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It’s Thanksgiving in Atlanta, and Blake Carrington wants nothing more than to have the family together for the annual family portrait and a nice dinner. Well, everyone except Steven who seems to have been erased from everyone’s memories at this point. Not a single one of them laments that he isn’t in town for the holiday. Maybe he’ll surprise us and turn up for Christmas (but with a week off and only one more episode before the winter break, I’m not holding my breath).
But Blake is so focused on having everyone together since he may end up going to prison, not to mention training Anders’ replacement (whom he wants to be nothing more than a duplicate of Anders, making him follow Anders’ binder of instructions to the letter), that he’s oblivious to everything else going on around him, namely the turmoil between Cristal and Adam. Which is starting to become a very annoying plot point since Blake is ALWAYS taking Adam’s side even though he’s known him for about a minute and a half. If I was Cristal, I’d have had to put my foot down by now. But all he really wants is for them to get along, at least for Thanksgiving.
So Adam offers a truce by asking Cristal to help him make Blake’s favorite pecan pie, just like Blake’s gramdma used to make (Adam sure knows a lot about Blake’s likes and dislikes … did Blake really sit down and talk pie with Adam?!). Of course with Adam there’s always some motive behind his actions, and it’s clear that he and his caretaker Nadia have something up their sleeves. But the pie-making goes well and no one ended up getting beaten with a rolling pin. But once Adam conveniently gets Cristal out of the kitchen, Nadia comes in to turn up the heat and steal the SIM card from her phone. Next thing you know, the pie is on fire and Cristal offers to help Adam out by making a special trip to get the special pecans he’d used for the pie. ON THANKSGIVING! On the way, Cristal gets not one but two flat tires and has no reception for her phone. Will she make it home in time for the photo and dinner?
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Fallon, meanwhile, has to go a little ways out of town to schmooze some guy named Landon who can help launch her new Fallon Unlimited projects. But Adam warns her that leaving Liam behind could cause him to ‘backslide’, i.e. forget all that he’s remembered if his link to those memories is gone. Not wanting to rush things, she concocts a job for him that will require him to accompany her to the hunting lodge where Landon will be for a turkey shoot. And it turns out Liam and Landon are old buddies, which should make things easier for Fallon but Landon is more interested in hanging with Liam and dismissing Fallon. Which does not make Fallon happy but she tries to put on a good face until the tenth time she’s dismissed by Landon. And then Liam realizes he’s only there because Fallon made up the job to keep him nearby. And then Fallon’s gun goes off and Landon ends up with some buckshot to the buttocks. Suffice it to say, the job Landon had offered Liam in London was kaput and all Fallon got out of it was another roadblock to their relationship. But she did the grown-up thing and finally let Liam know how scared she was that they were going to lose everything again, and all ended well with an ice cream cone. But will Fallon make it back home in time for dinner and a photo?
Sam finds business at La Mirage in the dumper after that soccer player got kneecapped. It’s a holiday weekend and the hotel is at 50% capacity and anything Sam does only seems to make things worse. So Anders hires a ‘fixer’ named Fletcher Myers who comes in and begins to tell Sam everything he’s doing wrong with hotel publicity without actually telling him what he can do to help Sam’s predicament. Fletcher keeps coming off as a bit to smug and self-confident and each time he manages to push Sam to come up with another ‘great idea’ on his own that only makes things worse. And he’s only disappointing Anders in the process, who finally decides to call it a day and go home … making it quite clear that the home he’d prefer to go home to is Carrington Manor. But seeing Anders as being kind of ‘homeless’ gives Sam an idea — have Thanksgiving dinner at the hotel and invite all the homeless people to come and eat. That generosity immediately gives the hotel good publicity and Fletcher comes to congratulate Sam and apologize for his behavior. Sam also apologizes and Fletcher says he can tell Sam has a good heart … and then kisses him! Ooooooh! And then he leaves. With this turn of events, Anders decides that Sam is now on the right track and his services are no longer needed. But will Sam be able to get things cleaned up at the hotel and make it to the manor for dinner and a photo?
And we can’t forget Dominique, who is given an ultimatum by Culhane to tell Jeff and Monica the truth about Vanessa or he will. She actually plans to tell Monica but when Mon tells Dom that she is ready to sign Vanessa to a contract, she’s got to put a hold on that for fear of screwing things up. And Monica even invites them to have Thanksgiving dinner with her since Jeff is out of town (so is Kirby). Earlier, Dom had paid a visit to Blake to ask for a file on Culhane in exchange for him never having to cut her another check. Blake was more than happy to oblige, and Dom used that information to keep Culhane quiet. Vanessa thinks Monica knows the truth but Dominique tells her that with the contract coming it’s not a good time to bring all this up. But Vanessa is over it and forces Dominique to reveal the truth in the middle of dinner. Monica gives her an ‘OH HELL NO’ and storms out.
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With Thanksgiving up in flames, the only person at the manor to take a picture with Blake is Adam … and Dominique, who does a little photobombing to get in the shot. And as dinner is served, Adam blatantly pushes the notion that he’s the only loyal member of the family, conveniently omitting the fact that Cristal is missing because she was trying to help him. But just before Blake carves the turkey, she arrives and is able to explain to Blake that she was only trying to help Adam do something nice and Blake felt that things were finally healing between his wife and son. Attempting to carve the turkey again, Sam arrives, and then Fallon. And Anders, who is welcomed back with open arms (and his replacement is fired on the spot). But Cristal sees Adam and Nadia holding hands under the table and now knows something is up, and she doesn’t hesitate to let Adam know that she’s on to him in a conversation after dinner. He looks a bit panicked.
And then the big reveal about Nadia — she’s working for Fallon to set Adam up with the hopes of forcing Blake to finally rid the manor of the biggest rat in the house. That was a juicy reveal but will it work or simply backfire on Fallon? Is Nadia just putting on an act to make Adam think she cares about him — I mean, she did have sex with him too — or will she find herself with genuine feelings and come clean about Fallon … which could in turn destroy her relationship with Liam.
What did you think of this episode? Tell us in the comments section below!
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