"Release day finally came for Brooke and, from the look on her face, it hadn't come a day too soon. Trevor met with Brooke in her room to discuss some legal maneuvers. His advice was straight to the point and included pointers on how to give her testimony and what she should say to score the most points with the jurors. His most important piece of advice, however, might have been when he reminded Brooke not to let Keith get her riled up. Trevor told his client that he doesn't want to know what went on in the hospital room, but he does want her to promise that she will not "have a relapse" before the trial concludes. Brooke assured Trevor that her recovery was permanent and let Trevor know that she knew he and Belinda had gone out on a limb for her. Trevor warned Brooke that the road ahead would be full of twists and turns and he hoped that the road wouldn't lead to "Central Europe." Brooke swallowed hard, but went on unfazed. Belinda arrived a little later than she had anticipated, but she hadn't counted on being summoned to Cortlandt Manor. When she arrived, Trevor handed her a note that had been messengered to their office. Belinda opened the note and gasped. The note was from her brother, Noah. The letter said that Rose, Belinda and Noah's mother, had developed a heart condition and was in serious health. Belinda felt helpless. She knew that it would be nearly impossible for her to be with her mother since both Rose and Noah (along with Julia Santos) are enrolled in the witness protection program. The door swung open and Adrian stepped inside. He apologized for the interruption and told Belinda that he has a solution to her problem. The pair went into the hall and Adrian offered to use his ties to the government to get Belinda to see her ailing mother. Belinda worried that Adrian wasn't taking the situation seriously, but he assured her that his job forced him to be serious at all times. Back inside, Trevor tried to convince Brooke that it was necessary to have Laura testify at the trial. Brooke, however, felt that calling Laura would reopen all of her old wounds and nixed the idea.
Dixie wasn't exactly sure how the topic of conversation had gone from Opal and Palmer to her and Tad, but she didn't like it. "We are over and done with," Dixie said with lots of agitation in her voice. While Tad agreed that their marriage was over---the divorce pretty much sealed that one---he argued that they still had some unresolved issues to talk about. Tad wanted to be able to have open dialogue with Dixie and not just the exchange of niceties that they've been having. Dixie wondered why Tad was having a problem with their current friendship. Tad quickly explained that he didn't have a problem with it---he just wanted them to wrap up some loose ends. Dixie started to walk away, so Tad grabbed her hand and asked her once again to stay. Palmer walked into the room and demanded that Tad, who he referred to as a "cad," let go of his niece's hand. Tad and Palmer bickered back and forth over whether or not Palmer had to right to control Dixie's life. Palmer, in turn, threatened to sick the Dobermans on Tad if he didn't leave immediately. "Uncle Palmer," Dixie sassed. "Butt out!" Each in turn, Palmer and Tad asked Dixie when she would stop letting the other control her life. Dixie appeared to side with Palmer and told her former husband that he should leave her alone and accept their relationship as is. Tad left, but not before warning Dixie that she'd walked right back into Palmer's domineering grasp, and Palmer chuckled to himself. He went on and on about how Dixie had made the right decision in divorcing Tad. His braggadocio went on for a long time and he might have continued indefinitely had Dixie not told him to "shut up." Dixie told Palmer that Tad had been right to blast him for hollering at Opal. Palmer looked absolutely stunned. How could his niece had betrayed him? "Are you still...," Palmer asked before Dixie cut him off. She told him not to even begin thinking what he appeared to be thinking. She gathered her things and stomped off towards the front door. She ordered her uncle to apologize to Opal immediately. Palmer claimed to have already apologized and asked for advice on what he should say. "It's your mess, clean it up," Dixie snapped. Then, almost whimsically, Dixie chirped, "and if you did take those paintings---give them back."
At Tad's house, Tad, Brooke, and Jamie briefly discussed Brooke's trial. Jamie was still aglow from his father's promise that Brooke would never have to go to prison. Perhaps it was not the wisest thing to do, but Tad again assured Jamie that Brooke would not go to jail. He did, however, add a disclaimer to his promise. He said that he'd roll a peanut clear across the country-with his nose---if he couldn't live up to his promise.
Dixie and Junior sat down and talked about Junior's day with Adam. Junior said that he had an okay day, but that it lacked the fun level that he used to have when they all lived at Tad's house. Dixie reminded her son that those days were behind them. Junior nodded, but remarked that it would "be neat" if they could somehow do it all again. "Yeah," Dixie said softly and with a twinge of sadness. "It would be neat."
Ryan and Mateo were vehemently opposed to Hayley's decision to use herself as bait to trap Lee Hawkins. Hayley explained that she needed to stop Lee before he hurt someone else. That someone else, Mateo feared, could be his beloved wife. Hayley explained that she wanted her husband's nightmares to end. The couple embraced as one of the housekeepers entered with a note. The note turned out to be a goodbye note from John. In the letter, John told Mateo and Hayley that he had "a hot date with a hot babe" in Bermuda. Armed with the note, Hayley and Mateo headed out to find Stuart and break the news to him that Marian really had given him the boot.
Stuart poked around outside the mausoleum hoping to find the source of the noise. He heard a rustle in the nearby bushes and moved in for a closer look. He might have stumbled upon Lee had Hayley and Mateo not approached from the other direction. Hayley showed Stuart the note and waited for her uncle to break down. Stuart said that he was happy for Marian, a statement that confounded both Hayley and Mateo. Stuart said that if Marian is truly happy with John, he'll be happy. He quickly noted that he knows that she cannot be happy with John. He decided that the only way to find out once and for all would be to fly to Bermuda and check in on Marian. Hayley worried that Stuart might find Marian and John in a compromising position. Stuart was certain that he wouldn't. Stuart quickly forgot about the noise he'd heard, deciding that it must have been Mateo and Hayley. Inside the crypt, Marian had also given up on the voices that she'd heard. She determined that she was hallucinating and curled back up against the wall.
Once the couple left, Ryan laid into Gillian for suggesting that Hayley be used as bait to capture Lee. It was her dumbest idea ever, according to Ryan. Gillian began to cry. This was hardly the reaction Ryan had anticipated from his wife. "You know nothing about me," Gillian sobbed. Gillian said that she cries more often than one would believe. She also stated that she didn't want to come off as mean when she suggested that Hayley be used as bait. She said that she wanted to see Lee captured so that her nightmares---and Hayley's---could end once and for all. Gillian told of a nightmare she has in which she is being chased by a faceless man. She is unable to run and ends up falling into a ditch. The man starts to bury her alive and she is unable to call for help. Gillian decided that she could take Hayley's place in the sting. Ryan objected to that plan, too. He didn't want to put Gillian in harm's way either. Gillian was moved by Ryan's devotion and the two slowly leaned towards each other in preparation of a kiss. They never got a chance to kiss because Mateo and Hayley returned to the house. The couple announced that they'd come up with a way to thwart Lee's carefully crafted plan to rub her out: they were leaving Pine Valley for a few weeks. Where they were going, they didn't know. But they knew that when they got back, the danger would be out of the way.
Lee entered the crypt and told Marian that he'd caught Stuart poking around outside. Marian worried that Lee might have hurt Stuart. Marian's concern infuriated Lee and he hauled off and slapped Marian on her cheek. "You said it was over!" he yelled. Marian held her cheek. She didn't appear to be in pain so much as she was shocked by the way in which Lee was treating her. Marian was relieved to learn that Stuart on his way to Bermuda. There, she figured, he would not be hurt by Lee. Lee smiled deviously and told Marian that by the time Stuart returned, he would have already enacted his plan. Lee curled up on a blanket that he'd placed on the concrete floor and closed his eyes. Marian frantically dug through her purse hoping to find something that she could use to get out of the crypt. She came across a bottle of pills that she'd been given after a recent root canal. She carefully dumped the contents of the capsules into one of Lee's drinks. She shook the container so that the medicine would dissolve completely and then placed the bottle by Lee's makeshift bed. She remarked that she never thought that her root canal would have done her any good. She cast a piercing glance at the now fast asleep Lee. "Nighty night, you crazy bastard," she growled."
- Soap Central