12-26-2016 (Monday) "CAROLINE"

Franco asks how Tom Baker could be dead; Dante says he was hoping Franco could tell him.  Scotty steps out of nowhere and says, “Don’t answer that.”  Franco is surprised to see him; Elizabeth says she called him.  Franco almost can’t believe she did that for him; she says she wasn’t going to let the police railroad him.  Awe.  Dante questions why Scotty is there; he says Franco isn’t under arrest.  Dante says Franco is a ‘person of interest’ because he had a public altercation with the deceased; Franco says he doesn’t mind answering questions about that at all.  Elizabeth offers to talk to Dante too; Scotty insists of being in there with them.  Dante says it sounds like a party; they head to the interrogation room.  They describe to Dante why Tom Baker supposedly came to the hospital that day, but Franco adds that he believes it was all because he wanted to be near Elizabeth, either to make her nervous or to hurt her again.  

Franco admits to making the threat to kill Baker, but adds that threats and actions are two different things.  Dante points out just having had a fight with the guy, and making that threat, a month before the guy was murdered doesn’t look good; Dante gets a phone call.  Scotty tells Franco to shut up and tells Liz he doesn’t want her talking to the police; he goes out to tell them the interview is over.  She asks Franco what it is he is not telling Dante, that he started to tell her about the “bad thing” he did to Tom.  Franco says he will still tell her, just not here.  She asks anyway and he tells her; she is upset – oh boy – she says it isn’t helping her to hurt another man in her name.  He screams that he wasn’t going to let that son-of-a-bitch hurt the woman he loves; that takes Liz by surprise.  Dante comes back in with Scotty and tells Franco not to leave town; he lets Elizabeth know that they might still need to talk to her.  He says they can go.  Franco asks his dad why he hasn’t asked if he did it; he says he can hear his side of everything later…right now, he just needs to know what the cops know.  He offers to take Franco home; Liz says she’ll take him.  Franco smiles.  As they start to leave, an officer comes in with the murder weapon – a folding “L” knife, like artists use.  Elizabeth walks out, leaving Franco standing there.  

They replay the scene of Alexis stupidly kissing Julian again; they kiss for a few seconds and then Alexis pulls away.  Julian says he’s been praying for that for a long time.  Alexis says she didn’t mean it; he says at least part of it did…she asks which part so she can have it removed.  He tells her he didn’t mean for it to happen “like that” – with her being drunk.  She’s sick of his nagging; she says she’s not “drunk” yet.  She says she wants him to know that she did ‘hear’ him; she just doesn’t care anymore.  She says the kiss was PREMEDITATED, to point out that because of his vanity and raging narciscm he thinks she still has feelings for him; she wants him to remember everything they had, and assure him that THAT will never ever happen again.  She throws his pillows on the couch and hands him his medicine; she guarantees him she will be a great nurse because she wants him on his feet and out of her house as soon as possible.  She tells him goodnight and heads upstairs to bed, an empty bottle of vodka on top of the cabinet in the foreground.

Jordan tells someone that they have obtained a few statements that could prove very helpful and says to have someone call her immediately if anything develops, otherwise she wants to see “him” first thing in the morning.  Andre shows up; he says, “hello stranger.”  They have some idle conversation and then decide to rectify the fact that they haven’t been spending time together, tonight.  He admits that he hasn’t quite been ready to talk about “everything that happened yet” and Jordan seems to understand; he says he is ready now, as he’s had time to think.  He swears it was never his intention to withhold information or invade her privacy; he says it was a spur of the moment thing… he was tired of Curtis, he saw it was him calling so he answered it and told him to leave her alone.  He admits that was his insecurity and that he believes he is better than that; he admits he should never have done it and apologizes.  She thanks him.  He says he really misses her and wants to pick up where they left off; she wants to, but worries if Curtis will still “get in the way.”  Andre looks around and says he doesn’t see him right now; Jordan smiles.  They kiss.  

Michael helps Nelle on with her coat and offers her a ride home; he says to consider it his Christmas present to her.  She says okay; they wish Sonny a Merry Christmas.  Sonny mentions how quickly everybody cleared out; Carly tells Sonny she wanted to be alone with him.  He thinks this might be a good thing, but then Carly says that she knows he and Nelle were lying to him tonight; she also says she knows what it’s about.  Now Sonny looks scared.  Carly tells him that she knows well those gloves were from Nelle and not from him; he apologizes and offers to get her something else.  She says all she wants is to be there with him.  Sonny asks if there is a chance they can work this all out; Carly says she doesn't know about tomorrow, but tonight she was right where she wanted to be.  He smiles.

Nelle offers Michael a cup of tea or hot cocoa when they arrive at her door; he is more than willing to accept.  He sits down on the couch and thanks her for joining their family; she thanks him for including her.  Michael admits that he noticed Nelle “cloud over” when Carly was talking about bringing the family together for the holiday; he asks what is to be so sad about on Christmas Eve.  She tells him Christmas was always hard for their family; her dad had a hard time making ends meet, and she admits that she gets really jealous sometimes.  He tells her that’s okay, as long as you don’t get “stuck there.”  She doesn’t understand; he does his best to explain about being treated unfairly at one point in his life and tells her how he dealt with it.  She thanks him, gets up to get the teapot when it starts to whistle, trips and knocks her music box off the coffee table; Michael bends over to help her pick it up and she snaps “no” at him, while staring at him sternly.  She then asks if he would go get the kettle off the stove instead; he does.  He comes back and says he didn’t want to rummage through her cupboards for the tea; she suggests cocoa instead, even though it’s the cheap powered kind.  Michael says that sounds great.  They sip their cocoa, talk a little more (about respecting where you came from) and then say their goodbyes; Michael leaves.  Nelle goes back to her music box and pulls out that silver baby rattle; it is engraved with the name “Caroline.”