Thurs., May 4, 2000 – At the Courthouse: Danny, Michelle, Bill, Pilar, Vanessa and Matt are at the courthouse. They have a meeting with the judge. It’s a different judge than the one who held court for Michelle’s trial and he has been charged with straightening out the case. Ross comes in and tells Danny and Michelle that this is bigger than just a simple meeting, the judge wants to know what was going on with the Ben Warren case. The Judge calls them all into the judge’s chambers and says that he wants to clear up the mess they have been going through for the past months. To that end, he also has an under arrest Carmen escorted in by a guard and her attorney. The judge tells them that he had read over the transcript of the trial and it was so chocked full of lies and innuendos that he was throwing it out and was going to find the truth himself. Pilar asks to speak first and Doris gets upset, saying that Pilar has already been found incompetent to testify. Pilar retorts while she was having mental health issues, her story about what happened that night has remained unchanged. The Judge wants to hear her. Pilar tells her story and tells the judge that she is partially to blame. The judge agrees but says there was nothing illegal about her actions. Pilar continued and said that two people shot Ben that night but only her mother wanted him dead. The Judge asks if she was in the room when Vanessa came in. She says that she wasn’t. He tells her that he wasn’t interested in opinions just the facts. Carmen gets up and tells him she wants to make a confession. She tells him that Pilar was telling the truth. She said that she was set up to think her daughter was being assaulted. She told the judge that she came back later hoping Ben was still alive. She said when she went in the second time she saw Vanessa shoot Ben in cold blood. At first Carmen seems to think she’s winning the judge over, but then he asks if she knew of this capital crime all along why she didn’t come forward sooner. She said she couldn’t come forward because no one would have believed her as long as Vanessa was in a coma and everyone was feeling sorry for her. Vanessa tells the Judge that Carmen is lying and she wants to tell the truth. Vanessa tells how she talked to Pilar and then how she went to Ben’s room. She was afraid something bad would happen and so she’d entered and found and picked up the gun. She didn’t see Ben at first and when he rose up and grabbed at her, desperate for help, and he’d badly frightened her. They struggled with the gun between them until the gun went off. The Judge told Vanessa that as DA Doris didn’t believe her and thinks her story was too convenient and he tends to believe that himself. Ross speaks up and says Vanessa’s story vindicates her. He tells him to look at the ballistics report. The description Vanessa gave of the shot, closeness of the gun, the angle, etc., matches with the report point for point and since she’d just recently emerged from a coma Vanessa hadn’t seen the document to be able to fabricate it. The judge asks Vanessa if she has seen the report before. She said she hadn’t.The judge told her that he believed her. After hearing everyone, the judge tells Doris that he expects a motion on his desk in the morning stating that the death of Ben Warren was an accident and another one charging Carmen Santos with perjury, bribery, fraud, attempted murder and whatever else she could think of. He tells Vanessa and Michelle that they were free to go. Back at the Jail: Carmen is put in her cell. She is upset. Danny comes in and asks how it feels. He thinks it is poetic justice that she is locked up not for murder but for how she tried to frame Michelle. Danny: “Goodbye Carmen.” He leaves. Carmen goes to her cot and gets a bottle of pills. She says she wished it hadn’t come to this. Later, Carmen is lying on the floor of her cell with pills all over the floor. Vanessa and Matt, Bill and Pilar, Danny and Michelle and Ross are celebrating at Towers. They can’t believe the good guys actually won for once. Danny pulls Michelle aside and asks if she’d taken the pregnancy test yet. She said she has a test in her purse. Danny wants to take it now. Teasing her “Yes, in the middle of the restaurant.” Danny reassures Michelle: “If it’s yes, great! If it’s no, it’s just no until later tonight.” They decide to wait until after the party to take the test.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB5YDQEyV1Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suVYlZyX9kg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjnpFkKESBc
Fri., May 5, 2000 – At Towers: The party for Michelle’s freedom was underway. Danny is impressed by the turn out. Michelle tells him he can go see Carmen if he wants, she will understand. Michelle: “She’s still your mother.” Even after everything she did, Carmen is still his mother. Danny doesn’t want to see Carmen again. He can’t believe what she did to them and can’t think of her as his mother any more. Danny makes a toast, to Michelle and her freedom. He thanks everyone for their help and fights back tears telling everyone how much he loves his wife. Danny: “To a woman who is very special in all of our lives and the most important person in my life, my wife and my love, welcome home, Sweetheart. May you never have another dark day or DA.” He tells her he wished her mom, Maureen, could be there with her tonight. Just then Rick sees Claire at the door. He tells her he doesn’t want her near Michelle. Claire tells him that Abby rented the garage apartment to her and he is furious. He pulls Abby aside and she demands to know what the problem is with Claire. He admits to having an affair with her long ago. Abby was angry about it and asked him a lot of questions. He told her that Claire was an evil, manipulative woman and he didn’t want her in their lives. Abby got angry that Rick is still keeping things from her and left for home, alone. Claire comes over to talk to Michelle. She apologizes for making her feel awkward and offers her congratulations on her freedom. Claire tells her she still feels like her mother and wants to be a part of her life. Michelle tells her she wasn’t interested. Claire told her it was fate that they met in the airport. Michelle reluctantly agreed to not shut the door on the possibility of a future with her. Michelle went back to Danny and told him she was ready to take the test. Bernardo comes in to see Danny. He said he only came to congratulate him and his wife on their freedom. Danny doesn’t believe him. Bernardo told him that he was the new head of the Santos clan and in that capacity would be dealing with him often. Danny wants nothing to do with it. Bernardo is worried that Carmen may try to gain her freedom by offering information to the cops. Bernardo tells Danny: ”Frankly no one wants her back. All the other families would rather deal with you.” Bernardo tells Danny he can’t just walk out of the business. Danny: “Watch me!” and leaves. Pilar and Bill are talking about Carmen. Pilar is worrying about her mom. She wished she could learn from her mistakes and go back to the woman she once was. Frank comes in with news about Carmen’s attempted suicide. Pilar asks if Carmen is OK. She and Bill leave to go the hospital. Rick tells Claire to get lost. He said he doesn’t want her around. She said he wasn’t going to be able to get rid of her like he and Ed did before and if he tried, she would use his secret to bury him. He told her that burying him would also bury herself. She didn’t care about her career all she cared about was getting a relationship with Michelle. She said if he didn’t back off she would tell all his friends and family that he was a fraud and wasn’t a real doctor but that he had just been playing one all these years.
Cassie and Reva were thrown together and talked a little. They are both still mad about the entire business with Richard and how he feels about both of them. They both misunderstood the other and ended up separating again. But in their hurry to leave the place, they both ended up on the same elevator. Cassie pushed the button trying to get off and the elevator stopped. They were stuck. Michelle beckons from the Towers hallway that leads to the restrooms to Danny. In the hallway she tells him that she took the test and she was pregnant. He was thrilled and said that they now had everything. (Unfortunately this is the little girl who she miscarries during the stress of Danny trying to find out who killed his mother.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnOTwbXGhSA
My Comments:
Glad to see Vanessa enter the clips again. I’m grateful to have what we do, but I just don’t see how anyone doesn’t think this whole business with Carmen-Vanessa-Matt is anything, but an important part of this storyline. I like this judge better than the one of the case. No one is happy to see Carmen. Anytime Doris and Ross are on the same page, it can’t be good. This was really best bit of Bilar. If Pilar had remained the spunky girl she was before the shooting I think they might have made it. As it is, Pilar will soon be on a bus out of town. Bill has a lot of heartbreak ahead of him here. One good thing about how the show ended, I think he will agree that Bizzie happiness is worth the wait. I hope Pilar is doing well in Europe. Apparently the judge is a fan of Dragnet. “Just the facts.”
Oh, Carmen Vanessa is not so far out of her depth with you as you think. If only they hadn’t taken Carmen so far into violence, little plots by her to get rid of Michelle with people like Vanessa and Reva helping Michelle would have been a lot more fun. Once you go to actual serious attempt at murder there really is no convincing way to have a relationship after that. The only people who managed really to pull it off are Phillip (who everyone admits was off his rocker right then) and Roger (who everyone admits was off his rocker right then). You can’t do sane as normal, attempt to kill someone, and then still have a relationship with them later.
Ross finally steps forward as the great attorney that he could be. Really it bothers me about the trial Ross really only does anything lawyerly when he brought in the forensics expert and in the summation which were both great. Like Vanessa would say she had heard of it before at that point. The judge has basically agreed she will be found innocent if she hadn’t seen it, what she’s possibly going to say. Michelle’s conviction is overturned. Like Al Capone, Carmen was arrested not on the initial crime, but the cover-up. Carmen did have some mental health issues. I think that muttering was a sign. This was so unnecessary if Carmen could only have allowed Danny to have Michelle and a short while away from the family business, I think she could have had everything else she wanted, but she just couldn’t go there.
Those are really beautiful champagne flutes. I love how even after everything Michelle is still worried about Danny. “She’s still your mother.” I love Rick-Michelle scenes and when Rick & Danny act like the family they are. Maureen really was always an important part of Manny’s life. I really think Maureen’s presence in their lives was real to Michelle and she made it real for Danny. Beautiful toast Danny. Love it when Danny says Touche and when his voice breaks. Blake looks lovely too.
Considering Towers was where the party Ben never made it to was held the night of his murder, maybe the country club or Company would have been a better location for this party. They just never could Manny have too long without a new problem. Bernardo is raising his ugly head. It would have killed them to have a week before he showed up again? I wish Claire would have really meant that about just wanting Michelle to be happy. Michelle just said she was 22 so suddenly Michelle should be a college senior instead of sophomore.
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Tags: Abby Blume Bauer, Ben Warren, Bernardo Sandoval, Bill Lewis, Blake Marler, Carmen Santos, Cassie Winslow, Claire Ramsey, Danny Santos, Doris Wolfe, GL, Guiding Light, Manny, Matt Reardon, Michelle Bauer Santos, Pilar Santos, Reva Shayne Lewis, Richard Winslow, Rick Bauer, Ross Marler, Vanessa Chamberlain Lewis Reardon
