Episode 137: The Scent of Cinnamon

Friday, January 6, 1967

Note: The episodes’ official numbering includes skipped numbers for pre-emptions, in accordance with their numbering system (so that one could look at the number of an episode and know what day of the week it aired on). I have elected to number the episodes by what episode it actually is, but I will note the official numbering also.

This is the 137th episode, but the official number is 140.

My name is Victoria Winters. A strange, unexplainable terror has crept into the heart of someone at Collinwood. A feeling of love that should draw people together has driven one away—to the edge of the precipice.

David falls and grabs onto a big (but rather wobbly) rock. Vicki pulls him back up.

He says it was something about his mother’s eyes. Vicki says his mother’s come a long way to see him, and now she thinks he doesn’t love her. Now she’s crying.

David says it’s something he can’t explain.

Vicki says it’s his dream. He has it too much on his mind. But his mother isn’t a dream. It’s time for him to go to her, and give her the love they’ve both been searching for.

David tells his mother he’s sorry he made her cry. She asks why he ran away from her. He says because she looked so strange. There was something about her eyes.

She asks him whether he still sees it. He says no. He asks whether she likes him and if she’ll never leave him. She says they’ll be together forever.

Roger tells Liz about the body in Laura’s apartment. He says she plans to go somewhere else anyway.

He tells Liz it’s not that he wants to get rid of David; he just feels he’d be better off with his natural mother. It’s no reflection on Liz, but she has her own worries with her own daughter.

Is she aware Carolyn brought Burke there last night?

And Burke used Carolyn to get to Laura. Roger arrived in time and warned him to stay away.

Vicki, David, and Laura return.

Liz feels bad about his sudden camaraderie with his mother. David takes Laura to show her his room.

Vicki tells Liz and Roger what happened. Vicki says she was worried David would say Laura wasn’t his mother again. Liz is surprised to hear this, and Roger says he told Vicki to forget about that. Liz says it’s not that easy to forget.

The family have dinner. Liz asks to talk with Laura afterward. She says she’s glad Laura and David are getting along. She says David didn’t think she was his mother. Laura is surprised. David is very imaginative, Liz says, even thinking he can communicate with the Collins ghosts.

Liz also wants to talk about Burke. Laura assures her that she has no intention of becoming an ally of Burke’s. Nothing will get in the way of her and David.

Roger takes Vicki to task for spilling the beans, but she says she thinks it should be cleared up.

Roger decides to show David some old photos. David has seen them before. He wants David to look at the pictures and realize it’s the same person. David agrees that it is.

Laura comes into the room. She goes to look at the photos with David.

Roger takes Vicki into the hall and tells her he’s pleased with the progress they’re making.

Laura and David talk about how tall he’s going to be (taller than his father? taller than Burke Devlin?) and he asks what it’s like where she came from. She says some people call it paradise. It’s always warm and you can smell cinnamon in the air. And there are palm trees that make a wonderful resting place for the phoenix.

David has never heard of the phoenix. She describes it with its sea-blue eyes and iridescent wings. Vicki listens at the door.

Laura tells him about the death and rebirth of the phoenix.

The wind (or something) blows the front doors open and the drawing room doors too.

Laura looks contented.

  Cast, In Order of Appearance

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

Laura Collins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Diana Millay

David Collins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  David Henesy

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

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

Fashion by Ohrbach’s

Directed by Lela Swift

Written by Malcolm Marmorstein