2009
Episodes #529 - 576

Claire Fisher and Brent Taylor became more determined than ever to solve the mystery of “Mr. Clayton,” the shadowy figure who had conspired against the Fisher family for years. A man carrying Clayton’s ID was found murdered in New Jersey, and the body was identified as being that of Reginald Carter. Brent discovered that Carter, Nick Moriani, and James Robbins had all been charged with conspiracy in the same case in 1987, only to have the charges mysteriously thrown out. The link among the three men spurred Brent and Claire onward, and Claire traveled to Orlando to meet with Carter’s daughter, who offered one useful bit of information: her late father had apparently spent years taking orders from a woman named Loretta.

Back in King’s Bay, Brent and his brother Josh took Brent’s twin sons to a baseball game, but a mysterious car ran them off the road. Young Caleb was briefly hospitalized as a result, and Brent’s wife Molly was sure the incident was related to Brent and Claire’s investigation. She insisted that they call it off. When he refused, Molly requested that Brent move out of their house for the boys’ safety. Determined to solve the mystery and keep his family safe for good, Brent went to stay at Josh’s. Meanwhile, Molly confided in new Objection Designs photographer Philip Ragan about her marital problems. At Bill’s restaurant opening, Molly and Claire got into a heated argument about Claire encouraging Brent’s mission. Brent reprimanded Molly for attacking Claire, which made the situation even tenser.

At an art show, Philip met Lauren Brooks when she spilled red wine on his shirt. She offered to pay for the dry cleaning. The next day, at an Objection Designs/Willis Advertising meeting, they were surprised to be working together. Despite their contentious initial meetings, Philip asked her out to dinner. She was surprised by how much she enjoyed the date and how different and sophisticated Philip was from her previous relationships. They began seeing one another.

After studying Reginald Carter’s phone records, Brent and Claire zeroed in on a number in New England and were convinced Loretta had to be headquartered there. Molly, unable to focus on work, almost cancelled a business trip to New York, but Philip agreed to accompany her and help her woo some buyers. She was grateful for the companionship. After a successful meeting, Philip invited Molly to join him on a road trip to visit his mother in New Hampshire. Molly agreed, and they traveled to the grand estate where Philip grew up, which she learned the locals called “the castle in the clouds.” When they arrived, Molly was introduced to Philip’s mother... Loretta. For reasons that Philip couldn’t understand, Loretta warned him not to get too close to Molly.

Claire’s teenage son, Travis Fisher, was troubled when his girlfriend, Elly Vanderbilt, told him that she wanted to locate her birth parents. Travis secretly suspected that Danielle Taylor was Elly’s mother but did not know how or if he should share this information. When Elly pressed her, Danielle badly wanted to confess the truth, but she knew that she had to keep her promise to Elly’s adoptive parents. Danielle’s boyfriend, Ryan Moriani, encouraged her to sign up for Open Mic Night at Cassie’s Coffee House, as she had not performed music in years. Danielle was grateful for his support. A series of interesting comments led Ryan to his nephew, Travis, and the two men realized that they both knew the truth about Danielle and Elly’s relationship. They agreed to keep mum.

Ryan continued to work on his memoirs for Vision Publishing, and author Cassandra Ward was brought in to polish the book. Ryan’s brother and Vision employee, Tim Fisher, began dating Cassandra. In her hotel suite, Tim accidentally knocked over a photo of her mother, and behind the photo in the frame, he found several newspaper articles about Cassandra’s mother’s death. She had been gunned down during an apparent robbery. Cassandra exploded when she saw that Tim had seen the clippings. Tim apologized for any intrusion, and cooler heads prevailed. He asked her to attend Bill’s restaurant opening with him and meet his family. Cassandra confided in him about her previous marriage, which had ended in a bad divorce.

Cassandra’s ex-husband, JD Robinson, showed up in King’s Bay and demanded money to keep quiet over something that involved Cassandra’s mother. Cassandra reluctantly paid up and wondered when his blackmail would end.

At Vision, Cassandra clashed with executive Diane Bishop over the next draft of Ryan’s book. One night at the office, after a particularly stressful meeting, Diane and Ryan opened a bottle of wine and got drunk together. Recovering alcoholic Danielle was annoyed to learn that Ryan had been drinking, despite his past problems with alcohol, and Ryan resented the implication that he was also an alcoholic. During a run-in, Danielle suggested that Diane not encourage Ryan’s drinking, which set Diane off. Danielle’s overbearing behavior irritated Ryan.

Danielle was almost too nervous to play at Open Mic Night, but Ryan’s encouragement was enough to get her on the stage. She played a new song she had written, about the situation with Elly. Diane, who was getting coffee at Cassie’s, was intrigued by Danielle’s cryptic introduction to the song and recorded the performance on her phone. She was convinced that the song’s mysterious content held the key to getting revenge on Danielle, whom she felt had humiliated her by blaming her for Ryan’s drinking.

With her daughter Samantha’s help in interpreting the song’s lyrics, Diane made the connection between Danielle and Elly. She had the video subtitled with the lyrics and considered using Samantha’s Facebook account to send the video to Elly. However, during a mix-up involving a paper that Samantha was helping her cousin Tori write, Matt Gray wound up with the USB drive containing the video. When he saw what the drive contained, he realized that Diane was up to something and refused to return it. Diane broke into his apartment to get it back, but he caught her.

On the night of Ryan’s book release party, Matt showed up to give the USB drive to Danielle. However, it wound up in the hands of the A-V technician, who played the video of Danielle singing instead of the one Vision had planned. Elly, who was in attendance as Travis’s date, realized what the song meant and fled the party. Danielle followed her and confirmed what Elly already knew. Overcome with emotion, Danielle even accused Ryan of having spilled her secret to Diane while they were drinking.

Travis brought Elly back to his grandparents’ house to spend the night. Elly was unable to rest and suggested an adventure. The next morning, Tim found Travis’s room empty—and the teens were on a train bound for Southern California. In Travis’s e-mail inbox, Tim and Danielle found a confirmation for the train trip. Tim, Claire, and Danielle traveled to L.A. with Melanie and Tom, Elly’s parents. By the time they reached the train station, however, Travis and Elly were touring Hollywood and then checking into the only hotel they could afford, a cheap motel. When they visited a diner, a group of teens stole Elly’s purse, which contained the rest of their money. They returned to the motel and planned to sleep for a few hours before ditching out in the early morning. That night, they had sex for the first time. In the morning, they managed to slip out of the hotel without paying. Meanwhile, the adults attempted to file Missing Persons Reports for the kids but were told they’d have to wait several more hours. They remained several steps behind the teens.

Tim read Ryan’s book and decided not to waste any more of his life being angry about the time he lost due to being held captive by “Mr. Clayton” and Nick Moriani. He was determined to move on. Bill Fisher opened his new restaurant, Harbor Boulevard. Tim provided copies of Ryan’s book to all the Fishers, who read it and were relieved that it was less exploitative than they’d feared. Paula, however, refused to read it for fear of opening herself up to those emotions again. She was finally getting used to shutting Ryan out of her life.

Cassandra twisted her ankle but, despite Tim’s urging, would not seek medical attention. He was surprised when she confessed that she did not have medical insurance. Though he wondered where her money was going, he reminded himself that it was none of his business.

Brent called out his ex-wife, Sarah Fisher, for using Graham Colville to make her other ex, Matt Gray, jealous. Determined to prove him wrong, Sarah continued to see Graham, who had a habit of dismissing Sarah’s questions about his past. Sarah’s private investigator instincts got the best of her, and she tailed Graham, who visited a familiar apartment complex. Sarah was called away before she could see what he did there. However, she kept digging and confided in her brother, Jason, that she’d found a birth certificate on which Graham was named as the father; it apparently wasn’t a coincidence that he’d come to King’s Bay. Sarah made a shocked Jason promise to keep the information to himself. Meanwhile, Jason’s best friend, Alex Marshall, received a surprise visitor: his biological father, Graham. Alex was cold to the man who had abandoned him and his mother. However, Alex told Jason about Graham’s visit, alleviating his friend’s stress about keeping secrets. Alex also told Don and Helen Chase, who reminded him that regardless of biology, Alex would always be a part of their family.

Graham told Sarah about his son—and about his hunch that she had already investigated him. Sarah admitted as much. He told her about his long-ago affair with Sally Marshall. Graham also mentioned that, once his business project in King’s Bay was complete, he might consider relocating again. That made Sarah wonder about their future, even moreso when she had a warm encounter with Matt just before Christmas. Meanwhile, Alex decided to make an effort and get to know his father. After Christmas dinner with her family, Graham proposed to Sarah, and she accepted.

Jason and his fiancée, Courtney Chase, planned a date night to escape the rigors of new parenthood. When their babysitter got into a minor car accident, Jason’s employee, Sabrina Gage (really psychotic Shannon Parish), offered to fill in. Jason accepted but didn’t tell Courtney, knowing how she felt about Sabrina. When Courtney found out, she cut their date short and raced home—where Shannon was contemplating smothering the baby to eliminate the bond between Jason and Courtney. The parents arrived home in time, and Shannon covered. Courtney flipped out on Shannon, who again planted a seed in Jason’s head about Court’s instability. Shannon was horrified by what she almost did and realized she could never kill Jason’s child. She needed to save Sophie from Courtney, so that she and Jason could raise the girl together.

Alex’s boyfriend, Seth Ashby, proposed that they have a threesome with a woman. Though reluctant, Alex agreed. He was shocked to discover that the woman in question was Seth’s coworker, Sabrina! Alex tried to do it, for Seth, but was unable to go through with it. Alex finally realized that his relationship with Seth was not meant to be and ended it.

Courtney and Lauren asked Sabrina’s former fling, Josh Taylor, to make one more attempt at digging into the suspicious woman’s history. Jealous of Lauren’s date with Philip, Josh agreed. He went to Sabrina’s house and was shocked to find her mid-romp with Seth. He shared this news with Jason, Courtney, and Lauren. When Jason revealed to Seth and Sabrina that he was aware of what happened between them (and was okay with it), Sabrina lost it and had a meltdown at the office. She claimed that she didn’t want Jason to think of her that way. He was thrown by her over-the-top reaction and wondered how unhinged she really was.

Desperate, Shannon purchased rat poison. She pulled strings to reschedule Jason and Courtney’s wedding cake tasting and poisoned one of the samples. Her plan almost went terribly wrong when Courtney offered the poisoned piece of cake to her former coach, Sandy James, but Shannon took control of the situation and made sure Courtney ate it. Shortly afterward, Courtney fell very ill and began coughing up blood. She wound up in the hospital, where the poison was discovered in her system. She made a full recovery. She suspected Sabrina, and though Jason found the idea outlandish, he decided that he had to trust his fiancée and offered to fire Sabrina from the arena so that they could be free of any possible problems. Courtney was grateful.

When he told “Sabrina” that he was letting her go, she had an emotional breakdown and fled the office. She went to Seth’s and waited for him to get home. Seth tried to get her to talk, but all she wanted to do was have sex. Seth could tell she was unstable and refused. Then he discovered the bag of rat poison in the trunk of her car. Desperate to keep her secret, Shannon bashed him in the face with a vase and pushed him down a flight of stairs. She fled. A neighbor found Seth, who was admitted to the hospital, comatose.

Jason, Lauren, and Alex began to share Courtney’s suspicions about Sabrina and felt that she had pushed Seth. The police questioned Sabrina, who managed to cover her tracks and claimed she hadn’t seen Seth on the night of his attack. She did tell them that Seth had been talking a lot about his ex-fiancée, Miriam, and when the police went to question Miriam, they found a letter ostensibly written by Seth (actually sent by Shannon) asking Miriam to come to King’s Bay. She had no alibi to prove that she had not traveled to King’s Bay that night and was arrested for Seth’s attack.

Shannon paid off one of the strippers hired for Jason’s bachelor party and took her place. At the party, she cornered Jason and made a move on him. Jason tore off her mask and realized who it was. He pushed her away, but when the lights came on, there was no sign of Sabrina anywhere.

The day before Jason and Courtney’s wedding, Seth awoke from his coma and shouted Sabrina’s name. The police were unable to find her, though. Jason and Courtney acknowledged how similar this seemed to what happened years before with Shannon Parish, but they couldn’t wrap their minds around the idea that Sabrina could be Shannon, who had allegedly died in a mental institution. Lauren decided to make an impromptu trip to Iowa to visit Sabrina Gage’s family and learn more, and Josh offered to accompany her.

On the morning of the wedding, Courtney took Sophie to the hotel to get ready with the bridal party. A mysterious man knocked on the door of the room where Helen was watching Sophie, punched Helen out, and kidnapped Sophie. While the police worked to gather clues, Jason raced to the hotel. Upon arriving, he realized that, based on the description of the kidnapper’s car, he had seen where the man had taken Sophie. He led the police there, and the harried kidnapper tried to flee with the baby. After a minor crash, the kidnapper was apprehended and Sophie was thankfully safe. The kidnapper was unable to provide any information about Sabrina’s whereabouts.

Courtney initially blamed Jason for letting things get this far and said that she could not marry him. However, cooler heads prevailed, and they proceeded with plans for the ceremony. In Iowa, Lauren and Josh went to the Gages’ address and were surprised to learn that Sabrina was there—the real Sabrina Gage, a woman in a permanent vegetative state whose identity Shannon had stolen. They raced back to King’s Bay with this information, while Shannon was hiding out, ready to crash the wedding since her plan to cancel it had not worked.

Lauren made it back in time to act as maid of honor, and Jason and Courtney were finally married in a beautiful ceremony. But when Sandy received word that she had a call at the front desk, she left the reception and found herself taken hostage by a gun-toting Shannon, who directed her to the roof. She then forced Sandy to call Courtney and summon her, as well. When Jason received a call from Shannon demanding that he come to the roof alone, he went, but not before alerting Brent, who stationed himself at the entry to the roof with the other officers who had been guarding the reception.

During a tense standoff, "Sabrina" finally admitted to her true identity. She made Jason promise to leave the wedding and run off with her. Jason, desperate, agreed. Then Shannon revealed Courtney, cut up and bleeding as she lay on the roof. Jason called in Brent and the police. Chaos ensued, and Sandy was shot in the leg. The police held Shannon at gunpoint and attempted to make her surrender, but she refused. When Jason screamed that he hated her and that they would never be together, Shannon climbed onto the ledge and jumped from the roof. She plummeted to her death in the street below.

Philip accompanied Lauren to the wedding as her date, and he noticed the rapport between her and Josh when they arrived from their trip to Iowa. Later, he went to see her at Willis and was surprised to walk in on Josh hugging her and comforting her over Courtney’s passing. Philip told Lauren that, in light of the tragedy she was facing, he thought it would be best not to burden her with a relationship. Lauren agreed it was for the best, and they ended things.

When Miriam, exonerated, came to see Seth in the hospital, he feared that she would tell his parents about his relationship with Alex. Seth worked up the nerve and finally came clean with them. After having almost lost him, his parents were more accepting than he had once expected. Seth said goodbye to Alex and returned to Portland with his parents to recover and move on with his life.

After spending Christmas with his family, grief-stricken Jason finally decided to visit Courtney’s grave. Tim, Molly, and Sarah followed him, and as Jason mourned his wife, he cried with his siblings.

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