The couple Lydia Saunders and C.C. Capwell
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A new youth... An affair to rediscover, for a few weeks, the madness and carefree spirit of the early years...
A new report... An affair to rediscover, in just a few weeks, the information behind a brand-new scoop and to dream of glory for years to come...
A new game... In this game of cat and mouse, who will outsmart the other - Lydia Saunders or C.C. Capwell - and, for a few weeks, achieve a triumphant return ?

A scoop for a man, a man for a scoop...

Journalist Lydia Saunders returns to Santa Barbara on familiar ground, as her father Ed was once acquainted with C.C. Capwell. Often described as a journalist without the slightest scruple, Lydia arrives with a clear objective : to produce a report on the treatment of employees within Capwell Enterprises. She spares no effort. She confronts the Capwell children, nearly challenges Sophia, spends time in jail (with Eden), seeks out Gina and Keith, and, as the culmination of her efforts, after sharing a meal with C.C., asks him to escort her back to her hotel room. Minutes earlier, Lydia managed to get Sophia to admit that she and C.C. have just divorced. Then she kisses him ! A modern, independent woman, she even invites him to stay.

A woman for an article, an article for a woman...

Rejected by Sophia, who refuses to resume their life together, C.C. suddenly finds himself available, with no conquest or relationship in sight. It is surely a first time for him. Usually, the powerful businessman is seen strolling or attending society events with a woman on his arm. Sophia's refusal places him in unfamiliar territory. Shaken by her attitude and confronted with his own age, C.C. throws himself into business as he once did after Sophia's presumed death.

The arrival of journalist Lydia Saunders gives him, for a time, the chance to forget his romantic disappointments. Though fully aware of her project to write about his family and his companies, the old Capwell lion feels ready to face the young woman, to confront her, to fight with every weapon at his disposal to protect his family and his enterprises. In this battle, C.C. even goes so far as to have his own daughter Eden imprisoned because she collaborates with Lydia.

Stimulated by Lydia and determined either to alter or block the article, C.C. allows himself to be charmed. He invites her at the Orient Express to uncover every secret she has unearthed. As the evening stretches on, he escorts her to her room, where she takes the initiative and kisses him passionately. A free and independent woman, Lydia even invites him inside...

A new man for a different woman...

Aware of their age difference and unwilling to lose his chances with the young journalist, C.C. throws himself into a new quest : to regain the appearance and physique of his youth. With the help of his son Ted, he trains in tennis and gymnastics. His virility and charisma challenged, he wants every possible advantage to win Lydia. He imagines she must be courted by much younger men than he, who could be her father. Step by step, C.C. even dyes his hair to restore the glow of his lost or perhaps rediscovered youth.

Driven by his need to succeed, to conquer the unattainable, C.C. plays every card available to a man of his status and age. After elegant restaurants, he invites Lydia onto his yacht for a romantic cruise to Anacapa Island. These moments are suspended in time for both of them. C.C. rediscovers the sensation of lost youth, that unique feeling of a new spring between two winters. Lydia, for her part, delights in discovering another world, in building a connection beyond physical attraction, a relationship not based solely on appearances.

To everyone's surprise, especially Sophia's, The Santa Barbara Post runs a front-page story on the affair between C.C. Capwell and Lydia Saunders. The city is astonished that C.C. allows the press to reveal the secrets of his private life. Yet he appears unconcerned. The man he is today seems different from the one he was before.

And it seems his efforts have paid off. Lydia lets herself be won over and surrenders to the freshness of this new C.C. Capwell. Of course they end up in the same bed, giving themselves to one another. Under Gina's stunned gaze !

Article... and breakup...

Despite their affair, the article remains hidden from C.C.'s eyes. Lydia refuses to let him read it before it is finished. She will not allow him to use her for an article. An article that could change her life... and the life of the Capwell patriarch.

C.C. works to uncover Lydia's secret piece. He steals all the recorded interview tapes. Furious at the image she paints of him, he refuses to see himself as the man she describes, though he is well aware of his flaws. True to form, he confesses to Lydia that he took the tapes and declares himself ready to fight with every weapon he has to prevent publication.

While the article consumes C.C.'s thoughts, his heart is also troubled by Sophia's growing closeness to Dr. Arthur Donnelly. This sudden rapprochement unsettles him more than he cares to admit.

Devastated by C.C.'s actions, which force her to revise her article and compromise her journalistic integrity, Lydia seethes. She must yield to him. She must abandon her original piece. Thus the version ultimately published is not the original : all pointed attacks against C.C. and Capwell Enterprises have disappeared.

The publication of the article definitively ends their seductive game, closes their affair, and makes their breakup official.

Lydia throws herself even more into her journalistic career, even collaborating with Eden Capwell Castillo on KSB8 TV. She quickly turns the page on C.C. and moves on to new adventures in Santa Barbara.

As for C.C., he soon leaves behind this fleeting springtime interlude of freshness and youth and returns to reality. And C.C.'s reality is named Sophia...

Lydia Saunders remains a lovely springtime parenthesis in the businessman's life. It is a refreshing breath of air that, for a few weeks, rekindled in C.C. Capwell the memory of life as it once was. Perhaps it was love... yet a relationship in which each sought something more. Lydia seems the greater casualty, losing her article, and the continuation of her story does not allow her to build a more serious relationship. Though C.C. felt rejuvenated in Lydia's presence, the effect are fleeting. He cannot remain that youthful man if he hopes to win Sophia back. Sophia knows intimately the man within him, and he is not the one who longs for his younger years.
Unlike Sophia's romances with younger men, Lydia's character is not caricatured (unlike T.J. Daniels and Ken Mathis, who both want something from her). If Lydia falls under C.C. Capwell's charm, it is by choice, her decision. And as an independent woman, she embraces it, expecting nothing in return.
The romance between Lydia and C.C. ultimately served mainly to create a new love triangle : C.C. - Sophia - Arthur Donnelly, a triangle that would quickly dissolve for lack of passion.

Text written for this site by Lilian