Episode 6, originally published 23-Nov-96

Going, Going, Gone Crazy

Ryan gets a call from Phillip. "Hi, sport." After some brief niceties, Phillip inquires: "Why are you doing this to us, Daddy?" Ryan gives an exasperated sigh. "I'm NOT doing this to you, Phillip," he says finally, in a sudden fit of honesty. "I don't WANT to divorce your mother. If you want to know why this is happening, ask your mother. It's a mystery to me, pal. If you can get her to change her mind, I'll be back in a flash." "Thanks, Dad." Both hang up.

Hope, unsure of the wisdom of a continued stay in Genoa City, returns with Vic Jr. to the farm. As they are walking up to the house, Little Victor points to the porch. "Look, Mommy, it's Bingo! Ha,ha. He looks funny!!" "Mommy can't look, Victor, Mommy's blind," Hope reminds him. "What do you see?" "He looks like he's been playing in shaving cream." "Shaving cream?" she asks curiously. The dog growls menacingly as they approach. "Mommy, why doesn't he look happy... doesn't he remember us?" The dog moves sideways, foam dripping from its mouth. It stops at the hulk of an animal that lies motionless on the porch. "Hey, that's Nikki, my pet pig!!" Victor squeals. The dog bites a bit of flesh from the dead pig. "I think he remembers us just fine," says Hope. "We probably should have remembered him... I think we'd better go." "But Nikki! And Bingo!!" Vic protests. "The nice men from the humane society will know take care of them," Hope explains. Maybe it's best if we just live in the city for a while. There will be more dogfaces and piggies there, don't worry."

"You're the cause of the divorce, Mommy. Daddy said so." Phillip yells. "Oh, did he?" Nina sighs. "He says if you change your mind, he'll come back. Please Mommy, change your mind." Nina scowls at him. "You're getting on my nerves, kid. Now either put a sock in it, or you're going on a trip to Switzerland and I promise you you'll be amazed at how quickly your youth can vanish beneath you." Phillip gets silent for a moment. "What are you packing for?" he asks meekly. "Mommy's going on a little trip to a cabin in the woods." "Oh, Can I come?" Phillip asks. "You're a bit too young, Phillip; but I'll do enough for both of us, I promise" she chuckles excitedly. He continues to watch quietly as she packs. "Mommy, you can't pack these. They have a hole in--" "Give me those!" Nina shrieks, waving him away from the pile of clothes she's piled up. Now you go pack because you're going to Gramma Flo's for a few days...

It's a back room of the Chancellor Estate. Very late at night. Esther picks up the phone and punches some buttons. Then she whispers into it. "Hello?" Mitchell Sherman is on the other end. In spite of the hour, he is awake and happy to take calls. "It's me, Mr. Sherman, Esther Valentine," she whispers. "Oh, hello, Esther, I can barely hear you." "That's because I'm whispering, Mr. Sherman! Can you please come over here right away? And come to the back door. It's urgent." "Well, I was just about to watch my life insurance commercial on late night TV, but I guess I could set my VCR. I'll be right over." "Oh! I've seen that commercial," Esther says, "you looked very handsome in it. And so trustworthy. I bought some of that insurance right away--and I didn't even need it." Both hang up without saying good-bye.

It's the middle of the night but Nikki is up brooding. Victor enters. "Victor!" she says, startled. "Where is your husband at this hour?" "He's at the hospital again," Nikki says, as if in dispair. Victor nods. "I have had that louse investigated," he says. "Victor, how dare you!" she grumbles. Then she adds, "Don't keep me in suspense. What did you find out?" "Did you know that he started his career as a neurologist?" Nikki looks suprised. "No, I didn't." "Uh, huh," Victor says coolly. "'parently he met his former wife Veronica that way. She came in complaining of headaches. Just after marrying her, he tried to operate to remove a cyst he'd seen in x-rays of her brain, but the operation wasn't successful and he left her permanently brain-damaged. So he divorced her and changed specialties to something that didn't require him to be a brain surgeon. Hospital investigators later concluded the cyst diagnosis was due to a stray shadow on some x-ray film he was using beyond its expiration date..." Nikki looks suddenly ill. "He used that same film on me! Oh, Victor, if things had progressed, I might have lost the ability to bear more children for you. You've rescued me just in time!"

Jill, determined to dissuade Cole from going after Nina even if it means going after the studly writer herself, drops by the Tack Estate to talk to him. Nina isn't there but Victoria is. "He isn't here. I just had to shoe Nina out, don't make me throw you out, too." Jill pushes past her in disbelief, and heads down the hall looking uncertainly behind each of the doors until she finds Cole's office. Though he is not there, a note pad is propped plainly on the table as if it had had a note on it. She inspects the notepad, seeing an indentation from the previous page is still there. She tears a page from the bottom and lays it on the top of the pad. Using a trick she'd seen in an old spy movie, she rubs the pencil over the new top page and the address of the cabin begins to appear. She tosses the pad and the pencil tracing back on the table and rushes out.

Esther opens the kitchen door to find Mitchell Sherman waiting outside. "What's the problem?" he asks. "It's Mrs. Chancellor. First she hired Kevin Costner's brother to put up our storm windows and now she wants to put him into her will." Mitchell blinks. "The loss of Rex must be hitting her harder than any of us realized." "Do you think she'll have to be committed?" Mitchell nods grimly.

Victoria, clueless, picks up the tracing left behind by Jill. "Why would Cole be leaving secret notes for Jill?" she ponders, unable to make sense of it all. "Oh well. At least I'll still have Ryan. Oh, wait. If Jill has Cole, Ryan will be back with Nina. This isn't good at all... I could be left with nothing." She starts to pack.

As the show closes, we cut to what seems like a birthday party in a large, plain white room. The windows are barred and the party guests seem to be of two kinds--people in white hospital garb, and others. A doorbell rings and many crowd around the door but turn out the lights. From outside, we see Katherine Chancellor and two men in white coats opening the door. As they start into the dark room, the lights come on and we see the cheerful faces of Veronica Landers, MariJo Mason, Michael Baldwin, Leanna Love, Matt Clark, Amy Wilson, and Carl Williams all wearing party hats and offering Katherine a piece of cake and a party hat of her own. The camera draws back out of the door to a wrought-iron sign over the walls of the institution, reading "The Old and the Forgotten."

That's all for this episode. Hope you learned something. Don't miss Episode 7!
If you missed any older episodes, see the index.

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