271 - Like a flash of lightning in a sudden summer storm, the truth is about to strike with its fiery force, into the confines of Collinwood, shattering the uneasy calm that precedes it, and sending its thunders to shake the foundations of the ancient house. And only time will tell whether this frightful glare has come to illuminate--or to destroy.
Everyone was absolutely stunned at Liz' revelation.
Jason protests to those assembled that Liz is sick, insane, hysterical. Carolyn, in disbelief, can't believe what her mother had said (although Miss Stoddard herself was ready to commit murder, and Liz saved his miserable life with her confession). Vicki urges Liz to tell the entire story, but Roger wants to call in Frank Garner before his sister utters another word. Paul insists Liz needs a doctor, not a lawyer, she's ill! Liz insists on telling the whole story, particularly to her daughter. Judge Crathorne wisely departs, since he might well be sitting in on this criminal case and asks Liz to let him know if there's anything he can do to help. Carolyn, devastated, confesses that she was going to kill Jason.
The latter says he hasn't done anything wrong, and refuses to stick around and listen to what he calls "absurdities." Burke retrieves Carolyn's fallen gun and points it at Jason, forcing him to stick around. Liz reveals to everyone that Vicki knew her secret, pissing off Roger, who believes Vicki had no right to keep it to herself. I swore Vicki to secrecy, says Liz--I'd have denied it.
Liz describes the stormy night in 1949, 18 years ago, when Paul Stoddard was leaving her--and taking a big chunk of Carolyn's inheritance with him, and Jason has prepared papers that falsely showed it all was rightfully Paul's. Stoddard was mocking Liz with his laughter, and said he damn well would take the money and run, and that his pal, Jason McGuire, would fence/liquidate the items he'd stolen from Collinwood's safe. Cruel, dastardly Paul (how could she have loved such a man?) told Liz he WAS going, and that she looked ridiculous brandishing the poker at him,
she said he wasn't, and to prove it, she conked him over the head with a fireplace iron, knocking him to the ground unconscious, blood pouring from his head. Liz was so horrified, she just stood there, begging the empty room for help. Jason showed up, checked on Paul (with Liz cowering out in the foyer), and declared him dead--no need for her to go in there, there's nothing for her to see--and no need to call the police, as she asked him to do.
He assured her that, for Carolyn's sake (the bastard), he would bury the body in a trunk in the basement, and she would have to stand guard from then on to make sure no one found out (explaining her 18 year self-imprisonment; as the keeper of the key to the crime, she had to stick around and protect it). He poured ink on the bloodstains in the rug to hide them. He presented poor Liz with the key, and she took it into her hand and knew she would forever be a prisoner at Collinwood. Jason reminds her that she must remember that HE helped her, that's the important thing.
This sad scene was truly monstrous for those who already know what we'll learn tomorrow.
NOTES: Wonderful ep, wasn't it, despite there being no Barnabas. Why wasn't he invited to the wedding? He is family, and it was an evening wedding.
272 - A desperate secret long held has finally been revealed at Collinwood, and the truth, cutting back across time, has seared the heart and stunned the mind, opening ancient wounds that seem beyond the cure of time and truth. And before she can be free, one woman is forced to live again the fatal moments that cursed her life and closed her heart around the festering secret.
Jason steadfastly maintains his innocence, insisting no one will find anything in the basement. Liz wants to call in Sheriff Patterson, but Roger is against it. I want to be free even if I have to go to prison, says Liz. Liz phones Patterson--there's been a murder, she says, come over right away. Jason knocks the gun from Burke's hand and rushes out the door. Burke and Roger grabs guns and give chase.
Jason tries to hide in the woods.
Roger, searching beside Burke, claims he's going to shoot Jason on sight. Burke, recalling other incidents with Roger and guns, quips, "If you decide to start shooting, just be sure it isn't me." Jason has, however, eluded them.
Drawing room - Carolyn can't bring herself to look at her mother--she has waited all these years for her father to come home, not knowing he was dead; she'd stood by his grave and didn't know it, and he was locked away in that room!
Not alone, says Liz forlornly--I can't tell you how many times I went down there, horrified--I knew my tears were useless. That sobbing I heard, recalls Vicki. Yes, that was me, admits Liz--foolish, worthless tears. After waiting so many years for her father to come back, wails Carolyn, there's no longer anything to wait for! When she is able to bring herself to look upon her mother, Carolyn screams and runs from the room.
Patterson, having been told the story, insists that they will have to dig up the body. Burke comes in and tells them the police have Jason cornered in the woods. Liz takes the key from around her neck and gives it to the sheriff.
Basement - Burke and the sheriff, holding flashlight, go down into the locked room, where Patterson turns on the overhead light. Burke assures the sheriff he'll help him dig, commenting, "I was always sure I wanted Liz destroyed in some way--now I know it isn't what I wanted at all."
Patterson says he isn't even sure the body is there.
Back in the drawing room, Liz tells Vicki she feels a trembling, as if the house were being shaken to its very foundation.
Bring Carolyn to me, begs Liz, but Vicki has already searched everywhere, but can't find her.
Down in the basement, Burke and the sheriff have just about given up when Burke's shovel strikes something solid--the trunk!
NOTES: One always got the impression that Burke wanted to destroy Liz himself, but now he has no interest in it. Funny how quickly a man can change, LOL.
Liz is now ready to face whatever she must, and she waits upstairs, feeling the psychic vibrations of the two men below her, digging up the husband she murdered--or did she? Jason is vehement--it didn't happen that way, but he escaped before he could explain. Now that the cops have him cornered, what will he say? Has he been duping Liz all this time, letting her live in ignorance as a prisoner all these years, keeping that dratted key around her neck?
Carolyn has every right to be upset--her mother allowed her to wait for her father to come home, keeping this huge secret from her for all these years. Will she ever be able to forgive Liz for this deception, for this murder?
What's Paul going to look like after all these years in that trunk?
Love, Robin
