Daily Updates

From: Teresa Elaine Leslie <tleslie@emory.edu>
Subject: GH:  Friday Update (4/10/98)
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 18:09:03 -0400

        I've resigned myself to the fact that Brenda-loves-Jax will be a
regular Friday feature, but today's compensations more than made up for
it.  My favorite Laura-loving men positioned themselves for a wonderful
Monday confrontation, my girl Carly made a risky move, Lizzie and Lucky
continued to touch my heart.  It was a good episode, directed by Ludel and
written by Elizabeth Korte, quickly becoming one of my favorites.

        This episode can be titled "Let's Review," as the first 50 minutes
was taken up by recapitulation of familiar themes, before the
final 10 minutes kicked all the stories up a notch.

STEFAN LOVES LAURA, WHO WAS RAPED BY LUKE WHO LOVES LAURA
        We open with my fave MIB, Stefan, in the wine cellar.  He removes
the quilt that covers Lasha's portrait and gazes at his Lasha with an
inscrutable expression on his face.  We cut from this shot of Stefan
thinking of Laura to Luke, sitting on the bench in the park, the spot
associated with both Laura's and Liz's rapes. (okay, it was not a subtle
directorial move, but that's okay)  Lucky and Liz appear, talking about
Liz's rape.  When they come upon Luke, Lucky pretends not to see him,
telling Lizzie "There's nothing here to show it happened.  I checked,
remember?"  He looks at Dad in a challenging way, almost daring Luke to
speak to him, and Luke looks, as he often does these days, sadly
resigned.

CARLY'S MOM IS DEAD
        Carly and Jason are at a Florida cemetery, before a headstone that
reads simply "Virginia Benson."  Jason asks if he should have
added something more, like a date or a prayer.  Carly has a hilariously
sad comeback, saying her momma said ladies never tell their age, hence no
dates please, and that she didn't recall her having a favorite prayer,
"Unless you count 'My God, Caroline, what have you done?'"  Carly decides
she'd like to add something about Virginia being her mom and Michael's
grandma, and Jason says "so let it be written, so let it be done."  [well,
words to that effect]  Carly is touched by the way he always does that--
takes care of everything for her, damn the cost or inconvenience.
        She's glad her mom is near the ocean.  "Did I ever tell you my
mom used to say that a day at the beach took all her troubles away?"
"That's why I chose it," Jason answers simply.  This pleases Carly.  He
offers to take a walk with Michael so she can have time alone with her
momma, and they talk about death and the possibility of an afterlife.
Jason feels that "the part of you that loves, the soul, I guess," never
ends,    She suggests he tell Michael that some day, and he says, "That's
why I take him to church."

BRENDA LOVES JAX
        The Jacks family and Brenda are in Jax's apartment, making dinner
plans.  Mr. and Mrs. Jack continue their revisionist history, gushing over
Brenda and tisk-tisking about Jerry as the hopeless black sheep. [Updater
wonders why we have conveniently ignored the part where Jax was so
disillusioned by his father after the return of Miranda, when it appeared
that everyone in the family felt it was okay to lie to him because he was
the weak one who couldn't handle hard truths, unlike Jerry, the one always
on the inside]  The foursome leave for dinner, thus missing the call from
Mac that comes in on the answering machine, in which Mac warns Jax that
Mitchell had a partner and Jax is still in danger.

COMMERCIAL BREAK
LUCKY ISN'T HAPPY WITH HIS PARENTS:
        Luke asks Lucky how things are going.  The conversation is
awkward. Luke tells Lucky Laura has been calling, Lucky guesses correctly
that she doesn't know he's left home.  Luke expresses concern about
Lucky's ties to Helena, and points out correctly that if Lucky really were
finished with the family, as he claims, he wouldn't go out of his way to
ally himself with his dad's enemy that way.  A nerve having been struck,
Lucky taunts Luke about telling Laura what's going on with the Spencer
men.  He suggests that Luke tell Laura that Lucky is through with his dad:
"Tell the truth for the first time in family history."  [of course lucky
doesn't see the irony of this remark, although luke surely does.  It would
not be the truth, and luke and laura have dealt with hard truths in their
many years together, but Lucky isnt' ready to see that].  Lucky continues
to misunderstand the Luke/Laura bond, accusing his father of hiding from
his mom and his mom of avoiding the truth about his dad.  Luke refuses to
attempt to correct Lucky's ideas.  Instead, he sighs deeply and tells the
cowboy to take care of himself, before leaving.
        After Luke is gone, Lucky apologizes to Liz, who is concerned
about him.  He admits it's hard to see his dad, as he's reminded that "I
saw him wrong all those years."  Liz thinks they should postpone their
attempt to retrace her footsteps until after dark.

CARLY IS SORRY VIRGINIA IS DEAD:
        Carly talks to Virginia's headstone, making the updater weep.  She
apologizes for not thanking her momma for all that Virginia did.  She
apologizes for thinking that Bobbie could love her better than Virginia
did. "Why couldn't I see that the mother I always dreamed of was the
mother I already had?"  She tells her mother that she loves her, and
should have said so more often.  She claims to have grown up, and promises
not to chase fantasies any more.  Her life is good now, not
picture-perfect, but a life that works for her and for Michael; she's
learned to hang on to the good stuff and to be grateful for it.  She tells
her mother she is finally happy and hopes her mom is happy for her, too.
Jason returns at this point, and tells her it's time to go.  "You're a
good father, Jason.  When I found out that I was adopted, all I could
think about was the fact that I had this real mother out there somewhere.
But Virginia Benson WAS my real mother, just like you're Michael's real
father.  Biology doesn't make a family; love does.  Remember that, okay?"
He tells her they can stay in Florida for the night, if she wants to come
back the next morning.  She says no, and he puts his arm around her
[yeah!] as she looks sadly back at her mother's grave and they walk away.

ALAN'S ON DRUGS
Alan, shaking and pacing the grungy hotel room, is still trying to quit
drugs cold turkey.

COMMERCIAL

ALAN'S ON DRUGS
Alan licks the powder out of an empty pill bottle and crawls to the phone
to call the front desk.

LIZZIE GOT RAPED:
        It's evening now, and Liz and Lucky are back in the park,
revisiting the night of her rape.  She's telling him what she saw, what
she felt, hoping they will uncover some new details she didn't remember
earlier.  She sits on the bench, as before, and remembers thinking how
peaceful and quiet that spot was, just before she was grabbed.  Her
description is interspersed with brief flashbacks to the rape episode.
She gets increasingly agitated as she gets closer to the actual rape in
her description, and Lucky tries to keep her calm so that she can continue
to recall details.  He stops her when she gets to the part about being
thrown to the ground, and his eyes are filled with tears.  "We're not
doing this right," he says as he hugs her; they cling to one another.

SOMEONE SHOT AT JAX:
        Jax et al. are back from dinner, and Mac and Felicia show up.
[It's a cute touch, I thought, that Mac is wearing pink and Felicia is
wearing blue.]  They want to tie up a few loose ends, so the Jacks take
Brenda down to their suite for another present so Jax can talk to the
investigators alone. Jax is peeved at them for pursuing things further,
but Mac wants Jax to know that Jerry is the one behind the attempted hit.

COMMERCIAL

JERRY WAS INVOLVED, WHEN SOMEONE SHOT AT JAX:
        Jax demands to know how Mac came to that conclusion.  Mac lays out
the evidence-- the hitman was paid in gold bullion, Jerry's trademark.
Jax tells them that if they are right, although he doesn't think they are
(or so he says), it must stay between the three of them.  They mustn't
tell Brenda, V (Yeah, he mentioned V), or his parents.  They tell him to
watch his back, and then leave.

LIZZIE ISN'T TO BLAME FOR THE RAPE (NOR IS LUCKY'S MOM)
        Lucky says they should have a trained professional helping Liz
relive the experience, someone who will know what to ask without hurting
her so much.  She says she wants to work through it with hi, instead, and
that he was there when she spoke to the police, so he'll notice if she
adds details.  He points out that she is, like the part about seeing the
sky, and about the man taking her coat off her.  They agree to keep
trying.  She remembers the rapist whispering something, with his face
close to hers, and his heavy breathing.  She doesn't remember anything
after that, beyond "that's when he hurt me."  She's blocked everything
until he was gone, and she can't remember his words.
        She's busy berating herself for not screaming when he took his
hand from her mouth. Lucky says she mustn't do that.  He goes on the say
the man is responsible, and that when he's caught, he'll make all kinds of
excuses.  Then he reels off a list of "excuses" that were drawn from
Luke's comments about the Disco Rape (without labelling them as such, so
Liz is unaware of where his head has gone)--- "He'll say he was drunk, or
it was because of what you were wearing, or 'cause you didn't leave, or
because he thought he was gonna die."  (Of course, Luke didn't label them
as excuses, or try to excuse his own behavior, but Lucky isn't getting
that part.)  "If you buy into that, he's gonna make you responsible.  And
you're not.  He...violated...you."
        Liz begins to believe that herself, it seems.  "You're right," she
tells Lucky, "This isn't my fault."

ALAN IS ON DRUGS:
        Alan tries to pull himself together, goes to the trouble of
putting on a tie-- a wonderful touch on someone's part to emphasize how
pathetic he is at the moment.  He opens the door to the hotel manager, and
asks for help, says he's relying on the manager's discretion and will pay
for it.  Another pathetic gesture-- he pulls some bills from his pocket
with shaky fingers.  He claims he's lost his medication and needs to have
it replaced.  he's sure the manager knows someone who can do that.
COMMERCIAL

CARLY SHOULD STAY OUT OF JASON'S BUSINESS:
        That super-fast jet has scooted Carly and Jason back from Florida
already, and they are in the penthouse with Michael.  Talking about how
well the strike is going, Carly concludes, "Then I did the right thing."
[calling the giving the strike order in his name].  He says that isn't
true, that she just got lucky.  He apologizes for being so rough on her
about it initially, and says he's sorry he yelled.  But he tells her that
in his business, things can't happen by accident, and that she and
Michael are safe because they stay out of his business.  They get ready to
put Michael to bed, and he says it's his night to have the baby monitor,
reminding us that they sleep apart.

JAX SAYS HE DOESN'T LOVE BRENDA:
        Jax is playing pinball in the penthouse, and brenda comes in
carrying a huge potted orchid.  They reminisce about the first time they
met, when she returned a ring to him from Lois.  Lady Jane has given
Brenda the orchid, a sure sign of favor, according to Jax.  Brenda is sure
that Robin can take care of it for her. Jax admits he's enjoying Brenda's
games, but says it isn't leading anywhere, and he doesn't want to hurt her
by pretending otherwise.  She assures him she can wait forever, and that
she is having fun, too.  Jax says he'll walk her to her car.  She assures
him, "You're falling, you know."  "Not on your life," he counters.

LUKE HEARD STEFAN HAD A THING FOR LAURA
        Luke is snooping around at Wyndermere, wearing black gloves and
shining a flashlight in the wine cellar.  He sees the covered painting,
rips off the quilt, and studies the picture.  I should point out that we
can see Luke's face, but not the portrait, at this angle.

COMMERCIAL
NOW THAT WE'VE REVIEWED ALL THE BASIC FACTS, LET'S START THE NEXT CHAPTER

        Luke is still looking at the painting, and Stefan appears behind
him.  "Interesting likeness, don't you think?"  Luke turns to face him,
but we have to wait until Monday for their exchange.
        Liz thanks Lucky for being there to find her in the park.
"That's when I knew I wasn't going to die."  Mr. Murty is walking by,
exchanges a few words with them, and mentions that he lives nearby and
often cuts through the park on his way home.  [hmmm, does this mean he's
the rapist, or that we're supposed to be fooled into thinking he's the
rapist?]
        A drug dealer shows up in Alan's room.
        Carly in a black gown and robe slips purposely down the stairs and
into Jason's room.  Once she sees a sleeping Jason, she hesitates, then
slips off her gown and slides into bed beside him. Kisses his chest, then
begins to kiss him on the lips.  He groggily responds a bit, but the scene
ends before we can see what develops.
        Jax reenters his apartment.  THere's a man playing pinball.
"Hello, Jerry," says Jax.  The dark-haired, decent-enough-looking guy
turns with a smirk to face his brother.  [the updater is still
disappointed that it isn't Marcus from B5, but will wait to see how he
does once he opens his mouth.]
        And with that succession of cliff-hangers, the episode ends.

Terry
One of the Twin Updaters of Different Fridays