Soap: Episode 15

Soap: Episode 15
ABC
January 3, 1978
Dramedy
DVD
C-

This was a hard one to grade, for a reasons I'll get to.  First I want to note where we are in the timeline.  Burt says it's been three days, which I assume means since Peter was killed, although it could be just since Tinkler told them that they were all suspects.  News of Corinne's evening arrest appears in some newspaper that is read in Ecuador, and Corinne's real mother is so upset that she immediately flies back to America.  She leaves behind Corinne's father, Randolph.  (No last name given but I think Jessica and Mary's maiden name was Gatling, unless that was just the last name of their cousin the governor.)  Randolph only appears in this one episode and presumably disappears in the jungle.  He's played by then 50-year-old Bernard Fox, who as Dr. Bombay is one of the few surviving members of Bewitched.  Confusingly, Corinne's mother Ingrid Swenson (sometimes Svenson in the credits) is played by 45-year-old Inga Swenson, who'd be German rather than Swedish on Benson's spin-off.  She must warp time slightly, because Corinne's bail is supposed to be set the next day, but it's daytime in Ecuador and seemingly nighttime again when she arrives.  Or maybe the judge was still out of town.

"Meanwhile," the Campbells and Dallases react to Corinne's arrest, and Burt's mental illness seems to begin in this episode, growing out of his grief for Peter.  There's a sweet scene that doesn't advance any plots but shows the bond between Mary and Jodie, which is good considering how much has happened to distract her since his suicide attempt.  There's also a nice scene where Jessica reluctantly agrees to tell Billy what's going on rather than keep sheltering him.

And there is a scene that seemed messed up to me watching it in 1982 and has certainly not improved with age.  Danny wants to talk to the crime boss (Mr. Big's employer), Mr. Lefkowitz.  He breaks into the mansion but ends up in the room of  Elaine Lefkowitz (Dinah Manoff).  She understandably pulls a gun on him, but then when he pulls off his ski mask, she sees how cute he is and then proceeds to rape him.  It's not as ugly as it sounds, but it is unpleasant, especially since it's played for laughs.  Pointing the gun at him again, she tells him to strip and makes it clear that he's going to have to have sex with her.  He thinks she's kidding, but she's not.  He worries about his performance under the circumstances, but he goes along with it, since he has no choice.  (There are also guards out in the hallway and vicious dogs on the lawn.)  Everyone remembers Luke & Laura but this predates that rape-leading-to-love arc by almost two years.  It is, unlike on General Hospital, never called a rape and Danny is not exactly seen as a victim, probably because he's a man.  (It'll be Elaine's "shrewishness" that will be the problem later.)  The rape is of course not shown, just what leads up to it.

I decided to just look at this episode in isolation, not count what happened afterwards.  So, while the scene is tasteless, at least Elaine is here at least not presented as a sympathetic character.  And the rest of the episode is generally solid, probably a B.  So a C- is fair, although I could see going as low as a D- if its impact on the future is taken into consideration.

The Major is absent, but Susan Harris herself does a cameo as Babette, the hooker who claims to be a travel agent who offered a guy "a trip around the world."  (I did not get that joke at 14.)