The deaths of Santa Barbara Singapore 1990 : Lionel Lockridge's false death
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At the instigation of the new executive producer John Conboy, the Lockridge clan, rival of the Capwells for generations, slowly becomes reformed during the year of 1990 after its members left one by one, over the years, the city of Santa Barbara . Augusta is the first one to come back to Santa Barbara , to find Julia, her sister. A while earlier, she attended, powerless, at the fire of the Lockridge family's ancestral mansion; the fire was lit by Laura Asher, mad with jealousy. If the fire did not have victims, the villa and the pieces of art which it contained disappeared fo ever.

During the year 1990, slowly, the other members of the family are going to make their return: Laken will be the first one to come back on the occasion of the death of her father, and then Minx will be back a few months later. And it will be necessary to wait for 1991 to find Warren (at the same time of his return, we shall see Laken leaving towards other horizons).

One of the most curious comebacks regarding the members of this family is without a doubt Lionel's. In this year of 1990, he comes back with the firm intention to deceive his forever rival, C.C. Capwell: the un-avowed objective is to steal his paintings and to resell them afterwards.

It is together with her new young devoted admirer, Mack Blake, that Augusta learns by a telegram the terrible news: Lionel Lockridge, her ex-husband, died in Singapore in a car accident (episode 1471) in very vague circumstances. Augusta , although divorced for years, is really annihilated by this news. A part of her, throughout these years, did not manage to forget the madness of these moments of common life with Lionel (even if she married Anthony Tonell meanwhile).

Apparently helpless by the information, Augusta collapses when she learns the terrible news. Incapable to get in touch with the Singapore official services (selfishly or by sadness), Augusta asks her sister Julia to take care of all the formalities for the repatriation of her deceased husband's body to the United States . She then learns that Lionel was cremated. Disorientated, Augusta becomes enraged with everything and everybody, and it is Mack who brings her some comfort and support.

A little later Augusta receives the ashes of her ex-husband, at the same time Laken comes back to town, on the occasion of her father's death. Warren , as for him, will not find this as a motive enough to return to Santa Barbara : we shall learn later that he was also in the Middle East , together with Cassandra Benedict. With Laken's return (episode 1475), we learn that Augusta lied to her sister to justify her absence at Julia's wedding with Mason Capwell: Laken has never had a baby. In reality, Augusta did not attend her sister's wedding, preferring to go to Greek islands together with Tonell. Laken does not succeed in realizing her father's death, as far as she spoke to him a few months earlier, by phone.

It is Julia, who belongs by marriage to the Capwell clan, who tells C.C. and Sophia about Lionel's death. Sophia is visibly upset by the death of her former lover, who knew how to become over the years a true friend. She has to, because of her sadness, again and again justify herself to C.C. on her friendly relationships, devoid of any ambiguousness, with Lionel.

Augusta quickly sees Lionel's ashes arriving from Singapore , which curiously are accompanied with a box and with a note from Lionel who asks her to give it to C.C. Capwell. After learning the news, C.C., quite as Augusta , is very intrigued, wondering about the nature of what Lionel was able to hand down to him. He eventually discusses it with Sophia. And, it is together with his daughter Kelly that C.C. opens the box. It contains two letters. In the first letter, Lionel implores their respective children to make peace between their families, in spite of all the actions which occurred and which can make their parents still today. The second letter is much more personal, because it is a very old letter from Sophia, written when she decided to put an end to their affair to marry C.C.. In her letter, Sophia writes that her heart always belonged to C.C. and never to Lionel.

Certainly touched by Lionel's letter, or avid to please Sophia, C.C. proposes to Augusta to lend her his mansion, so that she can offer a ceremony in Lionel’s memory. This ceremony cannot be held in the Lockridge villa, because of the fire which completely destroyed it a few months earlier. To attend this ceremony, Augusta invited Lionel's friends from four corners of the Earth (and in particular from very remote places, memories of places of a life of adventure and exploring): they appear as most improper to the Capwell mansion, because we see black men painted with all colors. During the ceremony, as an omen of what is going to follow, Augusta accidentally knocks down the urn containing Lionel's ashes. His ashes find themselves scattered here and there on the ground of the Capwell mansion!

At the end of the ceremony, Augusta leaves the Capwell villa. She gets in the limousine which waited for her (episode 1479). Seeing the chauffeur, Augusta faints. Her chauffeur turns out to be Lionel! After the big moment of astonishment, Augusta , as usual, gets angry with Lionel, blaming him for his behavior. It is necessary to wait for a moment before Augusta calms down, and before Lionel can explain his plan. Because Lionel Lockridge has an idea in mind, an idea which has to allow the Lockridges to find a part of their fortune back, to the detriment of the Capwells, naturally.

The project invented by Lionel is of the simplest form: to steal C.C. Capwell's paintings and to resell them to a collector in Macao . Lionel reminds Augusta that years ago, he sold paintings to C.C.. These ones being only copies, Lionel intends to steal them, to be able to use the originals afterwards which are hidden in the tunnel connecting the Capwell villa with the Lockridge villa. Augusta eventually accepts Lionel's return, and she even agrees to assist him with his project. Of course, to be able to lead his project full-term, Lionel needs to still remain dead to the world.

It is in the middle of the rubble of their former house that Augusta and Lionel discover the sad reality: they cannot reach the tunnel by the secret entrance located in the cellar anymore, because of the works. The only possible access is in the Capwell mansion. Augusta helps Lionel to discreetly edge his way into the villa so that he can pursue his plan: to get back the Lockridge name the past fortune and glory.

Naturally, nothing happens as Lionel had imagined it. Gina and her mother Phyllis are the first ones to thwart Lionel's plans. Then, C.C. discovers very fast Lionel and Gina's curious ploys around his masterpieces. He then has the idea to start a new plan to get rid of Gina and Lionel at the same time. In the end, Lionel's plan turns around against him: he loses the Lockridge mansion to the benefit of his worst enemy, further to the payment of the ransom to free Augusta from the hands of the collector of Macao .

Text written for this site by Lilian