What Was Jenna's Problem...?

You have to think like a Soap villain.

Killing Jenna would get her out of the way, but also risk turning her into a "martyr." She becomes a precious memory from Bobby's past, that might make him feel wistful over what could have been, possibly regretful that he didn't fight harder for her when he had the chance.

Framing Jenna for murder, on the other hand, not only gets her out of the way but also tarnishes her memory. Now instead of "the one who got away" she's "that psycho ex I'm glad I didn't stay with."

So, in that context, it was a rather smart plan.

 

I would say that the issue with Tacker was more that they dressed her and styled her hair like a middle aged school marm, which made her look a lot older than she was. If they had just glammed her up a bit, she would have looked closer to what we would have expected Jenna to look like at that point in the show.

 

Except there's too much that can go wrong with trying to frame someone, and that's exactly what happened. If she'd just had her killed then that's her out of the way for sure, and for good.

 

As opposed to trying to kill someone, and get away with it, which always works out perfectly?

 

Yes, and I've aways been comvimced that's where they were headed again with Katherine wearing that blonde wig in the car outside Pam's house. She was fixing, as they say in Texas, to take out Pam and frame Jenna for her murder. Two birds with one stone. But she hadn't counted on Bobby showing up at Pam's house.

 

There's a lot that can go wrong with that too. But at least that way your rival is out of the way for good, if framing them goes wrong all you've done is murdered someone inconsequential and you're in the same amount of trouble and have achieved nothing.

 

Fair point.

Of course, the real reason Katherine tried to frame Jenna instead of just killing her is because the writers didn't want to write the character out of the show yet.

 

Well, I assume Katherine’s motive was simple and as she said - if she couldn’t have Bobby, no one could.....

 

Except the wig she wore looked nothing like how Priscilla Presley was styled like at that point.

It was just a goofy disguise.

 

I do like the wackiness of the convoluted "poisoned apple" scenario, and it is indeed a better way to spin, twist and stretch it...and to keep the Presley name in the opening credits.
But I wouldn't dare to suggest that had anything to do with it.

 

PBP prob would have been axed had VP stayed. I don’t see how they could do budget cuts and keep VP and PBP.

VP’s exit prob bought her more time on the show, however, her pining for Bobby post-dream was actually embarrassing.....

Granted, this was in the dream, but Jenna is so pushy here. I’d tell her to f@ck off!!!!!!

 

But it's a nice performance (surely that b&w scene wasn't used as a flashback?) and that's more important than what she should or shouldn't do.

 

I doubt it was a coincidence that it was a blonde wig. It didn't have to be styled exactly like Jenna, all Katherine needed was for any potential witnesses to report seeing a blonde at the scene.

 

The thing is that it wasn't the right length, style or even the right shade of blonde.

I just think it was her disguise to avoid being spotted so she went with the colour right opposite of her own. I always viewed Katherine hitting Bobby/Pam as a suicide mission; she was a fugitive so it wasn't as if she was going to enjoy the outcome anyway.

 

Yes, it’s like I said, you have to think like a Soap Villain. Their plans aren’t always going to be the most “logical” or fool-proof, because then that’s not interesting for the storylines.

It’s like if you’re a James Bond villain, when you catch him you’re going to first give him some long monologue where you go into details explaining your evil plan, and exactly how it works (and how it could be stopped) and then place him in some elaborate death trap that will kill him slowly, and then leave. Logically you’d just shoot him in the head the second you have him, but that’s not as interesting a story.

 

Why was she wearing the wig in the earlier episode with the newspaper when she was alone?

 

Not having taken it off from evading the police when buying the newspaper?

(Plus they didn't want us to know it was Katherine)

 

That storyline in Season 7 DVD, regarding Charlie's parentage, is the first clear sign of creative decline in Dallas. This issue was dealt with in one episode in Season 2 DVD when Morgan Fairchild was playing Jenna Wade, where she confirmed that Bobby wasn't the father of Charlie, yet in Season 7 they redo it and stretch it out. Also, notice how Charlie doesn't know Naldo in Season 7 DVD, completely contradicting the episodes in Season 3 DVD when Francine Tacker was playing Jenna Wade, where Jenna had just put Charlie on a plane to Italy to meet Naldo and said that Naldo was becoming a good father to Charlie.

 

I loved Francine Tacker's Jenna. A very strong confident woman.

 

Yes, this and the Miss Ellie recast was when the show started to unravel.....