ATWT: Villains and Vixens Disc 4

In this entry, I am going to write about my thoughts on the fourth disc of soapclassics.com As the World Turns release.

Episode One: November 7, 1985

In this episode, gothic action was on display as much of it took place at Duncan’s (Michael Swan) mansion on the island. Brian (Mark Pinter) goes into the castle and finds Beatrice (Ashley Crow, from various shows including Heroes). She’s reliving the loss of her fiancé Thomas. Brian tells her about what is going on with Hensley and is freaked out wanting Mrs. Benchley. Margo (Hillary Bailey Smith) is extremely pregnant and in the tunnels. She finds the dead Mrs. Benchley. Hensley goes to shoot her, but is rescued before she dies. Margo is rushed to shore, as John (Larry Bryggman), and her mother Lyla (Anna Sward) among others look on with worry and shock as James Stenbeck (Anthony Herrera) is with her. Earlier in the episode, Barbara (Colleen Zenk) freaks out when James Stenbeck (Anthony Herrera) tells her that he hadn’t died after falling out of a plane as he had a parachute. He had amnesia and lived in Scotland working for Hensley. She worries that he is going to poison her as Hensley tried to kill her. Hensley had been shot and now he wanted to blow up the castle. When James finds out Margo is in the tunnels, he goes after her and Duncan shows up comforting Barbara. There is flooding in the tunnels. The rest of the characters spent their time at Mona Lisa’s. Lyla sings “Dream” which was written by Johnny Mercer. Craig (Scott Bryce) and Betsy (Lindsay Frost) went out to dinner, but Steve (Frank Runyeon) showed up and paid for his wife’s meal instead. Lisa (Eileen Fulton), Shannon (Margaret Reed) and Seth (Steve Bassett) talk about what is going on at the castle, as Duncan is missing and so is Margo. Duncan ends up at the restaurant, but once he hears that Barbara is at the castle he leaves. There is a flashback montage as Craig thinks about Sierra (Finn Carter, who does not appear in this episode.) One of the guys who was in prison with Craig comes to the restaurant, hits on Lyla and thrown out of there. John and Emma (Kathleen Widdoes) are together at dinner and he talks about liking the song Lyla performed. This episode has full opening and closing credits.

Episode Two: March 20, 1987

This episode starts during Brian and Beatrice’s wedding reception at Mulligan’s. Beatrice has already left and the place was deserted. Brian says goodbye to Lisa, and how much she means to him. Beatrice comes back to say goodbye and Shannon gives her Potluck the dog (though we do not see the dog). Lyla tells Casey (Bill Shanks) and Craig that Bob was supportive of their relationship. They talked about the Mona Lisa dinner and later at the club Lyla dedicates the song “Until You” to Casey. Earl and Lisa were together at this time. Shannon flirts with Dusty, and if they were closer in age, they could be together. Tonio (Peter Boynton) goes to a nursing home, to speak to the widow of Clifford Breyer. Her husband was an adoption attorney that was murdered. The widow told Tonio that she recalled Martin Guest as his death was a suicide. Josh (who they know as Rod), Sierra and Betsy talk at Mulligan’s. Lucinda and John have a hot tub adventure, and get married off screen. Emma gets a huge shock when she goes to see John. Craig and Tonio have words about Iva. Emma, Sierra, Betsy, Iva (Lisa Brown), Meg, and Craig have dinner together at the Mona Lisa. Lisa and Earl speak with Shannon and Dusty. On the airplane, Brian and Beatrice are going to their first honeymoon location, which he has kept a secret. At the front door of a home, Beatrice is introduced to her mother Mary Callahan. John lied for years about Kim’s baby (Sabrina) being stillborn. Emma goes to tell John, that she believed him. Then Lucinda comes down the stairs in her robe, and tells Emma she’s Mrs. John Dixon. This episode has an announcement from Dan Region declaring that the following week ATWT will be on 30 minutes later. This episode has full opening and closing credits.

Episode Three: May 14, 1981

In this episode, Kim (Kathryn Hays) and Nick (Michael Forest) have a dinner party at the restaurant The Plakka (not sure on the spelling). Kim calls everyone in town to come to eat on them. John is blind and is fighting with Kim about Andy. He decided to go and make Margo (Margaret Colin) go with him as the Stenbecks were invited. At this point, Margo was having an affair with James. John and Margo had only recently found out they were parent and child. Lyla had to admit it due to John being tried for raping Dee, which destroyed her engagement to Bob (Don Hastings). In this particular episode, Bob asked her to go to the restaurant with him, but she said no. This episode does not have opening credits. There were also scenes with Connie Wilson and her niece Hayley (Dana Delaney), as she was in charge of Hayley’s trust fund. Tom (Justin Deas) and Dee spoke, and Brad became jealous. They were talking about the Holister deal, and planned to go out later as friends. The other story had to do with the Natalie (Janet Zarish) and how she wanted to see her child that was being raised by Carol (who was married to Steve at this time.) Natalie asked Sophia (Robin Leary) to babysit little Amy, and then Sophia could be in the movie. That night, Sophia decided to go to the restaurant instead with Cody. Lucy was a writer who was changing the script of the movie. She also was seeing John to write a book on his life. He had no idea about this and thought she was just being his friend. Lucy felt guilty, told John everything, but was rewarded by John throwing her out of his home. Also shown were Annie and Lisa talking about Annie taking over the gift shop at the hospital. Annie had given up her medical dreams after having a miscarriage. The episode ended with John chasing Margo up the stairs to get her ring, and him falling. This episode did not have opening or closing credits.

Episode Four: March 15, 1996

This episode had Cal (Patrick Tovatt) on the operating table as Connor (Allyson Rice-Taylor) made a vow to stop her feelings about Mark Casnoff (Alexander Walters). Mark overheard her pleas, but did not agree with them. Cal’s family including Lily was hoping he would survive surgery. The main story was John destroying Lisa and humiliating her publicly. Lisa went after John for malpractice due to Eduardo’s death, but now she was going to pay for it. Instead of an event that promoted her it destroyed her. He faked a romantic interest in her and then broke up with her in front of the entire town. Most of the town was at the event watching John's speech. Rosanna (Yvonne Perry) and Mike (Shawn Christian) spoke outside of the event. He apologized to her due to bribing Carly. Sam (Brooke Alexander) stayed home, due to her blindness. Someone broke in, but she was saved by Diego.

Episode Five: July 22, 2002

In this episode, Barbara Ryan is about to stand trial for the kidnapping of Rose (Martha Byrne), Carly (Maura West) and Emily (Kelley Menighan-Hensley). This was part of the plot where scientific experiments were done on them, and was ATWT’s way of dealing with their maternity leaves. Barbara has a horrid fantasy about being burned at the stake for what happened. There is even a “hello Barbara” tossed in for good measure, and James makes a cameo. Lisa, Bob and Kim are all supposed to be in court, but we only see them in the fantasy and with Carly and Jack prior to the proceedings. Marshall (Lamar Rucker) is representing Barbara and Jessica (Tamara Tunie) is prosecuting the case. The other story has Holden going around Oakdale trying to find his son Aaron, who has gone missing. We also see Lucy (Peyton List) and Alison (Jessica Dunphy) talk about Aaron. Holden gets a phone call from Molly (Lesli Kay) about Abigail (Kristina Sisto) being upset with her. Molly was mourning Jake, but Abigail came in to find her mother with Mike (Mark Collier). Holden told Abigail to give her mother a chance. This episode had full opening and closing credits.

That’s my summary of the fourth disc of the ATWT set. This had a few performers that were not on earlier ones that I appreciated as some 80s characters before and after the Snyders were introduced has focus.