Dynasty - Season 8, Episode 1

Even Matthew seems aware that his brain isn't firing on all cylinders

"The Siege Part 1"
Original airdate: 9/23/1987

Episode summary: Matthew continues to hold a large group of people hostage in Carrington manor. Alexis is rescued after her car plunges into a river. Adam and Dana jet to their honeymoon destination.

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Recap: A handsome young man we've never seen before is driving down the road when he suddenly sees a car (with Alexis behind the wheel) crash through the guardrail of a bridge, then plunge into the water below. The handsome young man instantly pulls over, leaps out of his car, and dives into the water. 

Back at the mansion, Matthew Blaisdel and his Peruvian goons continue to hold everyone hostage in one of the sitting rooms. Blake stews for several seconds before springing up from the couch and striding across the room to pound on the door while demanding that Matthew release them...and one of the goons yells at him to sit back down. 

The handsome young man pulls Alexis out of the water, and we see that she's still clad in her frothy pink party gown. The handsome young man's life-saving CPR consists of pressing on her back until she starts coughing (somehow without any water coming out of her mouth) and breathing normally.

Back at the mansion, Kristina tells her mom she's vewy afwaid that the bad man is going to take her (Krystle) away, and this prompts Danny to freak out and ask Steven if the bad man is going to shoot them. Steven does his best to weakly assure the tot that, despite the many pistols that Matthew's odd goon friends keep waving around, no one is going to get shot. 
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In the study, Matthew is sitting behind Blake's desk and swigging what I'll assume is some kind of medicine from a tiny bottle. He then rubs his head as if he's suffering a terrible migraine. 

Krystle tells Steven she thinks that Matthew has more than a screw loose - just as two of the goons burst into the room and order Blake to follow them over to the study. When Blake enters the study, he finds Matthew studying a framed photo of him (Blake) and Krystle. Matthew smugly points out to Blake that he had cleverly planned this home invasion on a weekend so that no one at Denver Carrington would expect to hear from him for a few days...then makes it clear that when he departs the mansion, he's taking Krystle with him. Blake growls, "You're going to have to kill me first", to which Matthew chucklingly replies, "If I have to." He then orders Blake to light up the fireplace, then takes the Blake/Krystle photo out of the frame, rips it into two, and burns the Blake half. 

"Taking Krystle is going to mean neutralizing me in some terrible way."

"I consider that a pro, not a con."

Adam and Dana are on a private jet, en route to their honeymoon location (which remains a mystery to Dana). As the two sway dance and coo about how deeply in love with each other they are, Dana says she'd like to call everyone back home to wax on about how deliriously happy she is to be Mrs. Psycho - but Adam stops her from making the call 'cause of how desperate he is for them to do the horizontal mambo while in mid-air. Ew.

Matthew applauds his captives for being mostly cooperative, then shares that his goons are part of the general group of people who saved him from dying in the Peruvian jungle all those years ago. To return the favor, he taught them and their families better ways to grow their crops and live their lives...and they all bonded to the point where they'd happily die for one another. Unimpressed by the fantastical story, Leslie demands to see Dex, who was injured in the initial attack, to which Matthew barks, "Later!" and once again rubs his sore head. He makes it clear that they're all confined to this room (unless accompanied by one of his goons), and warns against any escape attempts. He then bends down and coos at Kristina about what a cutie patootie she is - prompting an alarmed Blake to tell Matthew that he has some jewelry in his bedroom safe that surely he'd be interested in looking at right now. Matthew perks up at that and decrees that Krystle be the one to accompany him...and when Blake tries to physically lunge at Matthew to prevent him from forcing Krystle to go with him, the goons restrain him and hold a knife to his throat. 

​As Matthew forcibly escorts Krystle upstairs, she asks about Lindsay, then clucks sympathetically when Matthew tells her that his daughter didn't survive the jungle crash. Confoundingly, Matthew then declines to show even the slightest interest in Lindsay's mom's tortured life between the end of Season 1 and her subsequent death by fire, and instead changes the subject to all the times that they (he and Krystle) would secretly meet up at his apartment to hit the sheets. Krystle plays along by faux fondly reminiscing about how much she loved his kindness and gentleness - but that it's all water under the bridge 'cause of how happy she is with her life now. Matthew grumbles that Blake steals other men's oil and women, then tries to caress her face - but Krystle snaps her head away. Blake, meanwhile, has managed to escape the sitting room and storms into the bedroom with one of the goons in close pursuit. Matthew orders the goon to exit, then tells Blake that since he's here he might as well open the safe. Blake complies and pulls out a large velvety bag of expensive looking jewelry...but when he reaches back inside the safe for his gun, Matthew is too quick and swiftly grabs it away from him. 

Later, Matthew drops by the room where Dex is recovering from his injuries sustained when he fought off the goons during the initial attack. Matthew remarks on what a decent man (his father) Sam Dexter is, then stares wild-eyed into space as he poetically natters about the impromptu party he's throwing in order to celebrate his return to Carrington manor:

The scarred, wondrous journey was nearing its end
He called for a festival
And all the tribes did attend.

As Matthew looks almost bemused by his own nutbaggery, Dex reacts by scrunching his face perplexedly.

Downstairs, Matthew orders that champagne be served, then amuses himself by forcing the housekeeping staff to wear the expensive jewelry that Blake just pulled out of his safe. When he holds up the necklace Krystle pawned in Season 1 in order to help keep his oil rig functioning and tells her to wear it, Krystle declines...and for the umpteenth time this episode, Blake lunges at Matthew in protest - but is stopped by Steven. A few seconds later, the phone rings, and Matthew takes the call and learns that a reporter from The Chronicle is interested in interviewing Blake about his plans to enter the upcoming governor's race, a revelation which prompts Matthew to stare into space with an expression of puzzlement.

Over at the hospital, Alexis regains consciousness and is all 'where am I? How did I get here?', so the nurse informs her that she was rescued by a super hot young stud, who left the hospital once she was safely admitted. Alexis stares confusedly into space as she digests that fascinating tidbit, then falls back asleep.

"Where on earth did this Good Samaritan, who rescued me from drowning, come from?"

"No idea - but he was hot as fuck."

Matthew tauntingly asks Steven if he still has problems with "fag haters", like his bigot of a father, for example...and Steven half-heartedly retorts that the old goat accepts him "for who and what I am". Matthew doesn't buy it [nor do I] and says that surely his gayness is always going to be an embarrassment to an intolerant shitbag like Blake and highly doubts he'd ever hand over his empire to a non-hetero son. He then turns to Leslie and asks her what kind of chunk of the Denver Carrington empire she's been given, so she replies that she's been offered a home, love, and caring family members. Matthew bitterly warns that she doesn't yet know them well enough, and that the Carringtons are only capable of loving money and power. 

Across the country near the Mojave Desert, the local sheriff pulls up next to Fallon's abandoned car. He looks around perplexedly, then seats himself in the driver's seat and uses the car phone to report Fallon MIA. He then looks around and calls her name, but gets no response. 

After Kristina nods off, Blake and Krystle put on a show of pretending to argue, in an effort to fool Matthew into thinking that there's something amiss in their marriage. After Matthew leaves the room, Blake covertly explains to Steven and Dex that he just cobbled together in his brain a genius plan to get them out of this predicament:

• Make Matthew think there's a sudden wedge between himself and Krystle
• Offer Matthew the use of a private Denver Carrington jet to ferry him, Krystle, and his goons to Peru
• Convince Matthew that he can get him a lot of money from his fat-cat friends - but that it's something he can only do face-to-face
• Assuming Matthew buys the above, Blake will go straight to the police
• ​Steven and/or Dex will somehow get Matthew to stand on the west terrace for a private conversation at 7:45am sharp, at which time a police officer will open fire on him ... "one single shot, and that's it"

Dex is like, "That plan is just crazy enough to work!" and assures Blake he'll do his best to help make it a success, while Steven clucks sympathetically about the very real possibility of poor deranged Matthew getting killed.

Over in the study, Matthew is slumped in the chair by the fireplace and is sipping from his little bottle again when Blake enters the study and fibs that he no longer gives the tiniest of rat's asses if Krystle continues living at the mansion or jets off to Peru with him (Matthew) - as long as she leaves Kristina behind. Matthew likes the sound of jetting back to Peru with his beloved and orders Blake to get on the phone with his pilot...and Blake complies while Matthew listens on the other extension. He looks satisfied enough with the call, then decides that, yep, it'd be a good idea to allow Blake to leave the mansion (while escorted by one of his goons) for the next several hours to gather up a large pile o' cash. He barks at Blake to be back at the mansion by 8:00am.

Alexis climbs out of her hospital bed and rummages around the closet for her clothes. When the nurse enters the room and urges her to get back into bed, she insists on leaving so that she can go find the hottie who saved her life. 

Back in California, more police cruisers arrive at the site of Fallon's disappearance. The sheriff informs Jeff that Fallon had called for help from her car phone...but by the time he arrived, she was nowhere to be found. Jeff berates him for not searching the area hard enough, then storms back to his car to conduct his own search. After driving for a few seconds, he manages to locate her laying unconscious in front of a set of wrought iron gates. He's all, "Faaaaaaallon!" and picks her up and carries her over to his car.   

"Your wife has seemingly vanished from her car and into thin air."

"Nooooo! Last time my wife disappeared this way she was horribly recast."

In the master bedroom of Carrington manor, Matthew shows Krystle a photo of the two of them in happier times...and she glances at it, while he creepishly smiles at her and saunters out of the room. She then sits atop the bed and agonizes, "Oh Blake...what's going to happen to us?"

Blake is driving his car with Matthew's goon in the passenger seat...and when he spots a police car parked in front of a diner, he deliberately crashes into it. The police officer races over and angrily declares him under arrest, and Blake's like, "Good! Now take me to headquarters!"

At the police station, Blake explains to several detectives that a madman is holding his friends and family hostage at Carrington manor. The detectives assure him they'll do everything possible to rescue everyone.

Alexis manages to locate the handsome young man who saved her (apparently by asking a ranger about any locals who match his description) while he's outside of his cabin, chopping wood. She tells the handsome young man she's extremely grateful to him for fishing her out of the water and administering the weakest form of CPR ever to be dramatized on primetime TV, and then introduces herself - but he just shrugs disinterestedly, says, "I know your name, Mrs. Colby", and tells her to go away 'cause he has a lot of wood chopping to do.  
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Leslie whispers to Sammy Jo that she wants to attempt a half-assed escape and has hatched a very bad plan she's ready to put into motion. She then pours herself a drink, flirtingly grins at one of the goons, and sashays over to ask him if he'd like a sip. The goon looks visibly intrigued by her as he takes a sip...and so Leslie starts cooing about how lonely he must be feeling, so far away from home. She takes his hand and leads him out of the room and into a nearby bedroom (while Dex grimly looks on). Leslie urges the man to mount her for an amorous canoodle, then reaches around for his firearm - just as Matthew suddenly appears, grabs the pistol, and snarlingly warns her to not do that again. He admonishes, "Sex is obviously some kind of plaything to you, Miss Carrington. These men have never met women like you." He then grabs her, shoves her towards the man she tried to seduce, who proceeds to backhand her across the face.

"My innocent rube gunmen have no idea that cheap floozies such as yourself even exist in the world."

"There must be at least one South American harlot these men have stumbled across."

Dex bursts into the room and punches the goon who backhanded Leslie...and after wrestling with him and Matthew, he breaks away and runs through the dining room before hurling himself through the glass patio door. As he races across the back lawn, Matthew nods at one of the goons, who then opens fire on Dex and shoots him in the back. Noooooo!!

Blake sketches a layout of the mansion to show the police chief where the west terrace is, and says that Matthew is going to be lured onto it this morning. He specifies, "That's where Blaisdel has gotta be picked off at 7:45 this morning." The chief, who seems fully onboard with taking 'shoot to kill' orders from Blake, murmurs that that timeframe doesn't give them much time - but the SWAT sniper glances at the makeshift map and assures the chief that he's pretty sure he'll get a clear shot.

Minutes later, the police quietly descend on the mansion and wait for Matthew to show himself on the west terrace. When nothing happens, Blake asks the chief if he can go inside the mansion to see whassup...and the chief's like 'you're the boss...why the hell not?' Blake ambles across the patio area, then enters the mansion and wanders around, puzzled when he sees that all the rooms are empty. He mutters, "Where is everybody?", then finds Kristina's stuffed animal abandoned in the vestibule, a troubling discovery that causes him to stare worriedly into space.  

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