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written by Margaret Royal

Love, Lies and Voldemort

The Lianca Recaps

Wednesday, August 13, 2003

Outside Michael's condo, Kendall beats on the door and screams at Michael to tell her whether he raped Bianca: "I swear to God, if you touched her, I will kill you—I will kill you, did you hear me!" Suddenly Aidan is there, concerned and trying to get her away from the door. She resists him, turning back to bang on the side of the building. "Hurt me, Michael," she sobs hoarsely, "I'm the one you should hurt, I'm the one you should hurt, me—hurt me, Michael, I'm the one you should hurt!" Very very soapy, and yet Alicia Minshew can pull it off like no other.

At Erica's penthouse, Erica and Bianca still embrace in a ball on the floor. Erica, weeping and petting Bianca's hair, says, "Dear God, please help us." Binks whimpers. Pan out to show candles on the coffee table. Commercials.

With a candle in the foreground, Erica continues to pet Bianca's hair and tells her that it's good to cry, that she should "get it out," and that she's safe now. Thunder rumbles outside, and Bianca groans. Erica reassures her that the storm is over. Whoa, I think an anvil just went through my floor. And I believe those are tears under La Lucci's eyes! Wow. As much as the whole storyline sucks, as the character assassinations and stretching of logic in service of ludicrous plot points have sucked, and some of the recent dialogue has been the bad kind of soaptastic, the performances from the women at its center have been stellar, every day. To wit, the tears under Lucci's eyes. That does not happen every day that it's supposed to (although, in her defense, Lucci is not as obvious a crier as some; her nose tends to get red a lot without visible tears). But tears aside, too, Erica has been very tender with Bianca, and as unreal, crazy, and narcissistic as Erica is, Lucci's performance has really made it palpable that she's a mother, too, who wants to comfort her daughter. Wiping Bianca's tears, Erica tells her that it's late, and she should put her to bed. Bianca looks fearful, so Erica says she'll stay with her. Binks nods. They stand up and walk out of the living room into an area that I, at least, have never seen—it's an anteroom to the bedroom, and it's shot, oddly, from a camera on the floor.

In the condo courtyard, Aidan guides Kendall away from Michael's door across to her own, to get her inside. Just a thought: what was Michael doing the whole time Kendall was banging on his door and screaming at him to admit that he had raped her sister? Was he laughing? Screaming back? Calling the police? Turning up his stereo really loud? I wonder. Kaidan make it inside Kendall's apartment, and he has her sit down. Kendall tries to get up, saying she "has to" do something, but he blocks her, begins drying her off with a small towel, and asks her to tell him what happened. He wonders if Michael found out about their B&E at his condo. No, she says, looking wrecked. Getting grimmer, he asks if Michael did something to her. "It should have been me, Aidan," Kendall says. "I should have been the one that he hurt." Aidan tells her she's not making sense and wonders if she went to see Michael. Crying, Kendall stands up and says that she "brought him here," that "it's [her] fault, and now [her] sister has been hurt." With Aidan completely confused, she prays that it isn't true, but stops suddenly when she looks down at her arm and realizes that "it's still there." She says urgently that she has to "wash where he touched [her]" and "get it off of [her] now" and stumbles into the bathroom. Aidan is completely befuddled. The camera pans to the window, where Michael stands looking in through the blinds as lightning flashes. And now there's a big American flag behind him. I don't know if that's supposed to mean something or what.

Michael once again steps close to Kendall's window as, inside, Aidan pours some tea out into mugs. Kendall steps out in a bathrobe and fuzzy slippers. Hee hee. She's calmer now, looking more stunned, but definitely not agitated. Aidan hands her a mug and asks if she wants to "talk about it." She doesn't. He asks if Erica did something, and she replies that "Erica didn't do anything—it's what she said." She hesitates to go on, but Aidan gently says that she can tell him. Awww. Feel the Kaidan love. Kendall starts to say something about Michael, but stops and says that "it's happening all over again" and that "it's all [her] fault." Aidan wants to know. "I can't even say it," Kendall replies. "Of course you can, it's me, Kendall," he says. She tries again, getting choked up: "I think that Michael . . . I think he . . . he raped Bianca." Aidan's face clouds. "Sick bastard," he says, and starts toward the door. Kendall cries for him to wait.

At the penthouse, Erica leads Bianca over to a bed piled with pillows. The lightning is still making Binks jittery. Erica throws some pillows to the end of the bed, pulls back the duvet, and allows Binks to get in. "Better?" she says, stroking her hair. Bianca nods. Erica sits down on the bed. "Bianca," she says, "I am so glad you told me what happened. You did the right thing. Everything's gonna be all right now, honey." Binks tries to say something, but Erica tells her to wait until tomorrow, because there will be enough time then "to figure out what [they]'re gonna do next." She pours Bianca a glass of water and gives it to her. When Binks is finished, she tells her to go to sleep and that she'll be right next to her and that she should just ask if she needs anything. Binks looks at her with brimming eyes. Poor B. "Mom," she says. Erica thinks maybe she wants some tea? Binks tries again. "You're not . . ." "What?" "You're not mad at me." Fade to commercials on Erica's stunned, sad face.

OMG, it's a new PSA. This is the third airing of a PSA since Voldemort, but it's the second actual A. This is all Susan Lucci, with a Kendall perm, I think in the dress she wore to Jackson's earlier "today." She basically says the same thing as the Eden PSA, except for the part about not trying "to go it alone like Bianca." The number and web address for RAINN are on the screen. Coincidentally, this appears during the same commercial break in which airs a local New Orleans PSA in which kids tell other kids about a hotline they can call if they're being sexually abused. I see that commercial all the time when AMC comes on. And yet this show has aired rape awareness PSAs only three times in the month since Voldemort.

Erica emphatically tells Bianca that she's not mad at her, hugs her, tells her never even to think it, and kisses her hands. "You listen to me," she breathes. "Something terrible was done to you, but you have done nothing wrong. You are not to blame for this, sweetheart. There is nothing for you to feel guilty about. Do you understand?" Binks makes a swallowing noise as if she might want to say something, but can't. "You will understand, sweetheart, I promise you," Erica says, stroking her hair again. "And it may take a little time to get there, but we will get there. We will get there together. You and me and everyone who loves you." (Except Lena.) Eden Riegel is killing me. But right now, Erica says, Bianca should sleep. Binks opens her mouth again as if she might say something, but doesn't. She scoots further into bed and turns over on her side as Erica draws the covers over her and climbs up beside her. Erica strokes her hair quietly for a few moments and then begins singing "All the Pretty Little Horses." Or "Ponies." Bianca's eyes move rapidly and then close as a tear slides down her nose.

Bathrobe'n'Slippers!Kendall protests to Aidan not to go over to Michael's. Aidan is angry that Shitass hasn't been arrested yet, but Kendall tells him about Bianca not reporting the rape yet. Aidan wonders how Kendall is sure about it if Bianca hasn't told anyone; maybe there's a possibility it's not true. Kendall again supplies the evidence about the burnt clothes, the not eating, and the withdrawal; she's convinced that Michael "raped [her] sister and it's [her] fault." Aidan hotly tells her that it's not her fault, but Kendall thinks that she "pushed Michael too far too often." She had thought that she'd have a "wonderful new life" with Erica and Bianca, but instead she "dragged them all back into hell." Aidan tries to console her, but she won't be consoled. She thinks that Binks has been raped, and "Erica is reliving her worst nightmare," because of her. "I'm like this cancer in their lives!" Kendall thinks she put Bianca "in Michael's path" and that he chose Bianca because he wanted to get back at her. "And it was brilliant, wasn't it? It made me, the child of Erica's rape, responsible for Bianca's rape." Nope, not brilliant, Megan. Not brilliantly ironic. Not brilliantly tragic. Not tragically ironic. But what is tragic about it is how offensive and irreparably shitty this storyline it is. There's a knock at the door, and Aidan answers it angrily. It's Michael, who wonders if everything's all right—"I thought I heard a commotion."

Kendall demands that Michael leave, and he makes fun of her temper. Aidan threatens for him to "leave now before [he] kill[s] [him]." Michael sleazes that "that macho thing always worked on Kendall but, ah, not her sister." Aidan grabs Michael by the throat and squeezes. "There is nothing stopping me from snapping your neck," he growls. Kendall begs him to stop, so he lets go. Michael hoarsely tells Aidan to "ease up on that caffeine, limey." Aidan tells him to leave, and he protests that he simply came by to check up on Kendall after "that little episode"—he whistles and makes a "crazy" gesture. Kendall replies that he's the one who's "psycho," because he raped Bianca. Asswipe says that all the rape talk is becoming hurtful, that she would even think that he "would do such a thing." Kendall shouts that he raped Bianca and knows it. Michael reminds Kendall about slander laws "even in backwater burgs like Pine Valley." Aidan tells him he has five seconds to leave. Michael bids them good night and asks them to keep the noise down, since "some of us are trying to get some sleep." He winks. Aidan slams the door.

Inside, Kendall goes to the couch, sits down, and takes the Mona pearls (that Erica gave her to wear at the wedding) from the table. Aidan tells her that everything is going to be all right, but she doesn't think so. "What I've done . . . will kill Erica."

Bianca sleeps, as Erica keeps vigil next to her. She sighs and flashes back: to Bianca's birth, and Joe Martin telling her that the baby is fine; Travis says that she's perfect. Forward, to when Travis told her that Bianca started the fire that burned down their house. To having Dallas housewife hair and telling a gray-looking young teen Bianca how her illness "[had been] robbing [her] of [her] life, just as anorexia [was] robbing [Bianca] of [hers]." She tells Bianca that admitting that she had given over control to her illness was the first step towards getting better. Bianca, played by a horrible actress, says: "Mom, Uncle Jack, I have something I need to say. I'm . . . I have . . . I'm . . . an . . . anorexic." Forward again, to telling Eden!TallHair!Bianca that Travis had had a massive stroke, and Jack telling her that he didn't survive. Forward again, to Drama!Bianca asking her if she had always loved her. "How could you even ask me a question like that?" she says. Binks asks if she loves her now. "Do you?" "Yes," Erica gasps. Bianca: "I'm gay." Back in the present, Erica is crying again, leans over and kisses Binky's hair, and says her name. Commercials.

Kendall fingers the Mona pearls. "You know, when Erica gave me this," she says ruefully, "I thought I'd proven that I was finally the person she'd always wanted me to be. Someone she could love and trust." She tosses the necklace down. "Well I'm still me. And everything I touch turns to garbage." Aidan tells her that it's not true, and that Erica knows her, and knows Michael, and won't ever hold Kendall responsible for what Michael did to Bianca. Kendall says that she wants to believe it. "Well, I do," Aidan says. "And I'm a hard sell." "No, you're a total mush," Kendall smiles. "I don't know how I'd ever make it without you and . . . your tea." Comfort sex! Comfort sex! Dammit. Aidan tells her that "with or without [his] tea," she's a survivor, and so is Erica, and so is "[her] sister." Kendall says that she has to help them and make things right. We hear her go on as we now see Bianca sleeping, and Erica stroking her hair: "I'm responsible for what Michael did. And I'll be responsible for seeing him punished." Erica looks away and swallows.

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