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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James from London" data-source="post: 206357" data-attributes="member: 22">The Best Kept Secret (KNOTS, 02 Dec 82) v The Best Laid Plans (DALLAS, 12 Feb 88)When DALLAS and KNOTS introduced love interests to replace Bobby, Gary and Jock in the hearts of Pam, Val and Miss Ellie, it’s notable that they were all knights in shining armour. Mark Graison, Ben Gibson and Clayton were sensitive and kind, patient and understanding. Each was a more idealised version of their predecessor, at least on paper. (Clayton and Ben would later prove to have feet of clay, but only after they’d married the woman of their dreams. Mark would probably have fallen off his pedestal too had Pam not woken up.) But with Mack Mackenzie, KNOTS is obliged to take a different approach. After all, how can you improve on saintly Sid Fairgate? So it is that Mack’s flaws, as well as his virtues, are part of what attracts him to Karen. When she complains that they’re always fighting and Val replies that that means she’s in love with him, she doesn’t disagree. However, there are flaws and then there are flaws — this is before Karen learns that Mack has a f**k buddy living down the hall. “I had the best — Sid Fairgate never would have done this to me!” she yells. “I’m not Sid Fairgate.” “You’re damn right you’re not!”In the sixteen episodes that have passed since Best Intentions, not only has Karen acquired a love interest, but Gary and Abby have moved into a beach house and Richard is running a restaurant. Val has gone from being an ordinary housewife finishing a homework assignment to a single woman with an answering service, a stack of fan mail on her desk and an invitation to dinner from an important record producer. The one person who doesn’t seem to have moved on is Laura, still pacing the floor as she tries to decide what to do about her marriage.Whereas Best Intentions felt entirely character-driven, the characters in The Best Kept Secret kind of feel like chess pieces being moved around the board. Having done a 180 on her attitude to Mack, Diana finds him with the semi-naked Patrice and turns to Chip for comfort. This requires Chip to stand up Ciji who runs into Gary who has just come from an argument with Abby about their business arrangement with Kenny. Ciji and Gary then spend the afternoon together before everyone shows up at Richard’s restaurant to glare angrily and/or gaze longingly at each other while Ciji sings a sad song in her Star Trek dress. Even though you can feel the characters’ strings being pulled, it doesn’t make this any less satisfying an episode. In fact, it’s part of the enjoyment.Whereas Diana is genuinely shocked when she walks in on Mack and Patrice, Sue Ellen feigns outrage when she finds JR and Kimberly Cryder in bed together, before showing up on Nicholas’s doorstep with a fit of the giggles. Miss Ellie, meanwhile, is so stunned to find the once perfect Clayton on the receiving end of a kiss from a beautiful young woman that she pretends it never happened.While everyone on KNOTS is mixed up with everyone else, because of Ciji and/or Chip and/or Gary and Abby’s investments, almost everyone on DALLAS is somehow involved in JR’s mission to take over West Star. Most of the fun of this ep comes from watching Sue Ellen putting all the pieces of the puzzle together. She concludes that JR needs her off Southfork so he can be with Kimberly — and thereby gain access to the 14% of West Star owned by her daddy. It looks like JR’s got his wish in the final scene when he walks into his and Sue Ellen’s bedroom to find her packing a suitcase. But it turns out she’s only moving as far as a room down the hall. Well, if it works for Mack and Patrice …And the winner is … The Best Kept SecretBONUS BEATS[MEDIA=youtube]amtbxUifsqE[/MEDIA]</blockquote>

Verification: What month follows July?