Dynasty - Season 4, Episode 7

"I'm thrilled to be working for the boss's unqualified former/soon-to-be-future trophy wife."

"Tracy"
Original airdate: 11/16/1983

Episode summary: Adam frames Alexis for Jeff's poisoning and convinces Blake that she was the culprit. Krystle accepts the position of Public Relations head at Denver-Carrington, which enrages top-executive-wannabe Tracy Kendall. Kirby suspects Jeff and Fallon of having an affair.

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Recap: When Blake is unable to track down Adam, he returns to his office and tells Fallon and Jeff that he must have gone out somewhere...and that they should go on home but keep mum about their suspicions regarding Adam's role in Jeff's poisoning. Fallon doesn't like that idea and argues that Adam nearly killed Jeff - but Blake says he doesn't want to repeat the mistake of not giving someone the benefit of the doubt, then reminds them about how he tattled his suspicions to the police about Mark Jennings setting the cabin fire that almost killed Krystle and Alexis. He insists on being absolutely certain that Adam is guilty of lacing the paint in Jeff's office with mercuric oxide before he starts throwing around what could be wild accusations.

Adam returns to the Toxic Paint Store and pretends he needs to verify a past purchase. The clerk digs up the paperwork...and when he's not looking, Adam quickly switches the invoices that he signed with the fake invoices he tricked Alexis into signing. 

Alexis is over at Steven's apartment, wrapping up a visit with Danny. She coos to Claudia about how adorable the baby is, then smugly says that Blake losing the custody lawsuit was awesome 'cause it means Steven gets to keep his son...plus, she got to testify in court about what an insufferable dickwad Blake is. Claudia shakes her head disapprovingly and says, "I'm sure you spoke the truth as you saw it...but there's always more than one side to the truth." She reminds Alexis that Blake, however giant a dickwad he may be, is still Danny's grandfather...and she doesn't think that his relationship with his grandson should be poisoned. She then gabbles about how Matthew's mother hated her with the intensity of a thousand suns, but looooved Lindsay, and Alexis just kind of rolls her eyes disinterestedly. Steven arrives home, kisses Claudia hello and says hey to his mother, who tells him he needs to fly with her to San Francisco tomorrow morning to meet with the head of ColbyCo's west coast operations. Steven doesn't look thrilled by the last minute trip, but Alexis tells him it's only a lunch meeting, so they should be back in Denver by dinnertime. 

In Denver-Carrington's Public Relations Department, top-executive-wannabe Tracy Kendall is holding a poster featuring a bland rendering of Blake with an oil rig in the background above the headline Denver-Carrington: 25 Years of Oil Progress. Her boss, Bill Rockwell, calls it "a fine piece of work" and a nice going away present for him before he retires from the company. Tracy laments his imminent departure, but he assures her she'll be so busy running the department she'll barely notice he's gone. They're interrupted by a call from Krystle, who invites Bill to lunch tomorrow to talk about - surprise! - her new job as head of Public Relations. She explains that Blake just appointed her to take over the department - despite her lack of experience or credentials in anything public relations related...and she wants to pick his brain before he leaves. Bill hides his dismay at the brazen nepotism and agrees to meet Krystle at the La Mirage tomorrow at 1pm. After he hangs up, he breaks the news to Tracy and assures her that she's a stellar employee and would have gotten the promotion if Blake were in the habit of awarding promotions based on merit. Tracy pretends to be A-OK with the decision and fake gushes about how she'll be the best darn assistant Krystle's ever had (even though Krystle's only ever been a secretary)...but when Bill exits the office, Tracy grabs the ugly Blake poster, rips it up, and throws the pieces onto the floor.   

"Despite having no qualifications of any kind, Blake has appointed me the new head of Public Relations."

"You gotta be shittin' me."

Mark drops by Krystle's room at the La Mirage to invite her to join him for dinner and drinks, but she declines and says she has too much on her mind at the moment. Mark's like, "Hey, me too. Let's share what's on our minds over dinner!" but Krystle tells him she's just not very hungry. For some reason, her response causes Mark to go all squirrelly crazy, and he snarls, "You just don't want to spend time with me" and reminds her that he used to be her husband. He growls, "What we had was gooood" and suggests they become lovers, get married, and move far away from Denver. The fuck? Krystle firmly tells him they're friends and nothing more...and as she turns to walk away from him, he grabs her arm and rips off the entire sleeve of her silky blue blouse. He yells, "I don't believe that!!" and reminds her about how great the sex always was between them...and to "prove" his point, he launches an attack [which, by the way, seems completely out of character for him] and shoves her onto the couch and mounts her as she struggles and screams at him to stop. He growls, "You don't want me to stop! You never wanted me to stop!" and she responds by giving him a hard smack on the head. He halts his attack, and for some reason clutches his abdomen (I even hit rewind just to be sure). She orders him to get the hell out of her room, then rushes over to the door and holds it open. After he obediently lumbers out, Krystle scrunches her face and starts sobbing. What a weird, random scene.

"I'm going to show you how good sex has always been between us by shoving you onto this couch and wrestling you into submission."

"Nope - it wasn't hot when Blake did this to me in Season 1, and it's definitely not hot now!"

 Alexis phones up a Mr. Hutchinson at the west coast office of ColbyCo and brusquely orders him to travel to Anchorage for no purpose and to cancel all of his appointments in San Francisco for tomorrow. Hmm...

Adam is in bed with a hooker he frequently doinks, and she barks at him to stop being so rough. Adam gets irked and snaps, "Time's up - is that it?!" so the hooker complains that he's never gentle with her the way he used to be...and that it seems like he's working out all of his personal problems with rough sex. She's all, "Tell momma what's wrong", so Adam pours himself a drink and admits that he's been under a lot of pressure lately. He says he's about to tell a big whopper of a lie to a man who stands for truth and honesty (assuming he means Blake - say what?!)...and if it all goes bad, he'll lose what he's been starving for his entire life: a sense of belonging to a family headed by a douchebag patriarch.

When Adam arrives at the mansion, Blake is waiting up for him and brusquely orders him to join him in the study right now.

After the commercial break, Blake is shaking his head and muttering, "My God...why didn't you come to me sooner with this?" Adam says he didn't have proof that Alexis poisoned Jeff, just a suspicion. He fake recalls how he told Alexis about the mercuric oxide case he was involved with in Montana...and when Jeff turned up poisoned soon after, he figured she had to have been the one who did it. He says Alexis was the one who chose the paint for Jeff's office, and that when Jeff was being hospitalized, she had the panels removed and burned. Blake nods and states, "She just hid her crime." He sympathizes with Adam for going through hell protecting his mother, but assures him they're going to make it right...and make her pay. The camera then pans in for a lengthy closeup of Blake's angry wrinkled face.
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During a private meeting in the solarium, Blake updates Jeff and Fallon about Adam's version of events...and Jeff mulls it over and decides it all makes sense. As for Alexis, he's ready to settle the score with that she-devil...but Blake cautions him that for now it's just a theory without any tangible proof.

Kirby tells Jeff they need to talk, but he's like, "Nope - don't feel like it" and says he's not at liberty to discuss what's currently going on between him, Fallon, and Blake. He abruptly leaves the room, and Kirby stares after him looking irked.

Jeff runs into Fallon on his way out, and she urges him to take the day off and stay far away from ColbyCo. As a still irked Kirby watches them from the upper landing of the stairs, Fallon tells Jeff she's off to the stables to go horseback riding, and he offers to drop her off...and the two exchange light banter and laughter on their way to the door.

Kirby drives out to the stables to confront Fallon about getting too flirty with her man. Fallon assures her she has no designs on Jeff, and that whatever is messing up their relationship is between the two of them. She urges Kirby to talk it out with Jeff, then heads back to her horse. Kirby stares into space and summons a flashback of when she admitted to Krystle that her baby is Adam's and recalls Krystle asking her if she can live with herself if she doesn't tell Jeff about the rape. She snarkishly declares to the camera that indeed she can live with not telling Jeff the truth. So there.

Krystle and Bill Rockwell are having lunch at the La Mirage, discussing her new role as Denver-Carrington's Public Relations head. Krystle says she fully realizes that people in the company are probably tittering about how/why she got the job, and Bill points out that, yep, it's shameless nepotism all right...then just kind of shrugs and says, "It's a fact of business life. The main thing is that you're good." LOL?! Krystle chuckles about how she's never written a press release in her life, so Bill tells her that Tracy Kendall is a great assistant, and that she should make use of her in order to distract employees from all the gossip about the ridiculousness of Blake appointing his former/soon-to-be-future trophy wife as head of an important department. After their lunch, Mark approaches Krystle and apologizes for last night's attempted rape. He explains that he had too much to drink, but Krystle says she doesn't want to talk about it, snaps, "Forget it!" and flounces off.

"I'm sure that everyone at Denver-Carrington is gossiping about how ridiculous it is for someone with no credentials or experience to be appointed head of Public Relations."

"That's a giant understatement."

Blake gruffly tells Adam he's going to track down all the companies in Denver that produce mercuric oxide, and Adam nods and then stares worriedly into space.

Blake arrives at the Toxic Paint Store and asks the clerk to pull any invoices for paint purchases from ColbyCo. He finds the fake invoices that Adam tricked Alexis into signing, mutters, "Alexis", and gravely nods at his investigative genius.

Fallon finds Claudia in her office at the La Mirage, working on the floorplan of an upcoming event. She urges Claudia to book off some vacation time so that she and Steven can go on a honeymoon...but Claudia tells her that they can't 'cause Steven is currently in San Francisco with Alexis. Fallon makes a face and cautions her to watch out for her manipulative mother and her various ulterior motives.

Steven phones Claudia at the apartment and tells her he needs to stay in San Francisco overnight, 'cause apparently Mr. Hutchinson abruptly left town and won't be back until tomorrow. Claudia gets irked at the change of plans and bitchily cuts the call short. When Alexis breezes into the room, she asks Steven whassup, then says it's understandable that Claudia isn't thrilled about being alone with the baby, but credits her for being far less squirrelly than she was pre-funny farm. She says she'd like them to all be closer and tells Steven about an available duplex apartment in her building...which would mean they could see each other all the time! Yay! 'Cause who wouldn't want to live in the same building as their scheming mother/mother-in-law? Steven wisely nixes that idea, and adds that he's extremely annoyed by this surprise business trip, aka wild goose chase.  

In the mansion's study, Blake informs Adam and Andy that Alexis is in San Francisco on business, then barks about how he wants her to be prosecuted for attempted murder. An exasperated Andy reminds him that they just wrapped up a court case he was on the losing side of, then snaps, "Is it out of your system yet?" Hee! He urges Blake to look at this from a legal perspective and to not always be so reactive to his idiotic emotions. Blake snarls, "I don't care about that, I'm looking at this from a human point of view!" and reminds Andy about how much Jeff physically suffered, and that his marriage to Fallon was destroyed. Andy admonishes him for being so blinded by his hatred for Alexis, then turns to Adam and starts peppering him with questions. He says he finds it hard to believe that in all the time he spent with his mother, she never once dropped a clue that she was slowly poisoning Jeff. Adam insists she didn't...so then Andy tells him that as a lawyer, he should know that signed invoices are not enough evidence to take Alexis to court. He checks his watch and mutters, "It's late" and announces he's fed up with this bullcack and going home. Once he's out of earshot, Adam whines to Blake that he doesn't appreciate Andy's doubts about his innocence, and Blake's like, "Whatever" and assures him that he believes he's telling the truth.

"Must everything that upsets you personally be dragged through the court system?"

"You've met me, right?"

Kirby, who's laying in bed beside Jeff, says she wants to talk now...but Jeff isn't into it. She apologizes for being so moody lately and says, "I love you", and when he returns the I love you, she poutishly replies, "I don't know that. Show me how much. Make love to me." Jeff says the timing is bad, and that it feels like she's demanding something. Ouch. She accuses him of being fixated on someone else, but he denies it and says he can't talk about what's been bothering him other than to say, "It's complicated."

Tracy is carefully placing a plant on Krystle's desk when Krystle enters the office and introduces herself. Tracy fake gushes about how happy she was when she learned she'd be working for her, and Krystle counter-gushes about all the great things she's heard about her, and that she'll need all the help she can get. That's safe to say. Blake enters the room and formally shakes Krystle's hand as a welcoming gesture, then asks Tracy if he can check out the poster she designed for the company's 25th anniversary. Tracy tells him she wasn't satisfied with it and wanted to come up with a layout he truly deserves...which, hopefully, will be something more inspiring than a bland rendering of Blake's wrinkly face. She then exits the office, and once she's safely in the hall, glares angrily into space. Blake asks Krystle if she likes her corner office, and she looks around and says, "It's all very nice." She asks him if he has second thoughts/is embarrassed about hiring her for a high level position for which she is in no way qualified, and he says he doesn't and that he's going to really dig having her around.  

"Where's that poster of me looking so dashing?"

"It wasn't worthy of you, so I tore it up and threw it on the floor."

Blake drops by ColbyCo to warn Steven about "what may come to pass" between him and Alexis, and apologizes in advance for any future awkwardness. He then offers him the Denver-Carrington shares he was going to gift Danny before he discovered he was shacking up with Chris - but Steven declines and says that all his son needs in life is a chance to grow up with and be loved by his father. He then tells Blake to get lost 'cause he has a lot of work to do.

Alexis drops by Denver-Carrington to ask Adam why the San Francisco people only received one signed oil lease document, and reminds him that he asked her to sign three leases. Adam says he sent them off to his Hong Kong contact - but Alexis says she's already figured out that this "Hong Kong contact" doesn't actually exist. She glares at him and asks, "What are you up to?" then declares that whatever it is, he won't get away with it.

Blake is waiting for Alexis when she flounces into her office. He grabs her by the arm and snarls, "Mercuric oxide mixed with paint??" Alexis gasps, then pretends she has no idea what he's talking about, so he accuses her of trying to murder Jeff. She dramatically exclaims, "You're mad! That's a lie!" so Blake pulls out the fake purchase orders that Adam tricked her into signing. She looks at them and murmurs, "Oh God.." Blake orders her to call off the merger of ColbyCo and Denver-Carrington and warns her that if she doesn't, he'll go to the press with the documents and insinuate that she tried to murder Jeff to obtain sole control over her empire. After Blake storms out, Alexis stares at the signed invoices, then calls Adam and orders him to hightail it to her penthouse. He tells her he's too busy and tries to sound casual when he asks to what it's pertaining, and she snaps, "You know damn well what!" then declares that his days of getting away with it have just ended. 

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