Daily Updates

From: Teresa Elaine Leslie tleslie@emory.edu
Subject: GH:  Update, Friday, Nov. 6
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1998 11:25:22 -0500
NNTP-Posting-Date: 13 Nov 1998 16:24:33 GMT

        This was one of those lovely episodes that make me wonder if
Michelle Patrick (the scriptwriter) is really Michelle Val Jean AND
Patrick Mulcahey.  Yeah, yeah, I know, folks say she is a real
person, who used to write for AMC, but I'm telling you, I want to see her
in the flesh before I give up my theory.

Openers:

Port Charles Grill:  Ned and ALexis meet at the bar.  She tells him she
can't stay long, as she's due at Nik's birthday party.  "Cassadine-party,
it's an oxymoron," she jokes, inviting him to come along as a witness.
They are waiting for Jax and V, and Alexis says she's never been invited
out before "to make some other woman more attractive."  Attractive isn't
the problem, Ned says, it's more that V lacks...."hauture," Alexis
supplies, and he agrees. They review the Jax/V plan for the audience's
benefit.  Then V appears, looking elegant and sexy, but having adopted
that wavy uncombed look other short-haired ladies on the show sometimes
sport.

Great Segue to the Docks:  After we see V appear in her glamorous outfit,
we cut to jason saying, "You look good in that dress"-- to Robin, on the
docks.  Robin is waiting for the launch to take her to Spoon Island, and
worries that Jason is not "okay with" her going there.  His mind is
elsewhere, however; he's on his way to Ferncliff to straighten things out
with Carly.

Spoon Island:  The teens arrive at Wyndemere, and make small talk as
everyone settles in.  Funniest exchange-- Lucky refers to the house as the
"Spoon Island Medieval Museum" and mentions "the moat."  Nik replies,
"Wait until you see the dragon."  "I have."
        Then Laura and Lulu appear at the door, visions in their birthday
party finery.  Laura looks fabulous in velvet, with her hair loose, bangs
framing her face, no straight hunks of hair dangling, no fussy upsweeps.
        Speaking of gorgeous, Stefan is in his study, dressing, and he
looks scrumptious in a crisp white shirt with a funky collar.  There's a
knock on the wall [only at Wyndemere], and Stefan touches something on the
wall to open a secret panel and allow Jerry to enter.  Jerry says he felt
like "a victim in a tale of terror by Edgar Allan Poe" but I would remind
him that JudyO's marvelous Poe parodies star Reggie, Kat, and Justus, not
Jerry -- check it out at www.geocities.com/~mcamy/ghreview/index.html--
yes, that's a gratuitous plug for the GHR.  Stefan is not happy to have
this distraction on Nik's birthday.

First commercial break

Jerry and Stefan:  Jerry is here to update Stefan on his investigation,
telling him that the person responsible for the accident was a master
forger.  He lets Stefan know that Kat's original will ALSO left everything
to Stefan. Helena was framed.  Jerry says it's clear that someone wanted
Stefan to appear motive-free.  Jerry wants to see any photos or tapes from
the party, and Stefan hands them over and heads downstairs to join the
party.  jerry goes through the photos, which include one of Luke in his
distinctive ivy-crowned mask.

Back to the party:  Laura embraces her elder son, and sees Lucky's
mask-like face over Nik's shoulder.  She then sends Lulu over to hug
Lucky, with a wistful "Give him a kiss for me."  Nik leads Lulu off to see
Robin after a moment, gracefully giving Laura and Lucky a chance to talk.
Lucky tells his mom about Liz's rapist being captured, without going into
details.
        Robin and Nik are seated on either side of Lulu on the couch. I
loved the munchkin more than ever as she looked totally bored and stared
at the ceiling while Robin was talking, telling Nik that his little sister
looked like both her brothers.
        Laura gets a chance to have a word with Liz, and says that closure
must feel wonderful.  Then Stefan appears, and Laura takes a deep breathe.
He's waylaid by Emily, who thanks him for inviting her.

Back in town, at the Grill:
        The Monte Carlo gang gather at the bar, and V practices her
contessa persona by chatting about Antibe.  Reese is there waiter, and is
still enchanted by the Contessa.  Alexis says that V's command of
languages is acceptable (she has convinced Reese she speaks Spanish) except
for body language-- she needs to be more physical around Jax to convince
people they are lovers.  V is aghast at the notion.
        They move to their table, still discussing the issue.  Everyone
else is amused (Ned makes a crack about her trying to overcome her disgust
by putting a bag over Jax's head), but V is deadly serious.  Jax is in
mourning, she exclaims.  "this isnt' funny, it's borderline offensive."
Jax has a solution-- he will be the pursuer and she will be the "coveted
one."  He tells poor V to try not to laugh when he "makes gestures like
this," as he rubs the back of her neck.  She jumps out of her skin at his
touch.
        A woman named Joyce Hastings appears-- an older woman (reminded me
of a less-lean Amanda Harrington) who has a business meeting scheduled the
next morning with Ned, to discuss buying a company called Guthrie
Technologies from him.  Alexis excuses herself to head to the party.  Jax
pretends to be interested in buying Guthrie Techs himself and to be
trying to outbid her.  He's really, of course, attempting to raise the
price Ned gets out of Ms. Hastings.
        Since the rest of the day's scenes with this group are fairly
repetitive, I'll summarize them here rather than worry about detailing
each separately.  Jax continues to make noises about the potential of this
company and his desire to buy it, raising Joyce's price ever higher,
ultimately reaching 42.5 million.  She says that is her final offer, and
Ned turns her down, saying he prefers to sell to Jax.  AFter she leaves in
a huff, Jax wants to know why Ned didn't jump on the opportunity to sell
after he, Jax, went to the trouble to get a much better price for him.

Back to the party:
        There's more party small talk. The women are talking to Lulu about
her pretty dress.  Lucky wants a word with Nik, "I ride you about being a
Cassadine, which in my book means useless at best.'  But Nik handled
himself well during their adventure, so Lucky  wants him to know that now
he sees NIk as "a stand-up, regular guy."  Laura overhears their
conversation, and she's thrilled.  She's gazing fondly after them when
Stefan comes up behind her, telling her she may not be as pleased when she
hears the whole story.  She follows him outside, where he tells her the
boys had been "playing detective" and Laura declares it was "So brave."
Stefan is appalled that they acted like vigilantes, but Laura is pleased
they were on an adventure together.  Stefan says, "Recklessness is not
I want Nikolas to acquire."  Right on cue, Kat arrives, appears behind
him.  Laura leaves Stefan and the frosty-lipped one alone.

        In a nice seque, we cut from the shot of Laura to a pan of Luke's
darkened office, with the pictures of Laura nad of the family on Luke's
desk.  Jerry is breaking into Luke's office, and heads for the safe.  {Oh,
how I'd love to see those two become pals, a la Luke and Robert, but I
know Luke has other compatriots who will probably preclude such a
development)

        Jason has arrived at Ferncliff.  He's in the visiting room with
the doctor and Carly.  As the doc prattles on about how important the AJ
visit was in showing him that Carly could handle the larger world, Jason
and Carly's eyes are fixed on one another.  jason is a mask to the doctor,
but Carly knows he's seething inside.  carly smiles and talks to the
doctor, but Jason knows she is a nervous wreck inside.  The doctor leaves
them alone, and Carly's first words are, "How mad at me are you?"  "How
mad did you want me to be?"
        After a commercial, Carly tries to defend her decision to see AJ.
Jason is furious, and lets her know that she gave AJ hope that he could
use her to deliver Michael to the Qs, and that allowing him to visit
showed AJ that she doesn't trust Jason.  Carly counters that she made it
clear to AJ that she has complete confidence in Jason.  Then she goes on
to make it equally clear to Jason that she really doesn't, because he gave
up his mob position and power and she doesn't see how a mechanic can have
the clout to get her out of Ferncilff.  She rants about being stuck in the
institution forever because Jason didn't wait until she was free to make
his life change.   This rant continues for the rest of the show, so I'll
follow it out here.  She vents at length:  "Be patient, Carly.  I'm so
tired of that."  She can't take it any more.  Finally, we get the payoff.
"Tell me I'm wrong," she pleads, "tell me I'm not a complete sucker."  So
he does, pulling out the court order signed by a judge that will free her.
She is stunned.  "Am I really going to get out?"  "Yep, all you need is
this mechanic's signature," he tells her, dripping sarcasm.

        Back at the party, Laura tries to use Lulu being tired as an
excuse to leave Wyndemere, but Nik suggests Lulu nap in the study, so that
Laura can stay for cake.  She agrees-- good thing, since he hasn't even
opened presents yet.

        meanwhile, outside, Kat and Stefan are in conversation.  Stefan
tries to be formally cordial: "It was good of you to come.  It did not
occur to me that you would want to."  Kat deflates his pose with, "No, I
haven't occurred to you in a long while now."  She delights in needling
Stefan about how much Nik confides in her, mentioning the gun Tom had,
knowing Nik would not mention that fact to his uncle.  Stefan tries to hide
his surprise. Kat considers what Nik did "chivalrous" and lets Stefan know
that she assumes Nik keeps secrets from Stefan.  "And why shouldn't he
keep secrets.  You've kept so many from him."  [This is one of those
things that is grating on me lately.  Lines like that make it quite clear
Kat remembers all the important stuff, just as her comments on
oven-cleaning day did.  Yet elsewhere we see her fumbling to remember and
it's equally clear that she does NOT know.  Yikes. Writers, PLEASE, chose
an angle and stick with it.] Kat brushes past Stefan, a scary sight moment
for the updater, who worried her huge shoulderpads would knock him over.

        Later, Alexis arrives at the party and has a talk with Nik.
Elsewhere in the room, Laura and Kat spar.  Kat siddles up to Laura,
saying, "Wyndemere becomes you."  "Excuse me?"  "I've never seen you so..
yourself."  She wants to know why Lulu doesn't have her own room at
Wyndemere yet.  "You and Stefan have waited so long to be together."  That
one raises Laura's ire to the point of response:  "How dare you
assume...." "That you want to live with your son?" Kat finishes with faux
innocence, before throwing Nik a come -hither look on her way out to the
garden, which inspires him to follow her.  Laura goes to Stefan,
sputtering about Kat's taunt,  but he's more concerned about the
information she gave him about there being a gun involved when the teens
confronted Tom, and both parents worry about the fact that Nik is
confiding in Kat.

        Meanwhile, out in the garden, Nik and Kat talk.  She tells him how
happy she is to be there, even if she did have to crash the party.  She
hands him the gift she brought and utters a line I simply dare not touch
in an update:  "IF I were a witch," she says, "I'd wave a magic wand and
make all your birthday wishes come true. But UNTIL {emphasis mine} I have
that power, this will have to do."  He tells her he's glad she came, she
says she'd walk through fire to wish him well, which emboldens him to move
in for a kiss.  Just then, Laura appears at the door to tell him his cake
is ready, and he throws Kat a sexy look as they follow Laura inside.

        Nik blows out candles on his cake, and they move to gift-opening.
Emily insists he open hers first-- it's a journal for recording his
adventures. Then Kat pipes up, "Now mine."  It's a camera, "in honor of
the one you tossed off the end of the dock."  [of course, that wasn't his
camera, but hers, so she couldn't say 'to replace,' but whatever]  THen he
opens Laura's gift-- the first one he chose to open, rather than opened
because the giver urged him to do so.  It's the same camera, as everyone
notices, and Laura looks resigned.  "In case you get the urge to dump the
other one into the lake," she suggests, making the best of the situation.

        Speaking of opening things, Jerry is opening Luke's safe.  He
takes out various goodies, and comes across the mask Luke wore to the
ball, which he recognizes from the photograph.

        Meanwhile, Stefan and Lucky have a brief conversation.  Stefan
makes a friendly gesture, saying "Lucky, this is the first time you have
come to my home as an invited guest. I hope you enjoy yourself."
        Lucky, posing as nonchalant, replies, "Thank you."
        "I look upon this as a turning point, a quite promising one."
        "Cool."  End of conversation, but it is a start.

        Then Stefan calls everyone together for a toast to the young
prince [still sounds like Bambi].  When he says we are here to celebrate
"my nephew's ascent into manhood," we get a nauseating shot of Katherine
licking her lips.  Ewww.  As we hear Stefan's toast about Nik's family and
friends being together "and may the bond we form hold forever," we get a
parting shot of a figure on the docks watching Spoon Island.  It's LUKE.

The End

Director:  Behar
Writer:  Michelle Patrick
Updater: Terry the Tardy, one of the twin updaters of different Fridays