This top-rated episode has two main plots. The first plot involves an infant child that has been abandoned whom Christine (Connie Sellecca) fosters...and the conflicts she has when the biological mother returns to reclaim the baby. I thought Sellecca was very good, almost brutal, lashing out at the woman who'd skipped out and came back. The backstory for Christine is that her father abandoned her when she was 14, after her mother died, and she's never gotten over it. So this plot tapped into all her insecurities about parenting and what's best for kids.
The second plot was even more outstanding. Kay Lenz plays a woman from the midwest who comes to the St. Gregory to surprise her husband (Tom Mason) who's staying at the hotel on business. They've had trouble in their marriage, and since he's a traveling salesman, he's away from her and their sons a lot. She has shown up to rekindle the flame and get their marriage back on track.
Of course, the minute she checks in, she sees her husband with another woman (the always classy Deborah Adair). It's clear he's having an affair, and this hurts big time. Lenz looks up a girlfriend who lives in San Francisco, and she discusses her next option. She decides to fight for her marriage. She goes shopping, she buys the sexiest clothes she can find...then she knocks on her husband's hotel room door to begin their reunion. However, he will barely touch her, won't kiss her, won't do anything.
This is way more than a story about a husband who cheats. It turns out that Deborah Adair's character, a very put together and successful businesswoman, has developed pneumonia. But when she went to the doctor to get treated for it, tests were done and it came back that she tested positive for HIV antibodies. So she has the AIDS virus in her system.
After leaving the doctor, Adair has come to the hotel to tell Mason her diagnosis and that he may also be HIV positive. Some of this works as a morality tale, AND as a public service announcement, since Adair instructs Mason to also get tested. Meanwhile, Mason has to tell Lenz why he won't be intimate with her, since he's afraid to put her at risk. There are some very thoughtful scenes in this episode.
The best scene, though, has Adair meeting Lenz to explain her side of things...with Lenz trying to make sense of it all and deciding if she can stay married. Also, what would happen if she does remain married to Mason and Mason also tests positive. The whole thing is brilliantly written and acted.
An episode like this makes me appreciate how important Aaron Spelling melodramas were in the 1980s. His shows often had an agenda, but I think in this case, it's a rather good social agenda. I can imagine how helpful this particular dramatization was for viewers watching at home...especially ones in the midwest, who thought AIDS only happened in big cities, or to drug users and gay men.
The second plot was even more outstanding. Kay Lenz plays a woman from the midwest who comes to the St. Gregory to surprise her husband (Tom Mason) who's staying at the hotel on business. They've had trouble in their marriage, and since he's a traveling salesman, he's away from her and their sons a lot. She has shown up to rekindle the flame and get their marriage back on track.
Of course, the minute she checks in, she sees her husband with another woman (the always classy Deborah Adair). It's clear he's having an affair, and this hurts big time. Lenz looks up a girlfriend who lives in San Francisco, and she discusses her next option. She decides to fight for her marriage. She goes shopping, she buys the sexiest clothes she can find...then she knocks on her husband's hotel room door to begin their reunion. However, he will barely touch her, won't kiss her, won't do anything.
This is way more than a story about a husband who cheats. It turns out that Deborah Adair's character, a very put together and successful businesswoman, has developed pneumonia. But when she went to the doctor to get treated for it, tests were done and it came back that she tested positive for HIV antibodies. So she has the AIDS virus in her system.
After leaving the doctor, Adair has come to the hotel to tell Mason her diagnosis and that he may also be HIV positive. Some of this works as a morality tale, AND as a public service announcement, since Adair instructs Mason to also get tested. Meanwhile, Mason has to tell Lenz why he won't be intimate with her, since he's afraid to put her at risk. There are some very thoughtful scenes in this episode.
The best scene, though, has Adair meeting Lenz to explain her side of things...with Lenz trying to make sense of it all and deciding if she can stay married. Also, what would happen if she does remain married to Mason and Mason also tests positive. The whole thing is brilliantly written and acted.
An episode like this makes me appreciate how important Aaron Spelling melodramas were in the 1980s. His shows often had an agenda, but I think in this case, it's a rather good social agenda. I can imagine how helpful this particular dramatization was for viewers watching at home...especially ones in the midwest, who thought AIDS only happened in big cities, or to drug users and gay men.
