nuDynasty Episode Chat S5E14: Vicious Vendetta (AKA Episode 100)

[Daniel Avery]

Episode Description:
"It's Alexis's wedding day and as she attempts to make sure everything runs smoothly, everyone else in the family seems to have their own agenda. Blake receives a package that raises some questions so Cristal and Sam set out to do some detective work to get to the bottom of it. Fallon and Liam make a life-changing decision. Dominique resorts to drastic measures to further Dom-Mystique and then asks Culhane for a big favor. Kirby becomes suspicious of Amanda, thanks to Adam."

 

[Daniel Avery]

Awwwww, they once again made an effort to match the OG outfits!

 

[Brian Kinney]

Wow - another Australian actor: Brett Tucker!

 

[Daniel Avery]

Alexis has invited 100 guests for the wedding. Alexis asks Where is Samir, AKA Dex's father? Dex claims they had a falling-out a while back over decisions Dex made to go into business for himself. Dex claims he would not be too broken up if Samir didn't attend.

Also not-too-broken up is Liam, who despite his mother's death is looking forward to starting a family with Fallon. They're interviewing possible surrogates.

Adam is being demoted at the hospital and is none too happy, but things look up once he realizes that Kirby and Amanda are a secret couple. They continue to keep their relationship a secret in order to keep Alexis's head from exploding, but when has Adam cared about keeping Alexis's head intact? Time to break them up. And it's so easy to make Kirby go jealous and walk out in a huff.

Blake receives a package: the family crest that went missing from the family compound several episodes back. Only it is broken up in charred bits and pieces, which Blake immediately interprets to mean that someone has declared war on the family. Sam, Cristal and Blake put up one of those "perp boards" like they use on Law and Order, with pictures of people they've tangled with in the past like Evan Tate, Ted Dinard....a trip down villainous memory lane. But most of them get crossed out (with red marker, of course) as we learn their current wherabouts (jail, nut house, dead, etc.) and Blake settles on one other person that they had not mentioned yet. Then again, maybe they could not find a good head-shot for the perp board.

Alexis tracks down Samir to ask him to attend. He doesn't think it's a good idea, since it's Alexis Samir has a problem with. He recites to her all the horror stories about her divorce, which involved flaming artwork and a yacht that drifted away in Hurricane Floyd. He doesn't want his son subjected to all that insanity. She asks for a chance to prove she's not that person any more...then begs Blake and Cristal to come to the wedding to show Blake and Alexis are not still at war. You know, lie if you have to.

Fallon's search for a surrogate is not bearing....fruit, and it is making her lose her edge at work. Just don't say that around her.

Sam goes to see CLAUDIA, who is out on work detail with the mental health facility. She says she is recovering nicely and is even working to see her son again. Sam is not exactly buying her reformation, and though she denies sending the destroyed family crest, he's uneasy. He's also kind of PO'd when she has the nerve to ask how the family is....which, considering she killed his Aunt Celia and all that other stuff, no wonder. After he drives away, she calls someone to tell him the whole family will indeed all be in one place for the wedding.

Samir Dexter owns the airline that Dominique wants to design uniforms for, so once she figures out he will be at the wedding, Dominique suddenly wants to go. Of course Alexis does NOT want her there...so all the better.

The wedding:
Amanda's falling out of a nice, blue dress, with her hair looking totally Catherine Oxenberg.
Claudia shows up. Blake, Cristal and Sam are freaked out at seeing her, obviously, especially when she whips out a box. Inside is a ceramic cup she made while in the sanitarium, which she claims is a wedding gift for Alexis. Did Claudia even know Alexis? They're still looking uneasy. Would a cup explode?
Alexis tries to throw Dom out, but Alexis doesn't want to make a scene in front of Samir. Instead, Alexis locks her in the panic room.
Matron of Honor Fallon is actually playing with her phone as the vows are being recited and doing the "wrap it up" motion to the pastor.
Samir welcomes Alexis to the family. Blake "explained" that all that stuff Alexis did back then was because she was in full-blown alcoholism.
Dom finds Samir to chat about uniforms. He tries to be sociable but Alexis tries to throw her out, incurring Samir's renewed disappointment in his son's choice of bride. After Samir leaves, Blake tells Alexis he will eventually come around and is kind of nice to her.
Kirby figured out Adam set her and Amanda up, so she begs forgiveness and tries to hustle back out before Alexis spots her. In response, Amanda announces her relationship with Kirby to the whole crowd, who are shocked and pleased (except Alexis, natch...)
A man steps off the elevator and Blake is instantly pissed off upon seeing him. "You sent the family crest, didn't you?" he asks. The man doesn't deny it. Blake punches him in the stomach, shocking the crowd. Cristal asks who the man is, and Blake introduces Ben Carrington, Blake's brother.

 

[tommie]

I figured that it either had to be Caress or Ben Claudia was calling. I did lol at her entering the party with her hands behind her back only to present... a homemade mug.

 

[GillesDenver]

Wow, I didn't expect Ben to show up since the show is about to finish. That's a nice surprise ! Now we need Caress !!

 

[Lankershim Blasdel 1]

The good part of this episode was the last minute of it with Ben showing up with the dynasty theme playing in the background.
Unfortunately it took roughly around 40 minutes of boring to get to that.
How about dealing with LVK in the beginning of this episode instead of the steaming crap , surrogate interview and Samir not approving? (Would the last 2 Alexis’ give a S?) Ben why didn’t he show up in season 3??
So Sam can actually be civil to the woman that shot dead his aunt and only mentions the doll, that’s believable.
Claudia can get released in about 3 years for premeditated murder, ok sure. Why bring her back they screwed up that character from the beginning, plus she’s been played to death with the revenge plot.
Again we have middle aged women acting like 12 year olds, Dominique and Alexis fighting.
I figure they still have a few episodes left to shoot, I know Nicolette Sheridan would never come back, nor Nathalie Kelly and even with the few mentions James probably won’t appear, maybe a recast but I even doubt that. All those guests and no invite to Steven.
But can’t we just get Joan Collins at what 90 years old now to reprise her role , anything goes with this mess so why not.
I can’t stand Elaine and her madcap sweet character, why bother calling her Alexis.
I know the writing is garbage but again season 2 writing was weak and NS was still interesting and Laura Van Kirk brought it with the same crap writing, Elaine has no business playing the role even this cw basement version. Obviously the powers didn’t want someone who was too powerful to play the role again and didn’t care about the character at the point she was hired, or she fit in with the budget they were offering.
That character now should have been a widow from Jeff and Dex
Yes we should have gotten Ben caress and sable years ago instead of all that Falliam
Culhane and Sam crap.

 

[Tony]

Did I miss the non mention of Laura Van Kirk? Was there a time jump or haven't they discovered her body yet?

 

[tommie]

Did I miss the non mention of Laura Van Kirk? Was there a time jump or haven't they discovered her body yet?

Fallon told Liam that it was okay if they held off on the surrogates for a while because of his mothers death, but he said that their relationship had died a long time ago, his father was gone and barely had any contact with his sister (she got mentioned again, hmmm), so he was eager to start his own family with her asap.

 

[Brian Kinney]

and Blake introduces Ben Carrington, Blake's brother.

This marked also the second time that a variation of the OG title theme was played (first time in the pilot episode with Fallon and Steven at the piano).

 

[Daniel Avery]

Fallon told Liam that it was okay if they held off on the surrogates for a while because of his mothers death, but he said that their relationship had died a long time ago, his father was gone and barely had any contact with his sister (she got mentioned again, hmmm), so he was eager to start his own family with her asap.

I can't recall exactly how it was phrased, but Fallon said something that led me to believe two or three weeks had passed since Laura's death. But yes, the dismissal of Laura's death was quick and intentional. Apparently no one found the manner of her death suspicious enough (or funny enough) for it to merit a "Can you believe that s---?" aside in the dialogue. They might go back to it later on (reading of the will, maybe questions about the crime scene WRT Adam) but there was so much already going on in this episode that I understood why they put that off. I'd also understand if she were never mentioned again, since they're having to make a lot of tough decisions regarding what stories to tell and which ones to cut short or cut altogether. Laura's death and Liam's subsequent inheritance could have been a major opportunity to expand Liam's character and have him join in on the business stories, but the producers may decide that since he's a supporting character they need to cut that story and give that time to the principals.

 

[Daniel Avery]

Just rewatched the "Perp Board" scene and it's even funnier in second viewing. They name-checked Senator North, Beto Flores, Melissa Daniels ("working on her third divorce"), someone with a parrot (Sam "X'ed out" the man and the parrot separately), Evan Tate, King Galen of Moldavia (!!), and of course Ted Dinard (causing Blake to name-check Steven and Sam to scribble out his face rather than a simple "X"). They even had Father Caleb up there.

I would not be surprised if Culhane and Dominique end the series as a couple, deciding to head to Los Angeles to pursue their careers (film producing and fashion design, respectively). They seem to be laying the groundwork for them to get together.

I give the writers half a gold star for research. When they spoke of the Carrington yacht being cut loose and drifting away in Hurricane Floyd during Blake and Alexis's divorce wars, I had to chuckle. Floyd indeed swept through coastal Georgia (not Atlanta, but anyway...) in September of 1999. I recall our local weatherman having something of a meltdown on-air during coverage, believing we were going to get hit by a Cat-5. We evacuated into central Georgia for a few days, only for the hurricane to stay offshore and not even hit us directly. So they researched and found a real hurricane to refer to. But Floyd hit in 1999, and I'm pretty sure Blake and Alexis divorced well after that.

 

[tommie]

I can't recall exactly how it was phrased, but Fallon said something that led me to believe two or three weeks had passed since Laura's death. But yes, the dismissal of Laura's death was quick and intentional. Apparently no one found the manner of her death suspicious enough (or funny enough) for it to merit a "Can you believe that s---?" aside in the dialogue. They might go back to it later on (reading of the will, maybe questions about the crime scene WRT Adam) but there was so much already going on in this episode that I understood why they put that off. I'd also understand if she were never mentioned again, since they're having to make a lot of tough decisions regarding what stories to tell and which ones to cut short or cut altogether. Laura's death and Liam's subsequent inheritance could have been a major opportunity to expand Liam's character and have him join in on the business stories, but the producers may decide that since he's a supporting character they need to cut that story and give that time to the principals.

Yep, I think it's fairly obvious here that they are setting up something with his sister (since she's been mentioned both in this and last episode), but they might scrap that entirely since they have to wrap the show up. They were filming episode 15 when the cancellation was announced so I imagine that we'll see threads of scrapped story projections from that point on.

 

[tommie]

So they researched and found a real hurricane to refer to. But Floyd hit in 1999, and I'm pretty sure Blake and Alexis divorced well after that.

Alexis had been MIA for 11 years when she first showed up in 2018, so circa 2007 is when the divorce would've been finalised. I guess they could've been going at it for a few years though, but again, Alexis was in the mansion when a teenage Jeff asked teenage Fallon out and since Fallon was born in 1993 she must've been in the mansion until at least 2007.

 

[Daniel Avery]

I vaguely recall Blake and Alexis talking about attending a Y2K New Year's Party at some famous person's house (that is, when 1999 became 2000), that they had been having issues but declared a truce to attend what was a major event as a married couple. But one gets the impression that the entire marriage was a series of "issues," that there was very little peacetime at Carrington Manor.

What we needed was for someone attached to the show to write/publish "Anders's diary" in a tie-in item to the show around the time Kirby received it onscreen. Imagine reading about all of the decadent Carrington family shenanigans from 1990-ish until just before the premiere of the reboot. We'd get to hear what really happened at Fallon's infamous Confirmation party, about all the various affairs Blake and Alexis had, the unintentionally hilarious bits and pieces we've heard about Grandma Carrington getting drunk and driving her car into the lake. It would be quite a read, and could have been used as a 'back-story bible'.

 

[Lankershim Blasdel 1]

It was a wasted opportunity not having Kirby use that book once her dad passed.
I think it would have been a much better plot for her than the relationship with Amanda.
Even that plot is wasted with Adam pulling a juvenile prank on them instead of a deeper story and him going all crazy and wanting Kirby back and putting Amanda in real trouble, ie Steven and Alexis.
I was surprised they actually continued a plot from when Fallon noticed the family crest gone to the introduction of Ben, but with the
family co gone what could he be after.
even if he was the one who put an end to the Steven story it wouldn’t make any sense at this point with Fallon knowing where he was and nobody ever trying to find out.
Ben’s intro was really well done, I almost felt bad the show is going away but surely if it continued it would be the same old nonsense,
Like forcing Culhane in storylines he doesn’t need to be in.
As for Claudia if she sets fire to la mirage then good for her coming back, if not again no point.

 

[Daniel Avery]

I'm probably getting ahead of myself, but seeing Ben arrive makes me wonder if we will finally get closure of some sort with regard to Steven. Though we got no real information about how close they were, Ben and his daughter Juliet were in Paris and we were given the idea that Juliet was close enough to her cousins that she would look out for Steven, maybe act as the family's contact. I don't think the show would have brought Ben into the mix without having developed an explanation he can deliver for the family (and the viewers) explaining just what has become of Steven in the past few years. I know what I would like to hear from him, but even if it's something terrible we will at the very least get closure, something we were not allowed to have for so long. We don't know him really, so he could very easily tell the family something that turns out not to be true later on as part of a larger plotline for the finale. Well, I can hope at least. Speaking of hoping:

I think Blake jumped to the conclusion that Ben sent the family crest, but in fact it was Steven. And I also think that phone call Claudia made was to Steven.

 

[Lankershim Blasdel 1]

That would be a fantastic plot development
It was disappointing that Claudia and Steven were never kindred spirits in this version, they made Claudia a Melrose Place crazy which was a mistake Steven was bisexual here too and it would have added needed drama to him and Sams relationship, even briefly.I know if I were Steven I’d be pissed at everyone for forgetting I ever existed.
Such a big mistake getting rid of him and keeping Sam. Putting ted dinard on the board was curious though and I thought he jumped out a window and died but maybe I’m not remembering , even so he was never a threat and maybe it’s a lead up to what’s coming
I just don’t see anything happening, Ben will tell everyone Steven is dead even if he isn’t but no one ever tried to find out in 3 years.
Adam confessed who he was to Steven, maybe the drugs he was administering made him lose that memory, the whole Steven mess does need to get resolved before this ends, I don’t care what happens to Culhane and if he and Dom get together in the end but Steven yes,
They did a great job I think in the Ben casting. Unlike Dex.

With social media we probably would have known if James McCay was returning like we did with Claudia, and she needs to burn that horrible useless La Mirage set down stat
I’ll really feel bad about this show ending if James McCay returned
,it would almost make up for all the garbage I’ve been viewing by continuing to watch this for the past 3 years, just think if he came back crazy we would have him, Claudia , Adam and probably Fallon’s new surrogate all bouncing off the set walls he would have to process the death of his father, 2 new siblings, a third Crystal and an Imposter mother

 

[Daniel Avery]

They only seem to 'hang out' in the Sahara Club, the nightclub that supposedly was next door to the hotel (Monica's "Club Colby") that managed to join itself onto La Mirage when they did the renovations. They used to have Sam hanging out at the front desk or near the big staircase in the hotel, but not much any more. Maybe La Mirage was an actual hotel where they filmed on location, and to save money they invented the Sahara Club set in the studio? I have no idea. For a small, suburban Atlanta studio, they do surprisingly good set design and realistic lighting.

 

[tommie]

They only seem to 'hang out' in the Sahara Club, the nightclub that supposedly was next door to the hotel (Monica's "Club Colby") that managed to join itself onto La Mirage when they did the renovations. They used to have Sam hanging out at the front desk or near the big staircase in the hotel, but not much any more. Maybe La Mirage was an actual hotel where they filmed on location, and to save money they invented the Sahara Club set in the studio? I have no idea. For a small, suburban Atlanta studio, they do surprisingly good set design and realistic lighting.

Honestly, they did well in investing in two big sets that have pretty much multiple uses (Carrington foyer / living area + La Mirage / Sahara). It's obvious the show is done on a budget, so building those sets was wise. Sets like Blake/Cristal's bedroom, Fallon's bedroom, Fallon's office, Blake's office, etc are also ok. The only let-down setwise are secondary sets, like the other Carrington bedrooms (Kirby / Amanda's rooms are interchangeable, also that apartment set that they re-use for multiple things is too blatant at times).