All My Children did not air due to the Christmas holiday
I think that the AMC writers were counting on a lot of people being out of town and unable to watch the show because today's episode was lacking very much in the must-see department. Nevertheless, the show goes on. Maria tried to convince Dimitri to hang in there and support Erica, but Dimmie wasn't listening. Maria's rationale indicated that Erica is a helpless junkie who would do anything in her power to protect her supplier. Even if it meant defending him from hit-and-run charges. Erica visited Dr. Kinder in jail after an apparent time warp. I don't remember seeing Jonathan charged, but I guess there are things that go on in Pine Valley that we just don't see. Derek walked in on the cellblock meeting between doctor and patient and said that a lot of the statements made in the hit-and-run just don't add up. Dr. Kinder tried to explain that his reputation as a doctor would have been shot if he admitted to causing and accident and would have been vulnerable for a malpractice claim. Erica chimed in and said that she would have been blasted by the tabloids for letting another man drive her car right after she separated from husband number nine. Derek was about to piece everything together, hinting that he thought Erica and Dr. Kinder might have been in the car together, when he was called away to meet with the chief. A drug hazed Erica scampered off to find a judge to arrange a special bail hearing for Dr. Kinder. As it turns out Erica got the judge's daughter and acting job, so he is "scratching her back" so to speak. Derek caught Jason having a couple drinks in the bar and threatened to run him in for breaking the terms of his DUI charges during the summer. Why was Jason drinking? Well he had just been at Dixie's and dropped off a rather expensive Wedgewood blue kashmere sweater for Dixie. She said that the gift was appropriate considering the cost and the revelations of Jason's crush on her. Jason got ticked and headed off. He agreed to go to an AA meeting after Derek's threats, but that was short lived. Hayley and Matt's romance in the park didn't last that long (and neither did the snow from Friday's show). Hayley couldn't commit to wanting to be with Matt and ran off leaving him alone in the park. Laura and Scott popped in at the Santos house to give gifts to Mateo and Anita respectively. Hector and Isabelle just loved Laura and were thrilled with the possibilities of her and Matt getting together. Laura whisked off to Matt's place to give him her gift, but she found him in the park, jilted by Hayley. In a surprising development, the two kissed. Anita and Scott bonded with each other over Scott's present of Shakespeare's Sonnets. Unfortunately, Hector overheard his daughter and her friend talking about Michael's homosexuality. Noah and Julia planned their wedding inside the Wildwind chapel, talking about how wonderful things will be. Listening in the background was a just-back-from-the-city Taylor. Those Wildwind gate guards sure don't do a good job of keeping out trespassers, do they?
Matt broke off his kiss with Laura and said that what they were doing was totally wrong. Laura objected, but it was Matt who won in the end, saying that Laura was just too young and inexperienced. Jason made a spectacle of himself at the AA meeting when he stood up and went on a drunken ramble about his drinking. The facilitator said that Jason is welcome at the meetings, but only if he has a serious committment to stopping his drinking. Liza found a crumpled up piece of paper in the trash can that was far more than just a piece of paper. The paper had a note from Jason to Dixie expressing his feelings for her. Liza was all too happy to show the note to Tad who went home and confronted Dix. He said that she has been blasting him for his working relationship with Liza, but at the same time has been entertaining Jason's daydreams. Hector and Isabelle were shocked to learn that the Pine Valley School District allows homosexuals to teach children, something that they said is a direct violation of ethics and morals. The Santoses called an "emergency" meeting with Palmer and Opal to discuss taking action against Michael and having him pulled as teacher. Opal and Palmer weren't as gung-ho as the Santoses, but they did agree that homosexuality should not be taught in school. Anita felt bad that she had been the one who blabbed that Mike was gay, but Scott has no repentence. he said that it might be a good idea if Mr Delaney was yanked because he is tired of being thought of as gay bu his association with Michael. Opal went to Dixie's to ask if she knew anyone on the schoolboard besides Enid...but was stopped dead in her tracks when Michael popped his head in from another room and told Opal where she could find the info. If he knew Opal was going to use it against him, I doubt he'd be so cheerful. The next morning at Wildwind, Laura ripped into Hayley for toying with Mateo's emotions. She said that "there are names for people like" Hayley and she'd better stop playing her headgames. Matt caught glimpse of Taylor, who was still slinking around on the grounds and demanded to know why she was on the grounds. She said that she needed to talk to Noah, but privately. Matt fetched Noah and when he saw Taylor he immediately asked if she had filed her report on Louie's death. Taylor said that she hadn't and that it had been very difficult for her to see Noah kill Louie. She then added that is Noah goes through with his marriage to Julia, he'll go to jail. But on the brighter side, he can run away with Taylor and he'll never be charged with murder.
Scott accompanied Laura back to Myrtle's, but didn't stay long when he saw that Michael was inside tutoring Kevin. Michael left the room to fetch a book and the three teens went at each other. Laura and Kevin defended their history teacher, but Scott wanted nothing to do with Mr. Delaney. Dixie answered allegations that she and Jason might be sharing more than studies. Tad denied ever having any sexual thoughts of a woman besides Dix and blasted his new hairdo wearing wife for having Michael and Jason over as often as she does. He may not have known it, but this wasn't the time for Jason to drop by and drop off a package to Tad from Liza. Tad was royally peeved and stormed off, but not before relieving Jason from his duties at the station. Marian insisted that Liza check out the condo she found for her and finally, after a long drawn out wait, Liza agreed. Marian, for some reason, was in rare form. She broke down in tears when she told her daughter how she didn't want her to follow in her mother's footsteps. All the men she had been interested in, Marian sobbed, have come and gone and now she's all alone. Jason, with alcohol in hand and on his breath, hunted down Liza at the condo to give her a piece mind. At Wildwind, every was anxious because Noah wasn't on the scene to practice the wedding run-through. So for entertainment, Hector and Isabelle ranted about pulling Michael from his teaching responsibilities. Maria, Anita, and Mateo all came to Michael's defense, but it didn't seem to do any good. Outside the chapel, Taylor gave Noah an ultimatum: be her boyfriend or end up in jail. Noah couldn't believe his ears and virtually laughed in Taylor's face. He left her and returned for his wedding rehearsal. Taylor went back home and found Jack and Derek on her doorstep wanting to discuss Louie's death. In a true soap-opera moment, Taylor relived the events of that evening in her head and made references to not wanting Noah to suffer because Louie deserved to die. She then agreed to tell the whole story.
Ya know, I thought this was going to be a simple recap all about Noah and Julia's wedding, but halfway through the program and without any kind of warning, Brooke, Pierce, Adam, and Janet popped into the picture. I don't know where it came from, but here goes anyway. Brooke held her New Year's Eve bash to celebrate Pierce as the premiere artist of the year. Brooke was going to spend the evening dancing and hooping it up with Adam, but his snit-fit made Brooke long to be with anyone else but Adam. Brooke took Pierce away from his date, Janet, and began showing him around to all the bigwigs at the party. If you looked closely, you could see the steam shooting out of Adam's ears. He kept whispering things to Janet trying to make her as insecure as he is. Say what you will, but Janet and Adam are perfect together. Taylor told Jack and Derek that Noah killed Louie in coldblood and was, as Noah had implied, threatened by a gun wielding Louie. He simply bashed his head against the fence and killed him. When Jack asked why she kept all this information, she said that she didn't want to be branded as a woman scorned and that she didn't want to interfere with Noah and Julia's soon-to-be wedded bliss. And she said it all with a straight face! Later when Mummy came over, the charade seemed like it was just about up. Vivienne could see how broken up Taylor was and when her daughter began to explain what was going on, Vsaw Taylor's eyelashes fluttering. It's not nice to fool Mother Nature or Mummy Roxbury. Vivienne immediately knew that something was up and demanded to know what was going on. Taylor said it was nothing or at least nothing that Mummy could fix. Erica showed up at Julia and Noah's wedding, but didn't get a chance to get comfortable. Noah cut into Erica for not going to the police to report that Louie tried to sell her drugs in Front Street. Because of it, Noah said, Julia was abducted and nearly killed. To top it all off, he added that Erica wasn't wanted at the wedding. Then came Dimitri's turn. He couldn't understand why Erica would pay Dr. Kinder's bail after he nearly killed Maria and Kelsey (and the unborn baby). He said that Erica was no longer welcome at Wildwind. Inside the wedding, things were just as cold. The friction between Mateo and Hayley continued. Matt was still better over being tossed aside on Christmas Eve. Kelsey looked on as everyone else sat with their family and loved ones and she sat alone. Laurel commented to Trevor that Julia's wedding looked so picture perfect because she was surrounded by her family and siblings. When Trevor heard talk of brothers and sisters, his lips sealed and he said nothing more. Erica returned to Linden House and booted out Myrtle, who was trying to help Erica feel better. Later Dr. Kinder showed up, as he always does, and wanted to thank Erica for bailing him out and maybe spend a little time with her. A special delivery put the damper on any festivities. The package contained papers from Dimitri asking for a divorce. At the wedding, things were just underway when Derek broke in. He told Noah that he was under arrest for the murder of Louie Greco.
This marks the final recap from 1995. I hope you've enjoyed the AMC Pages in their premiere year. I hope that you'll continue to check in when the New Year rolls around. I'm working on improving the AMC Pages to make next year even better.
Have a safe and Happy New Year,
Dan J Kroll
