Episode 33: The Mouse

Wednesday, August 10, 1966

 

My name is Victoria Winters. It seems like years since I came here to Collinwood, where the tension halts the flow of time. But the days have passed, and I’m no closer to the answers I’d hoped to find. Answers I feel are rooted within the paneled walls of this great mansion, and in the heart of the woman who never leaves its grounds.

Carolyn finds Liz sitting alone in the dark and wants to know if she’s all right. Liz tells Carolyn she wants her to be happy. To please be happy.

Liz tells Carolyn she wasn’t there when David got home; she was at the cottage. David won’t talk to her. Carolyn says it should be over now, shouldn’t it?

Liz thinks it’ll go on and on. Although she has taken care of the brake story. It was just an accident. Carolyn thinks she owes Burke an apology. Liz tells her to stop worrying about Burke. “Who should I worry about? David?”

“He is your cousin.”

Carolyn would rather have one friend like Burke than a ten cousins like that little monster. (A hundred cousins like David. Yikes.) She decides to fix some tea.

Liz warns her not to trust Burke.

“I like Burke, sure, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to run away with him. Of course, he hasn’t asked me.”

Liz tells her not to joke about that.

Carolyn says she’s not ready to marry Joe. She knows he’s in love with her. The person she doesn’t know about is her.

Joe is getting drunk at the Blue Whale. 

He tells Burke Devlin that the whole world is coming to an end. Burke says they could be friends. Joe accuses him of trying to steal his girl. Burke says he’s not interested in stealing anybody’s girl. Burke asks why he’s so upset.

The friend he was going to buy a boat with has to pull out of the deal because his wife is going to have a baby.

Liz tells Carolyn that David isn’t going to be leaving. Carolyn doesn’t think this is safe.

“He’s my nephew.”

“Well, I’m sure Jack the Ripper had an aunt.”

Liz thinks if Carolyn feels that way, she should marry Joe and leave this madhouse.

Carolyn visits Vicki in her room and wants to know if she thinks the whole family is crazy. And why she would stay. Not that she wouldn’t hate it if Vicki left. Carolyn wonders what’s wrong with her, what’s wrong with all of them.

“Has your mother been talking to you about marriage again?”

Carolyn says she wants to find out about herself, just like Vicki does. And she thinks the worst thing she could do to a nice guy like Joe is bring him into this family.

Joe says he and Carolyn could be happy if it weren’t for her family. Burke thinks he’s had enough to drink. Joe thinks he should belt Burke in the mouth. He’s tired of being good old reliable Joe Haskell, the mouse.

Vicki is about to leave to meet Burke (she’s borrowing Carolyn’s car) when Joe arrives, demanding to see Carolyn. Liz notes that he’s drunk, and she and Vicki try to get him to leave. 

Carolyn hears the ruckus and comes down. “You’re potted,” she says, greatly amused.

“Your mother was more ladylike; she said I was drunk.”

Joe drags the three of them into the drawing room. He tells Carolyn she’s a very funny girl, and she’s also a very sad girl. He tells Liz he wants her to know what she’s done to Carolyn. He says Carolyn is scared to marry anyone. Because of Liz, sitting in this house for eighteen years, ever since Carolyn’s father walked out on her. She won’t get married because she sees what it did to Liz. It put her in a prison.

Joe passes out and Carolyn tells her mother that what he said isn’t true. She wonders what got into him. Vicki says he loves her.

Vicki leaves to go to town.

Carolyn tells the sleeping Joe that what he said isn’t true.

Vicki arrives at the Blue Whale. Burke wonders if she’s looking for someone.

“I found him,” Vicki says. “May I sit down?”

         Cast, In Order of Appearance

Victoria Winters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Alexandra Moltke

Carolyn Stoddard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Nancy Barrett

Elizabeth Collins Stoddard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Joan Bennett

Joe Haskell. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joel Crothers

Burke Devlin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mitchell Ryan

Fashion by Ohrbach’s

Directed by John Sedwick

Story created and written by Art Wallace