“The Sight of You” finds the Carringtons and friends setting their sights on various soapy goals, with some members of the “Dynasty” having more success than others.
The A-plot is about a girls’ trip to a Sun Valley ski resort Fallon plans to distract herself from her broken engagement to Culhane. Monica and her turban are, of course, the first to board the jet. And while Alexis gets negged, soon-to-be stepmom Cristal manages to finagle an invitation by promising to let Fallon touch her hair (a cute running gag about Ana Brenda Contreras’ luminous locks ensues). And finally, Kirby – lonely and wanting some gal pals – hilariously stows away in just a bikini, and is thus dismayed to learn about the cold climate destination. But it turns out, once they arrive, that the girls’ trip was really just a ruse to stalk Liam and his “Serena van der Woodsen knockoff” girlfriend on their vacation! “Liam and I have a connection,” Fallon insists to her companions, “You’ve seen us!”
The other ladies think Fallon – wearing some very Cher-from-“Clueless” ensembles throughout this part of the episode, p.s. – has gone kinda insane, but they eventually come together to scheme a way to split up Liam and this chippy Ashley (who is kinda awful, but also 100% has Fallon’s number) so Fallon can plead her case. Kirby in particular really wants to prove herself as a friend to Fallon so she, with Sam’s help (and sidebar – Sam is hurt when he finds out the girls ditched him and eventually jets out to join them. He’s also fielding texts from his friend he made out with last week. But weirdly, there’s no scene between him and Fallon about – as the previouslies remind us – her walking in on him cheating on Steven. Boo!), pranks Ashley with a comically disastrous spa treatment while Fallon smoothly sidles up to Liam in the bar. But even after she’s declared that he’s the one for her after all, Liam insists that he’s happy, that he’s moved on, and kindly asks Fallon to respect that.
Wanting to avoid the happy couple, Fallon drags the group to a townie bar to drown her sorrows. This leads to a fun if sitcomy sequence of events where 1) their coats and purses get stolen by someone posing as a coat check girl (the bartender’s “Does this place look like it has a coat check?” scoff was hilarious), 2) they try to win enough money to pay off their tab by singing karaoke to “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’,” and 3) Ashley and her “preppy posse” show up and a bar brawl breaks out. But all these antics seemingly put Liam off Fallon for good. “You are not the same person that I fell in love with,” he spits at a devastated Fallon. “What happened to the girl who was ready to start her own dynasty?” Fallon ends the episode in tears, both her men gone, though the door to friendship with Kirby seems to be open, which is nice.
As an aside, Cristal admits to Fallon that she had a secondary motive for tagging along on the trip – avoiding Blake. While he’s been pestering her about her first doctor’s appointment, she’s been plagued with guilt by the knowledge that her baby might not be his. Cristal confesses to an amusingly not-that-scandalized Fallon – the story is that, when she first left Atlanta, she had a one-night stand with her ex-husband, Mark Jennings (start the countdown clock on us seeing this dude) – and asks her soon-to-be stepdaughter what she should do. Fallon concedes that Blake might go crazy if he’s not the baby daddy, but advises Cristal to tell the truth and take control of the situation. When she gets home, Cristal sets out to do just that, but in a very soapy moment, Blake preempts her confession with sweet mutterings and she loses her nerve. Oh Cristal!
Culhane, meanwhile, is dealing with the breakdown of his relationship with Fallon by doubling and tripling the security at his mom’s house after the recent break-in (and sidebar – Culhane’s sister notes that Culhane was looking for a missing black leather bag, which, based on the previouslies, was probably the cash he got from Ada. So does that make someone from her organization or the Van Kirks’ a suspect in the robbery as well? Not sure if this is an actual riddle the show is going to solve, but consider my suspicions noted). That’s when Blake shows up, full of bluster and, kinda hilariously, not really caring what happened between Culhane and his daughter because he wants Culhane’s help. Blake has his eyes on Sterling Wells – an Atlanta native who’s now a soccer star in Belgium – to be the face of his new team and he thinks Culhane’s the man to convince him. Culhane turns him down flat at first, but his mom and sister amusingly team up to talk him into it, advising him to take Blake’s self-serving offer and “make it good for you.” And so he does. First, when Blake’s rich man bravado bombs in the meeting, Culhane appeals to Wells’ love of home to get him to commit. And then, he turns it around on Blake, demanding an ownership stake in the organization or he and Wells will go work for the city’s competing team. I dunno who’s going to be more pissed about this development, Fallon or Jeff, but the fireworks it will cause should be fun.
Finally, a few words on the mothers. First, Alexis gets a sad stub of a subplot about literal SAD – seasonal affective disorder. She later notes to Sam that she feels directionless, and that’s honestly how the character’s felt since the midseason break. I assume Alexis is going to get heavily involved in Cristal’s WTD situation, but I really need the writers to ramp up her scheming pronto. And then there’s Dominique. Early in the episode, Jeff is overjoyed to report to his sister that their mom was thrilled to hear from him, and that he’s sending his jet to pick her up. Monica is furious about this and later, while drinking in Sun Valley, she leaves a mean voicemail message for Dominique ordering her not to get on Jeff’s plane. And Dominique apparently listens as Monica returns home to a heartbroken Jeff, whom she comforts without revealing her interference. Now obviously, this was meant to put a pin in the Dominique story until later in the season. But I am still very curious why Monica is so steadfastly opposed to even seeing her mother.
Did “The Sight of You” make you happy or sad, mad or glad? Hopefully I’ll see your takes on this week’s “Dynasty” in the comments section.
