Dynasty - Season 4, Episode 4

Sammy Jo stays on top of current events

"The Hearing, Part 1"
Original airdate: 10/26/1983

Episode summary: Blake loses his cool while testifying at Danny's custody hearing, and Sammy Jo offers to return to Denver and testify against Steven. Kirby tries to strangle Alexis as payback for Joseph's suicide, and is later dismayed to learn that Adam has moved into the mansion.

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Recap: Blake and Andy enter the Denver-Carrington building and are immediately besieged by reporters asking about the upcoming custody hearing. Must be a slow news day in Denver. Blake growls, "I'm going to get my grandson back home where he belongs" and then he and Andy disappear into the elevator. Andy warns him that Chris Deegan is a good lawyer and that getting custody of Danny is not a sure thing...plus, his conviction for voluntarily manslaughtering Ted Dinard back in Season 1 won't exactly make him look like ideal parenting material. Blake's all, "Wha-a?" and says that that manslaughter is in the past, and what they're fighting for is Danny's future. He scrunches his face in irritation and sternly pronounces, "I want Danny out of that environment." 

Sammy Jo is in a runway dressing room with other bikini clad women, reading The National Enquirer. She looks transfixed by the front page headline - Denver Oil Tycoon sues Gay Son for Baby’s Custody! - then frowns disapprovingly and mutters, "This wasn't part of my deal with Steven."

Krystle drops by Blake's office to ask him how he can be such a douchewad to his own son while so caring toward a nutter like Claudia Blaisdel. Blake avoids answering and declares himself the head of the Carrington family - and as such, he has a responsibility to ensure that every Carrington conducts his or her life in a decent, non-homosexual fashion. He insists he needs to take action against Steven for Danny's sake. Krystle reminds him that he's been trying to lure her back into his clutches - then threatens to stay away if he goes ahead with the custody lawsuit. Blake says he loves her and definitely wants her back, but he refuses to drop the lawsuit as a condition of her love.  

Claudia, who now works as Fallon's assistant at the La Mirage, is chatting with Fallon about the floor plans regarding an upcoming event, blah blah...and Steven drops by Fallon's office and is delighted to see Claudia readjusting so well after her release from the funny farm. When Claudia rushes off to finish a task, Fallon remarks to Steven how godawful tomorrow's hearing is going to be - but Steven just shrugs and says he feels confident 'cause he has her, Alexis, and Krystle all testifying on his behalf. He predicts that Blake is going to learn a painful lesson, namely that he can't continually get away with shoving his prejudice down other peoples' throats.

Andy advises Krystle to not testify on Steven's behalf 'cause he'll have to discredit her testimony...and by discredit, he means he'll bring up her shortlived marriage to Mark and the gold digging antics of her trampy niece. I'm don't really see how that's a winning strategy. Krystle angrily says she'll take her chances in court and storms off.

Alexis arrives at Carrington manor with a ginormous stuffed giraffe for Baby Blake. She finds Kirby in the nursery, cooing at the baby, and coolly says hello...and expresses her condolences about her father's suicide. Kirby admonishes her for not attending his memorial service, so Alexis explains that Blake banned her from attending. Kirby's like, "Yeah whatever" and accuses her of driving Papá to suicide by scaring the bejeezus out of him about something, then advances on Alexis and demands the truth. Alexis contorts her face in fake confusion and says she rarely ever spoke to Joseph...and this seems to set Kirby off. Blake, meanwhile, arrives home and hears yelling coming from the nursery. He dashes upstairs and finds Kirby with her hands around Alexis' throat, snaps, "What the devil?!" and separates the two women. Alexis rubs her neck and informs him that Kirby suddenly went cuckoo and tried to strangle her for no reason, but Blake just glares at her as he places a comforting arm around Kirby. After a few seconds, he barks at Alexis to follow him outside so they can have a private chat.

"Don't kill the messenger, but your father was a pathetic, lonely dullard who had nothing better to do than maintain a scrapbook of my glamorous sexcapades."

"I said don't kill the messenger!"

Blake ushers Alexis onto a nearby terrace, where she continues to wail about Kirby's unprovoked attack. Blake says he highly doubts it was unprovoked, then forbids her to step foot on his estate ever again. From now on she'll have to make arrangements with Fallon if she wants to spend time with Baby Blake. Alexis shoots back that he's willfully destroying his own son, so then Blake grabs her by the arms and shoves her away from him. Alexis responds by bellowing, "Take your hands off me, Blake! I won't be touched by trash, and that's what you still are and always will be!" 

Adam drops by to announce to Blake that he's leaving Denver for good...and when Blake puts his sad face on, Adam says he thought he'd be relieved to see the last of him. Blake says he's genuinely sorry to see him go, them apologizes for behaving like such a dinkwhistle when he first arrived in town. He urges Adam to reconsider his plans so they can give their father-son relationship another chance, now that he's completely alienated his other son. "Please!" he begs, and Adam stares contemplatively into space.

Steven and Claudia return to Steven's (badly decorated) apartment with groceries, and Steven is surprised and irked to find social worker Helen Pomeroy snooping around his living room. He accuses the uppity woman of invading his space and bitchily asks her if she's uncovered any dark, hidden secrets. She reminds him that she was appointed by the court to assess his home situation, but Steven continues to act like the dumb moron he is and is railing at her when Chris arrives home. Mrs. Pomeroy gets insulted and announces she's leaving...and once she's out of earshot, Chris admonishes Steven for making such a horse's ass of himself in front of the court appointed social worker. Steven whines that he doesn't like being spied on, so Chris reminds him that he's supposed to be doing everything possible to fight for his son, not fight with the social worker...or Blake. And speaking of Blake, he urges Steven to make clear to his homophobic father that the two of them are roommates - not gay lovers. Steven stubbornly refuses and says he's not lifting a damn finger to make anything more palatable for Blake.

"Oh, hello. The court appointed me to make this unannounced home visit."

"That's nice. Now get the hell out of my apartment."

 Jeff tells Fallon he's concerned about Kirby's increasing squirrelliness and wishes she would open up about her father's death and whatever else is bugging her. Fallon's like, "That's a real shame" then brings up the chemical poisoning case that Adam handled in Montana all those years ago. Jeff says he thinks she's overreaching and doesn't believe Adam had anything to do with poisoning him...and Fallon agrees that maybe she should throw in the towel, particularly since Adam is leaving Denver. Uh, about that..

Adam finds Kirby reading by the lily pond, and coos about how beautiful she looks and remarks that her baby is sure to be beautiful too. Kirby cringes and barks at him to get the hell away from her just as Jeff appears. He storms over and demands to know what Adam's doing, and Adam smugly informs him that they're all roommates now 'cause he just moved into Carrington manor. Jeff and Kirby are all, "Wha-a?!" as the camera pans from Kirby's face to Jeff's face, then back again to Adam's face, and then around again. We get it, camera crew. They're shocked.

Kirby is having another Adam nightmare/'80s rape fantasy: Adam bursts into her bedroom wearing just a robe while she's scantily clad in a silk teddy. He strips off his robe while leering at her, and reminds her that Jeff's away then cackles, "And when the cat's away, the mice should play." He picks her up, and roughly deposits her on the bed as she yells, "Nooo! Please!" Her screams wake Jeff, and he pokes her awake and begs her to talk about what's been troubling her...but she clams up and says she's just wigged out about her father's suicide and whether or not her baby will come out a mutant. Jeff assures her they're going to have a great future together (not), so then she starts nattering about how Steven has to fight Blake in order to retain custody of his own child. Yep, that is pretty fucked up. Jeff assures her that no one will ever take away their child, and she tearfully cuddles with him.

The Carringtons arrive at the court house, and they get mobbed by a gaggle of eager reporters who somehow have nothing more newsworthy to cover. Claudia gives Steven a good luck kiss and scampers off...while, across the lobby, a reporter asks Blake if he thinks the court will grant custody to a gay man who has a gay roommate. Blake snaps, "No I don't!" while glaring over at Steven.

Krystle arrives in the courtroom, and she and Blake stare over at each other for several uncomfortable seconds. She wishes him good luck (though not really), then turns toward Steven and gives him a warm hello hug. As the hearing gets underway, the judge recaps that Blake is seeking custody of his grandson because his gay son has a gay roommate and is therefore unfit to raise his child. Andy concurs and calls Helen Pomeroy to the stand, who testifies that after snooping around Steven's apartment on various occasions, she has concluded that Danny is being well cared for. Andy asks her about the "potential impact of his emotional environment", so she says that in her professional opinion, a male child raised by two gay men is pretty much guaranteed to become gay himself. LOL. Chris interjects and says that no studies exist to support that claim and accuses Mrs. Pomeroy of making shit up - but the judge overrules him and says he'll allow this uppity woman's baseless opinions to be part of the official transcript. Andy then asks her what kind of parent she thinks Steven is, and she says he's emotional and antagonistic, then snidely adds, "These people all seem to be that way." Chris objects to her openly bitchy and biased statement, but once again the judge overrules and nonsensically says they're all just trying to determine what's best for little Danny. Sounds like a successful appeal in the making, should his ruling go badly for Steven.

"Steven's like every other gay man out there: emotional and antagonistic."

"I'll grant you that. He has inherited some of his father's most douchey qualities."

 Sammy Jo is desperately trying to get in touch with Blake. She snarkily tells his secretary to have him call her the minute he's back from court.

Blake takes the stand and insists that his quest for the custody of Danny has absolutely nothing at all to do with any vendetta. He explains that he and Krystle were about to adopt the little gaffer when they learned that Steven was alive and well in Singapore after getting his original face blown off. He makes it clear that he disapproves of Steven raising the baby as a single parent, and that he was royally pissed off when Steven took Danny and moved out of the mansion...and then invited a fellow gay to live with them in the new apartment. He calls the arrangement "uncommon and unhealthy" and worries that his innocent grandchild might accidentally wander into his father's bedroom and find him butting up against another man. Chris interjects and argues that all parents have to exercise discretion with their children, and for once the judge agrees with Chris' plea for common sense in his kangaroo court. Blake natters about how he places his love of family ahead of everything [except the part of him that really hates gay people] and that Danny deserves better than growing up with two non-hetero men.

When it's Chris' turn to cross-examine Blake, he asks him if he has any gay friends or employees...and Blake scrunches his wrinkly face and says, "Not that I'm aware of." Chris asks him what he'd do if he were aware of it, and Blake says he'd be totes fine with it as long as they never ever ever acknowledge their gayness while in his presence. Chris brings up the killing of Ted Dinard and tries to goad Blake into losing his temper...and naturally Blake takes the bait and snarks that Ted needed killin' for putting his sissy hands on his son. He then gets indignant about having to re-explain his manslaughter conviction and barks, "I won't allow myself to be victimized!" The judge yells at him to shut up and control himself, and the courtroom observers shift around and exchange holy shit! glances. After Chris calls a recess, Andy discreetly warns Blake that if he continues to lose his cool, he could lose this case.

"Do you always want to commit voluntary manslaughter against your son's gay lovers?"

"Nah. The writers fished that lake dry with the Ted Dinard storyline in Season 1."

Krystle testifies that, based on her observations, Steven is an excellent father. She tells the court the sad tale about how she was treated as an outsider when she first joined the Carrington clan - and that Steven was the only person who didn't behave totally cunty towards her. She confirms that she and Blake had had plans to adopt Danny when Steven resurfaced...and that while it was difficult giving up the opportunity to raise him, she knew it would be best for the tot to grow up with his father's warmth and tenderness. After Chris wraps up his questioning, Andy stands up to begin his cross examination, but Blake orders him to sit his ass back down and not alienate his future re-wife.

Alexis testifies that Steven is gentle, bright, sensitive to others, and that he's strong without being a belligerent douchetard like his father. She characterizes Blake as unsuitable and unfit to raise any child, much less his grandson, and that he has a tendency to treat his children like possessions. She accuses Blake of trying to purchase Danny from Sammy Jo, and that he also barred her from seeing her own children for sixteen years and did a shit job raising them. An enraged Blake nonsensically blurts out, "I've been trying to turn Steven into a man!" and once again the judge orders him to shut his pie hole. Alexis smiles gleefully, pleased she was able to rattle him.

Alexis is primping in the public bathroom when Krystle enters and admonishes her for falsely accusing Blake of buying Danny when she knows full well that that's not what really happened. Alexis shoots her a cheeky grin, then chides her for not taking her up on her offer to leave town in exchange for a million dollars. She declares that Blake will soon be working for her, which means he'll be even more of a cranky douchenozzle to deal with than he normally is. 

When the hearing adjourns for the day, Blake asks Steven if he could speak with him privately, but Steven's like, "Why? You hate me!" and stalks off...which was such a refreshing change from having to watch another Blake-Steven fight in the mansion's study.

Mark runs into Krystle when she returns to the La Mirage and offers to buy her a drink, but she tells him she feels like being alone, then marvels about how Blake wouldn't permit his lawyer to cross examine her.

Sammy Jo has finally gotten Blake on the phone. She tells him that if he puts her on the stand to testify, he'll for sure get custody of Danny. Well...not really, but I'm definitely looking forward to Sammy Jo's return!

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