Head Writer: Millee Taggart & Tom King / Executive Producer: Mary-Ellis Bunim
After learning that two cars were involved in the accident and one of them was a police squad car, Trucker is convinced that both he and Clay were framed for the hit and run. He brings Trisha to a bar he used to frequent and finds an old friend, Marylou, working there. When he asks her about Jelka, she suggests that they meet at the cemetery, lest someone overhear them. Her fears are well founded, as one of Jelka’s cronies hears the details of their planned meeting and tips Jelka off. Meanwhile, in Corinth, Alex is holding Clay prisoner in a safe house in order to keep him from interfering in Trucker’s investigation, but when he spots the bull’s eye that Clay has drawn, Alex falls into a hypnotic state. Realizing that Alex is now open to suggestion, Clay has him hand over his gun and uncuff his handcuffs. He then tells Alex that he needs to go to Maine and stop Trucker. Misunderstanding the order, Alex overpowers Clay, takes the gun, and leaves, believing that he’s meant to kill Trucker. Having failed to stop Alex from leaving, Clay books himself a flight to Maine and is horrified when he makes contact with Jake and learns that Trisha is with Trucker.
While Alex is still making his way to Maine with thoughts of killing Trucker, Jelka stakes out the cemetery and when Trisha and Trucker arrive, he opens fire. Trucker is grazed by a bullet and he and Trisha flee, becoming separated in the process. Jelka is able to overtake Trisha, taking her hostage and luring Trucker out, but when he tries to take another shot at Trucker, Trisha grabs his arm, causing him to misfire, and Trucker rushes him, struggling with him briefly before he and Trisha manage to get away. Though Trucker intends to drive them back to Corinth, when she realizes how much pain he’s in, Trisha talks him into pulling over at a motel to treat his wound.
En route to Maine, Alex is pulled over by a state trooper, whom he knocks out. Stealing his uniform and his car, Alex continues on his way while, in Maine, Jelka and Jake have caught up with Trisha and Trucker and stake out their motel. Trucker calls Marylou and tells her where they are and when Clay comes to the bar, he tells Marylou that he’s Trisha’s father and pleads for information so that he can help her and Trucker. Though she gives him the information that he needs, Alex gets to him before he can make it to the motel and knocks him out, takes the address and heads to the motel himself. Fortunately for Trisha and Trucker, Alex arrives just after Jelka and Jake have caught them trying to sneak out and shoots Jelka dead before he can kill Trisha. Unfortunately for them, they quickly realize that Alex isn’t himself when he takes aim at Trucker. Trisha and Trucker escape and take off in his truck, but Alex follows in the trooper’s car, determined to fulfill his mission.
Trucker and Trisha are forced to pull over when his truck runs out of gas and they try to hide in a nearby truck stop, but, having realized that Trucker alone is the target, Trisha takes the chance that Alex won’t hurt her and comes out of hiding, telling him that he’ll have to kill her to get to Trucker. Alex hesitates and begins having flashbacks to his dream of being interrogated. Fighting against himself, Alex finally snaps out of his hypnosis and recognizes Trisha. As he’s handing over his gun, Clay arrives on the scene and, mistaking Alex’s intention, tackles him to the ground, getting shot as he and Alex struggle. When the SWAT team arrives to give Clay back up, Alex is taken into custody and is disbelieved when he claims he was acting as he did because of brainwashing.
Alex is locked up and Clay lies when asked about the brainwashing and then slips back to Corinth before Trisha and Trucker can share that they believe he was set up by Jelka. Wanting to help Alex, Jack and Stacey agree to send the tapes of interviews with other POWs to Maine, but discover that they’re missing. Given everything else going on, they suspect that Clay is responsible and they, as well as Trisha and Trucker, suspect that Clay intentionally triggered Alex. With Clay having disappeared, Trisha and Trucker try to find Jake, who witnessed Alex shoot Jelka and can corroborate that Jelka was going to kill Trisha. They succeed in finding him and convincing him to come to the police station, where he’s let go before giving an official statement about Jelka’s crimes.
Trisha and Trucker finally catch up with Clay and inform him that, like Trucker, he’s innocent of the hit and run. Clay tries to convince them that he didn’t intentionally try to get Alex to kill Trucker, but realizes that the only way to salvage his relationship with Trisha is to ensure that Alex gets released from jail. He goes to the police and changes his story, corroborating Alex’s own, but they’re skeptical about the tale of brainwashing and he’s told that unless Jake is found and gives a statement, Alex isn’t going to be released. Clay starts to panic, as his henchman got to Jake the last time he was brought in and gave him a payoff to disappear for good. Clay manages to catch Jake before he boards a plane and brings him to the police, where he gives a statement that convinces them to drop the murder charges against Alex.
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Gwyneth confronts Ava about forging a love letter from Clay and giving her the emerald ring and Ava claims she was only trying to facilitate a reconciliation. Not believing her, Gwyneth warns her that now that she and Clay are finished, her job at Amourelle is certain to be terminated. Wasting no time, Ava goes to Clay to plead her case but, distracted by the knowledge that Alex is on his way to Maine to assassinate Trucker, he doesn’t spare her much of his time and tells her that it would be best for everyone if she resigned from her post. She refuses and argues that she deserves the job even if he disagrees.
Caught up in her own crisis, Ava isn’t paying attention when Kate’s insurance is on the verge of lapsing and realizes her mistake only after Rocky rushes Kate to the hospital, where she’s almost turned away because her insurance is no longer valid. Minnie saves the day by offering up her credit card, allowing Kate to be admitted. Feeling guilty over failing to take care of things, Ava takes her anger at herself out on Louie, telling him that he’s not good enough for her mother. However, she’s forced to apologize when she learns that Louie stepped in to pay for Kate’s current round of treatment.
When Gwyneth gives her a hard time about missing work because of Kate’s illness, Ava decides to use her possession of Gwyneth and Jeff’s sex tape to blackmail her further. However, Gwyneth then reveals that she’s lured Ava into a trap and that she’s recorded their conversation, threatening to expose Ava’s blackmail to Alex. With each now in possession of evidence that could harm the other, they’re forced into a temporary peace based on mutually assured destruction.
Feeling badly for Ava in light of the situation with Kate, Cabot offers to mentor her in becoming a businesswoman. When he suggests that she start by burying the hatchet with Gwyneth, Ava takes the advice to heart and decides to return the sex tape to her. However, when she entrusts the tape to Gwyneth’s secretary, it ends up accidentally being given to Isabelle, who assumes that it’s the tape of home movies from Trisha’s childhood that she and Gwyneth talked about playing at Trisha’s bridal shower.
Although she briefly slips away to visit Alex in Maine, Ava is called back to Corinth when Kate begins suffering from kidney failure. With Kate needing expensive treatment, Ava worries about how they’ll manage to pay for it, as well as how Kate will fare given that she’ll have to stop her chemotherapy in order to get the treatment for her kidney problem.
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While working in Dunellen, Rocky finds herself being drawn in by Jeff, who gets her to open up about her childhood. However, when she realizes how much she’s divulging, she clams up, suspicious that Jeff has ulterior motives for his interest. When Curtis later visits Dunellen and sees Rocky interacting with Jeff, he’s upset and later confronts her, but she assures him that she hasn’t forgotten what Jeff is capable of and says she’s only getting close to him in order to ensure that he’s not planning something against Trucker. Nevertheless, Jeff manages to get one over on Rocky by seizing an opportunity to riffle through her purse, in which he finds an invitation to Trisha’s bridal shower.
When the opportunity presents itself, Jeff attacks an orderly, steals his uniform, and sneaks out of the institution in order to crash the bridal shower. Suspecting that Jeff is planning something after Rocky’s invitation to the bridal shower goes missing following a shift at Dunellen, Curtis enlists Dave to help him keep an eye out and, knowing that they’ll otherwise be turned away at the door of this ladies’ only event, they dress in drag. However, despite their presence, Jeff manages to get into Stacey’s house and gets Trisha alone, telling her that Gwyneth forced him to break up with her by blackmailing him. Concerned about how long Trisha has been absent from the festivities, Curtis goes looking for her and attacks Jeff. As he’s being dragged out by the police, Jeff accuses Gwyneth of ruining his life, but Gwyneth denies Jeff’s accusations. Hoping to get things at the shower back on track, Trisha asks Isabelle to play the tape she brought and everyone is shocked to get an eyeful of Gwyneth rolling around in bed with Jeff. Trisha runs out and when Gwyneth catches up with her, Trisha tells her that she never wants to see her again.
Gwyneth’s fall from grace becomes complete when Cabot finds out what happened and fires her from AE. Although she turns to Clay for help, he tells her that there’s nothing he can do. With word having spread that the Alden family has disavowed her, Gwyneth finds that all the society doors that have been open to her for so long have suddenly closed. Fearing that Gwyneth may try to seek revenge, Ava insists that she didn’t engineer the playing of the tape, but instead tried to return it to her.
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Stacey and Jack begin marriage counselling to deal with their lingering issues.
Loving (1983-1995) 