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Moral
Date: 27 Sep 1998 17:33:06 -0400
From: pitman@anotherwayout.com (Kent M Pitman)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv.soaps.cbs
Subject: Y&R: AWO#111: "Plot Re-Pairs"
Message-ID: <sfwiui9jl65.fsf@world.std.com>
INSIDE...
* Michael parries Victor's attempts to impair him.
* Cricket compares disparate clues in hopes of repairing a parental paradox.
* Apparently, Victoria's parental parcel will arrive with time to spare.
* Katherine prepares to parlay Jill's parasitic paranoia.
* Trisha achieves parental parity by parroting Meg's paramour disparagements.
* Sharon finds Grace's parading her apparel too transparent.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ANOTHER WAY OUT, Episode 111, 27-Sep-98 by Kent Pitman (kmp@harlequin.com)
"Plot Re-Pairs"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sharon is in Intimate Secrets shopping when Grace comes in. "Hi, Grace,"
Sharon says, noticing her. "Oh, hi, Share," Grace says, feeling a little
awkward about being spotted. "What are you doing here?" "I came to exchange
this for something in red," Sharon explains, holding up a purple outfit.
"Nick apparently really likes red." The sales person approaches. "Can I
help--oh, hello!" she says to Grace, recognizing her. "You were in here the
other day shopping for your honeymoon," she says. Grace blushes and nods.
"Yes, I--" she starts to say, when Sharon butts in. "Grace, I didn't hear
about this. That's wonderful." Grace pretends to be pleased, too. "Thanks."
The sales person asks, "Did you come to return something?" "Uh, no," Grace
says. "I'd just like to exchange this. Do you have it in red?" The sales
person nods, and takes the item away. "What a coincidence," Sharon says.
"What's that?" Grace asks, distracted. "Both of our men liking red." Grace
nods, still distracted. "Yeah, they really do have a lot in common," she says
cryptically. The sales person returns with the same thing red; Grace examines
it, and makes to leave. "I have to run, Share. See ya." "Bye, Grace." When
she's gone, the salesperson says to Sharon, "I bet that Nick's going to love
it." "Nick? What?" "Oh, sorry. Her fiance." "Grace's?" "Yes, didn't you
know?" "Uh, no, actually I didn't. But thanks. Thanks very much. I must
remember to send them a gift."
Victor stands in the hallway outside Diane's, checking his watch. "Well,
Michael Shyster Baldwin, they should have had plenty of time to kidnap you by
now," he mumbles. "That should teach you to underestimate with Victor
Newman." He knocks on Diane's door.
Cricket is with Paul at home, going through some photo albums. "Look, here's
that newspaper photo of you and your father with Cassandra Rawlins after you
rescued her. Tell me more about him," she says. "Who?" Paul says, distracted
by the photo of Cassandra. "Your father, of course," Cricket says. "Chris,
you keep asking. Can't you just drop it? Leave him in peace. I'm sure he'd
want it that way," Paul said. Cricket sighs.
Victoria and Neil are coming home to the apartment and are suprised to be
greeted at the door by Lily, who's saying "Daddy, Daddy. Mommy's here!" They
stop and look to Dru who looks back at Neil and then Victoria. Her eyes drift
down to Victoria's belly. She raises her eyebrows, curious. Just then,
Victoria winces and says, "Ohmigod!" Neil turns to her worried and says, "What
is it? Victoria?" "Neil, I think it was a contraction." "A contraction?" he
asks. "But we're not even married yet." "Damn straight you ain't married,"
Dru says. "'Cuz you're still married to me!" Victoria looks to Dru and says,
"Could you just save it for a while. I think I need to go to the hospital."
"I thought we should talk," Victor says, as Diane reluctantly lets him in.
Just then, Michael enters. "I think that's a bad idea," Michael says. "What
the--" Victor says. "I said it's time for you to leave," Michael urges.
"Anything you have to say to my client, you can do through me." Victor storms
out.
Cricket is still with Paul looking at the photo album. "Paul, I just don't
know if I CAN leave it alone. I--wait a minute. This is odd." "What's
that?" Paul asks. "The date on this newspaper." Paul looks at the paper. "I
don't see any problem. That looks like the date this happened." Cricket
frowns. "But it's in 1990." Paul says, "So?" "So?" Cricket says with
amazement. "I was just down at the police station going through your dad's
file." Paul stands and looks surprised. "You went through Dad's file? I
didn't give permission for that." Cricket stands and walks in circles
nervously as she speaks. "I had to, Paul. And the guys at the station, they
were just trying to be helpful. Only there were letters in the file--they said
your dad was getting them just before he disappeared." "Right," Paul says.
"I remember that. So?" "Well, the letter I saw was dated June 12, 1987.
That's more than a few months before 1990. Something's weird here. And not
just that. I was recently passing through Norfolk, Virginia, and I saw a man
who looked just like your father. Paul, I think I have proof your father is
still alive!"
Diane looks to Michael. "Where WERE you?" she asks. "I was calling and
calling." "I, uh, got tied up," Michael says. Diane paces. "Don't joke,
Michael. Victor was looking like he just might do something like that." "Who
says he didn't?" Michael asks. "You're not serious," Diane says. "I am,
actually," Michael says. "Three thugs attacked me and threw me in the back of
their trunk. I think they were going to have me beaten or killed." "Michael,
please. You're scaring me." "It scared me, too," Michael says. "Thank
goodness for cell phones, though," he continues, pulling his out of his pocket
as `show and tell'. "So I called the police and gave them the make of the
car. They pulled over the car and sprung me. That should teach Victor not to
underestimate me!"
In the car, Dru is driving and Lily is sitting next to her. Neil and Victoria
are in the back. "Couldn't you go a little faster?" Neil asks. "You want me
to get in an accident?" Dru asks. "No, I just want to not have to deliver the
baby here in the car." Dru hands Lily the phone. "Call Auntie Olivia and
tell her we need her to deliver Neil's little indiscretion when we get to the
hospital." "What's an in-disc--?" "Never mind, sweetie. Just say `baby'.
She'll know what I mean," Dru says. "It's not Neil's," Victoria says. "Oh,
yeah? Right. Whose is it then?" Dru says. "Cole's, if you must know,"
Victoria says. "He divorced you while you were with child?" "He didn't know.
I didn't tell him." Dru shakes her head. "My, my, my. You are just a
paragon of responsibility, aren't you? And you did what to your husband? You
LIED about a child? My goodness, how my husband surprises me sometimes. I
thought he couldn't brook a LIE... Perhaps it's easier to forgive when you
have lily white skin like Victoria." Lily looks confused. "But my skin is
black." Dru just pats her on the head.
Paul sighs and glares at Chris. "You had to meddle didn't you?" "What?" she
asks, surprised by his attitude. "I was just trying to help." "But I kept
asking you not to." "But Paul, it's YOUR father." "I know it's my father.
And, if you must know, we're still in touch." "But you never talk about him."
"Of course I don't talk about him!" Paul says. "It's a secret that he's still
alive!" "A secret from your mom?" "Who else? He left mom in 1987. He just
got tired of her and left. But he comes back to Genoa City now and then to
fight crimes--he misses that part of life here." "But Paul, your mother thinks
he's dead." "That's what he wants her to think. He couldn't bear divorcing
her, and anyway, he found another woman." "Well, that must have been a neat
trick. Didn't he mention he was married?" "It didn't come up." "Didn't come
up?" Pauls shrugs. "He says he told her he has amnesia. Apparently, it
saved having to answer a lot of dumb questions. And it gives him cover if
he's later discovered by someone--as you almost did. Now will you let it go
and please not mention anything to anyone about the inconsistency in the
timeline? The reason I wanted his file sealed was so no one would notice the
obvious fact that he'd been around long after he supposedly disappeared."
At the hospital, the baby is coming out. Olivia and Neil and Dru look on.
"Oh, my," Olivia says. "Someone's got a lot of explaining to do." She looks
to Neil, who looks to Dru and shrugs helplessly. Olivia hands Victoria the
baby, which we now see is black. "Victoria, may I present you with your son."
Victoria blushes visibly. Then Olivia looks to Dru and says, "I think we
should leave these two a bit of privacy." The two exit.
"Victoria, this child is black. What's going on here. You told me it was
Cole's." Victoria looks very embarrassed. "Well, I guess I was wrong."
"Wrong? How can you be wrong about that kind of thing? Am *I* wrong in
believing that we never had sex?" "No, but--Neil, I guess it happened while I
was on that business trip. There was this one guy. He was pretty hunky. And
we did have too much to drink and--well, it was only that one time, with that
guy Reggie. And we weren't serious. So I figured it was probably nothing.
Kinda funny, huh? No wonder I was early." "Victoria, there's nothing funny
about this. You lied to me. You told me this baby was Cole's." "But so
what? This is even better. Everyone can think it's yours." "Everyone but
me. I'll know it's not mine. I can't lie to people that way." "So what?
You're going to leave me over this?" "Have you left me any choice? Anyway, it
just so happens I still have a beautiful wife. And I think maybe I'll keep
her after all."
In a tastefully funished apartment we don't recognize, a phone rings. The
camera pans around the room to the phone as a hand reaches out to answer it.
"This is Beatrice," comes the confident-sounding voice, as the camera catches
up. She wears an expensive silk robe that betrays nothing we know of her
street-person persona. "Katherine Chancellor here," a voice responds from the
other end of the line. "Yes, Mrs. Chancellor," Beatrice says in a very
business-like tone, "is there a problem?" "None that I'm aware of," Katherine
says. "I was just calling to make sure everything was ready at your end for
the hearing tomorrow. Mitchell Sherman has been over everything with you?"
"Yes, Mrs. Chancellor. Everything is ready."
Neil arrives in his office to find a very stern Victor waiting. "I understand
my daughter had a baby," Victor says. Neil nods. "Yes, sir. That's right."
"A little black baby," Victor says. "That's right, sir." "I should think
you'd be pleased." "Well, I am sir, but--" "Yet I understand you have left
her." "Yes, sir, that's right, I--" "Well, I don't think that's very good
behavior, do you?" "Well, you see, sir, I--" "So you're telling me you're
going to stand by my daughter?" "Well, you see, sir. She lied." "Yes,
apparently she did. She told me this baby was Cole's when it was yours."
"No, sir. It--" "Neil, I want you out of here. Pack your things. Your
services here are no longer required."
In the courtroom, John Silva has called Beatrice Tucker. "Now, Ms. Tucker, I
show you this document labled plaintiff's exhibit A. You witnessed the
signing of this document, did you not?" Beatrice nods. "Yes, that's right."
"So you can confirm that it was Phillip Chancellor's will that Jill have the
house." "Well, I don't know if I can do that," Beatrice says. "I didn't
actually read the document, you see. I do know that Phillip Chancellor liked
Mrs. Abbot, does that help?" John frowns. "Well, I'm sure Ms. Abbot finds
that a very comforting piece of information but it's not the issue here. Let
me just ask, is this your signature here?" "Oh, yes. Yes, it is," Beatrice
says. "You're sure?" John says. "Oh, yes, I'm quite sure of that. It's my
signature all right." John smiles. "Thank you, Ms. Tucker." He turns to
Mitchell. "Your witness." Mitchell rises and says, "No questions." The
judge nods and turns to John. "Call your next witness," he says. "The
plaintiff rests," John says.
"We call Cassie Johnson," Mitchell says. Cassie steps up and is sworn in.
"Now, Miss Johnson, you've recently been doing a lot of chemistry experiments
at school, is that right?" he asks. She nods. "That's right. It's really
cool. They gave us all kinds of chemicals. And we solved mock murders and
things like that. When I'm old enough to run for office, I'm thinking of
leaving my law practice and running for District Attorney," she says. Then
suddenly she looks worriedly to Doris in the audience and says, "If Mrs.
Collins can spare me, that is." Doris nods understandingly and Cassie
breathes a sigh of relief. "Now, I refer you to the document we're referring
to as Plaintiff's exhibit A. Do you recognized it and have you examined it?"
Cassie pulls out a box of crayons and compares the color of one of them to a
smudge on the bottom corner of the front page. "Yes, it has my mark on it,"
she says. "And what did your examination determine?" he asks. "I used lots
of cool tricks they taught us in class, and found out the paper it's written
on is only about one year old." There is a murmur in the court room and Jill
explodes. "She's saying I forged this. She's lying! John, do something!
She's lying!"
The court has been calmed down and Cassie is still on the stand. John Silva
is now questioning Cassie. "So, it's your contention that my client has
forged this document?" John asks. "I never said that," Cassie says. "But you
implied it." "I implied the document is not authentic," Cassie says. "There
are many ways that it could happen." "Can you suggest another?" John asks.
"Certainly," she says. "The document might be a fake." "A fake? How is that
different than a forgery?" "A forgery would have the intent to defraud."
"But isn't that what you're suggesting here?" John says. "Not really," Cassie
says. Then she turns to the judge and says, "Your honor, could I call a
witness of my own just to clarify?" The judge eyes her carefully and says,
"Well, it is a bit unusual, but I suppose..." Cassie motions to Doris who
wheels forward and hands Cassie her "Cindy" doll. "This is Cindy," Cassie
explains. "She looks like my real friend Cindy from Madison. But she's not a
forgery of the real Cindy. She's just a small copy. I guess you could call
her a fake Cindy. But since I don't use her to defraud anyone, you couldn't
call her a forgery." She hands the doll back to Doris, who rolls back. John
tries to figure out how to proceed. "So you're saying there could be some
innocent purpose to this document, even though it's not authentic?" "I guess
so," Cassie says. "You could ask Mrs. Chancellor. I understand Jill stole
the document from Mrs. Chancellor's house." Jill rises and shouts again. "I
didn't steal it. It was mine! Your honor, this little tramp is libelling
me." Cassie sighs. "My words are spoken, not written, so it would be
slander, not libel. But anyway, since I'm not lying I don't think you can
back that up. I think you should just ask Mrs. Chancellor."
Meg and Trisha are at Crimson Lights for lunch. They each pull out scripts
from a few months ago when Meg was warning Trisha about Ryan and they use the
identical dialog to have Trisha scold Meg about Tony. Who would ever have
guessed a few name changes and a repeated plot would be so gripping? Too bad
this episode is running long and I don't have time to include it in
excruciating detail, though, huh? Well, maybe next time. (Bet you can't
wait.)
Mitchell Sherman is now interrogating Katherine. "So you recognize this
document, Exhibit A?" "Yes, of course I do." "And where did it come from?"
"It was for a party I was thinking about hosting. You know, like those little
mystery parties where someone gets murdered. I had the document made for a
party--just for fun--back when Jill and I were on speaking terms. I thought
it would be fun to pretend to be murdered and have this be a piece of the
evidence. It was all in good fun. The signature for Phillip is faked, but the
rest is real. But it wasn't ever intended to be offered in evidence. It was
just supposed to be a party favor. But then things got ugly between Jill and
me, and I had the documents locked up in the attic. How was I to know they
would be stolen by Jill?" "Objection," John says. "It has not been shown that
the documents were stolen." "Appropriated then," Katherine says. "It amounts
to the same. The documents were in my house. They were not Jill's property.
And she admits she took them without asking." "Just one more question,
Katherine," Mitchell says. "You can attest personally to the false nature of
these documents?" Katherine nodes. "Yes, of course." "Forger!" Jill says.
"She's saying she forged them!" The judge bangs a gavel. "Mr. Silva, please
control your client or I will ask the bailiff to have her muzzled." John
says, "Yes, your honor." Mitchell sits down and John says, "We'd like to call
a rebuttal witness, Your Honor. Ms. Beatrice Tucker."
Beatrice is on the stand. "Ms. Tucker, did you not swear that this was your
signature on the document?" "I did. But I didn't say when I'd signed it."
"Yes, I'm aware of that. But you did tell Jill Abbott that Phillip had left
some papers in the attic." "That's true. But I didn't say which ones. And I
certainly didn't expect her to go and get them. Mrs. Chancellor had called me
and told me she'd pay me a great deal of money just to remind Jill." "So
you're saying Katherine wanted Jill to find them." "Maybe she did. Maybe she
didn't. I don't know. Is it illegal to tell someone there's something in
your house that they might then want to steal? I think people are still
obliged not to steal things even if they know they're there." "But your
signature here. It says--" "It says I watched the document being signed. It
doesn't say I read the document. It doesn't say the people who signed it were
the people whose signatures were added. But if you ask me, it was all in fun.
Mrs. Abbott should never have stolen those documents. It's her own greedy
fault she's embarrassed herself in this way."
At the hotel on the trip, Grace and Sharon are down at the bar together.
"Well, I'm off," Sharon says. "Off?" "Yes, didn't Nick tell you? I'm taking
an overnight flight back home. Cassie is sick and I have to be with her."
"Oh, that's too bad," Grace says, trying to sound sad. "Can I drive you?"
"No, the taxi's waiting. See you, Grace." She heads out of the bar. Grace
lingers, obviously pondering her good fortune.
Up in their room, though, Sharon has not left. She enters to find Nick
studying. "Honey, I'm not feeling well. Could I send you out to the store to
get me some medicine?" "Sure, baby. What do you need?" Sharon writes
something on a pad of paper and hands it to him. "It may be hard to find,"
she says. "If you don't find it at one place, please try a few others."
"Don't worry, Sharon. If it can be found, I'll find it." He heads out.
Immediately, Sharon undresses and enters the bed. Reaching up to a switch
overhead, she turns off the light. The room is dark.
"Nick?" comes Grace's soft voice from the hotel door. "Don't get up," she
whispers as she enters and the door closes. There is no sound for a moment
and then we can see by a dim light through the window that she's dropped her
clothing and is wearing only one of the items she got at Intimate Secrets.
She slides quietly into bed and--"Hey!" Grace yells. The lights snap on and
Sharon sits up. Grace is confused and asks, "Where's Nick? What are you
doing here?" "I cancelled my trip." "You what?" Grace says. "I wasn't
feeling well. So I sent Nick out to get some medicine for me. Now what about
you? What are you doing here in my husband's bed in a see-through negligee?"
"Well, I--uh,--I thought it was my and Tony's room." "But Tony's not here on
this trip. And when you came in the door, you whispered Nick's name." "Did
I? Well, it's late, and I must have just gotten confused. I miss Tony so
terribly."
Sharon shakes her head disdainfully. "I'm not buying it, Grace. You told the
sales lady at that store you were buying that outfit for Nick and now here you
are. Now you get your little scheming butt out of here and don't you ever let
me see you flirting with Nick again or I promise you, your job at Newman
Enterprises won't last 5 minutes!" Grace starts to rise when the door opens
and Nick enters carrying a small pharmacy bag. He stares at the two of them
together in bed. "Sharon! Grace? I can't believe this," he says. "Now I
understand why you both were so insistent about being on this trip with me.
And here I trusted you both." There is a chorus of "Nick, it's not how it
looks" from the women in the bed, but he slams the door and rushes out.
Back in Genoa City, in the courtroom, everyone awaits the Judge's ruling. "I
find, as a matter of law, that the documents presented are false and therefore
Jill Abbott has no claim on the property in question. Further, while there is
some evidence of mischief on the part of Mrs. Chancellor, I see no law that
has been broken by her. As for Mrs. Abbott, I'll leave it to the District
Attorney to decide whether to arrest her and prosecute her on a charge of
larceny." The DA steps forward and says, "The DA has no plans to prosecute."
The judge then says "That concludes our business, then. Court is adjourned."
Outside the courtroom, reporters swarm around little Cassie. "Ms. Johnson, do
you have a comment?" "Yes, I do. Just one thing. When I'm District Attorney,
people won't be just walking away untried on clear cases of larceny. So watch
out, criminals of the world. Your days are numbered. In just about 3650
days, you'll have me to answer to!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Copyright 1998 Kent M. Pitman. All Rights Reserved.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Another Way Out" takes plotline state at time of publication and shows that
there are interesting places right around the corner. The goal, besides
having some fun with good-natured parody, is to challenge the notion that we
must be mired in certain tired plotlines for months just to have a good time.
There is always another way out...
Archives of this and older episodes of "Another Way Out"
as well as the more serious "morals" that underly them,
can be found at: http://world.std.com/~pitman/awo/index.html
Don't forget to try the "character index" and "ratings index"!