Recap: Blake tells Krystle that since he hasn't heard back from Minister Han regarding regaining control of the South China Sea oil leases, he's going to jet to Hong Kong and refuse to leave until he's granted a personal audience with the minister. A few seconds later, Gerard enters the library and hands him the morning paper featuring the headline Ben Carrington Given Oil Leases, Chinese Cancel Deal with Brother, Blake Carrington. Blake rails about how this must be Alexis' doing, calls her office and learns she's due to land in Denver soon, and says he's off to the airport to "strip her bare before the world". Yikes. A worried Krystle asks if this idiotic revenge plot isn't hurting him more than it is her 'cause of how ridiculously consumed with hatred he's been over the last week or so, and Blake's like, "Nope" and insists on stopping his ex-wife once and for all. 

While en route to Denver, Alexis cheerily toasts Ben for being The Winner of the Underhanded Scheme...and when Ben suspiciously asks, "What's the catch?", she tells him she's merely being a good sport. She then points out to Ben that since he's now in charge of the South China Sea oil leases, he gets the fun job of placating Jason Colby, aka the man he has a troubled history with on account of he once screwed Jason over on a big oil deal. Ben's like, "Drats" and suggests she deal with Colby, so she agrees to have a chat with him...then shoots Ben a covert stink-eye.

Over at La Mirage, Jackie meets Richard Daniels, one of Garrett's old college friends who's in town for the wedding. Richard remarks on how Dominique managed to snag "the last of the confirmed bachelors" ... and when Jackie's all, "Wuh? I thought he was once married to a woman named Jessica", Richard's like, "Uh, no" and doesn't seem to twig onto the fact that he and Garrett never bothered to get their stories straight ahead of time. A few seconds later, Dominique wanders over and asks Jackie why she suddenly looks so aghast, and she mutters, "Nothing" and pretends she has to rush off for a fitting.

​Sammy Jo barks at her nanny to have her son dressed and ready so that she and Clay can take him on an outing. Amanda overhears the exchange and stomps over to remind the skanklet that she was ordered by the court not to take Danny off the Carrington estate without Steven's permission. Sammy Jo shrugs unconcernedly and says maybe she's above the law...like she (Amanda) was when she got away with a reckless driving mishap for which she let Clay take the blame. She then glares at Amanda, says she'll do whatever the hell she pleases, and accuses her of acting like a jealous cat 'cause Clay is her beau. 

Claudia meets up with Blake at her sad looking dried up oil well. She accuses him of syphoning off oil from her well just to spite her, and he tells her she's making no sense and that the thing likely just dried up from natural causes...then is all, "Hey, wait a minute - why are you referring to this as your oil well?" Claudia says that Adam arranged it, then produces the Power of Attorney form Adam made Blake sign when he was too sick to know what he was signing and natters about how first Adam cheated his father, then his wife. Blake says he'll discuss this with Adam, tells her again that oil wells can dry up without sinister intent, then climbs back into his limo. Claudia chases after the car crying, "Noooo!! Don't go! I'm not done with you yet! I'm not as dumb as you think I am!" in a deranged loop.

Blake arrives at the airport just as the ColbyCo jet lands on the runway. The press pack rushes over to pepper Alexis and Ben with questions about the South China Sea oil lease situation, and Alexis sanctimoniously tells them that she and Ben plan to handle oil production in an honest fashion...and that, unlike Denver Carrington, ColbyCo always pays its debts. A slowly unhinging Blake starts clapping and sarcastically barking, "Bravo!" as he ambles over and tells the reporters he'd looooove to talk about Alexis' honesty. He proceeds to hold up a copy of Caress's Sister Dearest manuscript and explains to the press pack that it's a trashy unpublished tell all by Alexis' own sister, and that Alexis tried to suppress it by purchasing the publishing company. As the reporters look intrigued by the ridiculousness of this public spectacle, Blake reads a passage from the manuscript describing the way Alexis callously stood by while her sister rotted in a Caracas prison. Alexis strides over and snatches the manuscript out of Blake's hand, calls it a work of fiction that her publishing company has the rights to...and that if any reporter dares print anything cited from "this trash", she'll sue. An unfazed Blake tells the press pack he has copies of the manuscript in his limo, and they're all, "Yippee!" and rush across the tarmac to grab their free copy. LOL. Blake then glares over at Alexis and sarcastically welcomes her home.

Blake admonishes Adam for stealing a Denver Carrington oil well and gifting it to Claudia, then snarkishly asks what else he's stolen. Adam sheepishly replies, "Nothing", and Blake asks him if this was why he refused to let Steven look at his files, then growls that it's this sort of treachery that made him cut him out of his will. Adam admits making a mistake, but then complains that he's always having to fight for his life as a Carrington 'cause he's never been treated like a true son. Blake's like, "Blah blah...bottom line is that I can't trust you. Now get out of my sight."

Back at the penthouse, Alexis rails to Ben about the unflattering press coverage she's going to get once everyone reads Sister Dearest, then declares war on Blake and vows to take everything he's ever worked for. She tells Ben he'd better be on her side, 'cause she's very confident she'll continue winning and destroy his brother.

Blake tells Bob Ashmore he needs an extension on his loan, but Bob warns that an extension would be highly unlikely 'cause the backers are concerned about his ability to repay the loan. Blake urges him to try...and once he's out of earshot, Bob calls Alexis (aka, "the backers") to ask what he should do, and she crisply orders him to deny Blake's loan extension request.

​Gordon Wales drops by Alexis' office to get her comment about Sister Dearest, particularly the part where she stood by and did nothing while Caress languished in a Caracas prison for a crime she didn't commit. He then asks where Caress is these days, and Alexis says she hasn't the slightest idea, not that she gives a rat's ass about someone she considers dead to her. 

A newly re-incarcerated Caress summons the guard and asks why her urgent message to the Venezuelan authorities hasn't been answered. The guard says that all he knows is that she's supposed to serve out the last two years of her five year sentence, then sympathetically adds, "Sorry señorita." Caress hands him a letter addressed to Blake Carrington and pleads with him to mail it, offering up her diamond ring as a bribe. The guard glances at the envelop, then the ring, and agrees to do her this one favor. Caress moans about how vital it is that Blake receive this letter 'cause her life depends on it. 

Blake meets with Faruq Ahmed to remind him that the consortium agreed to loan him a billion dollars, and that they can't just cancel the loan without warning. Faruq's like, "Uh, sure they can" now that his collateral in the form of South China Sea oil leases is no more. Blake explains that he's doing his best to sort that out - but Faruq is all, "Whatever" and reminds him he still owes the consortium the $250 million lending fee. An incredulous Blake says he must be joking if he thinks he's going to pay a lending fee on a billion dollar loan he never actually received, so Faruq warns that if he refuses, the consortium will sue him, which means there'll be a lien on his company's assets. Blake finally gets around to demanding to know exactly who is in this consortium, and Faruq admits that it's one person: Alexis.

After Blake's head explodes, he races over to ColbyCo to confront Alexis about using a shadowy consortium as a front for her revenge plot against him, then flatly refuses to pay the $250 million lending fee. Alexis tells him she'd be happy to waive the fee in exchange for $250 million in Denver Carrington stock - but Blake refuses, since that would translate to her getting controlling interest of his company. He growls that he'll see her in hell before she takes Denver Carrington away from him, and she growls back that she intends to get everyyyyything he owns and holds dear. 

Dominique drops by Alexis' office to offer up her personal assets in order to settle Blake's debt, but Alexis refuses and says that right now this vendetta is the most important thing she has going in her life. Dominique clucks sympathetically about how her life resolves around her hatred for Blake, then vows that once her engagement party is over, she'll deal with her in the 'down and dirty' kind of way she's always dealt with her kind of filth.

At Carrington manor, Adam tries to explain himself to Blake - but Blake isn't interested, tells him to get lost, then grumbles to Krystle about Adam's betrayal. Krystle argues, "He's still your son" and that clearly Adam needs his father's help and guidance - but Blake shuts her down and says that just 'cause Adam is his son, it doesn't mean he's on his side...then cites the shittiness of his brother and ex-wife as other examples of treacherous family members.  

Jackie stops in at ColbyCo looking for Dominique...and when Alexis sees that she's visibly upset, she urges her to unload her troubles and dish about whatever's on her mind. When Jackie looks hesitant, Alexis lays it on thick about how she and Dominique are very similar in that they're strong businesswomen, and - under entirely different circumstances - would probably be friends. Jackie mulls that over, then spills the beans to her about the shock of discovering Garrett's never-been-married status.

Dex drops by the penthouse looking for Alexis, and Ben says she's not in and reminds him again that their marriage is kaput and that Alexis regards him as scum for bumping uglies with Amanda. Dex reacts to that last thing by punching him, then receives a kick to the face...and the two launch a ridiculous looking brawl across the main level of the penthouse, overturning large houseplants as they punch, wrestle, and pose with what I can only assume are karate style hand gestures to psych each other out. LOL. Alexis returns home a few minutes later, smashes a large vase to get their attention long enough to yell at them to stop, then orders Dex to get the hell out of her trashed penthouse. 

Blake tells Krystle he's miffed at the lack of communication he's been getting from Minister Han, not least 'cause if he can't get his oil lease conundrum resolved, he stands to lose everything. Krystle somehow refrains from screaming 'I fucking WARNED you this might happen!' and urges him to take a break from worrying about losing his empire and accompany her to La Mirage to attend Dominique's/Garrett's engagement party. Blake says he'd rather sit by the phone in case Han calls - but then decides he'd like to talk to Garrett to see if he's willing to be, in any way, useful to his cause. 

Engagement party! Sammy Jo is cozily dancing with Clay...and makes a show of looking even cozier when she spots Amanda staring over at them in dismay. Jackie arrives at the party and is standoffish to Garrett, who figures he can remedy whatever's bothering her by asking her to dance. Alexis makes her grand entrance to smugly offer Dominique a personal gift...and by personal gift she means ratting out Garrett for lying about having had a wife named Jessica. Dominique chuckles and calls her a liar, and Alexis chuckles in return and tells her she should look into it with her lyin' fiance. An enraged Dominique responds by slapping her hard across the face, and an unfazed Alexis says it's Garrett she should be slapping...and as she flounces off, Dominique stares after her worriedly.

Dex seats himself Alexis and asks her if she's truly happy, and she says that since she's accomplished everything she's always wanted in life - money and power - she couldn't be more thrilled with herself. Dex shakes his head in dismay, chides her for hanging out with a creep like Ben, and reminisces about how awesome they were together. He sadly adds that he barely recognizes the revenge-obsessed freak she's morphed into.

In the ladies room, Krystle smugly tells Alexis that she doesn't have the important things in life - Blake, a mansion, a loving family - then smugly says, "You'll never have what I have." Alexis somehow refrains from letting that interaction deteriorate into a messy bathroom brawl and sashays back to her table to tell Ben that it's time to move on to "the main event". She hands him a piece of paper and says she got to Bob Ashmore first, and that there's no limit to the amount of feces she's willing to fling at Blake. 

Blake approaches Garrett at the bar and tells him he'd like to hit up Jason Colby for a giant loan, offering Denver Carrington as collateral. Garrett's like, "Seriously?" and says he'll go through the motions of presenting the request to Jason, but that he already knows what the answer will be: fuck no. He then informs Blake that Alexis phoned Jason the other day to discuss the logistics of transporting oil out of the South China Sea, and Blake growls that he shouldn't be doing business with the she-devil who's responsible for swindling his oil. He assures Garrett that he's expecting good news from Minister Han any minute about having control over the oil leases reinstated, but Garrett says that until that actually happens, there's nothing much Jason can or will do for him. Blake vows to fight this injustice and snarkishly orders him to pass that message along to Jason, and Garrett's like, "Yeah, whatever...you can fuck off now."

Dominique storms over to Garrett, demands to know if he bullshat her twenty years ago about being married to a woman named Jessica, and Garrett avoids admitting that Jessica never actually existed by weakly insisting he loves her. Dominique snaps, "Leave me alone!" and huffs off.

Blake receives a message that someone is waiting for him at the mansion, and Blake assumes it's a Chinese representative who's there to deliver good news and hastily leaves the party with Krystle.

Amanda is standing by the La Mirage's outdoor swimming pool, enjoying the night air, when Clay wanders over. He flirtily tells her he's wanted to dance with her all night, so she pulls him into a slow dance and apologizes for all the times she was so abruptly rude to him. Clay assures her that all is forgiven, then leans in for a smooch - just as Sammy Jo appears alongside the pool, carrying two full champagne glasses. She promptly empties them, struts over to the dancing duo, and sweetly asks Clay if he wouldn't mind getting them something to drink. Once Clay is out of earshot, Sammy Jo snarls at Amanda to run along now 'cause Clay is her date for the evening. Amanda smirkingly tells her to "enjoy him while you can" ... and when Sammy Jo asks what that's supposed to mean, Amanda grabs her and leaps with her into the pool while chirping, "Here's your answer!" The two half-heartedly wrestle in the water in their gowns and high heels as Sammy Jo vows, "You'll never get Clay!" as if he's the man-prize of the century.

Back at the party, Steven spots Adam boozing it up and tells him he's had enough to drink, and Adam explains that he's been binge drinking 'cause of how depressed he is about Claudia, wherever she may be.

Claudia is in her La Mirage suite, spacily pacing the room while muttering, "Liars, liars.." She then strikes a match and lights several candles while naming them: Blake, Adam, Steven, Alexis, Krystle, Sammy Jo...all of whom are again summarized as liars. A few seconds later, one of the candles topples over and sets the drapes ablaze, and Claudia stares at the quickly spreading fire in stunned muteness.

As the engagement partygoers continue to enjoy the evening, smoke starts to spread through the vents...and Claudia's room is now fully ablaze.

Blake and Krystle return to the mansion and are perplexed by the sight of luggage stacked at the foot of the grand staircase. Ben strolls towards them and smugly informs Blake that a cable from Minister Han just arrived, and that his response to Blake about reinstating him as the primary holder of the oil leases is a definitive no...which he translates to mean that Blake is financially wiped out. Alexis, meanwhile, appears on the second floor landing holding a property deed and smugly declares that she now owns Carrington manor, then orders Blake to pack up his shit and his blonde tramp and get the hell out of her house. Blake starts to mentally unravel as he climbs the staircase while insisting that this is his house...and when he gets to where Alexis is standing he shrieks, "I'm going to kill you!!" Alexis stares back at him in horror as he advances on her, wraps his hands around her throat, and starts choking the life out of her...ignoring Krystle's desperate pleas for him to stop.

Thanks for reading! That's a wrap for Season 6.

Recap: Blake summons Adam to his office to happily report that he's managed to convince a bunch of ColbyCo stockholders to sell their shares to him at a stupidly high premium...and when Adam asks how much this revenge buyout is going to cost them, Blake admits, "A fortune!", but insists it's well worth it to gain control of ColbyCo and stick it to Alexis. Adam warns that he's allowing his hatred for Alexis to cloud his judgement and run up enormous debts, but Blake snarls, "It's between me and Alexis!" and assures him that the revenue from the South China Sea Oil leases will provide an endless source of income to keep this tedious feud going ad infinitum.

Alexis tells Ben she's sooooo excited for Blake to see his falsified oil production figures...and when Ben asks her what she plans on doing if Blake figures out that the documents have been doctored, she nonsensically replies that since she's smarter than him she'll be able to double-cross him worse than any man has ever been double-crossed in the history of double-crossing. She then chuckles and predicts that one week from now she'll own the most valuable oil leases in the world, which means she'll effectively own Denver Carrington. She then changes the subject and asks Ben why he's still hanging out in Denver when he's now super rich, so he tells her he likes the idea of being near her and (more importantly) wants to split control of the oil leases with her. She cackles, "You must be joking!" ... and when he points out that she wouldn't have been able to put this giant scam into motion if it weren't for his role in it, she denies owing him anything, tells him he should be happy with the multi-million dollar inheritance she helped him get, and makes it clear she doesn't do charity.

Dex enters the La Mirage dining room, sees Ben boozing at the bar, and quietly approaches him before blurting out the warning 'watch out, bandit!' in "Chinese". As Ben stares back at him with a startled 'the fuck?' expression, Dex peppers him with questions about why he spent so much time in China over the last twenty years. Dex explains that he suddenly remembered he once saw him doing business in the Shanghai port area, and a rattled Ben mumbles that he has no idea what he's talking about and abruptly scuttles out of the bar.

Dex heads over to Alexis' office to caution his ex-wife about Ben's secret past dealings with the Chinese, but Alexis brushes off his concerns and says he must be mistaken. Dex insists he's absolutely sure and warns her that Ben is going to drag her into some kind of trouble - but Alexis says she's not worried in the least, nonsensically invokes Dex's infidelity with Amanda as proof of his general unreliability on all matters, and assures him that she's quite capable of assessing a man's character and has somehow deemed Ben perfectly trustworthy. A frustrated Dex urges her again to be careful, then exits her office.

Blake gleefully tells Krystle that when he buys enough ColbyCo stock, Alexis will be thrown out on the street. A worried Krystle points out that Alexis is too smart to just lose everything that easily and gently asks if his harebrained scheme to take over ColbyCo could possibly fail on a monumental scale. Blake assures her that everything will work out A-OK - just as Gerard enters the room to deliver a cable from Minister Han, who is perplexed by discrepancies regarding Denver Carrington's South China Sea oil production figures and wants to meet asap. 

Blake races over to the penthouse to accuse Alexis of doctoring the stats on his South China Sea oil lease production rates, and she denies doing any such thing and points out that it wouldn't make any sense for her to do that 'cause she'd be putting her own investment in jeopardy. She chalks up the discrepancies to Denver Carrington's shoddy paperwork...and then the two start bickering about how imminently each is going to own the other's company, blah blah. Blake announces that he plans to clear up any confusion with Minister Han directly...and as soon as he exits the penthouse, Alexis calls her pilot and instructs him to gas up the jet and have it ready to transport her to Hong Kong tonight.

One long flight across the globe later..

Alexis tells Minister Han that Denver Carrington's oil production figures are purposely inaccurate, accuses Blake of cheating the Hong Kong taxpayers out of millions of dollars in royalties...then cites as proof the transcript of the recent kangaroo court trial, during which Blake was outed for cheating his own brother from his inheritance and blaming him for their mother's death. As Minister Han glances over the transcript, furrowing his brows concernedly, he tells Alexis he's always known Blake to be a man of honor...and that he finds this intel very disturbing. Alexis agrees that, yep, she too is plenty disturbed about it - but refuses to just stand by while Blake swindles Hong Kong. Minister Han asks what she's proposing, so she suggests awarding her full control of the oil leases - not just the 25% she currently holds - and will see to it that the [non-existent] fraud is promptly corrected. Minister Han mulls over her laughably self-serving proposal, promises to consider her request under the caveat that "nothing is quite that simple", then thanks her for bringing the court transcript to his attention...its complete irrelevance to the issue of the contrived discrepancies in oil revenue reporting notwithstanding.

Steven tattles to Blake that Adam refuses to hand over his documents after being ordered to do so as part of the board committee's watchdog audit, and Blake chuckles about how his two idiot sons are going to have to figure out a non-combative way to live and work together. As Steven stares back at him imploringly, Blake tells him he'll have a talk with Adam once he returns from Hong Kong - but in the meantime will issue a company-wide memo stating that all Denver Carrington employees are to provide him with full access to everything...even though it sounds like he probably really only needs to issue the memo to one non-compliant douchewad. 

Clay Fallmont is playing tennis at La Mirage when he notices Amanda sashaying past the courts. He runs over to say hey and apologize for not realizing she should have been on suicide watch prior to swallowing a bottle of pills. She graciously tells him his apology isn't necessary 'cause she fully grasps that it's up to her to summon the inner strength to not want to off herself whenever life gets stressful...but when she learns that he heard about the overdose from Sammy Jo, she's all, "Sammy Jo? The fuck?!" and huffily stomps off. 

Amanda makes a beeline over to Delta Rho to yell at Sammy Jo for spilling the beans about her overdose to Clay...and Sammy Jo apologizes for the indiscretion, but then asks if she's mostly mad that it's specifically Clay who now knows about her suicide attempt. As Amanda hotly denies that, Sammy Jo smugly points out that a senator's son prefers her to a Carrington born brat, then barks at her to get off her ranch.

Steven is going through Adam's filing cabinet when Adam enters his office and demands to know what he's doing. Steven informs him that Blake gave him carte blanche to view any company files he needs to, then remarks on how his purchase orders don't appear to add up. Adam yells, "This is my turf! Back off!" and Steven threatens to call Blake, accuses him of hiding something he plans to uncover, then once again stalks out without getting the documents he needs for his watchdog committee. Once he's out of earshot, Adam calls the person in charge of the shredding room and says he has a big pile o' files that need disappearing pronto.

Ben lets himself into Alexis' Hong Kong hotel suite...and when Alexis asks him what in blazes he's doing here, he smarmily professes his love for her, along with feelings of jealousy and concern about the possibility of her trading sexual favors with Kai Liu for scheduling a meeting with Minister Han. Alexis says she doesn't buy that for a second, admits she did know about his teenage crush on her when she and Blake were first together, then tells him to run along to his own suite now. Ben says he's sure she wants him as much as he wants her, then declares that it's simply a matter of time until she's his.

Elsewhere in the hotel, Blake compares his company's oil production figures with those that Minister Han received and tells Krystle it doesn't make sense - but that he has the requisite documentation to prove he's right and is confident he can straighten it all out with the minister. Krystle says she suspects that Alexis is behind this, then calls the hotel's check-in desk to ask if Mrs. Colby has checked in yet. When she learns that Alexis is indeed on the premises, Blake dismayingly says he figured she'd have "her finger in the pie", then heads out for his meeting with Minister Han.

Ben returns to Alexis' suite while she's eating breakfast, insists again he's totes in love with her, and proposes they hook up and become "a world class partnership". Alexis declines and reminds him she's doing fine as a single woman running ColbyCo...and when Ben suggests they create a new company, she makes it clear she's dunzo with entering into business partnerships with men, and that he should thank Dex for souring her on the entire notion.

Blake shows Minister Han Denver Carrington's oil production reports, points out that they're substantiated by Hong Kong's own reporting, and blames his enemies for stirring up trouble by falsifying a conflicting set of reports. Minister Han says he'll consider that possibility, then changes the subject to the legal matter that was initiated by Ben Carrington, specifically when he (Blake) was convicted in a court of law of cheating his brother and leaving his mother to die. Blake refrains from pointing out that the trial didn't actually convict him of anything and was more of a proceeding to determine whether or not Ben should be awarded an equal portion of his late father's estate, insists that much of the testimony was either irrelevant or complete lies...and is frankly annoyed that it could have any bearing on his South China Sea oil leases. Minister Han solemnly replies that Asians highly value honor and that he considers "the charges" to be serious. Blake explains that Alexis and Ben perjured themselves in court to make him look like a monster - while he, on the other hand, is a human angel who has always based his business decisions on truth and integrity. He irritably pronounces that no one has the right to question the strength of his character.

Alexis is trying on a mega-expensive Cartier pearl necklace when Krystle enters the store and accuses her of fucking with goat daddy by falsifying oil production reports. Alexis denies it, then accidentally breaks the necklace when she tries to remove it...and as the pearls spill to the floor, Krystle smugly says, "You break them, you buy them" before flouncing towards the door. 

Dominique is busily making wedding plans when Jackie enters her suite and apologizes for the sucky way she's been behaving since learning her race car driver father was a figment of her mother's imagination. Dominique, in turn, apologizes for lying about her parentage for so many years - but Jackie says she did the best she could to give her love-child legitimacy and is sooooo happy that her bio parents are about to be married.

Over at Delta Rho, Sammy Jo cooks Clay dinner, then serves him a ginormous banana split he's far too stuffed to eat. She explains that she may have overdone it with dessert 'cause of how nervous she is about being a hostess, and he assures her she did a great job with dinner. The two retire to the bear skin rug in front of the fire, and during a toast to a very special evening, Sammy Jo accidentally (?) smashes his glass, soaking his shirt with brandy. Clay chuckles at the mishap, urges her to relax, and takes off his shirt before mounting her.

Ben meets with Minister Han, and the two greet each other as old friends and reveal to viewers that they first met years ago when Ben was hired as a South China Sea oil drilling consultant. Han recaps that so far this episode he's met with:

• Alexis, who claims that Blake isn't fit to hold any South China Sea oil leases, and
• Blake, who insists that the most damaging testimony from the recent inheritance trial was perjury

Ben tells the minister that Blake's role in their mother's death is a deep source of shame he's been covering up - until it recently came to light in court. As for Alexis, Ben wryly says she's got plenty of skeletons of her own, and hands him chapter 12 of the Sister Dearest manuscript and warns Han that the truth might cause him some dismay, but that he's entitled to learn what his potential business partner's sister really thinks of her. Minister Han's all, "Wuh?" and begins reading the chapter while Ben smirks evilly.

Alexis is decked out in a bathrobe and frothy pink headband while looking miffed and perplexed that Minister Han has just cancelled his next appointment with her...and when Ben drops by her suite, she tells him she suspects that Han is suddenly avoiding her. Ben rattles off a phrase in "Chinese", and when she's all 'huh?', he translates: 'he's the boss here, his privilege'. A startled Alexis says she had no idea he spoke the language, so he explains that years ago he worked with a Chinese delegation on a mineral rights deal in Australia. Alexis remarks on how much she's learning about him, including how easily he was able to lie on the witness stand...and when he's like, "Uh huh...how about some dinner?", she declines and says she'd rather sit by the phone all night and wait for the minister to call. Ben assures her that everything will work out great and says, "Trust me" ... and after he exits her suite, she snarls, "Trust you?" while scrunching her face distrustfully.

Ben runs into Blake in the hotel elevator and smugly tells his brother he knows how hard he's working to hold onto the South China Sea oil leases - but that sometimes fortunes change. Blake grumbles about how his filthy lies have brought him and Alexis to Hong Kong, but warns that he won't get the revenge he's so desperate for. Ben says, on the contrary, he got exactly what he wanted (e.g. his inheritance), and that he's merely bumming around Hong Kong, looking for investment deals.

Claudia is at the fur store trying on various pricey coats and jackets when she gets into a needlessly bitchy scrap with the salesclerk after an imaginary snub about being a soon-to-be ex-Carrington. She buys half a dozen expensive garments, then flippantly barks at the salesclerk to send the bill to her husband.

​Adam storms over to Claudia's La Mirage suite, stares with disgust as the jewelry and furs strewn across the furniture, and angrily says he heard about her drunken sailor type shopping spree. He snappishly asks why he should pay for all this, so she snaps back, "Because we're married, and I had to put up with your lies!" Adam says he's not stupid enough to pay her bills...and when she says she'll just pay them herself from all the oil profits she's raking in, he smugly informs her that her oil well is starting to dry up. After he storms out, a rapidly unhinging Claudia cries, "It can't be!" and tries to call Blake at his office...then decides she can wait until he returns from Hong Kong to force an ugly confrontation. 

While en route back to Denver, Blake assures Krystle that everything is going to be fine, and that he'll get his answer from Minister Han in a couple of days and is optimistic that he'll remain in full control of 75% of the South China Sea oil leases.

Alexis is still waiting to hear from Minister Han when Ben drops by her hotel suite for the umpteenth time this episode. He informs her that a dramatic statement will be publicly released in two days, then proceeds to read it aloud: the oil ministry is cancelling the oil leases that belonged to Alexis and Blake, and is giving them to a lad named - and this is where Ben suddenly gets all weirdly giddy and demonic looking - Ben Carrington! As Alexis pales and is all, "What the fuuuuuck?!", Ben says he's more than happy to give her control of 25% of the leases, then does his best to convince her that she's only capable of loving a man who's as clever as she is, and who shares her taste for blood: specifically Blake's. After he joyously scampers out of the suite - LOL - Alexis glowers into space and vows to the empty room that she's going to do everything within her power to take both Ben and Blake down. 

Godspeed to that.

Recap: Alexis and Ben are standing on the penthouse terrace discussing "the scheme to end all schemes", aka Faruq Ahmed's shady role in loaning Blake a billion dollars, and Ben wanks Alexis about how she's the best schemer of all the schemers he's ever seen in action. Alexis suddenly gets distracted by the oddness of Amanda's voice during their earlier phone conversation and is now thinking that something could be terribly wrong. She calls her daughter's suite at the La Mirage, gets a busy signal, and decides she needs to rush over to the hotel asap to make sure she's OK.

Over at Carrington manor, Blake tells Krystle he's worried that something might be troubling Amanda, then says he regrets not prioritizing her when she stopped by his office this afternoon at the same time Faruq Ahmed showed up for an impromptu meeting. Krystle assures him he's a superb father who can do no wrong where his children are concerned, but he argues that there's lots of room for improvement...which, d'yuh.

Clay tells Sammy Jo he'd love to take her and Danny to the circus...and when Sammy Jo complains that she gets hassled every time she wants to take the little gaffer off the mansion grounds, he wonders aloud whaddup with the Carringtons and their issues, and cites Amanda as a particularly troubled head-case. Sammy Jo bristles at the mention of the vapid tart and snappishly tells him he can always take her to the circus, and Clay assures her he's not interested in the "mixed-up rich kid" and would much prefer to slum it with her and Danny.

Dominique bursts into Garrett's La Mirage suite and tells him she just learned he jetted to Denver to take Jackie to dinner...and he confirms he did, but now realizes it was a rotten idea and grumbles about how too many years have passed to expect them to function as a real family. Dominique likens him to a cat who has strayed from its owner...and when he sourly retorts, "You left the door open", Dominique gives him a canoodle and says, "If you wanna go, just remember one thing: it's very, very cold outside" and leans in for a kiss. When he stares back at her in surprise, she tells him that that, in case he missed it, was a proposal...and Garrett perks up at the word proposal and gives her a return kiss and canoodle.

Blake asks Steven if he's heard from Amanda in the last several hours, and Steven says he hasn't, and that earlier he had to bail on their lunch date. He then pulls a note out of his pocket left in his office by Amanda, which he forgot to read until now:

Dear Steven,
Always remember that I love you.
Amanda

Blake gets alarmed and takes that as a sign she's in grave trouble, and runs over to the phone to alert the police. 

Alexis arrives at La Mirage with a hotel flunky, who unlocks Amanda's suite. Alexis is aghast when she finds Amanda passed out on her bed with an empty insomnia pills bottle beside her. As the hotel flunky calls 911, Alexis pulls Amanda out of bed and onto her feet, desperately apologizing for snubbing her so cruelly since finding her in bed with Dex. She breathily assures her semi-comatose, flopsy-ing daughter she loves her despite all of the hurtful shit she's said to her lately, then orders her to live, damn it!

Dex drops by the penthouse and tells Ben he has business to conduct with Alexis, and Ben snarkishly tells him he should conduct this business in her office, hand in his penthouse key, and fuck the fuck off. Dex asks him why he's continuing to hang around the penthouse given that he just inherited $125 million...then studies him carefully before remarking on how familiar his face is, and that he vaguely recalls seeing him with a group of men in an oil field many years ago. Ben just shrugs and says, "Oil is my business" and pretends to have no earthly idea what Dex is talking about, and Dex says eventually he'll figure out who he is, then beats a hasty retreat towards the elevator. 

An ambulance transports Amanda to the hospital...and once it reaches the ER, Alexis tells the doctor that the nitwit swallowed an entire bottle of insomnia pills.

Caress barges into Ben's bedroom while he's reading, shirtless, in bed. She smugly tells him she knows he was doinking Emily Fallmont while his mother was burning to a crisp...and since apparently it's the crime of the century, she's pretty sure that Emily would easily crack and spill the beans to the DA. Ben asks her what she wants in exchange for keeping her trap shut, so she tells him she'd like 10% of his inheritance. Ben pretends that he's totes OK with that...and after she flounces out of earshot, he gets on the phone and plans an impromptu trip to Caracas.

Dominique and Garett are enjoying some post-coitus afterglow when he proposes marriage. Dominique happily squeals that she's waited a loooooong time for him to pop the question and promptly accepts. Congratulations, Dullards!
​
Blake and Krystle arrive at the hospital and learn from the doctor that Amanda overdosed on barbiturates and just had her stomach pumped. Blake asks Krystle to call Adam and Steven and inform them about what's going on, then weakly promises to do his best not to snipe at Alexis.

Twelve hours later..

Alexis sits at Amanda's bedside and implores her unconscious daughter to somehow signal if she can hear her. Blake gets on his bitchy horse and demands an explanation from the doctor as to why Amanda hasn't woken up yet, so the doctor tells him there's no set timetable for overdose recovery, and that it could take a couple of days to determine if his daughter's pill popping has resulted in any permanent brain damage. 

Alexis snarls at Blake not to blame the doctor, but rather himself for driving Amanda to the point of wanting to overdose. Blake retorts that if anyone's to blame for this near suicide it's her for turning her back on Amanda after catching her in bed with Dex. The two then bicker back and forth about what a shitty parent the other is until Amanda regains consciousness long enough to weakly shriek, "Stop it!" She promptly slips back into her coma as Blake and Alexis hover over her while quietly staring daggers at each other. 

Ben arrives at Prison Caracas, aka Caress's former place of incarceration, and bribes a Señor Lopez to ensure that Caress serves the two years that are still left on her five year sentence. When Lopez points out that extradition with the United States can be a long, complicated legal process, Ben smirkingly says to leave the legalities to him and to just keep her cell available.

At the hospital, Adam snarks at Steven about demanding to see his Denver Carrington files, and Steven reminds him he's on the watchdog committee and has every right to ask any Denver Carrington employee for whatever documents he wants to look at. Adam warns him to back off and reminds him that he always settles his scores.

Steven visits with Amanda, who has finally regained consciousness sans brain damage. He apologizes for setting her down such a dark path when he bailed on their lunch date, then assures her he'll always be there for her when being a Carrington brat becomes too overwhelming.
​
Claudia drops by the Carrington manor playroom to bid a final farewell to Danny, who pleads with her not to leave. She tells the unhappy tot she won't be coming back to the mansion ever again, assures him he'll be OK, and gives him one last I love you before exiting the room. She runs into Krystle in the hall and remarks on all the flowers being brought in for Amanda's homecoming before bitchily adding that there isn't enough of them to cover up the stench of what's wrong inside Carrington manor. A bemused Krystle asks her what the Carringtons ever did to piss her off this much, so Claudia nonsensically admonishes her and the entire family for making her feel like a charity case when they took her in after she went all squirrelly so they could feel superior to her. She then accuses Krystle of standing by and enabling the treachery with her obnoxious benign sereneness while the rest of the Carrington clan turned on each other...and somehow concludes that Krystle is therefore the most dangerous family member. With that said, she huffily stalks off.

Adam tells Sammy Jo he recently ran into Clay Fallmont who couldn't stop dishing about how beautiful, exciting, and fresh he finds her. [LOL, fresh..?] Adam reminds her that Clay comes from a powerful political family, and that it'd totally freak Steven out if she somehow convinced Clay to shackle himself to a skanklet such as herself in holy matrimony and then sued for full custody of Danny. Sammy Jo looks intrigued by that scenario as she stares contemplatively into space.

Ben arranges to meet Caress clandestinely in his car under the darkness of night to exchange 50K for her Sister Dearest manuscript. As soon as they make the trade, a man hiding in the back seat pops up to chloroform Caress, then removes her from Ben's car to be smuggled to Venezuela via a freighter.

Amanda is discharged from the hospital and returns to Carrington manor to be greeted warmly by Krystle, escorted up to her room by Blake, and wrapped up in cotton wool by a team of loving servants. She remarks on all the lovely lilacs Krystle placed in her room, then sheepishly adds that she doesn't deserve all this fuss. Blake insists she does, then points out that she didn't actually want to die when she swallowed the pills - but rather send out a cry for help that both he and Alexis unwittingly ignored. He promises that from now on he'll be more on the alert whenever she's looking poutier than usual.  

Alexis is mystified when she calls La Mirage looking for Caress and learns that someone checked her out and paid her hotel bill. Ben shrugs disinterestedly at Caress's mysterious disappearance and cryptically says he made it possible for her to get a great suntan [from her windowless cell in Caracas..?], and that it's not important to comb over the details that resulted in the desired outcome. Alexis quickly loses interest in her sister's whereabouts and helps herself to some breakfast - just as Ben announces that he's jetting out of town for a few days on a business trip.

Steven overhears Sammy Jo telling Danny about their outing to the circus and bitchily reminds her that she's not supposed to be taking him off the estate. Sammy Jo snarks back that she's sick of his rules and his threats...and that he'll be sorry he didn't treat her with respect once she's married to Clay Fallmont and has full custody of their son. Steven's all, "Wuh? Clay?" and stares back at her in shocked bewilderment.

Garrett drops by the mansion to warn Blake that Jason Colby was displeased when he heard about the South China Sea oil leases being used as collateral for a billion dollar loan handed out by some shadowy consortium. He urges Blake to focus on his pipeline project instead of pointlessly waging war with Alexis, but Blake's like, "No can do" 'cause he really gets off on constantly sticking it to Alexis, then insists that the oil leases are secure.

Alexis calls Kai Liu to confirm her meeting with Minister Han in Hong Kong the day after tomorrow, at which time she expects to be in full control of Blake's oil leases. After the call, Liu tells the unidentified man in the room with him that their scheme is working out exactly as planned...and as the camera pans over, we see that - shock of all shocks! - the unidentified man is Ben. Ben hands Liu chapter 12 of Caress's manuscript and tells him to translate it into Chinese (despite Chinese not being a language, but rather an umbrella language term that includes multiple languages and/or dialects the Dynasty writers didn't bother to acknowledge). Ben wryly calls the chapter 'Alexis at her best', and Liu looks giddy with delight. 

Alexis is smiling affectionately at the framed photo of Amanda when Dex bursts into her office to tell her he heard about Amanda's overdose and to ask how his ex-lover is doing. Alexis tells him she was shaken by the sight of Amanda being so close to death, was reminded of how immature and vulnerable the nymphet is, and acknowledges that her harsh behavior was the likely impetus for the suicide attempt. Dex gently points out that maybe the silver lining in this near tragedy is that the two of them are no longer sniping hatefully at one another, and a chastened Alexis agrees and says she'll pass along his best wishes to Amanda.

Alexis sweeps into Carrington manor decked out in a fantastic fur cape, exchanges barbs with Krystle as per usual, then heads upstairs to visit with Amanda. 

Alexis gives Amanda a lovely jeweled necklace that was handed down from her mother, explains that she acted so bitchy towards her ever since catching her in bed with Dex 'cause she felt betrayed, and didn't actually mean to say all those hurtful things. Amanda insists that she never meant to hurt her, and Alexis breezily replies, "I know, dahling" and says she loves her so much she'd give her life for her. A few seconds later, Blake enters the room - but is so miffed by the sight of Alexis sitting at Amanda's bedside that he abruptly exits. 

As Alexis makes her way downstairs, Blake angrily insists that they discuss Amanda's fragile state - but Alexis ignores him until she reaches the bottom of the staircase. She then looks up at him and declares that one day soon their children and this house will be hers again...and a perplexed Blake's all, "The fuck you just say?" as the two shoot stink-eyes at each other.

Recap: Amanda packs a suitcase, then pauses to stare sadly at a framed glam shot of Alexis as she flashes back to The Subpoenas episode when Alexis told her she could take her 'I'm sorry for sleeping with Dex' apology and shove it. Amanda produces a bottle of insomnia pills, pours several in her hand and stares at them tearfully, then puts them back into the bottle. After that, she heads downstairs and tells Krystle she's off to visit her friend Kate in Vail...and Krystle wishes her a fun time, but then stares after her concernedly.

Over in the library, Blake continues to work the phones in an effort to secure a billion dollar loan. When Krystle brings in a tray of coffee, he tells her that Jim Ellison, a money broker on the east coast, has agreed to fly to Colorado to meet with him about his billion dollar request. He deflatedly adds that it's obvious many bankers have lost confidence in him 'cause of all the bad press from Ben's inheritance trial, and Krystle wanks him about his awesome integrity and assures him that, at the very least, she'll always stand by him.

Adam asks Steven when he plans to resign from the Denver Carrington board, given that he works at ColbyCo, aka a competing company. That's actually a reasonable question. Steven's like, "Uh, never", to which Adam snarlingly warns that he's going to find a way to remove him from the board.

Alexis - who's sporting a really thick green and black headband to match the rest of her ensemble - tells Ben she's planning to meet with Faruq Ahmed and then launch "a scheme to end all schemes". Ben looks intrigued and asks her for more details...and when she assures him she'll tell him all about it in good time, he bitchily threatens to double-cross her with Blake if she continues to keep him in the dark. Alexis lights up a cigarette, tells him to chillax, and explains that she isn't used to having a partner in her Blake vendettas 'cause she's been battling him on her own for so long. Ben seems satisfied enough with that retort and is all, "So girrrrl...tell me all about Faruq."

Jackie, who's now living in some kind of rooming house in or near Denver, calls Dominique on a pay phone and leaves her a message that she called to once again assure her she's OK. On her way back to her room, a fellow resident named Fred introduces himself, ogles her smittenly, and invites her to go to the movies with him. Jackie says she can't go tonight, reluctantly agrees to a rain check, and heads back upstairs. 

Amanda is sipping ginger ale at the La Mirage bar when the bartender asks her whassup with her mopey disposition. Amanda explains that she's feeling very guilty for something she recently did, then proceeds to loudly regale the bartender with the story of her reckless fire-hydrant-smashing joyride during the previous episode, and that she was more than happy to let someone else take the blame for it. A few feet away, a reporter named Blanchard overhears her confession, and makes a beeline to the nearest phone to tell his editor he unwittingly latched onto a potentially scandalous story about Amanda Carrington, and promises to investigate further.

Clay seats himself beside Amanda at the bar and invites her to join him for dinner, but she declines and snappishly says she just wants to be alooooone. Clay shakes his head at her rudeness and calls her a spoiled brat, and Amanda poutishly retorts that brats are raised by parents who spoil them. [Um, not necessarily.] Clay implores her to have dinner with him...and when she threatens to scream if he doesn't leave her alone, he backs off and tells her she really should consider seeing a shrink. 

​Jim Ellison tells Blake that no he can't/won't lend him a billion dollars, and that yes his bad reputation as a result of the inheritance trial is largely the reason. A dismayed Blake says he'll try to find the cash elsewhere, and Jim's all, "Good luck with that" and exits Blake's office.

Amanda enters a diner in Logan (Colorado), spots Dex eating alone, and flounces over to his booth. Dex makes it clear that it's over between them...and when Amanda says she's well aware of that but just really needs a friend to talk to, he stares back at her skeptically. A few seconds later, one of the construction workers bursts into the diner to inform Dex of a pipeline emergency, and Dex abruptly tells Amanda he has to run, then races out the door. A despondent Amanda stares after him sadly and whimpers, "Goodbye, Dex."

Caress drops by Blake's office to tell him she learned the identity of the woman Ben was hitting the sheets with the day his mother died: Emily Fallmont. A stunned Blake asks her if she's absolutely sure 'bout that, and Caress assures him she is. She points out that they can use this intel to send Alexis to prison for perjury, then gives him what looks like a pretty thick manuscript, aka an unpublished copy of Sister Dearest: The True Story of Alexis Morell Carrington Colby Dexter and explains that it can only help with his relentless battle against her she-devil of a sister. Blake thanks her for providing him with so much background research, then growls, "I'm going to destroy her."

Blake arranges to meet with Emily Fallmont at the cemetery, in front of Ellen Carrington's grave, so he can point to the headstone and tell her he likes to come here whenever he needs to ponder the truth. Subtle, Blake. A rattled looking Emily comes right out and admits that, yep, she was between the sheets with Ben on Fire Day, and that she only hooked up with him (briefly) 'cause she got so lonely-horny while her husband was away in Washington D.C. She further admits that she's been in contact with Ben recently, and that he'd threatened to ruin her life and marriage if she told anyone about their decades old rooming house romps. She tearfully asks Blake what she should do now, and he tells her that since he doesn't have the heart to ruin her life she doesn't have to do anything. He adds that he'll find a way to deal with his vindictive brother that doesn't entail blowing up her marriage...and Emily thanks him and gives him a grateful hug.

Blake storms over to the penthouse and admonishes Ben for being the worst kind of coward by hiding behind Emily and threatening her when she suggested coming clean about their affair. He says he refuses to ruin a decent woman's life and will find another way to nail him to the wall. Ben reminds him that when they went to war against each other he won, then smugly asks his brother how it feels to be the loser...and Blake tells him the war's not over yet, barks, "Wipe that damn smile off your face!", and vows to make him regret ever returning to Denver. 

Alexis meets with Jim Ellison to request a loan of a billion dollars using ColbyCo's vast resources as collateral. Jim assures her that that'd be no problem, then remarks on how it's the second time today that someone has asked him for a loan that large. Hee! What a remarkable coincidence! After he leaves for the airport, Alexis grins evilly into space and says to her empty office, "You've got your money, Blake. The hard way."

Later at the penthouse, Alexis rails at Caress for involving herself in The Mystery of Who Ben Was Doinking on Fire Day, and Caress snappishly warns her not to threaten her 'cause there's nothing preventing her from going to the DA's office to report the identity of the mystery woman. She smugly tells Alexis that she's going to be subpoenaed, forced to recant her bullcack testimony from earlier, and (fingers crossed!) charged with perjury. 

Krystle tells Blake she heard from Amanda's friend in Vail, who told her she hasn't seen or heard from Amanda in weeks. Krystle adds that she's very worried about Amanda, who seems as though she's getting more despondent by the day.  

Alexis tells Ben that Caress is determined to exact revenge on her, and warns that she penned an unauthorized Sister Dearest biography while she was languishing in a Caracas prison cell. A displeased looking Ben says that Caress is definitely dangerous to have around, brings up the fact that she was released from the prison two years early, then says it'd be great if they could figure out a way to somehow get her re-incarcerated in Venezuela so that she's forced to serve her full sentence. Yep, that'd definitely be a neat trick.

Fred comes knocking on Jackie's door and asks her if she wants to watch TV with him, but she tells him she's too busy and asks him to leave. Fred reacts by shutting her door and getting all grab handsy with her - just as Dominique and Garrett burst in, are all, "The fuck is going on here?!", and physically toss Fred out of the room. LOL. Jackie hugs her mom and assures her she's OK, and then Dominique drops the bombshell that Garrett is her bio dad. Jackie stares back at her in stunned bewilderment and angrily demands to know why she kept this detail from her for so many years, but Dominique has no answers and just stares back at her mutely.

Back at La Mirage, where Jackie is resting in the bedroom, Dominique wrings her hands to Garrett about how Jackie feels betrayed by her...and Garrett's like, "Well d'yuh" and says he too feels betrayed that she kept his daughter from him for twenty years. Dominique reminds him that he was married when he unwittingly knocked her up, and that she believed she was doing the right thing by carrying a secret that prevented society from labelling her daughter a bastard, aka the way she was branded throughout her childhood. A few seconds later, Jackie emerges from her bedroom and stares mutely at Garrett, who clucks sympathetically about all she's been through tonight, and that getting used to him being her bio dad will take time. He says he's thrilled to be her father and hopes that she loves him as much as he loves her, and she spacily wanders over to him and leans against him in a clingy side-body hug.

Blake finds Amanda waiting for him in his office foyer and agrees to spend some quality time with her - but then has to put a pin in the father-daughter bonding session when he learns that Faruq Ahmed is waiting for him in his office. 

Faruq reminds Blake that he once made a hurtful accusation that he had kidnapped his grandson, but is willing to let bygones be bygones and help him out financially. He tells Blake he represents a consortium that can give him access to a billion dollars using Denver Carrington's South China Sea oil leases as collateral. Blake asks what the terms would be, so Faruq says that the loan can pretty much be called in whenever he feels like it, and that in lieu of an interest charge the loan [shark] fee will be $250 million dollars. Blake's all, "Wuh? That's ridiculous!", but then accepts the terms without further negotiation 'cause he has no better options, other than to simply scrap his idiotic plan for a hostile takeover of ColbyCo that shows every sign of leaving him penniless and powerless.

Amanda gets bored of waiting around for Blake to finish his meeting and poutishly tells his secretary she wouldn't want to rush her father and lose a big deal on her account, She heads down to the lobby and calls Steven to ask if he's free for lunch, and he's like, "Sure, come on by." Amanda happily offers to pick up some food and meet him in his office at 12:30pm.

Faruq meets with Alexis and happily reports that Blake took his shitty loan deal. She gleefully says, "He has bought his own death", and extends a bravo to her devious Middle Eastern ally.

Adam tells Claudia he managed to transfer ownership of the Lankershim oil well to her, and hands her the papers. He asks that she keep this under wraps until the hostile ColbyCo takeover storyline has run its course, and Claudia says she's agreeable to that. Adam changes the subject and says he now regrets rebuffing her sexual advances the other night and would like her in his bed again, and Claudia's like 'why the hell not? I have needs too' and invites him to stop by her La Mirage suite for a booty call any time.

Amanda drops by Alexis' office and explains that her lunch with Steven got cancelled when he was unexpectedly called away. Alexis invites her to sit down so she can reprimand her for her abject stupidity in loudly recalling a reckless driving incident in which she let someone else take the blame, which was overheard by a reporter named Blanchard from The Denver Chronicle. She sighs and asks Amanda how much more she's going to publicly embarrass her, and lectures her about how privilege comes with responsibility. She bitchily promises not to cut her out of her will - only her heart - then asks her to run along now so she can enjoy her catered lunch in private. Amanda wails that she needs her love not her money...then gets all sad and dejected about how no one in her family has time for her, and that they shouldn't worry about her embarrassing them ever again. 

​Krystle tells Blake she's worried about the terrible deal he made with Faruq Ahmed, but Blake says he didn't have a choice 'cause he's in a crisis situation. Krystle points out that a contrived, voluntary battle with Alexis doesn't translate to being in a crisis situation, but he's like, "Does too" and assures her he knows what he's doing. 

Amanda is in her La Mirage suite, holding a glass of water and staring sadly at the handful of insomnia pills in her hand.

Alexis writes Faruq Ahmed a check for $1 million and thanks him for helping her with Operation Fool Blake Into Thinking He Wasn't Being Double-Crossed When He Borrowed a Billion Dollars. After he heads out, a smiling Ben wanders over and says a toast is in order...and is about to smooch her when the phone rings. As Alexis contemplates answering, Ben tells her to let it ring so they can get busy.

Over at La Mirage, an overdosed Amanda is clutching the phone moaning, "Please be there, please answer" ... and Alexis finally answers and exasperatedly tells her they have nothing more to talk about. She barks, "Let's end this!" and a sleepy Amanda agrees before dropping the phone and passing out.

Recap: Alexis breezes onto the main floor of her penthouse decked out in a fur trimmed negligee while Ben is seated at the breakfast table, reading the morning paper. He shows her the article detailing Denver Carrington's pledge to initiate a hostile takeover of ColbyCo...and when she just shrugs unconcernedly, Ben marvels over her calmness. Alexis dismissively calls the pledge Blake's pathetic attempt to flex his muscles and take over her company...then says that what's really bothering her is not knowing the identity of the woman he (Ben) was doinking while his mother was burning to death. Ben keeps mum (no pun intended) about who his lover was on that fateful day and says he'll handle the situation himself, to which a miffed Alexis says she's determined to find the woman - with or without his help. 

Blake is meeting with a banker named Winston Towers to see about borrowing a billion dollars for Operation Take Over ColbyCo, and says he's willing to put up his South China Sea oil leases as collateral. Winston tells him that since these are leases they can't serve as collateral, then regretfully declines his loan request. Blake accuses him of turning him down 'cause of all the bad press he's been getting as a result of the recent trial, then bitchily says he has important business to do with agreeable bankers who'd be more than happy to help him out. He then buzzes his secretary and asks her to call the New York bank. 

Caress is dining with Ben at La Mirage, faux reminiscing about how she had the hots for him back in the day, and was crestfallen when it was clear that he barely noticed her. She purrs about how he was something of a ladies man, then pretends to try to recall the name of the woman he was hitting the sheets with around the time his mother died. Subtle, Caress. Ben snidely tells Caress that the "non-existent" woman is in her imagination, and recalls that their paths didn't actually cross much in the past and that he'd like to keep it that way. He then gets up and storms out of the dining room, prompting Caress to mouth damn.

Caress drives over to the cathouse Ben used to frequent in his younger days and talks to the redheaded madam [who's still on the job decades later, pimping out her stable o' harlots]. Caress tells Red there's money in it for her if she happens to remember a man-whore customer named Ben Carrington...and, more importantly, who he was boning the day Ellen Carrington met her fiery demise. Red tells her that Ben stopped frequenting her establishment well before Fire Day 'cause word on the street was that he'd fallen in love with a non-hooker. She never found out her name, but recalls that it was a big secret 'cause the woman was married to a Colorado big-shot of some sort. Caress grins slyly and tells her she's been very helpful...and then gets mistaken for a lady of the evening while sashaying past a customer on her way to the door. LOL.

Alexis learns from one of her corporate spies that various bankers have turned down Blake's billion dollar loan requests, and that he's been offering his South China Sea oil leases as collateral. When the spy adds that Blake is about to jet to New York to meet with a banker there, Alexis writes her a check and thanks her, then calls Kai Liu, aka assistant to the Chinese Oil Minister, to tell him she has urgent intel about some South China Sea oil leases he's not going to want to ignore. 

Ben meets up with Emily on a deserted road on the edge of town to tell her that various people are trying to figure out who he was in bed with the day his mother became a human shish kabob. Emily's all, "Wha-a-a?!" and gets visibly freaked out, but Ben assures her that everything will be fine as long as she keeps her mouth shut...and if she doesn't, they could both end up in jail for conspiracy. A panicked Emily says she'd be more than happy to spill the beans to whoever wants to know their intimate bidness, but Ben snarls, "Don't you fucking dare!" and shoves her into the driver's seat of her car and tells her to run along now. As she drives off, Caress, who's lurking in her car on a nearby road, smiles smugly at the exchange she just witnessed.

As Blake is about to board his New York bound plane, Alexis arrives at the airstrip for no reason other than to get all in his face about how satisfying she finds it that his empire is crumbling. Blake retorts by snarkishly telling her to enjoy being head of ColbyCo while she can, then boards his plane. 

Krystle drops by Dominique's La Mirage suite to ask her if she's heard from Jackie, and Dominique tells her she hasn't, but that Garrett called the police to help with the search. She laments lying to her daughter about being a married man's love-child, and Krystle says to not beat herself up about it too much 'cause twenty years ago having an out-of-wedlock baby was a deep source of shame [on account of so many judgey people back then deciding it was their business who was born to whom]. She then points out that Jackie can now have the father she's always wanted - despite being fully grown and no longer needing to be parented - and urges Dominique to let Garrett be a part of their lives. 

Claudia confronts Adam again about how she found the Power of Attorney form he manipulated Blake into signing while he was too sick to realize what he was signing, and threatens to show it to Blake if he doesn't help her get her stupid oil well back. Adam sadly asks if blackmail is all that's left of them, and she unrepentantly says, "Yep", calls the oil well her severance pay before she leaves his shitty family for good, and warns that he'll regret it if he doesn't come through for her.

Caress meets up with Emily at La Mirage and gets all weirdly probey about how she dealt with the horny loneliness that must have accompanied her (senator) husband's long absences a couple of decades ago. When Emily just shrugs and asks her to cut to the chase about why she summoned her here, Caress says she recently talked to Little Jimmy, aka the local dwarfling who used to hang out at the old rooming house on the outskirts of town. As Emily pales, Caress tells her that Little Jimmy remembers seeing Ben and his married girlfriend sneak into the rooming house for frequent nooners...and that he's pretty sure they were going at it the day Ellen Carrington perished in the fire. A shaken Emily asks her what she wants, and Caress is all, "I only seek the truth. Which you've provided, so thanks!" LOL.

Alexis jets to San Francisco and squeezes into a black poofy '80s gown for her meeting with Kai Liu, a blushing admirer who openly tells her how often he's fantasized about the two of them getting it on. Alexis chortles flirtily at his creepish intensity and says she needs him to arrange a meeting with Minister Han so she can give him an earful about all the bad press that's come out about Blake as a result of the inheritance trial, and then tattle on him for wanting to use the South China Sea oil leases as collateral to secure a billion dollar loan. Kai Liu says he'd be more than happy to set up the meeting as long as there's some puntang in it for him, and she non-committally tells him she'll be in Hong Kong ten days from now. After he exits the hotel suite, Alexis calls ColbyCo's Hong Kong affiliate George MacKenzie and orders him to get all the stats on Blake's South China Sea operation, and then figure out how to doctor the documents to suit her nefarious purposes.

Dex angrily asks Blake whaddup with Denver Carrington putting a pause on the pipeline project and no longer reimbursing him for the accumulating expenses, so Blake explains that he's temporarily delaying construction of the pipeline 'cause he's pouring every cent he can into his ridiculous Get Revenge on Alexis At All Costs vendetta. An incredulous Dex calls him crazy and growls that he'll be damned if he's going to allow himself to be dragged down with this idiotic feud.

Amanda is sitting in the La Mirage dining room, writing an apology letter to Alexis for having sex with her husband and thereby destroying their marriage. She looks unhappy with what she's written so far and crumples up the piece of paper and starts over - just as Clay Fallmont wanders over and asks what she's up to. She bitchily tells him it's none of his business and that he's not welcome to join her...and when he chides her for always brushing him off, she abruptly gets up and leaves the hotel. Clay stares at the crumpled letter curiously before scooping it up, then chases Amanda all the way to the parking lot and implores her not to drive away mad...and when she proceeds to ignore him, he leaps into the passenger seat before she squeals off. He warns her that driving dangerously isn't a good way to resolve her problems, and she responds by sharply swerving to avoid hitting another car...and ends up smashing into a fire hydrant, causing water to start gushing everywhere.

Steven gets irked when Sammy Jo tells him she took Danny to the zoo earlier, and reminds her that she's supposed to keep him on the mansion's grounds. She rolls her eyes, tells him to relax, and assures him she won't try to kidnap him (again). He snidely asks if Clay went to the zoo with them, and she just-as-snidely replies that it's perfectly normal for her to have a boyfriend since she's a girl, and insists that Clay - who she emphasizes is straight - is a good influence on Danny. Sort of. 

Clay tells the police that he was the one who smashed into the fire hydrant, and shushes Amanda when she weakly tries to point out that she should probably face the consequences of driving so recklessly and stupidly endangering every other motorist on the road. The police administer several tests to ensure that Clay hasn't been drinking, and he passes them all with ease. 

Emily arranges another sneaky meet-up with Ben to warn him that Caress knows they were an item around the time his mother went up in flames, and that she's extremely wigged out about her husband learning of their decades old love affair. She wails, "Why is this haaaappppening?!", and Ben assures her he'll handle Caress, and that nothing bad will come of this.

Dex drops by the penthouse to complain to Alexis that Blake has halted work on the pipeline. He offers to put up 500K of his own money if she can fund the rest, but she gives him a hard no on that and dismissively tells him to look for a loan elsewhere. Dex implores her to put her personal feelings aside for the sake of the pipeline project, and she snaps back that he should have thought about her personal feelings before he "raided the kindergarten". She adds that she rather enjoys seeing him suffer, and he snorts with disgust at her desire to get back at him by hooking up with Ben, then asks, "What's next? Streetwalking?" Alexis slaps him hard across the face, and he glares at her before pulling her towards him and planting her lips with a hard, forcible smooch. When she looks totes into the rough play, he smugly growls, "Face it, Alexis. I'm the best man you ever had in your bed and you know it." She contemplates that before leaning in for another smooch - but he holds her back, glares at her some more, then stalks out of the room.

Blake is having a troubled sleep and yells out, "Liar!", which wakes up Krystle...who then turns the light on and asks him what's wrong. He tells her he keeps having the same dream about Ben and Alexis lying about him in court, but quickly assures her he'll fight the injustice of the bogus inheritance trial and win. He then decides that since he's up anyway, he's going to head into the office early and get a jump on the day. When Krystle stares back at him in pensive concern, he explains that he always feels better when he's doing something to help his dire situation.

Blake is meeting with someone named Bob Ashmore, who's willing to help fund the ColbyCo takeover as long as Denver Carrington's ELC holdings (which contain valuable real estate) are used as collateral. He warns Blake that the arrangement would open him up to other buyers snapping up property from that subsidiary for a period of sixty days, but Blake assures him he's A-OK with that and signs the papers. 

Krystle storms over to the penthouse to ask Ben how much longer he's going to try to destroy his brother, then asks why he hates Blake so. Ben tells her that it's a long and nonsensical story, vehemently denies killing his mother, and chuckles about how much he's been enjoying blaming Blake for something he's been blamed for for so long. Krystle throws in the towel on trying to appeal to her brother-in-law's conscience and dejectedly exits the penthouse.

Over at Carrington manor, Blake admonishes Clay for taking a dangerous joyride with his daughter in the car - until Amanda interrupts to confess that she was the one behind the wheel. Clay beats a hasty retreat so that Blake can focus his ire on Amanda and demand to know whaddup with her self-destructive tendencies lately and wonder aloud what she's doing with her aimless life. Amanda poutishly replies [with the episode's biggest understatement], "Nothing! I'm a hopeless failure!" and rushes out of the library. 
​
Krystle tells Blake she went to see Ben earlier and was aghast at how consumed with hatred and jealousy the man is, and that she's never seen anyone so vicious and driven. When Blake quips that Ben can't harm him 'cause he's indestructible, Krystle says she's deeply troubled by the Cain and Abel dynamic, and how desperately Ben wants to see his own brother dead. 

Bob Ashmore informs Ben that he has sixty days to buy up as many ELC holdings as he can, and Ben grins all sinister-like and says that sixty days will give him all the time he needs to screw his brother good.

Recap: As Denver Carrington stock plummets to sewer levels, Blake is on the phone with some flunky named Charles, ordering him to liquidate a bunch of company assets and then buy up as much stock as possible - while keeping his fingers crossed that this'll help raise the stock's value. Krystle enters the library and suggests to Blake that he appeal the judge's ruling - but Blake complains that that'd take years...and since he needs to clear his name pronto, he has no choice but to track down the woman who was doinking Ben while their mother was being barbecued alive.

Alexis tells whoever she's on the phone with to discreetly buy up as much Denver Carrington stock as possible. Ben, who has overheard her half of the conversation, says he's deeply impressed with her business acumen...but when she says she could do a lot with his $125 million windfall, he bitchily makes it clear that that kind of financial advice is not welcome. He heads out - just as Martin Gaines (aka one of Denver Carrington's board members) arrives after being summoned by Alexis. She invokes the [unexplained] scandal his brother got himself tangled up in which she presumably made go away...and when Martin irritably points out that that happened years ago, she smarmily retorts, "I'm calling in my marker."

Over at Denver Carrington, Blake, Steven, and Adam are busily buying back as much Denver Carrington stock as possible when Ben bursts in to smugly stick it to Blake about how word on the street is that he's having trouble buying up his own stock. He offers to lend Blake some money in exchange for two Denver Carrington board seats...and Blake correctly assumes the seats are for him and Alexis, calls him indecent, and rails at him for the umpteenth time for letting their helpless ma die in a house fire. Ben sneers, "Tell that to the judge - except, you already have" and swaggers out of the room.

Amanda enters the La Mirage dining room and runs into Jay Bradley, aka the new operating manager of La Mirage. She tells him she'd like a job at the hotel and heard that there was an opening in guest relations, an area to which she feels well suited...despite having no credentials in the hospitality industry and never having worked a day in her life. Jay looks less than thrilled at the prospect of hiring the spoiled woman-child and says she'd be better off taking it up with her rich daddy, then firmly tells her he doesn't currently have any openings.

Clay Fallmont wanders over to Amanda, tells her he overheard that embarrassing exchange, and clucks sympathetically about how hard it can be to have a rich, powerful father. He says he's managed to get through that kind of personal hell by figuring out what he wants to do with his life and then going about doing it. [That Clay is sure a profile in brilliance.] Amanda whines that she can't seem to find anything interesting to occupy her time, and Clay suggests she's not trying hard enough, then reminds her that her mother owns a huge corporation and could surely find her some kind of superfluous, high paying executive position. Amanda sourly says she doesn't want to discuss Alexis, then gets up and flounces out of the dining room.

During an interview with Gordon Wales, Blake insists that the current plummeting of Denver Carrington stock is just a temporary sitch...and that after all of the damaging testimony from the recent trial is revealed as hateful lies, his company will once again be riding high. Gordon marvels at his confidence and asks if this isn't history repeating himself...and by this he means the irrelevant-to-this-plot, untimely death of Ted Dinard. He reminds Blake of the ridiculously light sentence he was given for that manslaughtering, and is now getting away with the murder of his mother. Blake angrily retorts that he didn't murder his mother, refrains from pointing out that the recent court proceeding he underwent was not actually a criminal trial to determine whether or not he was guilty of causing Ma Carrington's death, and barks at the cheeky reporter to get the hell out of his office. 

Alexis is sitting at the head of the empty Denver Carrington board room...and when Blake gets wind that she's on the premises and asks her what the devil she's doing here, she decrees that since his company is about to become hers, she's been thinking of how she might redecorate this drab, wood-paneled room. LOL. Blake reminds her that they proposed merging their companies back in Season 3, but it didn't take...so Alexis says she has a much better business brain now, and is as ruthless as is necessary to go for the jugular. She then gets up and sashays out of the room, leaving a troubled looking Blake staring contemplatively into space.

Dominique calls Garrett in L.A. to tearfully inform him that Jackie has run away, but has been calling her to assure her she's safe...and Garrett reminds her that Jackie is a grown woman who's legally allowed to leave Denver if she wishes, and that it's probably a very good sign that she's regularly been in touch.

Alexis arrives at Dex's pipeline jobsite via helicopter to ogle his disheveled ruggedness and deliver some Lex-Dex papers he needs to sign. Jennifer happens to wander over at that moment to ask Dex something that could easily have waited another five minutes...and exchanges barbs with Alexis, who haughtily informs the attractive young blonde that she's her "absentee co-employer". Once Jennifer has wandered out of earshot, Alexis wryly remarks on how hot she is, and Dex breezily describes her as "a very good worker" ... then swiftly changes the subject and says he's going to need time to read over the papers before he's ready to sign, but promises to deliver them by morning. Alexis wishes him a pleasant evening and clarifies that her unannounced pop-in was to check on what he's doing with her millions, not to see him per se. Mmm hmm..

At Carrington manor, Garrett expresses concern to Blake about the Denver Carrington stock sewer dive and how it will affect his business commitments to Jason Colby. Blake says that the trial testimony that has besmirched his company was largely horseshit, and that he fully intends to clear his good name asap.

Alexis reminds Ben that it's important for the two of them to trust each other, then demands to know why in the hell he went to Denver Carrington to see Blake this morning. Ben says that that's strictly his business, and makes clear that he doesn't trust her 'cause he figures that at some point one of them is going to double-cross the other. Alexis says, in that case, she wants to dissolve this unholy alliance, and snarls at him to pack up his shit and get out of her apartment. Ben rapidly softens and agrees that, yep, they really do need to trust one another and assures her he's fully committed to their shared desire to destroy Blake. He then leans in for a conciliatory smooch.

When Garrett jets to Denver from L.A. and arrives at La Mirage, Dominique hugs him and coos about how much she neeeeeeds him. She tells him she hasn't heard from Jackie in awhile, is very worried about her wellbeing, and that...oh yeah, he's her bio dad. Garrett does his best to look utterly stunned by that revelation, then asks her why she waited so long to tell him. Dominique asks if they could put a pin in that discussion until she locates Jackie, and Garrett's like, "OK by me" and suggests they call the police to see if maybe they're interesting in tracking their daughter down.

​As Alexis coats her lips with a thick layer of red lipstick, Ben hornily suggests they head upstairs to her boudoir 'cause he's not into the idea of nailing her in the living room. Alexis says she's not into the idea of getting nailed by him at all...and when he implies that she's a shameless cock tease, she admits that, yep, she definitely enjoys flirting with smitten men. Ben translates that as an invitation to lean in for another smooch - just as Dex enters the penthouse with the Lex-Dex papers Alexis had delivered to him earlier. He glares at Ben as he informs Alexis that the papers are signed, and she tells him to leave them on the table, then grabs Ben and indulges in an in-yer-face-Dex! type smooch. Dex purses his lips unhappily and beats a hasty retreat.

Over at Carrington manor, Amanda explains to Krystle that she's been moping around so much lately 'cause she's soooo miserable about her icky hookup with Dex that hurt her mother so deeply that she's not even speaking to her anymore. Krystle says she can empathize 'cause she once made a similar mistake, and Amanda's all, "That's nice, but we're talking about me now", then wanders across the room to stare despondently out the window.

Elsewhere in the mansion, Sammy Jo is horsing around with Danny when she runs into Steven and gaily tells him that she and their son are off to a picnic...and when Steven scrunches his face disapprovingly, she hastily explains that they're picnicking in the mansion's playroom 'cause it's too cold outside. She then tells him how sorry she is about how Blake's trial played out...and when Steven eyes her suspiciously and asks what her ulterior motive is, she rolls her eyes and chides him for always taking himself so seriously.

Sammy Jo and Danny are joined in the playroom by Clay Fallmont, and the three are enjoying a picnic of corn dogs, pizza, and large helpings of other types of junk food. Steven wanders past the room and looks less than thrilled by the sight of Clay playing with Danny. Or maybe that was just his default sour expression.

Caress drops by Blake's office to deliver an urgent piece of good news: she knows for a fact that Alexis perjured herself on the stand, then explains that the two of them were shopping in Chicago the day Ellen Carrington became a crispy critter. Blake looks intrigued, thinks back, and says he now recalls that Alexis wasn't in Denver on Fire Day, and that he saw her for the first time after the tragedy at the mortuary. Caress earnestly says she wants sooooo much to help him 'cause she only feels intense hatred for her sister. Blake perks up at that shared sentiment and says they're going to need hard evidence to prove that Alexis committed perjury...and Caress assures him that she'll move heaven and earth to find it.

Krystle stops by ColbyCo to admonish Alexis about her hostile behavior towards Amanda, but Alexis sneers that she has zero desire to talk to her about any of her children, especially her whore-daughter. Krystle calls her heartless for not being more forgiving of the Amanda-Dex dalliance, and implores her to give Amanda the life direction she so desperately needs. Alexis snarls that she doesn't answer to her and barks at her to get out of her office.

Blake informs Steven that one of the board members, Martin Gaines, has demanded that he resign as board chairman, lined up other members to vote his way, and summoned the entire board for an emergency meeting. As Steven's all, "Wha-a-a-at's happening?!", Blake growls that Alexis is surely behind this, and that she's out for blood...but vows that what she'll get instead is hers and Ben's blood. 

Claudia arrives at Denver Carrington to meet up with Adam...and when she finds his office empty, she snoops through his drawers and finds the Power of Attorney form he manipulated an ill Blake into signing during The Alarm episode. Claudia's all 'jackpot!', makes a photocopy of the form and stuffs it into her purse, then confronts Adam with the original when he returns to his office. He stares at her in stunned horror and asks how she obtained the top secret document [he didn't think to keep more secure under lock and key], and she smugly says it only matters that they're partners now...and that he'd better do as she says, otherwise she'll blow up his world by showing the document to Blake. 

Gordon Wales tells Alexis he interviewed Blake yesterday, fibs about how Blake spent most of their time trash-talking her, and says he already feels bad about how ape-shit she's going to go when she reads the interview. Alexis mulls that over and agrees to offer her side of the story, then calls Blake "a tarnished person, cruel, and unforgiving". She adds that his image as a benevolent father figure is a load of shit, that he's responsible for the deaths of Ellen Carrington and Ted Dinard, and when the world learns of his true colors he'll be the most hated man alive.

Board meeting! The old white men (plus Dominique for a dash of diversity) convene in the Denver Carrington boardroom, where Martin Gaines decrees that Blake should step down as board chair. He points out that the bad publicity generated from the recent trial has rubbed off on the company and caused the value of the stock to plunge into the shitter. Blake says he intends to turn that situation around and assures the board that the company will be back to its robust self in no time...and when Martin asks how he plans to accomplish this, Blake replies, "By launching a hostile takeover of ColbyCo." Steven points out that that's a very risky move...but when the vote ends up in a tie, Steven gives his aye in favor of Blake's revenge plan. A pleased Blake growls, "Now, once and for all, let's get ColbyCo."

Recap: Blake is informed by his P.I. (Mr. Hall) that he has a solid lead on the whereabouts of Mr. Franklin, but hasn't yet been able to track down the floozy Ben was hitting the sheets with on the day his poor mother burned to death. Blake snarkishly orders Mr. Hall to conduct a hard target search of every flop house and saloon in the area to find her, and that if he can't manage the task he'll hire someone who can, damn it...and Mr. Hall [somehow refrains from telling the wrinkly bully to go pee up a rope and] meekly replies, "Yes sir."

Over at the penthouse, Ben is staring into the crackling fireplace and asking Alexis what she sees when she looks at fire, and she gleefully retorts, "I see Blake...burning at the stake." Ben says that he sees victory rising from the ashes, and the two toast to their impending victory and Ben's potential windfall of $125 million. When she asks him what he's going to do with his new found wealth, he stares dreamily into space and says he could definitely get used to living in a swanky penthouse and having a valet and chauffeur. Alexis contorts her mouth into a pouty expression and reminds Ben that he owes her a token of appreciation for rescuing him from his grim life in the Australian Outback and helping him bring this matter to trial (in extremely speedy fashion), to which he points out that she's not exactly a trustworthy benefactor, given that she so brazenly perjured herself on the witness stand...but then softens his general disgust of her treacherousness by pouring her another glass of champagne. 

Blake commiserates to Krystle about how all the bad press from the trial could be devastating to his reputation and company...and that he could lose everything he's ever fought for. Krystle's like, "Well d'yuh" and says they absolutely have to find the woman Ben was in bed with during the fire so that she can refute Ben's and Alexis' bullcack testimony.

Steven grumbles at Bart Fallmont for getting dropped by the party as a senatorial candidate just 'cause he's gay, then wanks him about being the brightest, most creative candidate the party has ever had. Bart says he's actually really happy to be out of the race, is thrilled to no longer be living his life as a closeted gay man, and has taken a job in the Environmental Agency in Washington D.C. He invites Steven to come along to D.C. with him, but Steven declines and says he'd rather mope around his father's Denver mansion and live the rest of his dull life under a perpetual cloud of gloom. 

Blake storms into Alexis' office and demands to know the identity and whereabouts of the woman who bumped uglies with Ben on the fateful day their mother died. After bickering back and forth about whether or not such a woman even exists, Blake reminds Alexis that just five episodes ago she was begging him to take her back...and when he refused, she framed him by committing perjury. Alexis calls the notion of her begging him to take her back absurd, then says he committed a far greater sin than perjury when he vowed to love and cherish her 'til death do them part, and then threw her out of Carrington manor and their children's lives. She vows to ruin him - just as Blake gets a call from Mr. Hall, who informs him that Mr. Franklin has been located in a seedy motel on the edge of town. After hanging up, Blake smugly tells Alexis that her plot to ruin him might not be successful after all, then hurries out of the office. 

Mr. Hall tells Blake he found Mr. Franklin living in a motel on the wrong side of the tracks...and the two are about to head over to Skid Row when Blake's secretary informs him that a deflated looking Oscar Goldman has been waiting for him in his office for nearly an hour. Oscar glumly tells Blake he's really bummed that Bart is no longer in the senatorial race, and is worried he's throwing his life away by moving halfway across the country and taking a job with the Environmental Agency. Blake assures him that Bart will be just fine, and points out that taking a fat government job doesn't exactly qualify as 'throwing one's life away' ... and Oscar gets a clue that Blake is busy with Operation Locate a Helpful Trial Witness and says he's ready to shuffle off dejectedly now.

Steven confronts Adam about his role in destroying Bart Fallmont's political career, but Adam says he has zero remorse about doing something that resulted in getting the injunction terminated so that Denver Carrington could resume construction of the pipeline. He adds that whatever personal carnage his gay friend suffered was well worth the reward.

Over at Motel 6, Blake asks Mr. Franklin why he lied in court, so the wino admits he was paid to lie...and that he took the cash fully intending to give it to his long-suffering family, but stupidly used it to buy booze instead. He says he's been sober for the last two days, intends to stay that way (fingers crossed), and that he's totes down with returning to court in a couple of days' time and telling the judge the truth about who was in the oil field the day Ellen Carrington died. Blake squeals happily and shakes Mr. Franklin's hand while smugly predicting that the plaintiff side is going to be in for one helluva surprise - but somehow doesn't think to get Franklin on the record with a signed affidavit...or at least put the man in a more controlled environment, aka not leave him to his own devices in a seedy motel, where he could easily be tempted to fall off the wagon and show up to court drunk (spoiler).

Steven asks Alexis if she was being honest on the witness stand, so she carefully says that whatever she specifically said about Blake was true. When Steven's like, "What about the rest of your testimony?", she chides him for not showing her the kind of loyalty he routinely shows to Blake, and demands that he give her equal love and respect. Steven just stares back at her in stupid muteness instead of insisting she answer his question about the veracity of her entire testimony.  

Jackie calls Dominique from a pay phone to let her know her she's OK, but is still really tearful about being lied to about her bio dad's identity. Dominique begs her to reveal her whereabouts, but Jackie whimpers, "Sorry" and promptly hangs up. This storyline is bringing back traumatic memories of enduring Lindsay Blaisdel's non-stop ugly crying (during Season 1) about being conceived out of wedlock.

Caress bursts into Alexis' office to tell her she knows for a fact she wasn't doinking Blake on the day his mother burned to death, then explains that she checked her diary from twenty years ago (!), which indicated that the two of them were on a shopping trip in Chicago on that day. She smugly tells Alexis she still has the power to hurt her...and after she sashays out of the room, a concerned looking Alexis gets on the phone and frantically tries to call Ben. 

At the La Mirage, Dex manages to persuade Clay Fallmont to take a job as his explosives expert on the pipeline project...and while he's exiting the dining room, he spots Amanda sitting alone and sulkily sipping on a drink. When he tries to say hey to her, she poutishly tells him it's too late for them to be talking, then barks, "Leave me alone." Dex is like, "OK, can do" ... and a few seconds later, Clay wanders over to Amanda and remarks that she was pretty rough on Dex just then. He offers to join her and listen to her First World problems, but she bitchily declines and tells him she's not interested in having him be her sounding board.  

Claudia drops by Steven's office to commiserate about the two of them being forced to testify against Blake in court. Steven sourly points out that she didn't seem to feel bad while she was trashing Blake on the stand, but Claudia insists she did it under duress, and declares Adam to be their shared enemy 'cause he outed Bart Fallmont and - she's pretty sure - is up to something even more nefarious. Steven shrugs unconcernedly and says he'll just deal with his brother face-to-face, so Claudia says she'll find out what Adam is up to by herself, then bitchily storms out of the room. 

Blake arrives at the pipeline jobsite by helicopter to check in with Dex and voice his approval for the decision to hire Clay Fallmont as the explosives guru. As they're chatting, Hawkins (the foreman who was fired by Dex during the previous episode and who has sneaked onto the jobsite) loosens the chains holding giant pipes atrop the flatbed truck Blake and Dex are standing beside. Blake sees them begin to topple and grabs Dex, then pulls him to safety beneath the truck. A grateful Dex is all, "Thanks, goat daddy. You saved my life."

Adam finds Claudia sexily lounging in his bedroom at Carrington manor, purring about how much she's missed him this season, then sexily invites him to join her atop the bed. After a half-hearted smooch, Adam coldly reminds her that she abandoned their marriage when she moved to La Mirage, remarks on what a horrendous idea it'd be for them to knock boots, and says he's going downstairs to get himself a drink and doesn't want to see her in his room when he returns.  

The next morning at the courthouse, Caress makes a smug entrance and tells Alexis she's suddenly interested in watching the proceedings. Blake arrives soon after and snarlingly suggests to Ben he head back to Australia...and when Ben worriedly asks Alexis what the penalty for perjury is, she just shrugs and says she has no idea what the word perjury even means.

The judge announces that he's allowing additional testimony...and as Alexis and Ben are all, "Wha-a-a?!", Mr. Franklin ambles into the courtroom and onto the witness stand. Mrs. Davis reminds him that he testified to Ben being at work in the oil field the day Ellen Carrington died and asks him if he'd like to change that testimony...and Franklin, who suddenly looks as though he's been hitting the sauce hard since his 'come to Jesus' moment with Blake earlier, scrunches his face in misery and incoherently natters about how his wife was the only person who'd ever had faith in him. The incredulous judge orders the bailiff to escort the drunkard off the stand, admonishes Blake et. al. for wasting the court's time, and announces that he's ready to make his ruling.

The judge weighs all of the superfluously irrelevant evidence that was presented at this ridiculous trial and comes to the conclusion that Ben is entitled to a quarter of his father's estate. As Ben and Alexis woot happily and hug, Dominique assures Blake that this isn't over, and that Alexis won't be allowed to get away with what she's done.

While walking past the press pack, Alexis gaily pronounces that justice has finally been done...while Blake tells reporters that he fully intends to appeal this ruling, and also locate the woman Ben was doinking while their mother succumbed to the flames of a house fire.

In an out-of-the-way restaurant, Ben meets up with Emily Fallmont (trying to look incognito in large sunglasses), who wrings her hands about the ruling against Blake and tells Ben she wants to come forward and tell the world it was she he was boning on that fateful day. Ben tells her that that'd be a horrible idea, points out that she'd only succeed in ruining her reputation and marriage, and asks her if Blake Carrington is really worth destroying her life over. Emily ponders the high cost to her confession as she stares contemplatively into space.

At the penthouse, Alexis and Ben guzzle champagne and toast to "the sweet smell of success". Alexis tells Ben she has great plans for his $125 million, but he makes it clear that he's perfectly capable of spending/investing his own cash windfall and doesn't need any direction from her. He laments Blake stealing a chunk of his life, then declares that in revenge he shall build his own empire and use it to destroy his brother...and Alexis squeals excitedly at that vague, implausible plan and says she'd really like to somehow get in on that. 

Over at Denver Carrington, Blake is working the phones and barking at various flunkies to get a breakdown of ColbyCo's projected revenues, loans, and details on every shareholder. When a puzzled Adam asks what in blazes he's doing, Blake snarls, "I call it 'survival of the fittest'" and says he intends to find ColbyCo's weak spot, and use it to destroy Alexis for once and for all. 

Recap: A negligee-clad Alexis is lounging in her penthouse, reading the day's paper when she spots an article stating that Blake and Ben are about to duke it out in court over Tom Carrington's estate.

​Caress arranges (over the phone) to meet with her publisher - just as Alexis enters the room and says she's assuming they'll head over to the courthouse together to witness Ben's/Blake's trial. Caress shiftily says she has important business to take care of, and Alexis says it's a shame that the Denver press won't get to see the cute Morell sisters out on the town together...and says this as if a court proceeding about an inheritance dispute is the social event of the season. 

Krystle, Steven, and Amanda arrive at the courthouse and ignore the reporters swarming around them, peppering them with questions about the imminent trial. Inside the building, Steven is served with a subpoena...and when he tells Ben he knows absolutely nothing about Tom Carrington's will, Ben non-answers by correctly assuming that Blake avoided this morning's press pack by slipping in through the back entrance of the courthouse.

Steven tells Blake and his female attorney (Mrs. Davis) he was just subpoenaed by Ben's lawyer, and Mrs. Davis tells him not to worry and that it's probably just an old trick to throw her off-stride. Blake, meanwhile, tells Adam they'll need to set aside their differences to focus on this court battle, which could potentially affect Denver Carrington. Adam says he sees the case as open and shut, given that Tom signed his last will and testament in front of three witnesses, and that he can't wait to give Ben the what for while cross-examining him. 

Elsewhere in the courthouse, a distressed Jackie tells Dominique she sent away for her birth certificate, which indicates the sperm donor in her conception as father unknown. She admonishes her mother for lying to her about her non-existent race car driver father, then tearfully races off.

​While on the witness stand, Dominique's testimony is founded on the ridiculous layers of hearsay that her mother told her that Tom told her that he blamed Ben for the death of Ellen Carrington...and haughtily adds that she has no reason to doubt her mother's account 'cause she was the most virtuous, honest woman who ever walked the earth. Ben's lawyer (Crenshaw) asks her when she first met her father...and after some bitchy back and forth about why that detail is important, Dominique is forced to admit that she met Tom Carrington on the day he died, and on that day was named as one of three beneficiaries of his multi-million dollar estate - none of whom included Tom's non-illegitimate son, Ben.

Dex arrives at the penthouse to pick up some papers from Alexis...and as her manservant scuttles upstairs to fetch them, Dex stares wistfully at a framed photo of Alexis, has a flashback of when they first hooked up, and mutters, "My God...Alexis."

As Ben is questioned by Crenshaw on the witness stand, he tells the court about how he's been estranged from his family for decades and hadn't met his half-sister Dominique until now. He insists that he was not the one who killed his mother and instead blames Blake, who shouts, "That's a lie!" and is promptly warned by the judge to keep quiet. Crenshaw refers to Dominique's testimony as "triple hearsay" (hee!), and would therefore like to hear an account of the fateful day Ellen Carrington died by someone who was actually in her vicinity. Ben explains that on the day in question, his father Tom was in New Orleans on business and had instructed his sons to not leave their wheelchair bound mother alone. Naturally, there was an emergency in the oil field that had to be urgently addressed, so he raced off to help - while Blake apparently headed into town, got drunk, and seduced a young woman at the very time the Carrington house somehow burst into flames. Ben says he lied to Tom to protect his brother, to which Blake screams, "You caused her death! Admit it, Ben!" and is admonished by the judge that he has no problem tossing him out of the courtroom if he can't keep his yap shut. 

While cross-examining Ben, Adam asks him why he waited so long to tell "the truth", and Ben sourly retorts, "Because my father waited so long to die." He explains that he told his father it was Blake who got drunk and left their mother to die - but Tom refused to buy that nonsense 'cause of the closeness he and Blake shared. To that, Adam retorts that it's nonsensical for him to imply that Blake asserted undue influence over his father, given that the two men hadn't seen each other for years...and only reunited when Tom was on his deathbed. 

Dex arrives in Logan (Colorado) and enters a seedy watering hole filled with flannel wearing laborers. He spots the deadbeat he's looking for - Hawkins, aka the foreman at Lex-Dex's pipeline construction site - and tells him he has a lot of explaining to do regarding missing equipment and a generally poorly managed jobsite. He promptly fires Hawkins and tells him to collect his work gear from the jobsite and get lost.

Over at La Mirage, Caress is meeting with her editor, who assures her her book will be an instant bestseller. Caress pours two glasses of champagne to make a celebratory toast, but the publisher declines and says he has to rush off to get her manuscript mailed to New York, but will be right back. 

Alexis arrives at La Mirage and runs into Dominique, who calls the Ben/Blake court battle "a sick sideshow". She angrily accuses Alexis of orchestrating this "violation of graves" and having to listen to Crenshaw dare to suggest that her angelic mother wasn't telling the truth when she passed along a second hand assumption of what Tom Carrington thought probably caused his wife's death. Alexis snorts, "What? The truth hurts?" and Dominique gets so enraged that she has to restrain herself from lunging at Alexis and indulging in a rough-and-tumble Alexis-Krystle style catfight. 

​A former Carrington oil field laborer (Mr. Franklin) testifies that the day Ellen Carrington died, he was on the Carrington oil field, rescuing a man (who'd had some kind of dangerous mishap) with the aid of one of Tom's sons. Crenshaw asks him to identify which son that was by dramatically pointing at him, so Mr. Franklin points at Ben, while a stunned Blake is all, "Wha-a-a-a?!" and loud tittering noises break out among the courtroom spectators.

Alexis enters the La Mirage suite where Caress is lounging and gleefully says she's come to ask for her autograph. When Caress scrunches her face confusedly, Alexis congratulates her on her "wonderful piece of fiction", then drops the bomb that as the new owner of Creighton Publishing, she holds the rights to her unauthorized piece of trash of a biography and will see to it that it never gets published. An enraged Caress growls, "I'll see you dead for this", then looks startled when she suffers a sudden bout of weakness.

Claudia testifies about what a douchewad Blake is, then cites as proof his firing of her from La Mirage without cause and his refusal to give her ownership of the oil well she inherited from Walter Lankershim. When Crenshaw wryly asks her what she did to piss Blake off, she replies that she married Adam...who, in turn, lied to her and also refused to help her get her oil well back, aka her one chance to be financially independent. Blake instructs Adam not to bother cross-examining Claudia 'cause he doesn't want to dignify her whiny accusations...and a few seconds later, the judge mercifully calls a recess.

A miffed Krystle asks Claudia how in blazes she could turn against the man who's helped her the most, and Claudia snappishly retorts that she can't defend a man who would kill his own mother. 

Blake is in the courthouse bathroom when Ben enters...and is about to turn around and leave when Blake snarlingly orders him to face up to his corrupt courtroom shenanigans. He says he remembers helping Mr. Franklin rescue the man on the oil field that day and accuses Ben of paying him off to lie in court...and when Ben sneers, "That's more your MO", Steven has to restrain his father from lunging at Ben [and does this as though the old goat would have a prayer of not getting his ass kicked by his much younger and fitter brother]. Blake shoots Ben the stink-eye, then calmly exits the bathroom.

Ben heads over to the nearest pay phone to call Alexis and ask her whaddup with her not sticking around the courthouse to give him some much needed emotional support. Alexis breezily says she's not into spectator sports, then chides him for not having more of a backbone, both on and off the witness stand. She urges him to appear stronger while under questioning if he's ordered back on the stand, barks, "Give 'em hell!", and hangs up the phone. LOL.

Steven is called to testify about his acrimonious custody battles with Blake, along with Blake's manslaughtering of Ted Dinard. As the courtroom spectators loudly titter, Steven is forced to admit that, yep, Blake was convicted of killing Ted Dinard in a court of law, and that he (Steven) was only too happy to testify against his father during the trial. A smug Crenshaw announces that the plaintiff rests...and Steven quietly apologizes to Blake for the damaging but fairly irrelevant testimony.

Blake takes the witness stand and testifies that, yes indeed, his father was in New Orleans on that fateful day, and that an oil field emergency made it necessary for him to leave his mother's side. Ben had been the one who stayed behind, but then abandoned his mother in her time of need to go into town, get loaded, and hit the sheets with some hussy. His irresponsibility, Blake insists, was the reason Tom Carrington disowned his youngest son...and Blake adds that his father's brain appeared to be in proper working order up until he died. Under cross examination, Crenshaw gets Blake to admit that he called his father Tom, and that they too were estranged for years until he conveniently became an heir to his estate. Blake insists that he had tried to locate Ben after their father expired...and Crenshaw sneers that he didn't try hard enough, then dramatically calls Alexis as his next witness. 

Back at Yokel Headquarters, Hawkins gets all in Dex's face, so Dex moves towards him to shove him out of his orbit when he accidentally bumps into a hot blonde woman who introduces herself as Jennifer. As Dex ogles her, she tells him she's a construction worker who's actually under his employ...and he perks up at that and offers to buy her a beer. As the two smittenly chat at the bar, Hawkins marches over, taps Dex on the shoulder, and punches him in the face...and Jennifer looks on in fascination as the two idiots roll around the bar, overturning tables as they fake wrestle each other. Dex emerges victorious and literally throws Hawkins outside, then struts over to where Jennifer has been watching the ridiculous display of testosterone fueled idiocy. She flirtily offers to tend to Dex's black eye, but he declines and says he's going to need to stay away from beautiful women for awhile.

Alexis testifies that Ben Carrington was the one telling the truth about the day his mother died...and when Crenshaw asks her how she could possibly know that, she poutishly reveals that she was the innocent young maiden Blake was doinking at the same time his mother was burning to a crisp. As the courtroom spectators titter excitedly at that dramatic revelation, Alexis adds that she was engaged to "a very ardent Blake" (OMFG), and was so deeply under his spell that she agreed to keep quiet about the great lie that it was Ben who had cruelly abandoned their mother and left her to burn to death. Blake yells, "She's lying!!" - but Alexis insists that her version of events is true, and that Blake knew how to get what he wanted from her. 

Adam confers with Blake and Mrs. Davis, and the three determine that Mrs. Davis should face off with Alexis in as tough a manner as possible. Mrs. Davis starts off by asking Alexis how many husbands she's had, and accuses her of being "a black widow" in reference to Cecil's death a few seconds after their wedding ceremony. She then moves on from that pointless line of questioning to ask Alexis why she found it necessary to fly all the way to Australia to fetch Ben, then gets all in Alexis' face as she asks if it was to get vengeance against Blake for rejecting her recent sexual advances. Alexis denies that and insists that Blake was with her while his mother was dying...and the weary looking judge orders a recess and says he'll deliver his verdict in a few days. The camera then pans across the courtroom to capture the smug grins of Alexis and Ben, along with the concerned scowls of the Carrington clan.

Recap: Once all of the masqueraded partygoers have departed Carrington manor, Krystle goes upstairs to check on Blake and grumble to him about how Alexis arranged Ben's reveal to create the public spectacle of two hostile brothers confronting each other. She then asks Blake why he hates Ben so much, but Blake firmly says he doesn't want to talk about it, then gets on the phone and orders Gerard to have Alfred bring the car around.

Over at La Mirage, Alexis cackles to Ben about how wigged out Blake looked while he was de-pirating himself and declares that this somehow means they won Round 1. Ben glumly expresses concern that Blake will eviscerate him in court and insists that he only wants to see justice done...and Alexis assures him he'll get the justice he seeks, as well as his inheritance. Ben suddenly gets all prickly and warns that if she does anything to sacrifice him in the interest of obtaining whatever it is she's really after, he'll be a worse enemy to her than Blake...and Alexis stares back at him in poutish bewilderment.

Dex returns to his La Mirage suite and gets an earful from Amanda about the way he abandoned her at the masquerade ball. Dex explains that he met up with an old friend to discuss the construction of the new pipeline, a job for which he plans to leave Denver asap...and Amanda perks up at that and says she'd looooove to get away with him indefinitely. Dex firmly tells her he's leaving town alone, then comes right out and says, "I don't love you" ... and Amanda whines, "You can't mean that!" and asks if he's only saying that 'cause of how much Blake disapproves of their icky hookup. Dex says that hitting the sheets with her has been a mistake, and a heartbroken Amanda wails, "Maybe I'm just a mistake in everyone's life!" and storms out of the suite.

Alexis catches Caress snooping in her bedroom, but then quietly exits the room and makes a loud entrance a few seconds later so Caress can remain unaware she was caught red-handed and can pretend that she was merely trying on her sister's sable coat. Alexis tells her she can keep the sable, then asks her if she's ever thought about writing a book...and Caress looks rattled by the question and says she highly doubts she has the patience to ever do a thing like that. Alexis is all, "Nonsense!" and suggests she write about her time in the Caracas prison...and if she runs out of ideas with that, she could always write about her infamous sister. Caress pleads a sudden headache and announces that she's off to bed...and on her way out of the room, Alexis tosses her the sable, then checks out the box of letters and papers she'd been snooping in a few minutes earlier.

When Blake drops by Dex's La Mirage suite looking for Amanda, Dex tells him she's not here...and that he finally got a clue and dumped the woman-child twit like yesterday's news. 

Over breakfast, Alexis poutishly tells Ben that if he expects them to be partners in Operation Sue Blake From Getting Too Much of His Father's Inheritance, he probably shouldn't threaten her by vowing to be a worse enemy to her than Blake. Ben sheepishly explains that he's generally wary of people 'cause he's been double-crossed a lot - but that he woke up happy this morning 'cause together the two of them pulled off a reunion that sent Blake reeling. Alexis tells him the wheels are in motion, meaning a bunch of subpoenas are about to be delivered, and assures him that they'll succeed in "burying Blake". The two then toast to goat daddy's "funeral". 

Krystle asks Blake why he hates his brother so much, but Blake clams up and says he spent years trying not to think about Ben and would prefer to not start now. He heads over to the library to make some phone calls...and a few seconds later, a glum looking Amanda saunters in to say hey. Blake asks her where she's been all night, so she explains that she was aimlessly wandering around town while contemplating the callous heave-ho she just got from Dex. She tells Blake she's miffed at him for confronting Dex about their relationship and assumes he paid Dex off to break up with her - but an aghast Blake assures her he would never do such a wretched thing [even though it's exactly the kind of thing that's up his alley]. Amanda tearfully apologizes, then whimpers that she has no idea what she's going to do without Dex in her life.

Adam is working out in the mansion gym when Steven confronts him about Bart's gay scandal that was splashed across the front page of The National Informer. Adam once again weakly denies having had anything to do with it, but Steven doesn't buy that and angrily slams his brother against the wall. Blake hears the commotion and rushes in to break up the fight and demands to know what the devil is going on with them fighting two days in a row. Adam brusquely says, "It's personal", and Steven grunts in agreement without further explanation. A fed up Blake orders them to work out their differences, preferably without them physically attacking each other, and the two pretend they're both going to act in accordance to that.
​
Dex stops by Alexis' office to inform her that he's leaving Denver and is no longer doinking Amanda. He calls the grisly affair with his stepdaughter a mistake and once again apologizes, then urges Alexis to not turn her back on her daughter. Alexis snaps, "I have no daughter" 'cause of how deeply the nymphet betrayed her. Dex chews on that for a few seconds before changing the subject to his final goodbye, and tells Alexis he's always and will always love her. He adds that if she ever misses him enough to want him back, she need only call him and he'll be on the first plane to rush head-first into a reconciliation. Alexis calls the offer very touching, but icily adds, "Don't wait for my call."

Caress is at the La Mirage meeting with her publisher, who's questioning how accurate the 'Alexis loved Cecil Colby to death' allegation is in her book. Caress insists it's most definitely true, then requests an advance for her tell all schlock. The editor offers to write her a check for $5,000, and she squeals happily and assures him she has tons of additional juicy secrets for a sequel. After she scampers out of the room, the editor opens the suite's adjoining door, through which Alexis dramatically sashays. She calls her sister treacherous, then tells the editor she's looking forward to Caress's stunned reaction when she learns that her sister is the new owner of Creighton Publishing...and that her unauthorized biography will never see the light of day.

Blake races over to ColbyCo to ask Alexis where Ben is, but she just shrugs and retorts, "How should I know?" Blake says he knows she's behind Ben's unveiling at the masquerade ball and demands to know what nefariousness she's up to now, and she snappishly obfuscates by telling him she answers to no man. A dismayed Blake tells her she's gone too far this time and calls her games filthy...to which Alexis says she learned that from him, then warns that one day soon he's going to beg her for mercy. Blake growls, "You'll have a long wait!" and storms out of her office.

Oscar Goldman accuses Blake of planting the 'Bart is gay' scandal in The National Informer in order to get the Fallmonts to drop the injunction against the pipeline - but Blake denies doing any such thing, then reminds Oscar that he too has had to endure the shock of admitting to the world that he has a gay son. Oscar wonders aloud how he can accept this, insists he loves Bart regardless, but now has to contend with a wife who's heartbroken...even though apparently a part of her always knew Bart was gay. Blake urges him to not behave like the kind of homophobic fucktard he was towards Steven for so many years...and Oscar says that in light of his family's current pickle, he no longer has the heart to squabble endlessly over a stupid pipeline and will simply take it on faith that Blake and his/Alexis' company won't do anything to overtly destroy the environment.

Claudia is back at Carrington manor, packing up her things, when Adam enters the room and asks her whassup. She tells him she's so fuuuuuuckin' mad about him not getting her her oil well back that she's finally ending their shitty marriage and moving into a suite at the La Mirage. She then snarls at Adam to tell Blake he hasn't heard the last of her.

Jackie is on the phone, arranging to have a copy of her birth certificate mailed to her suite at the La Mirage. [It remains unclear how a twenty year old has managed in her life thus far without having had access to her own birth certificate, but OK.]

Dominique rushes over to the penthouse to ask Ben whaddup with the subpoena she just got from his lawyer, then makes it clear she'll never testify against Blake, or do anything that could hurt him. Ben just shrugs and says she'll have to answer questions honestly while under oath...but Dominique classifies that as harassment and says he can't possibly win this 'I want my inheritance' case. She asks him why he allowed himself to be persuaded by Alexis to come to Denver, given that anyone who gets involved with the woman ends up in trouble, and Ben's nonsensical response to that is he's home now...and that this time he's let Blake know he's home. Er, OK.

Amanda drops by ColbyCo to apologize to Alexis again for knocking boots with Dex, and insists she didn't mean to hurt her. Alexis stonily says she should have thought about that before getting it on with her beloved, and admonishes her for destroying her marriage and thinking that an apology could resolve the matter. She snarlingly tells Amanda she's going to have to live with the choice that caused her mother so much suffering, then screeches, "Leave me aaaaaaaaalone!" ... and a shaken Amanda scuttles out of her office.

Blake summons Adam to his office to inform him that Oscar Goldman is dropping the injunction in order to not inflict further pain upon his family. He then asks Adam if he had anything to do with the Senatorial Hopeful Admits Gay Past: College Roommate Was Lover article, and Adam chuckles and points out that the scandal brought about the desired effect of getting the injunction quickly squashed. An appalled Blake says there's no excuse for what he's done and that it was very very wrong, and Adam self-piteously retorts that he's always wrong in his eyes.

Caress is boozing in the penthouse when Ben returns. She purringly invites her ex-brother-in-law's brother to join her for a drink - and maybe a little something extra in her boudoir - and Ben's all, "Ack!", tells her he suddenly remembered he has a meeting with his lawyer, and beats a hasty retreat. Ouch. 

Blake returns home and tells Krystle he was just served with a subpoena, and that Ben is suing him for a quarter of their father's estate: $125 million. Blake laments the bad press that's sure to arise from this court case, then vows to not let Ben destroy him.

Blake brings a bouquet of flowers to his mother's gravesite, and natters to her headstone about how she used to chide him and Ben to shape up. A few seconds later, Ben arrives with his own bouquet, somehow refrains from marveling at the coincidence of both of them showing up at the cemetery at exactly the same time, and accuses Blake of turning their father against him. Ben insists that their mother loved him, to which Blake incredulously asks how he can sleep at night after the way she screamed for help. Ben points out that soon he'll be vindicated in court - but Blake argues that no court is going to award $125 million to a man who killed his own mother...and Ben glares back at him as duhn duhn duhn music starts up in the background. 

Recap: Alexis repeatedly tries to telephone Caress, who apparently has her own private telephone line inside the penthouse, then gets so frustrated by the non-answering that she bursts into the guest room her sister's currently occupying to make sure she's not dead. As Caress lazily stretches beneath the silk sheets, Alexis asks her when she's planning on leaving...and Caress is like, "I'm not", and tells Alexis she owes her for the terrible thing she did to her many years ago: abandon her in a Caracas prison and then sail away with Zach Powers. Alexis argues that she half-heartedly did everything in her power to get her released, but Caress is all, "Blah blah...you left me and went off to live the high life with the man I loved." Alexis tells her she had zero romantic interest in Zach, then offers to help her pack - but Caress puts her sad face on and says she has nowhere to live, and implores her sister to give her a chance to get her life back together. Alexis mulls that over for a few seconds and tells her she can stay until the end of the week...and once Alexis leaves the room and is out of earshot, Caress pulls out a tape recorder from under her pillow and leaves an audio message for herself about what her devious sister could possibly be up to, bringing Ben Carrington to Denver.

Alexis joins Ben as he's scarfing down a huge breakfast and tells him that Step One in launching Operation Seek Revenge on Blake For the Umpteenth Time will be to slap a lawsuit against him. Ben says he can't wait to see Blake's face when he realizes his estranged brother is in town, and Alexis says that once Blake returns from Hong Kong, she'll arrange a reunion he won't soon forget...but warns Ben that it can only be the earth-shattering moment he expects it to be if he cooperates with her. Ben says the reunion better be worth him travelling all the way from Australia for, and Alexis assures him it will be.

Steven enters Adam's office, smugly reminds him he's now on the Denver Carrington board's watchdog committee, and demands an explanation for some of his recent purchase orders. Adam's all, "Fuck off, I don't have to explain anything to you" ... and once Steven slinks out of his office, he calls someone to cancel one of the purchase orders.

Alexis is doing a live TV interview about the Denver Carrington/ColbyCo wildlife sanctuary when she makes an unexpected announcement that ColbyCo is looking to raise funds to help develop recreational facilities. As Krystle watches the interview from the mansion and is all, "The fuck..??", Alexis tells viewers to that end she and Blake will be hosting a high society masquerade ball at Carrington manor next week and charging $5,000 a person.  

Krystle calls Alexis to directly ask, "The fuck..??", and an amused looking Alexis tells her she must be thrilled about the upcoming ball. Krystle tells her that Blake is never going to go along with a masquerade ball he never agreed to - but Alexis insists he owes her a party on account of ColbyCo donating all of the sanctuary's land and wildlife. She then challenges Krystle to make a spectacle of herself by cancelling the ball, then hangs up and snacks on caviar.

Blake tells Krystle he's A-OK with hosting Alexis' masquerade ball at the mansion 'cause he wants Denver Carrington to be seen as being on the side of protecting the environment. He then tells her he'd like to invite Bart Fallmont and his family over for dinner tonight in an attempt to bridge the divide caused by the pipeline/injunction conundrum, and Krystle tells him she's fine with that.

Alexis gets irked at Ben when she learns that he spent the day wandering around a Carrington oil field for no good reason and thereby risking Blake getting wind of his presence in Denver. She warns Ben that he'll never see a dime of his inheritance if he deviates from her master plan...and Ben acknowledges that since she's such a smart lady, she prolly knows best. The two then drink martinis and toast to the decline of Blake's empire.

The Fallmonts (minus Clay, who's running late) arrive at Carrington manor for dinner, and - fun fact! - Bart's father is played by the same actor who played Oscar Goldman in The Bionic Woman. 

Sammy Jo, who's decked out in a poofy black '80s dress, takes off her shoes and slides all the way down the bannister in a fun homage to her maiden bannister slide in Season 2 before coming face-to-face with Alexis for the first time. She runs into Clay Fallmont, a hunkily attractive blonde...and the two introduce themselves before staring appreciatively at each other's hotness. He tells her he hopes to see her again soon, then heads over to the dining room to join the rest of his family.

Blake tells the Fallmonts he hopes they can resolve this tedious pipeline/injunction storyline soon [holy fuuuuck, yes please] ... and when Steven points out that the pipeline will provide much needed jobs in the area, Oscar Goldman mumbles about how rich pricks like the Carringtons always get what they want by greasing palms. He accuses Blake of trying to buy them off with this lavish dinner, then abruptly tells his family they're outa here. As the family beats a hasty retreat towards the vestibule, Adam rushes after Bart and orders him to make his father see the light about dropping the injunction or else he'll find his "closet door opening up wide". Bart snarls back that he'll play this game according to his own rules, and an amused looking Adam sneers, "Don't say you haven't been warned."

Alexis is looking for Caress in her bedroom when the phone rings...so she answers it, and is intrigued when the caller says she's Betty Kingsley, Caress's New York editor at Creighton Publishing, and needs to discuss the book she's in the process of writing. Alexis puts the call on pause for a few seconds, then alters her voice to sound like Caress. Betty tells her she needs the extra chapters she promised, particularly the one about how Alexis "loved Cecil Colby to death" ... and Alexis glares contemplatively into space and wryly tells Betty she'll get on that asap.

Alexis murmurs, "Book...what bloody book?" then searches the bedroom - couch cushions and all - before finding Caress's manuscript titled Sister Dearest: The True Story of Alexis Morell Carrington Colby Dexter at the bottom of her underwear drawer. She reads a few unflattering paragraphs about herself before getting on the phone with Steven to ask him how many public shares are currently available for a company called Creighton Publishing.

Dominique and Jackie return to their La Mirage suite after a day out and see that Garrett Boydston has sent Jackie a huge flower bouquet and a lovely heart-shaped diamond bracelet. Jackie squeals happily and says she can only assume that Garrett gave her this stuff because he's so crazy about her (her being Dominique), and Dominique huffily says it'd be inappropriate for her to keep the bracelet 'cause it's much too extravagant. Jackie points out that her fallen race car driver father would want the mother of his child to be happy...and when she asks Dominique what she should do with the bracelet, Dominique just stares back at her blankly.

Amanda is canoodling in bed with Dex, wondering aloud what type of costume she should wear to the masquerade ball. Dex grumbles that he has zero desire to attend anything at her father's mansion, and Amanda smoochingly tries to change his mind.

Masquerade ball! Blake tells the Fallmonts he's surprised to see them in attendance, so Oscar Goldman sanctimoniously explains that fundraising for the wildlife sanctuary is a cause bigger than their pipeline/injunction spat. Across the room, Dominique gets alarmed when she sees Jackie chatting with Garrett...so she rushes over to pull Garrett aside and ask him whassup with him calling Jackie's school in Paris to make personal inquiries about her. Garrett admits that yeah he's been doing a little poking around to gauge how feasible it is that Jackie could be his bio daughter, but Dominique says that Jackie cherishes the memory of her non-existent race car driver father and won't allow him to destroy that fantastical version of her conception.
​
Alexis (dressed up as Madame De Pompadour) and Ben (adequately disguised as a fashionable pirate) arrive at the masquerade ball and amble over to where Blake and Krystle are standing. After trading barbs with Alexis, Krystle introduces herself to her pirate friend, and he growls, "Pleasure" in response and glares at Blake, who doesn't appear to recognize him...or notice how weird his overt hostility is. Alexis explains that she's reacquainting her mysterious friend with the Denver high life, then steers him away to mingle...and Blake tells Krystle that the pirate's voice was somehow familiar to him.

Bart arrives at the party (sans costume) to storm over to Steven and blame him for what The National Informer just splashed across their front page: Senatorial Hopeful Admits Gay Past: College Roommate Was Lover. He accuses Steven of betraying his confidence - but Steven denies doing any such thing, and has a pretty good idea who did. He heads upstairs and finds Adam, and demands to know why he would so dickishly ruin a closeted gay man's life. When Adam weakly denies knowing what he's talking about, Steven punches him...and the two wrestle each other for several loooooong minutes and come dangerously close to shoving one another through the stair rails. Blake rushes over, pulls the two idiots apart, and orders them to stop acting like animals and join their rich partygoer friends in the ballroom. 

Ben calls Dominique by name and explains that he knows who she is 'cause her fame precedes her...and then abruptly wanders off. Dominique stares after him in puzzlement and tells Blake that the strange pirate dude makes her uncomfortable. A few seconds later, Amanda arrives at the party with a reluctant looking Dex, and she tells an irked Blake she's going to give her beau a guided tour of the mansion.

Krystle finds Ben loitering in the library, and he remarks to her that one can tell how rich and therefore fiercely driven Blake is just by looking around this room. Krystle's like, "Well d'yuh, he's worked very hard for his wealth", and Ben growls that he no doubt had to be very ruthless in the process, then abruptly suggests they get back to the party...and Krystle's all 'nope, nothing weird about this guy'.

Amanda brings Dex to her bedroom, then locks the door, removes her shoes, and steers him towards the bed. Dex tells her she's out of her mind if she thinks he's going to bone her during her parents' masquerade ball, pissily reminds her he didn't want to come here in the first place, then exits the room. A few seconds later, he runs into Alexis and says he'd like to discuss their defunct marriage, but she snappishly replies she has nothing to say to him and flounces off. Dex then chats with Clay Fallmont and says he's heard what a great demolition man he is and that he could really use that skillset for the upcoming construction of the pipeline, and the two agree to get in touch about it soon. 

Amanda rejoins the party and is approached by Clay to dance...and after a few minutes on the dance floor, he suggests they go somewhere else. She declines, tells him she's interested in someone else, and informs Blake that she's rushing off in search of Dex.

Emily Fallmont is shocked when she realizes that her [spoiler!] ex-lover Ben is back in Denver after all these years, and tells him she hopes he's changed for the better.

Blake interrupts the partying to thank everyone for coming and paying the exorbitant ticket price to help develop recreational facilities in the wildlife sanctuary. Alexis gives Ben the 'unveil yourself now!' signal, so Ben slowly makes his way to the front of the room and glares at his brother as he slowly removes his hat, eye-patch, and fake beard. Blake reacts by staring back at him in shock, but is able to maintain his composure long enough to wrap up his speech.

Blake asks Ben to follow him to the library so he can privately demand to know what in God's name he's doing here. Ben flippantly replies he's attending a party...and that he's back in Denver to stay, and to bury him. Blake snarlingly orders him to get out of his house and never come back - otherwise he'll wish he'd never been born. Ben casually saunters out of the library, smirks at Alexis (who's loitering nearby), and gallantly kisses her hand...and she stares back at him looking breathlessly intrigued by the unfolding drama she helped put into motion.