Episodes 354 – 400
On New Year’s Eve, the Fishers and their friends gathered for Molly and Brent’s engagement party, dubbed “A Black and White Affair” because the guests were asked to dress only in black and white. At the party, Ryan looked on longingly while Claire and Tim spent time together. Jason and Lauren worked to bring Alex and Trevor together, but the tension between the men remained. The biggest surprise of the night came when envelopes were passed out that explained that the party wasn’t only an engagement party–Molly and Brent would be married that night!
Camille was scheduled to be the maid of honor, but when Sarah went to give Molly her congratulations, they wound up awkwardly agreeing to have Sarah play the part instead. Nevertheless, the wedding went off without a hitch, and after years of struggling to be together, Molly and Brent finally wed. They also announced that Molly was expecting a child.
Ryan tried his best to embark upon 2005 without Claire. He was thrilled when Molly helped him get a job at Objection. Meanwhile, Tim worked hard in physical therapy and in his marriage to Claire. He worried that she might still have feelings for the man she’d been dating–whom he knew to be Ryan–but Claire assured him that her choice was to be with Tim. However, neither Claire nor Ryan was fully able to put the past behind them.
One night, Tim planned to surprise Claire with a special romantic dinner when she arrived home from work. But Ryan intercepted Claire at the hospital and convinced her to come on a “last date” with him. While Tim waited for her at home, Claire reconnected with Ryan, though the date came to a halt when he overstepped his bounds and kissed her. The next day, Tim figured out where Claire had been and nearly came to blows with Ryan. She forced Ryan to leave her alone, going so far as to compare him to his late father, Stan Lincoln.
The confrontation convinced Ryan that he had to move on. Yet Claire came to him, looking to apologize and make sure he knew that he wasn’t like Stan. The attraction between them was too great to deny, and when Claire went home, she found herself telling Tim that she needed time to think and sort out her life. Claire moved out of the Fishers’ house so that she could have time away from both men to decide what she wanted.
Not long afterward, Claire was enraged when the brothers argued at Travis’s birthday party, but Tim was convinced that Ryan had something to do with Dr. Domingo and the clinic in Vermont. He explained his theory to Diane, and together they propositioned Nick Moriani: Tim would keep quiet about the incriminating evidence he’d learned on the pier on the night he was shot, if Nick would implicate Ryan in Tim’s kidnapping. Nick seemed receptive to the idea. In the meantime, Tim found himself enjoying time with Diane and their daughter, Samantha.
Tim hoped that his plan would work before Ryan put Claire and the kids in any further danger. However, things soon spiralled out of his control. Domingo cut a deal with the authorities and named the person who had coordinated Tim’s captivity: Nick! Moriani was arrested, and Katherine–who had been forcing Nick to do her bidding for months, following the revelation of his mob activities–was embarrassed in front of her society friends.
Ryan decided to take matters into his own hands. He approached Nick, who was out on bail, and asked to return to the family fold; he knew Nick was running an operation for the Esposito crime family in King’s Bay. Nick, though skeptical, accepted him back. Soon afterward, there was a drug bust at Objection’s boutique shop: Scotty Young was caught buying cocaine. The arrest uncovered an entire narcotics ring being run out of the store, headed by Nick. Ryan secretly revealed to the Fishers that he had worked with the police to set up a sting.
The effects of the bust snowballed through King’s Bay. Katherine went ahead with divorce proceedings. Nick wound up in prison again. Only the Fishers were aware of how Ryan put himself on the line to expose Nick’s criminal activity once and for all, but Camille was furious when Objection received bad press and investors balked. Ryan found his job in danger.
Things finally came to a head between Tim, Claire, and Ryan. Though Tim and Claire shared a brief reconnection, she was outraged to learn that Tim had tried to strike a deal with Nick to implicate Ryan. Tim argued that he only did it to protect his family, but for Claire, her decision was finally made: she belonged with Ryan. Tim was devastated.
Diane, whose advances Tim had previously rejected, found herself in a complicated situation. She tried to talk her pal, Brian Hamilton, out of proposing to his girlfriend, Kelsey Barker. Brian insinuated that Diane was jealous and that he had every right to live his own life, whether or not she approved. But when Brian’s plans to propose were fouled up, he wound up getting drunk with Diane, and they fell into bed together. Brian, though guilty over having cheated on Kelsey, came clean with her and looked forward to building a relationship with Diane. But Diane had ideas of her own: after his falling-out with Claire, Tim returned to her and suggested that he might be willing to give things a shot between them. Diane was glad to take him up on his offer and brushed off her night with Brian as a single night of recreation, much to Brian’s dismay.
Ryan and Claire settled into their renewed relationship, and he urged her to consider divorcing Tim. Claire was reluctant but knew that she would have to face it eventually. She addressed the prospect with Tim, who sadly knew that it was inevitable. While Tim found solace in his burgeoning relationship with Diane, Ryan and Claire were stunned to learn that Nick was once again out on bail. He negotiated his release by divulging to the police that it was Julian St. John who had helped coordinate the Objection drug ring from the inside. Ryan warned Nick to stay away from Claire and the Fishers.
Julian’s arrest for drug trafficking was the culmination of many months of unethical behavior. He staunchly opposed Molly’s new post as a designer for Objection. Sarah Fisher, who had been hired to investigate Julian’s wife’s supposed infidelity, struggled to find conclusive proof. She and Diane Bishop even found themselves in a showdown with any angry Rottweiler as they searched for evidence of Margo St. John’s affair. Sarah was floored when she learned that Julian had propositioned Mia Davich. Sarah deduced that Julian was setting up his wife to appear to be having an affair, so that he could divorce her without having to pay her a large settlement. Though she struggled to maintain her professional pride in the face of this deception, Sarah told off her dishonest client and focused on other aspects of her life.
She began the year on the outs with Matt Gray, though they continued to be thrown together as they parented their daughter, Tori. Matt found himself with a persistent admirer in Jennie Burkle after his one-night stand with the young waitress, despite his attempts to make it clear that he wanted their relationship to remain platonic. Things got worse when Matt, feeling sorry for Jennie, helped her out of a bind at home with her controlling father, the widowed Ed Burkle.
One night, Jennie tried to spring a romantic evening on Matt. He resisted, and Jennie left. Sarah stopped by to tell Matt that his brother had called her. Jennie returned land found them together; she had a mark on her face and claimed that her father hit her. The next day, Jennie went to the police station–and later, Matt was arrested for raping her! Sarah called Jake, who returned to King’s Bay with Mia to bail Matt out of jail and support him. Sarah vowed to prove Matt’s innocence.
Her attempts to coax the truth out of Jennie proved fruitless. However, throughout the ordeal, Sarah and Matt grew close again. Matt and Jake were finally able to put the past behind them and mend their relationship. By chance, Sarah discovered that Jennie had run into Courtney Chase on the night of the alleged rape. Courtney was able to prove that Jennie had the bruise prior to having returned to Matt’s. Armed with this information, Sarah and Matt convinced Jennie to drop the charges and quit her job at the Fisherman’s Pier.
Matt and Sarah, finally able to appreciate each other fully, became engaged. Sarah wanted to get married as soon as possible, but she created drama within the family when she chose Diane as her maid of honor instead of Molly. Family and friends gathered on the beach to see Sarah and Matt wed. However, Sarah went missing shortly before the ceremony was to begin. No one had noticed Jennie lurking nearby; little did they know that Sarah was locked in the freezer of Bill’s restaurant! Matt saw Jennie’s car driving away and alerted Brent, who put the police on the lookout for her. Jason and Courtney found Sarah before it was too late, and the wedding was back on.
Sarah walked down the aisle, but before she and Matt could say their vows, Molly went into labor! The ceremony was postponed as the Fishers rushed to the hospital. Molly gave birth to twin boys, whom she and Brent named Caleb and Christian. Sarah’s annoyance over the interruption was quieted when Matt arranged for a small ceremony in the hospital’s chapel. At long last, Sarah and Matt were married, and they returned to the Fisherman’s Pier to celebrate with their guests.
There were other surprises in store that night, however. Jake and Mia continued the parade of good news by announcing their engagement. On a more somber note, Brent pulled Matt aside to tell him that the police had found Jennie: she drove her car off the road and was killed in the accident. Matt mourned the tragic end of the young woman who had never found fulfillment or happiness.
At the start of the year, Jason Fisher and Courtney Chase were working toward the same goal, albeit individually: each of them wanted to pass the Senior Pairs skating test. Jason practiced with new partner Kelsey Barker; Courtney planned to use Dylan Carrington to pass the test and then dump him, since he had wronged her friend, Alex Marshall. But her plan went awry: the test was a disaster, and both she and Dylan failed. Dylan tried to blame the bad program on Court, going so far as to threaten her physically. Jason intervened, for which Courtney was grateful. The judges overheard Dylan’s inappropriate outburst, ruining his chances in skating for good.
Jason’s own test did not go much better. He made a crucial mistake that resulted in him failing, though Kelsey passed the test. She proposed that Jason and Courtney skate together for this final test. Though both were hesitant, eventually Jason cleared it with Lauren, and the childhood friends began practicing together again. Kelsey focused on her job at the Objection boutique, but after Brian cheated on her with Diane, she decided it was time to leave King’s Bay. She returned home to her family in Canada and then moved to Seattle to manage Objection’s new store there.
With his skating career in tatters, Dylan turned his attention to vengeance. Just as Alex’s novel was about to be distributed by Vision Publishing, Diane and Brian received a claim that Alex had plagiarized his book from another writer. Alex swore that the accusation was a lie and set out to find out the culprit. At first he confronted Trevor, who was horrified that Alex thought he was capable of something so nasty.
Alex learned that the plagiarism allegation had been rescinded. Alex realized that Trevor, having deduced that Dylan was the culprit, had talked Dylan into dropping the revenge plot. Alex worried that he had ruined everything by hastily accusing Trevor, but he located him at the secret spot by the river where Trevor had brought him months before. They put their miscommunications behind them and finally became a couple.
Shortly afterward, Alex ran into Dylan, who told Alex to stay away from him. He claimed that Trevor had threatened him with a knife! Dylan moved back to Alaska shortly afterward. Alex confronted Trevor, who admitted to having done it because he wanted to rescue Alex’s publishing career. The incident troubled Alex, but Trevor swore that it was a desperate measure, and Alex overcame his worries. His book was published, and he had to cope with both good and bad reviews.
During a book signing in Portland, Alex was shocked to find himself face-to-face with Seth Ashby, the college roommate who inspired his novel. Seth was angry that Alex had published such a thinly veiled account of their relationship. Alex was surprised when Seth’s fiancee showed up at the restaurant where they were having drinks; clearly she had no idea who Alex was or what his connection to Seth was. Things ended on a sour note between the men, and Alex returned home, where he made no mention of the encounter.
As Courtney’s partnership with Jason kicked into gear, her romantic relationship with Josh Taylor fell apart. Neither was too devastated about the breakup, but it thrust Josh into even closer proximity with his coworker, Lauren. He called her to pick him up from a party one night, and despite her annoyance with him, Lauren began to see a more appealing part of his personality. By the time they took a business trip to Seattle together, they were able to enjoy Lauren’s planned tourist activities together, even though Josh was reluctant at first.
Jason considered proposing to Lauren. He bought a ring and planned to give it to her on Christmas Day. But Josh monopolized Lauren’s attention during the holiday celebration at the Fishers’, and both Alex and Courtney noticed this and told Jason that they thought Josh had romantic designs on Lauren. Jason confronted him, and the men wound up in a brawl that ruined the Christmas gathering that Paula had worked so hard to plan.