Exchanged at birth and the revealed secret of a birth
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At the express request of Minx Lockridge, the young Barnaby Wallace arrives one day in Santa Barbara, a few weeks before the violent earthquake that will shake all of Southern California. Upon his arrival, he found in Minx Lockridge an ally, almost a friend, since she offered him a job and subsequently, and on several occasions, she gave him money. The relations between Brick and Minx are obviously very particular, since from the beginning Augusta and Lionel suspect something strange : Lionel imagines that he is his mother's young lover, and Augusta a hidden son, a rival for Warren and Laken in the race for inheritance. Although he does not know it then, his arrival in town will, months later, also be the cause of an earthquake in his life, but also in the life of the two main families of the city : the Capwells and the Lockridges.

Native of Santa Barbara, Brick Wallace is a circus child. He is the only child of Katie and Glenn Wallace, circus artists, who travel the state and who will separate while Brick is still a baby. Raised by Katie, Brick grew up in a simple world, establishing a relationship of love and trust with his mother.

Because of his modest origins, Brick finds very curious the attachment of Minx Lockridge to him. Hired as a personal driver of the family matriarch, she will entrust to him some time later, to Augusta and Lionel's great displeasure, the reins of the family holdings. As usual, Minx will evoke a lie (a fire during a circus performance) to justify her interest in Brick. Brick's nascent love for Amy Perkins and their adventures in New Stailand will initially prevent him from focusing on this strange question : what is the exact place of young Barnaby Wallace in Minx Lockridge's life ? And their adventures to find little Johnny will drive him away for a time from his quest for identity.

No particular sign seems to distinguish Brick from the other boys in the circus troupe. And yet... However, just as for Sleeping Beauty, fairies and witches gravitate around him, without his awareness. Because Brick is not master of his destiny. One day, long before his birth, hands chose to deceive destiny and to make of him another one... And behind every hand that shakes the strings, that blurs the tarot cards of his life, hides the face of several women, including Minx Lockridge, who seems to have the main asset in her hands !

But before the truth is revealed, the first tarot card of Brick's destiny is returned by Augusta Lockridge. It is only partially that the veil is removed, and without guessing the totality of the meanderings of the canvas woven years earlier, Augusta begins to weaken the prestidigitation tower built by her mother-in-law. Wishing to preserve Warren and Laken's inheritance, and especially to have a master card in front of her mother-in-law, Augusta decides to conduct her investigation. Without knowing it, Augusta opens the Pandora's box...

After having tried to accuse Brick of embezzlement, Augusta goes to a higher speed to determine the nature of the link that connects Minx to Brick. While searching in the Lockridge Villa wing occupied by Minx, Augusta comes across a strange card bearing a name : Michael Leonard Phelps. This name, this past, should have remained secret, like a part of a gone past, a past that belongs only to Minx Lockridge and Sophia Wayne. But Augusta's long nails are claws capable of unearthing all secrets, including those buried very deeply. After a few phone calls, Augusta quickly discovers that Michael Leonard Phelps is a former priest who left the church in 1961, shortly after his meeting with Minx Lockridge, on Monday, March 6th to be precise. At that time, Augusta was in Europe with Lionel. Playing with her nails, Augusta wonders : why a few days before her wedding with C.C. Capwell, actress Sophia Wayne went to see a priest ? Curious, playful, combative, Augusta engages body and soul in this new track game.

When Augusta contacts him by phone and she pronounces the name of Lockridge, the former priest knows that a breach has just opened in the wall that keeps the past at a distance. He has no other choice - because Augusta threatens him - to accept the invitation of an appointment at the Orient Express. While she waits for Phelps, Augusta smiles, delighted, because she knows that in a few minutes she will lift the veil not only on a secret of Minx, but also on Sophia's past. Welcomed by Eden Capwell herself, the former priest takes place at Augusta's table. She has only one question to ask him : What is the identity of the woman he received in confession on March 6th, 1961? He ends up confessing that Minx Lockridge gave him a large sum of money to know, and then to shut up forever what had been said in the confessional. And if he plays for a moment the game of cat and mouse with Augusta (he asks her among other things for how long she has not confessed !), he is obliged to recognize that he has never seen the face of the person who was in the confessional and that, therefore, he does not know the identity of the woman he heard in confession. The former priest is very destabilized when Augusta confesses to him that the person was Sophia Capwell.

For her part, Augusta is intrigued that Minx never told her that it was actress Sophia Wayne, the actress who was going to become in a few days the second Mrs. Capwell. He explains that Minx must have seen Sophia enter the confessional and that she waited for her to come out. He says that it was only after Sophia left that Minx came to him. Today, as in the past, Michael is ready to sell his secret. But this time he will not accept a modest sum, as it was the case with Minx. He wants more, he demands from Augusta 20,000 dollars - after all, the revelations he has to make concerns Sophia Capwell. Seeing that he is ready to leave the restaurant, Augusta has no choice but to sign the check. He tells the past and entrusts to Augusta that 27 years later, although he gave Sophia forgiveness, this story causes her a lot of problems.

March 6, 1961 : a confessed secret...

Resigned, Michael Leonard Phelps has no alternative but to reveal the secret that has tormented him for more than 20 years, a secret that has made him abandon his vocation as a priest. He reminds Augusta that at the time, Sophia had given him no name, neither hers, nor that of the other people to whom she alluded during her confession. He explains to Augusta that she told him a love story. The priest begins his story, a memory that is more than 20 years old. Sophia enters the church on a Monday. It is a little over 4 p.m., and the church is empty. This is what he believed until he heard someone move behind the curtain. From his place, he glimpses only a silhouette, a shadow. On the other side of the curtain, kneeling, almost trembling, stands actress Sophia Wayne, then engaged to the rich C.C. Capwell. Dressed in a classic black dress with a white collar (far from the appearance of a famous actress), her face hidden behind a lace veil, Sophia looks for her words. Accustomed to this kind of situation, he began to recite the first words of the confession. Sophia ends up relaxing and confesses to the priest that this is the first time for her that she comes to confess and that in addition she is not of Catholic confession. He accepts, however, to listen to her, visibly touched by the loneliness and confusion that appeared in the tone of her voice. In a breath, Sophia explains the reasons for her presence in this place : she hopes, by trusting in him, to find some peace and answers to her doubts, because she currently lives with the certainty of committing a terrible sin. Sophia describes her situation : she fell madly in love with a man. Day and night, he occupied all her thoughts; she lost the taste for work and sleep. She would have loved to marry him, but that could not be done. She confesses that they have committed the sin of the flesh and that today she can affirm that it will not happen again. Indeed, contrary to what the priest can imagine, Sophia declares that today she hates this man. Today she left him, because this man played her : she discovered one day by chance that this man was married. Wounded, she then, unconsciously or unconsciously, sought revenge. She knew her lover had an enemy in town - the two men were from two families that had hated each other for generations. So she sought to meet him, to get closer to him...

While listening to the memories of Michael Phelps, it is easy for Augusta to put names on the characters of this story : Lionel, C.C. Capwell... Little by little, in Augusta's mind, the love triangle between the three of them takes place. Stunned by these revelations, Augusta wants him to stop his story. Seizing Augusta's trouble, Michael Phelps hopes to find there a way out and silence the rest of the story. He returns her check and offers to leave it there, but in spite of the tears and her sorrow, Augusta wants to know, even if it costs her.

The priest sits down and continues the story. Sophia thus managed to meet this man. She even managed to make him crazy in love with her, while he recently divorced his first wife. Sophia feels guilty for having aroused such strong feelings in this man, and accuses herself of the worst acts for having succeeded in her goals. At the time, she lived in the villa guesthouse, she prepared her meals, she brought her son to play in the park... A special role far from the life we imagined for actress Sophia Wayne. However, in fact, Sophia played the role of the wicked mother-in-law : in the morning she rushed to the postman to burn the letters of the ex-wife and, in the same way, she destroyed the letters he wrote to her. And when the ex-wife phoned the villa, she made her rival believe that he was sleeping next to her. She was all lies, lies for a man who was full of love for her. And even worse, she never found the strength and courage to admit that the man he despises most in the world, was her lover a few months earlier.

Understanding Sophia's doubts, the young priest lets her glimpse a way out, suggesting that it is always time to renounce this man and perhaps to marriage, if she thinks she is making a mistake. Sophia refuses this option, because to this game of seduction, she finds herself quickly trapped : she also ended up falling in love with this man. But at the time, like any woman in love, Sophia wanted much more than that. She wanted to make her former lover suffer, and could she find a better wound than to announce to her former lover the name of the man she was going to marry ? She loved to see her lover's face decompose, she loved to read the pain and suffering on his face.

Hurt by this revelation, Augusta chooses again, for a brief moment, to stop there. The former priest takes advantage of this moment of doubt to return the check to Augusta and especially to silence the continuation of the confession. The moment of doubt quickly fades away, Augusta's sickly jealousy resuming very quickly. No matter the suffering, Augusta needs to know, even if it means the end of her marriage, even if it means the realization of all her fears. And to force Michael Phelps to continue his story, Augusta tells him the rest of the story. She tells him that Sophia miraculously came back to life, while everyone thought she was dead for years, and that on her return she does everything to accuse Lionel of her death, but also of the death of Channing Junior. Augusta depicts another facet of Sophia's personality, a personality guided by hatred and revenge. Facing Augusta, the former churchman, since he knows the totality of the confession, becomes aware of the extent of the mess of this story.

Resigned, Michael Phelps has no other option but to finish betraying the secret of confession. At the time, the few tips he tried to give Sophia did not bring their hopes. In the wooden confessional, Sophia confides that a part of her enjoyed being loved by these two so different men. And that in the end, becoming C.C. Capwell's wife could be a good thing. Her heart is certain that C.C. would make a good husband, a good father; he is a right man, loyal and good. Sophia is certain that this path is dictated by God himself, and that it is perhaps the only possibility for her to find forgiveness. The last words then pronounced by Sophia leave no doubt for the priest in the confessional and for Augusta who hears the confession : Sophia was pregnant before her wedding... Pregnant with someone other than her future husband...

Michael Phelps finishes before leaving by admitting that Sophia is the last person he heard in confession and that, before leaving the church, another woman came to him. This woman was Minx Lockridge and she forbade him, with threats in retaliation, to speak to anyone of the confession he had just heard. After that, he was forced to leave the church and until today, he had never heard of the Lockridges again, letting history take its course. Yet he tried to dissuade Sophia from getting married : he told her to raise this child alone. But Sophia did not want to hear it. She didn't want her child to pay for her mistakes. Her decision was made : she will continue to lie to everyone, she will offer the best to her child.

March 15, 1961 : a marriage celebrated

A few days after her confession, all Sophia's thoughts turn to the man who awaits her at the foot of the altar, with the hope of a new life. With each step of Sophia, Lionel's image fades away; his smile, his voice, his hands, the touch of his skin slowly slide into the fog. Sophia no longer wants Lionel's presence. Neither at her side. Nor in her memories. This chapter of her life ends in C.C.'s arms.

She knows that in her womb, a new life is being born. This child occupies all Sophia's thoughts; he is the future. He is her future. And when she pronounces her “I do” to C.C. Capwell, it is much more than her life that she will bind to his. Sophia knows, because she will do everything possible, that this child will become the cornerstone of this new life. He is her future, all her hopes. And, as she promised the priest a few days earlier, if she ever gives birth to a little boy, she will give him the name of Channing, to better reunite them, the one to the other, the one with the other...

December 11, 1961 : 4 births and some transformed destinies

As every day, a certain agitation is felt within the walls of the maternity service. However, today is not a day like any other for the service staff. Former actress Sophia Wayne, now Sophia Capwell, the wife of the most powerful man in the city, arrived to give birth to her first child. Is Charles McRae, the doctor, worried ? No more than usual. He does not have the leisure to focus only on Sophia Capwell, since three other births are to be expected. Among the expectant mothers is a circus artist named Katie Wallace, accompanied by her husband, Glenn. If December 11, 1961 was just an ordinary day for Charles McRae, it would be an extraordinary day for others...

This is an extraordinary day for Mr. and Mrs. Capwell : a new heir is given to them. This little boy will be called Channing Capwell Junior and his father, C.C., promises him a wonderful future. He will be the heir. And, while C.C. and Sophia swim in happiness, the silhouette of little Mason finds himself pushed back in the shade...

This is an extraordinary day for Mr. and Mrs. Wallace, who just get in a basket, in their room, a little boy. Their little Barnaby Wallace.

It is an extraordinary day for Minx Lockridge, who on this day has to hang out in the halls of maternity to see the first smile of this first grandson, T. McDonald Lockridge's first grandson.

This is an extraordinary day for young nurse Mathilda Cordell, who has made a pact with the Devil. Cornered, Mathilda has no choice but to obey the orders of Minx Lockridge; the money won will allow her to sit her future. At that time, Mathilda had just divorced and she was raising her granddaughter alone. She needed money. Obeying Minx's requests, she first entrusted her the files of all the people who were going to have a child around Sophia's delivery date, then she allowed her to be alone in the nursery so that she could exchange identification bracelets between two babies. Two different children for very different fates. Thanks to God, the babies look alike. After acting out, Mathilda has doubts and fears, but Minx Lockridge promises her, swears that this secret will remain their secret. No one will ever know. Moreover, Minx advises her to keep the birth records.

It is an extraordinary day for Minx Lockridge, since her first grandson will be born : Lionel's secret child. The day Sophia came to give birth, Minx had not yet chosen the Wallace baby. Sophia had a long and difficult delivery. After the birth, the staff took the child to the nursery and waited for Sophia to wake up from her anesthesia. For Minx, it was necessary to act quickly : when she woke up from her anesthesia, Sophia would ask to see her child. Then a little girl was born, then the Wallace boy, Barnaby Wallace. Time was short before Sophia woke up and wanted to see her baby. Mathilda took the baby to the nursery. Minx then found herself alone with the babies and exchanged the identification bracelets.

This is an ordinary day for Harold Beard, a photographer who is used to coming to the maternity ward to take pictures of newborns and give parents a first memory of this extraordinary day.

1985 : The veil rises on Sophia's secret

Sitting at her table at the Orient Express, Augusta listens to the priest's last words. In addition to having confessed her former affair with Lionel, her schemes to keep Pamela away from C.C., Sophia confided without having to spell things out another terrible secret : she was expecting a child before tying the knot with C.C. Capwell. Sophia was pregnant before marrying C.C. Capwell. As if to convince herself of the discovery of this truth, of this new reality, Augusta whispers to herself : Lionel is the father of Channing Capwell Junior. Channing Junior is a Lockridge. A split second allows Augusta to understand the impact of this truth on her family, on Lionel, but also on the Capwells. This truth is at the same time a new weight that falls on her and at the same time a liberation : she has finally found the weapon to permanently distance Sophia from Lionel. She finally has the means to make her leave Santa Barbara forever. Determined, ready to do anything to keep Lionel and save her marriage, Augusta feels the size to threaten, to confront Sophia. She already imagines her reaction if C.C. learns that her beloved son was the son of his worst enemy...

Then, just after finishing her conversation with the priest, Augusta goes to C.C. and Sophias' table. The two women face each other and, for once (perhaps for the first time), Augusta seems sure of herself, she feels strong of the secret she has just discovered about her rival. Augusta plays Sophia and tells her that she is aware of her confession of 1961, that she just learned it from the man who has just left her table. Sophia starts to panic. The fortress built years ago begins to crack, and this at the worst moment while she and C.C. are building a new relationship. Sophia tries to coax Augusta, to swear to her that her relationship with Lionel is over for years, Augusta does not care. As she says, their affair no longer matters : it was only a love affair without feeling. After all, Lionel chose to marry her ! By the way, Augusta takes the opportunity to confess to her that she is happy with the suffering she felt at the time when she discovered that Lionel was married. It is a small satisfaction for her. But the need for revenge, the need to make Sophia suffer, does not stop there. Augusta spits out her venom and reveals that she knows all the sordid tactics deployed to keep Pamela away from the Capwell Villa. That she knows that at the time she chose to marry C.C. not out of love, but with the one and only intention to get back at Lionel. The portrait of Sophia depicted by Augusta is that of a manipulative, cruel woman, ready to all the lowliness to achieve her ends. A woman who killed her beloved son, who tried to accuse her former lover and who today subtly maneuvers so that a second time, C.C. falls back in love with her. On the brink, Sophia slaps Augusta.

This act of violence does not stop Augusta, quite the contrary. No matter that in return Sophia swears to her that she will end up losing Lionel, because she is a wicked, crazy, vicious and jealous woman, Augusta continues to attack her rival. In front of her, Augusta remains cold, indifferent to Sophia's anger and suffering. Augusta is like an executioner who will give the coup de grace. In one breath, she tells Sophia that she knows that she committed the worst crime, a crime that no one can absolve her of, and especially the priest who heard her confession : she married a man while knowing that she was pregnant with another one !

The time around them stops. Sophia's world has just broken in a split second. The truth is told. The truth is revealed in its utmost simplicity. Augusta knows about her pregnancy. Augusta knows about Channing Junior. Augusta knows... Sophia is a destroyed woman. And, as Sophia confirms it, suddenly this truth becomes more real for Augusta, more concrete. Sophia swears that Lionel knows nothing about it, that he does not know that she had a child of him. And, between the lines, Augusta also understands that C.C. knows nothing of this truth... To prevent Augusta from destroying her life, Sophia justifies herself by explaining that she chose to offer a child to C.C. and that she wanted the best for her child, she wanted him to be spared by her sins. Augusta can only smile... Channing Junior paid a high price for her mother's sins !

From words to words, Sophia's secret ends up reaching the ears of C.C. Capwell, going from Gina to Mason, then to Santana, and finally to C.C. himself. The revelation of this secret is in itself a clean storyline.

The revelation of this secret upsets the destiny of the Capwells and the Lockridges : C.C. collapses, struck down by a rupture of aneurysm; Gina is afraid that with Brandon's new filiation, she may lose her inheritance; Augusta trembles again to see Lionel move away from her; Santana hopes to recover her little Brandon, today that he is no longer the one he was supposed to be; Lionel is delighted to have become a grandfather overnight; and Minx, Minx smiles... Minx smiles because she knows that only one part of the truth has been revealed, and that the other part could still change the fate of all these beings...

1985 : The veil rises on Minx's secret

Sickly jealousy... Fear of abandonment... Despite the discovery of the truth about the affair between Sophia and Lionel, despite Lionel's love proofs, Augusta continues to be afraid and jealous. Knowing that Lionel is the father of Channing Junior and that his love story with Sophia is finished today does not calm her. On the contrary... Because Augusta always feels threatened. A new anguish embraces her, an anguish whose name is Brick Wallace. Introduced into the family by Minx, this latter never ceases to interfere more deeply within the Lockridge clan, without his presence being really justified. Augusta nevertheless tried everything to find information about him, to force his mother-in-law to justify herself on the granted trust. Nothing. Absolutely nothing in Augusta's eyes seems to respond to her anxieties. Then her jealousy and fear take over and lead her down another path.

Worried about the future of Warren and Laken because of Minx's interest in Brick, Augusta decides to hire Nick Hartley to find the link between Brick and the Lockridge family. The questions that worry Augusta are simple : Is Brick Lionel's son, Minx's son ? How not to fear the worst, when she discovers that Minx was willing to pay 100,000 dollars to prevent Brick from leaving for New Stailand with Amy Perkins and to stay in Santa Barbara ?

As usual, when the situation escapes the control of her reason, Augusta slides towards another reality and makes extreme decisions, heavy with consequences. Because she is afraid of Brick leaving, because she is afraid of not finding out the truth, because she doesn't want Brick to leave, because she doesn't want the truth to escape her, because... There are many reasons that advise Augusta and guide her hand. Augusta, while Brick goes towards the airport of the city, runs on him at the wheel of her car and causes a serious accident. Driven to the hospital, Augusta has only minor injuries. Brick's condition turns out to be very serious : his spine could be injured by a metal piece. Noting that Minx does not leave Brick's bedside, she exhorts Nick to question her and perhaps to take advantage of this moment of tension for her to answer her questions. Minx says nothing. Only Brick's health concerns her. It is hardly if she seems worried about the presence of Katie Wallace, Brick's mother, within the walls of the hospital.

Brick is getting worse and the doctors are considering a kidney transplant. Of course, the donors are Katie and Glenn Wallace, his parents. Katie explains that Glenn left them, she and Brick, while Brick was still a baby. Quickly, using a photo, Nick manages to find Glenn's trace and, having explained the situation to him, asks him to come very quickly to Santa Barbara at his son's bedside. Now, just before leaving, Glenn receives another call from the hospital, from a nurse who tells him that Brick's latest results are good and that it is not necessary for him to come. Despite this call, Glenn decides to go to Santa Barbara, at his son's bedside. He is also present when the doctor confirms the improvement of Brick's health and validates that the kidney transplant is no longer necessary. The doctor is greatly surprised when Glenn tells him that he had this information before he arrived at the hospital, which the doctor considers impossible.

Reassured about Brick's health, his family and friends breathe. Only Nick worries : could it be that someone wants to kill Brick ? If Amy Perkins recognizes the voice of Augusta Lockridge as being that of the nurse who ordered his to return to Santa Barbara, Glenn Wallace does not recognize on the recordings, in the voice of the nurse who contacted him, the voices of Augusta and Minx. However, Nick remains almost certain that it is Minx who hides behind the call to Glenn. He entrusts it to Brick, assuring him that this call was not intended to harm him, but to prevent the transplant with Glenn's kidney because of the risks involved. It's like the person on the other end of the line knows that Glenn is not compatible... It's like the person on the other end knew that Glenn wasn't Brick's biological father...

If Brick keeps in mind this little voice that speaks to him of another one, he prefers for the moment to silence it. He focuses on his present life, discarding the past. Today he found the one he loves : Amy decided to stay by his side. A bright and serene future awaits him. In a city garden, in the presence of their parents and friends, they unite with each other. Taking advantage of this beautiful parenthesis, Brick forgets Augusta and her scheming; he forgets that in the shadow, she plots to make him accuse of embezzlement on the accounts of the Lockridge family. Today, Brick wants to devote himself to Amy, to Johnny, to this moment of love... In fact, the strength of their love is such that Katie and Glenn, after so many years, seem to find each other again.

But one day, because there is precisely Amy and Johnny, Brick decides to seek the answers to the questions that assail him. Because, like Augusta, Brick seeks a reason for Minx Lockridge's interest in him. But there is not only that. Why Augusta is so obsessed with him : a car accident, accusations of theft, calls to his father while he was in the hospital... Eager to lay out his entire history from his birth to today, he goes one day, advised by Amy, to the maternity of the city. After a moment of waiting, he ends up meeting Mathilda Cordell. When he comes to her, her distress is such that she drops the files she has in hand. The name Barnaby Wallace sounds like a slap, like the release of locks closed for years. It is like a thunderbolt from the past shaking her desk. Finding a bold front, Mathilda explains that she cannot respond favorably to his request today. She asks him to fill out a file and to come back. From the departure of Brick and Amy, Mathilda, frightened, phones Minx to know what she must do. Minx's orders are clear and unambiguous : the past must be left to the past. Obedient, Mathilda explains to Brick that his file burned down a few years ago, during the archives fire. Brick does not believe it and, although he does not want to give up, this track is dead end. Yet, Brick was so close to discover the truth... A few steps from him, Mathilda slips into her pocket the four files of the children born on December 11, 1961, before going to the Lockridge Villa to give Minx the evidence of her crime... This crime that has haunted her for more than twenty years...

Twenty-four years. Twenty-four long years passed between the last meeting between Minx Lockridge and Mathilda Cordell. Twenty-four years earlier, Minx had ordered Mathilda to give her the opportunity to exchange two children. Today, Minx ordered Mathilda to give her four files. After Mathilda's departure, Minx burns the four files, erasing the evidence of their crimes, while asking Brick for forgiveness for what she did, for what she is doing. While watching the files burn in the fireplace, Minx seems to fear tomorrow, as if by destroying these documents she was destroying the links they represented.

For his part, Brick does not lose hope and, fully aware that Mathilda Cordell and some others lie to him, he breaks into the hospital archives with Amy, in search of his file. The file closet doesn't contain his file. Again Brick leaves without information, but with an even stronger certainty that someone in the shadows tries to prevent him from discovering the secret of his birth. On several occasions, Amy and him have sought an explanation, an origin for this secret, but they do not find what could be the particularity of a little boy born in Santa Barbara hospital by chance, of a little boy whose parents are simple circus artists. In their eyes, it makes no sense... So many questions and so few answers. Another day, they receive the visit of Mrs. McRae, an acquaintance of Marisa Perkins, who is none other than the wife of the doctor who gave birth to Brick. The file that she has in her hands does not bring new answers, but she gives to Brick and Amy several pictures of children delivered by her husband. Among these photos, they find the photo of a little boy with on the back the name of Barnaby Wallace.

A photo, a new track... A gift just before Christmas ! As a Christmas present, Glenn gives Brick a picture of him as a baby, a photo he took before he left them, Katie and him, and that he kept for all these years. Brick is puzzled : the two babies on the photos do not look alike. If Amy has doubts, Brick is convinced that they are two different children. Besides even Mrs. McRae has the same doubts as him : they are two different children. So, as Brick argues to Amy : why the baby on the photo given to him by his father does not look like the baby's photo in his medical file ? Could it be...

Guided and advised by Nick, Brick ends up, with Connie's help, finding the trace of photographer Harold Beard who, in the 1960s, photographed all the children who were born in Santa Barbara hospital. Unfortunately for Brick, Harold Beard's mental state does not allow him to find answers to his questions. Old and senile, Harold has lost all sense of time, of reality, his world has literally changed into another reality. Brick seems almost more lost than him when he realizes that Harold will not be able to give him the answers to his questions. However, Brick does not want to lose hope and, when he discovers an archive box with photos, Brick hastens to search for evidence. Photos after photos, Brick looks at the faces of newborns. Suddenly, among the photos, one particularly catches his attention. The child on the photo could be him. However, when looking at him closely, the newborn could be the same as the one on Mrs. McRae's photo. Brick holds tight the photo between his fingers. And if the secret was on the back...

Suddenly, under Harold's eyes, photographer and incidentally guardian of old secrets, Brick, slowly turns the photo. A name is marked on the back. Brick reads the name. And suddenly... Suddenly, the truth comes out, explodes before him. Like an evidence. An impossible truth. An unimaginable truth. And yet. An evidence... It was obvious to them, but they couldn't imagine it, couldn't conceive it. Yet it could not be otherwise, as it seems so obvious...

1986 : Brick facing his parents and his destiny

At Buzz's Place restaurant, the New Year's party is in full swing. This party also serves as an engagement party for Kelly and Nick. There are many guests at the party : Mason, Janice, Eden, Kirk, Sophia, Ted, Sophia... While Amy is worried, Brick ends up coming back from Harold Beard, without answering his questions. Amy can only see the strange behavior of her husband. He goes to see Eden and asks her the birth date of Channing Capwell Junior. She answers him that he was born on December 11, 1961. Brick turns pale. The unthinkable becomes feasible. He moves away from Eden and his gaze is on Sophia, a few meters from him. His distress is seen on his face. Brick quickly leaves the place to Amy's amazement, more alone than ever in the middle of everyone.

His need to have confirmation of the truth that he is the only one to know guides him to the only other person who knows his true identity. Because now that he knows who he is, Brick needs to know why. His steps lead him to the Lockridge Villa, where Minx seems to be waiting for him, sitting on the sofa in the living room.

If in the first seconds, Minx is happy to see Brick, she quickly changes her reaction when she sees his face. Brick can only fix her, fix her intensely to pierce her shell and reach the truth. While showing her the photos of the two babies, he brings her proof of what he had always told her : he would find the reason for her interest. At first, Minx does not want to see them, but she ends up taking them in hands, driven by Brick's determination. Brick tells her that now he knows who he is. Minx holds the photos in her hands and still says nothing. She keeps silent while Brick shouts that he knows that she paid a nurse to exchange him with another one, while he cries that she ruined the lives of the two babies, his, that of his parents, but also that of the Capwells. Brick wants to understand why she did this, he wants to know the reason for all this. And, the only answer he gets from Minx, is that she is sorry and that she tried to fix her mistake. Tired and frightened, Minx withdraws and locks herself in a room and, while she exchanges a last look with Brick, she tells him in a breath that she loves him. But it doesn't satisfy him, it doesn't answer the question of why...

Brick then goes to Channing Capwell Junior's grave and the evidence gets imposed on him : Channing Junior should be in his place and he in his. He kneels down and cries over the drama of their lives. Then, he goes back to Buzz's Place, to the party. There he asks to speak to Sophia in private. Brick's gaze, which then arises on her, is different. Sophia feels penetrated by this gaze, especially since Brick's questions worry her. He asks her if she is the real mother of Channing Junior. He depicts a Channing Junior without qualities and who hurt his entourage during his lifetime. Sophia contradicts him and tries to cut short the conversation when, suddenly, Brick's words become totally incomprehensible. Brick tells her that she should have raised him. And while they speak, Brick understands that Sophia knows nothing, that she ignores the truth. Throughout their conversation, Brick holds Sophia's arms. She is afraid and calls for Ted to come and put an end to this most embarrassing conversation. None of the people around him seems to even get a glimpse of the reality, of who he really is.

So, more alone than ever, Brick returns to the Lockridge Villa where Minx, touched by the sound of his voice, agrees to leave her hiding place. She looks at him at length and agrees to answer all his questions. Yet that is not what Minx does. This one has excuses, justifications, and among the words she says, one has all its importance : Brick Wallace is dead, while he is alive. She freed him from his name and destiny, and he is alive. Then, she makes Brick understand the reasons : he is the son of Sophia and Lionel, and she could not then bear that Lionel's son, a Lockridge, could be raised as a Capwell. Minx then reveals the past. Augusta and Lionel got married. At the beginning of their marriage, Augusta traveled to Europe with her mother and Lionel had an affair with a Hollywood starlet named Sophia Wayne. Minx thought this affair would end with Augusta's return. But even when Augusta came back to Santa Barbara, Lionel continued to find excuses to see Sophia. So she arranged for Sophia to discover that Lionel was a married man. Then, as Sophia got engaged to C.C. Capwell, she decided to watch her, wanting to know if she still dated Lionel. And one day she followed her to a Catholic church and that's when she learned that Sophia was pregnant with Lionel. She confesses, facing Brick's questions, that one day she almost told Lionel the whole truth. She had then summoned him to her bedroom, but before she could tell him anything, Lionel announced to her that Augusta was pregnant with Warren. Brick then understands that Minx chose between a legitimate heir and a bastard. Minx tries to explain to him that she then did her best to give him a part of what was rightfully his. She also confides in him the secret of the bracelets exchange she made herself. There is no more secret : the veil is lifted on Sophia's secret, on Minx's secret. Minx ends by saying that yesterday, she made a terrible choice and that today, she lost both babies : Barnaby died, and Brick hates her. Brick leaves her while she tells him that she loves him.

On the morning of this new year, Brick announces the truth to Amy and they think together about the new family tree. After Minx's revelations, Brick seems to have calmed down, as if he had finally absorbed this truth. Slowly he lets a place be built in his flesh for the other him who was asleep. Before the departure of his parents, he entrusts to them all the truth, which they seem to take without too much anger and pain, even if they ask Brick to lead them to Channing Junior's grave.

Now, in Brick's eyes, what remains is to announce the truth to his biological parents, to Sophia and Lionel who live with the weight of their son's death. Brick goes to see them in the museum, where he briefly questions Warren about his feelings when he learned that he had a brother. For only answer, Warren entrusts him that it is strange to have a brother and not to have had the time to know him. Then, Brick invites Lionel and Sophia to the Orient Express to talk to them. He wants to talk to them about Minx's actions and the consequences on their three lives. Their conversation is quickly interrupted because Sophia is requested as soon as possible at the Capwell Villa. Eager to finally reveal the truth, Brick drives Lionel to the Lockridge Villa where they find Minx. There, Brick tells the truth to Lionel : he is the living son he had with Sophia. If at the beginning Lionel does not believe in anything this story, he however ends up being troubled at first, then convinced by his mother's silence. While he orders her to say that all this is false, Minx, as usual, remains silent. And Lionel understands that Brick is telling the truth, the crazy story told by Brick is true !

Lionel then continues the transmission of the truth, by bringing Sophia to the Lockridge Villa. He has to face a big question : how to tell Sophia that their child is alive ? His first words are simple : they must be delighted, their son is alive and everything else has little importance. Lionel is confident in the future. He wants to tell Warren the news and, above all, he trusts Brick. Lionel accepts this new paternity and especially worries about how Brick will accept him as a father. Sophia, at first, finds it hard to believe in this new reality, to believe that the Channing Junior that she loved is not her son. Then, listening to Lionel's advice, she invites Brick to meet her at the Capwell gazebo. Before leaving the Lockridge Villa, Sophia finds herself alone with Minx, ready to close a page of life of more than twenty years. The two women stare at each other. Both understand that they share a secret of twenty-six years named Brick Wallace. Sophia reproaches Minx for having stolen her son, for having torn him from her, for having behaved like a God and for having destroyed the destiny of two children. As they challenge each other, Sophia promises Minx that, because she stole her son from her for twenty-six years, she will do everything today to keep him away from her. And even if Sophia leaves the villa with the impression of having won, the real winner is and will remain Minx because, as she shouts to Sophia, if Lionel's son and incidentally hers is alive, it is thanks to her...

In the Capwell gazebo a moment later, Brick, facing Sophia, puts an end to the power of secrets. He doesn't care about being a Lockridge. He doesn't care about being a Capwell. He doesn't care about being a link between these two families. He is a Wallace and he is proud of it. In his eyes, his mother is and will always be Katie. He happened to be in the middle of a war, a life he didn't choose. He is Brick. He is just Brick. The laws of blood have no hold over his life. It took him a long time to understand it, he had to face the truth to absorb it. And even if his words hurt Sophia, he does not expect anything from her or Lionel. He does not expect anything because he has everything he wants. His life today is about Amy and Johnny being with him. He knows he can't expect anything from others...

Captivating storyline that takes root in the past, extends ramifications on the present and that suggested consequences in the future. We can regret that the impact on the future is not as impactful and intense as the original plot, with overlapping in several other storylines. Brick accepts with great simplicity and naturalness his new identity and, quickly, everyone seems to have forgotten the secrets of each other (only Augusta perhaps keeps in memory Lionel's betrayal). One could have imagined more invasive biological parents to catch up with an irrational past, Capwell and / or Lockridge half-brothers less welcoming against Brick, an illegitimate son more destabilized by his new identity (his double was not the perfect son one imagined)... However, this storyline (referring to others) will have allowed to highlight beyond Minx's shenanigans in the past, the talent of Dame Judith Anderson. The final scenes with Richard Eden, Nicolas Coster, Judith McConnell are jubilant scenes : while everyone shouts, screams, threatens, Dame Judith Anderson remains impassive, indifferent to any agitation...

This storyline also disrupts the chronology of events and the interactions between the characters. Here, we learn that Lionel does not know anything about the child he had with Sophia, which will be contradicted in the continuation of the story. But above all, the writers have lost the notion of dates, creating a time gap between Pamela's departure and the birth of Channing Junior. Brick declares several times to have been born in 1959, besides the first images of Channing Junior's headstone bear the same date. In the hospital archives, Brick forces the drawer of the year 1959. And when he questions Eden to learn Channing Junior's birth date, she answers December 17, 1959. But, Sophia and C.C. were married in 1961... Never mind, Brick and Channing Junior's birth date will be changed. However, the year 1959 seems to be more logical when we know that the date of the divorce between Pamela and C.C. is year 1956.

Texte écrit pour ce site par Lilian