Enter Peter de Vilbis, the fourth major character to be introduced over the past three episodes. He joins Deborah Adair as Tracy, Michael Nader as Dex, and, while he didn't merit an opening title card, Jon Cypher as Dirk Maurier, Peter's attorney and confidant (in other words, Peter's answer to Blake's Andrew Laird).
It's a lot to take in! And the producers left us no time to fill in our scorecards. Tracy was right out of the gate resentful she was passed over for the plum position of PR director. Worse, her boss Blake gave the job to a rank amateur with no experience but who also happens to be the ex-wife he's desperately wooing back. Tracy has a right to be simmering, but having climbed to this rung of the corporate ladder she should know by now that nepotism outweighs experience and qualifications. It's true: It's not what you know but who you know.
In this episode Tracy gets to know someone who may propel her up a rung or two. Interestingly, she wasn't pursuing or looking to use Adam. He simply recognized naked ambition when he saw it in another person, it being the will to power that drives and consumes him. I credit Tracy for thinking fast on her feet, not rebuffing Adam's amorous advances but drawing some distinct boundaries. She's no fawning pushover and will be playing her cards judiciously and strategically. I was left wondering what Adam has to gain by an alliance with Tracy. Undermining Krystle out of spite or out of loyalty to his mother?
Dex sure came on strong, locking lips with Alexis after earlier throwing down the gauntlet with Blake. Talk about naked ambition. Dex was the sole Denver-Carrington director who wanted the merger with ColbyCo. Why? So Alexis' power would expand exponentially while Blake's would wither? (Dex is holding a vague grudge against Blake for supposedly reducing his ailing father to a sycophantic, rubber-stamping yes-man.) I can't imagine Dex's infatuation with Alexis is born of genuine passion. He and Alexis have an off-screen history that's only been hinted at thus far. He's another character irresistibly drawn to power and is already furiously jockeying for position in this increasingly crowded cast of corporate climbers. It's worth noting that while all the newly introduced characters will exit the stage relatively quickly, Dex will always be with us now, remaining through the series' end.
The producers did kindly telegraph in the episode titles the New Faces of '83. We had "Tracy" and "Dex" and now the more formal and fully named "Peter De Vilbis." It was quite a casting coup to land Helmut Berger, erstwhile star of art-house films like Visconti's descent into decadence THE DAMNED, the little-known Liz Taylor and Henry Fonda spaghetti drama ASH WEDNESDAY, and the notorious Nazisploitation nudie SALON KITTY. From his very first scene with Fallon, Berger as Peter elevated the show with his savoir faire and sophistication.
I was thoroughly enjoying Peter's appearance and marveling at how quickly he charmed the shirt right off Fallon's shoulders that I wished they waited until the next episode to reveal Peter's nothing but a cokehead grifter down six million dollars to a disreputable party impatient to collect. Worse, he brags to his attorney that he's using Fallon as a dupe to get his hands on Blake's billions. Wow, all that continental charm was but a thin veneer, a "whisper of vermouth," to quote Alexis.
Busy character actor Jon Cypher also made his series debut playing Peter's attorney Dirk E. Maurier (hmm, trying to evoke Daphne du Maurier?). He's more than just a lawyer, it appears, playing an anti-Andrew Laird, complicit with Peter's proposed plot to swindle Blake via Fallon's misplaced affections. Cypher as Maurier will be with the show for ten episodes, six this season with Peter, and another four in the seventh season. A character worth watching!
One character I've enjoyed watching is Mark Jennings, the poor man's Magnum, PI. All of a sudden he's Alexis' bodyguard and unceremoniously consigned to the downstairs room? I can't recall a scene of his resigning as La Mirage's tennis pro. Surely Fallon would protest his going on a professional level? And Mark was a fool to give up so lucrative a gig that came with luxurious room and board (not that Alexis' penthouse suite is a shotgun shack).
I was going to comment on the casting misstep that resulted in Krystle's ex-husband Mark being played by a man so much younger than she is. But fact-checking myself I was surprised to learn Geoffrey Scott was born in February 1942 and Linda Evans in November of '42. I took Evans to be closing in on or just north of 50 (and thus found it eyebrow-raising when she got pregnant a couple seasons ago), but in fact she was only 41 at the time of filming these episodes. Joan Collins (b. 1933) is nine years older than Evans, and Pamela Sue Martin (b. 1953) is only nine years younger than her stepmother. Krystle and Blake go together well and despite John Forsythe (b. 1918) having a whopping 24 years on Evans, they never appeared to me as a May-December romance.
A catastrophic casting misstep was writing out Lee Bergere as Joseph. More than a mere major domo, he was a fully developed character and a steadying component of the cast. I miss his imperturbable persona, especially when up against the vexing Alexis. Sorry, but the nondescript William Beckley as the indistinct Gerard is no Joseph.
Finally-- and I do mean finally--it comes out that Kirby is five months' pregnant and not three. An unhinged Jeff shakes a confession out of the shuddering child on verge of collapse. (I say "child" because Kirby again proved her immaturity when locking herself in the bathroom, pouting and butthurt after spying Jeff and Fallon idly chatting over cold cuts in the kitchen).
Kirby's keeping secret the rape and the fact her baby isn't Jeff's was a ticking time bomb, and I'm glad it finally detonated in the episode's closing moments. With a flurry of new characters and their burgeoning subplots, I appreciate the loose ends of old ones getting tied up. In this frantic and fast-developing fourth season one really can't tell the players and the plots without a scorecard!
It's a lot to take in! And the producers left us no time to fill in our scorecards. Tracy was right out of the gate resentful she was passed over for the plum position of PR director. Worse, her boss Blake gave the job to a rank amateur with no experience but who also happens to be the ex-wife he's desperately wooing back. Tracy has a right to be simmering, but having climbed to this rung of the corporate ladder she should know by now that nepotism outweighs experience and qualifications. It's true: It's not what you know but who you know.
In this episode Tracy gets to know someone who may propel her up a rung or two. Interestingly, she wasn't pursuing or looking to use Adam. He simply recognized naked ambition when he saw it in another person, it being the will to power that drives and consumes him. I credit Tracy for thinking fast on her feet, not rebuffing Adam's amorous advances but drawing some distinct boundaries. She's no fawning pushover and will be playing her cards judiciously and strategically. I was left wondering what Adam has to gain by an alliance with Tracy. Undermining Krystle out of spite or out of loyalty to his mother?
Dex sure came on strong, locking lips with Alexis after earlier throwing down the gauntlet with Blake. Talk about naked ambition. Dex was the sole Denver-Carrington director who wanted the merger with ColbyCo. Why? So Alexis' power would expand exponentially while Blake's would wither? (Dex is holding a vague grudge against Blake for supposedly reducing his ailing father to a sycophantic, rubber-stamping yes-man.) I can't imagine Dex's infatuation with Alexis is born of genuine passion. He and Alexis have an off-screen history that's only been hinted at thus far. He's another character irresistibly drawn to power and is already furiously jockeying for position in this increasingly crowded cast of corporate climbers. It's worth noting that while all the newly introduced characters will exit the stage relatively quickly, Dex will always be with us now, remaining through the series' end.
The producers did kindly telegraph in the episode titles the New Faces of '83. We had "Tracy" and "Dex" and now the more formal and fully named "Peter De Vilbis." It was quite a casting coup to land Helmut Berger, erstwhile star of art-house films like Visconti's descent into decadence THE DAMNED, the little-known Liz Taylor and Henry Fonda spaghetti drama ASH WEDNESDAY, and the notorious Nazisploitation nudie SALON KITTY. From his very first scene with Fallon, Berger as Peter elevated the show with his savoir faire and sophistication.
I was thoroughly enjoying Peter's appearance and marveling at how quickly he charmed the shirt right off Fallon's shoulders that I wished they waited until the next episode to reveal Peter's nothing but a cokehead grifter down six million dollars to a disreputable party impatient to collect. Worse, he brags to his attorney that he's using Fallon as a dupe to get his hands on Blake's billions. Wow, all that continental charm was but a thin veneer, a "whisper of vermouth," to quote Alexis.
Busy character actor Jon Cypher also made his series debut playing Peter's attorney Dirk E. Maurier (hmm, trying to evoke Daphne du Maurier?). He's more than just a lawyer, it appears, playing an anti-Andrew Laird, complicit with Peter's proposed plot to swindle Blake via Fallon's misplaced affections. Cypher as Maurier will be with the show for ten episodes, six this season with Peter, and another four in the seventh season. A character worth watching!
One character I've enjoyed watching is Mark Jennings, the poor man's Magnum, PI. All of a sudden he's Alexis' bodyguard and unceremoniously consigned to the downstairs room? I can't recall a scene of his resigning as La Mirage's tennis pro. Surely Fallon would protest his going on a professional level? And Mark was a fool to give up so lucrative a gig that came with luxurious room and board (not that Alexis' penthouse suite is a shotgun shack).
I was going to comment on the casting misstep that resulted in Krystle's ex-husband Mark being played by a man so much younger than she is. But fact-checking myself I was surprised to learn Geoffrey Scott was born in February 1942 and Linda Evans in November of '42. I took Evans to be closing in on or just north of 50 (and thus found it eyebrow-raising when she got pregnant a couple seasons ago), but in fact she was only 41 at the time of filming these episodes. Joan Collins (b. 1933) is nine years older than Evans, and Pamela Sue Martin (b. 1953) is only nine years younger than her stepmother. Krystle and Blake go together well and despite John Forsythe (b. 1918) having a whopping 24 years on Evans, they never appeared to me as a May-December romance.
A catastrophic casting misstep was writing out Lee Bergere as Joseph. More than a mere major domo, he was a fully developed character and a steadying component of the cast. I miss his imperturbable persona, especially when up against the vexing Alexis. Sorry, but the nondescript William Beckley as the indistinct Gerard is no Joseph.
Finally-- and I do mean finally--it comes out that Kirby is five months' pregnant and not three. An unhinged Jeff shakes a confession out of the shuddering child on verge of collapse. (I say "child" because Kirby again proved her immaturity when locking herself in the bathroom, pouting and butthurt after spying Jeff and Fallon idly chatting over cold cuts in the kitchen).
Kirby's keeping secret the rape and the fact her baby isn't Jeff's was a ticking time bomb, and I'm glad it finally detonated in the episode's closing moments. With a flurry of new characters and their burgeoning subplots, I appreciate the loose ends of old ones getting tied up. In this frantic and fast-developing fourth season one really can't tell the players and the plots without a scorecard!
