Previously…
– After sharing a near-death experience with Brent, Molly realized the depth of her feelings for her ex-husband and ended her relationship with Conrad.
– Molly and Brent impulsively slept together, but the morning after, he told her that he still has feelings for Claire, too.
– Travis informed Caleb about his run-in with Jasmine at the opening of The Wild Lady.
– Following the car accident that killed Tori’s unborn child, Marcus awoke from his coma and was released from the hospital, but doctors warned that he’d have a long recovery ahead.
Thick drops of rain paint the sidewalks and streets of downtown King’s Bay even darker. Without an umbrella to shield himself, Conrad Halston hurries through the sudden downpour and ducks into 322 Bar & Grill.
He speaks briefly with the woman at the host’s stand, and she heads off to check on his takeout order. Conrad is brushing some stray raindrops off his camel-colored wool coat when he notices a familiar face sitting at the bar alone. When she sees him, Claire Fisher raises a hand in greeting.
Conrad waves back and approaches her.
“Hi, Conrad,” Claire says as she finishes a bite of her Cobb salad. “Are you here for lunch?”
“I’m picking up some food before I go back to the office. I’m coming from the courthouse,” the attorney tells her.
“I would’ve invited you to join me otherwise. How have things been?”
“That’s very kind of you.” He hesitates, sticking his hands into the warm pockets of his coat. “But I take it you haven’t heard, then.”
Claire cocks her head. “Heard what?”
Conrad sighs. “Molly and I are no longer seeing each other.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” She sets down her fork. “I thought you guys made a really nice couple.”
“Thank you. I thought the same. Apparently Molly didn’t.”
“She’s been through a really traumatic experience,” Claire says. “When did this happen?”
“The night of that bar opening — Travis’s mother’s bar.”
“Molly told someone she wasn’t feeling well that night.”
“I suppose she wasn’t in the mood to celebrate after ending things with me,” Conrad replies. “Which does help the blow to my ego a little bit.”
Claire props up an elbow on the wooden top of the bar. “Are you sure it’s really over? Like I said, she went through a major trauma–”
“I haven’t heard from her since.”
“Have you reached out?”
He shakes his head faintly. “I’ve considered it, but I don’t need to be a pest. If she felt it was right to end it, then I’ll respect that.”
“Well, what was her reasoning?”
“Nothing specific. She claimed she isn’t in the right space for a relationship right now. I can’t argue with that.”
As she tips her head to one side sympathetically, Claire tells him, “I’m really sorry to hear that. You’re a great guy, Conrad. Molly was lucky to have you.”
“Thanks for saying that. I suspect…” He shifts his weight from one foot to the other as he hesitates.
“What?”
“It’s nothing.”
Near the entrance, the hostess signals to him and holds up his takeout bag.
“That’s my cue,” Conrad says. “Take care, Claire.”
“You, too. I really am sorry to hear about you and Molly.”
“Thanks.” He offers a polite smile before crossing back to retrieve his lunch and then stepping back out into the rain.
At the bar, Claire picks up her fork again, but it lingers over her salad as she contemplates his words — or lack thereof: I suspect…
“I wonder what else is going on there,” she says quietly to herself before she resumes eating her lunch.
—–
Inside the cafeteria of King’s Bay Academy, students eat sandwiches, burgers, and salads while listening to the rain pelt the floor-to-ceiling windows at one end of the large, busy room, which currently seems filled with end-to-end sounds of lunchtime chatter.
“That sucks that you can’t play for the entire season,” Christian Taylor comments as he dips a chicken tender into a pool of ranch dressing on his plate. He sits at a table with two friends; all three of them are clustered on one side, leaving several empty chairs scattered across from them.
Marcus Gray shrugs. “It’s okay. It could be a lot worse, you know?”
“Obviously,” Bree Halston says as she picks up one of her apple slices. “But that doesn’t mean it’s been easy. Your physical therapy sounds so intense.”
“And that’s coming from a figure skater,” Christian chimes in. The three of them share a laugh. “But you feel pretty okay, Marcus?”
“Yeah. A lot better than I did a few weeks ago, even. I’m just tired a lot, and…” Marcus rubs the back of his own neck. “I always kinda have this headache, but it’s like a– a hum instead of a roar, if that makes sense.”
“Totally,” Bree says with a nod.
Marcus appears lost in thought as he continues to rub his neck. “I just keep thinking about if I could go back… hit my brakes and stop the car… then Tori and Zane’s baby…”
“You can’t change that,” Christian says firmly, but there is a compassion to his voice that helps it land as more supportive than scolding. “Don’t do that to yourself. You’ll go crazy.”
“Everyone knows it was an accident. Even Tori. Especially Tori,” Bree adds.
“Still,” Marcus responds before letting out a heavy sigh.
—–
Across the cafeteria, Caleb Taylor laughs uproariously at one of his soccer teammates’ jokes as he hops up from his seat. He dumps the contents of his tray into a nearby trashcan.
“You’re not even gonna pretend to recycle that?” a voice asks.
Caleb glances up to see Jasmine Knight standing nearby. She chucks a paper plate into the blue recycling bin.
“It’s all dirty, anyway,” Caleb mutters.
“Or you’re too lazy to do it,” Jasmine says.
Caleb looks over at her sharply. “What’s your problem?”
“My problem?”
“Yeah. You don’t even look at me for weeks and now you’re on my ass about a paper cup?”
Jasmine rolls her eyes. “Whatever, loser.”
Caleb shifts his eyes from left to right, checking that no one is paying attention to their encounter; the students all around are too absorbed in their own conversation to notice two of their classmates chatting by the trashcan.
“Why am I the loser?” he says through gritted teeth. “My cousin Travis filled me in on what you tried to do, by the way.”
Jasmine lets out a tiny, caustic laugh. “Get him to buy me a drink? That party was lame.”
“It was the grand opening of a business, not a rave.”
“Whatever. I wanted a drink.”
“Travis is my cousin. And he’s, like, ten years older than you. Than us.”
“I’m sorry you’re related to every stupid person in this town,” Jasmine says.
“He has a girlfriend, too. Like, a serious one. So back off him.”
“I don’t even care about your cousin.” She folds her arms. “What, are you jealous?”
“Jealous of what?”
“That I could’ve hooked up with your cousin.”
“Why would I be jealous of that?”
Jasmine simply raises a dark eyebrow in response.
“No!” Caleb snaps. “First you almost get me arrested-p”
“You almost got yourself arrested,” she replies. “That wasn’t my fault.”
“Because you sent me to buy your shit. And did you hear what happened to my parents? They could’ve died.”
“I didn’t lock your mom and dad in that trunk, Caleb. Get a grip. All I was trying to do was have some fun with you — it’s not my fault it all went to hell.” She sneers at him a moment longer, then shakes her head and walks off.
With a grunt, Caleb watches her leave the cafeteria. He tosses his empty tray roughly onto the shelf above the trashcan and then goes to rejoin his friends.
—–
After finishing her lunch, Claire pays her bill with cash, puts on her coat, and leaves 322. She pops open her umbrella and braves the busy sidewalk, where midday foot traffic is made even more complicated by the weather. As she rounds the corner to return to her car in the rear parking lot, she stops instinctively at the sound of her name.
“Claire!” Molly Taylor calls out, and the sound of high heels clapping against the wet pavement can be heard.
Claire turns to see her former sister-in-law hurrying toward her, also covered by an umbrella.
“Hi, Molly,” Claire says, somewhat uneasily in light of the conversation she just had with Conrad. “How are you?”
Molly smiles as they shuffle beneath an awning to chat. “I’m doing well. I have a lunch meeting a few blocks down and decided to walk — which might have been a mistake.” She gestures out broadly at the falling rain.
“Probably still easier than parking downtown.”
“True.”
An uneasy silence that Claire can’t quite diagnosis hangs between them.
“Did you just come from a shift at the hospital?” Molly asks.
“A little bit ago, yeah. Then I stopped for lunch because I don’t have much at home, and…”
Molly eyes her curiously for a moment. “And what?”
“Oh. Nothing.” Claire glances out at the raindrops slapping on the sidewalk. “I actually just ran into Conrad.”
“Oh.” Molly inhales sharply and then looks down at her feet. “How’s he doing?”
“Taking everything in stride. He told me, as I’m sure you can tell.”
Molly nods. “I never wanted to hurt him. Conrad’s a good man — a very good man.”
“He is. So what happened?” Claire asks. “Why did you end things with him?”
—–
Marcus focuses all his energy on spinning the lock and stopping it at the right numbers. On the second try, it clicks, and his locker opens up. He is digging for his trigonometry book when he hears footsteps enter the locker bay; they echo off the walls and the metal lockers.
“There you are,” Jake Gray says as he approaches his son. He wears a white polo shirt beneath a black windbreaker. “I tried texting you a little while ago.”
“My phone’s been in my bag,” Marcus tells him, holding up his backpack as some sort of visual proof. “What’s up?”
“We’re gonna practice in the gym today. The field’s a mess.” Jake gestures toward the end of the locker bay, where the rain can still be seen falling heavily over the school’s campus.
“Oh.”
Marcus goes quiet as he loads his Trig book into the backpack.
“I’m gonna need your help calling plays,” Jake continues. “You know how the guys get when they’re trapped inside. Somehow even less able to pay attention.”
After a pause of several seconds, Marcus zips up his bag and says, “Okay.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“I know you, kid. What is it?”
Marcus contemplates his response as he hoists the backpack up over his shoulders.
“It’s just, I can’t even play,” he says softly. “Why do I have to come to practice?”
“You’re still part of the team, Marcus. We’re not just gonna cut you out ‘cause you got injured. Come on. And who knows — might be good training for you to coach, too.”
The teenager considers this. He can see the enthusiasm in his father and coach’s eyes.
“I’ll see you in the gym after school,” he says. “I’ve gotta get to Trig.”
“See you there,” Jake says, offering his son a pat on the shoulder before they part ways.
Marcus pulls his hood over his head as he steps back out into the rain, wishing that it would somehow flood the gym and cancel practice for good.
—–
Molly’s long eyelashes flap up and down as she considers her response. Claire waits, holding her umbrella downward as they stand beneath the safety of the awning.
“I have too much going on right now to focus on anything serious,” Molly finally says. “I know that probably sounds like an excuse, but…”
“It’s not an excuse if it’s the truth,” Claire says. “Is it?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
“All I mean is, you’ve gone through something very traumatic recently. You had a– well, more than a near-death experience. I can’t imagine what you and Brent went through in the trunk of that car.”
Molly’s features harden into something inscrutable.
“Molly, if you’re struggling with anything…”
“I’m not,” Molly responds, a bit harshly.
“Okay.” Claire holds up her free palm as a sign of peace. “As long as you feel secure in your decision.”
“I do.”
Claire cannot quite discern the look that Molly gives her next.
“I should get going,” Claire says. “I need to get in a few hours of sleep.”
“Yeah, and I have my meeting.” Molly steps out from beneath the awning and raises her umbrella. “Good to see you.”
“You, too.”
As Claire takes another moment to gather herself, Molly moves back down the street, on the way to her meeting. Claire watches her go but isn’t quite able to put her finger on what’s bothering her.
“I hope you’re being honest with me, Molly,” she says under her breath before she, too, steps back out into the rain and heads to her car.
END OF EPISODE 992
Will Claire discover Molly and Brent’s tryst?
Was Molly too quick to break up with Conrad?
Is Jake putting too much pressure on Marcus?
Discuss all this and more in the comments below!
I get why maybe Claire would be concerned for Molly in regards to what happened between Brent and herself being locked in the trunk of the car that was set on fire. But at the same time if her former sister-in-law wanted to break up with Conrad then that is her business. Does deep down Claire suspect Molly wants her man back?
Great seeing the teens getting featured in this episode. Seems like Christian, Caleb, Bree, Marcus and Jasmine will round out this generations of young characters on the series as of now. I like how you differentiated between the less popular Christian, Bree and Marcus to the more popular jock table with Caleb. Jasmine has no remorse for getting Caleb into trouble. I wonder what kind of home life she comes from? Marcus seems perhaps he doesn’t want to play football anymore. I always got a feeling he never wanted to play and was doing this make his father proud of him to begin with. Also like how he still feels guilt about what happened to Tori and the baby too.
Good Episode!
Bre
Thanks, as always, for taking the time to post!
I’m not sure if Claire has ever 100% felt confident that Brent was entirely over Molly — but since Molly was with Philip and then Conrad, it might’ve seemed like a moot point. There’s definitely some latent insecurity there. It was fun to write those scenes knowing that Molly is aware of what happened and Claire has no idea. Claire is also obviously quite clued-in to the fact that Molly and Brent shared a near-death experience, which can naturally bond two people, so…
I really enjoyed having the chance to focus on the teens a little more. We’ll be getting more of that as we get into 2020. Everyone kind of has his/her own little journey going on. Jake is definitely putting pressure on Marcus to be a football player. Marcus doesn’t necessarily dislike playing, but now that he can’t because of doctor’s orders, it’s putting strain on their relationship. We’ll get to see more on that front soon.
Thanks again!
Finally caught up before a dinner party tonight!
I absolutely love Loretta! I’m curious as to what she has up her sleeve to try to get out of jail. Her running around would be so fun. Her line about the gays doing everything for her was a riot even though she’s been in jail for years. I’m super curious as to how Elly plays into this.
I love Alex and Jason’s friendship. I suspect that they will get the test results back and it will show that they were drugged but with Loretta involved someone could alter the results. I guess with sexuality being so fluid, this is why people are thinking Jason could have slept with Alex? Trevor and Sabrina should know that he’s straight by now?
Oh Claire and Molly talking about the split from Conrad. I don’t know if Claire is, uh, smart enough to put anything together about Molly’s real motives about the split. This triangle does have the makings to be pretty epic tho!
Good couple of episodes! You’re so close to the big 1000
D
Thank you for taking the time to catch up at such a busy time of year, Dallas!
Loretta was killing me. I had scribbled down some of that dialogue months ago and had been dying to use it. She’s such a ridiculous loose cannon. I like that she also forces Spencer to examine his own morality. There’s a lot he’ll justify doing, but she really pushes the limits. Glad you enjoyed their scenes.
I always enjoy the opportunity to have Jason and Alex share some meaty material. I don’t think most people necessarily believe that Jason would’ve slept with Alex at this stage in their lives, but the evidence as presented *is* pretty weird and damning — Alex went over there late at night, Jason lied about where he was in the morning, etc. And Trevor is more upset that Alex went running to Jason’s without even telling him than he necessarily was about the implication that they slept together. We’ll get to see more of Sabrina’s side of this soon, too.
Claire finding out about the breakup from Conrad felt like the perfect way to ignite that triangle in her mind without her even really knowing what’s up. I’m really excited to play out this stuff with her, Brent, and Molly in the coming months.
Thanks again!
The funny thing with Claire is I have always found her to be the side character even when she was heavily featured in the early years of the series. She has always been a character to react to situations and storylines as opposed to moving them forward. So for her to get this interaction with Molly is sort of gold. Because the answers to questions Claire doesn’t even know she needs to ask are right in front of her. I don’t think she was wrong to push for information from Molly. Not in the grand scheme of things. But I think she could have been a little less elephant in a china shop about it. Which, however, given her interactions with Paula all these years, she would have learned by now about these Fisher women, right? Anyhow, I do like how you have built the fighting power for both couples. & I like how you have, throughout this last year, built a sort of friendship between Claire and Conrad. I see a tango between the four of them in the future.
I also agree that the younger generation are hitting their stride in a different way than the Jason era and the Travis era had done previously. So it feels more authentic than for it to be that generic Summer Break Beach time drama llama that the soaps tend to make happen. I just know Jasmine is going to spice things up for this crowd it’ll be interesting to see if you’ve developed longevity for her character or if she’s more of a character development plot. Either way, Caleb definitely needs Jasmine to round him out and I have a feeling she’s going to need him as well in the future.
Thanks for taking the time to post, Michael!
That’s an interesting point about Claire. She’s generally been more of a traditional heroine-type, making her reactive more than a catalyst for story. When she’s been more proactive, it’s in reaction to threats — like when she insisted on investigating the Morianis way back when, for example. Whether she’s fully conscious of it or not, she’s perceiving a newly single Molly as something of a threat, given what Molly and Brent just went through. It’s crazy but very fun to get to play a juicy triangle like this with original characters, 22 years later.
Glad you’re enjoying the younger set thus far. Because they’re so young (16 as opposed to being 19-20 like Jason’s crew was when the series premiered), their stories are a little more in the background for now, but we’re progressively seeing that they each have their own little struggles and that those are beginning to overlap. I always view the teen set as, at least initially, a way of creating story for their parents and relatives, before they branch out into their own leading roles. We’re slowly seeing that transition take place now. Jasmine isn’t going to disappear any time soon, though she’ll remain more of a B-level character for the time being. She’s a lot of fun to write, I’ll tell you that much!