Amanda Carrington’s arrival was more low-key than anticipated.
Dynasty Season 4 Episode 16 finally introduced the other secret child, and if you thought there would have been fireworks, well, we’re sorry to tell you that it was a bit of a dud.
Maybe we’re supposed to believe Amanda is more low-key than siblings Adam and Fallon, but this being Dynasty, it should have been infused with much more drama.
It was typical of Fallon to balk initially at the idea of having any relation to Amanda, but we’ve witnessed people traveling from far and wide to declare they have a claim to the Carrington name, so who could blame her?
Amanda’s arrival was sad because Alexis had finally turned a corner with Fallon and Adam, but all of it imploded the moment Amanda’s identity was exposed.
The more likely scenario for the rest of Dynasty Season 4 is that Alexis will try to make Amanda believe she will take her under her wing and make sure her life is perfect.
If you watch Dynasty online, you know Alexis cannot resist stirring the pot, which will probably backfire. On top of that, I wouldn’t be surprised if Adam and Fallon told their new sibling they wouldn’t be able to have a relationship with her if she was closely aligned with their mother.
We’ve already seen how far Alexis will go to get back at her children, but it seemed like she had made progress. Maybe she’ll find a way to bring Steven back into the mix to have two kids on her side.
Alexis: I find it hilarious he thinks he can win. He’s got more skeletons in his closet than a Halloween outlet.
Fallon: Doesn’t everybody in this family?
Seriously, though, how many secret Carrington children are there out there? Amanda strikes me as the most similar to Steven out of all her siblings.
Steven was very similar to Celia in that they both cared about the 99% of people affected by the decisions of the 1%, and Dynasty has lacked that more grounded side of things since both characters were eliminated.
If Amanda can prove to be like them and not be drunk on power when she gets it, this new arrival will be deemed a success, but I’m just waiting here for the other shoe to drop.
Will Amanda be driven by revenge? Surely, she holds some resentment for her siblings and Alexis because, well, her whole life was deemed a lie.
Then again, maybe she’ll connect with Adam on some level, but she might be afraid to get close to him when she learns about all the skeletons in his closet.
Blake’s political campaign was almost derailed by the arrival of a child who isn’t even his, and Alexis would have loved it.
Her comment about Blake having more skeletons in his closet than an outlet Halloween story was right on the money. Blake has done his fair share of wicked things, and the notion that he’d be able to make it in the world of politics is laughable.
Cristal helping him was even more comical, but at least, she’s finally got a personality. Does anyone else think this iteration of Cristal has been too one-note to care about?
Now that she’s chosen a side and will be helping her husband get all the power, well, I can get on board with that. The scene in the office with the applications was bizarre more than anything.
The dude who said she was four minutes late seemed like he’d been asked to join in on the scene at the last minute, perhaps as though it was an afterthought.
However, it was over the top, which is very much on-brand for Dynasty.
This brings me to the Anders of it all. I thought killing off a pivotal character would have actual stakes, but with Anders popping up here and there to help the characters through issues, was there any need in writing out Alan Dale?
There are simply no stakes when you travel this route, and when the concept of death isn’t based in reality, it doesn’t have an emotional impact on the series.
I didn’t mind his appearance as Kirby tried to deal with the fact that she wasn’t around for the funeral because that had emotional ramifications.
As for Sam and Culhane’s guilt about Leo, well, would they have rathered Leo threaten their existence at every turn?
Leo was a terrible person who got off on making people pay him a lot of money in exchange for him not killing them. As we approach the final episodes of Dynasty Season 4, it’s obvious someone else will pop up to take Leo’s place.
These people don’t work alone. Somewhere, someone will remember about the money being funneled through La Mirage, and the boys will no longer regret having him killed.
It was kill-or-be-killed in this scenario, but whether the risk will pay off is another story.
Fallon’s plan to take the teleshopping world by storm was fun and all, and I liked the addition of Nene Leakes, but something tells me she’s going to lose Liam before long.
She’s jumping head-first into this new world without considering that she also needs to be supportive of her husband.
She’s too driven by world domination, and while that’s not entirely a bad thing, she needs to make time for Liam.
If not, it looks like Eva will swoop in and try to steal him. At least Liam won the award after he got the good luck charm from Eva, cheesy as it was. He was definitely thinking about what it meant that she helped him.
Eva’s motives are unclear, but she’s too involved in Liam’s life for someone who shouldn’t be making comments about him in the first place.
This makes me think Liam’s mother is pulling strings and trying to cause problems for Liam and Fallon.
“The British Are Coming” had drama, but it wasn’t nearly enough to cover all of the events that should have been more exciting.
What are your thoughts on Amanda’s arrival?
Do you think Sam and Culhane need to get over Leo’s death?
Is there trouble brewing for Fallon and Liam?
Hit the comments below.
Dynasty continues Fridays at 9/8c on The CW.
Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.