From: Marni Centor <marni@panix.com>

GUIDING LIGHT UPDATE -- THURSDAY, AUGUST 15, 1996

                          UP IN ARMS

Highlights:
* Zach & Matt have a little chat.
* Van reams Nola for spilling her secret.
* J catches Jessica making one move too many.
* Quint sees the error of his ways.
* Lucy tries to convince AM to stop fighting & play nice.
* Annie persuades Phillip to rethink his decision on Beth.

Bright & early in Springfield, USA...

REARDON HOUSE: Zach rings the bell & Matt comes to the door. Zach says 
he needs to talk to Matt about something important.

BOARDINGHOUSE: Vanessa, dressed for the office, reams Nola for yakking 
to Zach about her condition. "Of all the horrible, disgusting things 
you've done in your life, this is the worst," says Van. "I really 
understand how Quinton could leave you." Ouch. 

LAUREL FALLS: Quint wants Jessica to go back to California & finish up 
her grant proposal. Jess says she's done & that's why she came to see 
Quint. She says she has lots of free time & has missed him terribly. 
Quint says he has lots of work to do. He offers to take her to dinner & 
then to her flight. She agrees, then asks if he'll be busy at the dig 
all day. He says yes. This seems to please her. As Quint leaves, she 
tells him she loves him. He doesn't respond. 

Jessica goes into his tent and starts snooping on his computer. She 
finds what she's looking for & makes a copy for herself, thus assuring 
that her grant proposal will be all taken care of. J peers through the 
tent flap, surprising her. "It's not bad enough that you stole my father 
from my mother; now you're stealing his work, too?"

YACHT: Lucy struggles with a box full of wedding gifts & AM helps her. 
She complains that there's not enough room for all their stuff & 
suggests it would be a good time to buy that dream house they've 
discussed. AM says there's no time right now. The reason--Phillip.

SPAULDING MANSION: Nettie announces that Annie is here to see Phillip, 
commenting that Annie's the first person all week that has actually 
agreed to wait to be announced. [Sorry, but this Nettie is dull as 
dishwater, even when she tries to be funny. Bring back Donna & Ginger!] 
Nettie shows Annie in & departs. Annie says she wanted to find out how 
things went with Beth before she leaves on her better-late-than-never 
honeymoon. Phillip says he signed the separation papers.

Phil says Beth hung up on him 3 times and gave him a ultimatum--come 
back to Arizona right away & promise not to return to Springfield, or 
forget it. He remembers that they used to be partners & dealt with 
problems together. "And now she's telling me it's her way or no way. And 
that's not a choice. That's backing me into a corner. So I signed the 
damn papers." Annie says that people communicate better face-to-face 
than on the phone. Maybe he should go talk to Beth in person. Phil knows 
that she'll just shut him down yet again. He's known her too long & he 
knows when her mind is made up. Annie figured on Phil to be more of a 
fighter. She leaves.

YACHT: AM explains about the bidding war for Amanda's stock. He has to 
raise cash. Lucy asks why he is bidding for the stock when he doesn't 
have the money. AM says he can't let Phillip get the stock. He needs 
Lucy ot stand by him. Lucy says she is with him, but doesn't understand 
why there always has to be a battle between the brothers. She asks why 
AM can't back down & let Phillip buy the stock. He'll still have his 
shares & be president & CEO. Maybe it will heal things in the family.

REARDON HOUSE: Zach wanted to rent a crane to help out with some work on 
the lighthouse. Matt says Lewis's only crane is tied up on a job right 
now, but offers to check out some other local construction companies for 
Zach. Zach asks how Van is doing & Matt wonders if he's still worried 
about her because of her dizzy spell at the carousel. "A little bit," 
admits Zach. Matt says Van went for a check-up & the doc said she's 
fine.

BOARDINGHOUSE: Van says, thanks to Nola, the people she loves will know 
she's sick, whether she wants them to or not. Nola didn't mean for this 
to happen. She only told Zach, who seemed to know about it already & 
really seemed to care. Van says this doesn't make it OK. Nola says Van 
ought to know how easy it is to talk to Zach. He's so kind & under-
standing & it made her want to tell him everything. She's really sorry. 
Van says the apology is inadequate. She wants to be able to decide 
whether or not to tell people. "The one thing I had, you took away from 
me." Nola offers to tell Matt it was all her fault. Van says to leave 
Matt out of it. Nola starts to cry & realizes Van hasn't told Matt yet. 
Van says she doesn't intend to. Nola says he has to know the truth. Van 
says maybe sometime, but not now. Nola asks when--when Van can't 
remember her name anymore & is tied up to tubes? What's she waiting for? 

QUINT'S TENT: Jessica says J has it all wrong. She is just helping Quint 
with his work. J says she is plagiarizing & stealing & it must be 
because her own work is too lame. Jess says to forget about the disk. 
She notes that J has changed since he moved from California. She thinks 
he looks really strong & muscular. She gets real close to him & strokes 
his arm. She remembers when he came on to her in California & she 
thought he was really sweet but didn't take him seriously. Now she 
thinks she may have made a big mistake. She moves her hand under his 
shirt & heads for the button of his pants, looking at him with major 
bedroom eyes. J seems stunned, like a deer facing headlights. 

"Well, what have we here?" asks Quint from the doorway. Jess backs away 
from J quickly & heads over to Quint. She accuses his "dirty-minded 
little boy" of making another pass at her.

BOARDINGHOUSE: Nola insists that Matt needs to know because Van & Matt 
love each other. They have a wonderful marriage, & it can stay that way. 
Van says none of this is Nola's concern & tells her to back off. Nola 
says the only reason she's going on about this is because she cares 
about Van. "I feel like you're my family. I feel like you're my sister. 
And it's not just because I married Quint & you married Matt. It's 
because I really care about you. I really like you. I've really come to 
respect you. You're different... changed. You're happy, because Matt 
loves you. And because you love him, he's happy. Love changes people. 
I'm different too." Van is a bit taken aback & covers by asking if Nola 
really expects her to believe this. Nola puts it another way: "Out of 
all the women I've ever hated, you're the best of the bunch." This Van 
believes. Nola doesn't want to fight. Neither does Van. 

Van tells Nola that the doctors said she has many years before her 
illness will become debilitating. Nola thought it was sooner. Van just 
wants to be left alone with Matt. Nola promises not to tell anyone. 
"Good," says Van. She heads for the door, then stops. She tells Nola 
that she has come to appreciate her in an entirely different way. Nola 
brightens a bit. "Out of all the people who's hair I've ever pulled, I 
really liked pulling yours the best." Van leaves.

YACHT: AM worries that Phillip will combine his shares with Alex & then 
AM will be in the minority. He can't take that chance. He doesn't want 
to sacrifice his dreams. He asks Lucy to say she'll help him. She 
agrees. AM tells her about a guy named Robert Crowell, who got his head 
bashed in by his mistress's boyfriend & told his wife that it happened 
in a car accident. This guy has plenty of money to bankroll the stock 
purchase. Lucy looks at AM like he's grown another head. She can't 
believe he's asking her to blackmail this guy. AM just wants her to put 
a little pressure on him. Lucy says the guy is a sleazebag; does AM 
really want to take money from him. "I would take money from the devil 
right no if I could," says AM. Lucy looks torn. She picks up the phone, 
then slams it down again. She can't do it.

Lucy suggests selling all their stock & trying something new. "We don't 
need this," she says. They could make all new dreams together, without 
letting his family make them miserable. AM is not enthusiastic. He won't 
let Phillip win & will do whatever he has to to keep what's his.

SPAULDING MANSION: Annie can understand that Phillip's been hurt & isn't 
too eager to be hurt again. Even if he wanted to, Phillip says he 
couldn't go to Beth right now, because of the bidding war set up by 
Amanda. Annie notices a drawing by Lizzie & comments on it. Phillip 
lights up when he talks about his daughter, who will be 6 in November. 
Tucked inside the folded drawing is a photo of Lizzie. Annie doesn't see 
much resemblance, except maybe for her beautiful eyes, which are not 
quite as blue as Phil's. Inside the drawing is a letter from Lizzie, 
asking if Phil will be home in time to put her on the bus to school. 
Annie remembers Shayne's first day in kindergarten & how he was afraid 
the bus driver would get lost. Phil says he misses Lizzie & Beth.

LAUREL FALLS: Jess makes all sorts of nasty accusations about J & says 
Quint's "sex-maniac son" and his "crazy wife" were the reasons she 
didn't want him to come back to Springfield. Quint looks to J for a 
response. J says if Quint wants to believe Jess over his own son, so be 
it. But the truth really hurts. Quint wants to hear it. J says that Jess 
came to steal Quint's grant proposal. And as for him making a pass at 
her, "Get a life." Jess says J is lying. J says Quint can just send his 
paycheck to the boardinghouse. Quint tells Jess that J has had her 
pegged from the get-go. She says J is just trying to break them up. 
"He's succeeded, Jessica. It's over." Jess says they can work it out. 
"No one steals my work," says Quint. "And no one lies about my son." He 
goes into the tent & comes out with Jess's handbag, which he tosses at 
her. "As J so eloquently put it, get a life." Jessica exits with her 
tail between her legs & J looks at his dad in a new light.

Quint tells J he was right all along. Quint was an idiot to leave his 
family. J asks if Quint really cared about Jess. Quint thought he did, 
but not anymore. He tries to explain how life creeps up on you & makes 
you wonder if you've missed something along the way. "I still am an ill-
informed, immature, self-absorbed man who threw away the most important 
things in life." J remembers Nola using those same words. Quint says 
Nola was right about a lot of things. J says she cried a lot, especially 
when she thought J wasn't listening. Quint beats himself up for making 
his family suffer through his ridiculous mid-life crisis & losing the 
people he loves the most. J says he's still there. Quint gives him a big 
hug & thanks him.

Quint hopes J wasn't serious about quitting. J says he'd like to keep 
working. Quint asks if J can manage for awhile without him, because he 
has some things he has to take care of. J picks up the phone, then 
changes his mind. He says Nola is on her own this time.

BOARDINGHOUSE: Nola sits by herself at the kitchen table, sighing & 
looking miserable.

REARDON HOUSE: Matt shows Zach the plans for the house he's going to 
build on the island. Zach thinks it's very nice. Matt says it will take 
him a few years because he wants to do it himself, with his own money. 
It doesn't matter how long it takes, because he & Van will have the rest 
of their lives to grow old & gray there. Zach can't quite imagine Van as 
old & gray. Matt agrees; he'll be old & gray and Van will be old & 
beautiful. Zach asks if Matt has ever used an "engineered joist system." 
Matt says he hasn't. Zach says there's no mystery to it; he can tell 
Matt exactly what to expect. Just then, Van enters & hears the end of 
this. "You just told him, didn't you?" she accuses Zach.

When Zach notes that they were talking about the new house, Van is 
relieved. Matt says Zach has some good ideas for the house. Zach says he 
has to get going & Matt goes to the kitchen to look up the construction 
companies for Zach. Van knows that Zach didn't come by to talk about 
building materials. Zach admits he was thinking about her, but he really 
does need a crane for the lighthouse. Van says she was just with Nola. 
Zach knows Nola was really upset. Van says *she* would have been very 
upset if Zach had told Matt about her illness. Zach says they only 
talked about the house, but he can tell how much Matt loves her. He 
would want to help her. Van says she plans to spend the time she has 
left with her husband her way, not anybody else's way.

YACHT: Lucy hates that AM sounds so ruthless. He's starting to remind 
her of his father. AM swears that he will never turn into Alan. Lucy 
hopes so. AM says he will never hurt Lucy or risk what they have. Lucy 
asks him to reconsider the stock. AM says if he didn't think Lucy was 
with him 100%, he doesn't know what he'd do. 

SPAULDING MANSION: Phil says it's killing him to be away from his 
family. He bets Lizzie has grown a half-inch since he's been gone. He 
tells Annie about a game he plays with Lizzie, where he buys her a gift 
& hides it on a shelf that's too high for her to see. When she grows 
tall enough to reach it, it's hers. Right before he left for 
Springfield, he hid a toy princess for her. She found it last week. "And 
I wasn't there." Annie asks if Phil is really sure Beth would throw him 
out if he showed up unannounced. It's really easy to hang up the phone, 
but it's a lot harder to slam the door in someone's face. 

Phil asks what's wrong with himself that he can fight for a company, but 
he can't fight for his marriage. To Annie's delight, he gets all fired 
up, prepared to do battle in the name of love. All he has to do is 
convince Beth about this one thing. He'll get her & Lizzie to come to 
Springfield with him and he'll rent a house near Lillian, so they have a 
babysitter. Annie cheers him on. "Does Josh know how lucky he is to have 
such a smart wife?" Annie's face darkens a bit. "Sometimes I have to 
remind him," she says. Phillip hunts through the phone book for airline 
reservation numbers. He tells Annie she's unbelievable. Annie says she 
has to get back to her vacation plans. Phillip finds a photo in the 
phone book. "Oh my god," he says.

BOARDINGHOUSE: Quint enters & finds Nola crying. He asks what happened, 
who hurt her. She stands up & hugs him desperately.

REARDON HOUSE: Van suggests that Zach leave before Matt returns. She 
says she'll see him out & turns toward the door. Suddenly she stops, her 
eyes wide. Zach asks what's wrong. "I can't see," says Van. "It's dark."

YACHT: Lucy hugs AM & says she'll be with him forever. But she reserves 
the right to disagree with him at times. AM kisses her & asks if she 
disagrees with that. She doesn't. AM asks her to promise to help him buy 
the stock from Amanda. "How could I do anything else?"

SPAULDING MANSION: Annie asks who's in the picture. Phillip says it's 
the man who tried to frame him, standing with the person he thinks paid 
for the framing. Freeze frame on Phillip's shocked face as the screen 
fades to black.


--Marni (marni@panix.com)



