Soap veteran Lisa Peluso, former stage child (Angela Lansbury's "Gypsy" on Broadway) went from searching for tomorrow for searching for a dashing daddy in this classic "Designing Women" episode. unfortunately, she lays her sights on the wrong man, in this case, Julia sugarbakers boyfriend, Reese Watson (Hal Holbrook), and this makes her ripe for terminating. Reese ends up on Julia's bad side when he ends up canceling several dates, taking depositions with the beautiful Shannon, his new (and very young) legal partner. There's a reason why all of Peluso's daytime characters were compared to a young Erica Kane, and here, she's twice the vixen and twice as daring as Erica could ever hope to be, especially taking on Julia.
The terrific thing about the character of Shannon is that she is blatantly honest with Julia, and that turns out to be her downfall, letting Reese know in uncertain terms that she wants to have an affair with him and then telling Julia that she plans to date Reese without subterfuge and hopes that they can be friends. Is this possible with Julia sugarbaker? Absolutely not! Julia gives her the biggest take down any other character, even The beauty Queen in an earlier season 1 episode of God, and she proves her class and elegance while doing it. It is obvious that Shannon will come out of this learning something, and she's gracious enough to admit defeat. That makes this episode picture perfect, one of the best episodes of the entire series.
The terrific thing about the character of Shannon is that she is blatantly honest with Julia, and that turns out to be her downfall, letting Reese know in uncertain terms that she wants to have an affair with him and then telling Julia that she plans to date Reese without subterfuge and hopes that they can be friends. Is this possible with Julia sugarbaker? Absolutely not! Julia gives her the biggest take down any other character, even The beauty Queen in an earlier season 1 episode of God, and she proves her class and elegance while doing it. It is obvious that Shannon will come out of this learning something, and she's gracious enough to admit defeat. That makes this episode picture perfect, one of the best episodes of the entire series.
