Daily Updates

From: rika1@mindspring.com (Rika)
Subject: PC: Update, Tuesday, 10/14/97
Date: Sun, 19 Oct 1997 03:26:58 GMT
X-Server-Date: 19 Oct 1997 03:28:03 GMT

                       PORT CHARLES UPDATE
                   Tuesday, October 14, 1997

Today's episode is significant in that it is the first one whose credits
list Lynn Latham as the head writer.

Today's Storylines:
-------------------
* Days of My Dad
* As the World Wobbles
* The Young and the Clueless
* All My Nieces

DAYS OF MY DAD
--------------
Julie, Frank, and Bennett are outside the Scanlon home.  In a
continuation of Monday's episode, Bennett has laced up his tap shoes and
he's doing his best to dazzle Julie with his fancy footwork.  Of course,
he explains, he recommended Frank for the Colson College job for
benevolent reasons, and he kept silent about his role so it wouldn't
seem like he was meddling.  Julie, in a rare example of clear-headed
thinking where her dad is concerned, points out that meddling is
precisely what he was doing.

Frank goes inside and Julie yells at Bennett for a while longer.  He
continues to claim that he just wanted to do a favor for someone she
cared for.  She accuses her dad of interfering; he insists that he
simply wants what's best for Julie.  She tells him that if he truly did,
he wouldn't have come to Port Charles.  (Julie, that should tell you
something....)

Daddy Dearest now rolls out the heavy artillery.  It's probably mostly
sincere, but you also get the sense that he's good at playing Julie like
a violin, and that he has years of experience with this particular
sonata.  He wants to make sure she knows he loves her - he doesn't want
to make "that mistake" twice in a lifetime.  What mistake, she asks.
The one he made with his son - he feels responsible for Buddy's death.
Julie insists that he can't blame himself for Buddy's suicide; Bennett
says that the signs were there, and he would have seen them if Buddy had
been a patient, but he was too busy to notice what was going on with his
son.  He was always too busy for school plays or birthday parties; he
only attended one of Buddy's Little League games, and only then because
an operation was cancelled at the last minute.  And at that game, Buddy
dropped a fly ball and Bennett teased him about it.  Julie explains that
Buddy dropped it because he was so nervous about his dad's presence.
Bennett figures (correctly, I'm sure) that if he'd gone more often,
Buddy would have known he was there to support him, not to criticize.

Julie reminds Bennett that you can't change the past (evidently she
doesn't know about some of the Guza and Culliton storylines on GH); they
all have regrets.  She then offers the remarkably non-comforting
observation, "But you loved him in your own way."  Bennett even
considered killing himself after Buddy died, but thoughts of Julie
stopped him - he swore he'd never make the same mistakes with her he
made with Buddy.  (This shouldn't present a problem, as there are
undoubtedly gazillions of entirely different mistakes he can make).
This is the reason for his meddlesome tendencies, but he will do his
best to mend his ways.  "But please, don't expect miracles," he
finishes, and they embrace as Frank watches them through the window,
displeased.

AS THE WORLD WOBBLES
--------------------
Lucy is at the hospital talking to Gail on her cellular phone,
explaining that Scott ran off.  If Scott shows up, Lucy asks Gail to
keep him from leaving - "tie him up.... better yet, just spank him."
(I'd pay a lot of money to see that!)  She finishes with Gail and then
walks into Kevin's room.  He is sleeping; Eve is adjusting Kevin's IV.
Lucy snipes at Eve; Eve tells Lucy to be quiet because Kevin needs rest.
Lucy tells Eve about Scott's latest problems and his disappearance.
Kevin wakes up in time to hear this and asks, "Scott is missing?"

Lucy and Eve begin to bicker about who woke Kevin up, but Kevin
interrupts and asks for more information on Scott.  Lucy explains that
Scott had "another" episode; Kevin, who hadn't heard about the first
one, asks for clarification.  Lucy and Eve explain the situation,
including Scott's threat to kill Dr. Devlin.  Kevin nods and gets the
LOD (which you may not appreciate in print, since it was all in the
reading), "That *could* have been symptomatic."  (Eve - or maybe Julie
Pinson - bites her lip to keep from giggling).  Lucy is worried that
Devlin saw Scott in that state; Kevin points out that the more basic
concern is that Scott is out there alone, and they don't know where.

Meanwhile, Scott is on the road in Lucy's convertible, weaving from lane
to lane, apparently having trouble seeing straight.  The radio is
blaring "Light My Fire."  A police car comes up behind him, and Scott
pulls over.  Officer Rick (YAY!!!!!!!!), in a most-welcome crossover
from GH, inspects the license and registration.   He notes that the car
is registered to Lucy Coe (right, Officer Rick, the lady with the noisy
duck and the amazing evening dress, remember?); Scott explains that Lucy
is his friend.  Officer Rick asks Scott if he has been drinking, and
Scott says he hasn't.  Officer Rick tells him to get out of the car, and
administers a field sobriety test.  Officer Rick then asks Scott to take
a breathalyzer test, but Scott refuses - "I am not myself tonight."

Later, Eve's beeper goes off.  While she answers the page, Lucy obsesses
about Scott while Kevin tries to get her to calm down.  Eve hands the
phone to Lucy - it was Scott who beeped her.  Scott explains to Lucy
that "I'm in jail but I'm fine."  Lucy repeats this, stunned; Kevin,
overhearing, mutters wearily, "It never stops."  Scott asks Lucy to come
and bail him out; Lucy refuses to do so unless Scott agrees to have some
tests run.

THE YOUNG AND THE CLUELESS
--------------------------
Karen peruses the personal files on the interns which fell out of
Chris's locker at the end of Monday's episode.  (QUICK QUESTION - How
did Cooper have those files so he could plant them in Chris's locker?
The police should have had all the files *except* for Julie's, which is
probably somewhere at Chris's apartment.  I suppose we could be
charitable and assume they're duplicates Cooper had hidden somewhere.)

Karen calls Chris a nasty name that I won't repeat here, but it
questions the legitimacy of his birth.  She shows the files to Matt,
Joe, and Ellen as Chris protests that the files aren't his.  Joe snipes
back, "Right, Ramsey, then whose are they?"  Matt flashes back to Cooper
brandishing a gun while reading from the files during the hostage
crisis, and for a moment your updater thinks Matt has solved the mystery
and is about to inquire as to Cooper's whereabouts.  But not even Matt
is that smart - he's been drinking the Port Charles water for several
months now.  The assembled group concludes that Chris stole the files
the night of the hostage crisis.  Ellen just wants the game playing to
stop.  She takes the files (she must need some titillating reading
material) and orders the interns back to work.  Chris tries to defend
himself again - how could he have gotten the files when Cooper was first
in maximum security, and later in an institution that burned to the
ground.  (CLUE ALERT!!!!!  HELLO????  Chris, how could ANYBODY have
gotten the files?  YOO HOO???  Oh, never mind, they're not paying
attention.)  Chris suggests that the files were planted in his locker -
perhaps by Karen.

Karen is furious - how dare Chris accuse her of something?  (Gee, Karen,
I don't know.  WHERE would Chris have ever gotten the idea to make
unfounded accusations against someone?  Hmmm.... let me think.... the
idea does have a familiar ring.....  nope, just can't place it.)
Chris points out that he's not stupid enough to put the files in his
locker, which seems like a good point.  Matt retorts that Chris's track
record to date makes him the logical suspect.  Karen threatens to make
Chris's life "a living hell," and she follows up by telling him, "Chris,
you read my file, so you know what kind of grief I can lay on you."
(What is she threatening to do, torture him by stripping in front of him
on a regular basis?  I assume there's something *else* in her file.)
With a nasty glare, she flounces out of the on-call room.

With Karen gone, Joe takes over the Chris-bashing duty, while Matt makes
a half-hearted attempt to referee.  Eve arrives and observes, "You could
cut the testosterone in this room with a knife."  Joe explains to Eve
about the files; she's amused to hear it.

ALL MY NIECES
-------------
Rex is busy planting a bug in a lamp in Jake's apartment when he hears
Danielle talking to Jake outside the door.  He quickly sits down and
starts reading the paper.  He greets them cheerily and tells the it's
time to get to work.  First, Jake wants Rex to show him the money.  Rex
hands him an envelope of cash.  It's not the $40,000 Jake wanted, but he
agrees that he can get started.  Rex instructs Danielle to let Jake take
some of her blood:  "Let's find out just how close a match you are to
Miss Serena Baldwin, your new daughter."

Jake does as he's told; Rex goes into their bedroom and makes a call to
his lawyer to tell him about Scott's DWI arrest.  He hangs up and
chortles, "And thank you, Scotty; this couldn't have worked out better
even if I had planned it myself."

-----------
by Rika, Tuesday updater