Episode Title: Celebration
Season 04, Episode 18
Episode 071 of 344
Written by Mann Rubin
Directed by Bill Duke
Original Airdate: Thursday,
February 10th, 1983
The Plot (Courtesy of TV.Com): Laura tells
Richard that she wants him to move out. Richard finds Ciji at their house, and
grabs her by the hair and physically throws her out. Chip is packing and tells
Diana he's moving to New York. Diana wants to go
with him, but Karen says she will do anything in her power to stop her. Gary,
drunk, calls Val and asks her to help him. Abby shows up at Ciji's looking for
Gary, and threatens her. Then Chip comes by with flowers, and Ciji tells him if
he doesn't stay out of her life, she'll tell everyone he is Tony Fenice. Next
Val goes to Ciji's, looking for Gary. Ciji says it's Val's fault that Gary's
drinking, because of the tabloid. They fight, Val pushes Ciji, and Ciji falls
and hits her head on a table. Ciji yells at Val to get out. Jeff Munson throws
a party at Daniel to launch Ciji's album, but Ciji doesn't show up, and no one
can find her. Finally, Jeff asks Ginger to sing. Down at 'Colony Beach,' Ciji's
dead body washes ashore.
Oh boy, fasten your seatbelts,
cuz it’s time to talk about Celebration. I don’t mean to give away my opinion too
early, but I’m about to do it right here and right now, because this is an
absolutely classic episode of KL, one
of the best we’ve watched up to this point, as well as an episode that has
enormous repercussions on the storylines of the series for years to come. Let’s
discuss.
One of my favorite KL directors, Bill “This Green Beret’s About To Kick Your Ass” Duke, last spotted directing Power Play (which was a good episode) and A New Family (which was a great episode),
is back behind the camera this week, and I can tell right away. Before discussing the episode proper,
however, I wanna take a quick note of the thirty second preview before the
opening credits. Usually I don’t really
mention these; they give you a little taste of what’s to come in the next 48
minutes, sometimes they show just a little bit, sometimes they show you way too
much (as I believe I complained about way back in season one with Bottom of the Bottle: Part One), but the
one for Celebration is, in my
opinion, especially clever.
Okay, so spoiler alert, but Ciji
is going to die in Celebration. I’ve kinda avoided any mention of that in my
previous write-ups, mostly because I’m not entirely sure how “spoiler-ish” I
should get. I kinda like to imagine that
somewhere out there in the universe is someone who has never seen KL before and is watching the episodes
one-by-one and following along with my posts.
This could very well be fiction, but if there is a person doing this, I
don’t wanna drop spoilers. Even though I
recognize that KL went off the air 23
years ago and most people think spoilers don’t apply to things that are more
than ten years old, I still try to keep it safe, because I just don’t wanna
ruin a good experience for any potential new viewer; seeing the excitement
unfold is a huge part of the fun. But anyway, Ciji is gonna die
this week, and I mention that because, when viewed with that knowledge, you
realize how clever this episode is in setting everything up, getting all the
players lined up, dropping little hints to what’s going to happen to her at the
end, and even subverting our expectations.
See, the thirty second preview drops two little hints/tricks on us, the
first of which is a quick shot of Ciji talking to Abby and saying, “What are
you gonna do, Abby, kill me?” The second
is a shot of Ciji and Val having an argument.
Val pushes Ciji, Ciji hits her head on the table, and then we cut to the
opening credits. The writers and
producers and directors are tricking us, making us think that maybe, possibly,
Ciji could die due to Val pushing her and hitting her head.
Okay, after the scrolling
squares, we have one of my favorite openings of any KL ep ever, Ciji riding her bike down the street one sunny morning
while New Romance plays on the
soundtrack. I think this is a
deliberately ironic opening to the ep, that we start on this very brief moment
of happiness and joy as Ciji rides along.
Things are going pretty shitty in her life and they are about to get
shittier, but for this couple of seconds, she is happy and at peace. The peace is immediately
shattered when she gets to her apartment and finds a drunken Gary hanging out
on the sidewalk outside. Gary wants more
alcohol and asks Ciji if she has any but we learn that he already drank all of
it at some point in the past, so instead Ciji invites him in for some coffee
(that old myth).
Meanwhile, we peek in on the
increasingly unstable marriage between Richard and Laura. Watching this, I started to get really sad,
realizing that we are a few mere episodes away from losing The Plesh as a main
cast member. Soak up as much of the
fascinatingly dysfunctional relationship that is Richard and Laura because,
once we hit season five, we won’t be seeing any of this anymore. Anyway, when we first catch up with the
couple this week, Laura is asking Richard when he’s planning to move out. Richard is back to acting like an asshole,
much more like he was in mid-season two than he has been in the last few weeks
and months. He just sips coffee and
dismissively says, “You’re not going on about that again, are you?” While he’s trying to just sorta ignore what
Laura’s saying, it’s very clear to all of us that Laura is turning into a
lesbian and that, this time, once she’s got Richard out of her life, he won’t
be invited back into it. Oh yeah, and I also wanna note another
big, bold line from Richard this week. I
apologize that I can’t remember the exact context of this scene, whether the
line occurs early in the ep with Richard and Laura in the kitchen or whether it
happens later, but I jotted down the line of dialogue in my notes and now I’m
gonna discuss it. Basically, when the
topic of his moving out comes up, Richard implies that Laura is going to
immediately move Ciji in, and he asks, “Which side of the bed does Ciji like?” Again, wow.
This, coupled with the “Which one gets to be the man?” line from The Morning After, really takes this
subtext of Laura and Ciji as possible lovers and inflates it to the next
level. I had no memory of either of
these lines occurring and was pretty surprised when I heard both of them.
You all remember how, even though
I don’t believe for a second that Gary and Ciji slept together, that rumor that
they are now lovers has been making the rounds?
Well, this week Abs pays a visit to Ciji’s apartment to threaten her and
tell her to stay away from Gary, and this is where we get that line, “What are
you gonna do, Abby, kill me?” The line
is delivered pretty fast but is a pretty deliberate bit of foreshadowing from
the writer, Mann Rubin. In fact, I
wonder if maybe this line is a little bit too
on-the-nose, giving away a little too much at once. The reason I say this is because My Beloved
Grammy called it almost right away.
Right near the start of the ep, she boldly declared, “Ciji’s gonna die,”
and I was kinda bummed cuz I didn’t expect her to predict that so fast and with
such starting accuracy. But watching
along, I could see the way the writers kept dropping little hints that, if
you’re a sharp viewer, you would pick up on, even before Ciji’s body washes up
on the beach.
It’s not just that one
particular line, of course, but the entire construction of the episode, in
which so many of the characters are shown to have some agenda against
Ciji. For instance, coming up next is a
fabulously over-the-top scene in which Richard gets especially violent with
Ciji. See, Laura and Ciji are hanging
out in the Avery living room, talking about becoming lesbians, when Richard
walks in and sees them. In a fit of
rage, he grabs Ciji by the hair and
pulls her up and then throws her out the door, slamming it shut behind
her. Laura gets very stoical and boldly
declares, “I’ll never forgive you for that,” which sounds reasonable to
me. I think this is the most violent
thing we’ve seen Richard ever do. In the
past, he slapped Laura in Best Intentions
and he obviously held her hostage at gunpoint in Night, but this is somehow more extreme than either of those
instances, perhaps because it’s just so unexpected.
The last little line of dialogue
I can think of that drops some hints for what’s about to occur is, again,
delivered by Richard. See, while all
this excitement and commotion is going on, everyone’s getting prepared for
Ciji’s big show at Daniel. This is going
to be a bigger deal than any of her previous shows, because it’s not just her
singing, but rather a celebration (like the title!) of the launch of her new
album, the one she’s been working on for most of the season. However, at Daniel, Richard is drinking red
wine, looking depressed and unkempt, and he declares, “Ciji can perform
tonight, but it’s her swan song.” What
do you think, readers? A clever line
that sets us up for what’s coming or a slightly too on-the-nose bit of dialogue
that shows the writers giving away a little too much information?
The next person to come visit
Ciji at her apartment is Chip, AKA Tony Fenice.
If I thought Ciji was bold last week with the way she spoke to him, it’s
nothing compared to this week, when she announces that she’s going to tell
everyone the truth about Chip’s life.
She also drops one of the greatest lines of dialogue ever, which is,
“I’ll tell everyone that Tony Fenice goes around beating up old ladies.” Once again, a mental picture forms of Chip
beating up Betty White or something, and even though beating up geriatric
people is not funny, I still have to laugh at the image while again wondering
exactly how this even wound up taking
place.
The final visit to Ciji’s
apartment (which is turning into Grand Central Station this week) comes from
Val, in that little snippet we all saw from the thirty second preview. Val is looking for Gary, but he’s not there,
and a fight quickly erupts between her and Ciji. I think this is the only time that we’ve seen
Ciji be nasty or hurtful towards someone else, but who can blame her? All day people have been coming by just to
shit on her and blame her for all their problems, and she has done nothing at
all to warrant this hostility. I
think Val is just the last straw, that probably Ciji is mostly mad at Abs and
Chip and just takes it out on Val, but it’s pretty brutal, in any case. She tells Val that it’s her fault that Gary started drinking again, blaming the tabloid
article that was printed a few weeks back in To Have and to Hold. As she
keeps yelling at Val, she also sorta walks up to Val and gets her backed up
against the door, at which point Val finally yells at her to be quiet and
pushes her back. Here’s where that clever little
bit of audience manipulation comes in, because yes, Ciji hits her head, and
yes, she lies still for a moment, but then a second later she gets up and starts
moving around again, telling Val to go away and leave her alone. The reason I note this as clever is because,
watching that little preview at the start, you might be inclined to think
Ciji’s gonna die from this bump on her head, but instead she just gets right
back up and is fine. I think the point
of this is to lull the audience into a sense of complacency, to say, “Oh, I
guess Ciji’s not gonna die,” which should make the last few moments of the
episode have a special shock to them.
Oh yeah, Kenny and Ginger are
still on the show, although not for much longer. In case you think I’m gonna just take a shit
all over them, as has been my wont in the past, I’m gonna surprise you. Actually, as we approach the end of Kenny and
Ginger’s time on the show, my hatred has dulled. I’ll save my thoughts for their very final
episode, Willing Victims, but for the
moment let’s just say that it doesn’t physically hurt me to watch these characters anymore, the way it used to in
the past. Anyway, they sat out the last
two eps, but we catch up with them this week walking through the park, Kenny
wearing a cool fedora hat. In fact, I’ll
take a quick moment to note that everyone is rocking cool hats this week,
making me wonder if they changed wardrobe designers for the week or if someone
just got really excited by the concept of putting the whole cast in hats. Kenny rocks the fedora, Lilimae has two cool
hats this week, and Karen is shown in that strange Carmen Sandiego outfit that
she sometimes likes to wear, with a full trench coat and brimmed hat.
Anyway, I can sense that the
writers are getting ready to ship Kenny and Ginger off, because they are sorta
talking about their life in the greater context. Kenny is still sorta bummed and acting like a
baby because of what happened to him in the last few weeks and months, but
Ginger is trying to be upbeat. She
points out how they have a beautiful daughter with a stupid name and they have
their health and yada yada yada. This
little scene isn’t particularly exciting, but it helps to sorta remind us, “Oh
yeah, these two are still on the show,” and they do get some more material to
work with later.
The night of the big album
launch arrives. Ginger is dressed in a
pretty nice outfit, but Kenny wants to stay home and watch some 1983 TV. Mack comes to pick up Ginger and he looks
smashing, wearing a nice dark tux and a cool bow tie. Bow ties are underrated, by the way, and I
think they are way cooler than regular tie ties. I also get the feeling that Mack prefers the
bow tie because I remember him wearing them pretty regularly, and I’m not sure
how often he’s spotted in a normal tie.
Okay, anyway, Mack takes Ginger
to the party (after he and Kenny exchange some rather annoying and dated
dialogue about how long it takes women to get prepared for events and so on and
so forth), and the sense of dread that we’ve been feeling all episode really
starts to heighten. Ever since Ciji got
off her bike and New Romance stopped
playing on the soundtrack at the start of the ep, there’s been this feeling in
the air of dread, that something really bad is about to happen. This feeling is heightened by the score this
week, which is especially unnerving and sounds like it came out of a horror
movie (it’s not Jerrold Immel this week, but rather Lance Rubin, who will
contribute to 36 episodes spanning Man of the Hour in 1981 through The Fan Club
in 1990).
Like I said, the sense of
impending doom heightens as our characters enter Daniel for the big album
launch (complete with a big, sexy photo of Ciji placed up on the stage that
actually comes from her real-life Letterock
album). Ciji’s not there, and at
first it’s not such a big thing, but when she continues to fail to show up, we
start to get a bad feeling. Also, when
viewed through the lens of “Ciji’s about to die,” along with the idea that
anyone could have done it, you really start to notice things. For instance, Richard shows up real late, to
the point that Laura has to don an apron and start working in the kitchen, and
when he finally does materialize, he looks like ass, like he just went on a big
Gary bender of his own (and, indeed, the first thing he does when he shows up
at Daniel is to pour himself a big glass of red wine). Also, Kenny shows up at the last minute
wearing a nice tuxedo, apologizing for being a jerk earlier. Now, I probably wouldn’t have even thought
about this stuff if it weren’t for My Beloved Grammy, who pointed this out in
the following eps as the investigation into Ciji’s murder got underway. The one missing link is
Gary. Where could he be? Well, I don’t know, and we don’t find out
this week, but we do get a strange phone call from Gary to Val. He sounds like a mess and it’s hard to even
understand what he says, but I’m not sure the dialogue is necessarily
important; what is important is that
Val can hear the sounds of the beach in the background during this very brief
telephonic conversation, so just keep that in mind as we move along through the
rest of the season.
Okay, we’re back at Daniel and
Ciji still hasn’t shown up. What to
do? Well, my favorite character, Jeff
Munson, finally just asks Ginger if she’ll go up and sing, instead, leading to
the terrific conclusion of our episode.
See, Ginger gets up onstage, right in front of that big old photo of
Ciji with her eyes all wide, and she reclaims her song, that You’re the One song from back in
(looking through my notes here) Emergency. Even though I’ve made fun of Ginger in the
past (and I’m kinda sorta about to do it again), her singing is legit
good. In fact, I’d have to compare and
contrast, but I think I might even prefer Kim Lankford’s singing of You’re the One to Lisa’s. This is a killer song that is appropriately
mellow, kinda romantic, then it gets exciting near the middle, and then the
very end has a sadness and melancholia to it that is rather striking. Only problem with this
scene? Ginger’s face. Maybe it sounds like a low blow, but she’s
just kind of disturbing to look at as she sings. Lisa Hartman knows how to look when she’s singing; she always gets
that appropriately magical, transcendent look on her face when she’s singing,
like when she closes her eyes and sorta faces up towards the sky. Ginger, however, lets her eyes get all big
and wide and her mouth sorta contorts and expands in a way that is just bizarre
to look at. I remember being disturbed
by watching her sing, and it’s not as bad
as I remembered, but it’s still kinda frightening to watch. I think perhaps she’s supposed to look
passionate, like maybe she’s excited to be taking back the song that she wrote
and created herself, but I dunno, it’s just kinda scary. So I guess I’m giving Ginger a half
compliment/half insult, because the singing is legit good, but the face is
scary.
As Ginger sings, we cut a time
or two to shots of the ocean. This
continues a stylistic device Bill Duke was doing in A New Family, piping a great song on the soundtrack over footage of
something else happening. In this case,
we cut to shots of the ocean, the waves crashing in, You’re the One continuing to play, and then we cut back to the gang
at Daniel, back to the ocean one more time.
Finally, when Ginger is finished singing, the camera does this great
zoom-in, past her face and right into the gigantic poster of Ciji, basically
going into a closeup of her eyeballs.
From there, the song ends, the music on the soundtrack gets ominous and
scary, we dissolve to a shot of the ocean, and then the camera glides up to the
surf, where we see Ciji’s dead, lifeless body lying in the sand. We get our “Executive Producers” credits, and
that’s the end of Celebration.
Pretty fucking great, huh? In my notes, in the “Overall Review” section
that I put at the end of each episode, I only wrote, “Undisputed Masterpiece of
Television,” and I really believe that.
While I don’t think this is my favorite episode we’ve seen thus far
(I’ll have to get back to you on that one), it’s a real work of art, managing
to both pay off a bunch of storylines while also launching a bunch of brand new
ones, stories that will continue through the rest of the season and well into
the fifth season as well. Bill Duke
brings the style and the artistry and also makes tremendous use of music to
heighten emotion, right from the beginning with New Romance providing a brief moment of elation to the ending where
You’re the One serves to be exciting,
ominous, and sad, all in the same beat. Also, as a work of writing, this
ep is especially clever, really setting us up for the possibility that anyone
could have killed Ciji. It’s somewhat
like the “Who Shot J.R.?” season three finale of Dallas (except, in my opinion, much much better) in that we can
plausibly find motive for Ciji’s murder within nearly every character (except,
say, Karen or Mack, obviously). This is
another thing I didn’t recall, by the way.
For whatever reason, when I first watched this, I didn’t even view it as
a murder mystery; I was just kinda like, “Well, Chip killed her.” Watching it now, I recognize that yes, he’s
the most plausible suspect, but we’ve also got motive from Richard (mad about
his wife turning into a lesbian with Ciji), Val (last seen having a rather
heated argument with Ciji in her apartment), Gary (off on another drunken
bender where he could likely do something stupid and accidentally wind up
killing Ciji), Ginger (“I’ll get you for this!” she boldly declared back in Emergency), and even Kenny, of all
people (jealous of being booted off the record and showing up randomly late to
Daniel with no good alibi for the missing minutes).
Now, trying to watch this from
the perspective of a new, virginal viewer, I would still vote for Chip as the
most obvious suspect. He’s a con artist
and a liar who’s been fooling around with two women at the same time, and not
only is he mad about Ciji getting pregnant and refusing to have an abortion,
but now he’s been threatened with exposure of his real name and his wicked
past. So I would say Chip did it, but I
also recognize that he seems almost too obvious,
you know what I’m saying? My Beloved
Grammy surprised me by beginning to say that perhaps Richard was the one (she
repeatedly said, “I just hope it wasn’t Richard”), and I can see merit to that argument, as well.
Okay, so that was Celebration, an episode so well made and
so exciting and so packed with material that it could easily be a season
finale. The interesting thing is that we
still have four more episodes to go this season, so let’s move forward to our
next episode, Loss of Innocence.
One of my favorite KL episodes! It was very Agatha Christie-like in its approach, and I loved it! However, it makes me sad every time I watch it. Ciji was a character that was full of life and youth. And to see her body on that beach seemed so ... indecent.
ReplyDeleteAnd that is what made it great. The writers didn't have her lying in a Sleeping Beauty pose on the floor of her apartment. They played with the audience's emotions and made it real...especially by 1983 standards. Outstanding episode.
Yes a great episode. The creative staff knew how to be ahead of the expectations of a late 70s/early 80s tv viewer. You may be able to guess what was coming, but you couldn't even come close to guessing how it would finally be revealed or how the other characters would all be shifted into perfect position like chess pieces.
ReplyDeleteThe most fascinating element of this murder story line to me is the way it goes totally against the standard set-up. Usually, the victim is a real despicable human being, and everyone has good reason for wanting him/her dead. But Ciji is a really sweet, continually misunderstood character just trying to be kind to everyone. The despicables are our regular characters - drunk wash-out Gary, vindictive Richard, cold-hearted Abby, weakling Valene, bitchy Diana... you know, the people we tune in to watch every week. I imagine it's much harder to set up this kind of story when you're victim is the single most innocent character on the whole show, but they did it beautifully.
Final note: when this originally aired I missed the first 45 minutes of it, and tuned in just in time to see Ginger singing on stage at Daniel and Ciji dead on the beach. You can imagine my total confusion. And I had to wait months until summer reruns to see what I'd missed.
If this was any other show, Ciji would be relegated to a typical scheming bad girl, which would have ramifacations upon her death. But what sets this apart from other soap operas, is that we come to care about Ciji as a character. She was written as a real person and not just some plot device for the producers to bank off a sizzling storyline
ReplyDeleteOne thing not mentioned in your write-up of these last two episodes is the audacity with which Abby speaks/ acts in front of Gary. She loves him, right? But damn, I wouldn't want anyone loving me the way she "loves" him. She basically tells him in the last episode, "I don't care if yer drunk. I don't care if yer sleeping around. I don't care if yer dead, but I ain't gonna watch." And then in this ep., she basically reveals to us (and Gary stumbling around the 2nd story of the beach house) that she's more concerned with her placement within Gary Ewing Enterprises than she is with whether or not Gary's on Skid Row. Geez, Abs. Harsh. But that eyeshadow looks great!
ReplyDeleteWhen the scene of Kenny and Ginger walking in the park started, my partner asked in earnest, "who are they?" Keep in mind, he's watched every episode. Just shows you how memorable these characters are. 🤣🤣🤣 In his defense, Kenny's outfit does seem like a real departure for him. Maybe you were right about the wardrobe department.
ReplyDeleteLater, in the scene where Ginger sings, Kenny's goofy grin reminded me that it was this iconic scene that was remixed and spoofed so well by "Dark Falcon." Won't spoil it for you, and not even so sure it's still available, but try a YouTube search for Knots Landing Dark Falcon. You won't be disappointed.
Final thought. This episode is faboo of course - hard to believe it was not a season cliffhanger with all these motive-charged characters on the potential hook for Ciji's sad death. Watching it again and knowing it was coming, I suppose there were a few missed opportunities to snag even more real suspects.
ReplyDeleteWe know Ginger was mad at Ciji as her threat to her was heard by Chip, but her alibi is pretty tight. I wouldn't have had her sing at the end (unless her impressing Munson is a plot point to get she and Kenny off the show in a few eps). Instead, I woulda had her NOT attend the party. She clearly never liked Ciji out of reasonable jealousy. So why would she go to her party??? Maybe to kill her. Bwahahahahaha.
And Abby. I guess she never believed the Ciji and Gary rumours - she stated as much in her visit to Ciji - but she still had motive to not like her. Richard sorta needles her to imagine that if it weren't for Ciji entering their lives, Gary wouldn't have turned to drinking, in turn making her current life miserable. (Of course, it's really Abby's selfish machinations that drove Gary to the bottle, but Richard doesn't know that). So again, Abby could have been another viable suspect, but wasted now that she has an alibi while setting up for the party.
As for the newspaper article, I think ole Chip grabs it from Ciji, crumples it and throws to the ground... But he must have come back/ retrieved it later ???
Speaking of Chip/ Tony, at the beginning of the ep. I was just thinking to myself WHAT IS CHIP STILL DOING AT VAL'S HOUSE??? There's no wayyy they'd still be letting him live there. And then, whammy, next scene, he starts packing his bags to run away to New York. Diana was so dumb. 🤣🤣🤣
Yes, this episode is a Knots' classic, for sure.
ReplyDeleteAs TV F&D pointed out in his comment, the tragedy is that Ciji's life is ruined and ended because of the people she gets involved with, namely the regular characters on the show. She is a good, sweet, talented girl, who just so happened to get discovered by Gary and pulled into the world's most dysfunctional cul-de-sac.
As for the suspects, while it may seem that Ginger and Abby have airtight alibis by being at the party, they really don't. Ciji (as it's revealed) was murdered earlier in the day, so attending the party is not really a way of eliminating potential suspects.
I agree with all of your assessment of the episode, other than maybe liking Ginger's version of "You're the One" better than Ciji's. It's pretty good and I'll say Kim is a better singer than actress (that's a low bar to get over), but she's not a great songstress. The reason it may feel better than Ciji's is because when Ciji sings it, it's so truncated. She only sings the first verse and couple lines of the chorus before we cut away. Ginger sings the whole song and you hear the build of the song. Most of the ear-candy and hooks of the song come in later, which you hear when Ginger does it, but you didn't when Ciji did. But, it's definitely her best overall song performance on the show (is it only her second and last I think?).
You have to give it to Knots producers and writers for making both Ciji and Chip such dynamic and interesting (from a plot POV) characters on the show when they only came in this season. That is some good mapping out of plot and character development!