Dynasty Season 2 Episode 9 Review: Crazy Lady

This Dynasty review contains spoilers.

Dynasty Season 2 Episode 9 Review

Whew, Dynasty sure knows how to do a finale, mid-season or otherwise. Even with only a season and a half under its belt, “Crazy Lady” manages to mine the reboot’s lore for all its worth, giving us a high-impact, head-spinning episode to cap off the never-ending Carrington Christmas.

There’s a wild little tap dance that the beginning of this episode plays when it comes to the concept of who knows what about this baby’s parentage – and Hank’s. Talking to the FBI agents, the Carringtons convey that Hank is the father, whom they believe to be a Carrington, therefore making the baby their biological relative. That would also mean Alexis is about to be exposed, not only for her connection to Hank the criminal, but also for lying about Hank being her long-lost son Adam.

Instead, the Carringtons all lied to the FBI (again!) and they know the baby is Matthew and Claudia’s. This makes it one of the worst things they’ve done: intentionally having the FBI carry out a man hunt to steal a baby from its mother, albeit one who needs serious psychiatric help. There are a couple of amazing double-takes when the script reminds us that the Carringtons have only had the baby for 2(!) days, and when Blake points out that, “the FBI is not going to look for a woman who has just taken her own baby.”

Somehow, the rapid-fire reveal of which exact bonkers journey we’re going on in this episode all kinda works? Perhaps because Dynasty has trained its audience that it’s more fun when you stop asking questions and just go along or the ride. But one more question: when oh when will Alexis be called out for her Hank/Adam lie?

The Carrington family has had a surprising number of kidnappings – Aaron, Fallon, and now allegedly LB. Given that track record, it’s no surprise that Fallon has taken charge and asserted herself as the head of the Carrington household. Fallon has continued her loyalty to OG Cristal, as she delightfully calls her, whom she rightfully credits with finding her when she was kidnapped last year. I don’t know that Fallon will ever get over Cristal’s death, nor do I want her to. Their relationship was so much fun and so hard won, and the more quickly her father replaces Cristal, the more important it feels for Fallon to hold on. I don’t know what that means for the longterm health of the show, but it is what it is.

This episode rather skillfully found a way to make me start caring a whole lot more about Culhane’s BS. Aida is an interesting villain, but it was a bit hard to care too much about that story, and nearly impossible once Culhane actively chose to remain involved. Lucky for us, Aida stepped it up and decided to take care of Culhane and her Van Kirk vengeance all in one go. Unfortunately for Jeff, he got caught in the crossfire after playing Nancy Drew.

I’m glad Jeff figured out Culhane’s role in the stampede at Monica’s club and her subsequent injury – he was the only one positioned to do so, and their recent friendship has been fun to watch, making it a worthwhile thing to threaten with this intel. Better still, all of this gives Jeff more to do, which is important at a time when Dynasty characters are dropping like flies. Jeff’s life hangs in the balance, but given that the Colby-Carrington rivalry is central to the concept of the show, I’m hopeful that Dynasty will try to revitalize Jeff’s role on the show.

The fact that Culhane called Blake – not Fallon – is a key detail here. Culhane’s fragile masculinity has been trying as of late, and it’s certainly what Aida used to play him. His discomfort at the idea of being Mr. Fallon Carrington is going to be an issue; he’s kidding himself if he thinks their marriage will be any other way. And why should it matter? Plenty of relationships go the other way.

Kirby finally found her usefulness on the show as a much more successful Nancy Drew. The fact that the manny, Manny, did it, isn’t too surprising, but it still played as a good twist. Hopefully this bodes well for her future utility on the show.

Even more surprising is Sammy’s choice to give LB back to Matthew’s parents, and how affecting his goodbye with the baby was. He’s right, of course, that the Carringtons would never get past LB’s parentage. But it was still moving to see Sam do the fatherly thing and give up the chance to be a father. It’s truly weird, though, that Dynasty is trying to do this show, particularly the Steven-and-Sam-as-dads plots, without Steven, who never made it back from Paraguay (conceal your shock).

As Fallon says, if you wanna make a purse, you’ve gotta kill some pythons.

Keep up with all our Dynasty news and reviews here.