Throughout the latter half of this season, two words kept coming to my mind: "intelligence" and "logic". I'm applying these words to Peach Dynasty, I did not see that coming! Both the writing and the behavior of the characters exhibit intelligent, logical thought. It was the intelligence of the characters, not just the well educated Carringtons and Colbys but other characters - especially Claudia - that I attracted me to Mile High Dynasty. A lot of plots on television, especially on soap operas, depend on characters acting out of stupidity. How many times have you watched a show and thought "if they had simply ____ all of this could have been avoided"? The characters haven't fallen into that trap this season, a prime example being Liam seeing through Eva. A lesser soap would have dragged this out (possibly having Liam and Eva marry) causing us to lose respect for Liam.
Even when they have done things I didn't particularly like (Fallon's edible-fueled hallucination) there was a great deal of thought that went into it. It's almost as if the writers have thought things through and planned the plots ahead of time instead of making it up as they go along.
At the start of the season I had the impression the current team was wrapping up the plots they had inherited from the previous team. I think the plot with Evan was abbreviated from what was originally planned; I think Evan planned to frame Fallon for a crime and plant her hair as evidence. I also think Ryan was a character that they inherited and dismissed quickly - fortunately as I didn't see any chemistry between Sam and Ryan.
Cristal at last makes sense as a character. I can understand why a woman who is essentially a good person would be attracted to Blake, she comes from a similar (if not worse) family and sees Blake as someone she can rehabilitate (something many women do in real life). Cristal is smart enough to see that she can accomplish more from a position of power than by being a physical therapist of modest means. You could also say that this is Cristal's way of justifying her sometimes manipulative behavior. Could it be that Cristal really is (as original Claudia put it) "the most dangerous Carrington of them all"?
Dominique has been fleshed out beautifully. Yes, she's ambitious and lacking in maternal skills but she's become an engaging and even likable character. Dom's fashion business is the one business story that intrigues me because it isn't only fueled by her interest in fashion but also by her grief over the loss of her mother; I sense feelings of guilt and regret just beneath Dominique's bravado. I've really warmed up to Dominique since seeing her vulnerability and I want to see her succeed in business and in romance; I am dreading the thought of Brady breaking her heart and hope he doesn't follow through with Alexis' scheme.
The cliffhanger: a fitting farewell to Joseph. A catfight, we haven't had one in a while and this one was good. Fallon had reached her breaking point, this made perfect sense plot-wise and was well choreographed and edited. When I saw Alexis in that dress I asked myself "is she getting arrested tonight?" Adam is obviously the killer: motive, opportunity and he previously dressed as Fallon in one of his schemes. It's almost too obvious. Who is this mystery witness and how did they observe what happened on the terrace of a penthouse? I wonder if someone was using a drone. I sense Brady is having second thoughts about Alexis' scheme; she'll have a harder time persuading him to follow through while she's in jail. Jeff's breakdown was very well acted and believable.
The last few minutes were very suspenseful. Three quarters into the episode I had no idea how it was going to end - I like that. Of course Fallon is going to survive. Eva's going to go to jail and will probably never be seen again; I was expecting her to be around longer. What this episode did extremely well was set things up for next season: is Adam really a murderer? Again?! Will he get away with it? Again?! Will Brady break Dominique's heart or will he back-out of Alexis' plan. Will we be seeing a lot more of Beto? I sure hope so. Will Jeff recover from his breakdown? Or maybe his days are numbered. I suspect both Kirby and Amanda will be finding skeletons in the Carrington's closets. And maybe the lake.
