Episode Title: Deadly Combination
Season 08, Episode 25
Episode 185 of 344
Written by David Marlow
Directed by Beth Brickell
Original Airdate: Thursday, March 26th,
1987
The Plot (Courtesy of TV.Com): Laura's
furious with Val over the whole incident, and even quits Lotus Point so she
won't run into her there. Ben is still paranoid, and wants the family to go
into hiding, but Val says that is no life for the twins. Ben has an elaborate
security system installed. Lilimae accidentally sets it off, and Ben, thinking
she's Jean, gets her in a choke hold. Peter appoints Olivia as his youth
advisor. He tells her she is prettier than Abby, and asks if she's heard from
Sylvia. Anne and Mack discuss old times, and she tells him that she still loves
him. Karen and Mack argue over Anne. Karen tells him to tell Anne to leave. Mack
tells Anne that he loves Karen and will never leave her. Anne asks Mack to meet
her for a goodbye breakfast. Anne then takes a bunch of pills. Mack decides to
eat breakfast with Karen instead of meeting Anne. Anne is passed out on her
living room floor.
When we
last left off, Anne was luring Mack into her house and, she would hope, into
her vagina. Will he fall inside of
it? That’s what Deadly Combination is all about, so let’s discuss.
This ep is pretty strictly
focused on Karen/Mack/Anne, but there’s a smidge of stuff involving the other
characters, primarily Ben. Hackney may
be out of the picture (and “actress” Wendy Fulton mercifully makes her very
final appearance ever on the series with this ep), but that doesn’t mean Ben
isn’t having an explosion of paranoia.
This story is stupid and all that, but I don’t think Ben is out of line
to be concerned about this. Just because
Sumner “neutralized her operation” and sent her to Paraguay, Ben is supposed to
relax and go about his life? Wasn’t
this, like, a whole big epic evil group that had the power to have people
assassinated? Who’s to say Hackney won’t
just send someone she meets in Paraguay to whack Ben and Val and the
twins? Even so, Ben might be getting a tad nutty at this point, as exemplified
by a hysterical scene near the end of the ep involving him and Lilimae.
A detail I had forgotten is that
Laura is super pissed at both Ben and Val and wants them out of her life. This makes sense, as it’s not very nice to
try and murder a pregnant woman’s husband, no matter what the reason. But for whatever reason, this had all slipped
my mind, so I was a little surprised to see Laura yelling at Val and even
quitting Lotus Point, not even wanting to risk running into her in her daily
life. I hope Laura gets over this soon,
because she is not long for the show.
We’ve got something like fifteen eps until we say goodbye to Laura
forever, and I don’t want her to still be bitter with Val when we reach that
point; it would hurt me deep down in my core.
But anyway, the shunning of Val and Ben courtesy of Laura fuels Ben’s
desire to blow town completely.
Somewhere in the ep, he tells Val how there’s no reason for them to
stick around California, that they should move somewhere else and take a
million bucks with them. I had also
forgotten about this million bucks, mostly because I stopped paying close
attention to the Hackey storyline somewhere around the first or second ep of
the season because it’s so unbelievably stupid.
But yeah, I guess at some point, Hackney gave Ben a million bucks in
cold, hard cash, and he’s still got it stashed in the closet. I like how Ben doesn’t even bother to hide the
briefcase, that it’s just sitting right inside of the closet. Really? If I had a million bucks, I would put it in a
super-secret hiding place, hidden under a floorboard or behind a trick picture
or something like that; I wouldn’t just place it casually in the closet. Val doesn’t want to have anything to do with
the money, saying how it’s blood money to her and Bob Loblaw. Again, I wouldn’t be too concerned about it
being blood money if I was in her shoes; I would still be happy to spend this
million bucks.
Ben is still having that problem
where he thinks he sees Hackney everywhere he goes. Any white woman with slightly brown hair is
going to morph briefly into Hackney as soon as Ben looks her direction. In fact, even 62-year-old women are morphing
into Hackney in Ben’s eyes, and let me explain why. Ben has an elaborate alarm system installed
in his house, reminding me of the alarm system my parents had when I was a kid
and all the times I’d accidentally set it off (if you opened our basement door
while it was set, that terrifying sound would flood the house and give everyone
a heart attack). So yeah, Ben gets the
alarm installed and the guy gives all the deets on how to use it and what
buttons to push and, like an old person, Lilimae says something like, “Oh,
that’s too many buttons for me.” I must
be feeling nostalgic lately, because this caused me flashbacks to my dear
Grandma Lorraine, rest in peace, who didn’t buy a VCR until 1999, at the
precise moment that they were going extinct, and then constantly said, “One day
I’m gonna sit down and figure out all those buttons,” but never actually
did. There’s something about old people
and buttons that just terrifies them, and nobody can explain why.
Anyway, it’s late at night and
the silent alarm is triggered because, spoiler alert, Lilimae went to the
kitchen for one of her midnight snacks.
Ben snaps to attention and sneaks downstairs to see who’s lurking
about. Since he’s going insane with
paranoia, not only does he think he sees Hackney in the kitchen, he’s even
seeing her whipping out a little pistol and fiddling with it. Well, obviously this is not Hackney, it’s
Lilimae, and Lilimae is in for a rather rude surprise when Ben comes up from
behind and grabs her and puts her in a chokehold in a scene of hysterically
high camp. I remember being fascinated
with Chip Roberts “beating up old ladies in Seattle” way back in season four,
and this feels like it’s in the same family, as Ben assaults this kindly old
woman and almost rips her head off. To
be clear, I don’t think it’s funny to beat up old people (unless you’re beating
up, like, Newt Gingrich or something). While I feel bad for Lilimae
for almost having her neck snapped, it’s still a funny scene because it just
is. I laugh at this scene (as did My
Beloved Grammy and Brother) but it also made me feel kinda sad only because we
have just a few eps left with Ben and I’m bummed that his legacy as an awesome
character who delighted me for seasons five through seven has been soiled by a
whole year of solid turd storylines.
Let’s get back to Anne. We pick up with her and Mack having pizza and
beer together at her house. Karen is
occupied at Lotus Point working on something with Paige (who I know I haven’t
bothered to mention in awhile, but I will again at some point). Paige, by the way, is sharp and knows her
mother’s behavior and tries to give Karen some fair warning, saying how she
knows her mother’s up to something and has probably lured Mack into a sexual
trap at her house. She’s right, because
when we cut back to Mack and Anne (Manne?), they are laughing and dancing to some Mamas and the Papas. Now this I liked a lot, not
just because I like the idea of Anne listening to her own band sing, but
because I’m so very grateful to be hearing real music on the show
again. Oh God yes, we see the vinyl laid
out, we see the record spinning, and we hear real music and it’s bliss. I’ve had just about enough with the public
domain nothingness that this season has been throwing at us, all the terrible
symphonic abortions blasting at Lotus Point or, in general, throughout the
whole show. This is real music, and though I confess I don’t know much about Mamas and the Papas, I wanna give them a
closer look now, because this song, Dedicated to the One I Love, is really fucking pretty and sets the mood of the scene
nicely.
Oh yeah, also, is Mack supposed
to be drunk? What kind of a lightweight
is he? Anne has a six pack of beer
sitting out on the counter (which is disgusting, by the way; why isn’t it in
the refrigerator where it belongs?) when he arrives and I assumed they split
the sixer, which would mean Mack only has three beers. Hell, even if he has all six of the beers,
he’s acting especially goofy and I don’t see Mack getting so goofy just from
six beers. But then, maybe he’s not
necessarily drunk on alcohol; maybe he’s just drunk on life right now, feeling
kinda elated from dancing around and listening to his ex-lover’s band on the
record player. Sometimes I get kinda
goofy if I’m cooking in the kitchen and listening to my records (I like to play
my vinyls of ABBA when I’m cooking). I also think Mack is getting a little thrill
out of being naughty, even if he maybe doesn’t know it. This doesn’t mean Mack is a bad guy, cuz he’s
not, but it means he’s just getting a little kinky kick out of hanging out
dancing with Anne when he knows he probably shouldn’t. Anyway, Mack and Anne dance for awhile, and
we cut back to them later as they gaze into eachother’s eyes lovingly and we
wonder if they might shag.
I don’t know what the fan
consensus is on this story, but I like it and I always have. I liked it back in college and was eager to
see what was going to happen. Even
though I didn’t believe Mack would cheat on Karen, I was still interested in this
in terms of his character, in terms of how the man must be feeling after having
an ex-love from long ago reenter his life after twenty years. I think I like the story a little bit less
now, mostly because I’m paying more attention to everything and I’m starting to
feel like the writers go to the “Will Karen’s husband cheat or not?” well a bit
too much. Going down the list, I think
this marks something like the fourth time we’ve had this situation. Our first was way back in Civil Wives, when Sid’s Police Squad! ex-wife showed up to cause
trouble (she wound up having to settle for shagging Richard, if you’ll
recall). The writers returned to this
again in season two when we had flirtation between Sid and the lady mechanic,
Linda Stryker. Next, we had a pretty
brief one when Body Double chick came
walking out of Mack’s bathroom and Dirty Diana saw her. And after that, of course, we had J.B. enter
the scene and try to shag Mack hardcore for a good chunk of season seven. This brings us up to date, but I have
memories from my previous viewing of the series and I know the writers are
going to return to “Will Mack cheat?” at least one more time. If this was the very last time they did it, I
might like the story better, but since I know they’re going to return to it in
the future, it’s beginning to feel like a bit of a crutch, a bit like Sue Ellen
going back to the bottle over on Dallas,
just sorta repeating the same tracks over and over again.
When Mack returns home, Karen is
in the kitchen doing needlepoint, declaring, “I always do needlepoint when I’m
upset.” Hmmmm, do you? Have we ever
seen Karen do needlepoint before?
I’m fairly certain we have not, and I’d say she’s had plenty of
upsetting situations throughout the last eight years. Anyway, her and Mack have a little fight that
I liked a lot because I like both characters and both actors and I liked the
organic way this flowed. It doesn’t
start as a big fight, but rather just Mack casually strolling in and mentioning
how he had pizza with Anne. Karen yells
that pizza doesn’t take thre hours, and Mack is like, “Three hours, Karen?” and
then he sorta glances at the clock and sees that it’s about 10:30, a nice
little detail that shows how time flew for Mack while he was drinking that
great warm beer and listening to that great music.
This isn’t quite the last straw
for Karen, but she’s finally had enough after the next day, in which she’s
trying to enjoy a nice lunch with Mack (who won’t shut the hell up about the
Boston cream pie), only for Anne to come walking in and plant her ass down
at the table with them. Karen gets pissy
and goes off to Lotus Point, stewing with anger and jealousy. Even that’s not quite enough, what finally
does it for Karen is the garbage. See,
Anne shows up at Mack and Karen’s house and says how tomorrow is, in the
immortal words of Eric Freeman, garbage day.
She says how she’s never had to take out garbage before and doesn’t know
how it works and asks Mack to come over and help her. Then she walks out of the room and Karen
throws a fit, saying how this is sick and weird. I really like this whole thing and it helps
underline my point that I feel the show is correcting itself, righting the
tracks right before our very eyes.
Having the characters take out their garbage is just such a KL thing, something that wouldn’t happen
on any of the other nighttime soaps, and one of my problems over the last year
or so (since around mid season seven to the point we are at now) has been a
feeling that the cul-de-sac has been forgotten.
We’ve been so concerned with Hackney silliness and goofy international
intrigue, but I feel we are shifting back to the show’s core, which is the
neighborhood. You can have all the soapy
drama you want, but you also gotta have scenes of characters taking the garbage
out (or plunging out a clogged sink, a scene I enjoyed so much somewhere in
season six) in order to keep it feeling grounded.
Anyway, like I said, Karen has finally had enough. She tells Mack that
Anne’s got to go, and he reluctantly agrees.
He goes over to Anne’s and finds her working with lighting a fire in
that most wonderful fireplace, and he tells her
she’s gotta go, that her being here is, “making my life miserable.” Anne is hurt, but the person I really feel
bad for in this scene is Mack. My
personal opinion is that Mack wouldn’t shag Anne no matter how hard she
tried to seduce him. She could pour a whole keg of
beer down his throat and play the entire Mamas and the Papas discography and he still would remain loyal to Karen; that’s
just the kind of guy he is. But I still
think he has a type of love in his heart for Anne, the kind of love that comes
from having a person be a very important part of your life in your youth. I’ve never been one of those boring
heteronormative people who thinks you only love one person in your life; I
think love is very fluid and there’s all sorts of type of love. Mack can love Karen as his wife and companion
but he can also have a different love for Anne as the love of his youth. It’s sorta like how I’ve been in love with two men in my life, and
then I love my parents in a different way, and I love My Beloved Grammy and
Brother in a different way, and I love all my kitties in their own special
kitty way. In this scene, you can tell
it hurts Mack to have to be mean to Anne; she’s important to him and he doesn’t
want to hurt her.
As soon as he leaves, Anne takes
a page out of the books of both Play Misty For Me and Fatal Attraction
by deciding to do an attempted suicide and force Mack to come and find
her. This is a classic; everyone knows
if you’ve been spurred by an ex-lover, an attempted suicide is the best way to
keep them in your life. Now, in those
two movies (I prefer Misty, by the way),
the ladies decide to slash their wrists, but Anne decides to pop some pills
(I’m not sure what kind). She lays out
the pills, she makes herself a nice strong martini, and she starts popping
them. She also gives Mack a call and
asks if he can have one final friendly breakfast with her before she returns to
Europe or wherever the hell she came from.
Mack agrees, but wait, there’s a twist!
The next morning, Mack goes for a jog and comes back all sweaty to find
Karen cooking up bacon and eggs and the works.
Rather than go to visit Anne and have breakfast, he sticks around with
Karen, breaking an egg in the process.
Let’s talk about this egg breaking, by the way, because I am absolutely
100% convinced that this was an accident and they left it in the show for
authenticity. See, Mack is holding an
egg and saying how he’d like to have breakfast with Karen, and then he sorta
throws the egg up and catches it, you know?
Only problem is that the egg shatters in his hand and the yoke starts to
run down his hand. Both Karen and Mack
sorta stare at this broken egg and I can totally tell that The Dobsonator broke
the egg on accident and they just kept rolling with it. I love this, by the way; I’m a big believer
in using happy accidents on the set to keep a show feeling real.
Anyway, we end the ep on a
pretty decent cliffhanger, which is Anne all sprawled out on the floor with vodka
bottles (or gin bottles; I can’t really tell the difference) and empty pill
bottles strewn about, and nobody coming to find her. The plan has backfired; what will happen
now? Will Anne die? Well, no, I think I already spoiled that when
I said how she comes back to the series from 1990 to 1993 as a main player, but
I’m still eager to see how Mack is going to react to this when he finds her
(and the thirty second “Next on KL” preview
showed a little flash of Mack pulling a William Petersen and crashing through
the window). Overall, a solid way to end
the ep.
In fact, overall, a solid ep
all around. I didn’t really have any
problems with this ep aside from the high camp of Ben and Lilimae in the
kitchen, which needs to be seen to be believed.
Maybe I’m getting a little tired of Mack flirting with adultery, but I
still find this interesting because I’m interested in all the characters involved. Also, like I said, as we step further and
further away from Nightmare, I get
the sense the show is fixing itself and will slide us nicely into a much better
season nine.
Okay, we’ve got five eps left to
go in this season, so let’s move right along to Our Secret.
First of all, let's get this part over with. WELCOME BACK! I have missed you being in my life every week, and it is good to have you back.
ReplyDeleteAnd what a good show to come back on. Introducing Anne's manipulations starts preparing us for the final 3-4 seasons of the series. Even though Knots goes back to the well again with these story lines (hint: Melinda Culea and Claudia with pills), this is a solid episode.
LOL "trick picture." I am so happy you're back.
ReplyDeleteYeaaa, welcome back. The Lilimae seen was 😲😲😲! But everything with Anne is divine in this ep. Love what Michelle Phillips brings to Knots!
ReplyDelete