Dynasty :: Playing Fallon like a fiddle

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There was a lot of drama on this week’s episode of Dynasty and quite a few cliffhangers that will be left dangling for a month (!) before the show returns … on Fridays! Ugh. And we still have yet to meet Alexis but the Olympics are taking a toll on all the networks’ February Sweeps Month offerings. But the move to Friday isn’t a sign of confidence, so hopefully Nicolette Sheridan can be the show’s Heather Locklear (who could have also been a good choice to play Alexis).

This week mainly focused on Fallon and the Colbys, Jeff and Monica. Jeff has been playing Fallon to get back at her family for Blake allegedly setting up his father as a drug dealer and sending him to prison. And apparently, Blake has been pulling all the strings with his judge friend (the one who he’d been bribing and was forced to bow out of the political race on the last episode) and his cop friend Stansfield, who was sent to an early retirement after all of his misdeeds performed in service of Blake Carrington. So with Cesil Colby up for parole once again — and he’s been an exemplary prisoner, never a moments trouble — and all of Blake’s stooges gone, how can he keep Cesil behind bars?

I’m not sure how I feel about this turn of events concerning Blake and Cesil. Blake Carrington is supposed to be the ‘hero’ of the show. Yes, he has his flaws but he’s not supposed to be evil and this week his actions left a really bad taste in my mouth. Knowing Cesil was eligible for parole, and would most likely receive it, he sent Anders to meet with a prison guard to whom he gave a stuffed envelope of money. The guard then placed himself in an apparently unmonitored prison hallway (seriously?) where Cesil was mopping, then plunged a shank into his leg, grabbed Cesil’s hand to get it bloody and framed his so as to prevent the parole. I don’t know about you, but for me that’s just a little too low for Blake to stoop. In his defense though, when Cristal learned of this courtesy of her reporter friend, he claimed Cesil had tried to murder him for having an affair with Cesil’s wife, which Blake denies. But is that true? At this point it’s hard to take Blake’s word for anything.

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But Blake’s actions are having an impact on Fallon without him knowing it because it’s only making Jeff more persistent in screwing her over so he can take down Carrington Atlantic — which also confuses me a bit because Morrell Corp has nothing to do with Carrington Atlantic. This is all Fallon’s money, so bankrupting her doesn’t seem to serve any purpose as far as getting revenge on Blake. But Jeff persists now that he has enlisted his sister’s help. Fallon believes Monica is angry with Jeff after that slap at the Casino Night at the mansion. So the two are ‘bonding’ again over old times and are planning a girls night out at an old haunt of theirs that’s going out of business. There, Fallon reveals that she’s bought the place … for Monica. You’d think that gesture would maybe make Monica think twice about screwing over Fallon, but it doesn’t. One bit.

Fallon doesn’t know that Michael is suspicious of Jeff, thinking Fallon is just blinded by Jeff’s formal buyout offer for his shares of Morrell Corp, so he enlists her new office assistant Sammy Jo (and how did I not know until now that his last name is … Jones?) to root through the files to see what he can find on Colby. Which is nothing because Sam is the most inept office assistant in history, getting caught in the act by Fallon and blurting out exactly what he was doing. Which sent Fallon into a rage-filled confrontation with Michael and then he blurted out that he loves her! Which really complicates things since he’s currently dating Monica.

Fallon refuses to believe Jeff is trying to hurt her and is even bowled over after Monica tells her that Jeff is in love with her, he’s offering to sell his shares to her just to prove his love and he even had bought her an engagement ring. When Fallon next sees Jeff, she asks if this is true and he confesses it is and even offers her the engagement ring with a formal proposal … that she can think about, no rush. Was it me, or did Jeff’s ‘confession’ seem less than sincere. And Fallon bought it? In less than 24 hours, she had that ring on her finger and was preparing to be Mrs. Jeff Colby but …

Sam’s ineptness actually paid off. As he was trying to forward calls from the office to his cell phone, he actually managed to forward Jeff’s voice mails to Fallon’s phone and she heard Jeff and Monica plotting against her and her family (although a recorded conversation between Monica and Jeff isn’t really a voice mail … I’m so confused), forcing her to go back to Michael to admit he was right. But now Fallon is prepared for a fight, so it will be interesting to see how long she plays Jeff and Monica (perhaps she’ll transfer ownership of the club to Sam to get him out of the office).

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There were a couple of B-stories this week, mainly one focusing on Steven’s decision to run for a city council position, to dip his toes into the political arena. Blake is not thrilled because he knows how dirty politics is and it’s not just Steven’s name and background that will be dragged through the mud, but the Carrington name as well (Blake is always more concerned about how things reflect on the name, which is really just how things reflect on him). But Cristal encourages Steven, tells him that the press will dig up his past (including snorting half of New York City) so he needs to preemptively own all of his mistakes. And Cristal offers to get him a head start by scoring an interview with her reporter friend Rick Morales, the one who took down Blake’s judge friend last week. And they are apparently more than friends because after the interview, Cristal plants a very passionate kiss on Rick’s lips! Wait what?! Cristal! You just got married! No no no no no! I do not accept that Cristal is already having an affair with an old flame! There’d better be something else at play here because while Blake is the flawed hero of the series, Cristal is supposed to be the pure heroine, the one who truly holds the family together. We’re losing people to root for!

One mistake Steven needs to confront head on is Ted Dinard. Asking Ted to meet at his apartment, he explains what he wants to do and lets Ted know that his name will probably be dragged into it so he needs his blessing to move forward. Ted agrees, but then he also seems to think that Steven is also interested in rekindling their relationship so he returns to the apartment to find Sam in his cow print pajamas waiting for Steven to join him for popcorn and a movie (though not Netflix and chill). Ted is taken aback thinking the two are together and makes things awkward but he leaves.

And then he somehow gets into the apartment the next day while Sam is getting ready for work. Sam is surprised to find Ted sitting on the sofa and the director purposely frames the shot so that we can’t help but see the open window in the background. It’s a little too obviously telegraphing what is about to happen. And sure enough, Ted, who is high as a kite, comes for Sam, still believing he’s sleeping with Steven so he’s going to really screw up Steven’s plans. He grabs Sam’s face, rips out the dangly earring he just happened to be wearing and … throws himself out that conveniently open window, attempting to frame Sam for his ‘murder.’ And scene.

So to tide us over for the next four week (the show returns Friday, March 9 at 8:00 PM) we have a dead body and someone framed for murder (and in the original series it was Blake who accidentally killed Ted when he pushed him and Ted fell and hit his head on the fireplace, but Blake was put on trial for murder which resulted in Alexis arriving to testify, so is this what brings her back to Atlanta?), we have Cristal locking lips with another man, we have Fallon fully aware of Jeff and Monica’s scheme, we have Cesil Colby released on parole (because Jeff actually pimped himself out to the head of the parole board, after proposing to Fallon!), and Steven’s political career already in jeopardy. What happens next?

What did you think of this episode? Tell us in the comments section below!

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