Episode Title: Breach of Faith
Season 02, Episode 07
Episode 020 of 344
Written by William Hopkins
Directed by Harvey S. Laidman
Original Airdate: Thursday,
January 8th, 1981
The Plot (Courtesy of TV.Com):. The neighbors
throw a barbecue for Laura to celebrate her new success as a realtor. At the
party, Richard paws Abby and Laura overhears them planning to meet later. Laura
later tells Richard she will no longer be his
"whipping boy," and if his behavior continues, she is going to leave
him. Ginger finds out she is pregnant and breaks up with Carl. Val is upset
because Gary runs every time Judy Trent needs help with Earl. Val says she needs
time with Gary too. Gary continues to comfort Judy and begins an affair with
her.
On
last week’s KL we dealt with Diana’s
“first love” and her potential loss of virginity with Step One. While that episode
had its moments (Abby and Richard in the hot tub), it overall left me feeling
cold and underwhelmed. Does Breach of Faith do the same or is it an
improvement from our last show? Read on.
Breach of Faith is a real ensemble show; everybody
in the cast is featured heavily and everyone has lots to do. In addition, while all the characters are
unique, there is a linkage to their storylines representing parallel themes
running through the episode, starting right off the bat with the very first
scene. In it, we have Gary and Judy standing outside of Knots Landing Motors and discussing
Earl (played, as you’ll recall, by Paul Rudd, and not that Paul Rudd, but rather The Other Paul Rudd). Apparently Judy just can’t take
being married to Earl anymore; he’s a drunken mess and he degrades her. Clearly she has eyes for Gary, though, as we
begin this episode, the two have still not consummated their sordid affair, and
the question of whether or not they will sleep together is just one of the
episode’s many storylines.
Next,
we move on to one of my least favorite characters, Ginger, who has a chat with
Val when they bump into each other in the waiting room of the doctor’s
office. Ginger casually mentions how she
missed a period and I think we all know how this is going to turn out. I’m gonna confess that there were moments in
this episode when I actually found Kenny and Ginger almost interesting, and at least the writers are trying to give them something to do, you
know? Often in these first four seasons,
Kenny and Ginger just sit out whole episodes, but at least here the writers are
trying to give everyone material, even the less interesting, and I appreciate
that.
Storyline
C involves Richard and his continued affair with Abs. Boy, this is another one of those episodes
that just burns itself into your memory; as soon as we started watching it, I
remembered which one it was and I got very excited. See, Richard is still out of work and when we
first see him in Breach of Faith, he
is returning from what he says is something like his ninth job interview in
three weeks. The Plesh gives a
fabulously eloquent little speech here that is wry and sarcastic and laced with
bitter emotions; he’s mad because the guy who interviewed him for the job was
nineteen or twenty years old. Richard’s
in a real crisis here and, as we’ll see later in the episode and in the ones
coming up, he appears to be developing a bit of a drinking problem. Right now he mostly stays home all day and
pursues his affair with Abby while Laura goes out to conquer the real estate
world.
We
also establish that Gary and Val want to have another baby, something that I’d
forgotten was discussed so early in the series.
I’ll give a quick SPOILER WARNING for a few seasons out by saying that
Gary and Val do in fact end up having a baby (not just one but two) during the incredible sixth season
of the show, but that’s way far off, and I was surprised to hear them
discussing it at this point in the series.
Obviously they both are parents to Lucy over in Texas, but that relationship
didn’t exactly work out thanks to J.R.’s evil doings, so Val seems to believe a
second baby would be just what the doctor ordered.
The
majority of the action for this episode takes place at a barbecue in Richard
and Laura’s backyard. See, the gang at
the cul-de-sac is throwing a little party for Laura in honor of her getting her
real estate license. The party gets
started okay but then Richard starts hitting the bottles and, well, things go
downhill from there. As we’ve been going
through the second season and watching Richard and Abs commence their affair,
it’s very obvious that Richard doesn’t even care to hide the affair from his
wife; he’s really quite blatant about it.
Here, he has no qualms about pawing all over Abby all night, touching
her and generally harassing her in front of everyone. This is what I was talking about a second ago
when I said how this episode burns into your memory; basically all of the
action at this barbecue has stuck in my brain ever since the first time I watched
this show, particularly Richard’s abhorrent behavior.
Let’s
talk about Richard for a minute, shall we?
I love this character and I love how The Plesh plays him, but I’d say
this particular arc of episodes might be his low point as a character with any
moral values. Now, understand I’m not
making a judgment about the character
or the acting. Rather, I am pointing out
that at this point, it’s hard to find anything really likable or kind in
Richard. He’s a complex character who
can often shift between kindness and decency and then back to selfishness and
immoral behavior, but right here it’s all the latter and none of the
former. Here, he doesn’t care if he
embarrasses his wife by groping Abby, and he has pretty much no respect for
Laura’s work, as demonstrated by a fantastically uncomfortable speech he gives
to the whole party (“Soon to be a major motion picture starring Joan Crawford!”).
It’s
moments like this that exemplify KL at
its best: Unafraid to make the audience uncomfortable with a character’s
behavior. When Richard gives his drunken
speech about Laura, it’s a truly cringe-worthy scene, and we feel so bad for poor Laura who is being
humiliated by her husband in front of all her friends, and all because he feels
emasculated by her new career and success.
At the same time, I find myself understanding Richard. The man wants to be bigger, more powerful,
and more successful, yet at this moment in his life he is none of those things;
he feels like his wife is bringing home the bacon and that embarrasses
him. I think he carries on his affair
not necessarily to hurt Laura, but rather because Abby expressed an interest
and made him feel like he was a man, you know?
Meanwhile
over in the Ewing storyline, Gary has to miss the party because Judy calls to
inform him that Earl’s off on another
crazy bender. It’s right about here that
I’d like to discuss Judy and her character motivations. Is she really calling Gary simply because
Earl is drunk again and she actually needs
Gary to come and help out? I doubt
it. I think Judy has gotten perfectly
used to Earl’s behavior with the bottle, but she’s just using it as an excuse
to keep Gary around for the purposes of seduction. Indeed, Gary comes running like an obedient
little puppy as soon as she calls him, and then the two spend the majority of
the episode hanging out on the street corner, sipping coffee and waiting for
Earl to show up, which he does in due time.
I
always smile when I see The Other Paul Rudd show up on KL, and even though he’s only in three episodes (with this being
the second of those three), he leaves a very lasting impression. Here, he comes stumbling out onto the street
and starts going on and on about how Judy loves to commit adultery and that
she’s a bad wife and has cheated on him a ton of times before and Bob Loblaw. Again, as I said before with
Richard’s nasty speech, this is fabulously uncomfortable. Now might be a good time for me to mention
that I like feeling fabulously
uncomfortable when watching this show, or any show, really. I love when the writers and directors and
actors are like, “This is gonna be an uncomfortable scene, we’re doing it, deal
with it.” So much of television
entertainment, particularly during this era, was about leaving the audience
feeling happy and safe, not awkward and uncomfortable. But here, we have drunken Earl rambling and
stumbling around and insulting his wife and even shoving her down and hurting
her (important plot point for later).
Is
Earl telling the truth? I am inclined to
believe he is, but it’s sort of a chicken-and-the-egg situation. While watching, My Beloved Grammy said she
believes Judy really does have a long
history with adultery and that’s why
Earl drinks so much. I think I agree
with her, but I also think it could very well be that Earl drank too much and that caused Judy to seek comfort in the
arms of other men. Or perhaps it was
fairly even and they are both at fault for the situation? Again, as KL
does when it’s at its best, it presents characters who are rich and
intricate and multifaceted; nothing is simple and black and white on KL; each and every character displays
many shades of grey.
The
gash on Judy’s forehead provides impetus for Gary to retire to her apartment
with her, and it’s here that the adultery is committed. I really liked this scene, actually, and I
thought it was filmed in a way that made it feel very ominous. To provide some context, the two characters
are hanging out on the couch, and Gary gives Val a call and tells her a blatant
lie when he says he’s still out on the street, looking for Earl. He tells her he’s calling from a phone booth
and he neglects to mention the dykey looking broad who is basically sucking on
his fingers while he chats. But that’s
not even the best part; the best part is right before we go to commercial. Gary and Judy are looking into each other’s
eyes, gazing longingly, and the phone starts ringing. It rings and rings and rings and the two
characters just keep ignoring it. They
slowly start to go in for the kiss and, just as they start to kiss, the phone
just keeps ringing and we fade to black for a commercial, a rather creepy and
spooky way to end that act, in my opinion.
Let
me tell you about one person who was having absolutely no tolerance for this storyline, and that would be My Beloved
Grammy. Now, I don’t think Judy is
attractive at all (as probably evidenced by my constantly referring to her as
“the dykey looking broad”), but My Beloved Grammy thinks she’s just hideous.
My apologies to Jane Elliot if she ever stumbles upon this blog, but
My Beloved Grammy was just constantly going on about, “I can’t believe how ugly this woman
is,” or “Couldn’t they have cast a more attractive actress?” It’s really quite funny to listen to her; she
hates this character and just finds
her completely repulsive. I agree that
she is a very ugly woman, but in a way, I like that. Other nighttime shows at this time would
probably cast some STUNNING buxom blonde for Gary to have his affair with, but KL plays it a little more realistic,
with a woman who is, to put it kindly, not exactly a looker. The fact that she’s so unattractive also adds
a nice pitiful note to basically all of her behavior.
I’m
going to say something rather stunning right now, so brace yourself. I actually kind of, gulp, liked a scene in this episode featuring
Kenny and Ginger. In fact, this might be
my favorite scene with Kenny and Ginger up to this point in the series (and
very possibly throughout their entire four years on the show). See, Ginger is sleeping and then she realizes
there’s a shadowy figure in her room.
She turns the light on and, big sigh of relief, it’s just Kenny. But then Kenny starts to act like a real jerk
and go on about how it makes him sick to see her dating David Haskell from Body Double. Ginger is all like, “I can date people from Body Double if I want to and you were
never in a Brian De Palma movie, so there!”
The scene culminates with her slapping Kenny and then ordering him to
get out and to leave his key on the table.
Again, this is hardly the greatest scene ever, but considering it
featured just Kenny and Ginger, I was actually moderately interested, and
that’s saying something, so kudos to the writers (William Hopkins in this case,
and what do you know, my research indicates that he wrote exactly one other KL episode and it was my cherished Let Me Count the Ways, so this guy clearly knows how to write a
great episode) for actually making the two toxic bores moderately interesting.
We
enter act four of the episode with The Morning After. Richard and Laura are sitting in the kitchen
and having their coffee and of course Richard is acting like everything is
fine. “I think I consumed about half a
case of champagne last night,” he says in a tone of amusement, and then Laura
has this great retort where she says something to the effect of, “It’s always
amazed me when people talk about what they did when they were drunk as though
they were talking about someone else.”
Great acting from Constance, as per usual, contributing to an overall
grand scene. See, it’s also shit like
this that makes KL special; they
don’t just show us the juicy, saucy stuff, the people having affairs and what
not, but they also show us, and in a very realistic way, that awkward morning
after when a man has to face his wife after treating her horribly. No matter how soapy the shenanigans may
sometimes get (more on that subject in a minute), it’s always grounded in
reality because of the way the characters respond
to said shenanigans.
The
last real plot development we get in Breach
of Faith is the confirmation that Ginger is, in fact, pregnant. Bob Loblaw, I don’t really care at all
about this storyline (and I know it’s just gonna lead to some sleep-inducing
material in the next season or two), but whatever, at least she’s getting
something to do. Oh yeah, and she also
dumps Carl (Body Double guy) and puts
an end to their whole relationship. I am
sad to see her end it with him but I think he still pops up for another episode
or two, so at least we don’t have to say goodbye to that beard just yet.
So
in case you can’t tell, I am sorta over-the-moon about this episode. Kristin
was a legitimately bad episode of KL,
and that was unfortunate, and then the next episode, Step One, was an improvement and had a few things going for it but
was also hardly anything special.
Therefore, I’m pleased to announce that Breach of Faith is a near perfect KL episode, representing the strong writing and acting that are so
important to keeping KL on the air
for fourteen glorious years. Not only is
the cast fantastic, but there are real themes to the episode that link all the
characters together, for nearly everyone is being tempted with that potential
breach of faith (the only exception I can think of for this particular show are
Karen and Sid, but we all know Linda is waiting in the rafters to try and
seduce Sid, so patience, dear viewer).
Think about it, though, Kenny and Ginger are divorcing because of his breach of faith at the end of season
one, right? Meanwhile, Gary is
committing a breach of faith against Val by sleeping with Judy, and finally we
have Richard continuing to breach any faith he might have once had from Laura
by blatantly throwing his affair in her face.
So even something as simple as the very title of the episode is still
important to the overall storyline; it’s not just an arbitrary title that
somebody picked when they were writing a script, but rather a theme and a
through line for the entire 48 minutes.
One
last thing I wanna note, because I found it very interesting. I tend to think of Dallas as the much soapier series versus KL, but while watching this particular ep, My Beloved Grammy opined
that she finds this “Much soapier than Dallas.” I thought this was interesting because,
honestly, we’re not even into the “soap opera” portion of the show that
commences with season four. Yes, we are
seeing quite a few continuing storylines run through the course of the season,
but many episodes still feel isolated and stand-alone (“bottle” episodes,
you’ll remember), so I found the comment interesting. I can see her point though when it comes to
this particular ep, however, as it is basically all about adultery. Two out of the four couples on the cul-de-sac
are committing adultery and one is going through a divorce while also pregnant
with her soon-to-be-ex-husband’s baby.
Yeah, thinking on it now, that is all pretty darn soapy, so I guess I
understand her comment.
One
other thing she said that would have
burned me if we were a little bit deeper into the series: She said the show
hasn’t yet usurped Dallas for her,
that Dallas is still the superior
series in her eyes. When we finished Dallas and started KL, I told her that I absolutely find KL to be the superior series with
the caveat that it takes a few seasons to really hit its stride. I’ll report back when we’re around seasons
four/five/six/seven era to see if she changes her mind at all and if KL can win her over as the superior
series.
For
now, however, that’s about all I have to say about Breach of Faith. I really
really enjoyed it and would put it in the top pantheon of episodes we’ve
watched so far, and it’s definitely one of the top episodes of season two, as
well. After two rather rocky episodes in
a row, Breach of Faith gets the show
nicely back on track and represents KL at
its best. Can this grand quality be
maintained throughout our next episode?
Let’s find out when we reconvene to discuss episode 021, Scapegoats.
I think this was a a wonderful episode, just because I'm a Gary and Abby shipper, and you can see the seeds being planted. Abby was jealous of Judy when she interrupted them at the beginning of the episode and at the party Gary watches faintly annoyed while Richard paws Abby. He is relived when she comes to stand by his side at the BBQ.
ReplyDeleteFabulous observations, Emily, both of which I didn't even notice or think about. However, I must disagree with you being a shipper of Gary and Abs; the pairing of Gary and Abs in late season three and the seasons to follow represent the show turning from Good to GREAT and launch us into an incredible golden era of storytelling and quality writing and acting, BUT I think Gary and Val are soul-mates and that if KL is about one thing, it is about their journey towards discovering that and eventually mutually arriving in the same destination by series end.
ReplyDeleteBut would Gary have matured as he did without being a father to Olivia and Brian? Abby forced him to grow up. Gary had two soul mates, unfortunately Abby betrayed his trust one too many times.
ReplyDeleteI think Gary and Abby's relationship was a necessary step to Gary and Val getting back together. Abby was a woman who wouldn't put up with his bullshit. She didn't follow him around town when he was on a drunken bender. She knew he would be back...and he was. He needed to learn to depend on himself instead of Val, and it helped him become a better man. And, to Emily's point, being a dad to Olivia and Brian helped him to grow up as well...and to prepare him to become a father to Betsy and Bobby.
ReplyDeleteAnd Val needed that time to grow up as well. She needed to learn she could live without Gary in order for them to be together again. She became a writer and fell in love with another man. I don't think she would have grown if she had stayed with Gary.
What is also ironic in this episode is Val comforting Laura over Richard and Abby, and in 2 years the roles would be reversed.
ReplyDelete