CC destroys the Lockridge living room with his horsewhip and manages to get Lionel by the wrist, but when Mason shows up and temporarily distracts CC, Lionel manages to run away. #SantaBarbaraNBC

Ted tells Sophia that he’s not sure if he believes her claim that she and Lionel are not an item. Todd McKee is actually quite good here, but I cannot take a SYLLABLE that he utters seriously when he’s in this stupid blouse!! #SantaBarbaraNBC

Rosa is thrilled to learn that Sophia is alive. #SantaBarbaraNBC

Augusta tells Lionel she’s done with him and asks him to leave the house. #SantaBarbaraNBC

CC stops by the manse to fetch his handy horsewhip en route to the Lockridges 😂😂

#SantaBarbaraNBC

Lord Jesus, they’ve got Ted wearing that damn red blouse again, HELPPP #SantaBarbaraNBC

A quick peek into the Billboard archive educates me that, the very week this aired, ‘One More Night’ was #3 with a bullet on the Hot 100, behind only Madonna and REO Speedwagon, the latter of which song will also play later in this very episode in a scene w Warren and his new boo. #SantaBarbaraNBC

Phil Collins’ ‘One More Night’ — at that moment, a giant smash at top 40 radio — plays under Lionel flashing back in his mind to happier times with Augusta. #SantaBarbaraNBC

CC is on his way to beat Lionel’s ass, but Sophia stops him in the hallway and tries to convince him that he misunderstood whatever he heard, and that she and Lionel have not been carrying on an affair this whole time. #SantaBarbaraNBC

> #SantaBarbaraNBC > after a handful of banger episodes in a row, ep 165 is — weirdly — another snoozer. Given the two soaps that SB competed directly opposite in most of the country ( #GH and #GL ), they couldn’t afford to take their foot off the gas for a MOMENT, so it’s pretty inexcusable! 😭

Class, do we believe Jackie Kennedy had the first goddamn CLUE what #SantaBarbaraNBC was??

🤔🤔🤔

#LoveStory

Finally getting around to tackling #LoveStory, and let me testify that when, 25 minutes into ep 1, Jacqueline THEE Bouvier Kennedy chides John-John for having his romantic exploits splashed in every tabloid, quote, “like an episode of #SantaBarbaraNBC,” I very nearly choked on a chicken tender! 😳

After a bit more back-and-forth with Sophia, CC decides that what he really wants to do is go and choke Lionel. 🤣 #SantaBarbaraNBC

>> but there’s just no conceivable way to me that #SantaBarbaraNBC thought they had nailed it with this casting. 🤷🏻‍♂️

The desperately overwrought soap score and Charles Bateman’s continual penchant for overacting are both letting some of the air out of what could be much more powerful scenes. #SantaBarbaraNBC

Out in the hallway, Liza oops I mean Eden and Augusta both aim pure unremitting venom at each other over this latest mess. #SantaBarbaraNBC

Augusta and Eden both temporarily interrupt CC and Sophia’s confrontation. CC is stunned to learn that Eden knew about Sophia’s return, and sends her away. #SantaBarbaraNBC

Outside the suite, Warren fills Cruz and Eden in on the latest events. #SantaBarbaraNBC

CC kicks the door to Sophia’s suite down and finally comes face to face with his ‘dead’ wife again after fifteen years. 👀 #SantaBarbaraNBC

CC and Augusta misconstrue a bit of Sophia and Lionel’s conversation, and both mistakenly believe that the latter have been carrying on an affair this entire time. #SantaBarbaraNBC

Another pretty great shot. #SantaBarbaraNBC

(BTW, *DEFINITELY* going to stick a pin in Cruz’s ‘wet back’ comment from the above scene and return to that if need be. Feels like a real clip n’ save line of dialogue, that!!) #SantaBarbaraNBC

Eden: “Did you see my father’s face the day that we danced at Kelly’s reception?”

Cruz: “I didn’t see anybody’s face but yours, baby.”

Me: 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

#SantaBarbaraNBC

This two-way mirror bit still drives me up a wall, but these two shots — particularly for 1985, an era LONG before soaps as a whole generally had decided to level up directorially — are pretty breathtaking. #SantaBarbaraNBC

( > #SantaBarbaraNBC did a similar mirror shot with Sophia and Lionel back in January👇🏼 but this latest one is even more effective.)

Sophia finally turns and gives the mirror full face, and a stunned CC clocks her for the first time, the scene ending with a boffo shot of their two faces joining in the mirror-slash-window. Let’s effing GO, people!!! #SantaBarbaraNBC

(Everytime I think about the ORIGINAL original story plan being a Lionel/Eden/Warren triangle, I throw up in my MOUTH a little, you all.) #SantaBarbaraNBC

Warren and Eden have a contentious moment at the police station — which, if I didn’t know better, I’d *swear* was a chem test — at the police station while Eden is waiting for Cruz. #SantaBarbaraNBC

> #SantaBarbaraNBC > ep 164 > in the presidential suite, Sophia continues talking to talk to Lionel with ha back to the two-way mirror as CC and Augusta continue to spy in the adjoining room. CC doesn’t yet recognize his supposedly deceased wife, so Augusta decides to toy with him a bit. 🤣

Augusta brings CC into the janitor closet to show him the mirror, and they can see Lionel and Sophia talking in the suite. CC is stunned to learn about the mirror’s existence, but Sophia’s back is to him so far so he has yet to clock that it’s her. Here we go, boys and girls!! #SantaBarbaraNBC