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written by Margaret Royal

Love, Lies and Voldemort

The Lianca Recaps

Tuesday, October 7, 2003

Episode summary: Bianca and Lena talk honestly and meaningfully until Lena makes the unwittingly disastrous move of approving of the abortion; Bianca makes an announcement at PVU about Michael and her rape; Kendall enlists a cranky Lena's help to take down Ryan.

Ah, Maggie's room and the Fishtank of Angst. Bianca stares at the unusually silent aquarium. "Bianca, whatever it is, you have to tell me," Lena says urgently. Binks turns around. "I thought that I could do this," she says, and absently palms her stomach. "Okay, let me do it for you," Lena replies, putting her hand on her hip. "You want to tell me that there's no chance that you and I will ever be together again." Binks whirls: "No, Lena, that's not it! I don't wanna give up on us." Lena is, obviously, enormously relieved, and tells Binks that if that's the case, if she still has hope for them, then whatever she's worried about telling Lena they can deal with together. "I don't know if we can," Binks replies firmly. "Bianca," Lena begins, "look what you've survived. Look how strong you've been. Fighting to put everything that Michael did to you behind you." Binks isn't sure she can "every really do that." "I know," Lena says, "I know you can't erase the past, and I know that your memories will always be a part of you, but I hope that I too am now part of you . . ." Binks turns away, perhaps freaked out by the bizarre symbolism, what with her current "state." A little quavery, she tells Lena that there's more that she doesn't know—"a lot more. When Michael—" she can't bring herself to say it, and turns back to Lena. ". . . He got me pregnant." Lena tsks. "My sweet love, I know. When I heard, I wanted so much to be near you—" Hee, poor frickin' HPF. Whoever said it on TWoP that we're back to the days of Screwed!Lena was dead on the money. Bianca freaks out, wondering who else knows. "Nobody knows," Lena says, trying to reassure her. "I don't understand, Maggie said she wasn't gonna tell a soul," Binks protests. Lena assures her Maggie didn't tell anyone; she just overheard them one night at the boathouse, when they were swimming. Hee, Binks is still freaking: "I don't—okay, wait, what, were you stalking me, were you spying on me?" If you only knew, Binky. If you only knew to what extent your Fox was character-assassinated behind closed plywood doors. Well, you'd never know anyway, because you were assassinated, too.

Lena promises that her eavesdropping was "just a coincidence. I'd simply taken to going to the boathouse, almost every night." "Why?" says Binks. "To be closer to you," Lena offers, a little ashamed. "You told me once it was your safe haven. It became mine too." Binks is calmer now, and regroups. "So all this time you knew about the baby, and you didn't say a word?" Lena replies that she couldn't; she didn't think it was her place, "and . . . I was too afraid . . ." "You were afraid?" Binks says. She actually looks kind of amused, maybe relieved. "You were afraid of me?" "Well, I was afraid that you might hate me. For what Michael did to you, getting you pregnant, the whole thing," Lena shrugs. Bianca guesses that Lena overheard what Maggie said, and the Fox confesses, looking down at her hands, that that's when she left. Binks rolls her eyes and smiles. "I wish you hadn't. Because if you had stayed, you would have heard me telling Maggie that I don't blame you for any of this; I never have." Yeah, she heard some of that, though. "Bianca, I blame myself, okay," Lena says, "I can only imagine . . . how terrified, how alone you must have felt, terminating the pregnancy." Binks rolls her eyes again, this time looking ill. "It was the longest day of my life," she mutters. The day before was pretty long, too. We saw that tank top for, what, seven episodes? Lena apologizes and tells Bianca she doesn't have to talk about it now; "I don't want you to have to relive it all over again." Binks turns again and tells her that she doesn't understand. "The choice that I made on that day is something that I have to live with for the rest of my life." Commercials.

Lena apologizes again: "I don't mean to downplay what you've been through; you don't terminate a pregnancy and then go on as if nothing had hhheppened." Yesss! It's been a while since we've had any Hot Polish Gems from the Hot Polish Fox. Binks replies, wiping her nose, that that's not it; "it that . . . this decision was so huge, it was, it was overwhelming, it was—having a baby, alone at my age, is not something that I never imagined." "Bianca," Lena chuckles sympathetically, "is this what you've been afraid to tell me? Because, w-what, because you thought I'd disapprove?" Binks smiles hesitantly, and looks a little relieved as the Fox continues: "Bianca, I don't! I believe with everything that's in me that you did the right thing!" Uh-oh, here it comes. Bianca's expression completely changes as ScrewedAThousandTimes!Lena declares, "You had to terminate the pregnancy; there was no other choice! My God, you know better than anyone, Michael was a sick, twisted monster; there's no way on this earth you could have had his baby!" Bianca blinks back tears and looks miserable.

Lena stands looking out of Maggie's venetian blinds before turning back to regard Bianca. She apologizes for upsetting Binks with "all this talk about Michael and the baby," and sits down next to her. Binks claims to be fine. "Are you sure?" Lena asks. She's sure. Lena grasps her hand and tells her that "it feels so right" to be with her, talking again (although, when did they ever do a lot of talking?), and proposes to take her somewhere for dinner, "somewhere quiet." Binks withdraws her hand and quietly says that she doesn't think she can right now. They sit quietly for a moment. Lena puts her arm behind Bianca, which makes them look as though they're sitting closer than they really are. Good one, Olga. "You said you still had hope for us," Lena says, "and, look, here we are, talking to each other, and reaching out to each other; I just hope that this can be a new beginning for us, you know, a way for us to keep open to one another." Binks sighs and says that she just doesn't know; "I can't promise anything, okay, Lena, please don't put pressure on me right now." Doh. The Fox looks sad, but understands. "No, of course. Bianca, that's the last thing I want, I promise." She takes her arm away and puts her hands back in her lap. They sit awkwardly again, and she sighs, and Binks takes in some air as if to change the subject or end the conversation, but Lena adds something else: "Okay, look. Just remember that I love you." Binks raises her eyes and looks back at her. "Hold onto that." Binks stares at her, and Lena rises, takes her purse, and leaves. Once the door is closed, Bianca's face crumples.

Out in the rec area or whatever it is, Maggie's sitting looking at a textbook when a pair of hands come up behind her and snap the book shut. "Study break," Aidan says. Mags asks him to "please tell [her] [he] know[s] something about double helix." "You've gotta be joking; that's not my subject," Aidan duhs. Hee. Word, Aidan. Maggie takes this moment to realize that it's not normal for Aidan to be mixing it up with extended adolescents and wonders what he's doing at PVU. She's also curious what he's been up to, since it's been a while since she's seen him. "My life's been a bit hectic since Cambias turned up dead," he replies. Mags doesn't want to "talk about that creep," but, actually, Aidan is "quite curious to get [her] take on the murder." She looks freaked, then tweaks an eyebrow and lowers her gaze.

At that moment, Bianca enters the rec area and goes over to a bulletin board, where she begins to notice three chicks in the background staring and whispering. They walk towards her and out of the frame, and she turns back to the board, then has second thoughts. She goes over to where they've arranged themselves on some common room furniture and asks if they have a problem. "We all heard what . . . supposedly happened to you," says The Blonde Leader. "Supposedly?" Binks says. The Blonde Leader grins. "It's only natural for us to wonder what really went down?" Binks declares that she'd be happy to fill them in on it and, raising her voice, says they "can all take notes." She climbs up onto a bench or something and puts her hand in the air: "I wanna see a show of hands. Who here wants to know the truth about Michael Cambias?" The extras mutter, Maggie looks stunned, and Aidan looks surprised and maybe a little embarrassed for Binks. Commercials.

So, Bianca is grandstanding. She tells the room that she thought no one would "make a big deal" about the rape, but it seems she was mistaken, so she wants to "clear up any confusions" that they might have. She steps down onto floor level again. "Was that girl really raped? I mean, if she's telling the truth, why didn't Michael Cambias go to trial? Is Erica Kane's spoiled kid making the whole thing up for attention? Well, the answer is no. I was raped." Some randos from "yesterday," including Annoying Term Paper Guy, look around stunned. "And at the time I thought that it was the end of the world; but thanks to the love and support of my family and friends, I am surviving." Aidan is having trouble looking at her, and leans his brow on his hand. I am surviving memories of the torture that he put me to, and now I am surviving the snickers and the comments behind my back and the way that people look at me like I'm the one who did something wrong." Blondie won't look at her, either, when Binks looks back at her, but she seems pissed, not embarrassed like Aidan. "You know, and I've heard a lot of women, who deny it when other women say that they were raped, because it makes them feel safer. They just can't bear to admit that this could possibly happen—unless you were asking for it." They do? I guess some of them do. "Well I didn't ask for it. And the only people that you protect by thinking that way are the rapists. Michael Cambias was one of those sick, perverted rapists, and as far as I'm concerned, he got exactly what he deserved. And am I happy? That Michael Cambias is dead. That would be a yes." Aw, shit, somebody's gonna be a murder suspect, y'all. Binks turns one way and then another: "Any questions? Comments?" Blondie rearranges her binder and looks either pissed or ashamed; it's hard to tell and doesn't really matter. The camera pans across the rec room (and Regina's there! Regina from Orgo Scandal '03!), and, I shit you not, this is what happens:

Maggie stands. She puts her hands together. What is that she's doing? OHMYGODIT'SASLOWCLAP. Noooooooo. Not the slowclap! Everyone joins in. Who writes this bullshit? I can't think of a single college student who would initiate or participate in a slowclap except ironically—to make fun of somebody. "We believe you, Bianca," says Regina.

Bianca is suddenly self-conscious, smiles an embarrassed smile, and retreats to the bulletin board as the applause dies down. Thinking she should go talk to Binks, Maggie asks Aidan to chill with her bio textbook and approaches the woman of the hour. "Are you okay?" she asks. Binks doesn't know. Maggie wonders what just happened, and Binks doesn't know either. "Just a rage of hormones, or . . . did things not go too well with you and Lena?" Well, that's the first thing that would occur to me, too. Whenever I have a bad conversation with anybody, the first thing I feel like doing is publicly grandstanding about people's reactions to my sexual trauma. Binks reveals that things went okay with Lena until the Fox told her she did "the only thing [she] possibly could have by having the abortion." "Whoa," Maggie replies. "I bet it blew her away when you told her you were still having the baby. Didn't it? Eeeee hee hee heeee, and now you are mine, all mine: BAM BFF!!!! [thunder and lightning]" No, Binks explains, she couldn't tell her, because Lena said that there was no possible way she could have Michael Cambias's kid. "Do you believe that now, too?" VoiceofReason!Mags asks hesitantly. "You know, it's not too late. If you change your mind." Bianca looks unsettled.

Kendall stalks into her office and yells Lena's name. Oooo, I like this scene already. "No need to shout, I'm right here," says the HPF, carrying a file folder and following her in. Kendall wonders what her problem is, and she replies that it's "nothing, just one of those cosmic jokes without a punchline." Amen, sister. Kendall tells her to "get over it and roll up [her] sleeves," because they've got work: she needs "a dirty trick." Lena's totally up for it: "What do you have in mind?" Kendall wants to find a way to stop Ryan's claim on her companies, so Lena suggests the obvious nasty, a court fight. Kendall wants something quicker, though, and Lena plays possum, which pisses off her boss. "Uch, lose the kid gloves, Lena, I know you worked with Michael Cambias. I know how down and dirty you can go." Why does she need to supply the last name? They both know who he is. They both slept with him. And Kendall's married to him. Whatever. Lena is definitely not into that idea, "not anymore." "Um, excuse me," Kendall says, tapping on the desk with her pen, "I saved your life. You owe me." Lena flatly refuses, saying she won't "stoop that low again," but Kendall clarifies: "I'm not asking you to sleep with anybody. I need boardroom, not bedroom tricks." Lena finally gets it, and is relieved, but covers: "Oh. Bluntly stated." "Yeah, well, I don't have time for sensitive," Kendall replies. "I have to bring Ryan down, and it has to happen fast." Okay, Lendall? Freakin' rocks.

Back at PVU, Maggie asks Bianca if she's having second thoughts, but Binks swears she's not: "I'm not gonna change my mind because of what Lena feels; I'm gonna have this baby, and I'll just . . . do it on my own." Maggie asks if she's sure, and Binks says she is: "I mean, Lena made herself pretty clear." "I'm really sorry," Maggie lies. Binks is, too. "I mean, I'm just beginning to see how difficult this is all gonna be." Maggie tells her that at least she won't be "going at it" by herself. Binks tries to say that she won't hold Maggie to any promises. "Stop. You are not getting rid of me," Maggie BAM BFFs. Binks thanks her and gives her a hug.

Aidan walks over to them and tells them that they're "so gorgeous when [they]'re smiling," and Bianca thanks him and apologizes for "that tirade earlier." Aidan demurs; he thinks she was "amazing," which is funny because he looked embarrassed the whole time. "I was loud," Binks says. Well, he thinks everybody got the message. "Michael Cambias hasn't beaten you down." Binks smiles and looks back at Maggie.

Kendall declares hotly that Ryan "is not going to beat [her] down; [she] will not be a two-time loser." She's enraged that Ryan would leave town, break their engagement, and come back "and steal me blind. Think, Lena, think, how can we stop him?" Lena's got an idea—"but it's risky." Kendall's all "bring on the risk!" She wants to "hit Ryan where it hurts him the most." Don't go for his balls, girl—I kind of get the impression from his speaking voice that they've already been compromised.

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