Daily Recap: "The Burden of Proof"

[Holly]

In today's episode, "The Burden of Proof," Val confessed to killing Ciji and was held for questioning, Lilimae and Abby had a big confrontation in the police station, both Val and Gary tried to re-create the events of the night of Ciji's death for the police, Lilimae saw the light about Chip and kicked him out, and at the very end of the episode, Richard quietly left the house and his family, not to be seen again for a long time.

[Christine]

A very sad episode for me. I really wanted Richard to stay. But there was definitely no future for him and Laura so what else could they have done with the character?
He got one of the best exits on the show IMO, it was soooo Richard to just leave in the middle of the night and never come back. (Funerals don't count )

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I've never seen the ocean
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[Laura Avery Sumner]

At least he installed the garage door opener before he took off.

"Abby. Just so you know I haven't lost my sense of humor, I have nothing to say."

[Daniel Avery]

But keep, in mind, this is Richard we are talking about. When Laura pushed the button on the remote control to the garage door, the upstairs toilet probably flushed.

[Holly]

This episode aired again today.

[James from London]

“This is so Val I could just scream!� Abby Cunningham, March 1983

This episode covers a crucial thirty six hour period: the length of time Val is held by the police after confessing to Ciji’s murder, and Richard’s final two days in Seaview Circle before departing the cul-de-sac for good.
Richard has told no one of his plans to leave and it is only by overhearing his side of a telephone conversation early on in the episode (“I’m leaving town. I’m pulling up stakes ... Just make the cheque out to Laura�) that the audience become privy to his impending departure. This serves to create a complicity between Richard and the viewer: we have crucial information that the rest of the characters aren’t in on. There is something very powerful about watching Richard speaking to people for what he knows and we know, but they DON’T know, is the last time.

“How do you like being married again?� he asks Karen out of the blue at the end of a chit-chat conversation about drain pipes. When Karen happily replies “I love it!�, we can read on Richard’s face that there is some consolation to be found in the knowledge that he is leaving his closest friend on the cul-de-sac (to whom he has grown all the closer since the death of her first husband) in safe hands. Nor does he say good-bye to Laura. It’s as though, after all those years of fighting, there is nothing left to say. The closest he gets is to encourage her to develop some ideas she has for Daniel’s.

Laura: It’s not my restaurant.

Richard: It could be.

So why EXACTLY is he leaving? Richard isn’t saying. It is Kenny, of all people, who comes closest to articulating his feelings when he expresses to Richard his own present state of mind. (Yes, after all these years, Kenny finally has a state of mind! These are truly interesting times to be alive in Knots Landing!)

“I feel like I’ve come to the end of a really hard time ... Maybe I just learned to let go. It’s funny, you get an idea in your head of the way things are supposed to be and they don’t work out that way, and you push and you force it, and you make yourself miserable and everybody else around you. Then one day, you let go and everything just falls into place.�

Subtract the optimism, and there is Richard’s reasoning in a nutshell. Having made himself and everyone else around him miserable, it is time to let go. If he leaves, hopefully the lives of his wife and children will fall into place. This makes his final scene with son Jason all the more poignant. Jason’s assignment for school is an essay entitled “The Best Time I Ever Had�. To his father’s suprise, he has chosen to write about the summer Richard taught him to swim. (“You were four years old. You remember that?�) At the end of their conversation, as Jason gives his dad an impromptu hug, we the viewers are the only ones to see Richard hastily wiping the tears from his eyes. “The best is yet to come,� he tells Jason in lieu of a farewell. (BTW, this scene just KILLS me every time!)

He then goes upstairs and stands in the doorway of the nursery where Laura, with her back to him, is reading Daniel a bedtime story. In a moment that movingly parallels Laura’s leave taking of Meg and Greg five years later, he silently waves good-bye to the baby before picking up his bags and walkin’. As he quietly closes the front door of his house for the final time, the viewer is left briefly alone in the Avery living room as the camera lingers on a family photograph on the sideboard. For once, it is not a glossy Lorimar publicity pic but a black and white shot of a sombre (and younger) looking John Pleshette holding a small baby to his bare chest. It is a strikingly intimate picture, and one that I’m willing to bet was supplied by the actor specifically for the occasion. A small detail perhaps, but a resonant one that adds to the sense of family history that Richard is leaving behind.

As Season 4 nears its end, there is a sense of sadness and closure, of disillusionment and facing up to harsh realities. The dreams and aspirations the characters started the season off with are now as dead as a certain chanteuse.

“Most of our investments were tied up with Ciji and they’re not worth anything now,� as Abby bluntly puts it.

Even the victories, such as the unexpected success of Daniel’s, now seem hollow and unimportant:

“I guess the people who came to see Ciji came back to eat, huh?� concludes Laura in what she is unaware will prove to be her and Richard’s final scene together. Richard nods like this is good news, but it’s too late; his bags are already packed.

The scales have even fallen from the eyes of that perennial dreamer, Miss Lilimae Clements herself:

“When I see you, I see what a foolish woman I’ve become, blinded by flattery and lies,� she tells Chip. “I want you out of this house ... This all started with you.�

Nor can she, or anyone else for that matter, still hold out hope that the freshly single Valene will prove to be Husky Corners’ answer to Mary Tyler Moore. It’s going to take a lot more than throwing her hat in the air for Val to “make it after all�.

“She’s in love with [Gary]. She always has been. Maybe now she always will be,� sighs Lilimae with deep sadness and resignation, as though her daughter is suffering from an incurable illness - a diagnosis with which Val herself might concur. In jail, where she still harbours the fantasy that it was she who killed Ciji and that Gary then moved the body to protect her, she observes her own reaction to Ciji’s death with a kind of appalled fascination:

“The thing that I just can’t let go of," she tells Karen "[is that] when I first thought that I might have killed her, that she really could have died by my hands, I never ever thought ‘You killed somebody. You actually took somebody’s life.’ I thought, ‘He tried to protect me! He must still love me!’�

Interestingly, Joan van Ark imbues these lines with a hushed awe which suggests that, while Val recognises and is dismayed by the unhealthiness of her obsession with Gary, part of her also takes a perverse pride in it; as though it stands as testament to her devotion to him, even as it leaves her teetering on the brink of reason.

“It’s SO Val!� laughs Abby in spite of herself, upon hearing of the confession from Detective Janet Baines. “It’s JUST the kind of thing she’d do - confess to keep Gary from going to the gallows. Stand by your man!�

Janet: Really? Even if he’d confessed to murder?

Abby: Especially if he’d confessed to murd-

Abby catches herself and abruptly STOPS laughing. It is fun to see The Abster so uncharacteristically rattled in this episode, first by Lilimae who collars her in the police station, (“There’s a word for you but decent people won’t say it! I wouldn’t be suprised if you killed her yourself!� “Shut up! Just shut up!�) and then by Val’s confession. Abby’s under a lot of pressure here, and her usually impeccable sense of self preservation is clouded by frustration towards her old rival.

Abby: You don’t know the power she has over him. Every time he hears her name, he feels guilty. This is a plot on Val’s part to get Gary back ... a grandstand play to effect a tearful reunion. There must be something we can do to dump her confession.

Mitch Casey: Abby, you’ve got to decide what you want more - Gary and Val apart, or Gary out of jail?

It’s a good question, especially now that Gary has signed control of Ewing Enterprises over to her from his jail cell. What DOES Abby want - to win at any cost, or a genuine future with Gary? There are no clear cut answers but, as usual, her softer side emerges during a conversation with Olivia, where we see Abby struggling to convey what has happened to Gary:

“He has a disease. If he has one little drop of alcohol, he gets sick and it makes him do crazy things. But that’s not him, it’s the disease.�

Perhaps it is attempting to explain matters in such simple terms that forces Abby to view the situation in a more humane, compassionate way, bringing to the surface the genuine feelings (love, fear, jealousy, guilt) that she has fought so hard to keep under control. After sending Olivia to bed, she is left alone in the bathroom (natch) where Donna Mills does a great job of showing how conflicted Abby is. Even on her own, she fights back her emotions, pulling on her hair in frustration before hurling a perfume bottle across the room and giving into tears.

This is the penultimate episode of Season 4 and in some ways, its closing scenes are almost a mirror image of the end of Season 3. Back then, we saw Richard welcoming Laura and Jason back to the Avery home, hoping against the odds that their life together was still salvageable, while across the cul-de-sac a determined Val, fuelled by anger, refused to stand by her man a minute longer and stormed out on Gary, driving off into the unknown. A year later, Richard is the one driving away into the night, as a broken, worn out Val returns from the police station where her all consuming love for her ex-husband has kept her for the past thirty-six hours.

“My baby, my darlin’ girl,� weeps Lilimae, helping her inside.

There were too many people being written out all at the same time. Total bloodbath.

So foolish, considering their ratings were up, and they obviously had the budget....all those Malibu location shots late in the season.

Kenny was a goner. James Houghton added absolutely nothing. Ciji and Richard were the least expendable. I'm not sure about Ginger. I still feel they could have done something with her. But, Lisa Hartman was the major reason for the rise in the ratings, and obviously they knew that because they revived her next season.

With Richard gone, Laura enters full supporting player status. At least with Richard there, Laura was still a co-star with one of the original marriages.

Four people already killed off or written out before the cliff-hanger even airs? And what of the cliff-hanger? Karen in jeans running across the cul-de-sac? That's a cliffhanger? We already knew who killed Ciji! Nobody cared about Diana, so what if she was in jeopardy, Claudia Lonow was a minor player, and the viewer was too upset about all the others who'd already been written out to care!

The parting shots-dissolves of Abby, Gary and Val are hardly suspenseful.

Now, the 1984 cliffhanger, with Karen gracefully falling to the floor in her red dress, and Abby being kidnapped.....there's a cliffhanger. Very melodramatic, but suspenseful. Quite different from 1983's ridiculous dissolves, which hardly left you on the edge of your seat.

[Mason_Sumner]

Getting rid of Ciji was necessary for her murder, and it was worth it to lose her for that great storyline. John Pleshette wanted to leave, so there wasn't much they could do about that. Otherwise, getting rid of Kenny and Ginger was just ridding the show of dead weight.

I disagree with you though, pisces, about Laura's diminished role in the show post-Richard. In the fifth season, Laura probably played a bigger role in the show than she ever had before.

I will agree with you though that the fourth season ender sucked.

[jake_hanson]

YES!!! Lilimae finally throws out Chip and Richard finally leaves KL. Kenny and Ginger are stupid, they knew earlier that it was all Abby's fault, in this episode they claim it was Ciji's.

[eciton burchelli]

This had some good writing in it- I loved the Abby commenting on Val scene and I wish we could have more scenes like that involving the characters. Someone saying something like "That Karen is so nosy- did you know she once blah blah blah"- I ove stuff like that- with so much that has happened, you would think someone would gossip a bit about the past of some of these characters- though it might not add much to the current storyline, it adds some realness to the show.

This is a good mystery- if I did not know who did it, I think I might think Richard was guilty- I know Lillie mae screaming to Abby that she killed her was just done to add Abby to the suspect list, but I liked it anyway. It is always fun when people scream at Abby to her face.

[jake_hanson]

I think people would have known with the previous episode, Chip lied and everybody kept believing. The words out of his mouth didn't at all seem true.

[cijidunnerox]

It's hard to tell what people would think. At the time these episodes were initially aired I don't think it's so obvious Chip killled Ciji. In fact to me, it seems fairly obvious that Richard did it. But Janet Baines doesn't believe that so what are we to think?

[cijidunnerox]

Excerpt from "Rants & Raves Of A Knots Knut - The Knots Landing Companion To The First Seven Years 1979 -1986" by Bradley Jacobson:

WE ALL GET A LITTLE SNARLY SOMETIMES
I have so much to talk about that I can't even stand it. We begin with stock footage of a police station (from about 1973 by the looks of the old Dodge police car pulling up) then we are immediately whisked away to Valene land where she is telling her version of the big Ciji murder and why exactly she thinks she killed her. The cops quiz her, tell her not to waste their time and Val does what she always does in this situation, she jumps up and
turns away but oh no Mrs. Ewing, you can't pull that kind of melodramatic crap in here, we're the fuzz, so sit your ass back down.

Meanwhile, outside of the interrogation room Mack, Karen and Lilimae are trying to get in to see Val but the desk sergeant doesn't care if Mack is J. Edgar Hoover, he does however seem to care if he's M. Patrick Mackenzie and he gets Janet Baines on the horn….

After a few legal terms and some harsh words, Mack figures he can't get any more info from Miss Detective. Karen, on the other hand insists she can charge Miss Baines with police harassment. Janet makes sure Val’s little Kar Bear friend realizes Valene did not want or ask for a lawyer and Valene did come in all by herself, on her own accord. I mean Karen was right there in the cul-de-sac when Valene made her triumphant walk through the reporters. Karen and Mack decide to head back to the cul de sac but our Lilimae will have none of that, she's staying put and thank God, cuz she has a doozy of a scene coming up.. but first..

Richard is yacking on the telephone making some arrangements for some insurance to befall our Red. He is playing with Daniel and I’m sure though Richard seems loving enough seeing his father in that bathrobe is going to leave lasting marks on the boy.

Abby finally gets what she wants; Gary signs the papers giving her Power Of Attorney.. that fool, that ninnie. Abby smiles her triumphant smile and then so caring, so thoughtful to her lover's plight asks if he needs anything. Well, from the look on Mr. Ewing's face, he doesn’t seem to want too much and he also seems to be thinking, "Whatever bitch, I know what you're up to and I just don't give a damn." Of course that could just be the Bradley interpretation…

Then Abby has a surprise meeting with Lilimae on her way to see Janet Baines. Making this Bradley one happy little camper. My knots hating man even had to come out to the living room to witness this most glorious scene. Abby feels triumphant, she feels wonderful, then the backwoods mama throws the tart a little tongue lash.. Lilimae tells her she has a lot of nerve showing up even saying, “I know what you are, but decent folks don’t use those terms. For all I know you killed her.” I love Donna Mills in this scene, at first she's calm even gnashing her teeth "Shut up Lilimae" well, no siree, Lilimae reiterates, "Don't you tell me to shut up." and continues into one of the BEST ALL TIME SCENES EVER "You've been after Gary and his Ewing money all along!.. You probably did it!.. she was going to have Gary's baby!" "SHUT UP LILIMAE!" screams Abby. The cops pull Lilimae from trying to get at Abby. It just is so fricking unbelievable. It also shows where Val learned her MAAAAMAAAA screams and Gary’s ruuuiinniing liiives must've been picked up from his years with Val. What a root tooting family…

Back to the cul de sac we go where Richard is getting some more affairs in order, fixing drainpipes. I'm suspecting he may not be with us for much longer but Karen doesn't suspect a thing. She happily invites his family to dinner Saturday night, well actually, not his family, like the Avery's, Karen doesn't seem to care for that other kid either as only Daniel was invited for dinner.. oh and the wine.

We meet Chip and Diana on the way out.. the only way one would like to meet them and Karen does what so many other people do after spending time with their significant others.. she begins speaking his language. In this case, Mackanese,
"I can't stand that schlub."

Abby gets a short breather after her scene with Lilimae. She goes to visit Janet and she is back in full control mode. Janet wants to know if Gary ever slapped her or pushed her down while drunk. Abby insists nothing like that has ever happened. Janet says, “What a good drunk,” to which our Mrs. Cunningham has this to say, “Look he gets snarly and hostile sometimes, but don’t we all?”

Of course our Abby’s composure goes right into the dumpster along side her Ford Fairmont once she learns you know who confessed to the murder of Ciji Dunne. One more emotional change for the Abster as she tries to control her laughter, I tell ya, euphoria, hostility, laughter all in three consecutive scenes. Normally she has to change outfits (including one swimsuit) to get this kind of material. "It's so Vaal.." she says. I love this scene as our Abby laughs and laughs, saying "Val would do that.. stand by your man….that kind of thing.” Miss Baines: "Even if he committed murder?” To which our Abby says, "Especially if he committed mur..." oops, not quite on the guard yet are ya Ab?

Lawyer man Casey tells the Baines if this Valene crazy confessed they have no case for Gary. Janet knows this isn’t true and refuses to give up Gary. Abby freaks again wondering if Val somehow implicated Gary in the murder. Casey is all excited his client could be walking free but Abby is more than perturbed Valene has sprung from the woodwork. Before leaving Mrs. Cunningham has to cut one more line, "She's crazy you know, you can't believe a word she says. She wrote a bestseller, got an advance on a new book and she still drives a 1980 Pinto! You can’t believe her."

Lilimae is approached by Janet Baines who tells Mama Loony she might as well go home because they are keeping Valene overnight. This is more than our Mama can handle. And it’s more than I can bear as I see my favorite bumpkin being booked. Her manicured nails thrown into black ink, her belt and earrings being taken away from her! She has to hold up a sign with her name and number on it and she isn’t even throwing her Bess Riker smile to the photographer. This must be pure Hell for our girl, well, at least she knows Gary cleaned up her mess for her.

This scene is a little strange as I realize Knots Landing supposed to be a nice community and all but Val just confessed to a murder, don't you think the police checking her in would've been a little rougher.. I don't mean NYPD crass but really what is this Mayberry? They didn't treat me so nice when I was caught shoplifting that Cyndi Lauper album in 1986! I also thought it would've been great if when they took the picture of Val, she just dropped her inhibitions, threw her arms out and posed. Would've made a great book jacket.

In the sac, our Mackenzie’s are preparing some kind of Italian pasta sauce and pastry dinner. Karen and Mack recap every single reason anyone they know would want to kill my sweet innocent songbird (bringing up points about Abby that Lilimae has already touched on and points that the police just don't seem to care about.. I think Abby did do it!) Karen surmises Richard’s gun toting breakdown didn’t really hurt anyone so he is of course innocent (then why is he packing his bags, sister?), Abby is far too smart to commit murder (although she’d confess if Olivia had done it) but the joke isn’t funny once Mack brings up Chip or precious Diana. Karen surmises it’s Valene that confessed and she really needs to see her, right now. She will throw her lasagna noodles to the kids and head to the police station, if only Mack could get her in to see her pal. Mack is a Federal Prosecutor and can’t just jump to Karen’s every whim, but you know this is Karen we are talking about and in the very next scene…

Karen gets in to see Val and Val has one more thing she just can't let go of. Yesterday, she couldn't let go of the fact that Ciji was dead but today it's a thought that keeps haunting her. When she thought she may have been responsible for Ciji’s death it wasn’t the fact she killed someone that she kept dwelling on, no, she realized Gary protected her, so he must still love her. Even Karen has to take a deep breath and sit back, looking ever pleasant in black and fourth season red.

Meanwhile, Lilimae gives Chip his last supper. He is going on and on about how Gary Ewing ruined this family. If it wasn’t for him, poor innocent Valene wouldn’t be locked up in the slammer. Lilimae simply says, “Chip, when you are done with your supper I want you to go upstairs and pack your things.” He is confused but she refuses to listen to his lies anymore. She tells his scheming ass she can't look at him without realizing what an old fool she has become.. you'd think she'd remember this two years down the road when she does practically the same thing. I tell you she lets anyone live in that damn house.

The Wards (that’s right The Wards!) share an intimate moment on the beach where Kenny realizes he's only been in 12 episodes the last four years and maybe it's time to let go.. or something like that. But not before he gets one more scene with Gary so they can make up.. Kenny realizes all this trouble with Ciji just isn’t very important anymore, and apparently neither is TV stardom..

Richard is also getting a little Kenny action. Kenny stops in where Richard is installing a garage door opener. Kenny tells him he is in a new place now where everything is calm and peaceful. There are no rolodexes, there are no cul-de-sacs and there are no residuals. He also lets us know Ginger’s birthday is Saturday and he’d like to do something special at Daniel. Richard just shuts the garage door on our stud, just like all of America has done for the last four years.

Valene and Gary have a hard afternoon when they are both recalled to various spots in the Ciji Dunne murder case. Gary goes to the beach where our Miss Baines dons her first upper head garment. They then walk along the beach to where we found Miss Ciji’s body. It seems to be a big waste of time, as Gary doesn’t remember anymore than he did when we first found Ciji’s body.

At Ciji’s now neon lipless apartment, Val is recreating her encounter with our chanteuse. As Valene runs all over the room with Nick Morrison, she falls on the floor pretending she can wear a headband, teddy and mullet as well as the next blonde. Just then Gary comes walking in where he sees his ever-lovely Valene and realizes something is up. The two start yelling and freaking at each other while our Miss Baines, never drops her hat. She planned this whole encounter to see if perhaps there was any kind of tension in these blonde stars. Well, Miss Baines, I hope you now realize you are dealing with some knutty fruit baskets…

Abby makes a pit stop to see Gary. He wants Casey to make sure Valene gets out of jail. She had nothing to do with this and he refuses to discuss it anymore. Abby tries to plead with Casey how they need to keep Valene from Gary. He surmises Mrs. Cunningham has some issues, “You have to decide which is more important, keeping Val and Gary apartor getting Gary out of jail.”

Abby can’t decide which is more important so she calls up Miss Ellie for some advice. Although we never get to see our feisty Southern mama, it seems she will take Abby’s advice and stay in Texas, it looks like Abby may have made that phone call to try and get Miss Ellie’s money for bail.

To redeem herself, our Maybelline maven has a touching scene with her Little Miss O. It seems all the kids at school are talking about Gary and his murder charge. Abby tells her daughter people who know as little as those children shouldn’t be talking at all. She then goes on to tell Olivia all about Gary’s “disease.” She sends Olivia to bed and decides to throw some perfume at the wall, it seems our Abby is having one of those hostile and snarly moments.

In the cul-de-sac, Valerie Harper's kid is back doing a report on his favorite summer. Richard comes in and learns his son has a long, long memory. Something that will probably come in handy when thinking about his father. Richard shares a few moments of bonding time with his fourth Jason before telling him the best times are to come. He goes upstairs where he sees baby Daniel and his long-suffering wife… He makes a little finger goodbye to his youngest child and heads downstairs.

He grabs his bags from the closet, grabs a picture of him, Laura and Daniel (where Jason is in the pic, I just don’t know). He leaves the house, gets in the car he bought for his wife that she didn't need because someone else bought her a Mercedes, pulls to the end of the cul de sac, gets out and takes one last look, then drives away…

well Aste Spimante to you Mr. Avery :0) One cast member down, how many more will hit the road tomorrow? And who will throw Ginger her birthday party now? I tell you, that Ging always gets the short end of the Knots stick!

til next time

bradley

[eciton burchelli]

I have to add, this Janet Baines woman is REALLY REALLY GOOD. I like her- she also seems like a REAL detective, she is so calm and cool, not emotional, and she is not prejudiced or jumps to conclusion, she was really good in this role. Usually when these cops come on, they can be irritating and boring- but she fills the role nicely- she's a good actress.

[Abbysweetie]

There were too many people being written out all at the same time. Total bloodbath.

So foolish, considering their ratings were up, and they obviously had the budget....

Quite different from 1983's ridiculous dissolves, which hardly left you on the edge of your seat.

Oh, I don't know ... I think getting rid of the Wards was one of the best decisions regarding cast changes that the show has ever made ... Also, Richard just wouldn't have fit in with the mid-80's 'glamorous' years of Knots Landing ... Far too hairy, far too 70's!! ... And I disagree that the '83 season finale wasn't a proper cliff-hanger: although we suspect Gary did not kill Ciji, you don't know what's to become of him, and we do'nt know what's to become of Diana ... Also, will Gary go back to Abby or to Val?
Although the 84 cliff-hanger was extremely exciting when you watched it (Karen being shot was so unexpected!), you sort of knew after the excitement had died down that Karen would probably live and Abby would be saved, you have fewer certainties about the outcome of the previous season's storylines!!