August 22, 1966--Episode 40

[the_collinsport_review]

My name is Victoria Winters.
Collinwood is the only home she has ever known, and even though she's only known it a short time, terror has made it seem like ages. Also, friend has turned against friend.

Sam is awake again and looking at the sketch of Burke when the phone rings. It's Roger, wanting to know if Sam is alone. Sam says he is, except for the devils in his brain. Roger doesn't care for this answer. When Sam doesn't answer immediately, Roger starts asking if he's still there. Then he asks if Malloy is there [does Roger think Malloy is a devil in Sam's head?] and Sam says that if Roger wants to talk to Malloy, he'll have to get him at the office.

Of course Roger doesn't want to talk to Malloy, he wants to know what happened. Sam tells him they had drinks and he got drunk and he wasn't feeling too well and doesn't remember what Malloy was asking him.

Roger becomes threatening and abusive, and after a few seconds of this, Sam puts the receiver down on the table and walks away. We can still hear Roger as Sam pours himself a drink. Roger realizes that Sam isn't there and tells him not to pull any of his drunken tricks on him. [I, personally, do not know any drunken tricks, but I'd like to see one.] Sam comes back to the telephone, picks up the receiver, and hangs it up. Then he goes over and tears up the sketch of Burke.

Roger is shocked by this and immediately calls back. Sam picks up the receiver and puts it back in the cradle.

Roger can't believe this, and starts to dial again, this time much more forcefully.

But Elizabeth comes into the drawing room, interrupting him, and asks who he was calling. Roger says he was trying to get the office on the phone, and now Elizabeth asks why he isn't at work. Roger says he has a valid reason for not being there--he was rescuing Carolyn from Burke's evil clutches. Elizabeth asks for an explanation, and Roger tells her the story of the ring, then asks if, when Elizabeth was a girl, didn't she do the same sort of thing?

Elizabeth asks if Roger thinks Carolyn is seriously interested in Burke. Roger doesn't know, and it's not his problem; he has problems with his son. [No kidding.] Elizabeth says that at least David's problems won't be financial ones. [That seems like a non sequitur to me, unless she's talking about Burke trying to buy the Collins's holdings.]

Roger takes it to mean that Elizabeth is taking a shot at him. He admits that he spent all of his inheritance, and he had fun with it, which is more than Elizabeth can say.

What Elizabeth says is that she bought the shares in the company that Roger sold, and further, if an outsider had bought those shares, controlling interest in the Collins enterprises would have gone to an outsider, and she couldn't allow that to happen.

Roger says that instead, Elizabeth could have left Collinwood and gone out into the world. He makes reference to her "departed husband," which gives Elizabeth a shock. She wants to know what he means by departed, and Roger says that he left, didn't he?

Elizabeth says she has no intention of discussing Paul with him, and asks why he didn't tell her about the call from Ned Calder.

Roger says he forgot, and if it was important he'll call back. Elizabeth says that it was important, he was returning her call. Roger wants to know why she called him, and Elizabeth says she wanted to consult with him. Roger asks if she'd bringing him back to manage the plant, and Elizabeth tells him Ned isn't the one he needs to worry about, he should worry about himself. Then she leaves the room.

At the Evans house, Sam is sitting on the sofa drinking when Maggie comes in. Sam says that Maggie's not home, and who is she? Maggie says that Maggie forgot her shopping list and came back to get it. He asks why she didn't just call, and Maggie says she did, but mysteriously there was no answer. Sam says he heard the phone ringing but he was-- He was busy.

Maggie sees the torn up sketch of Burke and asks what Sam was busy doing, crossword puzzles? [She obviously means jigsaw puzzles.] She puts the pieces of the sketch back in order and says it's a very good picture of Burke, why would Sam want to destroy it?

Sam answers by saying he had to destroy it before it destroyed him. Then he says that he tried to run away once and asks why Maggie stopped him when he still had a chance. Maggie says not to worry, they'll lick 'em yet.

Maggie takes the pieces of the sketch and puts them with Sam's other artwork. She walks behind the sofa, looking at him worriedly, then picks up her shopping list, acting surprised to find it in such an obvious place.

Sam says she only left it so she'd have an excuse to check on him. Maggie doesn't deny this, just says that now that she's seen that he's all right, she better get back to work. She asks if there's anything Sam wants, anything she can get for him.

Sam repeats her words, his voice dripping with sarcasm. She asks if he wants to talk, maybe she can help. No, he says, nobody can help. She offers to make him a cup of coffee, but he sarcastically refuses that, too, then asks why all women think the solution to everything is a cup of coffee? Maggie sits down next to him and says he'd be surprised to find out the number of solid, upright citizens who come into the restaurant in need of a cup of coffee. Then she says that maybe she should go into the blackmail business. [Is their much money to be made in blackmailing people because you know they've been drinking coffee in a restaurant? I thought drinking coffee in public had gained some measure of social acceptability.]

Sam starts at this, wanting to know what she means, but of course she didn't mean anything. Maggie tries to get him to tell her what's wrong, and he says it's that he can't seem to do the portrait of Burke because it's been so long since he's done a portrait. He thinks he's lost his touch.

Maggie thinks the problem is Burke himself, that he's changed so much, and because of that, other people are changing, too. Sam says he wishes Burke had never come back, but denies it when Maggie says that it's Burke who's bothering him. No-one's bothering him, he's bothering himself, he's had too much to drink, and he talks too much when he drinks.

Sam makes veiled references to the accident, and when Maggie gets the connection, he yells at her to let it alone and storms out of the house.

Maggie calls Collinwood, and Victoria answers. Maggie is looking for Roger. Victoria suggests Maggie try his office, that's where he usually is this time of day. [Victoria hasn't had a chance to see Roger and ask why he's not at work.] Maggie says he's not there [though I don't know how she knows that] and asks if Victoria might know where he is. Victoria says, a bit sarcastically, that Roger doesn't confide in her, and Roger comes in, overhearing this. He asks if there's any reason he should confide in her.

To her credit, Victoria doesn't even try to answer this, just holds out the receiver to him and says it's for him. He tells her if it's the office, tell them he'll be back soon. Victoria tells him that it's Maggie Evans. Roger stops, puzzled by this, then takes the receiver and hangs it up. From the way he looks at Victoria, you'd think he was hanging up on her.

Victoria asks why Roger on Maggie without speaking to her, and Roger says he has to get back to the office, and has nothing to say to Maggie. Victoria says she could have told Maggie he was busy. Roger, his voice dripping sarcasm, asks if she's presuming to teach him manners, because her job is to teach his son. [This would probably not be the right time for Victoria to ask why Roger isn't at work.]

Roger is walking through the foyer when Elizabeth comes down and asks if he knows where Carolyn is. No, he doesn't, and he's going back to work. Elizabeth asks if he'll look around for Carolyn while he's in town, and Roger, still in sarcastic mode, says he can't possibly do that when he's supposed to be at work. Then he leaves.

Elizabeth goes into the drawing room and asks Victoria if the phone rang. [In the background, someone is clicking a clicker.] Victoria says it was for Roger. Elizabeth says she was hoping it was Carolyn. Victoria tells Elizabeth about Carolyn's earlier phone call. They talk about what a nice boy Joe is, and Elizabeth frets over Carolyn's interest in Burke. Then Victoria says she should get back to David.

Elizabeth calls Joe, who is at work. He tells her he's been meaning to call and apologize, and then apologizes. Elizabeth is unconcerned about that, and asks if Joe has a date with Carolyn that night. No, Joe hasn't talked to Carolyn, but he's unsure about a lot of what happened last night, so maybe he does have a date with her.

Elizabeth asks if Bill is there. No, he isn't, he hasn't been in all day. Elizabeth then asks if Joe will come by and see her when he has a chance.

At the Evans house, Maggie is writing a note. Sam comes out of the bedroom area and pours himself a drink. He asks why Maggie isn't at work, and Maggie says she was just on her way, after she finished writing him a note. She was hoping he could sleep for a while.

Sleep it off, you mean, Sam says belligerently. It's not as easy as that.

What isn't? Maggie asks, and Sam says it's none of her concern. Maggie laughs at that, saying that it's the silliest thing he's ever said, that if it concerns him, it concerns her.

Maggie says she knows that. She even tried to call Roger. Do I even have to tell you how Sam reacted to this? Maggie tells him that Roger wouldn't even talk to her, and Sam says of course he wouldn't. Then he says that he's told Maggie to stay out of this, and that her prying is going to be the death of him--and he means that literally. For all he knows, she may have signed his death warrant!

When Maggie tries to say something, Sam tells her not to argue with him, then he tells her to go back to her job and her fancy restaurant [really?] and leave him in peace!

Maggie starts to say she can't leave him, but Sam tells her to do as he says or so help him--

Maggie agrees, she's going. As she's walking out the door she tells him to remember he's all she has.

When she's gone, Sam locks the door.

And a good thing, because Roger shows up to pound on the door. Sam has been sleeping and comes to talk to Roger through the door. What does he want?

Roger calls Sam an idiot and tells him he wants to talk to him. Sam unlocks the door and Roger comes in, asking if Sam's phone is in order.

Sam says that's not why he's there, and Roger agrees, but when they were talking earlier, they were somehow disconnected, and when he called back, there was no answer. So Roger assumed that the phone was out of order. [Because while a Collins may hang up on an Evans, an Evans would never dream of hanging up on a Collins.]

Sam's answer to this is to pour himself another drink, but Roger takes it away from him. He wants Sam to tell him exactly what he said to Bill Malloy last night. [Last night? Wasn't it just earlier this morning, after Burke's sitting? This day is going very slowly.]

Sam repeats that he doesn't remember. Roger asks if Sam talked to anyone else, and Sam says that Roger doesn't think much of him, and takes back his glass. Roger concurs with this. Sam says something that sounds like "What we think of each other is infantly less than we deserve," but I think he meant infinitely. But Roger got him into this.

No, his greed did. And now that he's in, Sam has to stay in.

Sam wants to know why Bill wants information from him, but Roger doesn't think that's important. The only thing that's important is that Sam not give him any. Sam's sure he didn't tell him anything.

Well, what did he tell Maggie? Sam didn't tell Maggie anything. Then why did she call Roger at his house? Sam doesn't know. Maggie just told him she'd called Roger, but Roger wouldn't talk to her.

Why should he, unless Maggie has information to sell? Sam says she doesn't know anything, she's just trying to find out what's wrong.

Well, in that case she's even more naive than she looks.

Sam agonizes over how he nearly hit Maggie, trying to get through to Roger how desperate he is. Roger, however, thinks it would be an excellent idea. [You're a real mensch, Roger, a real human being.]

This seems to turn a tide for Sam. He tells Roger that he didn't believe he could hate anyone as much as he does Roger. Roger says the feeling is mutual, but there's nothing they can do about it.

Then Roger says he's not going to be dragged down by Sam. Sam says that he thought there was nothing they could do about it. Roger says that maybe he'll think of something.

When Roger is gone, Sam has another drink and says that maybe he'll think of something, too.

Elizabeth is trying to get a hold of Ned Calder again when Victoria comes in. She apologizes for interrupting, and says she's going into town. Elizabeth asks how she's going to get there, and Victoria says she's going to walk, the exercise will do her good. Then she says that she doesn't see why Elizabeth doesn't-- And then she apologizes.

Elizabeth says she must seem odd to Victoria. Victoria diplomatically says that it's entirely Elizabeth's business what she does, and after a moment Elizabeth agrees that it is. She asks Victoria to have Carolyn call her, if she sees her, and Victoria leaves.

This time Elizabeth closes the drawing room doors before she makes her call. She speaks to Ned Calder's secretary, and wants to know if he's planning on coming to see her. No, he's not. Elizabeth asks for him to please call her when he gets back.

During her conversation there's been a pounding on the front door, and when Elizabeth goes to answer it, Sam Evans is there.