Previously…
– Claire confronted Brent and Molly after overhearing Molly’s declaration that she is pregnant with Brent’s baby.
– Loretta shocked Spencer, Natalie, and their Christmas guests when she turned up in King’s Bay, having been paroled.
– Matt tried to make amends with his brother, but the encounter took a shocking turn when Jake tumbled out the attic window.
The alluring scent of pepper-and-herb-crusted prime rib fills Paula Fisher’s kitchen as she bustles in to find her grandson checking on the tray of Brussels sprouts roasting in the oven.
“Oh, it smells delicious in here,” Paula declares. “Thank you for all your hard work, Travis.”
He closes the over door and turns back toward her. “Yeah, of course. I know Aunt Sarah and Uncle Matt really wanted to go see Tori today. Are they back yet?”
“Sarah is. She said Matt had something else to take care of, but he should be home soon.”
“Weird,” Travis says. “Dinner will be ready in ten minutes or so. And we shouldn’t wait too long to eat.”
“I know. Your Uncle Jason texted me that he’s on his way, too.”
Travis indicates the prime rib. “I’ll wait a few minutes before I start carving this. But everyone had better get a move on — Christmas dinner waits for no one!”
—–
“Jake!” Mia Davich Gray screams as she races out the front door of her home. Lying there, on the pavement of their driveway, is her husband.
She kneels beside him and is relieved to hear a groan creak out of his throat.
“You’re okay,” she says. “You’re going to be okay.”
Mia breathes short, panicked breaths as she evaluates Jake and reaches for her cell phone.
“Don’t move,” she tells him as her nervous fingers attempt to dial 911.
“The ambulance is on its way,” Matt Gray announces as he comes running out of the house.
Mia looks up at him in shock. “What happened?”
Matt shakes his head as he attempts to wriggle out of the stupor he has been in since he watched his brother tumble out the attic window.
“He was leaning out the window,” he says, pointing up toward the top of the house. “He lost his balance, and–”
Grimacing at the thought of her husband falling all the way and slamming into the driveway, Mia focuses on Jake again.
“Don’t move,” she tells him. “The ambulance is on its way.”
Matt stands there, even more helpless than he was when he reached to save Jake and was unable to grab him. He prays that any second will be the one when he hears sirens closing in.
—–
“Claire! Wait!” Brent Taylor calls out as he chases Claire Fisher out the front door of his home.
“Stay here,” he tells his ex-wife, who lingers awkwardly at the door.
Brent catches up to Claire at the end of the driveway.
“Can we please talk?” he asks.
She stops, her back to him, and stays that way for several agonizing seconds. When she turns, her brown hair whipping around, there is a fire in her eyes that he has recognizes, though he has never seen or felt directed at him before.
“I don’t think there’s much for us to talk about,” she says. “You slept with your ex-wife and got her pregnant. That’s pretty much all I need to know.”
“I am so sorry. For betraying your trust, for– for not coming clean sooner. I just found out about the pregnancy–”
“So you wouldn’t have told me if not for that?”
“That’s not what I said.” Desperate to find the right words, Brent sucks in his lips and thinks. “I didn’t want you to find out this way. That’s all.”
“When were you going to tell me, then? And how?” Her voice breaks as tears well in her eyes. “I thought you were going to propose to me, Brent. I thought you were going to ask me to marry you, and — you were figuring out how to tell me you’d slept with Molly. What a Christmas present.”
She watches fresh shock register on Brent’s face.
“I saw the ring,” she adds roughly. “When you were in the hospital — it was there with your things.”
“I was going to propose,” he says. “The night Molly and I were kidnapped — I was going to take you to dinner and ask you to marry me.”
“What changed?”
“Nothing.” He bites down on his lower lip before continuing. “We almost died that night. We thought we were going to die.”
“And what? Your life flashed before your eyes and you realized you didn’t want to marry me?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“But you didn’t propose. You had the ring, and you didn’t.” Claire’s voice is raw with pain. “Instead you kept me hanging on and went and had sex with your ex-wife.”
“That isn’t how it happened.”
“It sounds like exactly what happened,” she says. “Tell me one thing, Brent: are you still in love with her?”
His mouth opens, and although a sound comes out, it doesn’t come close to being an actual word. Claire reacts to the pause as though she has been stabbed in the gut.
“Wow,” she says. “I– I have to go.”
“Wait,” Brent says.
“No!” Crying, she retreats quickly to her car.
—–
While Brent and Claire talk at the edge of the driveway, Molly slides back inside the house. She knows that she shouldn’t watch their conversation, but it is the only thing she can think about right now.
“You’re pregnant?” Danielle Taylor asks as she emerges cautiously from the kitchen.
Molly holds up a hand. “Please. I don’t want the boys to hear yet.”
Danielle nods with understanding and approaches her former sister-in-law.
“They’re out in the yard with my dad,” Danielle says. “They haven’t heard any of this.”
“Good. I can’t believe how horribly this has gone.”
“You can’t blame Claire for being upset.”
“No. Of course not.” Molly covers her face with her hands. “I never wanted any of it to be like this.”
“But you and my brother really…”
“We thought we were going to die when we were locked in that trunk. And we admitted… we admitted that we still love one another.”
“Then why is he still with Claire?” Danielle asks, glancing past Molly out into the driveway, where Claire and Brent are still locked in heated conversation.
Molly stops her instinctual answer and takes a breath before saying, “I can’t really speak for what’s going on in Brent’s head. We haven’t had much of a chance to discuss any of it.”
“Maybe y’all should’ve done that before you came stomping in here to ruin Claire’s life,” Tempest Banks declares as she comes in from the kitchen.
Molly regards Tempest wearily. As much as she doesn’t want to be attacked right now, she knows that Tempest isn’t wrong.
“I’m really sorry,” Molly says. “You know that I care about Claire, but it’s a complicated situation–”
“I bet you said you cared about your sister, too, when you stole Brent from her.” Tempest shakes her head. “And I’m not the one you need to be convincing.”
Before Molly can respond, Tempest looks past her and sees Claire storming away from Brent and to the car.
“I’ve gotta go,” Tempest tells the women before hurrying out.
“My god,” Molly says to Danielle. “This is a disaster.”
—–
Peter Fisher stands at the edge of his parents’ dining room, a toy train in his hand. The toddler stares ahead, unblinking, at the stranger who has bent over to greet him.
“I’m your grandmother,” Loretta Ragan says to the boy. “Obviously, we’ll need to come up with something less dowdy than ‘Grandma’ for you to call me.”
“What’s wrong with being called Grandma?” Claudia Bishop asks from her seat at the dining table, which is now strewn with the remnants of the feast that Loretta crashed.
Loretta looks back over her shoulder. “Oh, don’t be so easily offended. I think I can do better, that’s all.” She turns toward Peter again. “How about ‘Mimi’?”
“We can work this out later,” Spencer Ragan says from a few feet away, where he stands with his arms folded. Natalie Bishop is by his side, observing Loretta uneasily. The rest of the dinner guests — Diane Bishop, Samantha Fisher, and Bree Halston — sit at the table observing the unexpected, strange show that Loretta’s arrival has brought to Christmas.
“I feel like it might be smart to get out of here soon,” Samantha whispers to her mother, who is seated beside her.
“Oh, you don’t have to tell me twice,” Diane says. “I’m just happy we made it through dinner without all hell breaking loose.”
“Come and give Mimi a hug,” Loretta urges Peter. “It’s so lovely to meet you, at last. I’d have come sooner, but I’ve been busy.”
Peter regards her silently for another few seconds, then shouts, “No!” and runs out of the room.
Diane covers her mouth, barely suppressing a laugh.
“I see manners are in short supply in this household,” Loretta says before letting out an exaggerated sigh. She then returns to her seat to finish her dinner.
“He’s kind of shy,” Bree chimes in uncertainly.
“He’s always a little skittish with new people,” Natalie adds. “I’m sure he’ll come around.”
Spencer shoots his wife a look, as if to ask, What the hell?
“Can I have a word with you?” Natalie asks him, tipping her head toward the kitchen. Wordlessly, Spencer follows her.
“So, Samantha,” Loretta says as she picks up her fork. “How is your grandmother, Paula, doing?”
—–
In the living room of the Fisher home, Sarah Fisher Gray sits on the sofa, chatting with her older brother. The Christmas tree’s lights glow warmly across the room, and the same row of now-faded stockings from when they were children hang from the mantel.
“It felt like we made minor progress with her today,” Sarah is saying. “Zane just has his hooks in her so deeply now — I feel like we could mess it all up with one wrong move.”
“Tori will come around at some point,” Tim tells her. “It might not be today or tomorrow, but she will.”
Sarah frowns. “I just hope it’s before she hitches her wagon to Zane any more than she already has. He’s got her thinking that he’s the only one she can trust.”
“Right now, she’s safe. You know where she is and what she’s doing. She isn’t going to want to stay isolated in that apartment forever. And she seemed really happy to be with her cousins on Thanksgiving.”
Before Sarah can respond, she sees her phone light up and vibrate on the coffee table. She reaches for it and answers when she sees the name on the caller ID.
“Hey,” she says into the phone. “Where–” But she stops mid-breath. Tim watches as her eyes and mouth grow wide.
“What?” she asks frantically, as Tim’s concern spikes, too. “Is he alive?!”
END OF EPISODE 1002
What does Loretta have planned for the Fisher family?
Is Jake going to survive his fall?
Should Claire be finished with Brent for good?
Discuss all this and more in the comments below!