From: "LANE A. HATFIELD" <lhatfiel@osf1.gmu.edu>


It's Choose Your Own Theme Day, folks. I love when there's a theme that 
ties all of the day's stories together. What I found in today's episode was 
actually a couple of themes (or, technically, a couple of recurring 
motifs). At the end of the update, I'll describe them both and you can 
choose whichever one you prefer to remember this day by.

Ok -- Here we go!

--------------------The Light. Monday August 14.------------------------

WHEELS AND MEALS DINER A GO-GO

Buzz, bussing tables, lights (no pun intended) into Nadine as she walks 
in the door.
"Finally! Where have you been?!?"
She says she's been busy, but he justs keeps picking at her about it. 
"Say what? You and yer boyfriend have been _busy_? I'm just gonna have to 
have a talk with Carroll."
Nadine says Carroll has nothing to do with it. Buzz claims she's not been 
around because Carroll doesn't want her working there, so when he 
comes back from a long haul she just disappears from the diner.
Nadine tells him that Carroll is gone. It takes a minute for Buzz to 
finish ranting and actually comprehend what she's saying. Once he shuts 
up, it's Nadine's turn to yell.
"We broke up and it's all because of you!"

JOURNAL (OF LOVE)

Some peon (not Stu) delivers an armload of research on Alan Spaulding to 
Nick.
Pan to Folly's office where the Dynamic Duo are discussing who should 
tell Nick that his planned 5-part expose of Spaulding is cancelled. Holly 
wants to do it because she's "infinitely more subtle" than Fletch. The 
discussion then disintegrates into the topic of Holly's "unsubtle" 
overloading of the dishwasher that morning that broke 5 dishes (Holly 
says just 3). She blames the dishwasher, which would never have been able 
to cut thrught the "green crud" from last night's dinner anyway.
Somehow they get back on track to Nick and his Spaulding obsession. 
Fletcher wants to tell him. He's the editor and the editor hands out the 
assignments. Holly, however, says the publisher signs the checks.
Nick busts in, Have they got a minute? He wants to show them some 
incredible info that Tom (ah, that's the peon's name!) dug up from the 
archives.
Fletch starts to tactfully suggest that Nick move on to another assignment 
when Holly "Infinitely Subtle" Lindsey-Reade breaks in. "The Spaulding 
series, Nick. Forget about it."

SPAULDING ENTERPRISES (hey! no jokes! this is a serious place of business!)

AM is selling some new "can't lose" deal on the phone to some guy named 
Larry.
Lucy wants to know what to do about the appointments that Alan set up for 
himself a couple of weeks ago. Some of them look pretty important. AM 
says cancel them all. He lets Lucy in on the news that Alan is not only 
not in the office anymore, he's not even in town, and according to Alex 
he may be gone permanently.
"Hasta la vista, Dad."

SOMEWHERE IN AMISH COUNTRY

Reva's horses are still out of control. Alan's opera music still blares.
Alan gets out of his car (love how the hood opens -- the back comes up 
instead of the front. Is that a BMW?)
Reva and The Runaway Horses sideswipe Alan, who's down for the count on 
the side of the road. The music crescendoes.

ROLL LIGHTHOUSE
(Lord, I think that was about 10 minutes of intro!)

[Holly Lindsey-Reade, and her migraines, for Motrin IB]


SPAULDING

Alan won the battle but, now that's he's gone, AM and Lucy think they've 
won the war. AM can run Spaulding his way, without always looking over 
his shoulder. But even with Alan gone, AM isn't going to blow it, he 
isn't going to fail. (What a therapist could do with this boy. Still a 
classic overachiever in search of parental approval or a valid substitute.)
Lucy assures him he won't fail. He says he won't fail with Lucy by his 
side. He sings her praises and then asks her to take some info to Nick. 
It's all the plans he has for Spaulding, a new Spaulding Nick has never seen.

JOURNAL

Folly are bickering over how they broke the news to Nick. He was beating 
around the bush. She was hitting Nick over the head.
Either way, Nick wants to get back to work. Fletch says he's still on a 
new assignment. Nick protests. He needs at least a couple of weeks.
"This story is dynamite. We're sitting on a powder keg and I'm about to 
light the fuse. It's got intrigue, treachery, sex, betrayal, the love of a 
good woman."
It doesn't matter to Folly. Fletch says there's no story because Alan got 
off. Nick tries a little divide and conquer by pleading with Holly to talk 
sense into Fletch. She backs Fletcher up.
"But this could be the story of the year!"(He doesn't want an Emmy, he wants 
a Pulitzer!)
Then Nick gets paranoid. There's something else going on, some other 
reason. No, says Fletcher, the story died along with the charges against 
Alan.
Fletcher accuses Nick of wanting to do the series to get even with Alan 
for trying to frame Nick. Fletch and Holly are worried about Nick. They 
think he's becoming obsessed. He should relax, take some time off, go to 
a movie. Nick says he has work to do. They say he's on a new assignment. 
"No more Spaulding," Holly insists.

Cut to:

Alan lying on the side of the road.
In the background we hear Reva finally getting the horses under control.
She stops the wagon and runs to Alan. "Let him be alive. Please let him 
be alive." 

[I want to see Peter in that ad for Children's Benadryl, where the little 
boy with allergies stands in the doorway and says "You can't see them, 
but they're out there."]

JOURNAL

Nick stomps out of the office, turns around, stomps back in.
"There is such a thing as journalistic freedom. You ever hear about it, 
Fletch? My old man told me about it. Remember when we all used to be real 
journalists? Whatever happened to the freedom part?"
He stomps out again, and runs directly into Mystery Woman #1.
She was looking for him, to show him her application and resume. He's 
very short with her -- tells her he doesn't do hiring and directs her to 
personnel. She says they wouldn't look at her application. She introduces 
herself as Susan Bates and says she justs wants to make sure the people 
in charge look at her work. He flips through her application without 
really looking at it and tells her she'd be better off sweeping floors at 
the East Something Tribune (I listened to this 4 times and couldn't 
figure out what he said!). He walks away.

Lucy, arriving with the info from AM, overhears Nick's rudeness and tells 
Susan he's not usually like that. Susan's pretty upset, but tries to act 
tough. Lucy asks if she can do something. Susan says no, that she'll be 
alright -- it's not her first rejection today. She starts talking about 
the truth and wondering why it's supposed to be so great. Lucy doesn't 
know. Susan shows Lucy her application and directs her attention to Line 
18, the medical history. Lucy reads it and her eyes bug out.

DINER

Buzz is in shock over the breakup. Nadine, drowning her sorrows in 
cheesecake, says it's true and that Carroll left her because he thinks 
Nadine isn't over Buzz.
Carroll overheard one of many fights between Nadine and Buzz, the one in 
which Buzz said Nadine was acting like a jealous lover instead of an 
ex-wife. Buzz doesn't even remember that argument -- they all run 
together. We get a whole recap of Carroll's take on Nadine's feelings for 
Buzz: the way she behaves around him, that she _was_ jealous, that 
Carroll's tired of coming in second best.
Buzz wants to call Carroll and talk sense into him, but Nadine tells him 
Carroll is already gone. "Once again you are a day late and a dollar short."
Buzz thinks that's a little harsh. Nadine says he's been that way all his 
life. Buzz says that he's changed. Nadine doesn't think so -- he's been 
out to lunch for weeks. Even now, sitting here with her, he's thinking 
about that blonde woman he met in Indiana. She hopes Buzz finds the woman 
and then she walks all over him and breaks his heart. (Is Nadine putting 
a curse on Buzz? Is this some new psychic power? Because that's 
probably gonna happen, given Reva's track record).
"I never told you she was blonde."

AMISH COUNTRY

Reva kneels over a still-unconscious Alan. She feels for a pulse; he's 
alive. She leaves to get help, because he's badly hurt.


HALFTIME

[Do the Reardons have an MCI Calling Circle?]



DINER
 
Replay of "I never told you she was blonde" with an added "Where'd you 
get that from?"
"So you admit there is another woman?" (Actually, that implies there's a 
first woman, guess Carroll was right!)
"What, am I on trial here?"
Nadine just knew she was a blonde, don't know why. Buzz wants to know if 
she's been reading tea leaves again. She gets him to admit that he has in 
fact met a interesting woman who he's been thinking about a lot.
"I'm blonde. What does she have to be blonde for?"
"I don't know, Nadine. Maybe she was born that way."
"Oh, unlike me, you mean?" (ROTFL!)
Buzz just wants to know what the tea leaves say.
"About the woman?"
"About anything!"
Buzz wants to know where the woman is. Nadine says men are so 
predictable--he only believes in her spiritual powers if they can help 
him. Buzz ofers to get Nadine some tea so she can sit and try to get "a 
clear reading" on the woman. She doesn't like tea, she wants coffee. And 
the coffee in the pot is old, she wants Buzz to make some fresh. (She's 
gonna milk this for all it's worth! Go Dini!)
Buzz, with a glare, "Anything for you, dear."
Nadine tries to engage Buzz in some small talk while she has his 
attention, but Buzz doesn't want to talk about anything except what she 
knows about the woman. Nadine wants to know what's so special about this 
woman. 
"Here you are asking your ex-wife for a forecast of your lovelife. Isn't 
that just a little bit tacky?"
Buzz claims he hasn't known the woman long enough to be romantically 
involved. He's just curious. Nadine finally agrees to help. She wants him 
to tell her everything he knows about the woman. He spouts some vague 
stuff about how she's special, her spirit is a life-force (isn't that 
redundant?), it's like she's got a secret. Nadine needs something more 
specific. He says her met her in Goshen but when he went back to get his 
icon
"You went back! I knew it!" says the gree-eyed Nadine.
when he went back, the doctor said she wasn't there, but he's not sure he 
believes the doctor.
N:"Well, maybe he was her husband."
B:"She didn't have a husband."
N:"So you _do_ know something about her. Just the important facts 
like if she had a husband!"
Since the woman touched Buzz's icon (do you want to touch my icon?) 
Nadine wants to use it to try and get a feel for her.

JOURNAL

Susan tells Lucy "That's right. I'm HIV positive."
Lucy apologizes for the way she reacted and tells Susan that she should 
have known better, since she's scheduled to be tested in October. She 
confides in Susan that she's scared. Susan is sympathetic.

FOLLY'S OFFICE

Holly is ranting because she can't find the budget report. Fletcher 
suspects that's not the real problem. Is it Nick? The argument earlier?
H:"Well, he's your best friend. You could've been a little more sensitive 
to him."
F:"_I_ could've been?"
H:"Well, you could've...forget it, never mind."
In the interest of sanity, Fletcher agrees to forget it and comes up with 
a lovely plan for the evening. They'll leave work a few minutes early, 
have an Italian dinner at Romero's, head to a foreign film fest at the 
Bijou, head home...
H:"Home?!? I'm glad you think that place is home. You know, I'm really 
not crazy to spend another night in that frat house you call a home!"
F:"How did we get back on this?"
H":"It's been weeks since we've been at my place. Don't I get a chance to 
be comfortable?"
Fletcher admits his place is disorganized. Holly says it's a pigsty. He 
wants to know if she can actually picture him living in her "doll cottage."
Needless to say, that comment meets with some hostility. Is the house too 
"feminine"? She's suddenly one of those frilly types?
Fletch backpedals furiously -- she's putting words in his mouth, he 
happens to love the woman who comes out of that house everyday. She says 
he's being insulting. He thinks she's overreacting, plus when it comes to 
the housing arrangement, he's the best judge of what's best for Ben.
"What's wrong with the spare room at my place?" Holly wants to know.
"Come on, you can't picture Ben, or any boy, going to bed in a room with 
a lace dust ruffle!"
"Well you guys are welcome to your army blankets. _I'm_ sleeping in my 
own bed tonight!"
She stomps out and slams the door. 

NEWSROOM

Lucy and Susan talk about Susan's job search. She's been looking for 
weeks. No one will give her a job because of her HIV status. She's flat 
broke and she really needs insurance. Lucy asks what she does. She's a 
writer. Where else has she applied? Everywhere -- papers, magazines, even 
the tabloids. They all turned her down. As soon as they looked at her 
medical history there were suddenly no openings.
Lucy protests that that's discrimination. Susan agrees but she doesn't 
want to spend the rest of her life in a courtroom fighting a losing battle.
Lucy decides to take Susan to Spaulding and get her a job there.
Susan goes to freshen up and Lucy heads over Nick's desk. She dumps the 
info from AM on his desk. Then she read him the riot act -- she thought 
he was a good guy, who could he turn down someone like Susan Bates? He 
doesn't even recognize the name at first.
She shoves Susan's application at him and suggests that if he ever looked 
past Line 18 he might learn something. Then she tells him Susan will have 
a job at Spaulding by the end of the day, "and you can print that!"
She stomps out. He flips the application to Line 18 and looks like he 
suddenly  gets what Lucy was talking about.

[I don't get B&B. Why would two women fight over Ridge when one of them 
could easily move to Springfield and have Rick?]

SPAULDING

AM is finishing up a job interview, offering someone we can't see a job 
in accounting. 
"I have the job?" a throaty voice asks.
AM welcomes "Marion Crane" to Spaulding. We get a shot of Mystery Woman 
#2 -- tall, big-boned, jowly (pretty obviously a man in drag).
Lucy knocks. AM introduces Lucy and Marion. Marion leaves, staring at 
Lucy's desk in the front office as she goes.
Since AM is feeling so generous about hiring people today, Lucy has 
someone she wants him to meet. She tells him she promised Susan a job. 
He's less than thrilled. They can't just hire people because they're 
friends. Lucy argues that she's incredibly qualified and a great writer 
-- they can use her in PR. 
AM says there are no openings -- he can't just create a position for the 
sake of creating it. Sure he can, Lucy says, he's the boss. Or was all 
that talk this morning about running things his own way just talk? She 
wants AM to just look at the application. It's very important to her.
The application is pretty impressive -- maybe he can find something 
entry-level but that's about it. Why's it so important? Lucy says Susan 
has a health problem. AM wants to know how serious it is.
She directs him to the medical history. 
L:"She's HIV +."
AM:"Oh."
L:"What, does that frighten you? You won't even meet with her anymore?"
AM:"Stop putting words in my mouth. I will meet with her. I'll give her a 
job if she's good for the company."

DINER

Nadine tries to concentrate on the icon, but Buzz keeps interrupting her. 
Then she gets this "incredible psychic connection" and suddenly Buzz is 
all ears. 
Nadine says the woman is like she's from another kind of place, another 
kind of world. Buzz thinks Nadine means he made her up.
No, Nadine insists, in fact she's too real. And it's like she's from 
another place in time.(Does she mean the Amish or GL's 1989 season?) Buzz 
doesn't buy it and gets all sarcastic. 
"Like where? Like the Stone Age? Like the Fall of Rome? Like the 
INdustrial Revolution? Where? I don't believe I fell for this again! You 
don't have any powers!"
Nadine interrupts:"oh, no! She better watch out! Something's coming right 
at her, something big!"

REVABECCA'S COTTAGE

Reva comes in followed by 2 Amish men carrying Alan. She says to lay him 
of the table.
He's still unconscious. She sends one of the men, Hector, for the doctor. 
(I don't really think a name from Greek mythology is an appropriate name 
for an Amish man.)

FOLLY'S OFFICE

Fletch comes in literally waving a white flag. He has a new plan for the 
evening if she wants to hear it. Forget the restaurant, the movie, going 
home to El Rancho Deppresso and instead they split up.
What he means is: "You go to your place. I go to my place, and pick up a 
few things. Then I go to the Chinese place and bring food over to your 
place. Even hot and sour soup."
"But you don't even like hot and sour soup."
"But you do. And you're my baby and whatever my baby wants my baby gets." 
(This line was surprisingly not too nauseating.)
They kiss and make up. She apologizes for over-reacting. He says (with a 
strait face!) "You're a woman. It was probably hormonal."
She calls him a male chauvinist pig. He sarts going on about women and 
hormones till she trheatens to hit him with her stapler. (LOL!)
He retreats through the door and says he'll see her later at her place. 
She says ok.
Left alone, Holly starts counting backward on her mental calendar and 
reaches for the Rolodex on her desk. She calls Dr. Sedgwick (Hey! 
Bridget's OBGYN!) and leaves a message. She says she "way overdue" for an 
appointment, has a "medical problem" and asks Dr. Sedgwick to call her at 
home.

SPAULDING

Susan and Lucy come out of AM's office after Susan's interview. Lucy 
thinks it went really well. She goes back into the office to talk with AM.
Nick comes ff the elevator and comes over to talk with Susan. Hels been 
looking for her. He explaind that he never really read her application. 
His rudeness wasn't because of her HIV status (which, however, he can't even 
say out loud). He came to apologize.
Lucy and AM come out to tell Susan she has a job in Press and Publicity.
Marion is lurking in the background.

DINER

Buzz wants to know what Nadine is seeing -- Where is the woman? Nadine 
shushes Buzz so she can focus. Buzz wants to know if the woman needs his 
help. Nadine is a little ticked off that Buzz is more concerned about 
someone he met for 10 minutes than he was about Nadine during 20 year of 
marriage. 
Buzz doesn't want to hear it. He just wants answers. Nadine doesn't know. 
Then she tries to tell Buzz she was wrong --- the woman isn't in danger.
"Sometimes the sprits make mistakes."
"So now the spirits are confused?"
She doesn't want to help him anymore and she leaves.

REVABECCA'S COTTAGE

Reva says Alan has lost a lot of blood. His pulse is weak. She's worried 
that if the doctor doesn't come soon, Alan won't make it.

SPAULDING

Nick knows he can't make up for what he did, but he'd at least like to 
buy Susan a cheeseburger to celebrate her new job. She doesn't think she 
has time. AM, Lucy, and Nick talk her into going to the diner with them. 
Nick brags about AM's profiency at the grill. Nick and Susan head 
downstairs. Lucy and AM stay a minute. She tells him thanks and that she 
loves him. He says he loves her, too. Especially for caring about someone 
she hardly knows. Lucy says Susan's stiuation just hit her a certain way.

MARION'S APT.

Marion (in a male voice) congratulates herself on handling AM perfectly. 
Then she agrees with herself in that throaty female voice. (What is this? 
multiple personality disorder?)
She sits down at a vanity mirror and takes off her wig. She calls herself 
"Brent."

ROLL CREDITS


Ok, here are those possible themes/motifs as promised.

1) Don't Put Words In My Mouth Day

  Both Fletcher and AM said those actual words to their significant others.

  Buzz and Nadine kept assuming they knew what the other one meant and 
kept putting words in each other's mouths. As a result they spent the 
whole episode (heck, their whole relationship!) arguing.

  Susan assumed that Nick's comments to her comments to her (especially 
the one about sweeping floors) was b/c of her HIV status. He didn't even 
know about it.

2) Mysterious Woman Day

  MW #1 -- Susan Bates. A quarter of an episode elapsed between Lucy's 
look of shock and Susan's explanation to the audience that she's HIV 
positive.

  "MW" #2 -- Marion Crane/Brent Lawrence. Where did he get shoes his size?

  MW #3 -- Rebecca/Reva. She a mystery to Buzz and will soon be one to 
Alan. 

  MW #4 -- Holly Lindsey-Reade. How long will her condition remain and 
mystery to her? And to Fletcher?

Ok, that's really all. See you in 3 weeks.

-- Lane







