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Boy, I miss two weeks of episodes while sick and Dynasty completely loses its focus. What had been a pretty tight season up to this point is starting to fall apart … making my argument that hour-long dramatic series really don’t need more than 13 episodes a season because you get stuck with a ton of filler in the middle of the season (case in point, the first really strong 13-episode season of Riverdale compared to what’s come after … and any series on basic and premium cable that caps out at 13 episodes). So let’s take a quick look at what Dynasty had to offer before its return on March 27.
Episode 313: You See Most Things in Terms of Black & White
Ever since Dynasty did that crazy Wizard of Oz-inspired fantasy episode, each season now it seems we will be ‘treated’ to another crazy fantasy episode. And Episode 313 was that episode, and for the most part it was nothing but filler. The main gist of the episode was that Fallon was finally ready to tie the knot with Liam and she enlisted Sam to help her with her ruse to get Liam to dinner at La Mirage so she could pop the question.
It was all going as planned but Liam suddenly had an offer to meet with a publisher in London about a new book and he had to leave first thing in the morning, postponing the dinner plans. He asked if he could borrow the jet and invited Fallon along, and it took Sam to push her into agreeing to go, saying she could find a way to pop the question in London. Nixing the idea to do it in Liam’s favorite chocolate shop in London, Fallon was just going to do it on the flight but … Liam had other plans: he wanted to run his pitch past her for comments and critiques. Fallon was thrilled.
That plunged the bulk of the episode into a noirish, black and white recreation of Liam’s frankly terrible story about a jewel theft and the assorted cast of characters with thinly veiled names played by the series’ regular cast of actors. Perhaps if the story was just a little bit more coherent — and during breaks Fallon kept telling Liam she had no idea what was going on — it would have been more engaging, but at least it gave Elizabeth Gillies a chance to croon a couple of tunes as a nightclub singer. But by the end of the flight, Fallon was quite blunt that Liam’s story sucked and the publishers were going to shoo him away before he got past the first sentence. Liam said Fallon wasn’t a sophisticated enough reader to get his story, which pushed her buttons.
But … that was the intention because when they got to their hotel room, the place was bedecked in roses and more roses, and Liam got down on one knee to propose to Fallon. He knew all along and Sam was actually his accomplice, so we had to sit through all of that to finally see Liam and Fallon get engaged. And in the blink of an eye they were back at La Mirage celebrating … and in a classic soap twist, Liam’s ex shows up with their son.
Elsewhere, Dominique is attempting to sell a ‘House of Devereaux’ reality series to a network that plainly tells her that no one will watch a show full of nobodies but … Blake Carrington is a big name so if she can get him on board, there’s a good chance the show will sell. Dom decides that setting her sights on Cristal would make for good television. What she finds when following Cristal to a hotel is Blake’s wife entering the room with another man, and she gets it all on video. Meanwhile, Sam decides to give Fletcher another chance after Fletcher reveals that he’s in an open marriage and his husband doesn’t mind. Kirby doesn’t buy it and has a talk with Fletcher, telling him that Sam is falling in love and he needs to do the right thing … which ended up with Fletcher breaking things off with Sam because his husband couldn’t actually deal with it. And Adam needs some money to help pay off whoever is reviewing his medical license to keep him in practice in Atlanta. Since he’s no longer in favor with Blake, he hopes Jeff and Alexis will help … but that’s a big no from Jeff. But Adam still owns the deed to the vineyard he bought to replace the one he burned down, never having transferred it to Blake. So all he had to do was break into Blake’s office and steal the deed, even though Alexis assures him she has a plan that will give her enough money to buy Adam a license in all fifty states. And that was it, about 10 minutes of actual story.
Episode 314: The Wicked Stepmother
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So things pick up with Fallon attempting to plan her engagement party with interference from Alexis, who is all gung ho to help, and the distraction of Liam’s baby mama and son. And when Heidi decides she’s going to stay in Atlanta so Connor can be closer to his father, Fallon finds someone who can offer the woman a job … in California.
Dominique confronts Cristal with the video evidence of her alleged tryst, and Cristal ‘admits’ that she had been having an affair but went there that day to break things off, and she begged Dom not to tell Blake, which she was happy to do considering she’s now going to move Vanessa into the manor as well. But what Cristal was really doing was planning Alexis’ murder at Fallon’s engagement party, with a hit man attaching a bomb to her car. Once the guy found out he’d possibly been seen by Dominique, he was out … but for some reason he left the bomb and detonator with Cristal. So she calls her brother to finish the job, but all he does is try to talk her out of committing murder. She’s insistent and he reluctantly agrees but … Blake banned Alexis from the party so Cristal had to work quick to ‘bury the hatchet’ and get Alexis to the party … and then there were two identical SUVs in the garage and Roberto had no idea which car to target.
Blake decides its finally time to allow Adam back into the manor … if he helps him secure the winning bid against Jeff and Alexis for Carrington Atlantic. Adam seems more than happy to help, telling Blake he can get a copy of the blackmail recording Jeff had on the CA seller which would put Blake on a level playing field against Jeff and assure him the win. But Adam is a snake, and he double-crosses Blake in favor of Jeff and Alexis, doctoring the recording to include video of himself admitting to poisoning Jeff … on the orders of Blake. For now, it seems Jeff is going to own CA.
Everything comes to a head at Fallon and Liam’s engagement party. First, Heidi is going to be returning later than expected so Liam is stuck babysitting Connor, which throws the first of many wet blankets on the evening and leads to another argument between the couple. Dominique got Fallon to allow Vanessa to sing at the party — because Fallon was actually going to sign Vanessa to her record label so why not give her some exposure — and for some reason when she did sing, she dedicated the song to … her mother and Michael Culhane, not the newly engaged couple. Odd choice. But once the song ended, everyone’s phones lit up with the ‘leaked’ sex video of Dom and Culhane, which sparked enough drama to get the network exec on board with Dominique’s reality series (and later Dom explained this was all for Vanessa, everything was staged to make them both famous … and Vanessa was okay with that).
Fallon went to apologize to Liam about how she was behaving in regards to his son, but he admitted that he was freaking out because he didn’t want to be a father. (Remember, they had that discussion about children a couple of episodes back when Fallon rented kids while trying to buy a house.) Fallon was relieved that this wasn’t her fault for once, and the two were able to enjoy the end of their party. But … Cristal finally got back to Roberto with the correct license plate for Alexis’ car and he had to move the bomb, but in doing so it went off, which everyone at the party heard. Rushing to the garage, Alexis was okay, the other car was flipped over, and Cristal was screaming for someone to call 911. She got Roberto to the hospital, but she has to make sure Blake never finds out that what happened.
And Liam got a letter from Heidi … she’s dumping Connor on him. See ya never. Bye. Making this the worst engagement party ever. This was a marginally better episode than the previous one, but we still have eight episodes to go before the end of the season, so let’s hope we’re done with the filler and will get back to the juicy stuff starting March 27.
What did you think of this episode? Tell us in the comments section below!
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