Recap: Brandon has a black and white dream of Kelly's shooting and wakes up in a cold sweat. Kelly - who's in bed with him, so I guess we can assume they're a full on couple again - comforts him and assures him that the drive-by wasn't his fault. Brandon says his subconscious is trying to tell him it was his fault, but Kelly reminds him that the shooters are the bad guys. As they canoodle, Kelly tells him how nervous she is about IDing the shooter(s) in the upcoming police lineup. Donna returns to SOHO Mix and Match to have a pretend meeting with Mr. Parrish (aka, Adam Carrington from Dynasty) so she can covertly check out the sweatshop she stumbled upon during the previous episode. She sees a young Hispanic woman on her way to work and urges her to go on the record about all the abuses she's encountered, but the woman - whose name is Olivia - says there are no abuses and insists that everything at the sweatshop is dandy. Donna finally gets a clue and realizes that Olivia is probably too frightened to discuss the shitty working conditions while she's on the premises, so she scribbles down Brandon's name on a copy of The Beverly Beat and hands it to her. Just as she's doing that, Mr. Parrish appears, glares at Olivia, and asks Donna if she's lost. Donna nods and pretends she has no earthly idea how she ended up in the basement. The Peach Pit. Steve tells Hilary Swank he'd really like to take her and Zack to Magic Mountain, and she promises to think it over. David enters the diner with Devin and his band...and when the band ambles off to claim a booth, Steve tells David that Donna told him about Devin's anti-Semitic comment. David denies he's anti-Semitic and says if the guys in the band were a bunch of racist jerks, he'd know it. He then asks Steve if he can lend him $50 so he can treat the band to lunch, and Steve gives him a funny look and says he's just as tapped out as he is. The Beverly Beat. Brandon and Donna discuss the best way to pursue the sweatshop story. Brandon tells her he did a bit of research on the building's owner and discovered that there have been several fire code and sanitation violations. The Walsh house. Cooper phones Valerie to invite her out for breakfast just as Noah comes over to drop off his laundry. When Valerie answers the door, she notices Cooper's black limo parked across the street and breezily tells Noah it belongs to a client of hers. Noah tells her he's thinking of returning to Hawaii in the next day or so and invites her to drop by the marina so they can have one last doink. Valerie puts a pin in that for now and says she has to go to a breakfast meeting with her client, who apparently feels the need to phone her while he's parked across the street from her house. After she leaves, Kelly happens to bound down the stairs, and Noah invites her to go sailing with him. Inside the limo, Valerie returns Donna's call, and Donna asks her if she could cover for her with Mrs. Van Dyck, one of her personal shopper clients. She tells Valerie she's already picked out all the clothes and that all she has to do is keep the old lady company while she tries the stuff on. Valerie agrees. Boat. Kelly tells Noah that Brandon is worried that the shooters will get away with attempted murder...and that she's really stressed about the police lineup. She then thanks him for not taking advantage of her when she had temporary amnesia and didn't remember she was supposed to be in love with Brandon. Brandon and Donna arrive at Sandtrap Properties: the company that owns the sweatshop building. Brandon glances over at the wall where a bunch of framed photographs are hanging and notices that one of them identifies Rush Sanders as President and CEO. Mrs. Van Dyck is irked that Donna blew off their appointment, and Valerie nods sympathetically and smarmily says that Donna just doesn't understand business the way she does. When she implies that Donna has gotten herself involved with a sweatshop, Mrs. Van Dyck looks horrified and says she refuses to wear clothes made by underpaid immigrants. Valerie assures her that the outfits she's currently trying on weren't made in any sweatshop...then fibs and says she knows this 'cause she picked them out herself. The Beverly Beat. Hilary Swank and Zack drop by to tell Steve they're on for a day at Magic Mountain, and Steve looks delighted. After they bound off, Brandon asks Steve if he's ever heard of Sandtrap Properties, and Steve tells them it's one of his father's companies. Donna informs him that the company owns a sweatshop building they're currently investigating, and Steve is all, "Wha-a?!" and says he can't believe his father would have anything to do with a sweatshop. Brandon points out that the landlord would have to know about all the fire code and sanitation violations the building's been cited with...so Steve says he'll look into it with Rush, but is sure it's nothing. Studio. Devin and his band are performing a song for their demo CD while David watches from the control room. A guy working at the studio, who happens to be black, informs David they're going to have to wrap it up 'cause their allotted time is up. David asks if they can have another hour, and he says it's no problem - but only if he can pony up the cash up front. David offers up his credit card, but the guy glances at it warily and tells him it's already been declined. David promises to dig up some cash and asks him to schedule some studio time for them tomorrow at 3pm...and when Devin learns about the appointment, he tells David he has to be somewhere at 6pm and snarks, "Make sure you tell the homeboy that we're not working on African time." David looks aghast and stares after him with a look of incredulity. Steve meets with Rush to tell him about the sweatshop/Sandtrap connection, and Rush fake promises to look into it. He says (and somehow manages to keep a straight face), "Leave it to me. I'll make sure nothing illegal is going on." The Walsh house. Valerie phones Donna to tell her that Mrs. Van Dyck loved all the clothes so much that she referred one of her rich friends to their little business. Donna says she's still busy trying to bring the sweatshop to justice and asks Valerie if she'd mind covering for her again...and after a bit of hemming and hawing, Valerie agrees. A few seconds later, Cooper arrives with flowers and tells Valerie he wants to whisk her away to San Francisco for dinner, and Valerie can't help but be flattered and impressed. Noah, meanwhile, is sitting on the deck of his boat muttering, "Where the hell are you, Val?" The Beverly Beat. Steve tells Brandon that Rush claimed to not know anything about any sweatshop, so Brandon silently hands him a document he received earlier from the county clerk's office. It turns out that not only is Rush the owner of the sweatshop building, his company is listed as the owner of SOHO Mix and Match. Haha! Busted! Brandon explains that this means Rush is liable for a string of labor code violations. Steve tries to explain it away by saying, "It's just a corporate, bureaucratic thing" - but Brandon warns him that he's planning to name the owners of the sweatshop building in his article. Steve asks him not to do that, so Brandon reminds him that people are being exploited and abused. Steve gets mad and accuses him of wanting to write a big exposé just so he can show up all the newspapers who wouldn't hire him. Well that's just dumb. Brandon refuses to back down and says he can't/won't/doesn't want to keep Rush's name out of the scandal, and the two silently shoot stink-eyes at each other. Beach house. David arrives home and finds Donna preparing a romantic dinner for the two of them. As they chat, he sorts through the stack of mail on the counter and spots an envelop with Instant Credit typed on it. That looks like a debt problem just waiting to happen. Donna grumbles about what a rude bigot Devin is, but David argues that just 'cause the guy blurts out "off color" stuff every now and then, it doesn't mean he's a bigot. Actually, it kind of does, David. Donna tells him she'd much rather he worked alongside a non-bigot, and David snidely reminds her that she's working with a guy who owns a sweatshop. Donna snaps, "At least I'm doing something about it!" and an irked David says he just lost his appetite and retreats to his room. Restaurant. Brandon meets Kelly for dinner, and the two talk about tomorrow's police lineup. Kelly is anxious about it 'cause she doesn't really remember what happened the night she got shot, but Brandon assures her it'll all be ok, blah blah.. Beach house. The next morning, David rifles through the trash, finds the Instant Credit offer, and covertly pockets it. Donna emerges from her bedroom and tells him that Devin just called to rudely remind him that they're meeting at the studio at 3pm, then asks if the two of them are OK. David assures her that everything's fine, then apologizes for blowing off her romantic dinner and promises that things will get easier once he gets Devin's band up and running. I really hope he has some sort of signed agreement with these clowns so he can at least recoup all the money he's been spending on their behalf. After Donna heads out, David calls Instant Credit to get his new card activated. The Peach Pit. Hilary Swank and Zack arrive at the diner to meet Steve for a day of fun at Magic Mountain. Nat says he's sure that Steve will be along any minute. [Spoiler: not.] Brandon and Donna are sitting in Brandon's convertible, staking out the sweatshop. Brandon tells her how irked Steve is that they may have to implicate his father, but Donna says that exposing an abusive, law breaking employer is more important than Steve's feelings. No duh. Donna spots a familiar looking sweatshop worker and runs out of the car to confront her. She asks her if she knows where Olivia is, or where she lives - but the poor woman is too scared to answer and runs away. Nicely done, Donna. Brandon says he has to go 'cause he's meeting Kelly at the police station, and Donna says she'll continue to hang out in case Olivia makes an appearance. The Beverly Beat. A frightened looking Olivia shows up at the newsroom with her copy of the Beat (on which Donna scribbled Brandon's name). She holds up the newspaper and tells Terri in her broken English, "Miss Donna give us paper...write his name." She says she works at SOHO Mix and Match...and Steve, who was about to head over to the Peach Pit, stops and looks intrigued. Olivia tearfully says that her boss fired her for talking to Miss Donna, despite the fact that she didn't actually reveal anything about the sweatshop. Steve sits beside her, gets out his tape recorder, and encourages her to tell her story. Olivia tells him she's from El Salvador and came to America for a better life...but what she found at the sweatshop was sixteen hour days, inhumane conditions, and shitty wages. The Walsh house. Noah comes over to pick up his laundry and admonish Valerie for not showing up at the marina yesterday. She asks him when he's coming back from Hawaii, and he snaps, "Maybe never." She 's all, "Wuh? You can't stay away from me that long" and he retorts, "Try me." He tells her he would have stayed in L.A. if only she'd asked him to, and Valerie hangs her head in shame. (OK, I'm confused. Hadn't it been firmly established that Noah wasn't into Valerie??) Police station. As Kelly stares at the men in the lineup, she has a black and white flashback of the shooting. She then carefully scans the face of each man and eventually concludes, "He's not here." The detective goes, "Are you absolutely sure it's not Shifty Looking Guy #1?" - LOL - but Kelly stands by her statement. Brandon gets upset when he learns that Kelly didn't ID the guy he's absolutely certain is the shooter, and the two bicker about it in the parking lot as they walk to the car. Steve meets with Rush again to dig for more information about the sweatshop. He tells him that people are starting to talk, then cites Olivia's claim of sixteen hour workdays, hazardous conditions, and no workers' compensation. Rush raises both hands in the air and goes, "Whoa, wait a minute!" and says that the people who own the business are the ones who are liable. Steve informs him that, according to the county registrar's office, Sandtrap Properties is the owner of SOHO Mix and Match. Rush lets that sink in for a few seconds, mutters, "On paper maybe" then scrunches his face in fake confusion about the many businesses and buildings he owns. Steve says, "Either you own the sweatshop or you don't" and Rush lets it slip that he knows the sweatshop employs forty-four workers. Haha! Busted again! He orders Steve to do the right thing (aka, cover his corrupt ass), but Steve reminds him that he's always insisting he grow up and take responsibility. Rush says, "This is the real world with real world consequences" and Steve retorts, "All the more reason I intend to the right thing." You go, Steve! Studio. Devin and his band saunter in late, and David irritably informs Devin that he just cost him two hours of overtime...but Devin clearly doesn't give a rat's ass and just shrugs. I guess he works on inconsiderate douchebag time. The Beverly Beat. Brandon is typing up the sweatshop story when Donna drops by. She glumly says that Olivia never made an appearance - but then perks up when Brandon hits play on the tape recorder, and the two listen to a few minutes of Olivia's interview. They agree it's everything they need to publish the story. Steve arrives and gives Brandon the green light to name Rush in his article and says, "Just tell it straight" and adds that Rush agreed "to fix anything that's wrong". Donna nods approvingly and tells him he did a good thing and hopes that Hilary Swank and Zack weren't too bummed out about missing their day at Magic Mountain. Steve's eyes widen in horror 'cause clearly he forgot all about that subplot. Marina. Valerie is waiting on the dock when Noah arrives with a large packed bag. She tells him that even though he's completely wrong for her - mostly 'cause he's ass broke - she totally digs him and doesn't want him to leave town. She says, "If you leave, we'll never find out what we can be" [spoiler: a boring, chemistry-less couple whose relationship quickly nose-dives], and Noah pulls her into his arms. Steve goes over to Hilary Swank's place and apologizes to a despondent Zack for bailing out on Magic Mountain. He says he knows how much it hurts when someone you count on lets you down, 'cause he too was just let down by someone he counts on. He says, "I hope you'll forgive me - but I'll understand if you don't." As he turns to leave, Zack asks him if he can forgive the person who let him down. Steve says he'll try, and Zack toddles over and gives him a big hug. Aww...bowl-shaped hairdo kids always touch my heart. The Walsh house. Brandon enters the bedroom and quietly sits on the side of the bed where Kelly is laying. She says, "It's never going to end, is it? They're never going to catch the guy?" Brandon silently clasps her hand as he stares despondently into space. Thanks for reading! If you are enjoying TVofYore's recaps, consider thanking me by buying me a "coffee"!
3 Comments
Tori Bullock
2/23/2018 09:53:08 pm
I can’t believe Donna keeps getting sucked in by that backstabbing ho-bag. I know it makes for good t.v. 🤔 but it makes me sick watching it.
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Isabel K. French
2/23/2018 09:58:29 pm
I’m happy to hear that the recaps are filling the void of missing Hulu episodes. 😊
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3/21/2019 09:40:02 pm
I can’t understand why Brandon doesnt already have a job at a big LA newspaper, being the A student, best-of-all-times. Every paper in the world should be chasing HIM for employment... Or was he the best at a very shitty school.
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