bit more bite to
her.
I saw her in What's Eating, whatis it?
Um Who's Afraid of VirginiaWolf?
Whatever.
She was incredible in that.
So I could see her sort offlipping.
I don't know much about SophiaLoren, and I'm not sure who

(07:03):
Jessica Walter is.
I know they're all beautiful inRaquel Welsh, so I'm not mad.
It's it's just one of thosethings 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 tome for some reason.
John James, aka Jeff, originallyauditioned for the role of

(07:26):
Steven.
Think about that.
Steven is Jeff, Jeff is Steven.
Why is there no differencewhatsoever?
Right?
Think about it.
If you change Steven and Jeffare the exact same person, I
don't really see anything aboutit except Steven is gay.
They've slept with the samewoman a couple times, right?

(07:48):
I'll guess they hadn't gonethrough 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 samecharacter.
That's wild.
Okay, this has also kind of beenbugging me.
So it says that Dynasty was notthe first television series that

(08:09):
John Forsyth and Linda Evansstarred in together, aka
Crystal, and Blake.
Forsyth had known Evans sinceshe was a teenager.
He was friend with her mother.
Evans starred on Forsyth's 1957sitcom, Bachelor Father, playing
a teenager who develops a crushon Forsyth.
That is interesting.

(08:30):
I okay, okay.
It's not creepy because so Iread that first, right?
And then maybe a week later Idecided to dig into it just a
little bit more because I'mthinking, okay, if he's older
than her, how old is everybodyon this show?
I really did think Crystal wasat least 50.
And I assume Joan Collins wasaround the same age, somewhere

(08:50):
50, 53-ish.
Somebody might have told me shewas in her late 40s or 50s, but
I don't really recall.
So I looked it up and it saysabout this season, Joan Collins
would have been about 49, andBlake, aka John Forsyth, would
have 62, which seems about rightfor me.
But that makes Crystal rightaround 3940.

(09:13):
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 peoplehold youth up as some sort of
trophy, as if there's anythingyou can do about what age you

(09:36):
are.
Absolutely nothing you can doabout it.
It's probably one of the leastinteresting things about you.
I I was ex-I'm glad that thesewomen are not, you know, 25
getting pregnant.
Maybe it was a little unusualback in the day.
I think a lot of friends I knowwere 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 methat they're back on the show

(09:57):
together and that she played ateenager that had her crush on
him.
It's just more surprisingly thatshe was able to play a teenager
who had a crush on him, only tobe cast as his wife later.
And I I I feel a little, I don'tfeel bad, but I didn't really
clock her as that much youngerthan him.
She looks amazing, but I don'tknow.
It's the 80s.
Last little piece, y'all, andwe'll go on and get into this

(10:19):
show.
I waxed poetic last episodeabout how beautiful Diane
Carroll is and how beautifulJoan Collins is.
Joan Collins is still a baddie.
I saw a picture of her onInstagram the other day.
She looks incredible still.
But there's something a littlebit creepy about Diane Carroll,
and I know exactly what it is.

(10:40):
She was in the movie Eve's ByYou as some sort of swamp bone
reader, catbone reader lady.
And she had beef with the otherlady who had psychic abilities.
It's her eyes.
Because I remember I kind ofcackled when I first saw her
makeup, and I'm like, God, theyjust put her in Noxema and sent
her out the door instead action.

(11:01):
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 shewas looking at Alexis with her
head cocked to the side, and Ithought, oh my gosh, she done.
It it scared me a little bitbecause I'm still seeing her as
cat bone lady.
So hopefully that wears off.
I don't know how many seasonsshe's on, but uh if she if she
continues to stay on the show, Ihope they I hope she blinks.

(11:24):
I'm not quite sure where weshould begin.
When last we left, oh my iconic.
Apparently, it was iconic.
Thank you so much if you reachedout to me and let me know
anything about this.
Apparently, this was the momentand it felt like it.
This is the moment that Knott'slanding.

(11:46):
To me, it's already beenpopping, but apparently to the
fandom, this is this is wherethey really get the ball
rolling.
I am like, I don't even knowwhat y'all gonna bring up if
this is where you get the ballrolling.
This show makes me feel like alittle kid for some reason, not
in like a happy-go-lucky way.
I've get I get so immersed in itsometimes that I feel kind of

(12:08):
helpless, if that makes anysense.
Like, I'm like, what the hell isgoing on?
What I don't really know what tothink about it.
And I have to, it takes me acouple days to be like, okay,
this is what I think.
But this final episode was notquite what I had expected.
Not quite.
I think we'll go ahead and beginwith Richard and Laura just to
sort of get this out of the way.

(12:28):
I don't want to say he's a bitplayer, but Laura brings up a
very interesting point that Ihadn't really considered.
Shout out to my girl Elena.
I forgot I just saw your emailthis morning, so pardon me.
Um, I am not ignoring, I justsaw it this morning.
It seems like you sent it uhlast week or so.
Elena is watching this alongwith me.
So I apologize if I'm taking along time on some of these, but

(12:51):
she's watching these for thefirst time with me.
So, girl, I hope you enjoy thisepisode when you get to listen
to it.
If you've been watching from thebeginning, Richard and Laura had
a relationship where he was abit of a smart aleck.
There was some weird confusionabout her sleeping with people
or not sleeping with people.
They seem to be okay with it.
They were very vague with it thefirst season, and I didn't

(13:13):
really understand what sort ofrelationship they had.
As time has gone on, what yousee is that it feels like
Richard is very frustrated inhis career, and Laura is the one
place where he can sort of takethat out on somebody.
By and large, the neighborsweren't really feeling him.
He wasn't as close to the guysas I thought he was.

(13:33):
Seems like he was kind of closewith Sid, but not with anybody
else.
But he hadn't been the mostpleasant person up until now.
With the death of Sid and thenew friendship with Karen, he
became more bearable.
I suppose it's because he hasanother person to sort of pour
into or talk to.
He he he was the he was ashoulder to lean on, and it

(13:56):
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 foreveryone involved, and what you
see in this episode is thatnobody really knows how to

(14:16):
interact with him.
Not quite, not yet.
Laura has always kept up thatsmirk on her face, nothing's
really getting to me.
And it was because in myopinion, it's because she was so
used to him.
But this new version, she can'treally tell if it's I don't
think she thinks he's faking,but she implies it later on that

(14:36):
she something is something feelsamiss to her.
My interpretation of thisepisode is that it it sort of
toes in line between confidence,arrogance, and avoidance.
Yeah, confidence, arrogance, andavoidance in varying levels.

(15:00):
Richard is taking this instride.
Laura shows up more and morebecause 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 shecan't quite tell if he is
healing at the rate that hethinks he is, or if this is all
an act.
He's invading her thoughts evenwhen she's not doing anything.

(15:21):
That's all she can think about.
So the the neighbors rallyaround him, and I'm sure they're
doing Laura a solid.
One night Ginger brings overbaby two names.
I didn't think baby two names inthe flesh in a minute, since she
was dangling off her mom's hipafter the whole hostage
situation.
But Laura brings Ginger bringsover baby two names in a

(15:44):
stroller.
Shout out to all the mamas whohad babies in the 80s and you
had to push them around in astroller.
This looked like a grocery cart,it looked very cumbersome.
Clearly, you couldn't fold itand put it in a car.
This was not one of those my dadcalls them a Volvo, like the
little the ones your baby dollsride in, they kind of fold up
and go in your trunk.

(16:05):
Dude, strollers are a nightmarealready.
But this one was like metal, youknow 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 Richardsome groceries.
So she goes to the kitchen toput the groceries up, and

(16:27):
Richard naturally sees the baby.
So he's like, hey, baby twonames.
He picks her up, and they arehaving a good old time.
He's putting the baby in theair, bringing her down.
Baby Two Names is giggling withpure delight and glee.
Ginger comes in and snatches thebaby up.
Get the hand of the baby.
He's like, yo, dang, okay, damn.
Sorry.

(16:47):
I thought she overreacted, butalso at the same time, you did
pull out a pistol.
Whether it was loaded or not isirrelevant.
You held your wife and your babyhostage.
The last thing Ginger's tryingto do is be held hostage.
I get it.
Maybe it's not the reaction shewanted him to see, but it was
her gut reaction.
He seems to take it well.

(17:07):
He didn't really get defensive.
He didn't even look thatdefeated.
He just looked like, damn.
Okay, yeah, I get it.
My bad.
I won't pick up baby two namesagain.
But Jinder is a first person whojust 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 gonnado.
They don't know his state ofmind.

(17:28):
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 atgunpoint, you could easily
dismiss the activities thisepisode.
It's just being a little bitforgetful, maybe a little bit
impulsive.
They're not, in and ofthemselves, things that someone

(17:50):
does if they are losing theirmind, but if someone has had a
mental breakdown, it amplifiesit.
That's what it feels like thisepisode.
He seems okay to me.
He seems like he really is onthe mend.
So at one point he leaves forthe movies, but he leaves the
sprinklers on.
Damn near floods the cul-de-sac.

(18:10):
Lily May has to yell at the kidsto go turn off his water.
Before you know it, everybody'sat 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 themovies.
Like, well, the movie shouldhave been over a long time ago.
He's like, Well, I wanted to seetwo movies in a row.

(18:30):
That doesn't sound that bad.
Like I said, if you were neverhad a nervous breakdown and you
wanted to see two movies andforgot to turn off your water,
that's just Tuesday.
But here it is a sign of hisunraveling.
In another scene, Laura is onthe phone with her dear old dad,
and she's telling her dad thatRichard is getting better.
He's getting better, dad.
Slowly but surely.

(18:51):
Dad wants to know how longbefore Jason gets to see him.
I I misunderstood that on thelast episode, and I guess we'll
touch on that now where we'lltouch on it again.
Before Val had that iconicmoment where she went and
slapped just the soul out ofthis woman.
If memory serves me correctly,she and Lily May were en route

(19:12):
to go pick up Jason from Laura'sapartment.
I guess the babysitter wasthere, and I thought they were
going to bring him to Richard.
Maybe I misunderstood that.
I'm pretty sure that's what theysaid, but maybe they were
picking him up from school.
I don't know.
The point I'm trying to make isthat I didn't realize that he
hadn't seen Jason at this point.

(19:33):
Laura's dad wants to know, youknow, what's her plan going
forward?
You can't very well keep the kidaway 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 keepthe kid away from him, but also
I need to know that he's reallyokay, okay, before I allow that
sort of relationship to buildagain.
And I think she's well withinher rights to say that.
But she didn't get to go anydeeper than that because she has

(19:55):
call waiting.
I got a little bit confused onthis scene too, because I
thought I vividly rememberedwhen call waiting happened.
I thought call waiting happenedcirca 1995-ish.
I could have sworn, but I thinkwhat I'm thinking of is caller
ID.
I think that's what it is.
I think you've always had callwaiting.
She gets a call on the otherline.

(20:15):
She clicks over, and someone'slike, Mrs.
Avery, could you please get downhere?
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 jobto demand it back, and that the
higher-ups, that vaudeville layyou on the train tracks and run
you over villain type boss whoordered all the hookers and
whatnot.

(20:36):
He wants him to take a littleresponsibility.
Richard walks in, like, listen,break down or not, I'm still a
lawyer, pretty good atlawyering.
So tell you what, dude, I won'thold it against you.
I won't hold that ridiculoushaircut and that mustache
against you.
If you give me my job back, Iwon't even press charges because
you know I have a case.
By this time, Laura's pregnantbutt has got up the steps and

(20:58):
she's like, Richard, let's go.
Richard, let's go.
This scene bugged me for apersonal reason.
Again, I'm watching this fromthe outside in, and yes, it's a
television show, but damn it, ifwe'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'sunhinged at all if you were set

(21:20):
up, right?
He literally did what the peopleasked him to do.
So to go back at some point andsay, give me this job back, I
think it's a perfectlyreasonable thing to do,
especially if your profession isthe law.
That's just my opinion.
And there's, I don't know.
I guess I want him to I want himto have the space to do his job.

(21:41):
I mean, that has to suck.
Yeah, at the very least.
If you don't go back to work forhim, he needs to sue him, clear
his name a little bit.
Luckily, this is 1982.
He could probably just lay lowfor a year or so if he has the
money to do so and be alright.
I don't know what I'm gonna callthis episode, however, I think
one of the other themes is onceyou really, really see

(22:03):
something, you can't unsee it.
Normally, it seems like Laura isstruggling with this.
It's not only the hostagesituation, it's all the things
that came before that.
All of the blood, sweat, andtears that went into her
decision to finally leave, allof the effort to set up a
perfectly reasonableco-parenting situation,

(22:24):
everything.
Everything sort of came to ahead.
Then you have the breakdown,then he goes into the hospital,
then he releases himself becauseof financial issues, and also he
thinks he's okay.
He's also not taking hismedication.
There's a part of her that hadalready been ready to let go
that can no longer do that.
Now she's stuck in this sort ofloop of watching him.

(22:48):
And in my opinion, it probablyfeels a little bit too familiar.
This is not very different thanthe life she lived with him
before when he was perfectlyhealthy.
After the whole boss situation,Laura takes Richard home and, or
maybe she follows him home.
I'm assuming he drove himselfthere.
She follows him home.
They go inside the house, andfor whatever reason, she wants

(23:08):
to pick up her mail orsomething.
She looks in the garbage can andshe sees a note, and it's it's
almost like a checklist.
Richard is just word vomiting.
Today we might call it mindmapping.
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 thatshe's had have sort of risen to
the surface.

(23:29):
It doesn't really matter if shewas going to leave.
Now she knows that he's stillthinking about it.
So he's not okay.
I suppose she's thinking he'snot okay because we're not
there.
Somebody needs to keep an eye onhim.
So she makes the decisionquietly to move back in.
At the end of this episode, he'snot aware of that, but she does

(23:50):
go over to Ginger and Kenny'shouse.
They were on their way to Val'scocktail party, which we'll get
to here in a minute.
She tells him what she found andthat she's gonna move in, and
she asks them for their help.
I'm so sorry, I know you guysare 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 theyneed to do.
How are you doing, Laura?

(24:11):
She's like, you know what?
Sometimes I feel like he plannedthis whole thing.
That's an interesting take, andI kind of believe her.
I can't tell if he's putting onat this point.
He because, like I said, heseems so okay, he seems very
calm.
Shout out to this man, I forgethis name, but he acted his ass
off this entire season.
I have really, really learned toenjoy like Richard.

(24:34):
Did not see this spin on hischaracter like this, but you
can't help but be invested inhim.
I don't know exactly how shefeels, but you can't help but be
invested in him.
And he seemed fine the firsttime 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 gettingwhat he really wants?

(24:57):
If you've been in a relationshipwith someone who's been
manipulative and sort of like ajuggernaut, they just don't know
when to quit bum rushing throughyour emotions, bum rushing
through all your boundaries andstuff.
Yeah, that's a perfectlyreasonable explanation or
thought.
I think he's he he's he'sweaponizing his breakdown.

(25:20):
Who's to say?
I guess I'll have to find out onthe next season, but I do think
that is a possibility, and I uhthis 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 doin that situation.
I think she's probably makingthe best choice for him, not for
her.

(25:41):
But at the end of the day,she'll have peace of mind.
But I don't think there's evergonna be a God, I would hate to
be with someone who only is withme because they think I'm gonna
harm myself.
To me, that's not that's not thekind of relationship I want to
have.
But some people don't care.
As long as you're there, that'sall that matters.
Okay, before I forget, I havebeen meaning to say this for a

(26:03):
few months.
One of you is sitting on alittle secret.
One of you has been very, verybusy.
I believe you're probablyworking diligently to produce a
little show of your own.
One of you guys has a podcast.
Maybe a few months back, I got anotice from Buzz Sprout.
One of you used the link.

(26:23):
So if you I use Buzz Sprout formy podcast, and there is an
affiliate link that you couldput in your show notes.
And I did that probably a yearor two ago.
I don't know if it's stillthere.
I might throw it back on there.
But if you have a podcast thatyou started, let me know.
I will absolutely shout you out.
No worries, no problem.
If you use a show link, I do geta little bit of a kickback.

(26:46):
And this person started a show.
I have been waiting with batedbreath to listen.
I've been checking up quitefrequently.
I never remember to say anythinguntil after I've recorded, but
today is a different day.
If it's you, please reach out tome 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

(27:09):
at gmail.com.
And let me know if it's you.
What I'm thinking is that you'veprobably changed the name of it
because I haven't been able tofind it under the name that I
saw.
I want to know who you are, giveyou a great big thank you, and
also let me know what your showis.
We can give you a shout out.
And if you'd like to be myguest, I'd love to have you.
We can cut up and talk aboutyour show.

(27:31):
Okay, back to the regularlyscheduled program.
Like I was saying, some peopleprefer to have a partner that
sucks so long as they have apartner.
You'd rather have a person withyou than live alone.
It's easy to judge that everysong you listen to, especially
you know, girl power-ish songs,tell you to move on, you're
better off alone, blah, blah,blah.

(27:53):
It's easier said than done in alot of cases.
Ugh.
I just hate the fact that she'sgonna need to settle quite a bit
in order to be there with him.
I don't know for how long shekeeps referencing the doctor.
We're talking about Laura, bythe way, the psychiatrist that
Richard was seeing who told her,do not move back in unless
you're gonna stay.

(28:16):
Ugh.
Also, I hate to even bring himup because I can literally feel
the energy in my brain depletewith every word I'm saying.
How much longer is Kenny CorneyRogers gonna be on the show?
Can we please have aninteresting character arc?

(28:37):
I kind of miss the slutty Kennyat this point.
I am not enjoying this Stevefrom Blues Clues sitcom dad.
I don't understand how you suckat everything.
I'm not saying he's a suckyactor, but I am saying Kenny as
this Playboy made a lot ofsense.

(28:57):
He was just as corny, but atleast he had some sort of vice
you could hate him for.
Now I just I just really don'tcare.
And dare I say it, I'm almost alittle 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 shtickand get back to business?

(29:18):
I would be so angry if I werethe actors who played Kendra,
Kendra and J.
Yeah, I'm gonna call him Kenju.
Kendra.
Because at this point they'restarting to mesh into the same
personality.
When Kendra shows up on thescreen, I would be very offended
if I were those actors, knowingthat all I'm gonna do is have
this alleged music career and bea dad who wants his wife to eat

(29:44):
vegetables the whole time.
It's dumb.
They exhaust me.
They really do.
It was nice to see baby twonames, though.
She's adorable.
Anyways, we all know what's up,we all know.
Well, I assume those of you whohave seen this show a few times,

(30:06):
I assume the first time you sawthat particular episode, China
dolls that you thought thefollowing episode would be
almost just as explosive.
And don't get me wrong, Iunderstand 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 whatcould happen and what should

(30:29):
happen.
It well, actually, let mescratch that.
There was no doubt in my mindwhat was going to happen on this
episode.
And I was surprised once again.
Not to go on and on and on, butlet me go on one more time.
I watched China Dolls for athird time.
It still I still felt the sameway.

(30:50):
I was like, oh my gosh, it'ssuch an interesting buildup that
doesn't come out of nowhere, butit slammed into your chest, is
how I felt.
So you can imagine my surprisewhen I turned on the television
to watch episode 22, LivingDangerously, and not much had
changed.

(31:11):
I made a rookie mistake.
I made the mistake of forgettingthat this show is giving a peek
into each and every person onthis cul de sec, well, the four
families giving a peek intotheir lives on a daily basis.
We, the audience, are going tobe privy to things that the
neighbors aren't privy to aboutone another.

(31:33):
I didn't see this as beingsomething that could be avoided,
though.
Everybody has been looking outthe side of their eye.
You know they're looking, youknow 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 tasteout of Abby's mouth, went back
through her door, across thestreet, back through the gate,

(31:56):
into her own house, collectedher 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 thissince season.
Was it season one where Gary gotwith that one lady?
No, because Abby was there.
So that'd have to be season two.

(32:18):
I thought all through seasonone, I did not feel that they
had a real love story.
Gary and Val.
In season two, when he had thataffair with that other lady, and
she was woman enough to come andtalk about it.
Val was cool about it that onetime.
You know what I'm saying?
She was cool.
She accepted that nobody'sperfect, blah, blah, blah.

(32:40):
They love each other.
We got to see their acting chopsfor real for real on the beach.
Going into the second time, whensomething was pretty much right
under your nose again, Iexpected a bigger reaction from
Valen.
She has been building herconfidence.
She has been strengthening herspine vertebrae by vertebrae by

(33:01):
vertebrae.
I was completely shocked to hearthat not only has she not said
anything to anyone outside ofher 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 andlocking himself in the bathroom.
How absolutely dramatic is that?

(33:22):
That's all the answer you need.
Unless it isn't.
Unless it isn't, unless you arewilling to hold on to that
dream.
And it's it's where Laura can'tunsee 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'tsee.

(33:44):
Lord, Lord, Lord.
God, I love TV.
So Karen is in her Bob via.
She's in her home and gardenextraordinaire phase.
She seems to be sanding downsomething in her garage.
And Diana, Diana needs to getchin checked.
I am beyond tired of this littlegirl.
I had just said that she hadn'treally got on my nerves as much

(34:07):
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 childon this show.
She's not the most arrogantperson.
She's a very close second toGary Ewing.
In this particular scene, Ithought Diana is knucking fuz.

(34:31):
She is entitled AF, and shereally does need a good just a
thump in the chest, thump upsideher head, something.
So she has been clocking thatall the adults are sort of
whispering around her,something's going on.
She's catching bits and piecesof the conversation.
So she knows somebody is havingan affair with somebody.

(34:56):
You all know if you've beenlistening to me for a very long
time, I was a very quiet child.
Very privy to a lot of adultconversations, nine times out of
ten, because they forgot I wasthere.
I was just being quiet.
But did I hear everything?
You better believe it.
You gotta learn to be nosy, andI'm really surprised that the
oldest child is not very good atthis.
She she she don't have anysnooping skills.

(35:18):
She don't know how to ear hustlefrom the next room.
She don't know how to pretend toput on headphones like you're
listening to your Walkman or8-track or whatever she would
have been listening to.
I'm sure she had a Walkman.
And listen to the conversationfor real, for real.
She don't know how to do that.
So instead, she storms into thegarage while her mother's trying
to create furniture or whatnot,unplugs a damn standard and

(35:42):
says, Tell me who's having anaffair.
I know something's going on.
And she's the demented look onthis 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 throughchannels, and I saw that chick
screaming and she didn't getslapped in the face, I think I

(36:02):
would change the channel.
She's demanding that her mothertell her who's having an affair.
And Karen's like, Well, what doyou 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 achild.
That is exactly the sort ofthing a child would shout.
There's a way to tell peoplethey're not treating you your

(36:23):
age without shouting.
Karen continues to be coy, andeventually she just tells Diana,
Well, if I'm saying I don't knowanything and you don't know
anything, how do you knowthere'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

(36:46):
information that she desires.
Two people on this show do,though.
I don't know why I didn't noticethis until this episode.
Maybe it took this grand event,this man cheating with this
woman and the mom's there, andthe woman doesn't really care.
Maybe it took that for me tofinally see it, but I have
grossly underestimated Miss LilyMay.
Stick with me just for a second,Odes.

(37:09):
I promise I'm gonna bring thishome.
I know from some of yourcommentary that Abby is Abby is
a villain.
There's no question about that.
She is absolutely the villain.
She's not the villain becauseshe's sleeping with Gary or that
she slept with Richard.
She is a villain because she iswilling to do what needs to be
done, and there's not a heavycost for her.
There's very little that stopsher from doing what she needs to

(37:30):
do.
The only time I've ever seen hereven look a little bit
remorseful or annoyed is betweenwhen Karen makes a comment about
what she's doing.
And here's the thing Karen'snever really lying about it, but
it's there's something aboutKaren saying it to Abby that
gets under Abby's skin, despitehow true said statement is.

(37:52):
So Abby is the villain becauseshe is single-minded, she is
focused, she will cover her ownbehind at any cost.
She knows how to be deceitful,she knows how to use her beauty,
she knows how to use sex as aweapon.
She is equipped for whatevercomes her way.
She's not only intelligent, sheis smart enough to use it to her

(38:12):
advantage.
Guilt-free, at least as far aswe can tell.
Lily Mae is the exact sameperson.
Whether you see it this seasonor not, she has been a villain
in Valen's life for a very longtime.
She was single-mindedly focusedon her career, so much, in fact,
that she was willing to bouncewhenever the opportunity

(38:34):
presented itself.
We saw on that episode where shegot the lounge singer position.
She was a she's willing to saywhatever she needed to.
She was running game on uh thesame dude who was running game
on her.
They were playing each other,and rather than get mad, she's
like, game recognize game, let'sput this together and let's get
something we need from this.
She's the exact same person.

(38:56):
The strongest thing that avillain can have is a
relentlessness, a single-mindedrelentlessness.
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 tobusiness.

(39:18):
To she lets him lead, you know,she she opens that space so that
he can be the hero in his ownstory.
So he feels good about himself.
She clocked that very early on.
In order to secure this man, I'mgonna need to be the exact
opposite of what he has at home.
I need to be enticing enough todraw him out of that.

(39:40):
Now, Lily May, I would assume,was probably exactly like Abby
when she was younger.
Only now, not to say that she'snot a beautiful woman, but she's
not banking on beauty.
She's banking on personality.
She's using that southern charmto slip her way into anything.
Think about it.
What has Lily May not had accessto this whole season?

(40:02):
Nothing.
She's in with the kids, she's inwith the neighbors, she's in at
the business.
Anything she wants to know, shefinds out because she
understands how to maneuver inthis world.
So what we have is two villainswith two focal points about to
come to a head.
And the odd thing is the peoplethat they are standing, Abby for

(40:26):
Gary and Lily May for Valen,those two people don't, they're
not actually facing this thing.
It is so curious, it's soconfusing.
So one of the first scenes wesee 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 (40:48):
Lily May is a lot of things.
She might be a hustler, agambler, a lie, a cheat, a
lounge singer, a country andwestern 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 somethingabout this?

(41:09):
Your husband is having an affairwith 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 rightnow?
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.

(41:31):
Valen has ducked and dodged allof her neighbors.
She's sort of become a littlebit of a recluse.
She's not mixing and mingling.
She's not talking to anybody.
The neighbors are whispering asthey're like, well, something
happened because she's actingfunny.
She's a total opposite of Laurahere.
Laura saw something she can'tunsee.
Valen ain't seen nothing, sowe're gonna call it good.

(41:52):
Only her mother is nowsingle-mindedly focused on
making sure this comes to lightone way or another.
Lily Mae was one of the firstpeople who clocked it.
That day that Olivia had thefather-daughter dance, and Abby
comes running out of the housetalking about she's gonna be
pouring punch and jumps in thecar with Gary.
You it felt so funny at thetime, but Lily Mae was the first

(42:14):
one who said something, andshe's been acting a little bit
funny every since.
Let Lily Mae tell her she'sdepressed.
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 sceneis Lily Mae knows something is

(42:35):
up.
Val is like, I didn't see it, soit didn't happen.
Lily May leaves the port, Iguess 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, Isee it.
She also says that she'sobsessed with the subject, which

(42:58):
made me realize, oh my god,they're the same people.
Lily Mae just disguises it asthis, oh, I'm a sweet old
country lady.
I don't know nothing aboutnothing.
And Abby's like, oh, I'm thisprecious lady.
I don't know.
You know, they both know.
Everybody knows.
And that's the thing, everybodyknows they're playing them, but
they let it happen.
Part of Valen's ability to avoidthis situation comes in the form

(43:21):
of her book.
Her book is in its secondediting phase.
And at this point, the editorfrom 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 knowthis, but it's they've never
really explicitly said anything.
So nobody at this point, otherthan Valen, Lily Mae, Abby,

(43:46):
Gary, and Joe, and the editorhave read this book.
No one else knows what's in it.
They can assume, but they'venever read it.
And it seems like Val isstarting to get more and more
uncomfortable with them.
She's she's sort of going backand forth with the editor
because this book is it seemslike the book is only popular
because her name is Valen Ewing.

(44:08):
She's getting more and morenervous about this party that's
coming up on Friday.
So there's a scene where Garycomes downstairs wanting to know
where his blue suit is.
Thou wilt not look at him.
She's typing.
Matter of fact, she can't evenstomach making him breakfast.
Mama, would you make Garysomething to eat?
And he asks where his blue suitis.
Valine tells him it's at thecleaner, so you can wear it on
Friday night.
This mother lover.

(44:29):
Oh, he makes me so angry.
He tells her that he ain'tgoing.
I ain't going to no party onSaturday.
Friday.
I wanna go.
They're gonna eat me alive.
I feel like I'm thrown to thewolves.
They're gonna ask me questionsabout 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 forher?

(44:49):
You know what this mother loverhas the audacity to say?
You know what he has the nerveto do?
Put his hand on his hip, cockhis head to the side, and say to
this woman with a straight,disgruntled, goofy looking face,
you have all the moral supportyou need from your editor.
This irritates the crap out ofme because he's doing that

(45:10):
thing.
He's already in the throes ofthis passionate affair.
He's been working towards uswhether he was completely
conscious of it or not.
At some point he knew what wasgoing on, but he liked the
attention.
Abby called him out on that.
All this was going, all this wasin motion before that book was
even a thing.
Mind you, this woman wrote apaper for school.

(45:31):
It was then hijacked,unbeknownst to her, and turned
into something.
But he's using the the mask ofthis book being the thing that's
put that's coming between theminstead of the what it really
is.
But they're both willing to playthis game.
I love Lily Mae in this scenebecause she's like, oh, Val, you
need to wear this.
You need to remember you are ayoung, attractive, talented

(45:55):
woman.
Val makes them comment aboutmama, this ain't my first date.
Well, it could be.
That's what she's she's lettingGary know.
Please don't get it twisted.
If Valie wanted to, if shewanted to, she could.
This would be the perfect spotto play the song Outside by

(46:15):
Cardi B, but we'll save that fora little bit later.
Yeah, he got the nerves sittingup there with his hands on his
hip, talking about that's allthe moral support.
What and then do you know wherehe goes?
I want you to guess.
Guess where he goes?
He says he has a meeting to getto, and you can tell Valen is
like not even breathing, she'sjust staring at her typewriter,
focusing on the rewrite.

(46:37):
Lily May looks like she's gonnavomit because she's looking at
Valen's face.
Now, how is she gonna you'rejust 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 thatthey have rented out an
apartment.
I'm I'm starting to believe thatboth of their names are on the
lease.
Unless Abby's friend is somesort of stewardess or she, I

(46:59):
don't know, she's one of thosepeople who never sees summer or
never sees winter.
She just sort of chases theseason around the globe.
I don't know, but she definitelyain't at home most of the time.
Gary goes to his, you know, hismeeting, if you will, with Abby.
Willie May goes to thedealership with her purse.
She's looking for Gary.

(47:19):
Karen's there.
And she said, girl, where'sGary?
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 intheir affair that they bring
like a change of clothes.
They put on casual clothes, theycan do they do the do.

(47:40):
I have to check myself.
Have y'all ever seen that memeof Kim Kardashian?
She's like looking at a phone,and it goes when you read your
old text and realize you'recrazy.
When I read my note to this, Irealize I'm kind of crazy.
But it's okay.
I love it here.
I don't love the disrespect.
So Gary comes into theapartment.

(48:01):
Abby comes running from acrossthe 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 eachother, but they like each
other's bodies at the veryleast.
He mentions having to go to aparty on Friday.
Abby's like, Well, if you don'twant to go, don't go.
They they have a quick littlejust sort of exchange with that.

(48:22):
And he goes, Well, why don't yougo to the party?
You're the whole reason thisthing 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, whilethey're getting it in at
lunchtime, across the street sitLaura, Lily May, and Karen.

(48:46):
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 himso my girl can put eyes on him.
He's not going to embarrass mydaughter.
I will not stand by idly whilehe embarrasses my daughter.
So across the street, let me bevery clear.
Across the street are theseapartments.
So that's on the east side ofthe road.

(49:06):
On the west side of the road,there must be some beachside
bistro, and they are eating outon the patio.
They're eating outside becauseit's nice.
They got that beautiful oceanbreeze.
Well, this is a perfect view.
They just happen to be facingthe street, and out comes Abby.
And Lily may say, Well, lookthere, look there, look, little
look.
They look across the street.
Oh my god.

(49:27):
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 thinkit's one of those things, it's
so unbelievable.
It's the worst case scenario.
You're just praying there'sanother version of the story.

(49:49):
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 countto 10.
I bet you Gary's gonna comefluttering out after that.
So she starts counting.
She gets all the way to seven,and who do you see just force

(50:10):
gumping his way out of thisdoor?
Freaking clown.
So there you go.
There is the ocular proof.
Three people for a fact cannotdeny it anymore.
This is where I start to loveKaren again.
I always love her, but I loveher, love her for this.
She makes sure that she's notgonna treat Gary with any sort
of respect for the rest of thisepisode as she shouldn't.

(50:32):
Last little thing about Laura, Imade a note that nobody cares
about Gen X.
And what I mean by that is Iknow they're the original
latchkey kids.
Well, I mean, the wholegeneration.
It was more common for them, Iguess, than before, because
mama's working, daddy's workingtoo.
Do you know Laura leaves theinstructions for a crib

(50:54):
downstairs for Jason to puttogether?
And I was like, Are you forreal?
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 itupstairs?
She was dead serious.
You put it together.
Damn, y'all should get doublesocial security.
Seriously.
Okay, so, anyways, let's getback to Val.

(51:15):
Val had this meeting right aboutthe time her man was having a
meeting, and the ladies wholunched 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 inTexas, it is now Capricorn
Crude.
And they have like the shirtlessguy and these people.

(51:35):
It's very, it's very sexy.
She's totally like, dude, whythis is not what this book is
about.
Why what is this?
So it's not just the Gary thingthat she's uncomfortable about.
I mean, obviously, she doesn'twant 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 wasgonna read it, probably someone

(51:58):
who didn't know who Ewings are.
Well, the selling point for thisbook, because she is a brand new
author, is that her last name isEwing.
So the cover is quitesuggestive.
The editor is telling her asmuch, you know, you're new, we
think a different title would doa lot better.
It's called Capricorn Crew, theSaga of Conquest.

(52:20):
She's not super mad about that,but she's like, okay, but why is
everybody so half naked on thetop 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 knowsyour name, they know this name.
So we're really gonna have topush this.
Not only are we gonna put thebook out, but you're gonna have
to make all these personalappearances and stuff.

(52:40):
It's very clear at this pointthat she's gotten uncomfortable.
There's a couple of things inthe book.
I guess one is about Sue Ellen.
She feels uncomfortable writingabout how promiscuous.
She ain't promiscuous, she'sgetting her lick back as far as
I'm concerned.
But she feels a way aboutrepresenting Sue Ellen in that
way because she ain't neverreally done nothing to her.

(53:00):
Plus, this woman is quitefragile.
I'm sure they get all the teafrom Bobby or from Ellie from
somebody.
Maybe she's getting all the teafrom Lucy.
She's starting to have secondthoughts.
This thing is getting bigger,but it's something that she can
focus on since she can't focuson 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

(53:21):
a sleazy novel.
This is not at all what thisbook is about.
Joe seems to think it's a greattitle, but she's like, No,
you're not hearing me.
You're not hearing me.
They want me to flip everythingaround.
So she has a character in thebook called CR.
Imagination she does not have.
God bless her.
So CR, there's a fire orsomething on chapter eight, and
she wants to keep it as is.

(53:41):
It's very vague.
You don't know who starts thefire, but the editor's like, no,
no, no.
It's very clear that CR startedit because he'll stop at
nothing.
He's very ruthless.
You got to put that in there.
She knows the consequence ofthat on the other side.
So this is just it's it'smounting.
It's mounting.
Gary's running around, Gary'smad, he's having an affair.
I'm gonna blow up his wholefamily spot.

(54:03):
This is not a good thing.
Joe's trying to talk her down.
She's listening because it'slike she doesn't really know any
better, but she says somethingabout Gary.
Like he's gonna get upset if Ido X, Y, and Z.
And Kara's like, Ann, the lastthing you need to be worried
about is what Gary feels ordoesn't feel.
Let it let him.
He wants to be upset, let him beupset.
Joe leaves the room, and this isa golden opportunity for Valve

(54:24):
to be like, Do you knowsomething for sure?
But she doesn't ask.
She doesn't ask because shedoesn't want to know.
Also, when when they describethe book, and then they haven't
really said a whole lot aboutit, I was thinking more like The
Grapes of Wrath.
Something like that.
Mice of Men, something to thateffect, or like the movie Giant.
I didn't expect it to beromantic in any way, and it

(54:46):
doesn't seem like it is.
It seems like they're content toput that cover on her book just
so people will pick it up andsee her name and then be like,
oh, I'm put two and twotogether, 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 forthat.
Maybe today you could.
Maybe not.
I don't know.
Maybe not.
Guess that's why they say don'tever judge a book by its cover.

(55:10):
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 backlike 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

(55:30):
be a supportive husband, and youwill 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 elsehe says, Lily Mae, are you
threatening me?
The audacity, right?

(55:51):
She says, My favorite line thiswhole episode.
She says, Well, score one forthe blonde kid.
He's like, What you trying tosay?
Well, if you don't go, I'm gonnatell my baby girl that I saw
these two little butterfliesflying around.
He's like, You're gonna tell heryou saw butterflies?
He's so dumb.
He's so cocky.
You cannot be that he cannot bethis confident.

(56:14):
There's zero chance that hethinks he's that swab.
He's six foot twelve runningaround with a lady wearing
fluorescent red, neon red in themiddle of the day.
Anyway, she's like, Yeah, yeah,yeah, yeah.
I saw two butterflies flutteringout of an apartment building
when they have a little meeting,supposed to be a lunch, blah,
blah, blah.
I saw it, Karen saw it, andLaura saw it.

(56:34):
And Laura's baby saw it viaKaren, Laura's eyes.
His eyebrows start to wiggle.
And right about that time, Valcomes in.
Mama's like, guess what, baby?
Gary's taking his country ass toyour party on Friday.
And he's like, Yeah, yeah, sure.
Am.
Val wants to know.
She asked Lily Mae, why did hechange his mind?
Mm-hmm.
I don't know.

(56:54):
Mm-hmm.
Lily Mae's not done though.
So that's one down, one to go.
She sees Abby reversing out ofher driveway the next morning
and she runs over.
This this is where Richard'sRichard has gone to the movies
because there's all this waterin the cul-de-sac.
Karen's boys are playing in thewater.
She had to tell him to go run,turn the water off.
Anyway, she runs up on Abby, butAbby and Lily May are the same

(57:16):
person.
They know how to do country dumbbetter than anybody, and Lily
Mae is wagging her finger inAbby's face.
I want you to stop this messright 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 seenAbby drop a car in a long time.

(57:36):
So, okay, so think about this.
Abby knows for sure that Valenis highly suspicious, which is
probably what she wants.
She doesn't care.
She's going for him.
This book will seal the deal asfar as she's concerned.
There's no way she didn't tellGary about that.
There's no way.
So you know it's on his radar.
He's not even clocking that hiswife is no longer speaking to

(57:57):
him because he's in this throesof this exciting new thing.
I tend to agree with Joe.
Joe said a couple episodes agothat the cheater, or excuse me,
the gambler wants to get caught.
He's behaving like that.
He's reckless.
They get into this apartment andit's like everything else fades

(58:19):
away in the world.
I'm not gonna call that romanticbecause it's incredibly reckless
if you are sneaking around.
It's real, real dumb.
We gotta get back to Val becauseagain, she's she's it's starting
to get too hot to ignore at thispoint.
But she just throws herself intothis book.

(58:39):
I'm sure she's upset about thebook.
Just like Gary is using the bookas an excuse to not be
supportive, not really talk toher about anything.
That's kind of the mask thathe's wearing.
She's using the book and thecontents of the book as a way to
not deal with Gary.
So anything, I in my opinion,anything she wants to say to

(59:01):
Gary, she's saying to theeditor.
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'snot she's gonna be like Richard,
she's gonna be in the hospitalsoon if she doesn't snap out of
it.
The editor is speaking in code,too.
So the whole point of changingthe cover, um, changing the name

(59:24):
of the book is so that it's alittle less on the nose.
They have to toe the line ofthis being salacious enough to
sell.
At some point in the episode, hesays there's no such thing as a
somewhat salacious book.
It either is or it isn't, andthis book is.
They don't want to get sued.
So he's combing through thestory, changing things, and to

(59:46):
her, it's becoming less and lesslike fiction.
Like, hey, um, I don't want toput that in there because I
mean, that's very, very, verynear to an actual event.
He keeps telling her it'sfiction, no one cares.
It's Fiction.
I mean it's fiction until it'snot, right?
Let's go ahead and get to thegoods.
There's no need to drag it out.

(01:00:06):
So tension, tension with thebook, 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 tostuff file cabinets, she gets up
when he's trying to stuff itinto the file cabinet.
And he asks her flat out, isthere something going on?
You want to ease up on me?
She's like, ease up.
He's like, Yeah, you've been onme all day.
Oh, I wonder why.

(01:00:26):
Why you think I'm on you, Gary?
He knows why, because Lily mayalready told him.
He's cocky enough to tell her,Well, it's none of your
business.
To which she replies, It is mybusiness.
Val is my friend, and I loveher, and I don't want to see her
get hurt.
So this mother lover has a nerveto tell her, Well, then I guess
you won't say anything to her,will you?

(01:00:47):
He has gotten so comfortablebeing blatantly disrespectful
that he is now telling otherpeople, you need to mind your
business.
You can't say a single wordabout this.
How dare you?
How dare you?
As intertwined as everybody isin this in this little
community, how dare you?

(01:01:09):
Now let's get to the goods.
So the night of the partyfinally comes.
And somehow Diana has made theguest list.
I'm not, I let me be very clear.
I'm not siding with her abouther being 18 and everyone
treating her like a baby.
I'm not siding with her, butalso at the same time, why y'all
inviting her to everything?

(01:01:30):
She doesn't know the boundary,she doesn't know a child's
place.
So Valen is sort of flutteringaround the room, and I swear to
you, I'm not even joking.
That dress is at Target rightnow, or it's at JC Penney's.
Is it one of those?
She's fluttering around in thisred dress.
She got her hair up all nice,and she's very uncomfortable

(01:01:52):
because every editor at theparty is asking her questions
about the Ewings.
And she's trying her best to notsay it's about them.
She keeps telling them it's awork of fiction, and they're
like, Yeah, right, wink wink.
They think she's being coy.
And I guess she is, but she'salso telling the truth.
It's a work of fiction that isvery, very, very much like the

(01:02:12):
truth.
I know in music, you just haveto change a couple of chords so
that you don't get sued for orlike stealing someone else's
music.
I wonder in fiction what youneed to do.
Probably change the town, changethe names a little bit.
Yeah, you have to change just acouple things so that it reads
as fiction, but at the end ofthe day, everybody knows what it
is.

(01:02:33):
So everyone is there.
Lily May is there.
Um, Diana somehow made the guestlist.
She's there.
Oh, speaking of Diana, I forgotone other thing.
Diana is babysitting her cousinuh Lily May.
She's babysitting her cousinOlivia one night.
So Olivia is trying to do somedance, and Diana is watching her

(01:02:54):
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 agood old cousin time.
I love it.
Diana tells Olivia, you're agreat dancer.
She goes, Thank you, Gary saysso too.
She goes, Well, how do you know?
Like, oh, he's here all thetime.
She's like, Okay, Liv, come on,come sit down and finish your
homework.
She hands her the calculator.
Olivia says, I gotta give thisback to Gary too.

(01:03:15):
This is Gary's calculator.
Yeah, this is Gary's calculator.
He's here.
Basically, the baby spills thebeans.
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 isthere except you know who.
Lily Mae is pissed.

(01:03:36):
And so is Karen.
So they're calling dealershipnonstop, they're calling the
house nonstop.
Meanwhile, Gary is over atAbby's homegirl's apartment in
bed, post coitus.
He says, Hey abs, that wasfantastic.
What a word.
I hate when people complimentthemselves.
You're all right, Gary.
I just I don't even want to gothere, but I doubt it.

(01:03:58):
I doubt it.
I'll say that.
He tells Abby he needs to go.
Here's where it gets a littlebit sticky to me.
You could say she is seducinghim, but I I don't think that's
the case.
I think she is presenting anoption and playing, she's
playing to his reaction.
So if he was like, it's the onlyplace I want to be, I'm sure

(01:04:19):
she'd say, Well, I'd never stopyou from doing anything you want
to do.
She'd find a way to round itback out, to be like your wife
would, but I wouldn't.
He only says no one time.
Like, no, I'd rather, would yourather be here or would you
rather be there?
I'd rather be here.
He only says that one time, butthe rest of the time he keeps
saying, You know what it is.
Don't make you know.

(01:04:39):
Oh, come on.
What kind of question?
He dances around everything.
And I notice Gary does that alot.
He never comes right out andsays yes.
You have to present the actualsentence to him, just like Valen
won't accept this affair unlessshe lays eyes on it.
He won't explicitly say yes toanything.
You need to be extremelyspecific before he will.

(01:05:02):
So there's back and forth, backand forth.
He tickles her.
He manages to get his shirt sohe can get dressed.
Mind you, he's supposed to beputting on the blue suit.
So I'm assuming he came overthere 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 areunderwear.

(01:05:22):
I think they're baby bluecheerleading shorts.
My point is, this man has twochanges of clothes.
Abby and he keep going back andforth.
Why don't you stay where youwant to be?
Why don't you just stay whereyou want to be, Gary?
Blah, blah, blah.
He gets dressed.
She crawls over to the side ofthe bed.
They begin to kiss, and you seehim drop the outfit.
He's supposed to wear the Val'sthing.

(01:05:44):
So it's it's said and done.
He's making his decision.
Val is really suffering at thisparty.
She's starting to spiral.
Aaron had approached Joe alittle before the party, saying,
Why is the editor giving Valsuch a difficult time?
Joe says, Well, the truth ishe's up for this position in New
York.
So he his next move has to behis best move.

(01:06:06):
Yes, I agree.
He's out of pocket, but alsothis is the publishing world.
Joe, being the stellar gentlemanhe 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 startstalking to the guy, like, dude,
I don't care what your newposition is going to be, you
know you're not really handlingthis the way you should.

(01:06:28):
And the guy tells him, actually,I already got the job, so I
don't really have to doanything.
I'm hoping you will be my WestCoast editor.
So maybe Odysse can explain thisto me if it even comes up ever
again.
I don't know if the guy wasbeing 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 steadyon the phone.

(01:06:50):
Diana comes in looking like apoodle.
I'm not even joking.
Whoever did her hair hates herguts.
She looked just like a littlepoodle dog.
And she's smirking at her mamalike, uh, I figured it out.
I'm like, girl, you two affairslate.
Ain't nobody surprised.
And of course they got together.
Gary made the cardinal mistake.
He forgot that not only didLily, Mae, and Laura and Karen

(01:07:12):
see him come out of theapartment, he forgot what that
meant.
That meant we know yourlocation, homeboy.
So what do they do?
They roll out.
But as they're rolling out, Valsees them leave.
She gives chase.
Val go, and okay, now this iswhere we gotta do soap tack,
soap tack, soap tack.
This is an apartment building.
I don't know how they would knowwhich door they're at unless

(01:07:34):
they knocked on every singleapartment door.
Well, they start knocking, righta tat-tatting.
Gary has the audacity to hop upout of bag in his cheer shorts
and walk to the door so thewhole 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.

(01:07:55):
Karen talks to her like a child,zip it, Abby.
But Gary hasn't, he's got hishands on his hip again.
Karen's not the one though.
She steps right in his face.
He kind of cocks his head to theside 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 thatparty.
Before she can go any deeper,though, here comes Val.

(01:08:17):
Val soap tax, soap tax, soaptax, runs up right behind her,
and boom, she sees Abby in the90, Gary in his draws, and there
is literally nothing else tosay.
He finally has the decency tolook to shame of himself.
If I recall correctly, he wasn'tashamed.
He was having a good old time.
This is where I want to be.

(01:08:39):
I'm not going to that party.
That was his energy until he sawher 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 thesoldiers is supposed to go
deliver a message to the other,I don't, I don't know what you
call it, the other, the othersoldiers on his team.

(01:09:00):
But of course, he has to do thislong before telephones and
walkie-talkies and what haveyou.
So there are literally bombsbursting in air, uh debris
flying, people being killed leftand right, and he's got to walk
or run to this other station tolet these other people know
something.
If you've ever seen it, you knowexactly what I'm talking about.
The way the guy is moving, it isperfect.

(01:09:23):
You feel every bit ofadrenaline, all the fear, and
it's almost as if his body justtook over.
His mind is definitely somewhereelse.
But his body does this kind ofweird jerky move.
He's just trying to get throughit as quickly as possible.
He's before you know it, he'soff 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.

(01:09:46):
She has the wherewithal todouble 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 collectedall of his clothing.
I'm assuming he had to step upout of his baby blue chair

(01:10:09):
shorts, put on his pants or theblue suit he was supposed to
wear again, and put his otherclothes in the car.
I don't know, maybe Abby helpedhim.
I don't really know.
But Val takes off.
She goes upstairs, she packs allthe clothes.
Gary makes it to the house andhe's beating on the door like a
crazy purse, acting a completefool.
She don't get in, she don't givea damn.

(01:10:30):
She runs and she she jumps inher 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.

(01:10:51):
Again, his athleticism is quiteimpressive.
He's holding onto the car asshe's reversing.
She is not taking it sloweither.
She's driving like a bat out ofhell.
He is keeping pace with it withhis arms on the door.
It is quite impressive, butthat'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 ofthe road just looking stupid.

(01:11:16):
Don't vow her.
End scene.
Wow.
It's it's disappointing.
Not the story, actually, not theshow.
I I enjoyed this episode verymuch.
But dude, I'm you got off easy,as far as I'm concerned.

(01:11:40):
But also at the same time, youknow she knew.
She knew she knew the entiretime.
I'm glad she had to see it.
I really am.
I hate that it happened thatway.
I wish it was just a kissbecause that is, I mean, there's
no coming back from that.
Unless there is.
I mean, hell, who knows?

(01:12:01):
But it just, I don't understandhis carelessness.
I go back to Joe.
I have to agree with him.
You wanted to get caught.
You had to have wanted to getcaught.
There's no way you thought youwere gonna get away to that
degree, because he became moreand more blatant and let the
baby girl tell that Olivia tellit.
He's over at their house all thetime.

(01:12:21):
Business with that stupidmethanol stuff should have
brought something to fruition atthis point, but there's nothing
to show for.
Just leave.
That's my thing.
Why drag this out?
You already are disrespectingher, you're already ignoring
her, you're already embarrassingher in her face, you're already
making it uncomfortable foreveryone around you.
What is the point of draggingon?

(01:12:42):
I think he likes the attention.
Period.
Point blank.
Abby called it out, and it's theJane or whatever her name was,
she knew it too.
He even admitted he just likedthe 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 andadd another revision.
You upset?
Oh, bet.
I'd put six or seven morechapters on the the loser Larry

(01:13:06):
Ewing on Capricorn Crude.
Oh, what a sophine, there's onlytwo questions I have at this
point.
There's there's only two thingsto discuss.
Number one, he gotta go.
Not only him, he and Abby gottago.

(01:13:26):
As far as I'm concerned, ifthat's what she wants, if that's
who you want, cool.
Take him, take him in two moreyears.
See how, see if he's singing thesame song.
See if she's just as happy intwo years from now.
You get the yeah, you get thecheater one.
You get the one sneaking around.
It was it was a fun little game.
I snatched him away from thisbumpkin, made him feel like a
real man.
Yeah, okay, cool.

(01:13:46):
Cool.
Wait till he gets drunk onetime, wait till he starts
destroying your house, flippingstuff upside down, throwing a
fit every 15 minutes.
I don't think she put up withit.
But you know, whatever.
They gotta go.
That's my point.
They have got to move out of thecul-de-steck.
There is no way I'm gonna watchy'all every day from my house.
And she gets the house, as faras I'm concerned.

(01:14:08):
I can't believe the show has mestressed out from 40 plus years
in the past.
Oh, they got her messed up.
But number two, and mostimportantly, the thing I thought
of this whole episode who getscustody of the kids?
I'm not talking about Lucy andMitch.
I don't care about them.

(01:14:29):
Who gets custody of Olivia andwhat'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 ontrips, and you're not even bad
to die.
Matter of fact, are you sleepingwith my husband while I'm
keeping your kids safe?
She's buying her specialbirthday gifts, taking the time

(01:14:49):
to pick out the perfect box.
So you're gonna you're gonnatake 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.

(01:15:11):
Well done, Nas Landing.
Well done.
I just can't even believe it'sgonna turn up from here.
I can't even imagine where yougo.
It seems well, my heart's desireis that Kenny either get
interesting again or get gone.
It'd be great if they moved toSan Francisco, which doesn't
make sense to pursue the musiccareer considering you're in LA,

(01:15:31):
but whatever.
Yeah, that gotta get interestingreally quickly.
Can't wait to see what happenswith 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 sellit.
She's keeping the house.
I don't care.
I hope that Valen sees forherself now.

(01:15:54):
You have got to make a cleanbreak.
It's her husband, so I'massuming they're gonna try to
work it out.
I don't imagine it'll just breakoff that easy.
Not on this show.
This was Dynasty, absolutely.
You'll have a new partner bytomorrow, but not on this show.
I imagine this is a lovetriangle for a little bit.
However, she needs to fly.

(01:16:16):
I hate that she is kind ofrolled 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 toappease this idiot, the longer
she's gonna end up staying inthat shell.
You know what?
Good riddance.
Get him out of there.
Get him out of there.

(01:16:36):
But they for real, for real,they gotta move off the
cul-de-sac and she's keeping thehouse.
And we're gonna work out custodyfor Olivia, or else I'm telling
the courts about all this othercrap.
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 ifthey have any money for real,
for real, like that.
I guess they have his regularsalary and what they're not

(01:16:59):
making with this methanolbusiness, unless he's making
money.
But any money he gets, you knowwhat?
Actually, actually, don'tdivorce him, Val.
Don't divorce him.
Drag this out.
Let's see if that uh themethanol picks up.
If not, you get half of Abby'shouse too.
Get half of her divorcesettlement.

(01:17:20):
You're gonna the least she'sgonna do is walk out of here,
fly.
That's what you're gonna do.
She needs to get somewhere, gether 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'tgonna find nobody new.
Quickly, too.
All right.
Thank you for listening to Jay.
I enjoyed this, even if itdoesn't sound like I did.

(01:17:41):
I I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Great writing, phenomenal.
Can't wait to see what happensthis next season.
Join me next time as I jump backinto some fresh vintage soap
opera debauchery.
Don't forget you can reach outin the show notes and send me a
text, or you can email me atsoapwarpodcast at gmail.com.
S O A P L O R E P O D C A S T atGmail.com.

(01:18:04):
Stay hydrated, stay moisturized,believe it the first time you
see it.
Don't mind your business.
Tell everybody and keep all ofyour drama on TV.