SoapLand - The Battle Of The Tearjerkers - The Result

1. Home Movies/“Can You Hear Me, Sid?”
Knots Landing
Letting Go



Even out of context, this is a sweet, natural little scene of a family watching some old Super 8 films together.

Knots has always done small moments incredibly well and then woven them in to the series’ rich tapestry. And this is a beautiful example of going unexpectedly “small” as part of a major emotional arc as a key moment in Karen coming to terms with her husband’s death.

Throughout the episode, Karen - already trying to keep things together with her young family and running her husband’s business - has been faced with a number of vicissitudes that are outside her control. Someone she’s been dating kisses her, awakening a longing for physical contact that causes her to be uncomfortable. Her brother Joe is playing house with someone under her roof and Karen (arguably) overreacts. During a discussion with Joe, he asks if she’s visited Sid’s grave or considered removing her wedding ring, which she hasn't. Joe gives Karen some gentle but firm home truths:

And so with his words still resonating, Karen sits to watch the home movies with the family (also at Joe’s request).

What I most appreciate about this scene is the taciturnity. All that needs to be said by others has been said. Karen will get her chance to externalise her own thoughts at the episode’s end. But here at the midway point we get the most effective scene in which absolutely nothing is said about grief or loss. Very little is said at all. The minimal dialogue early in the scene is mostly sibling banter and the sort of “remember that?” comments that people make when looking at old videos or photos. Crucially, this gives the audience an instant connection with the scene. We all know how it feels to be thinking deeply and not giving it voice. So we’re trusted to share in the emotional journey with complete empathy as we watch along with the Fairgates. The dialogue drops out; the characters inwardly reflect on what they had and have no more; Karen’s smile begins to slip.

The ensemble works wonderfully. Every character in the scene is on a journey but it’s primarily about Karen’s grief and Michele Lee’s performance is just wonderful - nicely reigned in even when the tears quietly flow. It feels like we’re on that sofa next to her, seeing her pain but allowing it because we know it’s part of her healing process. Michele was an Emmy nominee for this season (and this episode if I’m not mistaken - though I very well could be), and it would have been a very deserving win had she been recognised. My blood runs cold just thinking about that moment where Karen clutches her pendant - a present from Sid - while watching a video of herself unwrapping it and hugging him in delighted surprise.

One performer, though, outshines even Michele here. Ron Grant’s beautiful sweeping score carries the scene. Judiciously placed, it enhances what we see on screen by becoming the voices of the passively sitting characters. When their hearts gently swell so does the music. When Karen is overcome with love, warmth and poignant sadness, the score reflects this.

Something that could almost go unnoticed is Don Murray as Sid. As the characters watch, so convincing is the sense of reality of watching old films it’s easy to take these silent clips for granted and forget that most of the home movie scenes were filmed specifically for this episode. It’s another hallmark of the attention to detail that elevates Knots, and true to itself the scenes that play out perfectly encapsulate the minutiae of being part of a family unit. There’s the humour of Sid’s inability to keep the camera positioned for a video selfie, Karen arguing with Diana as Diana records her; the family volleyball game on the beach; decorating the Christmas tree and exchanging presents; Sid walking with his arm protectively around Michael. The convention of the time would usually have suggested a series of flashbacks to earlier episodes - and Knots was certainly rich enough in scenes even at this point. But the home movie angle allows us to stay in real time and in the moment with the characters which gives much more subjectivity. Yet another reason for this scene’s power.

The pacing of this episode is phenomenal. After the unspoken grief surrounding Sid’s death (over half a season earlier), and the minimal dialogue in the home movie scene (just half an episode earlier), Michele Lee blows us away with a five minute monologue in which Karen speaks to her husband’s gravestone about her decision to move on and take off her wedding ring. It’s truly stunning. We’ve waited a long time for it and when it comes it’s both poetically lyrical and beautifully simple. Karen is awkward, cynical, bashful, silly, forthright and - above all else - truthful. Importantly, this is a soliloquy. When Karen listened to the tape she shared it with no-one except us. Her tears earlier in the episode, too, were just between us. Even now she’s externalising her innermost feelings, there’s nobody there but Karen and us. And, perhaps, Sid.

Just perfect.






2. “Mama… I love you”
Knots Landing
Sacred Vows



In a world where characters frequently live out high drama with impunity, it’s eye opening to see someone faced with such stark consequences for their actions.

Lilimae never looked more frail, and the fragile history between she and Valene - with its recurring theme of abandonment - serves the story well. Lilimae pays the price for a few moments of vengefulness. Following up an ostensibly plot-driven cliffhanger with a deep, rich vein of pure character is a rarity. This isn’t an eye for an eye. It’s just incredibly sad.

There’s something very cruel about this most painful of moments between Val and Lilimae being chopped up into so much confetti and interspersed with scenes of Gary’s wedding to Abby. Adding insult to injury, it’s a brutal reminder that in life there are winners and there are losers. The haves and the have nots.

Jerrold Immel’s poignant motif from The Lie returns to complete things. And this time, with the benefit of a full orchestra it’s absolutely stunning.






3. Walking The Corridor/Journey Home/Sid’s Last Words
Knots Landing
Critical Condition



Leave it to Knots to take a refreshingly unexpected approach towards its first major loss. In the eight minutes or so following Sid’s game changing death not one of the main cast utters a discernible word. Nor does the surgeon who breaks the news to Karen. We’re not privy to what is said. Nor, by episode’s end, has anyone told us in their own words how they feel about the news. Instead of being part of things, the viewer is kept at arm’s length, seeing things from the point of view of those who are removed. The immediate aftermath is less about grief and more about isolation.

We see Karen learning of her husband’s death from the other side of the doors, from the point of view of her waiting family and friends. Critically, Karen herself is even isolated from the doctor on a number of levels. They each occupy their own window of the double doors, and each aperture feels like its own world. The seemingly insignificant detail that Karen is much taller than the surgeon isolates her further. It’s difficult to say for certain, but from our distant viewpoint it appears she receives the news of her husband’s death staring straight ahead, looking over and beyond the surgeon. In more general terms, she also looks in the direction of the surgeon’s arrival. Perhaps, it’s easy to imagine, towards the operating theatre where Sid now lies.

There’s a flip when Karen delivers the news to her anxiously waiting family and neighbours. Now we join the distantly watching surgeon’s point of view.

Psychologically, our enforced detachment has allowed us to experience some of the numbness and isolation that comes with shock. There’s an almost traditionally soapy scene between Karen and a nurse (“Your husband asked me to tell you… If anything happened… he made a tape recording before the operation”). But even here something is off kilter. The nurse reveals a major plot twist and Karen silently receives the news as though she’s a walk-on whose SAG contract forces her to remain mute.

There is one notable exception to the silent main cast. The last words of the episode go to Sid himself as his cassette plays out over prosaic scenes of the characters leaving the hospital: taking the lift down, parting ways in the car park; driving home in silence. Sid’s heartfelt recording becomes his epitaph, heard only by Karen when she is finally truly alone.

And Jerrold Immel’s music - most notably the motif first heard in The Lie - breaks your heart.







4. "You left me in a bad spot, Red."
Knots Landing
Noises Everywhere - Part II



Another death, another acting masterclass from Knots And yet another callback for Immel's tearjerking composition from The Lie. Noises Everywhere is must-see television, and Greg's private tears in front of his wife's video the most poignant moment therein.







5. “You’ll be her husband then”
The Colbys
Answered Prayers



A gem of a scene starts at the two and a half minute mark in the video above. Stephanie Beacham shows off her acting chops in this unusually lengthy scene. The chemistry she creates with Charlton Heston is just electric and very touching indeed.

 

Special mentions to...


“My pretty little girl. My pretty little Ellie.”
Dallas
The Reckoning



Gorgeous writing and a marvellous performance from Barbara Bel Geddes. The scene with Jock’s letter a beautiful moment for her but the coup de grace comes during a long moment where Ellie realises she can't avoid saying out loud that Jock wasn’t mentally competent and the silent anguish in her eyes tells us everything.

This was in and out of my top five, but as so many Dallas scenes have been nominated already it made a difficult decision easier.





The Empty Nursery
Knots Landing
We Gather Together

It seems half my choices could make it into a “dialogue-less scene” battle. I just find it a very special thing to spend time with wordless characters.

Val, left alone in the house for the first time since losing her babies, and walking barefoot round the room that was to be their nursery gets me every time. And Jerrold Immel’s score is the perfect match.

 

KL really did hit ya in the feels on a regular basis.

1. Greg's "You left me in a bad spot, Red" scene with Laura's videotape to him, KL
2. Karen listening to Sid's audio tape, KL
3. Val reveals herself "back from the dead" to Gary in that diner, KL
4. Lilimae begging Val not to leave her at the institution, KL
5. Laura on "the other video" reading "Goodnight, Moon" to an oblivious Meg, KL (a last-minute shocker they threw in to make us start crying all over again)

 

They were filmed just to use as part of the home movie sequence. I'm not sure (and would love to know) if Don Murray came back to do them or they filmed them earlier in the season alongside the two season openers. I have a feeling it's the latter, which may explain why Murray wasn't credited for the episode.

The attention to detail of filming these scenes to use for this is very impressive. Thank God they didn't go the Dynasty: The Reunion route with the home movies.

It did, and I think it's very telling of Knots's underdog status that Ron Grant wasn't even nominated for an Emmy for this episode.

At least Knots did eventually win its only Emmy for Outstanding Music Composition. But it deserved far more.

 

I just realized that it's basically the same concept storywise only the technique they used changed with time.

 

1. Laura's death on Knots Landing.
"You left me in a bad spot, Red."
It was also really heartbreaking when she read the goodnight story to her daughter at the very end and the baby hears her mother's voice but can't feel her presense.

2. Sid's death on Knots Landing
From when they find out and there are no words to when she listens to his audio tape at the very end. It's so sad and it perfectly captures the grief and shock they feel at the time.

3. Bobby talks to Pam at the hospital for the last time on Dallas.
It is after her accident and she is covered in bandages. He cries in the scene and it's so sad since she is soon to leave him and never return.

4. Donna and Ray hear that the baby they are expecting has down syndrome on Dallas.

5. Birthday card from the Fishers on Knots Landing
What moves me the most about this is the fact that Sheila is expecting a baby. So the Fishers will finally have a child of their own too.