Episode 112 Morals

In plain English, these are the morals from Episode 112:

Will a certain lawyer find Victor a son of a gun or a barrel of laughs?

Well, I guess you figured out the certain lawyer was Cricket, not Michael. And while I hope you found the episode to have some laughs, I doubt Cricket did. What was my point in this one? Good question.

First, I really do think Cricket looks superficially like she's got some weird obsession about this guy. I just wish someone would discover her carrying this photo around, and sneaking out of town to Norfolk, and accuse her of something weird and kinky.

Second, I see Victor as one-by-one starting to accuse everyone of all kinds of things. A kind of Richard Nixon failure mode. So I just thought I'd start the ball rolling on that.

Might the day's events be the silver bullet needed to trigger Jim's memory?

While Leslie Bevis (Ruth) seems like a fine actress and her character seems considerably less of a dishrag to her man than many Y&R women, her plot seems to be going nowhere. Almost every scene is a carbon copy of another and the plot is thus far very ``straight line''. I wanted to twist it somehow that led to something that wasn't a simple execution of what we've seen coming all along.

Can Nick's handling of the Y2K bug shoot Newman Enterprises ahead into the next millenium?

Heaven help poor Newman Enterprises with Nick in charge of the Y2K bug. Geez, grab the company quick, Diane or Jack, and either sell it for cash or put some smart people on the issue, or the stock's going to shortly be worth nothing.

That's why I thought it might help to get Cassie involved. After all, Nick can use all the help he can get; after all, one head is better than none.

Will Phyllis' man be rifled by Diane, or vice versa?

Part of this episode is serious--it's not often one gets to look at the complicated issue of marital rape. Sometimes it's implicit in a physically abusive situation like April a while back, but such plots are hard to watch over an extended period of time. The plot with Victor and Diane sparring in the media via Leanna helps to keep this extended plot watchable, and in this episode I was just trying to experiment with things that could be done to take advantage of the excellent setup that's been done to date. I really am happy with this plotline as it's being presented, but that still doesn't mean one can't explore alternatives.

I guess that's not the funniest of topics, so I tried to touch on it only lightly here. I think the fact that Diane was on national TV clamoring for Victor to return would be a great defense for Victor to really go overboard in his treatment of her--if not a legal or moral defense, it at least is one that a lot of regular old people would resonate to in their gut if it came to a trial, and Michael would surely know that. And as a piece of drama, the point is that we'd get to see the other side of things and how outward images don't always reflect reality, which is the kind of important life lesson that soaps can contribute to its viewers in return for all their long hours of viewership.

The rest of the story thread was mostly an attempt to lighten things back up after so dark a topic. As soon as I thought of the idea of Diane escaping to somewhere, that part of the episode just wrote itself. Repetition is a standard element of humor, so repeating Phyllis' antics from Nevis seemed a fun idea. And having her win this time around seemed even more fun. I hope you agree.

That's all for Episode 112's morals. Don't miss Episode 113 and its morals!
If you missed any older episodes, see the index.