Vine
Original Air Date: Sept 29, 2009
Meg – Reviewer
meg@thetwocentscorp.com
Another Melrose 1.0 alum resurfaces when Jane shows up to take over as the new Melrose Place landlord after her sister’s death. Elsewhere, David gets Auggie in trouble, Ella gets blackmailed, Lauren finds a pimp, and Violet goes to jail (sadly, she doesn’t stay there).
Jane and Ella
As the residents enjoy margaritas poolside, Jane appears and announces that she’s their new landlord. She gets right into the action by informing Ella that she has copies of threatening emails Ella sent to the recently-murdered Sydney. She then blackmails Ella into dressing her client, movie starlet Abby Douglas, in a Jane Mancini dress.
Abby turns out to be a horrible brat, so I don’t feel too bad that Jane’s dress looks like a peach dust ruffle on her. Later, Ella awesomely stands up to Jane when there’s a problem with the dress (presumably other than it looking like a carpet) and frees herself from Jane’s evil (yet perfectly manicured) thumb. When Ella confides in David that Jane is blackmailing her, he cryptically promises to take care of it. Using the information he got from his father’s computer files, he tells Jane to back off Ella or he will reveal that she previously torched her own property for insurance money. Ella seems genuinely touched and indulges with David for the night. However Jane has the last laugh, by calling the police and leaving an anonymous tip incriminating Ella.
David
David is being trailed by a private investigator hired by Michael. Oddly enough, this doesn’t seem to complicate his life too much, as he hooks up with some anonymous tramp in an alley while the PI trails him. Also – where did Michael find this guy? He is parked literally one block away. Worst PI ever.
Auggie vouches for David and gets him a gig as a server for a movie premiere party. Unfortunately, David decides that the premiere party is the perfect venue to smack the crap out of the PI trailing him. As a result, Auggie loses his promotion, and possibly his friendship with David.
Lauren
Lauren hears from her “date”/first client Toby and sets up a liaison at a nearby hotel. She waits at the hotel bar (looking fabulous, might I add). A guy assumes she’s a hooker and she tells him to get lost (even though she sort of is a hooker). When she later gets a text that Toby is stuck in Chicago, she reconsiders the guy’s advance, tells him that she is “working” (wink wink nudge nudge), and they go upstairs.
Post-“work,” Lauren (still looking enviably fabulous), tries to get paid and is instead met with some brute force and ejected from the room. Lauren either needs to be assertive or to get a pimp (or, you know, to not be a prostitute). A hotel security guard starts to man-handle Lauren before Kelly Carlson appears and vouches for. She tells Laurent that she used to be in her position and that she thinks she can help.
Violet
The police show up to question Violet in her impossibly gorgeous apartment. She excuses herself to the bathroom and then excuses herself right out the window. Violet finds Jane, introduces herself as Sydney’s daughter, and begs for help. Jane accepts this without hesitation. Wow, for such a manipulative bitch, she’s so gullible! Thankfully I’m proven wrong, as Jane secretly calls the cops on her.
I almost feel sorry for creepy Violet as she phones Auggie, Ella, Lauren, and David and they all ignore her calls. But I can’t blame them – I would have ignored her too. Violet lies to the detectives and tells them that she tracked Sydney down and they had a joyous reunion (before the murder bit). This version of events is different from the flashback we saw of Sydney telling Violet that she’d never had a child.
Riley bails her out of jail and explains the situation to a skeptical Jonah. Violet spins some tragic backstory about how the police are looking for her because she stole money when she escaped from her abusive foster family.
I don’t believe her (although I’ll feel like a jerk if it turns out to be true). Do you think Violet’s sob story is real? What other mischief do you think Jane will be up to now that in a position of power? Leave some comments and let me know your two cents!
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