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Okay Dynasty peeps … what are you doing? The Carringtons are supposed to be the ‘heroes’ of this show and with this week’s episode, you’ve made Blake just a total villain with absolutely zero redeeming qualities. Yeah, yeah, the original Blake had his ups and downs but he was never this evil. This Blake always says he’s doing what’s best for his family, but he’s only doing what’s best for his bottom line, constantly trying to cover up one misdeed after another so as not to go to prison. It’s almost becoming unpleasant to watch, especially the constant bickering between Blake and Cristal. Alexis is supposed to be the nemesis here, but if Cristal (and the writers) were smart, she’d leave Blake and team up with Alexis and Fallon to send Blake to prison. Then perhaps the show could be a little more fun again.
We learned of Blake’s misdeeds through a series of flashbacks when he was still married to Alexis and Fallon and Steven were teenagers. Through those flashbacks, we learned that Fallon was planning to go to the prom with Jeff Colby but through Blake’s machinations — and Alexis playing the good wife and allowing him to dictate how things were going to play out — Fallon was left to believe that Jeff had stood her up on prom night (because Alexis shooed him away). Blake also delivered a veiled threat to Jeff that the college scholarships he arranged for Jeff and Monica would be in jeopardy if Jeff persisted. And why did all this go down the way it did? Racism! Not necessarily Blake’s but definitely his father’s, but even then Blake allowed his father to have sway over him and the family.
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Which is why Alexis is now determined to help Jeff reunite with his own family and reclaim what’s his (and that seems to include Fallon) and put this decade long family feud to bed. Or is she? After getting Jeff and Monica together again, and learning that Cesil’s ankle monitor is due to come off, Alexis pays a visit to Blake insisting that he pay the salary of her Uber driver … erm, ‘bodyguard.’ Blake refuses, telling her she has nothing to worry about where Jeff is concerned, but she says it’s not Jeff she’s worried about, it’s Cesil now that he’s free to leave the confines of Monica’s home. Next thing you know, Cesil’s house arrest is extended six months and the feud Alexis claimed to want to settle has only gotten more fuel added to the fire. And that is why Alexis is such a good villain — she’s subtle and you can appreciate how she totally worked both parties. But what is her end game? Does she want to engage in a very hostile takeover of Carrington Atlantic?
Now is probably not the best time for that as the whole toxic waste issue has come to a head thanks to Cristal and Fallon joining forces to steal the blackmail recording from Blake’s safe, which he’d already had doctored to remove his voice from the discussion with the lawyers. Fallon actually sided with Cristal when she found out the company was probably responsible for Mr. Culhane’s illness, and knew that if she took the lead on exposing this to the media, it would leave Cristal out of Blake’s crosshairs. But somehow, the news was leaked to the press, but neither Cristal nor Fallon were the leakers. Michael saw the news however, just as his dad passed away and Cristal arrived at the hospital to do some damage control and offer support, trying to mend the relationship between him and Fallon as well, but after learning the truth, Culhane wants nothing to do with any Carrington from this point on, including Fallon. But who leaked the information?
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The revelation though forced Blake to hold a press conference, much to the surprise of Cristal and Fallon. With Cristal by his side, Fallon said she would pull a Kanye on Blake if he tried to brush off the toxic waste issue. But he surprised them both when he actually pledged to take up Fallon’s earlier suggestion that this is the time to shut down those energy plants and transition to 100% green energy. In fact, not only was he going to do that, he was putting Fallon in charge of the operation by — surprise — absorbing Morrell Corp. and making Fallon the new COO, placing Cristal on ‘indefinite leave’ to focus on the family (but she gave Culhane a job during her last few hours of employment). Ouch. So not only did Blake manage to drive a wedge deeper into this marriage, but he made the uneasy truce between Cristal and Fallon fracture because Fallon didn’t object (but, honestly, she was a bit stunned to learn her company was being taken over after she had worked so hard to not be under her father’s thumb). But Fallon, to her credit, tries to maintain calm with Cristal and insist she can do more from the inside … which was the same thing Cristal thought. It will be interesting to see how Alexis capitalizes on all that’s happened.
In the end, though, it just makes Blake a total bastard, not someone your audience can, or wants, to sympathize with. It’s unlikely Blake will be able to redeem himself over the last two weeks of the season, but if they don’t do something to turn him around and repair all the damage done to the relationship between him and Cristal, I don’t know how long the show can survive when the only sympathetic character is the major domo.
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Speaking of Anders, while attempting to help Sam plan his wedding to Steven (badly, but his heart was in the right place even though it was a little ‘too gay’ even for Sam), he suggested that he needed to slow down a bit and just enjoy being with Steven (they’ve been engaged for two weeks), surprise him in DC and spend some quality time together. A good idea except that Anders then discovered that Steven was not at his usual hotel in DC. In fact, he didn’t know where Steven was which set off all of Sammy Joe’s alarms. He did get Steven on the phone and he promised to tell Sam everything when he got home, but he had to trust Steven. Calling him again, Steven assured him he had nothing to worry about when there was a knock on his motel room door. Sam heard a man’s voice and really thought Steven was cheating on him but did not hear who it was as Steven hung up the phone. Thinking it was the man who had information about his brother’s whereabouts, Steven found a younger man at the door … his brother Adam! So we’re getting to that before the season ends.
So with Adam now introduced, there was a brief hint of another character from the original series possibly coming to Atlanta — Kirby Anders, the estranged daughter of Anders (and Sam was floored when he learned his father-figure actually has a child). Kirby is in Australia, and Anders, feeling nostalgic, pulled out a box of old cards and drawings from Kirby to reminisce and then he decided to call her but when she answered, he chickened out and hung up. But we can only assume that she will appear at some point as Kirby and Adam had a relationship on the original series (and one that started out in the most horrible of ways — a rape — that they will hopefully avoid this time around). And if we thought Claudia Blaisdell was out of the picture, think again! She popped up in the preview for next week!
What did you think of this episode? Tell us in the comments section below!
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