Previously…
– Jason traveled to Iowa with Sabrina to meet her parents, but they were confronted by an angry woman named Carrie.
– When Rosie and Travis discovered that her brother, Sebastian, had been hooking up with Elly, a confrontation ensued that resulted in Rosie slapping Elly.
– Molly was shocked when Loretta Ragan showed up at her home.

“Her? Her who?” Marcus Gray‘s face twists with confusion as he stands behind his girlfriend on the upstairs landing of her mother‘s home. When he places a hand on Bree’s shoulder, he feels her shudder, confirming that she must know what Natalie is talking about.

“Loretta?” Bree finally asks.

Natalie Bishop, stationed on the grand, open staircase of the house, looks back at the college students. Her expression is filled with dread. She manages a stiff nod.

“What do you mean, she’s back?” Bree presses. “Where?”

“She was released from prison today,” Natalie explains. “That text was from Spencer. He just found out.”

“Isn’t she, like, a menace to society?” Marcus asks.

“There’s no telling what that psycho is capable of,” Natalie says. “She could be on her way here right now.”

—–

Molly Taylor stands frozen at the open front door of her own house, unable to make sense of the sight before her: Loretta Ragan, her normally fiery red hair now dulled to a soft reddish-gray from her time behind bars, standing right there on the porch.

“Hello, Molly. Aren’t you happy to see me?”

After another second or two, Molly’s instincts kick in, and she attempts to slam the door closed. But Loretta steps forward, positioning herself in the doorway in such a way that Molly jumps back. Loretta shoves the door all the way open.

“I knew you people were classless,” Loretta murmurs, “but the least you can do is invite a visitor into your home.”

“I’m calling the police,” Molly says, fumbling for her cell phone and realizing that it is still in the living room.

Loretta laughs haughtily. “A lot of good that would do. I doubt those imbeciles could find their here, even with an exact address and a state-of-the-art GPS system.”

“What do you want?” Molly snarls. She wonders if she has it in her to physically attack the elderly woman to keep her at bay. Her mind flashes to Gabrielle, asleep — or at least quietly resting — upstairs.

“All I want is to let you know that I’m a free woman,” Loretta says, “at least for the time being. My legal team managed to have that judge’s ridiculous ruling overturned so that I could be released on bail.”

Although her body, right down to her balled fists, is trembling, Molly takes a decisive step forward, hoping to intimidate the evil woman. “You need to get out of here right now. Brent will have a squad car here in no time at all to drag you right back to jail.”

Loretta narrows her eyes and glowers at Molly for a long moment before letting out a sigh. “All I came to do is to let you know that I’m rejoining society. How is that little girl of yours? Still crying out for your nephew and his wife — the parents she actually cares for?”

“Get the hell out of my house right now,” Molly says through gritted teeth, and she grabs the first thing that her frantic scan of the space reveals: a vase sitting on a slender wooden table nearby. Still shaking, she raises the vase.

“Get out now, or I’ll remove you myself,” Molly tells Loretta.

—–

On the quaint main street of a small, welcoming Iowa town, Sabrina Gage and Jason Fisher stand outside a charming ice cream shop — but the encounter in which they find themselves is anything but charming.

Carrie, the blondish local who confronted them out of nowhere, stares at the duo with fury in her eyes.

“You think you can just waltz back in here like nothing happened?” Carrie challenges Sabrina.

“I’m allowed to come visit my parents,” Sabrina says, shifting her weight uncomfortably from foot to foot. “I don’t want to cause you any pain–“

“How do you think running into you after all these years makes me feel?” Carrie fires back.

Sabrina brushes several strands of her raven-colored hair behind one ear and seems  to be shrinking in on herself. Jason decides that it is time to speak up.

“I’m sorry, but what exactly is the issue here?” he asks Carrie. “Sabrina brought me home to meet her parents.”

“Oh, so you’re her big-city boyfriend? It’s great that you get to go and live your life, Sabrina. I wish my brother had had the same opportunity.”

“Your brother?” Jason asks, half-mumbling. Sabrina’s large, dark eyes flicker toward him, uneasy reticence emanating off her like a perfume applied too liberally.

“Figures,” Carrie says as she folds her arms. “Your girlfriend never told you how she killed my brother, did she?”

—–

His sandy blond hair still damp from the shower, Travis Fisher hurries down the stairs of his mother-in-law’s home. He wears a plain black t-shirt tucked into black pants, and he holds his white chef’s coat in one hand. In the cozy kitchen, he finds his wife sitting at the round table, which is covered in a floral tablecloth, with a cup of coffee in front of her. She is simply staring ahead, maybe at the refrigerator door covered in photos and flyers, maybe at nothing.

“Hey,” he says softly, as if worried about startling her. “You okay?”

When Rosie Jimenez looks over at him, it is as if she is just noticing his presence at all. “Sure.”

“I take that as a ‘no,'” Travis remarks. “Still thinking about yesterday?”

After a few seconds of no acknowledgement, Rosie begins to nod. Yesterday, while stopping to grab a coffee, they came upon her brother — who has been visiting King’s Bay — sharing a beverage and an intimate moment with Elly Vanderbilt. When Rosie confronted them, it became clear that Sebastian had no idea that Elly had been the attorney who’d dug up the tawdry story of the Jimenez patriarch’s murder in court in order to make Rosie look bad. The confrontation escalated, resulting in Rosie slapping Elly across the face.

“Sebastian’s not going to hold any of that against you,” Travis says.

“I know. We talked a little while ago. He’s fine. He’s pissed at Elly, too.”

“He’s a good brother.”

“Yeah.” Rosie exhales loudly. “But I hate that I lost control. And I hate that she got me so heated.”

“You have every reason to be angry at Elly. Hell, I’m angry enough at what she did for the two of us. Hitting her probably wasn’t a great idea–“

“I’m well aware.”

Travis pauses, stung by the sharpness of her tone. But he reminds himself to go easy on her, given what they have been going through.

“But it’s done, and there’s no real harm, and all we can do is move on,” he says, careful to add a gentle padding to his words. “We’re going to figure this out. Somehow.”

“Yeah. Somehow,” Rosie says with a twinge of sarcasm.

Travis slings his chef’s coat over the back of one of the chairs and leans forward, resting his elbows on the same chair. “There is something that… look, I don’t know if it would help either of us, but I need to run it by you…”

She looks over at him with cautious intrigue all over her face.

“It’s my Aunt Molly,” he explains. “She asked if we would be willing to… to go over and help Gabrielle with the transition to living there.”

“She… she what?”

“Yeah. Apparently it’s been rough going,” Travis replies. “So what do you say? Do you think that’s something you’d be comfortable doing?”

—–

Molly holds the ceramic vase aloft as she glares at Loretta.

“Oh, please,” Loretta scoffs. “I came here to have a civilized exchange, and you’re threatening me with physical force? As I said: classless.”

“There’s no chance of anything civilized between us, after what you’ve done to my family and me,” Molly says. “I know that your goal was to hurt us, Loretta. Just admit it.”

“I’ll admit nothing. My attorneys are looking forward to dismantling all of your ridiculous accusations in court.”

From upstairs, Gabrielle’s cries begin to ring out.

“Is that little Gabrielle?” Loretta says. “She doesn’t sound so thrilled to be here–“

“Get out of my house! Now!” Molly shouts, advancing toward Loretta with the vase clutched between her hands.

“Molly! Stop!” a voice hollers. Both women look to see Brent Taylor rushing up the driveway toward the front door.

As an uncertain sense of relief floods her system, Molly lowers the vase.

“You need to get off our property. Now,” Brent orders Loretta.

The older woman rolls her eyes at him. “Don’t be so melodramatic, Commander.”

“I called you a couple of times,” Brent says as he moves past Loretta to get to Molly. “I only found out after the judge’s ruling.” He turns sharply toward Loretta. “Why would you come here? What more do you want with us?”

“I want nothing with you people, based on this unpleasant encounter,” Loretta says. “I’d hoped to have a sensible chat with your wife and put all of this behind us, but this unhinged dressmaker advanced on me with that tacky tchotchke–“

“Enough!” Brent bellows. “Get out. Now.”

Loretta sighs and waves a hand through the air. “Fine, fine. My car is waiting out on the street. It seems I’ll see the two of you in court.”

As soon as she crosses the threshold, Brent slams the door closed and hurriedly does up the locks. Molly sets down the vase and collapses into his arms.

“How can she be out?” she asks incredulously.

“I don’t know. Maybe they paid off the judge or something,” Brent says. “But she’s not gonna get away with bullshit like this for long. I’m gonna keep us all safe, Mol. I promise.”

“I know you will,” Molly says, as she clutches him even tighter.

END OF EPISODE 1220

What does Loretta really have up her sleeve?
Does Carrie have it out for Sabrina?
How will Rosie respond to Travis’s proposal?
Talk about it all in the comments below!

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