Again With This

Dawson's Creek, Melrose Place & Beverly Hills, 90210

Melrose Place  \\  S02.E03

Revenge

Billy's field trip to Seattle to yell at Keith has unexpected consequences.

When we left Billy last time, he was booking a flight to Seattle, and sure enough, when we rejoin him here, he’s…there, with nothing but a return address on a purloined piece of Alison’s mail to guide him. He easily breaks into Keith’s house to find that he has not exactly been getting revenge on Alison by living well: the place is a barely furnished sty, in which Keith sleeps on a bare mattress in the living room next to so many of Courtney Thorne-Smith’s old headshots, which he’s had framed. Billy then turns up at the oil refinery where Keith works, to threaten and then punch him. Keith’s response? To wait for Billy to leave town, then phone Alison at work so she can hear as he makes an irrevocable decision. Through it all, Alison’s been screwing up at work because she’s distracted and traumatized; since she refuses to tell Amanda why but is also self-medicating with a lot of vodka, now also during work hours, Amanda can only conclude that Alison’s drinking is the cause and not a side effect of what’s actually derailing her. (Okay, it’s also a cause.) Sydney takes advantage of Jane’s self-caring self-involvement to worm her way into Michael’s life — which is actually convenient for him, because he needs a broad to do his laundry now that Jane’s out of the picture, and while Kimberly flat-out refuses, Sydney’s got nothing but time to pitch in. When she brings Michael his load (heh) and finds Kimberly lying out on the deck, it’s pretty clear she doesn’t believe either Kimberly OR Michael when they claim Kimberly is just his “associate,” and that she’s willing to exploit Michael’s need for her to keep it quiet to try to get him to fool around with Sydney herself, as well. Though Jo is delighted that Amanda wants her to shoot the Sagebrush Beer campaign on the strength of her shots of Jake from the motorcycle race, she’s a lot less thrilled that Amanda also wants to cast Jake himself as the Sagebrush Beer Man, suspecting ulterior motives, of horniness. You should get very excited in your own way — chaste or otherwise — for our podcast on “Revenge”!

Notes