Dynasty - Season 4, Episode 20

"Our best guess is that the charred bodies of your loved ones were dragged off by a ravenous jungle creature."

"The Voice, Part 1"
Original airdate: 3/14/1984

Episode summary: Claudia jets to Peru to investigate Matthew's fiery jeep accident. Blake and Tracy travel to Hong Kong to have a business meeting with Rashid Ahmed. Fallon begins suffering from headaches.

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Recap: Fallon grabs a quick breakfast with Blake and Krystle before heading off to La Mirage to resume her career now that she's swiftly regained the ability to walk. Blake bids her adieu, then flirtily banters with Krystle about their upcoming business trip to Hong Kong.

Steven wakes up alone in bed and finds a note from Claudia: I've gone to Peru to find out if Matthew is really dead.

At Denver-Carrington, Blake and Krystle are briefing Tracy on The Far East Situation when Krystle suddenly looks pale and nearly falls over. Tracy brazenly asks if her shakiness is pregnancy related...and as Krystle stares at her in bewilderment, Blake scrunches his wrinkly face confusedly and is all, "Wha-a-a-a?" Tracy contorts her face into a faux sheepish expression and explains that she nosily discovered that Krystle recently had an appointment with an obstetrician, and put two and two together when she nearly fainted just now. She scuttles out of the room before Krystle has a chance to ask why in blazes she's so interested in her doctors' appointments...and then Krystle tells Blake that the doctor told her that pregnancy was within the realm of possibility. Blake grins stupidly and says he's keeping his fingers crossed that she's carrying his spawn. Blech.

Over at ColbyCo, Steven is commiserating to Alexis about how Claudia is being driven to near madness by whatever mysterious person has been tormenting her with strange, Matthew-related deliveries. Alexis assures him that she's not the one behind the deliveries, and that she had advised his wife-beard to contact the police so that they could get to the bottom of this harassment. She then rolls her eyes and snarks about how illogical it was for Claudia to jet off to Peru in the middle of the night, then says when she returns to Denver, it might do her some good to get checked back into the funny farm for a round of mental health treatment. Steven stares contemplatively into space as he mulls over that sensible suggestion.

"My best advice would be to ship your nutty wife-beard off to the nearest funny farm asap."

"Seems reasonable."

Jeff invites Fallon to go skiing with him in Aspen...and after some flirty back and forth, Fallon says she'd love to, then needlessly assures him she's totes over Peter De Vilbis.

Krystle and Blake are dining at La Mirage when the waiter brings over a telephone so that Krystle can take a phone call from her doctor. He confirms that, yep, Blake's bun is definitely in her oven...and Krystle thanks him for calling, then grins at the old goat and squeals, "It's a yes!"

Claudia arrives at her Peruvian hotel in a dilapidated station-wagon taxi...and in the background are extras decked out in colorful Peruvian ponchos wandering around with donkeys in tow so that viewers can get a real feel for what it's like to be on a ridiculously fake looking TV studio back-lot. An American man named Pat Dunne appears out of nowhere, somehow knows who Claudia is, and tells her he was working in Peru when Matthew had his fiery jeep accident in the jungle. He offers to help with whatever she came all this way to find, then invites her to have dinner with him later.

Blake cautions Krystle against making the trip to Hong Kong on account of her delicate condition and says she should stay home and rest. He then tells her that he arranged for one of his manservants to buy a few tokens of his love for her, then steers her over to one of the mansion's many sitting rooms and presents her with a sable coat and a giant gaudy diamond necklace. Krystle chuckles gleefully at the extravagant gifts, assures him she'll take it easy now that she's in a family way, and gives him a happy hug.

"As my trophy wife, you are entitled to be showered with furs and jewels whenever I think you deserve a reward."

(giggle) "OK!"

Mark runs into Dex at La Mirage and offers to buy him a drink so they can work through the grudges that each of them has been holding toward the other for no intelligible reason. Dex shrugs and goes, "Sure, why not?"

Later, Dex is sipping on a martini at the penthouse when Alexis arrives home. He tells her he just had a drink with Mark and that it's pretty obvious that the mustached gigolo was trying to get the skinny on whatever nefarious schemes she has brewing. Alexis says she's not in the mood to discuss Mark, 'cause at the moment she's far more concerned about what a burden nutty Claudia is on her beloved son.   

In Aspen, Fallon and Jeff are sitting by the fire, drinking hot chocolate and canoodling. They agree on how far they've both come from the vapid dinkwhistles they were in Season 1, then stare longingly at each other. Fallon suddenly clutches her head and says she has a headache, and Jeff says no doubt it's 'cause she cracked her skull during the drunken hit and run three episodes ago. Fallon asks for a rain check on any further canoodling, and Jeff suggests she take a nap and meet up with him for dinner later.

After dinner, Claudia and Pat Dunne are strolling around the fake outdoor Peru set. Pat urges Claudia to report in with the local police, then gets all grab-handsy and invites himself up to her room. She pulls away and is all, "Whoa buddy, I'm married" and tells him she wants to be alone now - and when he starts getting even more grab-handsy, Steven appears and orders Pat to take his hands off his wife-beard. Pat shrugs, tells Steven he's a lucky man (LOL, OK..?), then ambles off. Claudia races over to Steven and hugs him and says she's sooo happy he followed her to Peru.

Back at Carrington manor, Kirby ambles into the kitchen in her satin nightie and runs into Adam. She tells him she's having trouble sleeping 'cause she can't stop thinking about her criminally insane mother...and Adam's like, "Whatever" and says he can't think about that right now 'cause he has to focus all of mental energy on monitoring Blake's Hong Kong trip. Kirby snappishly accuses him of not giving a damn about her family problems, and Adam's like, "Well d'yuh" and changes the subject to their upcoming nuptials and how he'd like them to try for another baby asap, which...ew. He then backpedals and acknowledges how shitty it was of Alexis to hire an investigator to gather together all those newspaper articles about her murderous mom, but reminds her that Blake really likes her and couldn't be happier that she's about to become a member of his dysfunctional family. This seems to placate Kirby, and he plants her with one of his creepishly intense smooches.

Blake is in his fancy Hong Kong hotel suite, complaining over the phone to the airlines about how they lost his and Tracy's luggage. A few seconds later, he gets a surprise visit from Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, who smugly informs Blake that he's representing the government that Blake is currently negotiating his pending oil deal with. Blake haughtily calls this arrangement unacceptable, but Ahmed just shrugs and says he can either deal with him or walk away from the negotiations.

Jeff and Fallon are canoodling in bed, and both agree that they've enjoyed their impromptu Aspen vacay.

Adam storms into Alexis' office to declare that he's marrying Kirby, and that she (Alexis) will regret it if she does anything more to hurt his future wife/former rape victim. Alexis urges him to consider his future, specifically the kind of woman with whom he wants to share his wealth and business success. She derisively describes Kirby as a low-class liability with skeletons in her closet - but before Adam can retort, he gets an emergency overseas call from Blake, who tracked Adam down 'cause he urgently needs him to determine whether or not Rashid Ahmed's current government assignment is on the up and up. He tells Adam to keep this intel from Alexis...and Adam's like, "Can do", but then presses his pen hard while writing AHMED (in all caps!) on her notepad 'cause apparently he's incapable of committing one man's name to memory. After he rushes out of the office, Alexis cleverly uses her pencil to shade the imprint of what Adam wrote on the pad and easily sees that it's AHMED. She stares contemplatively into space as she silently mulls over what this revelation could possibly mean.

Later in the penthouse, a drunk Mark overhears Alexis talking to someone on the phone (Morgan Hess?) about how Blake is making some kind of deal with Rashid Ahmed in Hong Kong, and that she wants plenty more dish 'bout that.   

The local police escort Claudia and Steven into "the jungles of Peru" to visit the site of Matthew's fiery jeep accident. When they reach the site, a police officer points at a ravine where the charred debris of Matthew's vehicle can still be seen and says that no bodies were ever found. He solemnly adds, "The jungle has a way of claiming everything" and says it's more than likely that some ravenous jungle creatures dragged the charred bodies away from the vehicle and had a good munch-fest. Claudia looks horrified by the grisly visual, then wails, "OMG!" when she hears the snorting noise of a creature (LOL...Piglet, is that you?) lurking nearly. The officer shrugs and apologizes for grossing her out just now...and Claudia collapses into Steven's arms, sobbing with inconsolable grief.

"I can only assume that some jungle creature had a fine barbecue meal when it discovered the charred remains of the fiery accident."

"Ew."

Back in Hong Kong, Rashid Ahmed returns to Blake's room for a scheduled meeting and gets testy when he sees Tracy standing a few feet away. Blake explains that he wants a witness at their meeting, then gruffly suggests they get down to business. He tells Ahmed he had the legitimacy of his current assignment checked out, was satisfied with the results of that, then pulls out a check for $5 million. He says it's a down payment for the $100 million he plans to pay on the various oil leases...and after some rancorous back and forth, the two men agree that Blake will pay the payment in full within the next thirty days. Ahmed tries to seal the deal by merely shaking on it, but Blake insists he sign the formal contract so that everything's above board. An unhappy Rashid Ahmed reluctantly signs the agreement.  

Alexis is enjoying a light breakfast in her penthouse when Fallon drops by unannounced, decked out in a ratty looking sweater jacket with fugly wool things hanging off her shoulders. She apologizes to her mother for her extreme rudeness when she first regained consciousness in the hospital, and also when she tried to warn her about what a scheming womanizer Peter De Vilbis is. She acknowledges the bond that inherently exists between parents and children - and Alexis breathily coos, "Oh Fallon!" and gives her a happy hug.  

Fallon returns to Carrington manor and congratulates Krystle on her pregnancy, and the two schmaltzily exchange I love yous. As Fallon exits the sitting room, she clutches her head in pain and looks shaky...then stares worriedly into space about whatever kind of delayed-reaction head injury she may be suffering from. It remains unclear why she doesn't just go to a damn doctor and get a head CT. 

Blake and Tracy are wrapping up a coffee klatch in Blake's hotel suite - but Tracy says she doesn't want the evening to end and suggests they go over her notes from the Ahmed meeting. Blake doesn't look thrilled by the idea, but reluctantly agrees...and Tracy scurries back to her room and returns a few seconds later with her notes and a silky pink negligee. She holds it against herself and coquettishly says she saw it while she was shopping and couldn't resist buying it...and when Blake just stares blankly at the sexy garment, she asks him if she should buy one for Krystle. He declines that offer, decides that nothing good could possibly come of viewers being subjected to the icky spectacle of a repugnant old goat like himself getting it on with an overly-ambitious gold digger who's more than thirty years his junior, and woodenly says they can discuss her meeting notes in the morning. A disappointed and slightly bewildered Tracy leaves him her notebook, packs up her pink negligee, and heads very slooooowly towards the door.

"I'm on the lookout for a sugar daddy. Know anyone who might be interested?"

"No one comes to mind."

Back at Carrington manor, Steven, Claudia, and Krystle are cooing at Danny's cuteness in the nursery. Claudia, who's oddly upbeat considering the grisly news she just received in Peru, giddily says she's soooo happy to be home, and what a relief it is that the Matthew/Lindsay/death in Peru storyline is finally over. Gerard pokes his head into the nursery and tells Claudia she has a phone call, and she ambles into the hall to find the nearest phone. When she picks up, she hears a voice that sounds like Matthew's...and he's urgently saying, "We need you, Claudia! We're a family!" Claudia shrieks, "Where is Lindsay?!!" then keels over and hits the floor as she loses consciousness. Steven and Krystle come running over and are all, "Wha-a-at's going on?!!"

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