Holy Krystle: Should she have been even more Extreme?

[SnarkyOracle!]

We mostly all know that Krystle was a more three-dimensional character during the first two seasons of the show (but then, most of them were) before they turned her all too saintly and goody-goody and, eventually, exactly the saccharine Stepford Wife which Alexis so often accused her of.

But, if they were determined to make Krystle so holy (and therefore vapid) should they have instead made her even more so, just so they could actually do something with it?

I vote for scenes of Krystle in the woods on a hill near the mansion, morning sun-streaks through the trees surrounding her in a hallowed glow as she sits in designer frock on a lichen-covered log, reading gently to the children and all the forest animals who gather around to listen to her wizened words of Love and whatever.

With even the racoons so entranced, they don't mind her wearing their Mama on top of her head.

[Mimi]

We mostly all know that Krystle was a more three-dimensional character during the first two seasons of the show (but then, most of them were) before they turned her all too saintly and goody-goody and, eventually, exactly the saccharine Stepford Wife which Alexis so often accused her of.

But, if they were determined to make Krystle so holy (and therefore vapid) should they have instead made her even more so, just so they could actually do something with it?

I vote for scenes of Krystle in the woods on a hill near the mansion, morning sun-streaks through the trees surrounding her in a hallowed glow as she sits in designer frock on a lichen-covered log, reading gently to the children and all the forest animals who gather around to listen to her wizened words of Love and whatever.

With even the racoons so entranced, they don't mind her wearing their Mama on top of her head.

Yes!!
That would have been awesome! And it would have lent all the more weight to Jeanette's statement in season 9 that "She hasn't been herself for years!".

[Jason!]

I still say Krystle should have evolved into Sue Ellen. Stay home all day boozin'. Then Blake comes home one day and says, "What the devil? I am convinced you're not the same woman I married. What happened to my sweet secretary?" Then Krystle throws her opened bottle of JD at him and screams, "She's right here, you white-haired bastard! You and that demoness from hell made me this way! I'm your damn Frankenstein monster!"

I need to take a lunch break. I need a beer too.

[Jason!]

She doesn't have to be a total Sue Ellen but certainly a Hollywood wife.

[SnarkyOracle!]

I think you're both right. After being so Holy and Goddesslike, she could go into meltdown (as I've also suggested before) after Blake and Alexis have their "whatever" in Singapore for those two episodes, with Krystle turning to the bottle.

Sure, she'd never become the narcissistic cow that Sue Ellen was, but getting hooked on the cooking sherry seems feasible... In fact, along those lines, I've always had a scene in mind in which Krystle, drunk at a public function late in Season 7, picks up a cake knife and charges after Alexis (with Adam and whomever rushing after her to keep Krystle from killing Alexis), but when Krystle catches up with her, just cuts Alexis' dress-straps, leaving the woman humiliated and standing in her undies in the middle of the party.

Whereupon Alexis, enraged, would scream, "You horrible $lut!"

To which Krystle, burping, would respond proudly, "Me?? You're the one who's naked...!"

[Jason!]

On the same note, they ALL should have been more extreme.

Remember the pilot ... total dysfunctional family, no values, Fallon boinking everyone, keeps a stash of pot, etc. Then a few seasons later Blake delivers that make-me-puke-till-I-see-my-feet speech about how they're Carringtons and how they'll overcome and triumph and they have morals and values.

Krystle = Soap's version of Anthrax.

[abbylexis]

Interesting the sue ellen point. Krystle's early days in a her marriage with Blake could have been similar to Sue Ellen. You know, suddenly living in a fantasy land with a higher social status and dealing with a husband you love but still fear his unpredictability. I'm sure Sue Ellen could have gone through the same adjustment when first married to J.R and suddenly becoming more dysfunctional as years went on in a lifestyle where she was only there as a trophy. By 1978, she was a mess.

[SnarkyOracle!]

Interesting the sue ellen point. Krystle's early days in a her marriage with Blake could have been similar to Sue Ellen. You know, suddenly living in a fantasy land with a higher social status and dealing with a husband you love but still fear his unpredictability. I'm sure Sue Ellen could have gone through the same adjustment when first married to J.R and suddenly becoming more dysfunctional as years went on in a lifestyle where she was only there as a trophy. By 1978, she was a mess.

But Krystle's fundamental psychology was nowhere as sick as Sue Ellen's. Until, at least, that nasty A-V malformation kicked-in and made her whacko.

Even if Krystle became alcoholic (which I'm all for) she never would have come very close to Sue Ellen's level of dysfunction which was always at an optimum even whe stone-cld sober.

[willie oleson]

Maybe Krystle's story ended at the end of Season 2.
First there was the struggle with her new lifestyle, and how to abandon the old one.
The second story was the (real) torture by Alexis.
But after that?
She didn't seem very happy - reading magazines, feeding little duckies, discussing boring menu's with Joseph...or maybe she felt (unconsciously) that The House didn't like her.

I don't know if I would have liked her as an alcoholic, at least not Neely O'Hara-style.
I can see her becoming involved with some kind of religion, maybe as a priestess or spiritual healer.
Personally I think the best thing for her to do was to steal Rita's indentity and move far, far away from Denver.
She could secretly take one of those cute little duckies with her (or two).

[Matt5]

They should have done something more with her - I mean in the last part of Season 6/ all of 7 and 8 she just was a supporting cast member to Blake . It was all Blake and Alexis - with other characters brought in such as Ben who had much more to do than Krystle.

[abbylexis]

the difference marky was that Sue Ellen had been groomed to lived that lifestyle from the beginning so yes there was lots of elements of narcissim and selfness.

Krystle was from "there's no place like home" land and had values and was humble and all her "200 dollars funeral she couldn't play" talk....

But my problem with Krystle and even later with Steven is as much as she tried to claim that she was above the money, power and prestige, that didn't stop her from enjoying the perks, the furs, the cars, the jeweleries.

it's like the politicians who tell you to go green and share your money but lives in a big mansion and hardly pays any charity.

That to me is equally as bad then the one who openly comes out wanting all the power, prestiget, wealth, status.

[Jason!]

And as horrid as The Reunion was, no place was Krystle's evolution more perfectly exemplified. When Alexis accuses Krystle of being just as caught up in the jewels, furs, and other trappings, Saint Krystle says to her face they meant NOTHING to her. Then in the last hour, after Blake wins back everything, where does the two-faced bitch go? She goes to Alexis over a bracelet (it's always a bracelet or a locket) and they end up in a catfight. Now the purpose, of course, was The Reunion had sex, a car chase, and endless dribble, and the only thing missing was a catfight between the two old broads. Only thing is, whether on purpose or accidently, they showed Krystle had evolved, and had become just as much a Carrington as anyone else from the pilot. Full circle. I never liked Krystle much after season 2, and I liked her less after this. If there could have been another reunion, I wouldn't have watched it.

[SnarkyOracle!]

And as horrid as The Reunion was, no place was Krystle's evolution more perfectly exemplified. When Alexis accuses Krystle of being just as caught up in the jewels, furs, and other trappings, Saint Krystle says to her face they meant NOTHING to her. Then in the last hour, after Blake wins back everything, where does the two-faced bitch go? She goes to Alexis over a bracelet (it's always a bracelet or a locket) and they end up in a catfight. Now the purpose, of course, was The Reunion had sex, a car chase, and endless dribble, and the only thing missing was a catfight between the two old broads. Only thing is, whether on purpose or accidently, they showed Krystle had evolved, and had become just as much a Carrington as anyone else from the pilot. Full circle. I never liked Krystle much after season 2, and I liked her less after this. If there could have been another reunion, I wouldn't have watched it.

It's very difficult for writer/producers who are so very graspingly materialistic, 80s-style, to write for a character who is not...

Which is exactly why Krystle petered out into vapid, squealy nothingness after Season 2.

Had the writers been any good (or maintained any sense of logic, motive or continuity) they would have had Krystle confront Alexis in The Reunion over the reasons she addressed in their final scene together in Season 9: hurting Blake. Which Alexis very much had done...

But, no. Dumb, fukking writers couldn't remember and didn't care about that, so the ladies had to battle over baubles and such.

[Sid Fairgate]

(...)Sure, she'd never become the narcissistic cow that Sue Ellen was, but getting hooked on the cooking sherry seems feasible... In fact, along those lines, I've always had a scene in mind in which Krystle, drunk at a public function late in Season 7, picks up a cake knife and charges after Alexis (with Adam and whomever rushing after her to keep Krystle from killing Alexis), but when Krystle catches up with her, just cuts Alexis' dress-straps, leaving the woman humiliated and standing in her undies in the middle of the party.

Whereupon Alexis, enraged, would scream, "You horrible slut!"

To which Krystle, burping, would respond proudly, "Me?? You're the one who's naked...!"

That's genius Marky. I can actually see that "scene" playing out in my head quite vividly, even though it never really happened! I might have been a bigger Dynasty fan had you been their creative consultant.

[SnarkyOracle!]

That's genius Marky. I can actually see that "scene" playing out in my head quite vividly, even though it never really happened! I might have been a bigger Dynasty fan had you been their creative consultant.

Thank you for you kind words, Sid... and interesting given something that happened to me 20 years ago:

Because DYNASTY (which I had been whining about since the first episode of S3 in 1982) was just becoming more and more abysmal in Seasons 6, 7 & 8, I began making up even then alternative plotlines for the show I thought would be both more dignified and more interesting than the dreck the show itself was actually doing (including storylines for a prospective "final season" which were eerily.... eerily... predictive of what Paulsen would soon do, to the point it sounds like I'm lying whenever I go into the details about that).

Anyway, I would discuss these ideas, far better fleshed-out than real series itself was dispensing, to one of my friends who watched the show faithfully every week, complaining all the way, too.

After a couple of years of this, she somehow got onto the topic of the real series one afternoon and started discussing the plotlines DYNASTY had been doing from S6 thru S8----- and she began verbatim relaying the made-up plots I'd talked with her about...

....She was somewhat embarrassed (but not much) when, stunned, I pointed out that she had vividly recalled my made up storylines and had projected them onto the show itself in a kind of False Plot Memory Syndrome, because she had been completely unable to recall the stories the show actually had done during the same period.

Oh, how we laughed. And grumbled.

[Gatsbyesque]

the difference marky was that Sue Ellen had been groomed to lived that lifestyle from the beginning so yes there was lots of elements of narcissim and selfness.

Krystle was from "there's no place like home" land and had values and was humble and all her "200 dollars funeral she couldn't play" talk....

But my problem with Krystle and even later with Steven is as much as she tried to claim that she was above the money, power and prestige, that didn't stop her from enjoying the perks, the furs, the cars, the jeweleries.

it's like the politicians who tell you to go green and share your money but lives in a big mansion and hardly pays any charity.

That to me is equally as bad then the one who openly comes out wanting all the power, prestiget, wealth, status.

That's part of why Alexis thought Krystle was a fraud from day one.

[Gatsbyesque]

Marky, that is genius. I can soooo see an early scene with a serene, virginal (looking) Krystle sitting in a field looking touched by the very hand God, surrounded by an almost Holy sort of glow and looking out over the serene landscape of her newly acquired wealth and position. Her idealized self, FINALLY manifested. Only problem, it's not the real her. It would have been fitting to have her start to crack later, from all the posturing, and maybe develop another personality - hell, maybe Krystle could have actually BEEN Rita before she came to Denver... when that personality came back, it was a function of her psyche breaking down??? Tie in some dishonesty on the part of Mrs. Carrington as to her former life, or maybe some TRAUMA which could have caused her to switch into another facet of her character (think Fallon) or forget herself, and suddenly you have a far more compelling character... MY WOULDN'T THAT have been interesting? Krystle would have been so much more intriguing if she had "a past" with layers to it like that.

[Jason!]

You know, the UD posters made up stories where Krystle and Rita are actually separated twins.

[SnarkyOracle!]

I think in DYNASTIER I made Rita the sister of Bo Derek.

[Gatsbyesque]

I think in DYNASTIER I made Rita the sister of Bo Derek.

You mean... Krystle's sister... played by Bo Derek?