Episode 87, originally published 25-Feb-98

More of the Shame

This week your AWO author is just too tired to write anything creative, so he's gone out of town on vacation (in his dreams, anyway) and has substituted for your viewing pleasure an AWO Classic^TM Episode from AWO's 7th year in the year 2003!

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AWO Classic^TM -- Feb 25, 2003
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Tony is pacing back and forth saying, "I'm tellin' ya, Sharon, I just don't know how much longer this can go on. You gotta tell Grace before it's too late." Sharon looks at Tony and says, "Look, Tony, it's easy for you to say. You're not the one who's going to lose your only daughter." Tony sighs and says, "Sharon, you just can't look at it that way. You've gotta at it from the positive side. You won't be losing a daughter, you'll be gaining a daughter." Sharon paces back and forth and says, "I just don't know, Tony, I just don't know." Nick enters and sees the two of them talking. He says to Sharon, "Hey, Sharon, is everything all right here? I feel like I came in on the middle of something..." "No, it's nothing, sweetie," Sharon assures him. Tony and I were just discussing the joys of raising small children--you know how that is." "Oh, right," Nick says. "But hey," Nicholas says to Tony, "that Cassie--she's not really all that small a kid at this point, right? You're pretty lucky. She must be just about old enough to head off to college right now... Then again, with tuition bills these days--well, maybe not so lucky..."

Trisha is with Megan. "Ryan does too love me, Megan, I don't know why you keep trying to make it sound worse than it is." "Well, if he loves you, he has a funny way of showing it." "It's just for a little while," Trisha insists. "Ryan says he just wants his son to feel a sense of family, so he's going to live with Nina until his son dies." "Trisha, Ryan is older than his son; when he says that, he means he's going to live with Nina and his son forever." "It's not true, Megan! It's not. It's not! Ryan loves me. His son might get hit by a bus. Or he might be out skiing and run into a tree; it's unusual I know, but it could happen--not everyone who goes into politics does it from his earliest years. Maybe he's planning to be a musician for a while or something. Or he could get a fatal disease or ..." "You're right, Trisha," Megan admits, running her hands sympathetically through Trisha's hair. "It could happen. Any of those things could happen. Who am I to say? I'm sure Ryan loves you... I'm sure he's just `going through the motions' with Nina for the sake of little Phillip..."

Tony is with Grace. "Grace, ya really gotta give Cassie back." "I can't, Tony. I'm the only mother she's ever had and she deserves the continuity of--what's this?" she asks, as he hands her a brochure from Genoa City University. "It's a brochure about the local college. It'll give you some idea of how much you're looking at in tuition bills." Grace looks it over. "Tony, we don't have this kind of money--we'll NEVER have this kind of money. Get Sharon on the phone. It's really time we talked."

Jill is with Katherine at the Chancellor estate. "Well, I believe that's all. I'll be going now to get my face lift." Jill rushes to block Katherine's path. "Excuse me, but aren't you forgetting something?" "Not that I can think of," Katherine says. "Why doesn't that surprise me, Katherine? You're lucky that face of yours is attached to your head or you'd probably be forgetting that, too." "My dear, Jill, I don't know what on earth you're talking about--now I suggest that either you fill me in on your little secret, or you allow me to be on my way, because--" Jill says, "Earth to Katherine. Does the name Phillip ring a bell?" "Good lord, I almost forgot!" Katherine says. "You're damned right you almost forgot. Fortunately, I've already called Nina and told her to get right over here. He should be here any--" The doorbell rings.

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It's Y&R's 32nd Year Memorable Moments

Do you remember when Cole and Victoria were to be divorced on Y&R, Victor said, "You punk, I don't care what I promised your mother. I think what you did to my daughter--asking her go to Ashley that way--was despicable. I want you out, out of that tack room, or tack house, or tack estate, or whatever the hell you call it! Your continued presence there is just too damned tacky!!" Well, you may remember it, but it didn't happen on Y&R--it happened only in AWO--in Episode 87. Oh, that's right. Episode 87 was preempted by an AWO classic episode. Well, gee, it's odd that you remember it at all then and even odder that we showed you film of it because it never happened.

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And now, back to...
AWO Classic^TM -- Feb 25, 2003
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Sharon's house. Tony, Grace, Cassie (18), Nick, Sharon, Little Noah (9), and Little Antoinette (7) are at the Newman household. Both Sharon and Grace say (in perfectly rehearsed unison) "I have something to--" Then both stop. Then Grace says, "You go first." Then Sharon says, "No, you." Grace nods, swallows, and says. "Shar, ... I ... I want you to know how much I appreciate your letting me watch over Cassie all these years, but you know--she's about to turn 18 and I realized--she's never really had a chance to know her birth mother and here she is, about to embark on the most expensive--uh,--I mean the biggest experience of her life--college. And it's just selfish of me to insist on being the only one she thinks of when she sits down to write asking for mon--uh,--motherly love..." Grace looks to Cassie and says, "Cassie, you may not know this, but Sharon here is your mother..." "Are you kidding? Of course I knew. I was just waiting for you guys to work it out--how was I to know it would take you so long?" Nick hits himself on the forehead with the base of his palm and says, "Now I get it! Sharon, you knew all along. That's why you've been so hung up on this kid all that time--she was yours!" Cassie looks to Sharon sudenly very worried and says, "Please don't tell he's--" "Relax, sweetie. He's not your father. Your real father has the IQ of an auto mechanic." Cassie breathes a sigh of relief.

"I'll get it, Mrs. H," Esther yells. Jill looks at her, surprised. "Mrs. H?" Katherine crosses one hand across her body to rest her elbow on, the other hand goes behind her head. "Yes, well, a woman has to have her secrets..." "You married him, didn't you? Don't you know what a fortune hunter he is?" "That isn't what he told me. He told me he was researching a book idea--about a torrid affair between a young studly man and a--" "Katherine, do you have any idea how many other women he's fed that same line?" Katherine looks to the bookshelf behind her, which presumably displays a rack of Cole Howard novels. "I do, actually," says Katherine. "And some of them led to some really exciting developments, if you uh, know what I mean..." "In the short run, Katherine, but in the long run--" Katherine stops her and says, "To quote quite another author whose name I've forgotten--no doubt he's fallen victim to his own prophecy--`in the long run,' my dear Jill, `we shall all be dead.'"

Grace looks to Sharon. "There was something you were going to tell me?" Sharon blushes. "Well, it's nothing really, except, ... well, ... I had meant to tell you this sooner, but you're right--you really do get used to raising a child and--well,--here," she says, pushing Antoinette at Grace. "What's this? Payment for Cassie?" Grace asks. Antoinette looks to Grace and says, "No, stupid, I'm your real daughter." At this point, we flash back to a storyline from the Summer of 1998 when in an attempt to gain bartering leverage, Sharon set out to get a baby to offer Grace when she gave up Cassie:

"Oh, please, Tony," the 1998 Sharon begs Tony in the flashback. "Don't you see? If Grace loses Cassie, she'll be devastated. I've got to get her a baby that's hers to trade..." The 1998 Tony says, "Well, we did make love last night without birth control. And Grace did say she was gonna have something done about it today. Maybe if you buy off someone, you can get them to save you the fertilized egg they taken from Grace and you can carry it to term yourself. Then,--well, maybe when it's been born and stuff,--you can offer it to Grace as a substitute." Sharon kisses Tony on the mouth and says, "Tony, that's brilliant." The flashback spins around to the Summer of 1999 where Tony says to Sharon, "You really gotta tell Grace the truth now, Sharon." And Sharon says, "But Tony, I'm the only mother that baby Antoinette has ever known. Grace doesn't care about her--she was prepared to have him or her flushed down the drain." "It was a her, Sharon," Tony says. "Well, Grace didn't know that. And she doesn't know either.. So I'm keeping her for my very own. Baby Atoinette is mine!"

The flashback dissolves and we're back to normal time (late February, 2003) where the rest of the Classic episode was filmed.

Esther leads Phillip into the front room. He is still 8 years old. "My how it seems you never age," Katherine says. "Are you all set to go with your Aunt Katherine for a facelift?" "Sure, Aunt Katherine. I know how scared you get. But I'll go along with you and show you how it's perfectly safe." Katherine pats him on the back, "Yes, Philip, you just do that...Come along now," she says. Katherine leads him out of the house to the car. When they're gone, Esther turns to Jill and says, "Mrs. N, do you have any idea why Katherine always takes Phillip along on these face lifts? She isn't afraid of them, I know that. She looks forward to them." "Esther, you're such an intellectual powerhouse," says Jill. "Thank you, Mrs. N!" Esther says. "I'm surprised you haven't figured it out on your own," Jill says. "Well, I guess even an intellectual powerhouse can have her bad days. Can I have a little hint?" Jill says, "If Phillip never reaches 18, he and that wretch of a mother he has never get to claim his inheritance," Jill explains. "Well, of course," says Esther. "Everyone knows kids are too young to handle their own inheritance." "Good," says Jill. "I'm glad everyone knows that. Good day, Esther." "Bye, Mrs. N," Esther says as Jill walks out. "Hmmm..." Esther thinks. "I wonder why she didn't tell me about the face lift... Must be some kind of big secret," she says.

"So you were hiding my little girl from me all these years?" Grace asks Sharon. Sharon nods and says, "Just like you used to do to me when Cassie first showed up." Grace nods. "Oh, Shar, you're such a good friend." "And so are you, Grace," says Sharon. "I can't believe we wasted all these years being mad at each other," they say in unison as they exchange children and FINALLY (after 7 long years) this plot line comes to a full close. The tune to "Bless the Beasts and the Children" replaces "Nadia's Theme" as the credits roll. (And they all lived happily ever after. Especially the audience... if any were left awake.)

This has been an AWO Classic^TM Episode from Feb 25, 2003.
Regular AWO^TM will return next week (approximately) like normal.

That's all for this episode. Hope you learned something. Don't miss Episode 88!
If you missed any older episodes, see the index.

Feedback, good or bad, is always appreciated.