Episode 45: The Hole Card

Friday, August 26, 1966

My name is Victoria Winters. I have been swept up in the whirlpool of emotion that has as its vortex this great house called Collinwood. And others are swept along in the same inexorable tide.

Roger has not shown up at the Blue Whale yet. Bill calls work again and leaves a message that he’s waiting for Roger.

 Burke comes in. Bill orders coffee and Burke orders scotch and water. Bill brings up the subject of Burke’s trip to Bangor and the man from the syndicate who’s buying up the Collins property.

“Burke, I’ve known you ever since you were a boy, and I’ve never known you to do anything without a purpose.”

Burke says he just happens to know Blair from New York.

Bill doesn’t buy it.

“Do you think I would’ve brought Carolyn over to the table and introduced her if it’d been true?”

“Yeah. Just what I think you would have done. And, no doubt, you would have told her that he was planning to rob her family.”

 “Now I wouldn’t do such a silly thing as that.”

“Oh, you’d say it in such a way that she wouldn’t believe it.”

“You give me credit for being a lot smarter than I am.”

“No, I don’t. I give you credit for being smarter than I am. I’d never be able to talk around a thing the way you do. So my best bet is to lay the cards right on the table.” Bill asks if Burke will leave the rest of the family alone if he gives him evidence against Roger.

Burke wonders if Bill’s sense of justice is outraged. He says Bill is one of the most completely honest men he’d ever met, including Burke himself (which isn’t much of a compliment).

Burke remembers when Bill hired him long ago and treated him fair.

Bill says he’s laid all his cards on the table. He only has the hole card left. He plans to look for Roger if he doesn’t show up soon.

Roger is playing darts in his office. 

Carolyn stops by for a visit, claiming to be looking for Joe Haskell. She tells him he’s her favorite uncle.

“Well, there’s not much distinction winning a popularity contest if you’re the only contestant.”

He says Carolyn’s growing into a woman: She came there full of purpose, gave him a bogus alibi, and beat seven times round the bush without saying anything.

She tells him Bill Malloy is going to do something without Liz’s approval. Carolyn is worried.

Bill bursts in and says he’s staying right there until this is settled.

Roger tells Carolyn to run along—and she does.

Bill wants to know why Roger stood him up. But this is as good a place as any to come to an understanding. Burke is out to destroy everything Roger’s sister holds dear to her.

“Does that include me?” Roger asks.

“If you ask me, it was Elizabeth who kept you out of prison in the first place.” Bill is standing next to the dartboard.

“But of course, I didn’t ask you.” Roger throws darts.

“Well, I’m telling you anyway.”

He thinks Bill should tend to work and stay out of things that don’t concern him.

“It concerns the good name of Collins, and that concerns me.” He notes that what he knows isn’t as important as what Sam Evans knows.

Roger says Sam is drunk as often as he’s sober.

Then why doesn’t Roger go to the sheriff’s office and tell Jonas Carter that Sam is slandering him? Roger doesn’t think it’s worth it. He calls Bill insane.

“We’ll see who’s insane,” Bill says, and storms out.

Carolyn reads an account of her ancestor Jeremiah Collins to his portrait. Jeremiah married Josette from France.

Roger comes in. They talk about Burke. 

She shows Roger the fancy pen Burke gave her. Roger says she can’t accept such an expensive gift. 

He says Burke wants something from Carolyn and he’s paying in advance. 

Roger is going to return the pen to Burke. Carolyn walks out of the room angrily.

Bill calls, asking Roger if he’s decided to do anything yet. 

Roger wants to know if Bill has loyalty to the Collins family. Of course, that’s why Bill is doing this. Roger says the best thing his sister can do is to get rid of Bill.

Bill calls Burke and asks him to come to the Blue Whale. “It’s important--for both of us.”

Carolyn comes back in the drawing room to retrieve his book. “Well, I suppose I’m really in disgrace,” Roger says, “if even you won’t talk to me.” 
He offers to give her the pen back, but she says it seems sordid now.

She tells him how she followed Burke to Bangor. Maybe she was being a lady private eye. She explicates the James Blair affair.

Roger says he isn’t going to be Bill’s sacrificial lamb.

Bill tells Burke he had to see him before he went any further with his plans. He wants Burke to know that Liz wasn’t involved in what happened ten years ago.

“What’s five years out of a man’s life?” Burke asks angrily. “Modern medicine has increased my life expectancy far more than that.”

 Anyway, how does Burke know Roger was the only one involved?

“I told you I had a hole card to play, and I’m ready to play it tonight at eleven o’clock. You be at Roger’s office. I’ll make sure he’s there, and anyone else who’s involved. We’ll get this whole thing settled.”

“I’ll be there,” Burke says.

        Cast, In Order of Appearance

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

Bill Malloy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Frank Schofield

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

Roger Collins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Louis Edmonds

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

Fashion by Ohrbach’s

Directed by Lela Swift

Written by Francis Swann