Episode Title: Abby’s Choice
Season 04, Episode 11
Episode 064 of 344
Written by Oliver Clark
Directed by Joseph B. Wallenstein
Original Airdate: Thursday, December
16th, 1982
The Plot (Courtesy of TV.Com): Laura and Ciji
become friends and spend time together. It's Ciji's 25th birthday and Chip
calls and says he's hung up at work, so Laura gets her a cake. Kenny hears
rumors that Jeff is taking over their
record label, but Gary assures him it's not true. Abby refuses to donate her
kidney at first, but then decides to after talking to Diana. Karen thanks her
but Abby says she's doing it for Sid and Diana, NOT for her. Chip gives Diana
the necklace he bought for Ciji's birthday and tells her he loves her. Surgery
goes fine and both Diana and Abby are okay. Karen goes into Abby's room while
she's sleeping and kisses her on the forehead.
Welcome back for another
exciting episode of KL. When we last left off, Diana was on a
dialysis machine and in desperate need of a new kidney that only her beloved
aunt Abby could provide. After our
thirty second preview and classic season four opening credits, we get a real
quick recap (no “Previously on” narration or anything like that, however) to keep viewers
in the loop of what’s going on. After
our little recap, it’s on to new footage, with the episode credits playing over
some beautiful footage of The Beach House as Abs gazes wistfully into the
sunset and ignores Brian and Olivia, who are fighting in the sand down
below. What will Abs wind up
deciding? That’s what this episode will
be all about.
I’m gonna let the cat out of the
bag a little early here and say that I found this, overall, a pretty
underwhelming episode of KL (and,
spoiler alert, I actually found our very next episode, The Block Party, even more underwhelming), but that’s not to say
there isn’t plenty of good material here, because there is, and most of the
best stuff comes from getting the time to further explore Abby’s character and
let Donna Mills flex her acting muscles.
We see some real interesting shades of the Abs character this week, and
one of the first bits that struck me is how she so obviously uses sex as some
sort of coping mechanism.
Follow me here. Since Abs first moved onto the block back at
the start of season two, we’ve seen her to be a woman who enjoys a good roll in
the hay (or the hot tub) as frequently as she can get it, but I’m not sure if
I’ve ever really seen her as a nymphomaniac who can’t get enough cock, but
rather as a woman who uses sex as a weapon to manipulate and take advantage of
men. In this episode, while she’s
worrying and fretting about what to do with Diana, Gary comes walking into the
living room of The Beach House and Abs immediately is like, “Make love to
me!” Gary looks at her and is like,
“Now?” Abs says affirmative and then
they just start to go at it right there in the living room, but it doesn’t last
long. Instead, they sorta wind up
embracing and just sitting that way on the couch before Abs finally starts to
talk about what’s on her mind, what’s troubling her. My point is that it’s interesting to see her
jump to using sex as some sort of a vehicle for distracting her from the other
problems of life.
In addition to that, we get a
rather naked little scene between her and Gary (and I mean "naked" in that she dispalys her emotions honestly, not as in they are literally naked) in which, I believe, she is
being truly genuine and speaking to him openly and honestly. It’s a scene right near the start of the ep
in which she tells Gary that she is not a
hero and that she doesn’t have any courage.
This is not Abs play acting or behaving a certain way just to get
something out of another person, but rather her dropping her guard and just
speaking candidly to Gary. This scene
actually made me flash back to a really small, but rather significant, scene
back in China Dolls near the end of
season three. Do you all remember when
Gary briefly, very briefly, ended his little affair with Abby and told her he’d
be sticking with Val? Abby tried to act
all cool with it, but then when Gary left the room, we had a quick few seconds
of her beginning to cry right before we cut away to commercial. In that moment, we the audience got to see
Abby in a very intimate and private moment and that’s the way that this
particular moment feels to me.
There’s a lot of thinking and
decision making going on this week on the part of Abs and, quite honestly, it
was probably this stuff that most underwhelmed me. I believe I expressed a similar criticism
last week with Emergency, but I’ll
reiterate it a bit here. Basically, I
never truly believe that Diana is going to die (and, of course, I also know she’s not going to die because I
have watched the show once before and I remember that fact), nor do I believe
that her life is really in any horrible type of danger. Secondly, I never believe that Abs will deny
Diana her kidney, although again, this could just be hindsight speaking, since
I remembered that plot point from my last viewing of the series. But basically all the footage of Abs talking
to doctors or talking to Gary or talking to whoever and not being able to make
up her mind about the decision just seemed like the writers killing time for
the week, filling up the space until Abs can finally give the kidney and all
can be well in the universe.
Let’s take a break from Abs and
explore what’s going on with some of the other characters this week, shall
we? I’ll jump right into my favorite
one: The lesbian storyline between Laura and Ciji. That’s right, I’m just gonna come right out
and call it “the lesbian storyline,” and I won’t make any bones about it. Long time KL
viewers should immediately know what I’m talking about, but for those who
don’t, Abby’s Choice shows the start
of a friendship sparking between Laura and Ciji, but as we move through the
next batch of eps, we are going to see a lot of little hints and details that
lead us to believe that, perhaps, the two ladies were actually quite a bit more than friends. Now, upon my first viewing, I remember
feeling like there was a little hint of something there, but that it was all
subtext. Watching a solid disk of five
eps with My Beloved Grammy and seeing this relationship develop over those five
episodes, I was pretty shocked by how blatant it is, and I gotta give the KL team a nice little round of applause
for being bold enough to go there in 1982-1983, when most of America was still
afraid of us gays and didn’t like to see gays on their television screen.
I don’t know that there’s
anything too obviously dripping with lesbianism this week, but follow me along
and I’ll point out the most obvious instances as we move through the next few
weeks. For the purposes of Abby’s Choice, it is Ciji’s birthday and
she is turning 25 (which is pretty close to Lisa Hartman’s real life age, which
would have been 26 at this point), but I guess she’s feeling kinda lonely cuz
her boyfriend, that wonderful ball of love Chip Roberts, is so busy with his
other commitments (like trying to sleep with Diana and generally spinning a web
of lies to everyone in Seaview Circle and all of California) that he doesn’t
really have time for her. Early in the
ep, she is hanging around Daniel. Laura
is there and the two sit and start to chat it up. I’m pretty sure this is the first we’ve seen
of them interacting at all, but there could have been a moment or two somewhere
in the last few eps; I can’t remember. But
anyway, Laura is feeling frustrated and Ciji starts to go on about how smart
and beautiful she is and it’s the beginning of a beautiful little
friendship. Oh yeah, and a little later
in the ep, we see the two ladies just hanging out in Richard and Laura’s
bedroom, playing with Daniel on the bed.
There’s a lot of Ciji and Laura on or near a bed throughout the next few
weeks, so keep your eyes open, because that’s one of those rather intimate
little touches that, I’m quite convinced, the writers added just to further
hint that these two are developing into a little pair of lesbians.
Meanwhile, tension is starting
to brew between Kenny and Gary. I
apologize in advance if I’m not entirely clear on the events unfolding, but
I’ve mentioned before that I sometimes have trouble with following the big
business type storylines on the show.
This may be the result of my own stupid brain, but it also might be the
simple fact that storylines are spread out over the course of the entire
season, so I’ll often forget the little details and then wind up being more
confused down the line because of it. Not that there’s anything all that confusing in this storyline, but
basically Kenny and Gary have been working together as sorta partners,
right? Gary found Ciji back in Encounters and then he introduced her to
Kenny since Kenny is the “hip young record producer,” and since then the two
have been working together. Basically,
this week Kenny starts to hear whisperings that Gary and Ciji are gonna sell
out and go to work for the real big shot, Jeff Munson (that boring white guy we
met a few eps back who is gonna be with us pretty much through the rest of the
season). When Kenny confronts Gary on
whether or not this is so, Gary denies it, and for the time being, I don’t
think he’s lying. Like so many of the
storylines going on at this juncture, this will all play out over time. I know that usually at this
point I would insult Kenny and say mean things about what a wooden actor James Houghton is, but actually I’m not gonna do that because I am legitimately
surprised to see Kenny actually playing a role in the storylines. Honestly, I did not remember this; in my memory, Kenny and Ginger both did
literally nothing for four seasons
and then left the show. But here I am
watching them actually be a part of the stories and active participants. My point is that while I am still gonna
relegate both of them to the bottom of the pile when it comes to main cast
members, at least they’re involved now
and I almost care about them. I don’t know if this is a testament to the
actors or anything like that; rather, it’s more a testament to the writing
staff doing a good job of keeping everyone in the cast involved and keeping
things intimately linked, so good on you, writers.
That about does it for the other
stories this week, so let’s get back to Diana at the hospital. I enjoyed an early scene in this ep in which
Lilimae really goes all acid-tongue during a private conversation with Val. I really enjoy this era of Lilimae who is a
bit more a shit-talker than she is a few seasons down the line. As we power through, we’re gonna hear her
insult Gary a lot for quite awhile (I
think at a certain point she starts to like Gary again, but we’re gonna be
waiting awhile for that), but this week she really lets loose on Abby, saying
to Val, “Abby is Abby; she has never done an unselfish thing in her life.” Hey, I don’t know that I’m necessarily
disagreeing with Lilimae, just pointing out the rather no-holds-barred way that
she is phrasing it. To the surprise of Lilimae (and
probably lots of other people, as well), Abs does eventually agree to give up
that kidney after a nice talk with Diana’s doctor, who tells her that the human
body can survive with less than one kidney, that really we only use 1/5 of our
kidneys. I have no idea if this is
accurate medical information or not, but I heard it on a TV show, so therefore
it must be true. Anyone who is maybe a doctor
or some sort of expert on the human body feel free to tell me whether this is a
truism or just something the writers invented for the show, cuz I am curious
(not curious enough to just look it up myself, of course).
So anyway, Abs agrees to go
through with it, and we get a nice little scene between her and Karen where she
essentially asks Karen to leave her alone.
I love moments where Karen and Abs are alone and get to be really
straightforward about their dislike with each other. In this case, Abs makes sure that it’s clear
that she is not doing this for
Karen. She tells her she is doing it for
Sid and for Diana, and that’s it, and that her biggest wish is for Karen to
leave her alone and let her do her thing, to which Karen agrees.
Oh yeah, and how could I almost
forget to mention some fabulous Gary/Val footage that we get this week? We really
get to see Val step up and be the bigger person in the relationship this
week, I have to say, and it’s a testament to her good heart and the fact that
she is, inherently, just a good person.
In this case, she finds Gary moping outside the hospital and she goes up
to him and tells him she hopes he’s okay, she knows he’s worried, and she even
says, get this, “I know how much she means to you.” Can you imagine how hard it would be to have
to spit out that line to your soon-to-be-ex-husband about the woman he left you
for and is currently sleeping with? Not
only that, but later in the episode, when Olivia is all upset and crying, Val
takes her on a walk and says, “Your mom is a hero right now.” Jesus, such kind words to say.
One last thing, after her little
chat with Gary, Val walks away, but then turns back in time to see him chatting
it up with Ciji, looking real excited to see the new singer. What to make of this? Well, part of me thinks that Val sees this
display and perhaps thinks, “Same old Gary,” assuming that he’s gonna run off
and sleep with Ciji now. Another part of
me wonders if maybe, just maybe, Val likes the idea of Gary cheating on Abs and
breaking her heart. Could Val have a
mean streak like that in her? What do
you think, my fellow readers?
Meanwhile, while Diana is
getting prepped for surgery, we have quite a lot going on between her and con
artist Chip. Probably most important for
the events of the rest of the season as well as a good chunk of season five: They
exchange the big “I love yous,” with eachother.
Diana is lying in bed, looking all sick, looking like someone who needs
a kidney, while a super gay male nurse makes her comfortable (seriously, this
guy is ridiculous and is even rocking the ridiculous 1982 homo moustache, as
well) and I believe she says it first, followed by a moment of nervous silence
from Chip and then his response, which is, of course, “I love you, too.” Upon first viewing, with no knowledge of
what’s going to happen in the future, this could easily play like two stupid
teenagers (is Chip still a
teenager? Okay, I just looked it up, and
the answer is no, as he would be around 27 years old at this point in real
life) exchanging stupid little sentiments to each other and thinking it’s all
very epic, the way stupid teenagers think all things they do are very
epic. Yes, you can view it that way, but
looking at it knowing what’s coming up soon, I definitely saw this as a big
moment, a moment that may go a long way towards explaining some of Diana’s, um,
questionable behavior when we get to season five. In the interest of not spoiling future events
for those lucky enough to still have that in front of them, all fresh and
exciting to their virgin eyes, I shall move on to a new point.
Chip
acts like the doting boyfriend and is being all nice and friendly with everyone
gathered at the hospital. When he asks
Karen if she’d like for him to get her anything from her house, she hands him
the house key and is like, “Go on up to my bedroom and get this outfit out of
my closet, or something.” Of course we know Chip is gonna be up to no
good, but Karen doesn’t know that, yet.
Now, I sorta expected him to steal some cash from the Fairgate house or
something similar, but instead he just sorta snoops around Karen’s bedroom and
finds a book of poetry by Emily Bronte, apparently a birthday gift from Diana
to Karen. As soon as he found this, I
turned to My Beloved Grammy and said, “He’s gonna quote some random poem to
impress Karen,” and of course I was right.
As soon as he gets back to the hospital, he plops down next to Karen and
all the other people gathered in the group and randomly quotes the poem (sorry,
can’t remember what poem he quoted and I didn’t bother to put it in my
notes). This scene had a small detail I
appreciated, and that is the fact that while Karen is impressed and is like,
“Oh, I love Emily Bronte,” we get a closeup of Mack’s face and he looks like he
knows something is up. We’ve already heard
him call Chip a creep back in, I think, Man in the Middle, so we know he’s wise to Chip, or at least he has a gut
feeling that the boy can’t be trusted.
Things
wrap up fairly quickly at this point.
Diana and Abs both go into surgery and both turn out to be fine. Diana’s doctor comes out to tell Karen that
she’s doing well but that they have to wait for her to produce urine. I wrote this in my notes because I am pretty
sure that none of the other nighttime soaps would ever have discussion of any
of the character’s urine. I could be
wrong, but I’m almost certain that in 357 episodes of Dallas, we never heard mention of anyone’s urine nor any general bathroom habits. It’s just part of what helps keep KL a little more grounded in reality
than its contemporaries.
Anyway,
after the surgery, everything is all well and good and everyone is happy, and
our very last scene is kinda nice, I must say.
Karen sneaks into Abby’s room, where she is sleeping deeply, and in this
private moment, she leans down and gives her a kiss on the forehead. It’s a real interesting moment because Karen
is truly grateful that Abs has sacrificed a kidney for her daughter and she is
expressing that gratitude in a way that’s rather private and that Abs will
never even know about. See, another show
would probably have the two talk about it, work things out, exchange words
like, “Thank you” and so on, but here, we just get this silent, intimate little
moment, and the best part is that Abs never knows about it, and that’s how we end the ep.
Okay,
so I definitely liked aspects of this ep, and I think I’ve pointed out those
aspects pretty well, but like I said, I also found this episode kinda meh. They can’t all be winners, and season four
has so far been on an unbelievable run of high quality entertainment, so I’ll
forgive one or two eps that are maybe not towering masterpieces of television,
but I can still acknowledge if they are lacking. The thing is, though, I’m having a hard time
figuring out what exactly was lacking, in this instance. There were
character moments I enjoyed and there were lots of plot points moving along,
but something just kept me at a bit of a distance from the proceedings; I
wasn’t feeling as invested or enthralled as I had been by our last few
eps. My Beloved Grammy felt the same
way, as well, and when the ep was over, before we moved on to the next one, we
talked about it a bit and basically both agreed that it was, you know, okay,
but just okay. Make no mistake, it’s not
like this is one of the worst eps ever, this is no Land of the Free or Silver Shadows, Heavens, no, but it was just kinda there. I
think it might just boil down to my lack of interest in whether Diana lives or
dies along with the general problem that I never believe she will die. The last time a Fairgate was at the hospital,
it was Sid and it was gripping television
and we all remember how that turned out and how devastating it was. Diana simply doesn’t carry the same weight
that Saint Sid did, I guess. Therefore,
a lot of this episode just kinda seemed like procrastinating, like they can’t
just give Diana her kidney and move on, they have to make it stretch over not
one, but two episodes, so some of this stuff felt kinda like filler.
Even
so, I’ll of course add the little caveat that I love KL and will continue to love KL
until the day I die; I would still rather watch this than pretty much any
episode of Dallas, and I hope the
fact that I am being critical of it does not read as me not loving the show,
because of course I do. I think that
after a run of ten super solid, super amazing episodes in a row (hell, we could
even say fifteen or sixteen episodes in a row, if we count the last batch of
eps from season three), Abby’s Choice just
comes off a little weaker, a little less exciting than our last few hours, you
know? Hardly the worst of KL, but just a little meh, a little
blah.
Next up we meet, for the first and last time, Mack’s father (or “Pop”) in The Block Party.
If I were Val, I would DEFINITELY be happy if I saw Gary's eyes wander away from Abby. No doubt about it.
ReplyDeleteI've already mentioned that this and the previous episode always get jumped over in my viewing, but I forgot I really don't like the one with Mac's father either. Then I think I'm good with every episode up until around the time someone who's not around yet becomes a spy. Eek.
ReplyDeleteI don't mind the episode so much with Mack's dad because it gives some good insight into the psyche of Mack although I can see where it be seen as one of the weaker episodes of the season. I JUST started the spy stuff-- after coming off 4 fantastic seasons-- and it is JUST AS BAD as I remembered it. Maybe worse.
DeleteHaving been in a situation kind of like Val's, I interpret as her being more "wistfuL... if that makes sense... Seeing Gary connect with someone else, this person she doesn't know, and it makes her a little sad because she realizes just how much a part of Gary's life she ISN'T anymore. And because she wishes she could be the one whom he was standing there smiling with, and not this new person.
ReplyDeleteI liked this episode actually, despite not really being "invested" in the central plot - will Diana get the kidney she needs to stave off dialysis.. There were a lot of great character moments you've already mentioned. The Val moment with Gary (and Ciji). The scenes with Karen and Abby. The moment between Val and Olivia actually brought tears to my eyes. (Love seeing their friendship survive amidst all the plot twists.) That moment with Mack clocking Chip's attempt to impress Karen. (Think it was actually Karen who gifted the poetry book to Diana though.) Then there was the stuff with Laura and Ciji. OMG when Richard comes downstairs to find Ciji dressed in only her panties and his pyjama top!!! 😲😲😲 Genius. As a writer, I would have made one slight improvement on this episode to shed even more layers for its titular character. Wouldn't it have been more interesting in the final scene to have Abby actually be awake (resting with closed eyes) to sort of "accept" Karen's thank you kiss without her knowing? She could have opened her eyes after Karen left to show a bit of all-too-rare vulnerability.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the fourth season made the best use of Kenny and Ginger. As you pointed out, it's the most incorporated into the main plot of the show they ever are. They are still the in a race for weakest actors, but I'd say in this season James' acting is slightly better than Kim's. Controversial? Maybe. While the Ginger character is entwined into the Ciji plot, whenever she was supposed to be mad, she just bugged her eyes out and seemed to be verging into Diana-in-a-high-school-play territory. It is ironic that they finally get some plotting, but then are shipped out of the show. I wonder if the producers and writers thought, "Well, we finally gave them good material and they still barely sold it. Time to leave town and never come back."
ReplyDelete