The Lie

Knots Landing

Season 1 Episode 4

Air Date:  January 17, 1980

Recap:  Everyone on the cul de sac are reading the morning paper, there is a rapist, in the neighborhood, and he struck again, everyone is concerned about this but Richard is more concerned about losing money on some stocks.  He isnt’ happy with anything she does, his orange juice has seeds in it and she made him fried eggs.  She and Val were supposed to go to the community center to help Karen, but she tells Val that she forgot about her dentist appointment, she drops Val off at the center.  She goes to a bar, she is a regular there, all the men there are staring at her.  One man comes over and lights her cigarette, he tells her that he’s noticed her and shows her a drawing that he did of her. 

   They go back to hi s place so he can draw her.  He sits her down in a chair musses her hair up and unbuttons a few buttons I was just glad that he didn’t pose her like Rose from Titanic then kisses her, she tells him to stop, he asks her what she expected when she came to his place, she says that he was said he was going to paint her.  He goes after her and tears the sleeve of her dress and throws her to the bed, she struggles, but soon gives up.

   Karen and Val get home, and Diana gets out of another car, Karen asks who that was, and Diana tells her that she hitched a ride from someone, Karen grounds her.  Val walks back to her house and sees Laura get home, and run into the house, she can see that something is wrong.  A few moments later Richard comes home too, but is too busy to stop when Val calls to him.

   Inside Richard is looking for something, he finds Laura in the bedroom, and asks her what happened when he sees her torn dress and her cut lip.  He asks what happened, she doesn’t speak, and he assumes that she was the next victim of the rapist, he lead her to the bed and asks her if he hurt her, and asks her if it happened at the house, she nods.  He says that he’s going to call the police, she tries to stop him, but he calls the doctor then the police.

   Val, Karen and Ginger are sitting in the living room, and ask Richard how Laura is, he tells them that she was attacked 15 minutes before he got home, if he didn’t stop at the bank he could have stopped the attack.  When Val hears this she knows that this is a lie.

   They all go to Karen’s they talk about the attack and Diana runs to her room, and Karen goes after her, she can’t understand why this happened, and tells her mother that she’s learned her lesson and won’t go hitchhiking anymore, the whole scene is like an after school special. 

   Kenny joins Gary and Sid they talk about what happened and Sid says that he’s like to go patrol the streets and try to get the rapist himself.

   Richard gets into bed and asks Laura if she’s still awake, he tells her that they will get that guy and they will throw the book at him.  She tells him to stop talking.

   Val goes to Laura’s and finds her scrubbing the floors, Richard calls and tells her that she needs to go to the police station, they got a suspect in custody and she needs to go identify him.  Val offers to go with her.

   Before Laura goes in another lady comes out and says that she knew the man right away because of his scar uh-oh this would never happen on Law and Order.  Laura goes in and looks at the line up well it’s not really a line up they got like 4 guys still around a table, Laura tries to say she doesn’t remember what he looks like, then id’s the guy with the scar, the detective asks if she’s sure, Laura says yes.  The detective told her to try to remember the guy and mention if she remembers any details about the guy “like a scar” where was this guys lawyer, if this was Law and Order, this guy would have been released.  So the detective says that he’s the one since he’s been id'd by 3 different women. 

  The three of them leave and Richard is pretty pleased with the results till they see the guy getting into a car, he asks the detective what’s going on.  She tells him that he’s got an alibi for the time Laura says she was raped, so if she was wrong the other women could be wrong too.  Richard and Laura go, Laura knows that Val knows that she was lying now.

   Jason, Richard and Laura’s son finds the drawing in her purse, she gets upset with Richard when he says that he likes it and wants to hang it up at his office.

   Karen is still on the curb with Gary and Val, they decide to take Laura out for lunch.  They ask Richard how she’s doing, Karen suggest that Laura might need someone to talk to, Gary asks if she means a therapist, Karen says no, friends, because rape is a female experience.  I guess that male rape wosn’t a issue in the late 70’s.

   Gary asks Val what’s bothering her, she tells him that she thinks that they just need to give Laura some time.

   Karen asks Sid what they should talk to Laura about, he tells her that she is wounded and needs time to heal, and that they should just talk about what they always talk about.

   Richard tells Laura that he loves her and that he’s there whenever she needs him, she starts to cry and he tells her it’s okay and that he’s there for her.

   At lunch Val is very quiet, Laura tells them that she is going to start going to the community center to help Karen and start taking some cooking classes.  They are toasting, when Laura sees the man, she drops  her glass and tells them that she wants to go, as she passes she realizes that it isn’t him after all.  At home Val follows Laura inside, she tells her that if she feels like talking, but Laura tells her that she knows everything already.  But then she begins to tell her about her past, she was the girl that no one ever noticed, she had to do things to get attention, and when she was older, she was with a lot of men, but Richard was the only one who came back.  She quit college to put him through law school, and she felt important and special that he needed her, but things changed and now she feels left out, since he and Jason are so close.  Val tells her that she doesn’t need to tell her what really happened, but she needs to do something so it doesn’t hurt her anymore. 

   Laura looks at the detectives card but before she can call Richard calls her and tells her that the police caught the guy again, and this time they don’t need her testimony.  He tells her that he wants her to call the neighbors he’s going to taken them all out to celebrate.  After she hangs up Laura calls the detective and tells her that she wasn’t raped by the man with the scar, the detective tells her that she knew that and asks if they need to go after the man who did, Laura tells her no.

   At the restaurant Val points out that the menu doesn't have any prices, Gary tells her not to worry about it because Richard is paying.  Richard asks Laura what she wants for dinner, but ends up ordering for her.  He asks Karen what she wants, she orders exactly what Laura wanted.  Laura excuses herself and goes to the bar, Val watches her as she lets a man light her cigarette.

Final Thoughts:  This episode bothered me because I've seen so many episodes of Law and Order so I know that that suspect would have been released the moment the other woman said something about the scar when she was leaving the room, and when the detective was pushing Laura to id the suspect his lawyer would have stopped her right there.  Other than that it was a good episode, strong acting, it made Richard a bit likeable till the end then he went right back to being a jerk.

Best Outfit:  Val dresses like a little girl, maybe if she didn't wear her hair like she does then it wouldn't look like she's in grade school.

Fight Count:  0