Rewatching Season 2... and Watching the Episodes I Haven't Seen

[JROG]

A little while ago, I realized I have never actually seen the last few episodes of Season 2. Either I was away during the daily re-airings when I first watched, or something happened and they didn't tape, and I went straight from the Alexis/Krystle catfight to the premiere of Season 3.

Recently rewatching Season 1, I was amazed once more at the depth and complexity of the narrative. Such a wonderful debut season and so greatly executed.

Season 2 was everything I remembered it to be... and more.

Alexis is just so... dangerous. She's like a deadly spider with her traps and it's electric to watch. There can never be enough said at how much her feud with Krystle works - the chemistry is phenomenal.

The first third of the season is almost frenetic. One gets the sense of the writers moving things along briskly to bring the narrative where they need it to be and it's so brazen and confident and it works. Clearly the show intended to find an audience.

Once Alexis causes Krystle's miscarriage, things considerably slow down and the more familiar pacing of most of DYNASTY arrives. It's good, even if one starts seeing the beginnings of future issues for the show: The glacial pacing, extreme plot-driven narrative (Nick suddenly wants to work at the hospital by chance right before Fallon and her baby end up there! Jeff falls in love with Claudia half an episode after hooking up, just in time for him to discover her betrayal!). But, somehow, it all works. Is it good planning? A direction? Acting? And probably much more, but by the last third of the season, all the threads starts clicking and falling into place in a hugely satisfying way.

Music is another highlight -- until it isn't. I can't get that brilliant theme used for Alexis' scheming in Rome out of my mind. It was years since I rewatched that episode and still remembered it. There's hardly been anything more alluring on any of the primetime soaps, with very few exceptions. Or the music accompanying Claudia's breakdown as she pulls out the gun from its hiding place. But somewhere past the halfway point, I was suddenly aware of its constant presence in some scenes in an overbearing, unpleasant way.

I changed my mind about Fallon. I remembered her falling head over heels for Nick (still true) and turning into a lovesick heroine, but it is much more complex than that. I love the way she handled the situation. She did become lovesick but it was through the Fallon prism. And her guilt over the anonymous letter felt very revelatory; she's a little bitch but she's not Alexis. And that works. If only they'd stopped there.

Steven becoming ungay is still horrible, but it's hard to stay angry when someone like Heather Locklear is brought in. What a huge star in a cast full of stars.

Episode 17 was the first episode I hadn't seen. I was so surprised Jeff and Claudia continued their affair. I thought it would've been a one-time thing. It's so satisfying when Claudia's finally caught; the storyline took its time getting there and Claudia is unhinged once more! Alexis using poor sexy Tony to cover her crime but Krystle not believing her (HOW could anyone claim THIS Krystle is boring?).

I'm looking forward to what other surprises are in store!

 

[Ray&Donna]

I am currently up to the point in season one where Claudia and Steven get together. I never realized until it was said aloud that Fallon is the younger sibling. Perhaps her promiscuity makes her seem wiser and more mature

 

[Michael Torrance]

Recently rewatching Season 1, I was amazed once more at the depth and complexity of the narrative. Such a wonderful debut season and so greatly executed.

Season 2 was everything I remembered it to be... and more.

Alexis is just so... dangerous. She's like a deadly spider with her traps and it's electric to watch. There can never be enough said at how much her feud with Krystle works - the chemistry is phenomenal.

The first third of the season is almost frenetic. One gets the sense of the writers moving things along briskly to bring the narrative where they need it to be and it's so brazen and confident and it works. Clearly the show intended to find an audience.

Once Alexis causes Krystle's miscarriage, things considerably slow down and the more familiar pacing of most of DYNASTY arrives. It's good, even if one starts seeing the beginnings of future issues for the show: The glacial pacing, extreme plot-driven narrative. But, somehow, it all works. Is it good planning? A direction? Acting? And probably much more, but by the last third of the season, all the threads starts clicking and falling into place in a hugely satisfying way.

Jostein Gripsrud, in his book The Dynasty Years, argues that the first two seasons and the first half of season three establish such a narrative progression, that it completely fooled the audience of Norway into thinking they were watching a saga with a set beginning, middle, and end, and they were in an uproar when National TV stopped broadcasting the show. I think more than any other soap of the 80s, early DYNASTY established itself as a thrilling story through a confluence of two seemingly unconnected factors: first, there was the novel-like season one, written that way because Esther Shapiro had quite the background in mini-series. And then the Pollocks brought arcs from their own created (and never produced) planned soap Bible to the show's second season. I think the frenetic pace you mention, which is mesmerizing, is also an effect of the show rebooting itself to a new entity and it wants to get to that reconfigured universe fast--I mean Alexis moves in to the studio and entangles herself in everyone's lives at the speed of light. Yet magically, it does work. The magnitude of the music and the mansion and the difficult situations of the first season, along with the slower pace and the carefully scripted and character-tuned dialogue of the mini-series-like debut year lends gravity to the newcomer ex-wife who is quite the maelstrom.
I know we have had threads speculating whether it would have been possible, even given the green light from ABC (and the better time slot, which it also got in the second year), for the show to continue without Alexis. But I also wonder whether it would have been possible even for the show to have stayed this good for nine seasons. I think as Claudius said, "There lives within the very flame of love, A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it." DYNASTY could have burned bright (which it did in 1-3, and 9) or long (seasons 4-8) but apparently not both.

 

[Tony]

I am currently up to the point in season one where Claudia and Steven get together. I never realized until it was said aloud that Fallon is the younger sibling. Perhaps her promiscuity makes her seem wiser and more mature

Fallon's definitely a couple of years older. It says in the authorised biography of the Carringtons.

Even Dominique acknowledges it when she first meets Fallon; "She (Alexis) bore three handsome, beautiful children - Adam and then you and then Steven'"

 

[Ray&Donna]

Fallon's definitely a couple of years older. It says in the authorised biography of the Carringtons.

Even Dominique acknowledges it when she first meets Fallon; "She (Alexis) bore three handsome, beautiful children - Adam and then you and then Steven'"

Fallon calls herself Steven's kid sister. Perhaps they changed it after season one

 

[tommie]

Fallon calls herself Steven's kid sister. Perhaps they changed it after season one

I recall her saying that as a bit of a joke as in that she's older than him, but she's the one who's rebellious and not "the responsible one". Part of what drove her being promiscious/irresponsible in season one was the fact that she was the oldest child, yet wasn't expected to work in the family business (while obviously being more ambitious than just being a trophy wife) while Steven was the youngest, yet was expected to work and take over the company while having a clear disinterest in doing so.

In nuDynasty they did end up switching it though, with Steven being a few years older than Fallon.

 

[Ray&Donna]

I guess it's not dissimilar to Lucy Ewing. She was the first grandchild but she was never mentioned in the context of Ewing Oil except when they split the company into shares and she had her father's proxy

 

[JROG]

The Gun

Funny how those uninspired titles don't matter so much when the narrative is smart and well-written.

It's been 3 weeks and baby Blake (still unnamed) is doing better. Meanwhile, we are treated to another funny little Joseph/Alexis scene when she returns from her trip. Leave it to Alexis to go away while her grandson's fighting for his life. Later Alexis would wring her hands at the hospital and threaten the doctor because she "can buy and sell this hospital wing while having breakfast!".

Krystle's put to such great use here; the doting wife to Blake, her building anger towards Alexis, the friend to Claudia, and springing into action to stop Claudia from what she thinks may be a suicide attempt without waiting for a man to do it!

The beginning of Sammy Jo's whoring/modeling! Steven just never knew what he was getting into. I think we're close to Corley's exit.

Although this is clearly, finally, Claudia's episode, it takes a while for her to show up. When she does, it's for a doozy of a scene where she imagines kid Lindsay being taken away by Cecil. Poor, crazy Claudia. Having had enough of the lies, Claudia tells Blake what Cecil forced her to do. In a hugely satisfying moment (as well as confluence of the Fallon's parentage and Claudia storylines), Blake sees Cecil during the blood test and punches him bloody. Despite being busy getting punched, Cecil finds enough time to further flirt with Alexis and is already talking marriage! Again, this is all so fast but with their history and some good writing/acting you just allow it.

And, just as Blake flies to Las Vegas to meet Rhinewood, Nick walks into Claudia's apartment following a Krystle/Claudia struggle and a gunshot. This is so great (to me) cos I have no idea which one, if anyone, gets shot (don't tell me!) so we're leaving things off with a great cliffhanger.

All that and more sexy Tony!

 

[JROG]

The Fragment

This episode felt like the DYNASTY that comes later -- a bit too much and too little at the same time. Too much music but not enough details. A lot of melodrama but also some dumbing down. Still, it perhaps illustrates how the show should have remained; it could just barely get away with the histrionics but didn't forget its wittiness and great moments.

One such great moment is Alexis finding out on TV that Krystle is involved, and possibly a suspect in, Claudia's shooting. Her only putting a fur on her naked body and going to the main mansion where she runs into Fallon and proceeds to make a total mess in the kitchen while trying to make a beverage so that Joseph would be annoyed was perfect. There's actually a lot of great Alexis material here for an episode that takes half its running time for her to show up. Kissing Cecil passionately only for her to open up her eyes and reveal to the audience she's using Cecil was seminal. And, of course, running into Jeff during breakfast and toying with him like the spider she is.

Other than a brief, sort of thrown together scene in which Steven sleeps with a female prostitute, the rest of the episode focuses on Blake confronting Logan Rhinewood and Claudia's shooting. Now, it's hard to tell how predictable it was for the audience back then than Cecil is Rhinewood, but once you hear that barely disguised voice, you know. And -- this may be a consequence of the clearer quality of the DVDs -- you can see Cecil's reflection on the TV when he shuts it off. Therefore, that big "reveal" seemed sort of anticlimactic and... well, I don't think I care anyway.

The Claudia stuff is interesting enough although it just feels a little too generic and soap-for-the-sake-of-soap to me. I mean, she was shot in the head and all she has is a little bandage put on? It just feels under-cooked. Instead, the show focuses on making Krystle look guilty and that works wonderfully as a culmination of the Matthew/Krystle/Claudia triangle -- with all that history, of course Krystle looks guilty as hell. And of course Claudia might have speech issues. Here the show gets clever again. Once the audience expects Claudia to either save or condemn Krystle when she wakes up and the possibility of speech loss is introduced, we think we know where it's going, even if it's a little groan-worthy. Instead, they pull a switch: Claudia can talk, but she doesn't remember! Which would've been most people's first assumption. Instead, she only remembers how much Krystle hurt her. And that's where things gets a little stupid again because the Lieutenant opens the door to the hospital room and no one -- not Krystle, or Claudia (who looks directly at him several times), or the all-seeing-all-knowing Nick, or his Magnificence Blake, NO ONE, notices him standing there for minutes on end... until of course Claudia has relayed the damaging information. And then it takes forever as Krystle cries and cries and cries for us to freezeframe. Beautiful it is, though.

 

[Michael Torrance]

The Fragment
Other than a brief, sort of thrown together scene in which Steven sleeps with a female prostitute, the rest of the episode focuses on Blake confronting Logan Rhinewood and Claudia's shooting. Now, it's hard to tell how predictable it was for the audience back then than Cecil is Rhinewood, but once you hear that barely disguised voice, you know. And -- this may be a consequence of the clearer quality of the DVDs -- you can see Cecil's reflection on the TV when he shuts it off. Therefore, that big "reveal" seemed sort of anticlimactic and... well, I don't think I care anyway.

The way they set up Logan Rhinewood, like a James Bond baddie, had no way of working. But if they had set him up differently as someone buying up stock and wanting to control Denver Carrington in a hostile takeover could have worked if they had Cecil act differently. He could have pretended to help Blake out with some new loan early in the season, and certainly not have him deceive Claudia in such a way. But they stacked the deck so much against him, not only did they make it obvious for the audience he was the so-called mastermind behind it all, but they also left no space for him to continue. His departure had the writing-on-the-wall elements, and I am amazed that Bochner even momentarily believed the producers who told him he was coming back in season 3. Unless they played the "of yeah, but for two episodes" trick on him.

 

[JROG]

The Shakedown

Such an incredibly fun, tight episode. Tony takes center stage as Alexis tries to ensure Tony will never reveal the truth about her causing Krystle's miscarriage. Ironically, deliciously, it's Alexis' inability to leave well enough alone that ends up bringing it all in the light! It doesn't hurt that we get to stare at Tony while all this happens.

Although initially groaning at Steven running into a hunky blackmailer, therefore making Steven's gayness an issue yet again, I ended up really enjoying it. If this hadn't been made in 1982, Duane and Steven would've definitely fυcked onscreen. It was fun watching Steven beat Duane up. Ed would be proud.

Fallon following Nick in her swimsuit is a classic. And Claudia's going coockoo again. Damn, she sure does suffer a lot.

Two major plot points that will significantly affect the series are introduced here. While playing out his Evil Overlord fantasy against Blake, Cecil experiences heart issues. And when Blake finally learns of Alexis' Evil Deed, he confronts her and wants her gone from the mansion, during which Alexis oh-so-casually mentions their kidnapped baby, Adam. It's so cool finally filling in this fun little detail. On to the last two episodes!

 

[Ray&Donna]

What if later Logan Rhinewood turned out to be Philip who was trying to get revenge on his brother for casting him out of the family, or even Constance in some convoluted plot, Although, Jeff's extended family had it's own plot failings in practice and execution so perhaps best if we don't try to extend it via pipeline to California

 

[JROG]

THE TWO PRINCES

The season's penultimate episode is another great one. All the work they put in during this year is now paying off in spades.

The writers find a way to delay/ignore a major Alexis/Blake blowout by smartly invoking Blake's probation; Krystle convinces him not to do anything Alexis could use against him. Alexis is banished from the mansion for the first of many, many times, but that doesn't stop us from getting another of those really fun Alexis/Krystle confrontations: When Alexis tries to bring LB a present, she finds the steely Krystle in her way.

This episode is a great showcase for Krystle: You get to see so many of her sides here. From the teary yet logical wife to Blake, to fierce lady of the house, to the very rare but earned moment of cattiness when she tells Fallon to look in the mirror if she's looking for someone to blame for losing Nick.

It quickly becomes apparent The Two Princes refers to Steven and LB. It's as clever and poetic as DYNASTY ever got with its titles. The purpose for the incident with Duane last week finally reveals itself: It forces Steven to confront the suspicion and bigotry he's faced all his life when his own father wants him to accept guilt and not fight the charges. It leads to a great family confrontation that veers on the right side of saccharine. I think Krystle was supposed to acknowledge Steven as gay and it doesn't quite make sense that she doesn't (Krystle would never have trouble saying it), but ultimately I found it very sweet the line went to Fallon. Based on their loving sibling relationship, I thought it was touching. In what might be Corley's last line, he wishes LB good luck with this family. It's all so wonderfully tragic.

And yet, there's more! Nick seems to think Claudia is getting better (OK, Nick...) and it all threatens to come crashing down when Blake receives word of Matthew and Lindsay's deaths (at least for now...). The resulting long scene is probably Pamela Bellwood's best work in the series (and she's done some great work these first two years): Crushed yet controlled, she remembers Krystle wasn't responsible for her shooting before quietly breaking down in Blake's arms. Sadly, the suffering doesn't end there: In a wonderful case of colliding storylines, LB's being home makes Claudia think it's her daughter, Lindsay. Somebody block any roof exits!