Dynasty - Season 8, Episode 19

Adam is thrilled to finally learn that he's a full-fledged Carrington

"The Scandal"
Original airdate: 3/2/1988

Episode summary: Blake and Dex travel to Natumbe to look into Sean's shenanigans. Jeff and Sammy Jo formally decide they're a couple. Adam finally learns that he is a biological Carrington.

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Recap: Alexis has summoned Morgan Hess for an impromptu meeting and orders him to get as much intel as he can on her husband, whose real name is Sean Aynders. Alexis then makes a beeline over to Carrington manor to report to Blake that Sean is the son of Joseph (his deceased majordomo) ... and when Blake stares back at her with a the fuck? expression, she says, "I'm as stunned as you are." She explains that she learned this horrifying detail through Leslie, who's having an affair with Sean - but that she's putting in a pin in that appalling act of disloyalty for now 'cause they both have a far bigger problem on their hands: Sean is trying to bankrupt both of their companies via the Vitron Oil deal. Blake scrunches his face perplexedly and says that none of this makes any sense [um, right??], so Alexis explains that Joseph Aynders was always secretly jealous of him...but mostly hated her. She further confesses that years ago Kirby pulled a gun on her, and in exchange for her (Alexis) not reporting the incident to the police, Kirby was made to leave town under a dark cloud of shame. Blake shakes his head in dismay at that troubling revelation and grumbles, "This has come back to haunt all of us."

At the hospital, an irked Adam reminds Jesse that Karen entered into the surrogacy agreement with him/Dana of her own free will, then imperiously declares, "That child is a Carrington." Jesse snorts derisively and tells Adam to get off his high horse 'cause he knows for a fact that he's an adopted Carrington, which isn't the same as a blood Carrington...and then storms off just as Dana appears.

Blake drops by Dex's apartment, where a frightened Leslie has been hiding out. She tells Blake that Dex is over at the pipeline job site, then shares everything she knows about Sean: he's likely skimming Natumbe oil profits for his own benefit, and is violent, dangerous, and really fucking weird. Blake chews on that for a few seconds, then urges her to stay hidden at Dex's apartment for her own safety.

Blake heads over to Denver Carrington to discuss The Sean Issue with Fallon and Steven. Fallon laments her stupidity in favoring the Vitron Oil deal, and Steven - who's uncharacteristically non-dickish today - points out that he too was fooled enough to sign off on the deal, with no inkling that it was all just a scam. He says he should prolly stop making payments to Vitron Oil - but Blake urges him to first come up with some kind of logical excuse so that Sean doesn't get unnecessarily spooked.

Across the country in Los Angeles, Sammy Jo and Jeff agree that their night together between the sheets was fan-fucking-tastic. Sammy Jo continues to describe their hookup as a one night stand, and makes clear that she doesn't want to do anything to hurt Fallon. Jeff agrees that, no, that wouldn't be a good thing - but yet still wants the two of them to couple up. Sammy Jo mulls that over and decides she wants that too, and the two indulge in a smoochfest.

Blake calls Captain Nordstrom, aka the man who was recently put in charge of the Carrington oil tanker that's currently docked in Natumbe. Nordstrom assures Blake that everything is A-OK, and that whatever leaks he detected on the ship have been fully sealed and repaired. After the call, Blake tells Dex he sensed something slightly amiss in the tone of captain's voice, and strongly feels as though he needs to go to Natumbe to see whassup with that whole situation. Dex offers to tag along 'cause he suspects that Harry Thresher is up to no good, and Blake agrees that that's a good idea...and the two arrange to meet up on Blake's private jet later that evening.  

"The captain's tone didn't sound completely fully 100% normal to me."

"Sounds like we both need to fly halfway across the world to look into it."

Alexis returns home and is all, "Ack!" when she finds Sean lurking in the dark, waiting for her. When he asks her why she left the suite so early this morning, she breezily explains that she had a faux breakfast meeting with a campaign contributor...then fibs that she also tried to meet up with Blake in order to once again convince him to drop out of the gubernatorial race. Sean comes right out and asks her if she's keeping anything from him, and Alexis wails that she's not quite herself 'cause she's sooooo busy running for governor while also trying to manage the rest of her busy life. She then tells him she has to head off to her office now - but he refuses to let her leave and creepily decrees, "You're not going anywhere. I mean that."

Over at Carrington manor, Blake explains to Krystle that he has no choice but to jet to Natumbe so that he can fully grasp whatever weird nefariousness is going on with Sean, who appears to want revenge for his father's suicide and his sister's humiliating exit from Denver. He smooches Krystle goodbye and heads out.

Back at the Carlton Hotel, Sean is opening a bottle of champagne when Blake calls to covertly inform Alexis that he and Dex are off to Natumbe to look into whatever shady shit Sean's been involved in. He urges her to be careful with her psychotic husband, and to avoid revealing that he and Dex are on the hunt for clues about his nefariousness. Alexis cleverly avoids arousing any suspicion with Sean by barking back at Blake that she's not dropping out of the race, and then slams the phone down. Sean hands her a drink, and the two agree that they'd love nothing more than to spend the evening canoodling in front of the fire.

Disgraced former congressman Neal McVane drops by campaign headquarters to tell Krystle that Blake has a good chance of winning the gubernatorial election. He boasts about how he has a lot of influence in Colorado and is willing to help Blake...and when Krystle asks him what he expects in return [which seems like a totally reasonable question], he gets weirdly prickly and bitchily storms off.

Over breakfast, Alexis presents Sean with an expensive new watch that has the engraving With undying love, Alexis. Sean studies the engraving and tells her that the word undying was the perfect thing to carve into it. He then kisses her cheek and heads off to ColbyCo.

"You have no idea how ironic it is that you engraved the word undying onto my watch."

"Oh I have some idea, weirdo."

Tom Bradfield from The Denver Mirror drops by Sean's office to pass along (to Alexis) a tidbit he heard from one of his Miami contacts: Blake Carrington was just seen at the Miami airport, waiting for his private plane to be refuelled, and rumor has it that his final destination is a fictional African country. Sean scrunches his face worriedly and tells Tom he'll look into verifying that intel...and once Tom has exited the office, Sean glares at a framed photo of Alexis and snarls, "So that's it. You bitch."

Dana enters Karen's hospital room - just as the nurse is whisking the baby back to the nursery. Karen laments how much she wishes she could ease this unhappy situation for her, and Dana's like, "You can. It's our baby." She suggests that Jesse has been urging her to renege on the surrogacy agreement - but Karen denies that and says she simply decided she isn't willing to give up her child...and hopes that she, Adam, and God can one day forgive her.

Alexis arrives at ColbyCo and learns from her secretary that Sean left the building in what looked like a hurry.

After talking to Krystle, Adam drops by Neil McVane's hotel room to demand the identity of the prison inmate who once revealed that he was baby Adam Carrington's kidnapper. After some obligatory hemming and hawing, Neil relents and tells Adam that the man is a lifer by the name of Charlie Braddock.

Adam promptly heads over to the prison to pay Charlie Braddock a visit. On his side of the wire mesh window, Adam holds up a tiny pair of blue booties and asks Charlie if 1) they belonged to the kidnapped baby, and 2) if the baby died before a ransom could be collected - an earlier claim Charlie had made. Charlie clams up for a few seconds, but then decides 'why do I still give a hoot about a decades-old kidnapping?' and tells Adam that he used to be good friends with Ma Torrence, who was devastated after she lost her entire family in a car crash. In a horribly misguided effort to ease her pain, he kidnapped the first unattended baby he could find so that she'd have someone to love and care for. He confesses that his claim that the kidnapped baby had died (before a ransom could be requested) was bullshit...then shoots Adam a dramatically intense stare as he pronounces, "You are Adam Carrington." 

"Are these really my booties?"

"Your booties? You betcha!"

Adam and Dana are in the Carlton Hotel lounge, celebrating Adam's updated status as a blood Carrington. Adam happily says his top priority is to resolve the surrogacy situation with Karen, and figures that everything is somehow different now that the baby most definitely has Carrington blood coursing through his little veins. A few seconds later, a man ambles over and serves Adam with a summons, aka paperwork that Karen filed to nullify the surrogate contract. Adam stares at it incredulously, then exclaims, "They're suing for my child!"

That evening, Alexis calls Carrington manor to inform Krystle that Sean has disappeared, and to urge her to get in touch with Blake asap and warn him that Sean might be en route to Natumbe. After the call, Morgan Hess drops by Alexis's suite to tell her he "hit pay dirt" and learned that Sean is an ex-pilot-turned-mercenary who's wanted by the Irish authorities for killing a police officer, and is also a prime suspect in a terrorist kidnapping that occurred in Madrid. As Alexis visibly pales, Morgan warns that her husband is a very dangerous guy.

Across the globe in Natumbe, Captain Nordstrom gives Blake a full progress report on the tanker's fixed leak, then assures him that it's fully loaded with crude oil. Blake and Dex thank him and wish him a safe trip...and once they're out of earshot, Captain Nordstrom hurriedly calls Harry Thresher to warn him that Blake and Dex are in Natumbe and might possibly be onto their scam. He anxiously tells Harry he can't endure another fall from grace and implores him to not abandon him, and Harry calmly urges him not to panic and promises to take care of the situation.

During a phone conversation, Steven informs Blake that Sean has gone missing and might already be in Natumbe. After the call, Blake passes along to Dex the intel that Steven uncovered: the original captain disappeared from his home port weeks ago, and this Captain Nordstrom was recommended by Harry Thresher. Dex suggests they go to the Natumbeian authorities with their findings, but Blake points out that highly placed government officials might too be in on the Vitron Oil deal scam. Dex concedes that strong possibility, and the two decide to head back to the ship and independently poke around.

Harry is in his office, packing up big bundles of cash from his safe, when Sean suddenly appears in the doorway of his office and wryly asks, "Business trip, Harry?" Harry nervously tells him that Blake and Dex are in town, and that he's pretty sure they're onto their oil deal scheme...then weakly assures Sean that he was about to call him. Sean coldly confirms that he knows for a fact Blake is onto him, expresses doubt that Harry would have given him a heads up, and stonily warns, "If I go down, I take everyone with me."

"Oh hi. I was just transferring large bundles of cash to my briefcase for no particular reason."

"I will let this evil stink-eye be my retort to your unforgivable disloyalty."

Back at the Natumbeian dock, Blake and Dex evade security and sneak aboard the tanker. They enter the cargo area and are dismayed to discover that most of the crates contain weaponry, and that there are no oil barrels in sight. Blake sourly concludes that clearly Sean is using his Denver Carrington tanker to illegally smuggle arms out of West Africa. A few seconds later, a sweaty looking Sean locks the door to the cargo area from the outside and communicates to Blake and Dex, via the intercom system, that he knows they've learned about his real identity, and remarks on how amusing it is to him that he's the son of a servant who's now enjoying the fruits of a rich marriage. He tells Dex he's somewhat sorry about his impending death...and then we see that Sean is in the process of wiring explosives to blow up the ship. When Sean smugly decrees, "Justice has finally come", Dex quickly rifles through various boxes until he finds two grenades, and uses them to blow open the door. He and Blake race off the ship a few seconds before it explodes.

Later, Blake calls Alexis to inform her that his tanker was just blown up and that he can only assume Sean was aboard at the time and perished. He explains that a body, which was burned beyond recognition, was found with a watch on one wrist that had the inscription With undying love, Alexis. Alexis processes the news of her husband's presumed death by scrunching her face into a semi-mournful expression.

The camera pans over to the dark water, where Sean, who is still very much alive, is energetically swimming towards the dock.

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