- At Edward's birthday party, Dharma enters the soap opera-like drama of the Montgomery clan and detects a conspiracy among some of them to take over the company.
- When Greg takes Dharma to Edward's birthday party for his extended family, she finds it's a cesspit of business and personal intrigue, worse then the Dallas Ewing dynasty. Only Larry feels at home in such far-fetched intricacy. He happily involves the Finkelstein girls annex Jane into even crazier imagined complications, supposedly to force Edward's succession as CEO, since the natural heir, Greg, always refused that job.—KGF Vissers
- Edward is about to announce the heir to Montgomery industries as Greg is not interested, so the whole clan gathers to kiss his behind. Dharma gets sucked into the "Bold & The Beautiful" type soap opera on offer & uncovers a plot to displace Edward. Edward's aunt Julia, and her son William (Steve Hytner), William's wife Elizabeth. Edward's niece Stephanie (Kristin Bauer), nephew Brent (Bill Glass) and his wife Joy (Danielle Bisutti). Elizabeth used to date Edward and Kitty hates her. Brent is dumb but wants to take control of Montgomery industries from Edward. Stephanie would do anything to stop Brent. Brent and Stephanie are step siblings. Stephanie's mother left her father for Brent's father and hence she hates Brent. Stephanie is also gay.
Marilyn (Katherine Disque) is late uncle George's 2nd wife, who has been suspected of killing George to inherit his money. Uncle George died in a car accident in which he was thrown from the car, and then somehow the car backed over him. Edward's sister Jackie (Morgan Fairchild) arrives with her young husband Nick (Andrew Shaifer), who used to be her carpenter. Dharma also makes friends with Cici (Julie Pinson) and her husband Trey (Matthew Ashford).
Stephanie gossips with Dharma and reveals that Brent was behind a secret attempt to take over Montgomery industries. Dharma looks for Edward to warn him and finds Greg. Greg corrects Dharma that Brent was in rehab at that time. Dharma is curious as to why Stephanie lied to her. Larry counsels her that Stephanie wanted to discredit Dharma in front of Edward, so Brent could take control of Montgomery industries and then Stephanie can be the power behind the throne. Larry says that Stephanie is secretly in cahoots with Brent.
Dharma says that every member of the family has stocks in Montgomery industries and any three of them can come together to have enough votes to override Edward. So, it has to be Stephanie, Brent and someone who is totally unsuspected. It cannot be Trey since he has only 6 months to live.
Greg apologizes to Edward for not being interested in the family business. Edward says he is happy for Greg for having the courage to follow his dreams and wishes that he had the same courage in front of his own father. Celia (Lillian Hurst) hands over pics to Dharma that show Stephanie and Marilyn in bed together. On the back of the picture Marilyn had written a note "what if Joy found out". Larry figures that Joy was having an affair with Stephanie and if she found out Stephanie was cheating on her with Marilyn, she would be angry. So, Marilyn is the one plotting take-over and already has Stephanie in her pocket. She needs one more family member to back her and she gains control from Edward. Larry finds that the picture was taken by Nick, Jackie's young husband. The picture had a mirror and by looking closely, one could figure out that the picture was taken by Nick. Dharma can't figure out why Nick would help Marilyn, until Pete engages the FBI to find out that Nick and Marilyn are brother and sister. Dharma interrupts Edward's speech to reveal the conspiracy to the entire family.
Edward announces that he will remain in charge for 5 more years so that Greg can reassess his interest in taking over.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content