“Dynasty” Ups Its Game With the Claudia Conspiracy
There were a couple kind of extraneous plotlines on this week’s Dynasty, titled “I Exist Only for Me,” but the main plot —about moving a pregnant Claudia (Brianna Brown) into the Carrington mansion to recuperate from Blake (Grant Show) running her down with his car — was A+. This is how you do a primetime soap plot. More of this, please.
It all starts with Blake and Cristal (Nathalie Kelley) finding out in the hospital that Claudia is pregnant. Cristal immediately goes into “we have to take care of her!” mode, while Blake is all, “Yes, and hope she doesn’t sue us.” At first, it seems like only some simple hijinks will ensue, like when Sammy Jo (Rafael de la Fuente) treats Claudia to a day of playing dress-up with Cristal’s black AMEX card.
But it all very quickly turns into “the game is afoot” when Claudia seemingly uses some prime manipulation tactics to drive a wedge between Blake and Cristal. She gives Blake the puppy-dog eyes and tears, she gets Cristal away from the mansion by “accidentally” dropping her pills, which the family dog promptly eats, thus necessitating a visit to the veterinarian, and then she “accidentally” gets Blake into a compromising position, just in time for Cristal to walk in. I’m with Sammy Jo — I was definitely getting a Single White Female vibe here, and I was excited to watch that play out. I was even pretty sure Claudia poisoned the dog on purpose, which is extreme, but in keeping with all the great movie psychos.
However, Sammy Jo and Cristal then get word from the vet that the pills in Bo’s system weren’t Claudia’s medicine to help with mental acuity. Instead, they were “benzos,” which is short for benzodiazepine. They’re psychoactive drugs that have sedative, hypnotic, and muscle relaxant properties. In high doses, they can cause amnesia and dissociation.
Cristal and Sammy Jo hypothesize that someone may have switched Claudia’s pills to keep her from remembering things. If that’s the case, I would bet money the drug she’s on is lorazepam, which has particularly high amnesic properties.
Either way, I like it when a show zigs when I think it’s going to zag, and that was a nice little switcheroo with what’s going on with Claudia. It’s also a nice mystery to add — just who switched her pills and what do they want her to forget?
It seems like this should all come back to Blake, but the show is also working hard to not make him a villain, so maybe not. But I’m intrigued to find out what’s going on.
Meanwhile, with the two Carrington children, Steven (James Mackay) is busy investigating his father’s charities and discovers that Chief Stansfield (the one who helped get Matthew’s phone out of evidence) is a contributor of both time and money to his father’s athletic club for disadvantaged youth. That’s about all that happens there, but Steven is starting to put the puzzle pieces together that there may be more to Matthew’s death than he thought.
And Fallon is busy launching Morell Corp with Jeff Colby (Sam Adegoke), complete with a fancy soiree at his mansion. Fallon manages to get drunk, get rejected by Michael (Robert Christopher Riley), insult some possible investors but land their money anyway, and then sleep with Colby in what might actually be a new relationship.
I knew it was only a matter of time for those two, and it’s nice to see Fallon get some agency in this romance since on the original show she only married him because Jeff’s father promised to help out her father’s company. Then she “came to love Jeff,” which is a really tired trope, so thankfully this Dynasty is not going throwback with that story line.
What will be interesting is if Fallon and Jeff go public with their relationship. Blake really does not like Jeff, for business reasons, but there could also be a race element that comes into play. I’m curious to see how Dynasty and this 2017 version of Blake (who has conservative political leanings, as this episode reminded us about 1000 times) handle a Jeff-Fallon relationship.
Of course, this is assuming Fallon wasn’t acting out of loneliness, being scorned by Michael and wanting to make her former lover jealous. But if that’s the case, she could irreparably damage her relationship with her new business partner. Which… actually seems highly likely on Fallon’s part.
Odds & Ends
Fallon: “I have to go live at the Ritz, Steven.”
Steven: “Before you get your martyr status verified with a little blue check mark, you might want to remember it wasn’t just Crystal you betrayed when you leaked that tape.”
Anders: “Burn this.”
Cristal: “Anders!”
Anders: “We can find her another sweater; dip it in oatmeal. This is quite an array of strays you’re collecting. The responsible thing would be to spay and neuter them.”
Claudia: “So, are all these urns filled with other people that Blake has run over?”
Michael: “You may not have any respect for yourself, but I’ve got respect for me and for Cory … don’t pretend you care now, Fallon. You didn’t catch feelings overnight.”
Sam: “Sounds more like Single White Female than Hand that Rocks the Cradle … [later] Maybe I was wrong and this isn’t a ’90s stalker girl thriller, maybe it’s more Hitchcock. What if someone switched the pills? … someone who wanted to make sure Claudia didn’t get better.” DUN DUN DUN.
(Photos via The CW)
