Radio Station – Exterior
Ava walks Paul to work, unaware that Michael and Holly are hiding out nearby. They talk about the dress and the work Kate is doing to get it ready. Meanwhile, from the other side of some bushes, Michael tells Holly about Paul and Ava’s house and brags that Paul and Nick might make some sort of business deal. Holly doesn’t believe it, but Michael tells her to listen to the radio and she’ll hear for herself. He gets up and heads into the station.
Rescott House – Living Room
Kate and Louie have a talk with Ally and Matt about what happened the night before and reiterate that if they’re going to live under the same roof, they can’t be fooling around. “There’s going to be some big changes around here,” Louie says.
Alden Mansion – Library
Trucker, who when last we saw him was rolling around in bed with Dinah Lee, is bitching to Stacey about how Trisha has moved all her things out of the house and didn’t even leave a note. He asks if Trisha is okay and Stacey tells him that she’s fine, explaining that Isabelle sent Soames to pack up Trisha’s things after finding out about his affair. “It’s really none of her business,” he whines.
As they’re talking, Isabelle walks onto the second floor gallery and starts eavesdropping. “Every time I think we have a chance, we blow it,” Trucker says. Stacey asks Trucker flat out what’s going on with him and Dinah Lee. He hesitates and asks if she can keep it between them. She says that she will.
Alden Mansion – Library
Trucker tells Stacey, “I told Trisha that I slept with Dinah Lee. She wanted honesty; I should have lied.”
The immediate retconning of this is so annoying. He did lie. He lied even though he knew that Gwyneth knew and planned to tell Trisha. He lied until it became clear that Trisha wasn’t accepting the lie and that he had no choice but to come clean. Trucker did not lead with honesty, despite what the show would now like the audience to believe; he accepted honesty as a last resort when all other options had been exhausted.
Stacey gets back to her original question: “Where are you now with Dinah Lee?” He says that they’re “friends.” Stacey asks if he’s kept seeing her and Trucker takes a long time before finally answering, “Yes.” Stacey admonishes him for saying he wants to get back together with Trisha when he’s still carrying on with Dinah Lee and he responds, “I want her, not a mistress.”
A good start would probably be to stop seeing the mistress then, bro.
“Well, I’m glad to hear that,” Stacey says sarcastically. Trucker gets worked up and complains that Trisha is “so far away now” that he no longer knows if reconciliation is possible, but Stacey tells him that she thinks there’s still a chance. She adds that trust can be rebuilt with time, but warns that it can only happen if he stops spending that time with Dinah Lee. “I’ve been trying to talk to Trisha, she’s not interested,” he says. “Yes, she is,” Stacey says, looking at Trucker like he’s an idiot. “It is very difficult to confront infidelity, believe me – it’s horrible.”
Trucker dismisses that, saying the problems started before he was unfaithful, which is certainly true but downplays how much the infidelity widened the rift between them. Stacey tells Trucker that he’s making things worse.
Trisha and Gwyneth walk into the room and, because Trucker has walked to the other side of the room, at first they only see Stacey. It’s only when Stacey casts a glance in Trucker’s direction that they realize he’s there and Stacey suggests that it would be a good opportunity for Trisha and Trucker to talk. “Shall we give them some privacy?” Stacey asks Gwyneth.
This goes about as well as one might expect. Instead of leaving the room, Gwyneth parks herself down on a chair in the middle of it, crosses her arms, and glares at Trucker. “What’s the matter, Trucker? Cat got your tongue?”
Rescott House – Living Room
Kate and Louie tell Ally and Matt that they need to live by the house rules. Ally tries to argue with them and tells them to stop treating them like “criminals.” Kate offers to make a list of the rules the two of them have broken and warns Ally to stop being “sassy.” Ally continues to argue with her anyway and tells Kate that she’s “looking for a problem where there isn’t one.”
Feeling guilty, Matt decides that he is the problem and says he should move out because this isn’t working out. Kate and Louie don’t want Matt to leave, but he thinks he can’t “live up to [their] standards” and heads upstairs to pack.
“Are you happy now?” Ally wonders. “What do you think?” Kate returns sarcastically. As Ally is ranting that Matt doesn’t have anywhere to go, Ava comes in singing to herself and happily tells Kate that she’s there for her dress fitting. Ally decides to use Ava – a grown adult who has been married three times – to make the nonsensical argument that it’s not fair for Kate and Louie to be hard on her and Matt when Ava is living with her boyfriend “and no one seems to care about that.” She then adds that Carly – who is also a grown adult – was out all night with Flynn. “But nobody seems to worry about that.”
Kate reminds Ally that she’s 17, but Ally sweeps right past that, complaining that she “has to live by rules and nobody else does.” Yeah, babe. It’s called being a minor.
Ava thinks a one on one between her and Ally could de-escalate this situation and tells Kate to let her handle it.
Alden Mansion – Library
Trucker decides not to engage Gwyneth and goes over to Trisha, asking how things went at her last doctor appointment. Trisha starts to tell Gwyneth that she should leave, but then doubles over and grabs her stomach. Gwyneth gets Trisha to sit down and Trisha explains that it was just the baby kicking. Trucker tries to feel her stomach and Gwyneth goes full mama bear, knocking his hand away and telling him to stay away from Trisha. “This is my child, too,” he points out.
Isabelle walks into the room and asks if Trisha is alright, suggesting that she could probably use some rest. “Soames will show you out,” she adds to Trucker. Trisha starts to protest, but Gwyneth puts in that Isabelle is right. Outnumbered, Trucker tells Trisha that he’s not giving up and he’ll see her again.
Trucker leaves and Gwyneth decides to follow him. “You had your fun and now it is over,” she says. “Don’t bother looking for your little playmate. That’s right, little Ms. Mayberry had to leave town unexpectedly. She won’t be humiliating my daughter publicly anymore.” This, of course, only serves to put Dinah Lee at the forefront of Trucker’s mind, basically ensuring that he’s going to go running right to her. So congrats on another own goal, Gwyn.
Gwyneth walks back into the library to continue working with Isabelle to steamroll Trisha. They convince her that she should go and lay down and once she’s gone, Isabelle compliments Gwyneth on her work and suggests that between the two of them, they can work this out for Trisha. Isabelle adds that she wants to ensure Gwyneth’s happiness as well, thanking her for all that she’s done for AE of late.
Gwyneth tells Isabelle that Florida has done wonders for her, but Isabelle tells her that it’s more than that, explaining that being a widow after decades of marriage has made her find strength she never knew she had. “In a strange way, Cabot’s death forced me to begin to find myself.”
Bringing the conversation back to Trisha, Isabelle remarks that she hasn’t been able to talk her into moving out of “The Bogs” and into the mansion and suggests that perhaps Gwyneth should stay there with her. “I don’t think that would be best for me,” Gwyneth says, but Isabelle thinks it would be “best for the family.” Gwyneth relents, but says she’ll only stay for a few days to make sure Trisha is doing okay.
Rescott House – Living Room
“I’m sorry, I know she is your mother, but nothing has happened and nothing is going to happen; they just don’t understand,” Ally tells Ava. Ava acknowledges that Kate can be “worrisome” but tells Ally that it’s only because she cares. “Mama can be very, very reasonable, all you have to do is learn to… negotiate a little bit.” Ava expands on this, explaining that “negotiate” means pretending that you’re listening and manipulate them into feeling like you’ve agreed and then turn around and do what you want.
I can see now what Kate was reluctant to let Ava take over this conversation.
Ally agrees that she could learn to “handle” Kate and Louie and Ava calls the two back into the room, telling them “the floor is yours.” Louie tells Ally that they don’t want Matt to leave, but that it seems like maybe the two have too much free time. Kate adds that they’ve decided that Ally should enroll at AU for the upcoming semester so that she’ll have something to keep her occupied. Matt, meanwhile, will have to find a job and enroll in some kind of drug counselling program.
Kate then says that there will also be some new rules and Ava jumps in to say that she’s sure Ally can “handle” that. One of the rules is that Ally and Matt can’t hang out without a chaperone, like a pair of Jane Austen characters. Ally gets mad and suggests that she and Matt just be locked up in separate cells and Ava tries to pull her back, but she can’t be stopped. “Matt’s not going to live by rules like that” she says, then accuses them of trying to chase him out of the house. “Well if he goes, I go,” she declares and stomps off up the stairs.
“I tried,” Ava says.
Louie decides to go after Ally and try to talk her into going for a walk. “People just need to calm down around here,” he laments. Kate turns to Ava, “Not so easy, is it?”
Radio Station – Studio/Booth/Exterior
Michael sneaks in and then gets into the booth. He hides when he hears Paul coming into the studio with Andy and the day’s guest, Yvonne. While Paul and Andy explain how the show will proceed, Michael starts messing with things in the booth, putting on Nick’s demo tape.
Outside, Holly listens to the song on the radio, but the song stops almost as soon as it starts.
In the booth, Michael takes the casset out and sees that it’s unspooled. He gets a new tape and puts that in, but it’s not a tape of music and instead it’s just random sound effects. When Paul decides to check in on what’s going out on the air, he and Andy are confused to hear animal noises. Andy heads into the booth and finds Michael and starts to yell at him.
Radio Station – Studio
Andy drags Michael out of the booth and into the studio, talking about how he’d like to press charges. Paul asks Yvonne, who is from child services, if she can deal with Michael and she agrees. Paul gives Yvonne Nick’s number in case Michael gives her any problems.
AU – Giff’s Studio
Predictably, Trucker has gone running straight to Dinah Lee, who is thrilled to see him. “I haven’t stopped thinking about you,” she says. He asks if she’s okay and she’s confused. He explains that he’s just come from the Aldens’ and her mood drops as she asks if he talked to Trisha. He tells her that he got a warning from Gwyneth and was afraid she had done something to her. Dinah Lee tells him about the attempted payoff, happily reporting that she took the money and then reneged on the terms of the deal. She’s very proud of herself, but he tells her that it wasn’t a smart thing to do. She wonders if he’s mad because he would have preferred it if she had left town.
Rescott House – Living Room
Ava quizzes Kate about whether there’s some news about Michael, but Kate wants to stay out of it. She tells Ava to stay out of Carly’s business and focus on her wedding. Ava decides to agree with Kate, or at least she’s “handling” Kate by saying that she agrees.
The doorbell rings and when Kate answers it, Ruth is there looking for Carly.
Episode Cast:
- Louie Slavinsky – Bernard Barrow
- Trisha Alden McKenzie – Noelle Beck
- Paul Slavinsky – Joseph Breen
- Dinah Lee Mayberry – Jessica Collins
- Isabelle Alden – Celeste Holm
- Michael – Alexander Kniffin
- Ava Rescott – Lisa Peluso
- Kate Slavinsky – Nada Rowand
- Stacey Donovan Forbes – Lauren-Marie Taylor
- Gwyneth Alden – Christine Tudor
- Trucker McKenzie – Robert Tyler
- Matt Ford – Eric Woodall
- Ally Rescott – Laura Wright
- Ruth Austin – Susan Greenhill
- Andy Martel – Noble Lee Lester
- Yvonne – S. Epatha Merkerson
- Holly Dean – Kimmi Parks
Loving (1983-1995) 