Dynasty - Season 9, Episode 16

Roger Grimes's ghost isn't going to like this

"Grimes and Punishment"
Original airdate: 3/23/1989

Episode summary: Alexis is devastated when she learns that Dex slept with Sable. A witness steps forward who claims he saw Blake murder Roger Grimes. Fallon reconciles with Sergeant Zorelli. 

---

Recap: Adam and Joanna are smooching on the couch in Alexis's suite when Alexis returns home from Paris sooner than expected...and is unpleasantly surprised at the sight of her son tonguing Sable's flunky. A few seconds later, Blake enters the suite clutching the latest copy of The Denver Mirror and demands to speak privately with Alexis. He snarlingly tells her that this time she's pushed things too far...so Alexis glances at the ad inviting the public to supply information about the Carrington lake construction/Roger Grimes and claims she has no knowledge of how/why it got published in her newspaper. Blake once again insists that he did not kill Roger Grimes, and Alexis argues that she's pretty sure he did shoot the poor bastard in the back of the head. Blake grumbles about how she's not only making life hell for him, but also for their children...and Alexis breezily points out that they're no longer children and are old enough to know what a murderous monster their father is. She complains about how he's treating Adam the same way he treated her when he caught her in bed with Roger Grimes...and when Blake asks her if she knows about the sleazy thing Adam recently did, she bellows that she doesn't care. She recalls that when baby Adam was kidnapped, she needed the kind of comfort she could seemingly only find in the arms of Roger Grimes, and is therefore expending every ounce of her energy and resources into making him (Blake) come off as a criminal. Blake muses about how he can remember a version of her that wasn't so "twisted and cold" and asks her if there's any way he can stop her...to which she wryly retorts, "You could always put a bullet in the back of my head." After Blake leaves, Alexis shows Adam The Denver Mirror ad that so infuriated Blake, and the two cackle about how Adam sneakily published it so that Alexis could have plausible deniability about not knowing anything about it...even though it's really not plausible, given that it's well known that she has full editorial control over every issue of the paper.

Over in Sable's suite, Dex is enraged by The Denver Mirror ad and tells Sable he had hoped Alexis would have considered how strongly he felt about not bringing attention to Roger Grimes's demise and willingly backed off. He and Sable then get into a back-and-forth about the two of them hooking up, and she insists that she simply wants friendship, respect, and an amorous hug every now and again. When Dex asks her if she's only after him to spite Alexis, she poutishly calls that "an ugly thing to ask" ... and admits that while pissing off Alexis does give her a certain amount of satisfaction, it wasn't her only motive when they first hit the sack. She adds that she knows full well he can't give her his full devotion 'cause it's very obvious that he's still hopelessly in love with Alexis.

Adam whines to Alexis that Blake got really mad at him the other day and threw him down the stairs, and Alexis clucks sympathetically and says she's just glad he's fully on her side now. She tries to call Creighton Boyd about how the mercenary mission in Natumbe is going but has no luck, then mentions to Adam that she faxed Dex to let her know she was back in Denver. This prompts Adam to ask her which voice she's most interested in hearing: Creighton's or Dex's? Alexis doesn't reply as she silently mulls that over. 

Over at Denver Carrington, Blake and Jeff are discussing The Denver Mirror ad. Blake says he's increasingly concerned about the police issuing a warrant to search the lake and stumbling upon the entrance to the secret vault that houses "the collection". He calls up Dex to ask him to gather up some scuba gear so he can dive down there later and check if the vault entrance is still sealed, 'cause he lives in fear that the authorities might get a whiff of the nefarious thing that's going on in the underground tunnels.

"We need to ensure that the underwater vault hiding the collection is still tightly sealed."

"%$#@!!"

Fallon shows Sammy Jo the surveillance photo that Sergeant Zorelli gave to her, adding that she hasn't yet shown it to Blake...and Sammy Jo strongly urges her to come clean with Blake about it. Fallon rails about how used she feels by Zorelli, so Sammy Jo tells her to do something (e.g. hit him, kick him, scream at him) ... but then promptly tell Blake about the photo. Fallon says she hasn't been able to bring herself to face her angry father, then sheepishly agrees that she'll make an effort to confess everything first thing tomorrow. 

Sergeant Zorelli slinks to Police Headquarters to apologize to the captain for his misdeeds, and the captain tells him in no uncertain terms that in exchange for getting his job reinstated he is to have nothing more to do with investigating the Carrington lake/Roger Grimes murder. Zorelli promises he won't, then later confides in his colleague (Rudy) that he gave Fallon the surveillance photo...and Rudy looks aghast by such a dumbass breach of confidentiality.

In the Carlton Hotel lobby, Sable tells Alexis that publishing the ad in The Denver Mirror was a colossally stupid thing to do, and once again insists that Blake did not kill Roger Grimes. Alexis taunts her about how it's soooo obvious that she has a personal interest in hooking up with Blake (blech) so that she can be taken care of by another rich man, and an incensed Sable cautions that if she doesn't shut her trap, "You're going to lose in ways you cannot imagine." Alexis shrugs disinterestedly at the warning and gleefully informs her cousin that she's about to get some very bad news. 

Sammy Jo is decked out in a fantastic red leather outfit when she drops by the teen Rec Center (where Tanner works), and Tanner looks out of sorts by the unexpected visit. She hands him a big check to donate to the charity...and a few seconds later, Father Shea (the priest who oversees the Center) wanders over to say hey and is introduced to Sammy Jo. After Sammy Jo heads home, Father Shea warns Tanner about his obvious attraction to the blonde hottie and asks, "Does she know you're married, son?" and Tanner sheepishly says that she doesn't. 

​Back at the Carlton Hotel, Alexis and Adam drop by Sable's suite, and they're followed by a hotel servant who's wheeling in a room service cart with a covered surprise. Alexis dramatically lifts the plate cover and reveals a small fishbowl, then drops in a series of tiny plastic oil tankers as a silly means of demonstrating that the seven ColbyCo ships Sable purchased from the auction are now at the bottom of the sea. Sable and Monica (who now lives in Denver) are all, "The fuck?", and then Sable gets a phone call confirming that her newly purchased oil tankers have been blown to smithereens. Adam assures everyone in the room that nobody was aboard any of the ships when they were attacked, and Alexis gleefully declares that since her ship problem has been settled, she can now devote all of her time and energy pursuing the killer of Roger Grimes. Sable once again insists that Blake did not murder him, and Alexis mockingly tells her how touching it is that she's standing by her man, and that's a pity he has no desire to lie down with her.

"It's a pity you can't seem to seduce the old goat you're crushing on."

"Me and the old goat are just platonic!!"

An enraged Sable tells Monica that they're going to move ahead with using Fritz Heath's intel to destroy Alexis. She says they could really use help from someone with political clout to pull some very big strings, and Monica suggests enlisting Jeff in their vengeance plan.

Blake touches base with Dex to talk about tonight's scuba dive in the lake. Yawn.

​Dex drops by Alexis's suite, where he runs into Adam and Joanna. He trades barbs with Joanna until she and Adam head out for dinner...and then Alexis emerges from her bedroom wearing a snugly fitted, cleavage baring white dress. She chides Dex for not calling her earlier, and he warily tells her they need to talk...and says it in the kind of ominous sounding 'we need to talk' type way.

Blake arrives at Delta Rho to see Fallon...and as he's waiting in the living room for her to appear, he finds the surveillance photo atop the coffee table. When Fallon enters the room and sees him studying the photo, she tries to explain how it came to be that she was surveilled by Sergeant Zorelli while looking at a photo of Roger Grimes at the police station, and Blake gets all bitchy about her stupidity in allowing herself to be tricked, and that she's no longer the wonderful little girl he used to spoil rotten and then infantilize well into adulthood. 

Alexis invites Dex to fawn over her after being away from Denver for so long, but he tells her he's very pissed off about her endless conflict with Blake, as well as her role in blowing up seven of Sable's ships...and is more than a little suspicious that she was enmeshed in some kind of romantic interlude during this destructive escapade. Alexis somehow takes that to mean that he's been cheating on her [despite the fact that these two are not currently in a monogamous relationship], then demands to know who he's been bedding. He looks troubled and moans, "Please don't..", which prompts her to look horrified as she whispers, "You wouldn't do something like that to me? You didn't go to bed with Sable..?" When Dex stares sheepishly into space, Alexis covers her face with her hands and tears up while moaning, "Oh noooo.." Dex (kind of half-heartedly) professes his love for her - but Alexis argues that clearly he doesn't love her, and that he embodies everything that's generally wrong with men. She adds that since he chose to doink Sable, she doesn't ever want to see him again...and seems wholly oblivious to how hypocritical she's being, considering her own "infidelity" in bedding Creighton Boyd while the two were in Paris.

"How dare you sleep with Sable while I was saving myself for you!"

"I can't help but be highly skeptical of that."

Jeff arrives home and is surprised to see Monica in his kitchen, cooking him dinner. She informs him that Alexis conspired to blow up seven ColbyCo ships in Natumbe, and chides him for being friends with such a crazed lunatic. Jeff reminds her that there are two sides to every story, and Monica stares at him incredulously and says he can't possibly be on Alexis's side. She becomes so exasperated by his inability to badmouth his former mother-in-law that she grabs a can of whipping cream and sprays him with it, and so Jeff grabs it from her and aims the can at her ample cleavage that's barely covered by the skimpy top she's wearing...and it all looked very incestuously weird considering that it was revealed on The Colbys that these two are half-siblings.

Dex stops by Carrington manor to tell Blake that he thinks they've both misjudged Sable...and that he fully believes she's sincere in her promise to look out for him (Blake) and the comatose Krystle. Dex adds that she's had it rough ever since she lost her family following the contentious divorce, and Blake ponders that for a few seconds and admits that perhaps he has been too hard on her. 

Fallon storms over to Sergeant Zorelli's apartment and growls, "Are you happy now?" When Zorelli just stares back at her in confusion, she tells him that Blake found the surveillance photo and is newly angry at her for being tricked into generating damning evidence against him. When Zorelli offers to talk to Blake, she yells, "Stay away from me!" ... and when he tells her he loves her, she snappishly tells him to stop it. He repeats his love declaration and insists that she too loves him...and Fallon weakly slaps him, but then lets him hug her while she sobs in his arms. 
​
Adam delivers good news to a visibly depressed Alexis: a witness named Elsworth Chisolm has come forward as a result of The Denver Mirror ad. Elsworth, a former construction worker who seems totally legit, claims to know what really happened to Roger Grimes. 

Adam arranges a late night meeting in a park with Elsworth Chisolm, but is disappointed when the witness's granddaughter (Phoenix) shows up in Elsworth's stead so that she can carefully gauge whether or not he (Adam) can be trusted. While the two sit at a picnic table, she tells Adam that her gramps was a laborer who worked on the lake project and saw the man who killed Roger Grimes...and that she herself has seen a picture of this murderer. She provides Adam with her gramps's address, then gets up and disappears into the night. 

"Gramps sent me here to make sure you were a trustworthy person."

"I hope for my sake that you're a terrible judge of character."

Jeff and Monica enjoy their dinner and agree on what a giant shitbag Jason Colby is. The two then reminisce about how they used to play together/spy on each other when they were kids...which is confusing, 'cause I had assumed that Jeff grew up in Denver, and was childhood friends with Fallon and Steven. 

Over at Casa Dex, Sable insists to Dex that she did not steal the seven ColbyCo ships that Alexis blew up. Dex comes right out and asks her why she hates Alexis with the intensity of a thousand suns - like, aside from the fact that she slept with Jason Colby ten years ago - and Sable just cryptically replies, "That woman knows just what she did, and why I'm going to make her life a living hell." She adds that he should pass along that message "next time you sleep with the bitch". Meow.

Fallon has caved to Zorelli's smoochery and looks oddly defeated as she sits at his kitchen table with a plate of pasta in front of her, admonishing all men while he tenderly kisses her cheeks. She remarks on how little they have in common and insists that he's not even her type...and he responds by undressing her, which prompts her to undress him as the two press ahead with their chemistry-free foreplay.

Alexis and Adam meet with Phoenix and Elsworth Chisolm at their home. Elsworth recalls witnessing someone wearing a bright orange rain jacket with a C on the back entering the mine with Roger Grimes. Alexis perks up at that and says she knows for a fact that Blake had a jacket exactly like that...and so Elsworth confirms that, yep, Blake Carrington was the murderer who ended that poor man's life. Alexis gets up, stares broodily into space, and mutters, "Just as I am going to end his" while the camera zooms in on her poutishly defiant expression.

​Thanks for reading! If you are enjoying TVofYore's recaps, consider thanking me by buying me a "coffee"!

---