B.J. Walker and Warren Lockridge's wedding

The weddings of Santa Barbara
B.J. Walker and Warren Lockridge (1/2)

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From engagement at the courthouse...

With the support of her family, of her lawyer Julia Wainwright, and especially of Warren Lockridge's love, B.J. Walker faces new dark times. After having been sexually assaulted as a child and a few months earlier by her godfather, Frank Goodman, she is now accused of killing her executioner. Plunged despite her into a raging ocean, B.J. must struggle at all times to try to maintain a psychological balance. Strengthened by the love of Warren who supports her, she attends her trial that will decide her fate for the next few years of her life. After Cruz Castillo's departure, she knows that her salvation is hanging by a thread, to find in the depths of her mind a truth that she is not sure she wants to awaken in the open.

The city district attorney, Ben Arnold, is certain of the young woman's guilt. He does not hesitate to complicate the trial by forcing Kelly Capwell to testify against B.J., while she participated with Cruz in an investigation to find evidence to exonerate her. Kelly is forced to testify while her brother Mason is the judge and her sister-in-law Julia is the defense lawyer. The trial is at a dramatic new stage, when the district attorney calls Warren Lockridge to testify. Even though he knows that this may complicate Julia's defense, Mason grants the district attorney's request. Warren will have to testify against B.J., the woman he loves...

Trapped, Warren is afraid because he knows what Ben Arnold wants him to tell. He will be asked about the night B.J. tried to stab him with a pair of scissors. Warren knows that his testimony will be the most destructive for B.J.'s defense. Sure of his love and fully aware of the issue, Warren is forced to make a radical and definitive decision. As they find themselves alone in the courtroom, Warren makes B.J. the most surprising demand : he asks her to marry him. State law cannot compel a husband to testify against his wife. This is the only way for Warren to keep silent and not be taken to the witness stand.

Caught off guard by the request (made in a way very far from tradition), B.J. first believes in a joke. But Warren insists : he wants to marry her tonight. He has already thought about the situation. He has a friend who is a justice of the peace, so he can come to her parents' house tonight and marry them. B.J. does not understand and does not see the point of getting married while she is accused of murder and faces years in prison. And Warren, certain of his decision, argues : once married, he will not be obliged to testify. If Warren tries to be the most convincing, B.J. has doubts, because through Warren's words, she sees only administrative, legal arguments and not love. Her little girl's dreams about marriage do not fit into this situation. And yet, part of her heart and reason are convinced by Warren's words. He tells her, swears to her that he loves her and wants to marry her; the trial only forces him to move forward with his request.

Seeing that B.J. 's determination is crumbling, he again confesses his love to her and asks her to marry him tonight. At the courtroom entrance, just back from Florida, Reese and Jodie hear Warren's words. While B.J.'s parents are stunned by this request, Jodie remains the most disturbed and a nascent anger spreads in her body. Jodie and Reese tell their meager progress from their stay in Florida : they met a man who admitted to having abused Frank, but he will not come to testify and they have nothing to compel him to do so. Thus, they have not made any decisive progress. This lack of progress reinforces Warren's decision to marry B.J. that evening.

In total disagreement on this option, Jodie does not hesitate to oppose Warren and try to convince B.J. to give herself time. To convince B.J., Jodie struggles to find the right words and explains that she is not against their love, it is only that the time is not right. Jodie tries to lead her on another path. And because Jodie opposes Warren, B.J. lets out her anger and frustration : always following her mother's advice, always making the choices suggested by her mother, always being a very wise little girl, she finds herself today accused of murder. That is where she is : being forced to fight for her life ! Weary after the trial ordeal, B.J. moves away from her parents before being joined by Warren.

So Warren takes advantage of this brief moment to make his best love statement, without kneeling down, without asking for permission from her parents, without making a long speech about love, Warren simply says to the one he loves that he is sure of his feelings, that he is certain of his desire to live with her, his whole life. And again, Warren just asks her to simply say yes. B.J. dips her eyes into her fiancé's, and answers yes with a real pleasure. Relieved, they kiss each other, letting time and the world stop for a moment around them...

Only Jodie is not convinced by the path they have decided to follow. She seems to have real fears about the future, certainly because through the haste of her daughter to marry, she finds the imprint of her own haste to marry Reese, while she was pregnant...

...To the wedding at the Walker cabin.

At the Walker cabin, far from the city, they find Sawyer and Aurora. Through an innocuous conversation, Warren makes it clear to Sawyer that B.J. and he are going to marry. He has arranged everything so that the wedding will take place tonight, a justice of the peace is on his way and they are just looking for witnesses. Sawyer is surprised and Aurora is rather happy to hear the news. Reese takes a moment to explain to Sawyer the reasons behind this hasty marriage.

Apart in the room, mother and daughter are again at odds. Like in court, Jodie struggles to find the right words to explain her fears. In her mind, her own feelings about the couple she forms with Reese and the feelings towards her daughter mix. Jodie is aware that B.J. is on the same path as her and, like any mother, Jodie fears she will make the same mistakes. Thus, Jodie explains to her daughter that she does not doubt the sincerity of Warren's love, that she also does not doubt the strength of his love, it is only that the moment is not right. They cannot get married like that, in the middle of a trial. They cannot choose to get married for the reasons mentioned by Warren, because they are not good... These words hurt B.J. deeply. She feels obliged not to defend herself, but to argue for her decision. The words of B.J. are simple, it is about her life, her choices... This does not concern her. It concerns only Warren, Warren and her. It is their decision. And then, beyond all else, she feels deep down in her heart that it is the right decision. It is the right decision, because they love each other. They love each other with deep and sincere love. So yes, she chooses to marry Warren.

After B.J. leaves the room, Warren approaches Jodie to convince her of the merits of his request. He explains that if he wants to marry B.J., it is out of love, only and simply out of love. This love they feel for each other is the only important fact of their lives. Of course, there are other reasons for this marriage, more or less beautiful reasons, as in everyone... These last words find a very special resonance in Jodie who, certainly when she married Reese loved him, but behind this act of love, there were other reasons, more or less beautiful reasons... More or less correct reasons...

Alone in her parents' bedroom, B.J. took refuge to think about this marriage and Warren's love for her. B.J. is not surprised to see her mother enter; she was expecting this second part of their mother-daughter pre-marriage discussion. Sitting in a bathrobe on the bed, B.J. lets her mother come to her. Driven by her own fears and the reality of her marriage, Jodie explains to B.J. that sometimes love is not enough. Between the lines, it is the observation about her own marriage that she portrays to her daughter : being someone's wife is not simple; on a daily basis it takes time and effort in addition to love. And, for this love to flourish in complete freedom, it is necessary that all the small things of daily life are in order. Jodie reveals her fears : she knows that currently B.J. 's life is not as stable as it should be for her to get married. And to find real stability, she needs time; she can marry Warren when the trial is over.

Today, B.J. cannot hear this speech. She has spent her life in fear, afraid of the shadows. Today, Warren offers her the hope of another life, to have the possibility of seeing beyond the light at the end of the tunnel, to cross this tunnel to get out. Warren has chased the shadows and memories of Frank. This is her chance and she wants to take it. She is no longer afraid to think of tomorrow, to hope for tomorrow. She wants to chase the fears of today with the trial, she wants to chase the darker fears of yesterday. She wants to think only of tomorrow and the happiness that is offered to her by becoming Mrs. Warren Lockridge. Touched by these words and the way her daughter has gone, Jodie goes to find a box in the dresser that contains the wedding dress with which she said I do to Reese twenty years ago. As a loving mother, Jodie offers her dress to B.J.. Like all mothers, Jodie has imagined this day hundreds of times and in her dreams B.J. never got married in their home's dining room. In her dreams, she imagined her daughter at Reese's arm, walking up the aisle of a cathedral, with behind her grooms and bridesmaids... And, seeing that her daughter accepts her dress as a true testimony of love, Jodie lets out some tears...

Unbeknown to all, Reese watches his wife holding her wedding dress in her hands, and he remembers her that day. The emotion at Reese is intense. Each in their own way, it is their marriage and their life as a couple that they contemplate : the love of the beginning, their youth, and the state of their love today. This marriage which today, despite all their love, has not been able to resist the passing of time. Both can see or feel the love they shared, that love which now seems broken, without knowing how to put it together. Jodie's thoughts are harder, because she transposes her failures on her daughter's upcoming wedding. And if her marriage with Warren ended like hers, despite the strength of their love, she is so young... As for Reese, he is strangely the one who has the most hope, trusting in his daughter, confident in the strength of her choices and in the love she feels. Beyond that, it is a little as if he still has faith in the power of love that connects him to Jodie. Deep inside him, there is hope that they will be reunited...

The arrival of the justice of the peace, friend of Warren's, calms everyone's anxiety and more particularly that of the future bride. He reminds Warren that to finalize the wedding, he will have to do blood tests tomorrow. Everything is ready for the wedding to take place. Worried, Jodie questions him about the legality of all this, and the judge confirms that the documents attesting to the union between Warren and B.J. will be valid in a court.

While everyone is waiting and the tension rises, B.J. appears in a wedding dress. For a few fractions of a second, the world seems to pause its course. Jodie notices that B.J. has no bouquet or ring. She gives her a ring and goes to the kitchen to take a bouquet of which she wraps the stems in a cloth. Everything is ready for the ceremony to begin. The judge stands before the assembly. Facing him, Warren and B.J. are anxiously awaiting the beginning of this new life, with around them Jodie and Reese, as well as Sawyer and Aurora. The judge begins the ceremony by explaining the reasons and consequences of the union of two beings. He mentions among other things the fact that they must respect each other and never seek to change the other, to try to make him renounce the values in which he believes...

His words resonate with force and violence in the mind of B.J., because even if it is not her who asks him, indirectly, she is forcing Warren to give up what he really is, to deny the values for which she fell in love with him... And, as the judge asks Warren if he will take B.J. for wife, she says in a breath that she cannot... She says that she cannot do it...

Warren, almost angrily, looks at her. He sees her move away from him without fully understanding the reasons for her change of heart. B.J. goes back to her bedroom, where a moment later she is joined by her father. Reese is obviously feeling sadness and compassion for his daughter, and can understand her heartbreak. He then confides to her intimate memories related to her birth. Then, he evokes these states, these feelings that a father must overcome to accept that his beloved little girl goes away to live her life in the arms of another man. It is for him both a pain and a great joy. Reese says that in a wedding, in their wedding, there should be joy, and that is absent. B.J. explains why she cannot marry Warren, she does not want to be the one who will make him lose the values in which he believes. Reese tries to reassure her, saying that certainly Warren believes in her more than in all things...

It is Warren's turn to come back to B.J. Immediately, B.J. confides that she fears he hates her because she no longer wants to marry him. She explains the reasons for her choice : she does not want their marriage to be synonymous with obligation, she does not want sacrifice, she does not want the bonds that they will weave between them to be too heavy and that one day they will suffocate them. And above all, she does not want a marriage that will concentrate all the fury of the judge and of policeman Connor McCabe. Warren, again, tries to explain to her that it is quite the opposite, that this marriage is a bulwark against them, against their weapons. Of course, he wants to marry her so that he does not have to testify at the trial, of course it is almost the essential reason for this wedding, but he also wants to marry her simply because he is in love with her...

Warren eventually leaves the Walker cabin, as does the judge. He is afraid. He knows that tomorrow, he will have to go to court and maybe to say words that will condemn the one he loves... But tomorrow is a whole new day...

Another cancelled wedding, in the heart of an emotional plot. The plot around B.J.'s sexual abuses is undoubtedly the plot of year 1992.

Text written for this site by Lilian