Cliff House: Family Business

Thursday, June 10, 1993

Bits and pieces from three episodes ...

SCENE: After "The Eternal Triangle" confrontations at WSPR, ROGER is surprised by BLAKE when he arrives home. [Meanwhile, little brother HART is busy spying on JENNA, who's at Laurel Falls telling BUZZ: "I heard ROGER used to come here, and I heard he still does."]

As ROGER fixes himself a much-needed drink ...

BLAKE: Gotcha!

ROGER: Don't do that to me Chrissy!

BLAKE: And I am not letting you go until you sign each and every one of these papers in this stack.

ROGER: Not now.

BLAKE: Yes, now, Boss Father. I need your "Roger Thorpe" on about a hundred of these papers. My gosh, you've been so busy the last couple days. Sit down.

ROGER [looking upstairs]: JENNA!

BLAKE: Not home.

ROGER: Where is she?

BLAKE: What's been going on with you two lately?

ROGER: I don't know. I just wanna make sure it doesn't escalate any further.

BLAKE: You had a fight?

ROGER nods.

BLAKE: Don't tell me. It's about Mother.

ROGER: Actually, this one was your mother's fault.

BLAKE: Why does that not surprise me?

ROGER: She was pushing very hard for the Journal to do a portrait of Jenna. I managed to talk her out of that, but, Jenna was upset, anyway, because she is convinced that I have a thing for your mother.

BLAKE: I think she's right.

ROGER: Well, you're both wrong. And I have tried so hard to convince Jenna of that fact. I am sick and tired of not being believed.

BLAKE: I am sure that you've been nothing but a perfect boyfriend. [She hands him a pen, but he's too preoccupied to notice].

ROGER: Wish to hell that your mother hadn't bought into the Journal.

BLAKE: What difference does it make?

ROGER: Ah! You should've seen her protecting and defending ED! I'm sorry. I know that you're fond of him.

BLAKE: Boy, does she get to you!

ROGER [raising his voice]: She does not get to me! But she sure as hell tries! [He's quiet for a moment and then continues ...] You know that she manipulated me into dropping a story that I was interested in, and why? Because it happened to cast the good doctor in a bad light. Excuse me, I just remembered a very important meeting that I've got to attend.

As ROGER leaves ...

BLAKE: Wait a minute! Daddy! What about the work ...???

Friday, June 11, 1993

SCENE: HOLLY and ALAN-MICHAEL and BLAKE and ROSS all run into each other at the TOWERS and wind up sharing a table together.

It’s a curious foursome. BLAKE and ROSS are “an item,” and HOLLY and ALAN-MICHAEL are business partners. But HOLLY and ROSS were engaged once, ALAN-MICHAEL and BLAKE were married once, and—HOLLY knows that BLAKE and ALAN-MICHAEL have had an all-too-recent one-night stand. Of course, ROSS doesn’t know this!

The dinner conversation proves very catty and rather confusing. HOLLY decides to go to the powder room, and passes ROGER at the bar. ROGER looks pleased to see her.

ROGER: Okay, what are you up to, Ms. Lindsey?

HOLLY: I’m wending my way to the powder room. Do I need a hall pass?

ROGER: No, no—I meant with Chrissy and Marler.

HOLLY: Do you have a chaperone? Where’s your billion dollar babe—your partner in all things?

ROGER: She’s late. You look different.

HOLLY: I am different. I told you that, but you don’t believe me.

ROGER: Why don’t I join you? I mean, if you can manage it, I can.

HOLLY: I abhor needless bloodshed, especially at the dinner table.

ROGER: Why don’t you join me?

HOLLY: And what would that accomplish?

ROGER [grins]: Maybe I do need a chaperone.

HOLLY: One drink.

ROGER: Bartender!

ROGER looks pleased, and HOLLY smiles, too, as she takes the seat next to him. JENNA, who arrives at just that moment, is not so happy.

JENNA [to HOLLY]: Well, you certainly don’t know how to keep your end of a bargain, do you?

WAITRESS to JENNA: Can I help you?

JENNA: Yes, I’d like a table for two, by the window, and if there’s somebody sitting in it, kick them out!

ROGER: Jenna, you are over an hour late.

JENNA [to HOLLY]: You couldn’t have been talking business, because you don’t have any business to discuss! At least that was your big selling point!

ROGER: Okay, Jenna. You’re making a fool of yourself.

JENNA: No, she’s making a fool out of me! Why don’t you come right out with it, Holly, instead of saying one thing and doing completely the opposite?

HOLLY: This was family business, Jenna. But you know, dear, there are an awful lot of cats in the yard. And the only way you’re going to keep Tom at home is to alter his anatomy. But maybe you’ve already done that.

With that little bombshell, HOLLY gets up and leaves them.

At their booth . . .

ROGER: You haven’t bothered to explain why you were late.

JENNA: Don’t worry. It won’t happen again.

ROGER: You like a much more complete account of my comings and goings, let me tell you! And if by some chance, since the last time I saw you, Holly just happens to have crossed my path—well!

JENNA: And you refuse to see her false pretense—odd for a man who won’t take anything in this world at face value.

ROGER: She and I share a daughter. She was here; I was here. What was I supposed to do, snub her?

JENNA: I don’t know.

ROGER: You know who else was here? Rex-slash-Buzz. Now, when’s the last time you saw him?

JENNA: I can’t recall.

ROGER: Really? Really?! Because I’ll tell you something. We were sitting there at that bar, and he made a very pointed and veiled reference to you. Now, I mean, it was as if you and he were sharing some sort of dirty little secret, you know?

JENNA: We don’t.

ROGER: Unfounded jealousy can be very titillating, but I’ll tell you, being provoked to jealousy is not. For the life of me, I cannot understand why you continue to see that guy.

JENNA: I don’t and I won’t. Roger, at one point, he made me laugh. That’s it. It’s not anything like what we have. It never could be.

JENNA kisses ROGER.

Thursday, June 17, 1993

SCENE: SPRINGFIELD JOURNAL OFFICES. ROSS has brought HOLLY her new contracts with the Journal. However, the conversation veers into a discussion of BLAKE. ROSS tries to persuade HOLLY to reach out to BLAKE, but HOLLY doesn’t know if there is anything left of the relationship to salvage . . .

HOLLY: I know your heart’s in the right place . . . but I just don’t feel comfortable discussing Blake with you.

ROSS: Okay. . . Actually, I’m not comfortable, either.

They look at each other for a moment.

HOLLY: Then why do I bring it up? Well, I did do that. Why did I do that?

ROSS: She’s your daughter, and a connection like that doesn’t easily fade.

HOLLY [pensive]: No, I think it’s fading. For Blake, too.

ROSS: Well, you wouldn’t say that, Holly, if you could see some of the things Blake’s kept over the years.

HOLLY: What does that mean?

ROSS: Well, I’m sure she wouldn’t want me telling you this . . .

HOLLY: Well you can’t stop now!

ROSS: Well, when Blake moved in with me, there were a couple of boxes that we never unpacked, and one of them was ... just books that we didn’t have room for, but the other ...Holly, there were things in there that you’ve probably forgotten about.

HOLLY: What kind of things?

ROSS: Letters. Letters that you wrote to her at camp when she was twelve. There’s this red sweater that you wore in a photograph . . . a photograph taken of the two of you, I think, during one Christmas season. And she told me—whenever she thinks of you, she sees you in that sweater. She also has a doll that you gave her when she had the chicken pox. You’d taken it and put spots on the doll’s face with a magic marker.

HOLLY [pondering]: She’s still got that doll. . .

ROSS: Yes, she does. Does that tell you something?

Later, .HOLLY talks with ALAN-MICHAEL.

ALAN-MICHAEL: Through with those contracts yet?

HOLLY: Still hoping I’ll decide to bail out at the last minute?

ALAN-MICHAEL: Holly. . . Why do you always think the worst of me? Wait a minute. Don’t answer that. Look, I . . . I, I’m not proud of what happened with Blake, but don’t make this out to be something that it wasn’t. It was not the rekindling of old feelings. What it was was two very sad, very scared people that were latching onto something that used to give them comfort. That night did not give us comfort. As a matter of fact, it didn’t give us anything except maybe another failure to add to our list of disappointments.

HOLLY [sympathetic]: I’m not trying to punish you, either one of you. I just ... you know, it’s just that since Blake was about ten years old, I kept waiting for the moment when she would think before doing something reckless. She is a grown-up person now, Alan-Michael!

ALAN-MICHAEL: Holly, it takes some of us a little bit longer than others. But we’re trying. Okay? We really are.

HOLLY: I believe you.

ALAN-MICHAEL: Really?

HOLLY: Yeah.

ALAN-MICHAEL: Well then, don’t tell me. Tell your daughter.

HOLLY: I . . I’ve been thinking, before I start here full-time, I might take a week, go up to the mountains, rent a place. Do you think if I asked Blake to go with me, she would go?

ALAN-MICHAEL: Do it. Don’t even think about it. Just do it.

HOLLY [as she leaves]: Wish me luck.

ALAN-MICHAEL: Oh, very much.

So, HOLLY heads to . . .

The CARRIAGE HOUSE. BLAKE and ROSS have just fought after she found HOLLY’S engraved engagement ring—the one ROSS had bought for HOLLY a couple of years before—still in his desk. She leaves, angry. Later, HOLLY comes by, hoping to see BLAKE and invite her to go to the mountains. ROSS answers the door to a good-humored HOLLY.

ROSS [not looking to see who it was at first]: Blake!

HOLLY [Facetiously]: Were you expecting me? Did I call?

ROSS: Oh, I was . . . I was expecting Blake. . . . We had a fight.

HOLLY: Oh. . . Sorry.

ROSS: Thank you for not saying, “What did you expect?”

HOLLY: Well, contrary to popular belief, I do occasionally hold my tongue. But I came to see Blake. If she’s not here . . .

ROSS: You’re here to see Blake?

HOLLY: Yeah, I decided to take your advice, Counselor.

ROSS: Well I’m changing my advice. I think you should wait a few days.

HOLLY: Why?

ROSS: We fought about . . . you . . . indirectly. She found . . . your engagement ring . . . the one you gave back to me when we broke up. [They both are uncomfortable.] I mean, I still have it, because . . . I don’t know what to do with it. I . . . After all, it’s engraved.

HOLLY: She didn’t understand?

ROSS: No.

HOLLY: She doesn’t think that there’s some . . . ulterior motive involving me?

ROSS: No. Not at all. She’s very upset that I’m more cautious about marriage now than I was then.

HOLLY: Oh.

ROSS: So, anyway, when Alan-Michael called, she just gave me a “Who needs you?” look and just left.

HOLLY [souring]: Alan-Michael?

ROSS: Yeah. She just dropped everything, right in the middle of an important discussion, and all the sudden she’s out the door on the way to the Journal.

HOLLY [irritated again]: She should—listen to me—she could have stayed and talked to you, but . . .

ROSS: Yeah, I know. But she’ll come back when she cools down.

HOLLY: And in the meantime?

ROSS: What do you mean?

HOLLY: Never mind. [HOLLY turns from him so he won’t see her expression.] I hope you work everything out. I’d better go.

ROSS: Well, if you want to see Blake, I’d wait a few days.

HOLLY: Yeah, I don’t know, now that I’m here . . . I don’t think I could pull it off.

HOLLY leaves.

Next:
Moments of Perfect Clarity