Louie broke into Noah's old apartment and shaved his face clean, giving him a completely new look for his "girl." Since he already knew where Julia and Noah moved to, he's been slinking around outside their door waiting to catch a glimpse of Julia. Later, Anita stopped by to drop off a note for Julia and Louie was there and offered to give it to her. The note was to invite Julia to a surprise engagement party Maria and Anita decided to throw at the Valley Inn. Scott and Laura had lunch at the Valley Inn, but Laura provided some words of wisdom for her friend to swallow. She said that Stuart might be as "overprotective" as he is because Scott is his only son and he has no one else in his life. Noah decided that it was finally time to get Hector's approval on his proposal to Julia. In a surprise to everyone, Hector said that anyone who could bring so much joy to his daughter's face is a welcome addition to the Santos family. Jack brought the adoption papers to Maria and Edmund for a glance over. After reading the terms, Edmund decided that it wasn't a good idea for them to go through with the adoption. With Kelsey living close to them, it would be awkward, he rationalized. She might want to stop by for visits or even ask for the baby back. Kelsey, meanwhile, was dealing with Tara. Tara told her daughter that she and her husband had separated and were getting a divorce. Kelsey took it personally, screaming that her mother wasn't comfortable with the relationship between Kelsey and her dad. With Belinda at her side, Kelsey returned to Wildwind to sign the adoption papers. Edmund turned his opinion around and agreed that signing the papers would be a good choice. Everyone signed the documents and Maria broke down in tears. "You won't regret this," she told Edmund and said that nothing would go wrong for them.
Plans for the surprise party continued without a hitch. Well, the party was set to go at least. Hayley and Mateo collided after Hayley asked Noah to consider doing a little modeling for Enchantment. Matt read Hayley the act, telling her that she shouldn't be using his sister's party to conduct business matters. Marian and Liza dined at the Valley Inn and Marian was a hoot. She kepy pressing all of Liza's buttons about her wanting Tad or being an old maid. Tad was in New York on business. He wanted to come home to see Dixie, so he called up Jason to get him to help him out of the big city early. Jason tattled to Liza that Tad was trying to get out of his business early, so she decided to pull off a little switch. When Tad opened the door of his hotel suite, he expected to see Jason there waiting to relieve him. But, as you can probably figure out, Liza was there with a big ole smle on her face. Erica finally awoke from her drug enduced sleep. Dimitri was there waiting to take her off to a rehab center, but Erica denied having a drug problem. She said that the pressures of her job and Dimitri's self-blaming for Erica's accident may have caused her to take a few too many pills. Dimmie told her that Dr. Kinder spilled the beans about everything including Erica's theivery. But Dimitri was totally enraged when he found out that Jonathan was giving Erica more medication. Hearing all of the yelling and screaming, Dr. Kinder walked in on Erica and hubby. He denied ever telling Dimitri that Erica had a drug problem. Louie hid in Julia's closet while she showered. When she came out and tried to find some clothing to wear she naturally looked in the closet. She screamed as Louie popped out and cackled "surprise.
Liza kept her mother's words in mind: that the time is right to see whether or not she could get Tad again. Tad called Dixie to tell her that he wouldn't be home. What Dixie hadn't know, but Jason was gracious enough to provide her with was that Liza and Tad would be hotel buddies in the Big Apple. I'd guess that Jason would love to get a shot at Dixie because he keeps feeding Dix's fears and concerns. As the night grew ever longer, Liza slinked back to her suite where she "spilled" ink on her outfit so that when Tad came to her room to check up on her progress she was wearing only her slinky, black lingerie. Dr. Kinder kept driving a wedge between Dimitri and Erica to the point where Dimitri asked Erica to make a decision. She could go with Dimitri to the Betty Ford Clinic (a nice place, I visited there when I was in California) or stay with Dr. Kinder and his never dwindling supply of drugs. Erica was furious that Dimmie called Betty Ford. The reporters would make her out to be a terrible addict, she ranted. Dimitri slugged Jonathan after he made comments that Dimitri was bad for Erica. Erica wouldn't budge, so Dimitri left her. Dr. Kinder told Erica to go and sleep and not worry about Dimitri. Taylor, by pure chance, was in the neighborhood and dropped by Noah's new apartment to drop off a book. Julia scrambled away from Louie and answered the door. Taylor asked what was going on and Julia explained the situation. Louie, however, said he was an invited visitor. At the party, Noah told Hector and Isabelle that Julia and he were living together. It didn't seem to go over so well, but at least Hector didn't go totally berserk. If you're hoping for Hayley and Mateo to patch things up, they continued to give each other the cold shoulder. At police headquarters, Derek interrogated Louie, but didn't have any reason to hold him over. Derek warned the parolee that if he even looks at Julia funny, Derek will haul him into jail so fast his head'll spin. Julia started to leave to go to meet Noah at the Valley Inn (keep in mind she had no idea about the surprise party) when Louie made another surprise appearance. "Until we meet again," Louie said in a good impression of the late Vincent Price, "And we will meet again."
Julia returned to the apartment where Noah was waiting for her. She told him that she went to the store and forgot all about their planned dinner together. Seeing that she didn't have any packages, Noah asked to know the truth. Julia told Noah the whole story (except that Louie was hiding in the closet) and Noah immediately wanted to run out and get Louie. Julia's calm mind prevailed, keeping her fiancé at home with her. On his way home, Derek checked in to see that everything was okay. A furious Noah asked why Derek didn't do anything. He explained that he couldn't do anything---but would make sure that every officer on the force kept at least one eye on Louie. Bobby weaseled his way into the party and got Anita to go to his car with him. Mr. Warner was upset that Anita took Scott to the party instead of him. She explained that since he wasn't available, Scott was her only choice. Bobby put the moves on his girlfriend and guess who saw it. Yup, Scott came out to the car and told Anita that Isabelle and Hector were ready to go home, so she had to get ready. Scott and Bobby got into a fisticuff with (did you expect it?) Scott winning. Jason's true intentions were revealed in several "fantasy" sequences (of sorts). Jason has a crush on Dixie and would just love for Liza to win Tad over so that Dixie would run to him. But Liza wasn't doing such a good job of tag team partner. Tad turned down every one of her advances and made it quite clear that he was happily married to Dixie. Liza went to bed alone, but had a restless night, visions of sugarplums, er, Tad danced in her head.
Liza slinked her way into Tad's hotel room by telling a maid she was Mrs. Martin and locked her keys in the room. While Tad slept she ogled Tad's naked body---with only a thin sheet covering his nether regions. Tad woke up and blasted Liza for her seduction scheme. He was even unhappier when he figured out that he could have been home the night before instead of waiting around for some bogus meeting. When they were ready to leave, the bellhop recognized Liza from her days of wine and roses. Tad asked her who she took to the hotel for trysts, but Liza said it was no one Tad knows. Do you know who it is---if you are familiar with AMC's camera/scene techniques you should be able to figure it out! Pierce remained distant with Janet. Don't worry, Laura told her. Pierce is just quiet and there is nothing to worry about. Laura also cleared up Janet's mishearing of her wishing that Janet didn't show up at career night. Adam stalked in the shadows of the shelter and became extremely jealous when Pierce and Brooke chatted. Pierce dropped by give Brooke some paintings for the auction, but Adam didn't see it that way. Stuart informed Adam that Pierce was already taken. He was Janet's beau. So, Adam decided to pay Janet a visit at the cabin. Dimitri scolded Gloria for not helping him find out more information on Dr. Kinder's "quackery." Gloria defended her employer, but Dimmie wasn't so kind. Dimitri accused Gloria of administering dangerous drugs to Erica and only defending Jonathan because he was her only chance for a job. Tsk, tsk Dimmie. Erica was busy getting more of her injections even as Dimitri was moving his things to the hunting lodge. As a final shot, Erica dolled herself up and went to the hunting lodge to try to seduce her estranged husband. We might see her second divorce from the Marick clan if this doesn't work! At lunch with Laurel and Dixie, Trevor tried to play cupid with Michael. Mike said he wasn't interested, but would help out by taking Timmy on a camping expedition. Laurel and Trevor excused themselves and Dixie pressed Mr. D for some answers. Michael explained that he came out to Laurel years ago, but she has been acting as though he never told her since. He also said that he'd tell Trevor he's gay when the time was right. Liza left her earrings in Tad's hotel room right before she left. She laughed at Tad (who was not present) and dared him to get his way out of this one.
