Pilot
Jane Wyman and Robert Foxworth star as conflicting head members of a traditional California wine-producing family reunited by the mysterious death of one of its members. When Emma is involved in Jason's accidental death, Angela covers for her. Emma withdraws to struggle with her feelings of guilt and her sense of loss. As Chase and Maggie travel to the valley to attend Jason's funeral, Chase is caught up in childhood memories and a renewed draw to the land on which he was born. When Cole suspects Vicky is having an affair with one of her teachers, he is arrested for breaking and entering. Chase realizes that his long absences from his family have taken their toll. He and Maggie decide to move the family west to Falcon Crest, while Angela vows to be rid of them by first earning their friendship.
Paul, an old friend of Chase, rekindles fond memories of flying together in the Air Force and resurrects their dream of starting a flying service together. While Paul mentions that he has the perfect place down in the Caribbean islands, Chase indicates he's found the perfect place, too, at Falcon Crest. We learn that Paul doesn't care about starting a business, but needs a large sum of money to cover his gambling debts. Angela has promised Paul the money if he can get Chase off the land. While courting Julia, Paul learns about a disease called ""bunch rot,"" and by opening the sprinklers in the night, seeks to make sure Chase will be ruined and forced to leave. When Paul demands his reward, Angela angrily accuses him of endangering all of the vineyards, throws him out and calls Chase. After Paul is exposed, Julia helps Chase and Maggie in preserving the vineyard.
Pressured by a $50,000 tax bill and short of manpower, Chase desperately tries to pre-sell his grapes before harvest. Angela offers to buy them at below market value. After Gus informs Chase of another buyer, Chase makes a lucrative deal. Angela buys the mortgage on this man's property, forcing him to back down from the deal with Chase. After a bank loan mysteriously falls through, Chase, Maggie, Cole and Vicky decide to burn their bridges and sell the brownstone in New York to raise the necessary money to stay afloat. Cole, in the meantime, is torn between following his dream to become an archaeologist and keeping Chase's dream alive by helping him in the vineyards.
Tired of Lance's irresponsible behavior, Angela becomes disenchanted with him as heir to Falcon Crest. In order to prove his worth, Lance explodes Chase's pump house, which makes Angela furious, and she threatens to disinherit him. After Lance starts a fight with Mario, Mario requires hospitalization. In order to spur Lance, Angela courts Cole to be the heir to Falcon Crest. While Chase and Maggie prepare to bring in their first harvest, Lance pays off the pickers, while Chase fights to get his son back. After Cole realizes what is really happening at the big house, he returns home to assist his family. When Chase learns about the bribe, he confronts Angela, and regains his pickers. By offering to help secure a university scholarship for Mario, Angela gets the charges dropped. Falling in love, Vicky and Mario have to part so that Mario can start school.
Julia's husband, Tony, who deserted her and Lance twelve years ago, suddenly reappears with the genuine desire to make amends and renew their relationship. Detesting his father for leaving home, Lance agonizes over the fact that Tony can return to Falcon Crest as if he had never left. While Lance is jealous of his mother's attention to Tony, Angela tries to interfere. Tony asks Julia to leave with him to start a new life away from Angela, but Julia finds she is unable to leave. Meanwhile, Chase becomes concerned about Maggie's new job as a newspaper reporter in San Francisco because she will be working for Angela's ex-husband, Douglas Channing.
Chase and Cole accompany Lance on a trip to examine a remote piece of property that Angela is contemplating buying. As the wilderness property is only accessible by horse, Cole is injured in a riding accident. Chase stays with Cole, while Lance goes for help. After running into some problems, Lance finally leads a rescue team to Cole. After Vicky makes an innocent remark regarding a mental health clinic, Emma runs away from home, believing that she is going to be sent away because people think she's crazy. When Vicky discovers Emma hiding in an old springhouse, she befriends Emma, and ultimately persuades her to return home. Worried, Douglas Channing stays by Angela's side until Emma is found.
When Emma's lover, Turner Bates, who was on the scene when Jason died, returns, Chase informs him that Jason supposedly died in a car crash. Knowing this to be untrue, Turner seeks Emma to learn what happened after he ran from the scene on the night of Jason's death, but Angela throws Turner off her property. Turner sneaks back, steals Emma away and romances her in order to learn the truth. Unable to obtain any straight answers from Emma, Turner tries to blackmail Angela, who in turn calls in the police, and Turner, after a car chase, is accidentally killed. Chase and Lance pull Emma out and save her. When Maggie says that she may be pregnant, the Giobertis try to cope with the effects that it would cause.
When Angela takes Cole to Rome to attend an important wine-tasting competition, she is surprised to find that Douglas is there, and hopes to rekindle the memory of their honeymoon spent there years ago. Initially, romance flares between Angela and Douglas; however, Angela devastates Douglas when she refuses his proposal to re-marry. Meanwhile, Cole has been given a collection of mysterious letters, which belong to an Italian relative and which underscore the enduring bitterness between Angela and Jason. Angela leaves Lance in charge of Falcon Crest to test him with the family business, but Lance painfully discovers that he's not as shrewd as his grandmother. Chase learns in the end, however, that Lance is not just a spoiled rich kid, but is a very dangerous person as well.
Angry with her parents for their excessive protectiveness, Vicky runs away from home to San Francisco, where she's lured into a wayward street life that she can't escape. Chase and Maggie frantically search for Vicky, unaware that Lance has introduced their vulnerable daughter to a woman connected with pornographic films. The Giobertis become stronger than ever when Chase and Maggie endure a difficult ordeal before locating Vicky. Angela toys with Douglas's emotions, playing him against a renowned painter and making Douglas look like a fool.
Maggie's news assignment on vineyard worker's lifestyles becomes a personal concern to the Giobertis when Maggie's interviews reveal that an extortionist is terrifying Falcon Crest employees. Puzzled as to why undocumented workers suddenly stop working for him, Chase urges Maggie to find out the reason through her interviews. When Chase learns that a man is blackmailing the vineyard workers with threats of deportation, he, despite Angela's warnings against becoming involved, manages to rout the extortionist. When Emma discovers that she is pregnant, Lance realizes that the last thing he needs is another heir competing for the Falcon Crest fortune. Consequently, Emma tumbles down a flight of stairs and has a miscarriage.
After a bitter argument with Angela regarding plans for him to marry Melissa Agretti, the wine empire heiress, Lance leaves in a fury. After he nearly runs over a girl, he falls in love with her and decides to move to San Francisco to be close to the girl. However, when Angela attempts to stop him, Lance succumbs and leaves the love of his life. In an old room that Jason had walled up, Chase finds some writings, which lead him to believe that Angela may have been involved in crippling a girl forty years ago. Confronted with the evidence, Angela turns the tables on Chase, playing a small excerpt of a recording that leaves Chase believing that his father hated him.
After an eleven-year absence before the camera, Lana Turner, one of Hollywood's brightest film stars, makes a special guest appearance as Jacqueline Perrault, Chase's wealthy mother who mysteriously returns to Falcon Crest. When Jacqueline warns Chase of Angela's treacherous nature and tries to persuade him to leave Falcon Crest, hatred erupts and Jacqueline argues with both Angela and Chase. However, through their conflict, the mother-and-son relationship is strengthened; Jacqueline is convinced that Chase will survive and prosper in the valley.
After Ed McKay, a member of the County Board of Supervisors, is assassinated, Carl Reed, one of the county supervisors, encourages Chase to run for the office. When Chase begins campaigning against Angela's virtual monopoly of the water rights in the valley, she does everything in her power to see Chase defeated, but nonetheless, Chase wins the election. After Emma is caught shoplifting in a jewelry store, Angela threatens the owner that she will destroy him if he decides to prosecute.
Angela, angry that Lance is working for his grandfather's newspaper in San Francisco and determined that he will marry Melissa Agretti, plans to destroy Melissa's budding romance with Cole. Chase and Maggie, concerned about Emma's instability, persuade Julia to take her sister to a local psychiatric clinic. When Angela finds out, she tells Julia the truth about Emma killing Uncle Jason, which turns Julia against Chase and Maggie. At the same time, Chase uses his influence as a county supervisor to discover the real cause of his father's death.
Chase begins to make inquiries into the circumstances surrounding his father's death. Angela, in an attempt to foil Chase, has Philip mislead Chase into believing he might inherit Falcon Crest. However, Chase doesn't fall for her trickery. Following a party at the Gioberti's, Cole's friend is killed in an auto accident after Cole refuses to drive him home. Angela attempts to force Lance to marry Melissa, who instead has become deeply involved with Cole. However, when Melissa learns she is pregnant, she tells no one.
Pressured by Angela, Lance proposes to Melissa Agretti with the consolation in mind that they dislike one another and that he knows Melissa will reject his proposal. When she surprisingly accepts his offer, Lance, shattered, is forced to go through with the ceremony. Melissa has her own cunning reasons for marrying Lance, aside from her father and Angela's scheme to merge Falcon Crest with Agretti Vineyards. When Cole fumes about the arrangement, Melissa assures him that her marriage to Lance won't interfere with their relationship. Another wedding almost takes place as Vicky and Mario decide to elope, but they change their minds at the last minute. Lance discovers that Melissa is pregnant.
While Emma draws closer to revealing the truth about Jason's death to outsiders, Chase steadily draws closer to learning the truth through his investigation. No longer speculating over his father's mysterious death, Chase finally gathers enough concrete evidence to go to the D.A., who in turn, calls for a coroner's inquest into Jason's death. While Angela attempts to impede this, she is forced to testify. Following his release from the hospital, Douglas tries to help Emma and escorts her to the inquest. However, before she can testify, Douglas has a fatal seizure and dies. After witnessing this, Emma runs off while Angela blames Chase. Angela learns of Melissa's pregnancy following a disastrous honeymoon and assumes Lance to be the father, despite his denial.
When Douglas is buried, Angela tries to keep Emma sedated to prevent her from testifying. Angela could lose Falcon Crest to Chase if his attorney can prove that Jason died under suspicious circumstances. When the coroner's inquest resumes, the D.A. mounts a circumstantial case that is easily rebutted by Erikson when Emma is unable to testify. Defying her mother, Emma manages to escape Falcon Crest and arrives to take the stand, confessing how she accidentally pushed Jason to his death while he fought with Turner Bates. The jury rules that Jason ""died at the hands of another,"" thereby giving Chase control of Falcon Crest, but he magnanimously offers fifty percent of the vineyard to Angela. Though Angela detests the thought of sharing Falcon Crest with anyone, she has no choice and accepts. Another threat looms as Angela learns of Douglas's illegitimate son, Richard Channing, who has inherited fifty percent of The Globe.
Angela resists Chase's claims to half ownership of Falcon Crest. Lance, already bitter over the prospect of sharing his inheritance with Melissa, gladly accepts the assignment of keeping Chase off the vineyard property. Richard Channing, illegitimate son of Angela's late husband, prepares to take control of The Globe as the new chairman of the board, while Angela looks for a way to block him. The newspaper is only a small part of the vast portfolio called ""The Company,"" held by Henri Denault, Richard's mentor and stepfather. Adopted at a young age, the desire to finally learn his mother's identity has motivated Richard to make the move to California and take over The Globe. When Cole shows up at the Agretti's demanding that Melissa acknowledge that she is carrying Cole's child and not Lance's, Carlo punches him in the face. After Gus dies in a gas explosion, Chase threatens Angela with an affidavit accusing her of complicity in Gus's death. He then forces Angela to agree in sharing the
In his new role on the Tuscany Valley County Board of Supervisors, Chase meets resistance in his efforts to break Angela's grip on county water supplies. When Melissa tells Carlo about her ambitions to control Falcon Crest, Carlo informs his daughter that she faces a powerful rival in Richard Channing, who is rumored to have ties to the C.I.A. and the British Parliament. Richard shows his ruthlessness by firing The Globe's longtime editor-in-chief, Herb Talmadge, who was only a year from retirement and a pension. After Angela tells Richard that he looks nothing like his father Douglas, Richard explodes after she leaves, vowing to ruin her.
When pressured by Richard to sell his winery holdings, Carlo spits in Richard's face, then confronts Angela about Lance's abusiveness toward Melissa and vows that Angela will never get Carlo's land through his daughter's marriage to Lance. Chase wants to distribute Falcon Crest's wine in Canada through a distributor other than Kleeger, which gets a big discount on their wine. Angela secretly owns Kleeger, and she charges Lance with keeping Chase from finding out. To counter Chase's efforts on the County Board of Supervisors to break her monopoly on the valley's water and distribute it to other growers, Angela claims her water is tainted. In turn, Chase orders another test of Falcon Crest's water supply that shows it not to be tainted. Cole gets into a fight with Carlo, who later telephones to apologize to Cole and invite him over to see Melissa. Not knowing that Carlo has leveled a pistol to his own head, Cole arrives to discover Carlo's body and becomes the prime suspect in Carlo's mu
Angela threatens Nick Hogan not to vote with Chase against her at the county supervisor meeting. If Nick votes to redistribute Falcon Crest's water to other vineyards, Angela warns that she won't be buying the $17,000 worth of pipes she was going to buy from him. Nick casts his decisive vote with Chase, and Angela warns Chase that he will come to regret his moment of glory. Emma disappears, secretly giving Chase the voting proxy to her twenty percent share of The Globe before she leaves -- the same proxy Angela hoped would give her control of the newspaper's board of directors. Richard prints a sensational article suggesting Cole murdered Carlo Agretti. When Richard asks Melissa to sell her the Agretti house, she suspects that Richard could have had a hand in her father's death. Cole is arrested for Carlo's murder after Cole's fingerprints are found on the statuette used to kill Carlo.
Chase and Maggie post Cole's bail, and Cole starts working part-time at the vineyard of a stunningly beautiful single mother, Katherine Demery. Richard's newspaper expose of workers' conditions at Falcon Crest leads Chase to publicly commit to higher wages and benefits for the workers, as well as changes in local labor laws. Lance agrees to take Melissa to child-birthing classes but refuses to attend, opting instead to spend time with Lori Stevens, his former girlfriend. Melissa is jealous of Katherine's attractiveness, and later Cole and Katherine's working relationship turns romantic. Richard tells his reporter, Blair, that he wants Cole convicted.
Against Maggie's wishes, Cole moves in with his new lover, Katherine Demery. Richard finds out and plasters The Globe with clandestine photographs of Cole and Katherine kissing. Jacqueline Perrault, Chase's mother, arrives from Zurich for a surprise visit and gives Chase money for Cole's legal defense, but Richard uses his contacts in Zurich to force Jacqueline to leave town. Angela buys up expensive stock in The Globe and continues tracking Emma to get her proxy. Lori demands that Lance come out in the open about their relationship. Lance is defiant when Melissa confronts him about his late night trysts. After a sudden complication in Melissa's pregnancy confines her to bed, however, Angela pressures Lance to spend more time with his wife.
Richard schemes to buy a piece of county property earmarked for a park, on which he plans to build a memorial to Douglas Channing on one small part and plant a vineyard on the rest. While Chase vehemently opposes the plan, Richard plants a bomb in Nick's truck and successfully intimidates Nick to vote his way at the board of supervisors meeting. Leaving her prescribed bed rest in order to win Cole back from Katherine Demery, Melissa collapses and is taken to the hospital, where she delivers an unhealthy, premature baby, whom she names Joseph Angelo Cumson, after Lance's great-great-grandfather. After Cole moves out of Katherine Demery's house, he moves back into his parents' house.
Doctors give Melissa's premature baby, Joseph, who suffers from a host of health problems, a twenty percent chance of survival. Richard uses a lucrative job offer to entice Tony into securing Julia's agreement to sell off her interests in Falcon Crest and The New Globe. However, the plan backfires and Julia is devastated; Tony realizes Richard's job offer wasn't real. When Cole goes on the run to avoid facing trial for the murder of Carlo Agretti, Melissa agrees to a second autopsy of her father's body hoping it will help clear Cole. The autopsy reveals that the killer must have been right-handed, whereas Cole is left-handed, and the charges are therefore dropped.
Melissa is grateful when Richard flies a neo-natal specialist in from Europe to keep her baby alive. Maggie travels to Los Angeles to meet with producer Darryl Clayton about her screenplay. After Darryl turns the script down, Angela meets Darryl in secret and agrees to invest in the film if he will keep Maggie occupied in Los Angeles. As a romantic relationship develops between Vickie Gioberti and her father's associate, Nick Hogan, Vickie finds out from Cole that Nick is married. Chase discovers that Angela is using all of Falcon Crest's investment funds to buy up stock in The New Globe. After Chase confides with Nick about his war with Angela and her attempt to take over the newspaper, Richard soon finds out and confronts Angela. As Joseph's condition improves, Cole vows to be a loving father. Richard puts a down payment on a house in Tuscany Valley.
Vicky talks Cole into informing their parents that Cole is the father of Melissa's baby, but the opportunity never comes up. Phillip has a romantic dinner with Amanda Croft, a beautiful woman in her fifties. There is chemistry between them, but Amanda is suspicious of Phillip's relationship with Angela. When Darryl seduces Maggie into a passionate kiss at his Malibu home, Maggie panics and flies back home to Chase. Just as Angela has nearly bought up enough New Globe stock to control the company, Richard announces he is going to issue two million dollars more of stock, which is a strategy that Angela and Phillip hadn't foreseen. However, Angela and Phillip secretly arrange for a Wall Street banker named Kenderson to approach the unwitting Richard. Kenderson proposes to underwrite the new stock issue thereby delaying the offer long enough for Angela to get control of the newspaper. Meanwhile, Chase's mother, Jacqueline, has researched Angela's business dealings in Europe and provides Ch
At the winery, Angela plays Lance and Cole against each other. Chase finds out that Richard is planning to use a false company front to buy up grapes at twice the going rate. Despite the threat from Richard, Jacqueline wants Chase to work with Richard against Angela. When Cole wants to tell Lance that he is the father of Melissa's child, Melissa strongly opposes it. Angela offers Darryl more money to maintain Maggie's hopes of getting her script produced. In spite of bribing Richard's banker, Kenderson, into postponing the new stock issue, Angela still needs Chase's votes on The New Globe board to take over the newspaper. When Chase arrives at Richard's office to deliver a construction injunction on his new winery, Jacqueline surprises both of them with news that she gave Richard up for adoption when he was a baby, which means that Richard and Chase are half-brothers.
Richard rejects Jacqueline's explanation of why she gave him up for adoption. Despite being cleared of charges for Carlo Agretti's murder, Cole is continually harassed by the police and the community. By making an insincere appeal to their brotherly bond, Richard asks Chase to vote against Angela's take-over bid of The New Globe's board. In turn, Chase makes Richard give up construction of his winery, in exchange for his votes. Lance and his date Brenda attend Angela's annual Founder's Day Party at which Angela later becomes furious when she catches them in bed together. Richard and Melissa not only confess their attraction to each other, but Richard also announces to the entire party that he finally has found his mother, Jacqueline. Angela then publicly denounces Jacqueline for ruining her marriage with Douglas.
Angela's Founders' Day Party is in disarray following Richard's announcement that Jacqueline is his mother. When Chase confronts Richard on the veranda, Richard reasons he did not promise to keep Jacqueline's secret, only Chase's. When Angie turns on Jacqueline, Chase suggests taking her home. After Richard calls his mother an adulteress, Chase strikes his half-brother, and subsequently Chase and Maggie whisk Jacqueline away. The next morning, Chase regrets hitting Richard, while Jacqueline believes that the events of the previous night are in the past. She also understands Richard's bitterness, although Chase may never trust Richard again. At Falcon Crest, Melissa overhears Lance making plans to meet Lori. Melissa's attorneys are still evaluating all offers. Nick and Sheila, in their bedroom, share a moment as they dress.
At Chase's office, Sheriff Robbins warns Chase to stop interfering with the Agretti investigation or he will be charged with obstruction of justice. Chase informs him that he intends to keep digging for leads. When Chase relates his run-in to Sheriff Robbins, Maggie pleads with Chase to drop the issue. At Falcon Crest, Angie demands that Lance never mention Joseph's test results again. To Angie, Lance is the child's legal father. Emma has been tracked down somewhere in Texas and her exact location should be verified in about a week. Attempting to avert Angie's anger, Phillip points out that Lance is where Angie wants him, Melissa will soon be forced to sell the Agretti vineyards, Chase is having both personal and political problems (vindicating Cole's complicity), and Jacqueline is finally gone for good. Reconsidering her accomplishments, Angie invites herself to go sailing with Phillip the next day. Later in the lab, Lance complains to his mother about Angie's ignoring Joseph's te
Cole's unconscious body is still limp on the floor as deadly exhaust fumes fill the closed Gioberti garage. Inside the house, Chase, in bed with Maggie, is distracted by a distant sound outside. After ripping open the door, Chase drags Cole out, shouts for Maggie, then desperately administers C.P.R. to his son. After Nick and Vicky make love, he is uncomfortable as he prepares to take her back to their meeting place in town. At Falcon Crest, sirens disrupt the silence of the household. When Nick's Packard instead heads to the Gioberti's to drop Vicky off, vehicles with red lights flashing, whiz past them. Realizing they are headed to the same place, Nick steps on the gas and arrives at the Gioberti's, right behind an ambulance and several vehicles. A team of paramedics revives Cole.
During breakfast, Lance presents the paper for Melissa to see and thinks he is off the hook. However, Melissa knows that Richard printed this because she would not sell him her father's property. When Angie learns that Richard's evidence is from the paternity results that Lance gave him, Angie denounces Lance's inheritance. At home, Cole, referring to the same article, thinks Melissa finally told the truth about Cole's fatherhood to Joseph. Although Cole's murder charges were dropped, Chase knows they will never hear the end of this until Carlo Agretti's murderer is found. At the hospital, Angie visits Elliot McKay, who, although quite ill, defiantly rejects Angie's offer to buy his vineyard. In town, Vickie meets Nick, who professes his love for her. At The Globe, Melissa confronts Richard about the newspaper article and when Richard refuses to print a retraction, Melissa threatens to sue him for libel. Richard welcomes the extra publicity.
At Lori's, Lance tries to delay Lori from getting out of bed. Lori is irritated that Lance keeps procrastinating in looking for work, since it has been a week since Angela threw Lance out of Falcon Crest. Ultimately, Lori gives in, and they make love. At Chase's office, Chase catches heat from Sheriff Robbins about going to the D.A. with Carlo Agretti's letter from Angela. Robbins doesn't believe the letter incriminates Angie in Carlo's murder. In Richard's office, Diana informs Richard that nearly everyone but Angela has accepted the invitation to Richard's housewarming at the McKay place. Richard is confident Angie will be there, since the party will have three of the nation's most respected wine critics. Richard wants his new neighbors to realize that buying the McKay vineyards was just ""the first step of a much longer journey."" At Falcon Crest, Angie not only tells Julia she has decided to go to Richard's party, but that Angie has the ability to be flexible, unlike Lance. Angie thr
Early in the morning at the Gioberti house, Chase is cleaning the garage. Vickie appears with a cup of coffee for him, and suggests that he should go see Maggie, but Chase stubbornly refuses because Maggie was the one who abandoned him. Cole arrives later and tells his father if he wants to quit the investigation, he will understand. However, Chase has no intention of quitting. Later that day, Julia meets Maggie for tea at the Tuscany Inn and tries to convince Maggie to return to Chase and not make the mistake that she did. At the jogging track, Vickie argues with Nick about his dealings with Richard Channing. Back at Falcon Crest, Chase confronts Angie about hiring Bitterman. As Chase storms out, Julia stops him to offer her help in his investigation of Carlo's murder. Because there is an injunction against Chase, he accepts Julia's offer as Angie eavesdrops from inside.
At Julia's overturned car, as Chase, Cole and Sheriff Robbins help the firemen extinguish the flames, they hear a weak voice calling for help. Chase sees Julia, who was apparently thrown from the car into the brush, and rushes to her. Julia informs Chase that the brakes went out. The paramedics arrive and take her away on a stretcher. Chase tells Robbins that this was not an accident, mentioning the threatening letter to Julia. Cole then reminds Chase that they still must meet Melissa at the Agretti's vineyard. Chase tells Cole to get Melissa while he goes to the hospital. However, when Cole arrives at the Agretti's tool shed, he finds Melissa alone, impatiently waiting for Fong. When Cole tells her of Julia's accident, Melissa asserts that the brakes were functioning properly when she borrowed the car the day before. At the hospital, Angie, Lance, and Chase nervously wait while a few minutes later, Vicky and Maggie arrive. In Richard's San Francisco office, Richard tells Phillip to pe
In the morning, Melissa and Lance linger in bed at Falcon Crest. Chao-li enters with breakfast and scolds Lance for wasting time in bed when he should be helping Chase with the inventory. After Chao-li exits, Melissa asks Lance if he has found his father. When Lance answers no, Melissa suggests that they ask Richard Channing to help them. Melissa and Lance also realize that they hold the key, the Agretti Vineyard, to getting written back into Angela's will. Back in Paris, in a sidewalk cafe, as Angie and Phillip enjoy the view, Angie invites him to join her in New York, but will not reveal what her business is there. At the Falcon Crest Winery Lab, Cole argues with Chase about continuing with the investigation because Cole is beginning to think that his mother is right. At a Tuscany café, Darryl and Maggie are arguing about the changes made in Maggie's script. Darryl then insinuates that Maggie's relationship with Chase is not as strong as she led him to believe. Maggie tells Darryl th
In the morning, Chase encounters Sheriff Robbins, who is running out of the county building. Robbins has obtained the forensic report on Henri Denault and wants to ask Richard Channing some questions. Chase explains that he has evidence that Carlo Agretti was blackmailing Richard. Richard is dictating Denault's obituary to Diana for the newspaper when Robbins and Chase arrive at Richard's house. After Robbins informs Richard that there were signs of struggle on Denault's body, Robbins wants to examine Richard's clothing from that day. In response, Richard tells them to get search warrants and slams the door in their faces. Later, Richard decides to give Lance all the information on Tony Cumson. At Falcon Crest, Lance tells Melissa that Diana Hunter called to tell him that Tony is working in San Diego as an offshore consultant for an oil company. Lance tells Melissa that if Julia travels to San Diego, she will never be able to show her face at Falcon Crest again. On the veranda, Angie q
At the Tuscany Hospital, Chase pushes Maggie's wheelchair toward their car. As it has only been a week since Maggie's accident, the doctor orders her to be careful because she had suffered a severe concussion. Chase tells Maggie that he is not taking her to the hotel, but home. At the Falcon Crest meadows, Lance and Melissa ride horses and gaze at the land that they hope will be theirs someday. Lance shows Melissa the divorce papers that he had intercepted before Julia could see them. Over at The Globe office, Phillip discovers that Richard has not been seen for ages, nor has Diana Hunter. Emma sees Phillip leave Richard's office, which piques her curiosity. At the Gioberti's house, Chase tells Maggie that her close call with the barrels was not an accident because he had heard someone running away. Angie arrives and insists on having Vickie's wedding at Falcon Crest, while Chase is still concerned with the accident and Richard Channing's disappearance.
At the Tuscany Valley Cemetery, a funeral is in progress that will drastically affect the lives of everyone at Falcon Crest. After admitting to the murder of Carlo Agretti, Julia pulls out a gun, critically wounds Chase and fatally wounds his mother Jacqueline. At Jacqueline's funeral, Chase's cousin, Dr. Michael Ranson, appears for the first time and is taken into the Gioberti household. At the prison, Julia fights Angie's attempts to help prove her innocence, believing prison is better than living under Angela's tyrannical control. Lance feverishly pursues Melissa, who is horrified that his mother murdered her father and who vows never to forgive any of the Channings. Back at the hospital, Chase finally comes out of his coma, only to discover that the bullet lodged in his spine has left him paralyzed.
Angela jeopardizes Chases recovery by telling him about his mother's death. After Maggie confronts Angela, Angela declares that it's time to go for the jugular. When Angela learns that Dr. Lantry augments his income by illegally selling pills, she uses this information to blackmail the doctor into signing an affidavit about Chase's incompetence to manage Falcon Crest. As Lance helps his grandmother in her scheme, his wife, Melissa, is turning to Richard for affection. Back at Falcon Crest, baby Joseph is rushed to the hospital after swallowing the pills that Lance had procured for Angela's blackmail scheme. With hatred and fear in her eyes, Melissa coldly accuses Lance of trying to destroy her baby.
After their baby's accident, Melissa and Lance agree to a truce, and Lance and Angela are soon thrilled when Melissa announces she's pregnant. Carrying out Angela's plan, Dr. Lantry informs Maggie and Michael that the bullet in Chase's spine has caused an infection, and that he may have to operate. Later, Lantry discreetly injects drugs into Chase's I.V. During this, Richard becomes guilt-ridden when he learns from Philip that Jacqueline was dying of cancer and stepped in front of Richard to spare her son from the gunfire. Richard and Melissa then plan to gain Julia's trust to manipultate her to avenge the deaths of their parents. Meanwhile, Maggie begs Michael to face his fears and take over Chase's case. That night, Dr. Lantry triumphantly announces to Angela that Chase has a raging fever and could die whenever she wants. Angela is horrified, but Lantry coolly informs her that it's too late and reminds her she's an accomplice to murder.
Michael frantically races against time to stop Dr. Lantry from operating on Chase, which could leave Chase paralyzed for life. Angela then sets a court date to have Chase declared legally incompetent to manage Falcon Crest. Chase regains some feeling in his legs, and through physical therapy, begins to recover. At the hearing, just as the judge appears ready to rule in Angela's favor, Chase hobbles in on crutches, and the judge denies her petition. While Julia is declared not to be criminally insane, jail inmates continually torment her. At the Gioberti's house, Maggie convinces Michael to take a staff position at the hospital, but is shocked when he tells her he's the executor of Jacqueline's estate.
While Chase returns to Falcon Crest, Angela orders Lance to make his homecoming difficult. Lance, in an attempt to undermine the Giobertis, sends home Chase's crew and sabotages one of the vats. As the Giobertis attempt to do all the work themselves, a drainage lid breaks loose, spilling thousands of gallons of wine. After controlling the leak, Chase collapses from exhaustion. At Julia's trial, Philip motions to have Julia placed under psychiatric observation, but before the judge can rule, Julia pleads guilty on all counts. The Channings and Giobertis sit stunned, but Melissa sits smugly, knowing her mission has been accomplished by convincing Julia to lash out against Angela through her prison sentence. Alarmed, Philip warns Angela that Julia could receive the death penalty.
Melissa helps push Julia closer to the gas chamber as she faces sentencing for two murders. As the judge prepares to pronounce sentence, Julia announces she'd rather die than spend her life in prison. The judge, however, sentences her to life behind bars. Michael Ranson accuses Dr. Lantry of malpractice, but Lantry tells Angela he will implicate her if she doesn't stop Michael. Meanwhile, Richard Channing spins a malicious web using Emma to lure Maggie to work for his newspaper as a feature writer while he fights Chase by delaying the reading of Jacqueline's will. Philip returns the original contract to Melissa that Angela had forced her to sign that would have given the Agretti harvest to Falcon Crest.
Julia enters prison where she meets up with a tough matron who has a personal vendetta against the Channings, while Angela works to get her sentence commuted. After making love, Melissa offers the Agretti harvest to Richard, which he eagerly accepts in order to keep it from Angela. In Jacqueline's will, she has left fifty million dollars to be split between Chase and his brother, but, only if after one year, Chase believes Richard to be trustworthy. This reveals the motive for Richard's brotherly actions. Jacqueline also leaves Angela a hotel suite key with instructions that Philip must accompany her there. Jacqueline has the last laugh when Angela finds an unmade bed with a note from Jacqueline stating that she and Philip made love at that very spot.
Julia breaks down to beg Angela for protection against the ruthless inmates and prison matron who are out to kill her. Angela pays the matron off to make things easier on Julia. Maggie uncovers evidence that Dr. Lantry's paychecks are supplemented by a mysterious and handsome additional income. Dr. Lantry is feeling the heat from Chase and Michael's investigation into his competency and ethics as a doctor. Afraid of being implicated by Lantry, Angela threatens Dr. Hooks into dropping any inquiries. Maggie's sister, Terry Hartford, discovers that Maggie has become wealthy and heads for Falcon Crest.
Angela desperately protects herself when she discovers that Chase and Michael's investigation into Dr. Lantry's underhanded past points to her. After Angela reveals to Lance that Melissa and Richard Channing are having an affair, Lance, boiling with anger, sets out to find them. Melissa covers by telling Lance that she's trying to maintain Richard as an ally, while Richard has his eyes set on Pamela. Linda's father refuses to acknowledge Cole as part of his family, while the newlyweds start a custody battle for baby Joseph with Melissa and Lance. Maggie's sister Terry seeks her fortune in Tuscany Valley by manipulating her way into the Gioberti's home.
Railroaded by Angela, Dr. Lantry is jailed, but now he poses a bigger threat to the wine baroness who fears he will turn the state's evidence against her in court, implicating her in the attempted murder of Chase. Philip arranges Lantry's bail and plans to have him sent out of the county, but Chase and Michael are determined to prove that Lantry is allied with Angela. Angela investigates Terry's dark past with plans of using her to destroy the Gioberti family. After discovering that Terry had been a prostitute in New York, Angela uses this fact to force her into stopping Cole's custody suit. Meanwhile, Terry, scheming to gain wealth, plans to overtly flirt with the men of Falcon Crest. At the same time Richard is incensed to learn that the cartel demands 100 percent control of his racetrack and will stop at nothing to get it.
Lance betrays Angela by revealing to Chase where Dr. Lantry is hiding. Chase accuses Angela of having arranged Lantry's bail and tells her that he found out from Lance. Angela denies everything but can barely control her fury over Lance's betrayal. Chase locates Lantry, who confesses that Angela had blackmailed him into signing the affidavit concerning Chase's incompetency. Before Chase can stop him, Lantry injects himself with a lethal dose of morphine. When Osborne's dead body is found on Richard's property, this not only further tarnishes his already scandalous reputation, but poses a threat to Richard's own life. Meanwhile, Michael warns Richard that his inheritance is in jeopardy, and Philip is exposed as the publisher's business associate.
As Dr. Lantry nears death, Chase realizes that he may lose his only opportunity to see Angela behind bars. Lance boldly threatens Angela and Melissa with blackmail, and at the same time, Angela works with Philip to admit Julia into a mental institution. Terry slithers her way into Michael's heart, while Angela blackmails her for devotion. Vince Caproni, bitter about Linda's marriage to Cole, tells Linda that Angela's cruelty to migrant workers caused Linda's mother's death. Angela forces Terry to spy on the Giobertis, or else Angela will reveal Terry's seedy past. Chase discovers a clause in his grandfather's will that gives him the legal right to oust Angela from Falcon Crest.
Chase fights a vicious public battle against Richard Channing, who is trying to build a racetrack that could destroy the wine industry, however, the final decision rests with the valley residents who are about to vote after the men's muckraking campaigns. Angela vows that she will not allow Chase to run Falcon Crest without her and thwarts his efforts to obtain the accounting records. Vince Caproni becomes seriously ill after Lance threatens him over Joseph's paternity suit. Angela makes a fiery attack on her nephew to strip him of his Falcon Crest powers. Meanwhile, Terry moves in with Michael, despite the Giobertis' warning that she is treacherous.
Richard has won the election to build his racetrack while Chase is madly driven to stop him, which results in an explosive disaster. In the mental institution, Julia becomes hysterical when Richard malevolently tells her Melissa's baby is his, thus pushing her into a catatonic state. Angela promises Lance that they will be kicked out of Falcon Crest if they lose Joseph's custody suit to Cole. However, when Melissa is grilled on Lance's affair with Terry while giving her deposition to Cole's attorney, she explodes and admits that their marriage is a farce. Angela attempts to stop Chase's plans to market a line of champagne by buying up the grape harvest he needs.
Michael Ranson must face his fears from a dark past and perform surgery on Sheriff Robbins to save his life. In the operating room, Michael is unable to perform the surgery and later confesses to Terry about the guilt he's felt ever since his wife died. The floodgates open as Michael tells Terry how his wife was in an accident and died when Michael had attempted to operate on her. Meanwhile, Terry spies on Maggie for Angela and at the same time, makes plans to marry Michael. A cartel gangster attacks Richard Channing while Angela plans to crush Chase with the help of Calvin Kleeger, the Falcon Crest wine distributor. Kleeger informs Chase that with Angela out of Falcon Crest, he will no longer serve as distributor unless Chase offers the winery as collateral.
Melissa loses control over her wicked power game when Philip intervenes and forces her to sell the Agretti harvest to him. Richard is nearly run down by a hit man as the cartel becomes even more determined to take over his racetrack. When Maggie interviews Sister Jeanette, an old acquaintance of Chase's mother, she overhears the startling news that Jacqueline had an affair with the head of the Nazi Gestapo in Paris, Johann Riebmann. When Cole returns home to find Melissa waiting for him seductively posed in his bed, he throws her out, but not before Linda enters, who witnesses the ugly scene.
Melissa and Lance resort to blackmail when Joseph's custody case goes to court. After enticing Cole into assaulting him in front of a witness, Lance shows up in court badly bruised claiming that Cole had beaten him. After hearing the corroborating story of the blackmailed witness, the judge dismisses Cole and Linda's suit. At the Gioberti's house, Maggie and Chase realize that Jacqueline's relationship with Johann Riebmann and Henri Denault made her a war criminal. Maggie decides not to submit her article to The New Globe, but Emma surprisingly turns out to be just as conniving as Angela when she has the story printed on the front page behind Maggie and Richard's backs. Richard fears for his life when Spheeris calls to convey the cartel's displeasure about the story.
Angela plans to bargain with the Giobertis for control of Falcon Crest; in return, Melissa must give Cole custody of Joseph. Melissa is at first horrified at the thought of giving up her baby for a piece of land, but later reconsiders the offer. Terry follows Angela's orders when she pits Michael against Chase, and Richard is at the mercy of the cartel's gangsters in opening his racetrack. Meanwhile, Maggie's article uncovering Jacqueline Perrault's crimes cuts through the valley with a razor's edge.
Death looms over Melissa after her argument with Linda culminates in a fatal car accident. Lance spends the night with Terry while Melissa has a miscarriage at the hospital. Lance is overcome with shame and tries to apologize to Angela, but she is unforgiving. At the hospital, Melissa informs Angela that she refuses to give up Joseph and wants the signed agreement returned. Philip proposes to Angela but she is preoccupied with driving Terry out of Tuscany with the hope that Lance will then act more like a husband to Melissa. Richard and Pamela's relationship extends past their work, but she fears he will be killed after defying the cartel.
Terry's dark, sordid past is exposed to Michael when Angela goes to extravagant lengths to run her out of Tuscany Valley. Angela pays Kate Mars, a former call girl buddy of Terry, to tell Michael the truth about Terry's past. Angela also exposes Philip's past indiscretions, producing a cuff link she found by the bed in the hotel room where Jacqueline claimed to have slept with Philip. Phillip denies everything and quits, fed up with Angela's manipulation. Chase seeks out another wine distributor and discovers that Calvin Kleeger served as a front for Angela. At the mental hospital, Julia, disguised as a janitor, escapes and starts hitchhiking her way back to Falcon Crest. Maggie discovers that the horrifying cause of her dizzy spells and headaches is a brain tumor. When Richard refuses to give the cartel control of his racetrack, hit men kidnap Pamela and force her to choose between loyalty to Richard and her life. Meanwhile, Lance stalks Richard, seeking revenge for his mother's menta
The New Globe publishes news of Julia's escape, while Julia steals a wallet and buys a wig from a waitress at a roadside coffee shop. Melissa pays a heavy price for trading her son for power. Chase meets with Philip to determine how serious Angela is about trading Joseph for half of Falcon Crest. When Philip produces Angela's custody contract, Chase is appalled, but is pleased to know that he can pry Joseph out of Angela's clutches. Melissa begs Angela to call off the deal with Chase, but Angela tells her that it's too late. As Chase and Cole come to take her child, Melissa is overwhelmed by guilt. Later, Chase gets an anonymous tip that Richard bribed a county geologist to approve construction of the racetrack. At the cartel's behest, Pamela plants bugs in Richard's office and home. Terry remorsefully suffers the backlash from her sordid past, but surprisingly, Michael still asks her to stay in Tuscany. Julia uses her disguise to slip past a police checkpoint, then assumes the identit
Lance flies into a rage when he hears that Melissa sold Joseph to Angela for her half of Falcon Crest. Angela later warns Lance that he must mend things with Melissa since she is now Pamela's heir and if he doesn't, he'll be left penniless. Richard finds the bugs planted by Pamela, leading him to believe the cartel is closing in on him. Angela ignites a romance with Carter St. John, which makes Philip jealous. Maggie is running out of time as her tumor rapidly grows and must decide between risky surgery and radiation treatment. Her eyesight soon starts to fail, and Michael warns that if they don't operate on Maggie soon, her loss of sight could be irreversible. However, questions about Michael's surgical abilities still linger. Claiming she is afraid for her safety, Julia has Lucas teach her how to shoot a gun.
Michael convinces Chase to let him operate on Maggie's tumor, which has already taken her sight and may take her life. Michael enlists his former lover, anesthesiologist Lillian Heller, for helping with Maggie's operation. Lillian is a houseguest, which arouses Terry's jealousy. As Maggie is wheeled into the operating room, Chase wonders if he will ever see his wife again. At Falcon Crest, Angela urges Lance to reconcile with Melissa in order to produce a true heir to Falcon Crest. However, when Lance begs Melissa to give their marriage a second chance, she sees through his insincerity and coldly reminds him that she is the sole beneficiary to Falcon Crest and has no intention of sharing her empire with him. Philip adds to his winery staff by hiring away Angela's best people. Meanwhile, Pamela carries out Spheeris's orders to help destroy Richard, while Richard is preoccupied with trying to win over Chase to obtain his inheritance for the completion of the racetrack.
Just as Michael and Dr. Heller remove the last of Maggie's tumor, her heart stops. Working quickly, Michael and Dr. Heller manage to get a weak pulse, but Maggie is left in a coma. As Michael humbly admits that Maggie's fate is up to God, Angela prays for Maggie, Julia and Falcon Crest, and reunites with Philip, whom she believes she will be able to trust again some day. Meanwhile, Richard is crazed when he learns that Chase has turned over Jacqueline's fifty million dollar trust fund to St. Martha's convent in Paris at a time when Richard desperately needs the money. On top of this, the cartel's plot against Richard threatens Pamela's life. After Pamela is abducted by the cartel, Richard realizes that though he may have retained control of the racetrack, the cartel has the one thing he cares most about: Pamela.
When the cartel begins to carry out its plans to make a public spectacle of Richard's assassination at the grand opening of the racetrack, Richard, making a switch with the bomb, causes the cartel to explode its own limousine. Eager to please Angela, Lance promises that he and Melissa will produce a grandchild. Melissa learns, however, that she can no longer have children because of injuries sustained from the car accident. While the Giobertis believe that Michael and Terry are traveling to Mexico, they are surprised when the two announce their marriage. At Falcon Crest, Angela agrees to marry Philip. As detectives discover Julia's hideout, Lucas discovers Julia's true identity and murderous acts as she heads for Tuscany. Meanwhile, Lance secretly executes his plan for power using The Globe as his tool.
As Angela's wedding day draws near, Julia prepares to murder her mother. The wedding ceremony begins as Julia, dressed in a nun's habit, heads towards the church. Chase notices her, but Julia manages to lock him in a closet. As he feverishly tries to work his way out, Julia misses her chance to shoot Angela and leaves for Falcon Crest and the wedding reception. As the reception begins, Julia, hiding upstairs, crouches at the railing and aims her gun at Angela. The sound of sirens distracts Angela, and she moves out of range. As Julia realizes she's lost her chance, Joseph comes to her. Chase bursts in with the police, warning Angela that Julia intends to kill her. Cole dashes upstairs to check on Joseph, but it is too late: Julia has taken the child hostage.
Emma and Lance discover Julia hiding out at the springhouse with her hostage Joseph. Terry receives a disturbing letter, dredging up more of her sordid past and forcing her to lie to Michael again. As Angela reads a letter that Julia had sent her while in college, she regrets having been too busy with her business career to spend time with Julia. In the springhouse, Julia agrees to release Joseph if Angela is brought to her. The police surround the house as Angela enters in exchange for Joseph. Angela admits to Julia that she has failed her as a mother and finally says what Julia has been waiting to hear, that she loves her. As Julia breaks down and hands Angela the gun, the deputy prematurely opens fire, igniting a kerosene lamp and setting the house on fire. Braving the flames, Lance and Chase dash into the house. Chase pulls Angela to safety, but Lance is knocked out by a falling beam and must be rescued from the fire. As the springhouse erupts in flames, Angela watches helplessly,
At the charred springhouse, the coroner, after inspecting a ring and bone fragments, positively identifies the remains as Julia's. In a note to Lance, Julia's last request is to have her ashes scattered in Italy. Angela asks the Channing and Gioberti families to travel to Italy in hopes that Julia's death can somehow reunite them. Richard is heartened to learn that Pamela may be alive in Europe. Melissa informs Lance that when he returns from Italy, she will have already moved out of Falcon Crest. Angela discovers that Melissa has filed for a divorce and is unable to have children. As everyone prepares to leave, Melissa pays one of the workers to stage an accident at the winery so that Cole will have to stay behind with her. As Chase inspects the airplane, he fails to recognize one of the cartel's men posing as a mechanic. As Angela, Philip, Lance, Emma, Richard, Maggie, Michael, Terry, Linda and Joseph take off in the plane with Chase as the pilot, the emergency buzzer sounds indicati
At first light, Melissa and Cole wait at the rescue base as the helicopters arrive with the survivors of the crashed plane. Angela disembarks, relaying the news that Philip Erikson is dead. The co-pilot and Michael Ranson were also killed in the crash. Richard insists that the cartel was responsible for the crash, while Chase maintains it was sabotage. Angela blames Chase and swears she will make him pay. At the hospital, Angela comforts Emma, and Cole watches over Linda, who is in critical condition. They talk of Joseph and their future together. As Linda professes her love to Cole, she dies in his arms. Terry, although distraught, realizes that she has received a sizable inheritance upon Michael Ranson's death. As members of the cartel meet in Buenos Aires, Johann, disappointed that the crash was not a total success, reveals that their ultimate goal is to reclaim a valuable Third Reich treasure, which lies buried in Falcon Crest property.
Chase still has nightmares about the crash and worries that he should have done more to land safely. Angela surprises Greg Reardon at his stables and offers him the lawyer position left vacant by Philip's death. She promises to launch his political career in one year if he takes it. Cole and Maggie pack Linda's belongings. As Richard climbs into his limousine, Spheeris levels a pistol at him. The cartel members want him to acquire some property for them, but Richard flatly refuses. Angela, Lance and Alan Caldwell of the F.A.A. plan a fuel leak story that will place the blame for the crash on Chase. Cole and Melissa begin a friendly relationship again. In Buenos Aires, as Johann steps into his limousine, it instantly explodes while Gustav stands by, mercilessly watching his father die.
Angela and Lance team up against Chase in the FAA's investigation of the crash. Angela bribes Buzz Whitehead, the airplane mechanic, to lie and claim that Chase had been drinking prior to the flight and had ignored the fuel leak warning. Chase is determined to discover who sabotaged the plane and swears that if the cartel was involved, Richard will pay. Gustav arrives in Tuscany Valley to obtain the Falcon Crest secret. Angela, Lance and Greg plot to take The Globe from Richard. Maggie's father, Paul Hartford, arrives for a visit. The Giobertis throw a party to introduce their new champagne, but the celebration turns into a nightmare for Maggie when Angela reveals that Maggie is adopted and her father is unable to deny the painful truth.
The cartel gives Angela a falcon statue containing a listening device, which the cartel uses to eavesdrop on her discussions about The New Globe. Terry receives an unwelcome visit from her ex-husband Joel McCarthy, who claims that they were never divorced. He demands $25,000 to keep their marital status a secret, but Terry refuses to support his drug habit. Angela reports evidence to the plane crash investigators implicating Chase, then calls in a favor with Senator Silverlake to put her spin on the F.A.A.'s report. The F.A.A. releases its report on the plane accident, and Chase learns that he's suspected to be responsible and his license has been suspended. Emma gives her stock in The New Globe to Angela, helping her take over the newspaper.
Pamela is surprised to discover that Richard's attacker is Padgett who pulls back the covers to find only pillows where Richard's body should have been. Padgett tries to flee the town, and Gustav is furious that Richard Channing has not been eliminated properly. At The Globe, Lance becomes publisher to the dismay of many of his new employees. The Board of Supervisors removes Chase as head of the airport authority. Joel McCarthy, out of money and desperate to support his drug habit, mugs Maggie at Tuscany Downs. She never sees her attacker, and later, Cole unwittingly hires Joel as the new transportation foreman for the vineyards. Emma hears Julia call out to her in the vineyards, but when Angela arrives, Julia disappears again.
In his quest for land adjoining Falcon Crest, Gustav Riebmann approaches Sam Giannini and when he refuses to sell, Gustav has Spheeris pay Giannini a special visit that night. Richard acquires the radio station KRDC, promptly fires the entire staff and makes Frank Taggert the new general manager. Chase and Maggie travel to New York, trying to uncover her past. Joel gives Terry written proof that they are still married, and it takes another $10,000 check to keep him quiet. Lorraine Prescott, Richard's stepdaughter from a previous marriage, re-enters his life, which is news that leaves Pamela stunned. Angela believes Richard's fierce protectiveness of Lorraine may be the weakness she's been looking for in him. Julia appears to Emma again on the porch, asking for money, but insists that Angela mustn't know.
Sheriff Robbins notifies Chase, Maggie and Cole that Sam Giannini has been murdered, apparently during a robbery. Lance uses his new power to exploit Sam's death in The Globe. Maggie starts work writing copy at Richard's new radio station. Stephanie, Richard's ex-wife, comes to town and enlightens her daughter about Richard's past behavior, warning her that he may try to use her too. Gustav offers Mary Giannini his condolences and threatens to kill her if she does not sell her property to him. Chase has obtained a copy of the F.A.A. report and is enraged that someone is lying to frame him. In Italy, after Francesca Gioberti faces disaster at her vineyards, she travels to Falcon Crest, surprising Angela and seeking assistance from her cousins.
Angela is horrified when she learns that Francesca has evidence that she is Angela's half-sister and legal heir to one third of Falcon Crest. Angela then uses it to her advantage by making a deal with her to buy Francesca's third in order to control more of Falcon Crest than Chase. At Lucas Crosby's home, Julia tells him she is tired of running and being afraid someone will recognize her. However, when she goes to the police to turn herself in, they do not believe she is really Julia Cumson. Emma helps Chase obtain evidence that Buzz Whitehead was bribed into lying to the F.A.A. investigator, and Senator Silverlake was pressured into suspending Chase's license. Cole revives his love for Melissa, maintaining that they will have an open relationship, but Greg promises to destroy their relationship.
Chase uses Emma's findings and confronts Senator Silverlake in Washington, D.C. with the evidence that he was bribed into faking the F.A.A. reports. Senator Silverlake confesses, absolving Chase of all blame in the crash. Lorraine demands that Lance print a retraction to an article that ties Richard Channing to the criminal underworld. Lance is more interested in seduction than retractions, but Lorraine strives to ignore his advances. Both Richard and Gustav court Francesca in order to get closer to her share of Falcon Crest. However, Angela and Greg persuade her to sign a contract for her share of the vineyards. Private Investigator Mike Harris informs Maggie that her real father was killed in World War II. Melissa tells Greg she cannot see him anymore as it will jeopardize her relationship with Cole, but Greg is persistent in pursuing her.
When Chase hears that Jasper's will is being re-opened, he becomes suspicious of Angela's motives and confronts her. Chase discovers that Francesca is selling her third of Falcon Crest to Angela in order to save her vineyards in Italy, but Francesca is confused since Angela told her that Chase would be pleased. Cole decides he loves Melissa enough to move in with her, even against his parents' warning. Richard tries unsuccessfully to keep Lance from seeing Lorraine and warns him not to hurt his stepdaughter. Francesca decides to throw a farewell party before returning to Italy. She performs the tarantella and berates her family for their greed and hatred. Jean-Louis helps Francesca by pilfering her agreement from Angela's safe. During the night, Gustav's henchmen tail Julia, seize her and drive off.
Julia has been taken to Reibmann's estate, where she is confined in what resembles a hospital room. When she comes to, the nurse informs her that Lucas has been arrested for harboring a criminal, and then turns on the TV to a newscast, which covers the arrest of Julia Cumson! How did they find out she was alive? Julia wants to know. Angela found out about her phone calls to Emma, the doctor explains, as Julia becomes hysterical. ""How could you do this to me?"" Julia cries. Things are working perfectly, Reibmann comments, watching from behind a two-way mirror. He's staged the whole scenario! Meanwhile, Angela has enough troubles of her own-both Francesca and the agreement have disappeared. As if that weren't enough, Chase turns over his notes to the U.S. Attorney's office to bring a case against her for libel, perjury, and whatever else she may have done to frame him with the FAA. Chase, too, is preoccupied with Francesca and her agreement with Angela. Melissa takes advantage to score a
Richard, thrilled with his one-third ownership of Falcon Crest, makes plans to acquire more harvests. He reveals to Terry that he knows Joel is blackmailing her and promises to help her if she sells him her harvest. In the fake hospital, Spheeris and Riebmann continue to torment Julia, telling her that Angela has granted them permission to perform a frontal lobotomy on her. Ben Landale, claiming to work for the U.S. Government, arrives at Falcon Crest with orders to look for Johann Riebmann. With Melissa and Lance's divorce finalized, Melissa agrees to marry Cole. Mike Harris, who is secretly working with Angela, finds Maggie's mother, Charlotte Pershing, and takes her to the radio station. Angela informs Greg that she located Maggie's mother because her compulsive gambling habits will create major problems for Chase and Maggie.
Angela reinstates Lance as her sole heir, cutting Melissa out of the will. Posing as her psychiatrist, Gustav manipulates Julia into trusting him. Ben and Chase check Falcon Crest for surveillance devices and when Gustav hears them discuss Henri DeNault with Angela, he orders Spheeris to investigate Ben immediately. Greg's advances towards Melissa are putting a strain on Cole's trust in Melissa. Joel returns the necklace he stole from Terry and presents her with an engagement ring. She hesitantly agrees to marry him in two weeks. At the Turf Club, Angela tries to make Charlotte succumb to her weakness for gambling. Chase keeps Maggie in the dark about his plans with Ben to search for Johann Riebmann in Europe.
Melissa, enraged over being written out of Angela's will, solicits Joel's help by offering him $50,000 to discredit Lance in Angela's eyes. Joel tricks Lance into meeting him privately and locks him in a deserted warehouse. Disguising himself as Lance, he uses Lance's Porsche to drive Angela off the road. As the real Lance is released from the warehouse, he is promptly arrested for the attempted murder of Angela Channing. Angela reveals her plan to Reardon to ally with Richard in order to get Chase to cease his champagne operation. Gustav orders Spheeris to follow Chase and Ben to Paris, where they are searching for clues to Johann Riebmann's whereabouts. When Ben and Chase are trapped in a set-up, Ben is killed. At Richard's racetrack, Charlotte begins to lose control over her gambling impulses.
Lance calls Falcon Crest to get bailed out, but Angela grabs the phone and tells him that he can rot in jail. Ralph Delaney arrives and says that The New Globe will pay Lance's bail. Richard wants Maggie to do a story on Lance and exploit his situation. When Lorraine hears this, she is furious and accuses Richard of slanting the news. Chase tightens security at home and purchases a gun. He learns from Herb Boutilier in Washington, D.C. that Ben never worked for the government and receives a phone call warning him to stop looking for Ben. Charlotte and her old gambling partner meet and begin to lose money at the track. Richard sends Joel to a drug rehabilitation center in order to get him away from Terry. Although Lance insists he was framed, Angela refuses to believe him, and he is again disinherited. Lance moves in with Lorraine at the Tuscany Inn.
Maggie may be Lance's only hope to prove his innocence as she investigates his case for her story. She goes to Angela with the evidence in support of Lance, and to his amazement, Angela admits that she now believes his story and promises to help him by letting Greg Reardon defend him, provided that he stop seeing Lorraine. Lance and Lorraine part miserably, planning to reunite after he is acquitted. Charlotte is unsuccessful in retrieving Maggie's pearls from the pawnshop, and Maggie cries when she discovers them missing. From his surveillance room, Riebmann hears Angela's plans to make Lorraine her heir, and soon begins to court her. Cole and Chase discover a shocking plan to undermine their champagne production.
After years of hard work, Chase and Cole dump hundreds of gallons of tainted champagne as Richard and Angela look on. Chase is convinced one of them is responsible for the poisoning. Richard's obsession with trying to destroy Lance prompts Maggie to quit her job at the radio station. Shaken over her mother's sudden disappearance, Maggie travels to Los Angeles to find her. Upon meeting with his stepfather, Alexander Nicolau, Chase uncovers his mother's dangerous connections with the cartel and is determined to uncover why Riebmann so fervently wants Tuscany Valley. Back in Tuscany Valley, reporters and spectators jam the courthouse for Lance's preliminary hearing. Richard is immensely pleased with Judge Holder's ruling that Lance must still stand trial for attempted murder.
As Richard's first shipment of Francesca's wine is delivered for bottling, the truck is hijacked and the tanker is drained. Richard suspects both Chase and Cole, and after Richard and Chase fight, Chase concludes that the saboteur may be Riebmann and the cartel. He also details his suspicions that DeBercy may actually be Riebmann. Richard is surprised at the extent of Chase's knowledge about the cartel and so is Riebmann, who is listening from his surveillance room and realizes he must act quickly before his identity is revealed. He continues to use Emma to gather more useful information to further his plot. Meanwhile, Lorraine discovers that she is pregnant with Lance's baby. While Chase, Richard and Greg go to the authorities, Angela receives an invitation at gunpoint to visit Mr. Riebmann and his houseguest, Julia.
Angela's kidnapping brings her face to face with Julia at Riebmann's house, while Chase, Richard and Greg plan a mission to save her. They play into Riebmann's hands, gain control of the guards at his house and escape. Richard follows Riebmann into the old mineshaft where the treasure has been buried. As the mine begins to collapse, Chase, Pamela and Chao-Li stand by in horror. Richard manages to escape, but Gustav and Renee are buried with the treasure. Lorraine reveals to Lance that she is planning an abortion procedure to avoid further complicating his life, but Lance adamantly opposes the idea. Father Bob provides disappointing news for Melissa and Cole when he mentions that the annulment of her marriage to Lance could take up to two years. They decide to plan for a civil ceremony the following week.
At Falcon Crest, Lance is dumbfounded when he sees Julia appear on the stairs. Greg and Angela manage to persuade Judge Leeds to transfer Julia's sentence to a convent in Oregon. Meanwhile, Angela plans to buy Sam Giannini's estate. Richard meets Cassandra Wilder, who attracts both Richard and his advertising account for Francesca wine. Greg continues to pursue Melissa until the day of the wedding. Dr. Mitchell informs Melissa that her auto accident has rendered her unable to bear any more children and Melissa fails to build the courage to tell Cole, who wants more children. However, Cole learns this in the worst possible way, through Angela. Feeling that Melissa has deceived him, Cole decides at the last minute that he cannot go through with the wedding and abandons Melissa at the altar in tears.
Melissa confronts Angela when she realizes that Angela had provoked Cole into walking out on their wedding. Although Melissa tries to seek comfort with Greg, she cannot put Cole out of her mind. After arguing with Melissa, Cole swallows his pride, reunites with her and marries her in a meadow in a small private ceremony. Lance proposes to Lorraine and surprisingly receives Angela's support. Unfortunately, Judge Holder has denied a change of venue for Lance's trial. Before Lorraine has a chance to discuss her pregnancy and engagement with Richard, Angela deviously provides him with the information. In turn, Richard confronts Lorraine, who begs him to be happy for her. Instead, Richard throws her out of the house, telling her that, as far as he's concerned, she is dead.
Greg coaches Lance on his trial testimony as they nervously wait to hear whether the trial will be postponed. Cole and Melissa happily honeymoon in Tahiti. Chase convinces Connie Giannini to keep the land she inherited upon her mother's death rather than sell it to Angela. At KRDC, Pamela advises Richard not to reject Lorraine just when she really needs him. When Richard resists Lorraine's attempt to reconcile, she has no choice but to remain at Falcon Crest, where she is quickly learning that Angela cares only about heirs. The next day at breakfast, Greg soberly announces to the family that the trial extension was denied. Horrified, Lance and Lorraine realize that he will go on trial that Monday.
Lance stands trial for the attempted murder of Angela, but his real court battle is against Richard Channing, who has secretly bribed the judge. Richard discovers that Greg and the prosecutor, Caroline Earle, have agreed to a deal that would considerably lighten his Lance's sentence. He passes this information to Judge Holder, who, on instruction, rejects such an arrangement. Cole and Melissa consider hiring a surrogate mother to bear them a child. Chase decides to hire Connie to help Cole with their champagne production. Cassandra and Damon come closer to an opportunity for revenge on Angela. Cassandra must keep their identity and plan hidden from Richard, who finds Cassandra intriguing. Melissa's cousin, Robin, arrives at the Gioberti household for an extended visit and hungrily sets her sights on Cole and the mansion.
Cole battles with Connie, resenting her interference in his champagne operation. However, Chase convinces her to stay on, not realizing she is thrilled to be working near him. In court, after the foreman announces that the jury cannot reach a verdict in Lance's case, Judge Holder orders the jury to deliberate again. After Maggie observes Richard and Holder meeting in the parking lot, she becomes determined to discover if they are conspiring against Lance. While Melissa fears the outcome if anyone discovers that she was responsible for Lance's arrest, her cousin Robin sees Melissa's search for a surrogate mother as the perfect opportunity to move closer to Cole. Cassandra and Damon use Richard and Cole to further establish themselves at Falcon Crest. After the foreman reads the verdict, Lance and his family hear Judge Holder sentence him to seven years in state prison.
Angela takes advantage of Lance's conviction to assume his job as publisher of The New Globe. Richard provokes Lance into a fight at a restaurant, forcing Lance into hiding to avoid being returned to custody. Angela realizes that if Falcon Crest expands to accommodate a contract with Helios Foods, Richard and Chase will fall heavily into debt, and she will once again be the sole owner of the wine empire. She pushes them to agree to bid on the contract. Maggie prefers that Chase sell out and get away from Angela, but he refuses. Cassandra and Damon push the Helios deal to advance their own plans for a takeover. Late that night, Robin tries to seduce Cole with the idea that they could give Melissa the child she wants.
Richard and Chase decide to go along with Angela and bid on the Helios deal. Chase looks to Maggie for support in his decision not to sell out, but she offers none. Melissa reluctantly pays Pamela $100,000 to keep silent about the hiring of Joel McCarthy to frame Lance. Terry not only confesses her past connections with Joel to Greg, but also tells Greg where to find him. Moreover, Terry suspects that it was Joel who ran Angela off the road. When Emma and Lorraine team up against Angela to find Lance, they discover that Angela and Chao-Li have him hidden in Chinatown. Angela's wicked plan to break up the Gioberti marriage unfolds when she offers Maggie the position of acting publisher for The Globe. Chase vehemently objects to the idea, but Maggie welcomes the challenge.
At the winery, Chase joins Connie and hugs her, announcing that he has received the loan necessary to bid with Angela. However, Connie's former suitor, Larry Michaelson, could threaten the bank deal. Cole realizes that Connie may be a threat of another kind. Greg hunts for Joel McCarthy and finds that he died at Camp Mary Jane of a drug overdose. He confronts Richard with his suspicions about Lance's framing, hoping he can force him to reveal his involvement. In Chinatown, Lance insists that Lorraine be included in Angela's plans to send him to Italy, and she makes the arrangements for them to meet at the boat. Pamela warns Angela that Richard and the police are on their way to Lance's hideout and Lance manages to escape. When Lorraine arrives and discovers that Lance is already gone, she rushes to the fire escape before her stepfather can detain her, and in a hurry, slips and plummets two stories to the street.
Lance ardently resists Angela's orders to board the ship until he gets an answer to why Lorraine is not there. Telephoning Falcon Crest, Lance learns that Lorraine is in the hospital, where she lies in a coma. Risking everything, he speeds off in Angela's car to see her. Lance is recognized at the hospital, but gets a chance to see Lorraine and encourages her to keep fighting before two policemen take him away. Awakening from her coma the next day, Lorraine begs Richard to get Lance out of jail. On a tip from a Turf Club bartender, Greg digs up the proof needed to convict Melissa. He confronts her, insisting she turn herself in within 48 hours. Cole is once again kept in the dark as to his wife's dealings. He receives shocking news about his own past actions, however, when Melissa's cousin, Robin, arrives again at their doorstep.
In the hospital, Lorraine, depressed, misses Lance and laments her lost baby. In his jail cell, Lance reveals to Angela his fears about Lorraine's survival. Angela reassures him and promises that Greg is working on freeing him. At The New Globe, Pamela hands Maggie a cassette, explaining that Richard had taped all his conversations, and she had decided to validate his mistrust in her. When Maggie and Greg play the tape, they hear Richard and Judge Holder plot against Lance. Melissa breaks the news to Cole that she hired Joel McCarthy to frame Lance. Cole strikes back by informing her that her surrogate mother idea worked because Robin is pregnant. Due to the overwhelming evidence against him, Judge Holder is forced to release Lance. Ecstatic, Lance rushes to the hospital, where a judge marries him and Lorraine.
Angela's scheme to regain control of Falcon Crest falls through when she assumes Chase and Richard will be bankrupt after a competitor wins the Helios bid. However, she is unaware that Cassandra Wilder holds the liens on their shares. Cassandra's mother, Anna Rossini, has come for long-awaited vengeance against Angela, now that her daughter owns two-thirds of Falcon Crest. At the winery, Connie offers to make Chase a partner in Giannini Winery. Maggie walks in and catches them in a celebratory embrace. Enraged, she announces she will be moving out that evening. Angela testifies on Melissa's behalf, which gives her a lenient sentence of 60 days in jail, in return for the Agretti harvest. As Lorraine's condition deteriorates rapidly due to brain damage, Lance must sign the release to remove her from life-support systems. As Maggie and Richard comfort each other that evening, an explosion rips through his house, trapping them.
Richard and Maggie survive the explosion, but Maggie suffers from amnesia. Chase takes Maggie home from the hospital to try to rebuild their marriage. Angela Channing is forced into revealing a long-kept secret in her fight to save her wine empire from the encroachments of a vengeful mother and daughter who intend to take over the historic estate. Julia had Dominic Rossini's child, but was told it was stillborn. In order to save Falcon Crest, Angela reveals that the child was raised in an orphanage and is Father Christopher. Meanwhile, Richard Channing sets himself up as a target to flush out the killer who was responsible for his and Maggie's injuries from the explosion. He also hires an attorney, Jordan Jennifer Roberts, to help him rescue his empire.
Angela reluctantly welcomes Father Christopher to the Tuscany Valley, knowing that he presents an added obstacle in her efforts to keep her wine empire intact. In his attempts to help Angela, Greg Reardon investigates Anna's past history, including her record of hospitalization. Richard Channing is the subject of further threats. Melissa is released from jail and returns home to find a disturbing situation between her husband and Robin. Lance finds solace in Terry's wiles. When Chase gets an unexpected windfall from Connie, Maggie questions her relationships at the time of the explosion.
In a frantic effort to save her empire, Angela Channing calls on the expertise, wealth and influence of an old friend, Peter Stavros. After Maggie questions Richard Channing about their relationship before the explosion, she moves to an isolated cabin to reassemble her life. Father Christopher takes interest in the vineyards' field workers, which antagonizes Melissa and distresses Angela. Melissa later has to turn to him when her home life proves unbearable. In a meeting with Cassandra and Anna, Peter Stavros makes them his first offer for the purchase of Falcon Crest. Angela is forced into telling Father Christopher the truth about his background.
When Chase tries to help Maggie regain her memory, she rebuffs his advances, reminding him that she doesn't remember him or their marriage. Peter Stavros asks Angela to marry him, but she can only think about saving Falcon Crest at the moment. As Father Christopher gets to know his family, Angela and Greg use him as proof that Anna had a motive to kill Dominic. Unnerved, Anna sneaks into Angela's bedroom and sets it ablaze. When Richard is shot at, he escapes injury because he wears a bulletproof vest. Jordan and Richard create a plan with Richard as the target that will draw out the assailant. Lance continues his reckless and despondent behavior.
When the manor house is torched, Lance saves Angela and Emma. Cassandra realizes her mother is the culprit in both fires. Because Maggie still suffers from amnesia, Chase suggests they renew their marriage vows with a second wedding. On the big day, Angela pours her own brand of vitriol on the ceremony by mentioning Chase's relationship with Connie Giannini. As Richard's would-be assassin tries again, he is caught. Father Christopher discovers some hard facts of life from Lance and Melissa. When Lance rescues a cocktail hostess, he learns that she is an aspiring singer and offers to help her career. Not realizing that Peter and Angela are intimately involved, Cassandra sells Falcon Crest to Peter.
Lance finances Apollonia's demo record and then takes her and her friends to Falcon Crest after an all-night recording session. When Lance's grandmother strongly disapproves of his involvement with Apollonia, he insists that she is his business partner. He then outwits Angela by reclaiming the publisher's position at The New Globe, which serves as the first step in obtaining his goals for Apollonia's career. When Maggie and Chase fight over Connie, it triggers old memories for Maggie, much to Angela's discomfort. Desperate for financing, Richard Channing takes a chance at his racetrack. Stavros blackmails Angela into agreeing to marry him. When Robin thwarts Melissa and Cole again, Melissa seeks solace with Father Christopher.
Without Angela's knowledge, Lance trades his interest in The New Globe for Richard Channing's radio station to have a showcase for Apollonia's singing career. Angela tries unsuccessfully to buy Terry's land and in retaliation goads Terry into investing in Tuscany Downs. Angela then persuades the Board of Supervisors to approve a new irrigation system, which would place the land on which Chase is working under water. As Maggie is recovering, she tells Angela off. In the meantime, Peter pushes Angela to set a date for their wedding. Father Christopher makes peace between Melissa, Cole and Robin, but Melissa gives him reason to worry when she tells him she doesn't love Cole anymore. At a honky-tonk, where Lance has arranged for Apollonia to demonstrate her singing, Emma meets a dashing truck driver named Dwayne.
When Angela discovers that Lance has shifted from publisher to rock radio impresario, she expels him from the mansion. After an all-night tryst in Dwayne's truck, Emma returns home to Angela. Peter's attentions finally make an impression on Angela, and she begins to take his marriage proposal seriously. Although Richard Channing and Cassandra Wilder mistrust one another, they plan a new beginning. Melissa tries to tell Father Christopher about her feelings for him. In a plan to save their land, Chase and Maggie enlist the help of Sheriff Gilmore, Terry and Wicker.
At the party announcing her engagement to Peter Stavros, Angela shocks the gathered guests by revealing that Cole is the father of Robin's baby. Still smarting from having been outmaneuvered by Chase on the valley's water conservation project, Angela prepares an unusual method of revenge. Moreover, she sues Lance and Richard over their newspaper and radio station swap. In order to showcase Apollonia's songs, Lance changes his station from all-talk to all-rock. After Melissa receives her annulment from Lance, Father Christopher urges her and Cole to sanctify their marriage in the eyes of the church. Richard questions Jordan about her past and is puzzled by her reaction.
Although Angela is reluctant to change her name to Stavros and relinquish running her wine empire to marry Peter, they finally set the date. Refusing to lose Dwayne, Emma asks him to marry her. Richard proposes to Cassandra, believing he can only trust her if they are married. Cole and Melissa agree to a church wedding, but the bride becomes distraught when Father Christopher must perform the ceremony. Greg's persistence pays off when Jordan agrees to a date with him. Maggie receives an advance check for a novel she doesn't remember writing. A man from Apollonia's past re-enters her life and his actions disturb Lance. Angela loses her court battle to override Lance's exchange with Richard for the radio station.
With Emma's love-life flourishing, Lance defying her and Chase stealing her distributors, Angela's life continues to be rife with challenges. When Angela's attempt to bribe Dwayne to leave her daughter fails, Angela offers her blessing for their marriage if he sells his trucking business. However, Emma shows an amazing ability to cope with her mother and her demands. To shut Chase down, Angela blackmails the valley's agriculture inspector to get Chase's vineyards quarantined. Reardon makes Angela honor her promise to help him enter politics. Lance is able to show Apollonia the real Walker McDowell. Richard jilts Cassandra, who is pregnant, while Robin is about to give birth.
Chase ignores his new grandchild until the baby needs an operation, then rallies to support Cole and Melissa. When Maggie's novel, ""Sudden Friends,"" debuts in The New Globe, Angela prepares to sue. After Chase loses the distributor for his wine, he makes an offer to Dwayne. Apollonia stars in a video and is offered a long tour, but Lance refuses to accompany her. Reardon stands by while J.J. Roberts announces his candidacy for election, much to Jordan's distress. Confused about his feelings for Melissa, Father Christopher wants to resign from the priesthood. Terry questions Richard Channing about her share of the profits from Tuscany Downs. After she orders a secret audit, she discovers Richard's skimming scheme and confronts him with her findings.
After Father Christopher moves into the mansion, Angela points out to Lance that it could significantly affect his inheritance if his half brother leaves the priesthood. Lance changes his mind about allowing Apollonia to go on tour without him, but reconsiders again when Father Christopher threatens his place in Angela's household. When Father Christopher tells Melissa that he is on leave from his duties, he crushes her expectations when he reminds her that she is a married woman. Robin's maternal instincts worry Cole and Melissa when they bring the baby home from the hospital. Emma provides Maggie a clue to the identity of the mysterious stranger in her book. Greg Reardon and Richard Channing each try to discover the secret in Jordan Roberts's life. Angela is curious about Peter Stavros's disappearance when she discovers he left his briefcase at Falcon Crest. Richard decides that marrying Terry will provoke Angela the most.
When Angela directs Lance to bribe the pickers not to pick Chase's grapes, Lance takes Father Christopher along to show him how deviously their grandmother Angela operates. Disgusted with her tactics, Christopher confronts her. After Chase discovers Angela's ruse in time to save his own harvest, he turns the tables on Angela. After signing a pre-nuptial agreement, which gives the groom the advantage, Richard Channing and Terry are married. As Apollonia embarks on her tour, Emma persuades Lance to follow her. The J.J Roberts fund-raiser at Falcon Crest is a huge success. Afterward, Jordan's mother uncovers the reason Jordan despises her father when Greg discovers Jordan working at a halfway house for abused girls. Peter Stavros's daughter tries to retrieve her father's briefcase from Angela. After Cole and Melissa pay Robin her money, Robin disappears with the baby.
In an effort to bring tranquility to her family, Angela takes Julia home for a visit, but her efforts to have her daughter influence Father Christopher backfire when Julia defies her mother. A state-wide search for Robin and the baby, Hope, is fruitless, until Robin calls Maggie for money and reveals that the baby is not Cole's. When Richard Channing makes plans to bleed his new wife of her assets, he learns that Terry is not as gullible as he had thought. Dwayne wants to elope with Emma, who invites him to dinner with the family, much to Angela's displeasure. Richard tries to combine forces with Chase to crush Angela. Jordan has a confrontation with her father. Melissa reveals how much her family means to her to Father Christopher. However, Angela misunderstands when she discovers them together.
Maggie brings Robin and Hope back, but Robin still refuses to relinquish the baby. After Angela tells Cole that she saw Melissa and Christopher embracing, she asks Cole to keep Melissa away from her grandson. After Melissa and Christopher deny Cole's accusation, Cole warns Melissa that she will have to stop acting like a tramp if she wants to keep the baby from Robin. When Robin tries to convince Cole that he is not Hope's father, he says a paternity test will prove that he is. Tired of watching Jordan destroy herself, Greg demands some answers from Jordan, who bursts into tears as she reveals that her father had molested her as a child. When Jordan confronts her father, J.J. crumbles under the weight of the truth and commits suicide.
When the guilt from her father's death creates strange nightmares for Jordan Roberts, she looks to Greg Reardon for solace, but develops a split personality to hide from reality. Dwayne brings Emma home from the hospital and baits Angela. Lance leaves for Europe to continue his search for Peter Stavros. When Robin consults Angela for help in keeping her daughter, Angela is delighted at the opportunity to strike back at Melissa. Chase and Richard Channing make an agreement to work together and challenge Angela by opening Terry's winery.
Passing himself off as a playboy gambler in Monte Carlo, Lance is invited to a high-stakes game at a chateau where he discovers Peter Stavros to be a prisoner. However, Lance's attempt to free Peter, who is being held by his own daughter and Phillippe Hubbert, only succeeds in jeopardizing him. At a wine-tasting symposium in Hawaii, after Chase's wine defeats Angela's, Chase announces his partnership with Richard Channing during his acceptance speech. Paternity tests prove that Cole is the father of Robin's baby. Jordan is puzzled when she can't remember some of her evening activities, but Terry may have a clue for her.
Sofia's attempt to reason with Phillippe about her father and Lance's imprisonment places her in the same predicament. However, a shootout at the chalet frees them all. After Lance fails to report to her at Falcon Crest, Angela flies to Europe with Reardon to find him, but they arrive too late to do any good. In the meantime, Emma and Dwayne find Ursula in Mexico and rescue her with the help of a flirtatious police captain. In order to even the score with Angela, Chase devises a ruse for one of the valley's vineyard owners. Jordan worries about her memory lapses, but begins to find rather unnerving clues to her behavior. Chase approves of Maggie's tour to promote her book. Joseph violently reacts to Melissa and Cole's continual disputes.
Peter Stavros's children pay him a surprise visit at Falcon Crest, while Angela's success at healing the rift between Sofia and her father results in new wedding plans for Peter and Angela. Maggie's publicity tour for her book takes her to New York, where she meets an admiring press agent, Jeff Wainright, who takes her under his wing. Terry spies on Jordan and discovers her evening activities. When Terry interferes with Richard's detectives, who are trying to locate Cassandra, Richard becomes angry, but his wrath soon turns to seduction. Chase takes drastic measures to retrieve his wine. Melissa and Cole's custody battle with Robin takes a turn when Cole admits they have a weak marriage and are not fit to be parents.
Before Sheriff Gilmore can serve a warrant for Angela's arrest, she disappears. Dwayne, concerned for Emma, alerts the Falcon Crest residents that Angela is about to be arrested for planning the hijacking of Chase's wine shipment. When the Sheriff arrives, he cannot find Angela and Peter. After Robin takes Hope from Melissa and Cole, Cole moves home. Jeff pursues Maggie across the country. Richard and Chase disagree on methods of acquiring more vineyards. After Jordan requests Greg's help, Terry hires a detective to spy on her. Peter returns with Angela's power of attorney to run Falcon Crest and Lance makes a discovery about his grandmother's disappearance.
Reasoning that Angela would never give control of Falcon Crest to an outsider, Lance is convinced that Peter is hiding something from the rest of the family. At the winery, Emma reconciles with Dwayne. After Maggie rejects Jeff's advances, he continues to fantasize about her. After Jordan provides Terry information about Richard and Chase's secret business plans, Richard hires a detective to check on Jordan. Eric begins to enjoy the campaign to secure Melissa's grapes for Falcon Crest when he takes her dancing. Reardon is fired after he refuses to obey Peter's order to withdraw $30 million of Falcon Crest funds for him.
When Angela returns and discovers the havoc Peter has wrought during her absence, she vows to take vengeance on him. Before Angela's return, Reardon gets a temporary injunction to stay Peter's hand at Falcon Crest, but it is too late. Peter has disappeared, and so has Angela's $30 million. Richard not only discovers that Jordan has been revealing his financial problems to Terry, but also that Peter Stavros has purchased the mortgage on Tuscany Downs. Determined to win Maggie's attention, Jeff follows her to the Tuscany Valley after her tour concludes. In order to avoid being forced into selling her wine harvest to Falcon Crest, Melissa tries to convince Eric to form a partnership with her.
Angela marries Peter after discovering he took her $30 million to keep her from being prosecuted for arranging the hijacking of Chase's wine. Although Angela turns herself in to Sheriff Gilmore, she has to serve time in jail until the $50,000 bail can be paid. While Jordan seeks help for Maggie's problem but refuses to continue with her therapy, Jeff's appearance in the valley disturbs Maggie. Angela discovers that Peter has made her Richard Channing's partner in Tuscany Downs. Angela is not only dismayed to find that Dwayne has moved into her house, but also finds Lance and Jordan sharing a bed at Falcon Crest.
While Maggie learns some distressing facts about her suitor, Angela maneuvers Chase and Jeff into a confrontation. Furthermore, Jeff has purchased a powerful deer rifle. While Greg discovers Jordan's escapade with Lance, he becomes more distressed when he meets ""Monica,"" Jordan's second personality. Seeking employment, Jordan goes to Richard, who offers her the opportunity to defend Julia at her retrial. Chao-Li is surprised when the daughter he has never seen arrives at Falcon Crest. In order to maintain some privacy, Emma and Dwayne hunt for a house for sale. As Angela tries to make a deal with Richard for The New Globe, Melissa and her new partner have difficulty in keeping their minds on business.
Although Sheriff Gilmore can find no grounds to arrest Jeff, Chase manages to get an order barring Jeff from having any direct contact with Maggie. However, when Maggie finds notes from Jeff, she realizes that he is still constantly spying on her from a distance. Melissa and Eric hold a groundbreaking ceremony for their new winery. By accusing Eric of treachery and ordering him out of the house, Angela angers Peter. Jordan begs for Greg's understanding. Dwayne finds a honeymoon cottage for Emma, much to her dismay. When Cole catches Li-Ying trespassing and surveying for earthquakes on the Gioberti's land, he confronts her. Chase asks B. Riley Wicker to investigate the financing of Tuscany Downs, which makes Richard nervous.
After Jeff penetrates the security surrounding Maggie, he imprisons her in his cabin in the hills. At his hideaway, Jeff reads aloud the grim last chapter of his novel to Maggie in which she figures. When Emma finds a solution for her and Dwayne's housing dilemma, Angela objects to their marriage and the couple heads for Reno with Angela in pursuit. Jordan resists help from her mother until Julia makes her identify with her family problems. Chase corners Terry into admitting Richard's association with Miss Jones. Although Li-Ying's earthquake studies lead to an ominous prediction, she decides she wants to stay in America.
When Chase and Cole locate the cabin where Jeff is holding Maggie, they interrupt Maggie's escape attempt, which backfires on Chase. Angela interrupts Emma and Dwayne's elopement with the promise of a proper wedding at Falcon Crest. Emma's advice to Li-Ying changes her mind about staying in America, even after her prediction of an earthquake in the Tuscany Valley proves accurate. Angela sends Lance to break up the Melissa-Eric alliance. Jordan files for a new trial for Julia, while her own problems lead to her arrest.
After Chase is shot, he begins to hemorrhage and is wheeled into surgery. Angela and Lance close down the winery and break Eric and Melissa's alliance by forging Melissa's signature. After Greg and Harriet Roberts bail Jordan out of jail, they discover that Jordan's split personality, Monica, is in control. Dr. Kramer and Harriet help Jordan face the personality behind which she has hidden all her suffering. In his search for Cassandra, Richard arrives at her grave in England. According to Wilkins, Cassandra died while giving birth and Damon Rossini disappeared with her baby boy. Later, Sabrina Cross shows up with his son, Michael. In the finale, an earthquake ripples through the Tuscany Valley, leaving many injured in its wake at Falcon Crest.
In the aftermath of the earthquake, aftershocks rock the region and the people of the Tuscany Valley struggle to cope with the loss of property and loved ones. Father Bob transforms his church into a field hospital for the earthquake victims and as an information center for concerned friends and relatives. As the death toll mounts in the valley, Maggie and Cole wait in a San Francisco hospital for the doctor's prognosis of Chase's gunshot wound.
After the specter of Jeff Wainwright haunts Maggie, she overcomes her intrinisic fear of firearms and purchases a gun for protection. When Maggie's daughter Vickie returns home, she admits that not only has she has gone through two divorces, but that she lied about being a famous ballet dancer. Despite the ballistics test results, Maggie refuses to believe that a member could be responsible for shooting Chase. At Falcon Crest, Angela considers a foreclosure. In spite of a few close calls, Kit succeeds in hiding her past from Peter.
Upon his return to the Tuscany Valley, Wainwright, already keenly interested with the Giobertis, also becomes interested in Vicky. Angela's suspicion and the arrival of a detective jeopardize Kit Marlowe's masquerade. When Angela adds the valley's plush spa to her holdings, she learns that an unexpected source threatens her anticipated hold on the Agretti grape harvest. When Tony Cumson returns to the valley, he is appalled at the condition of his former wife, Julia, as Angela moves quickly to keep him out of the family.
While Maggie confesses the reasons for her distress to Chase, Wainwright changes his tactics to ingratiate himself with their daughter, Vicky. When Richard Channing discovers Kit's secret, he is able to use it to his advantage. Lance and Melissa find a common bond. Tony Cumson tries to reconcile his father-son relationship with Lance, but the wounds are too deep. Angela hosts a party for the opening of her spa.
As Chase hires a private detective to protect Maggie, he is unaware that his daughter also needs protection. Troubled by Kit's denunciation of Fixx, Lance fires Kit, while Angela plans to pit Lance against Fixx. Julia informs the family about an unexpected decision. Miss Jones falls for Richard's scheme and both fishermen think they have caught the big one. Richard also snares Angela to bail him out of their racetrack. Lance and Melissa return from their wedding and Fixx becomes suspicious of Kit's mysterious activities. Wainwright gets Vicky under his control.
A newspaper article alerts Vicky to the danger she's in with Wainwright, but, when he realizes she knows the truth about him, he terrorizes her and forces her to masquerade as her mother. Lance and Melissa have a wedding reception, which Angela reluctantly hosts, bringing forth mixed emotions from the guests. Chase and Melissa disagree about Joseph. Lance tries to persuade his father to finance his partnership in Melissa's winery, but Tony accepts Chase's offer. Emma's date, Richard, informs Angela that Tuscany Downs is being condemned. Peter and Angela argue over her stolen checks. When Maggie confronts Richard over his article on Wainwright, Chase approaches with fists flying.
After Vicky slips from his grasp, Wainwright returns to the valley and forces his way into the Agretti's house, attacking Chase in his pursuit of Maggie. When Lance can no longer compete with Angela's preoccupation with Dan Fixx, he surprises his grandmother with a new venture. Angela explains to Peter why she is taking such care of Dan, even after The New Globe reveals him as an ex-convict. At the last minute, Richard springs his trap on Miss Jones to save Chase's life. Cole disapproves of his father's new partnership with Tony Cumson. Kit tries to intercede in the matter of Angela's stolen checks because of the pain it is causing Peter.
After Angela, who is annoyed at Lance's defection to Richard's New Globe, continues her patronage of Dan Fixx, Emma seeks guidance from a storefront psychic. Kit appeals to Richard for help from Fixx, giving Richard a weapon to use against Angela. Cole is disenchanted with his father's partnership with Tony as Maggie is unable to help her troubled son or herself mend their relationships with Chase. Angela provides Miss Jones' sister with the nanny job in Richard's house. Richard dumps waste near Chase and Tony's vineyard.
While Chase buries himself in his business deals and his political campaign, Maggie agonizes over the problems of her children, but mostly about her baby. While Cole takes his unhappiness out on his family, Vicky grows closer to Dan Fixx. With her paternity tests inconclusive, Maggie's fears increase along with her determination. Chase and Tony discover that their vines are withering. Angela and Lance fight over his association with The Globe and her obsession with Dan Fixx. Meredith starts her seduction of Richard Channing. Lance conspires with Karlotti to take over Emma's stock certificates in The New Globe. A hit man sees through Kit's disguise.
Maggie's determination to keep her baby, regardless of the consequences, further alienates her from her family. Cole is adamant about leading his life away from the family, and Maggie has no choice but to give him her blessing. Vicki goes to see Dan Fixx, whom her parents disapprove. Chase accepts his wife's views on her upcoming motherhood. Angela attends Karlotti's seance, which is instrumental in giving Lance control of Emma's holdings. Chase and Tony discover vineyards contaminated from the dumping at Tuscany Downs, with evidence pointing to Angela's conspiracy to ruin her rivals. Fixx confides in Vicky. Lance moves to take over The Globe.
As Maggie fights her loneliness, Chase struggles to save his vineyards, and Angela strives for her freedom. Vicky allows her parent's problems to affect her relationship with Dan Fixx. As Chase's marital problems reflect on his campaign for county supervisor, he and Maggie face the facts about their troubled marriage. Even though Peter is troubled over Angela's innocence or guilt, he loyally stands by her. Richard is determined to defeat Lance's attempt at a takeover of The New Globe as the specter of Miss Jones begins to haunt him. Kit succumbs to Tony's charm, but is terrorized by Stafford.
Due to his past manipulations of Melissa's life, Lance's attempt to win control of The New Globe backfires. Richard overcomes Lance's ploy to control The New Globe by producing the man who framed Melissa, who demands that Lance move out. Emma brings Karlotti home to trace Wayne's spirit and begins to transfer her affections to the medium. Angela begins to believe that Lance framed her. Kit is reluctant to leave Tony for Guy and his plans of a fake suicide. Dan is able to break through Vicky's defenses. Maggie observes Chase's victory kiss from Gwen and has complications with her pregnancy.
Preparing to disappear, Kit, with Stafford advising her, lays the groundwork to make her fake suicide plausible and realizes that she will sever many important ties. Angela has a dinner party for Peter's birthday. Seeking help for her troubled marriage, Melissa looks in the wrong places. Maggie discovers that her baby may be born with problems and turns Chase away when he fails to understand her feelings. Meredith hires her former supervisor to rescue Erin Jones, while Angela offers Vicky a new job at the spa.
When Skyler's disappearance and apparent suicide casts a pall over the mansion, Peter blames himself for not recognizing her distress. Peter's guilt drives him away, but Skyler's tragedy makes Emma finally realize that Dwayne is gone forever, and Angela is at last able to comfort her daughter. Tony learns the truth about Skyler (Kit). When Richard's son is kidnapped, he feels lost. Chase faces the fact that, of the two people in the valley he most despises, Richard and Angela, one is taking flowers to his wife and the other is trying to get closer to his daughter. Lance calls for his father's help when Melissa has a nervous breakdown.
In addition to a huge ransom, the kidnappers demand that Meredith, the only one who can identify them, be handed over to them in exchange for Richard's son. Richard learns that Angela was responsible for putting Meredith in his household and vows that she will pay for what she has done to him. Concerned about Vicky's relationship with Dan Fixx, Chase travels to Oklahoma to determine for himself the type of man his daughter is involved with, and is then beaten up by the small town's corrupt chief of police and his henchmen. Lance refuses to declare Melissa mentally incompetent after her breakdown. After selling his winery to Lance, Eric talks Angela into letting him manage the spa. Emma discovers that she is not pregnant with Dwayne's child and now wants to have a baby with Karlotti.
Rushing to protect Chase, Dan Fixx lands in jail, and Chase has to try to rescue him, as well as himself, from corrupt officers. Angela rejects Peter's proposal to join him in Monte Carlo and is shocked at his response. Richard happily tells Maggie news of his son and Vicky misunderstands the kiss her mother gives him. Emma learns the truth about Karlotti, but she doesn't change her feelings about him. Peter summons Tony to Monte Carlo to discuss Skyler. Angela and Richard confront each other. Lance is concerned over Melissa's reactions.
Due to Melissa's peculiar behavior, Lance loses his chance to join an exclusive club, which alienates him from Joseph. After Richard becomes the new distributor for Angela's wines, Angela hires a new lawyer. Vicky and Angela become concerned about Dan's preoccupation with Suzanne. Richard tries to recruit Peter in his vendetta against Angela. Lance enlists Chase and Maggie to help him with Joseph.
Angela interferes in the lives of Chase, Richard, Maggie, Vickie and Dan. Vickie and Dan's romance is complicated by Angela's peculiar moral code. When Angela accuses Richard of fathering Maggie's expected child, her manipulations make Chase's altruistic defense of troubled vineyard owners seem like a play for personal gain, which puts a wedge in his relationship with Gabrielle. Melissa's troubled behavior brings a closer understanding between Lance and Tony. Peter plans to win Angela back and break Richard at the same time, while Richard thinks Kit Marlowe can be played to bring Peter to his side.
When Maggie prematurely gives birth to her baby at Falcon Crest, Angela conspires with rich newcomer Roland Saunders in her plans to destroy Richard. Angela finds a kindred spirit in Saunders, ""the rudest billionaire in the Fortune 500."" When Richard offers to sign the birth certificate of Maggie's baby, Chase surprises them by signing it himself. The idea of the new baby troubles Emma. Lance questions his father about Kolinski, while Tony has to lie to his son to protect Kit. During Angela's international wine show at the spa, the matron of Falcon Crest arrives with Saunders, and Peter disapproves.
Peter threatens Angela and Roland Saunders as he tries to discover their connection to Kit Marlowe. Due to Angela's interest in Maggie's baby, Maggie concludes that she must give the baby up for adoption if the child is to lead a decent life. After Maggie refuses to allow Emma and Karlotti have her child, the two instead apply to adopt a child. While Angela plans Dan and Vickie's engagement party, she promises to give them a vineyard. Peter forces Tony to tell him about Kit. After Chase makes Gabrielle a proposition, he offers Lance a partnership with him and Tony. Angela plans to solve the mystery of Kit Marlowe.
At Angela's engagement party for them, Vicky and Dan set the tone of the party by trying to avoid it. After Kit demonstrates a need to tell Tony good-bye, both Richard and Peter confront Saunders. Maggie arrives looking for her baby, which she now knows is Chase's. After Emma confounds Angela by introducing her adopted son, one of the guests is found dead in the winery.
Tony and Lance assist each other as circumstantial evidence implicates them in murder, but it is to no avail when Angela goes back on her word. Angela breaks her promise to Lance when she realizes that it is more important to protect her grandson than his father. Vickie and Eric's actions at the party make Dan face a dilemma. Francine Hope is able to help Maggie and Chase, who are then able to contact the lawyer who arranged the adoption of their baby. Richard is finally able to realize his revenge on Angela. When Melissa entertains as ""Veronique, the Slumming Socialite"" on amateur night at a San Francisco nightclub, she becomes all the rage.
District Attorney Wilkinson is highly pleased when Angela suggests he campaign for attorney general, with her help, if he agrees to convict her ex-son-in-law, Tony, of murder. Wilkinson digs until he makes sure that he can nail Tony. Angry at Peter for his involvement with Richard, Angela seeks a divorce. When Maggie and Chase are unable to find the adoptive parents of their child, Maggie pleads a mother's appeal in the media while Chase offers a reward. Gabrielle accepts Chase's offer to be in charge of his wine operations. Vicky has no one to turn to except Eric. Melissa continues her double life as a chanteuse.
As Tony begins to mistrust Kit, Angela ensnares Melissa, and Richard attempts to console Maggie. Richard plans a trip for Maggie to overcome her melancholy, but a ghost from the past interrupts. Melissa's secret world tumbles when Angela finds out about it. Chase decides to file for a divorce. Tony suspects that Kit Marlowe may have used him in order to remove suspicion from her. Angela offers Dan a new job. Lance offers hope to Chao-Li. Although Emma traps Karlotti with plans for a church wedding, her offer of community property turns him from a man in hot water to one who has just struck the mother lode.
When Emma and Karlotti's church wedding concludes, Emma discovers how great her husband really is. As the couple stands up before Father Bob for their nuptials, Karlotti's reputation as a lover is enhanced. In her attempts to bring Lance back home, Angela humiliates Melissa in front of Lance, Richard and Dan. Maggie and Chase search for clues to find their baby in Boston. When Lance discovers Kit's whereabouts, he plans to intercept her in his quest to help his father. Wilkerson reports to Angela that he has Tony ""nailed to the wall."" Vickie and Eric return from their escapade.
When Kit comes to Tony's defense, the gesture proves worthless. Tony's trial proceeds as if D.A. Wilkinson had scripted it, until Kit arrives at the courtroom. After Chase uncovers evidence that Melissa had engineered the botched paternity test, he is too late to intercept her due to Angela's threats. Chao-Li loses face because Angela and Lance stay up all night to take care of him. After Chase and Maggie decide on a quick divorce, Richard sees his chance for happiness.
Melissa's desperate attempts to keep the baby result in a car chase that ends when the car carrying her, Chase, Maggie, Richard and Dan plunges into San Francisco Bay. Angela discovers that her child, whom she previously believed to have died in childbirth, is alive and ready to return to haunt her. When Angela and Peter reconcile and she tries to buy Peter's freedom, Peter, facing murder charges, flees with Kit.
Angela learns the truth about her supposedly deceased child. The car chase has endangered Melissa, Chase, Richard, Dan and Maggie's lives. After taking a disastrous fall, Chao-Li lies at the foot of the stairs. Emma, frustrated with her mother's meddling, stands high above Falcon Crest and threatens to jump.
A French woman and a mercenary soldier from Chase's past intrude on the lives of Angela and Maggie and force them to face unpleasant consequences. Angela's wiles work on Chao-Li. Emma believes she is embarking on a new life as a businesswoman. After Lance moves in with Dina amid Melissa's accusations that he cares more for his car than he does for her, Melissa attempts to make peace with Lance.
Unsuccessful in luring Lance back to her side, Angela turns to Dan to manage her winery and find someone new to run the spa. However, when Dan assigns Melissa to manage the spa, Melissa, to Angela's consternation, creates a successful nightclub for the Del Oro. On the turn of a card, Richard wins Eric's Nevada land and plans to create a town called Channing. While Maggie agrees not to press charges against Melissa, Nicole continues to harass Maggie until Angela enters the fray.
When Richard Channing and John Remick offer to help Maggie pay off Angela, each plays dirty to make sure that he will be the one to whom she is indebted. When Angela sends Lance and Dan to investigate Emma's new job, she is too late. Vickie not only tells Maggie that she is pregnant, but also confesses Eric's gambling mania. Dina is seriously injured in a car accident with Lance. While Maggie and Richard visit his new Nevada property, they are unaware that they are under surveillance. Consequently, they return home to face Angela's demand for payment.
After Angela and Richard individually maneuver to meet the man behind the mysterious activity in the Tuscany Valley, they are both placed in precarious positions. Maggie can't understand Richard's reluctance to rely on the police. Angela forces Wilkinson to reveal Richard's ownership of lake property in Nevada. Emma, agreeing to write her autobiography, acquires a ghostwriter and personal manager, and heads for Hollywood. While Lance discovers that someone sabotaged his car, Vickie finds herself among the homeless. In conclusion, an explosion destroys the Gioberti home.
After Angela and Richard meet the mysterious Carlton Travis, Angela conspires with Carlton to destroy Richard. Richard realizes that although Carlton is a man who won't listen to reason, he will listen to Angela. With all the trimmings Hollywood offers, Emma works on her screenplay. Melissa takes Dan to Australia to visit Cole and her son. With Frank Starr's assistance, Dina's nurse works on her patient to discredit Lance. Angela and Travis discover that they have a history.
After Richard rejects Carlton Travis's offer of a truce, Travis kidnaps him and Angela. After Maggie hires an old friend to plan a birthday party for Richard's son, Angela brings a puppy as a gift to the party. Melissa spirits her son away for a picnic and becomes lost in the Australian bush. Dina's nurse gets her to sign Lance's half-million-dollar check over to her. Lance suspects that Frank Starr tampered with his car.
After Angela digs into the past to save Richard from Carlton Travis, she must open old wounds. Angela goes to the wife of a Supreme Court justice and one of Washington's most celebrated hostesses to recruit help in rescuing her son. When Lance is arrested for murder, Melissa comes to his aid. A man who Dan suspects is a thief turns out to be his father. While asleep, Lance is injected with a toxin that will kill him within 24 hours.
Lance's determination to clear himself and bring the real murderer to justice endangers his own life. Tony insists that Lance, who is very sick, check into a hospital. However, Lance, despite the poison coursing through his veins, brings Nurse Chadway to justice. Richard assists the daughter of an old friend and becomes involved in helping her save her ball team. Angela tries to destroy Melissa's new vineyards. Richard asks Maggie to marry him.
Upset with Richard's involvement with Liz and unable to make a decision about his proposal, Maggie leaves the Tuscany Valley to join Vicky in Monte Carlo. While a mysterious and eerie assassin figure stalks Liz, Maggie resents her reliance on Richard's protection. After Melissa gets even with Angela, Angela retaliates with a scheme that boomerangs. Maggie enters her new wine in a contest and wins second place. Angela discovers that Dan's father has a second family. After Lance rescues Emma from her would-be producers, she starts writing an advice column for The New Globe.
When Maggie returns to the valley with Vickie and Eric, she learns that Richard and Liz have been traveling together. Eric realizes that his gambling debts are following him and that he must pay more than money to escape them. When Melissa starts to experience strange phenomena due to Angela's hired illusionist Foster Glenn, Melissa's world begins to fall apart. Emma's success as a columnist disturbs Angela, who goes to Father Bob for advice about her family.
After discovering that Maggie has finally accepted Richard, Emma and Angela throw a surprise engagement party. During the party, Melissa makes her entrance dressed only in a bathrobe. Lance discovers that the charming stranger he has befriended knows secrets that could directly impact him. Liz makes an announcement that infuriates Angela but delights Maggie. Melissa overhears Angela talking about her plan to drive Melissa insane and have her committed. Richard saves Eric from making a terrible mistake.
After Vicky vanishes from Angela's party, Richard and Eric frantically search for her. After Dan is surprised by the arrival of a half-sister whom he didn't know he had, he puts her to work in the grape fields. Shannon tries to leave the valley after Lance questions her. Melissa is able to deflect Angela's scheme to get her committed so that Angela instead loses her hold on Dan. Angela succeeds in prying into Maggie's affairs.
Angela takes advantage of Richard's absence to get closer to her grandson and Maggie, while Richard and Eric search for Vickie overseas. Richard seeks the help of a beautiful party leader to help him rescue Vicky, but must use strong tactics and blackmail to get her cooperation. When Dan tries to help Carly, Melissa lacks the patience to deal with the wild young woman who could threaten her happiness. Emma's kindness makes her prey for a scheming couple. Shannon thinks she might find happiness with Lance, but her past again interferes. Angela anticipates that all of her own wishes will soon come true.
In spite of Emma's well-laid plans for a beautiful affair, fate makes a travesty of Maggie and Richard's wedding day. After Maggie finds the perfect house, Richard agrees to have the wedding in the garden. Tempers erupt when Eric creates an unpleasant situation at Richard's bachelor party. When Melissa shows up at Maggie's bridal shower, the two finally reconcile. While Eric is able to perform an errand for Richard that could affect Maggie's future, Carly runs an errand for Angela, which does affect Melissa's future. Lance and Tony fight over Shannon.
Maggie and Richard decide to try again, while Angela proves uncharacteristically supportive. When Lance moves back into the manor house, Angela joyfully greets him with the news that Carly will be staying for a few days. In a misguided attempt to help Emma, Curtis digs dirt on Richard. At Lance's instigation, Melissa enters into an elaborate masquerade to rescue Emma. In his effort to break the codicil to Chase's will, Richard enrolls some dangerous assistance. When Gabrielle returns to the valley on the anniversary of Chase's death, she gives Maggie some hopeful news.
When Maggie and Richard spend their wedding night at Falcon Crest, they are trapped in a house with no food, no phone, a murderer, and no way out, while Angela listens at every keyhole. A storm forces Angela to be the unwilling hostess for Maggie, Richard, Dan, Melissa, Vicky, Eric, Garth, Curtis and Sheriff Buckman. In order to keep the uninvited guests, Lance, Carly, Chao-Li and her mother occupied during their forced hibernation, Emma organizes a game of murder. However, when the game turns into reality at midnight, Richard is the prime suspect.
Melissa rejects her long-lost Uncle Frank, who turns to Angela to help him heal the family rift with his only living relative. After Maggie turns the reins of her Gioberti winery over to Angela, she and Richard start their delayed honeymoon in the Caribbean, which proves not to be the idyllic getaway for which she had hoped. Emma blames Richard for her friend's death and seeks revenge. When Dan's former wife tries to meet with him, Melissa interferes. Before Richard can seek revenge for Eric's disloyalty, Eric makes plans to take Vickie and escape from the valley.
Shortly after Richard carries Maggie across the threshold of their new home, he is perturbed by the news that Eric and Vickie have left for Europe and that someone has broken into his wall safe. Also, the key to his Swiss bank safe-deposit box has been copied in wax. In Geneva, Eric and Vickie put their plan into motion, getting a wax mold of the key that will admit them to the bank vault. Melissa will not warm up to her uncle Frank and Angela frankly doesn't know why he even bothers trying to win her over. Frank Agretti then tells Angela that he's not sure what his heirloom is, but he has to pass it on before he dies. Angela learns he has six months to two years to live. To help Emma figure out why Curtis Estabrook was murdered, Lance goes to Las Vegas to speak with George Wescott, a man who tells him about John Remick's connection to the murder. Maggie is shocked to hear him report that whatever Curtis knew about Remick resulted in his death. Also, Richard is involved in this somehow
Maggie recovers from her drunken fall and decides to throw away all of the alcohol in the house so she won't be tempted to drink again. Lance continues to investigate Curtis's allegations about Richard's underworld activity. Richard finds him rifling through Emma's office at the New Globe and warns him to stay away from Maggie. Lance tries in vain to enlist Maggie's support, but she denies Lance's accusations and tells him to stop before anyone else gets hurt. Frank and Melissa ride out to Hobart, California using Frank's antiquated map. Melissa accuses him of selfish motives, but when Frank raises his gun and shoots a rattler lying close to her, Melissa is embarrassed into silence. Frank tells her that he is dying and has no desire of cheating her out of her legacy. When they get to Hobart, all they find are abandoned buildings from an old mining community. On further inspection of a shack, Melissa falls through the crumbling flooring into a hole below. Frank attempts to rescue Meliss
The Justice Department is hardly all ears to Lance's plea for help in nailing Richard. An associate of the department, one Kathryn Anderson, offers her help. She makes an appointment to meet him with a lead on Richard. Lance shows up first and narrowly misses getting hit by a car. Kathryn is an employee of the thirteen. Rosemont instructs her on how to handle Lance Cumson. If she cannot scare Lance off Richard's case, Rosemont suggests that she may have to kill him. Angela takes Michael out to the toy store, but soon she discovers he's missing. An hour passes and Maggie appears. She berates Angela for losing her son. The store manager finds Michael in a back room; Garth has been hiding him in order to discredit Angela. Maggie leaves with Michael and Angela suspects foul play. Angela arrives home to find herself in the midst of a surprise party thrown by Carly, who has managed to invite most of Tuscany and then some. Angela is delighted and moved by her gesture, but the party mood chang
John Remick is alive. At least Lance and Kathryn know that much. Back in the Tuscany Valley, Kathryn thinks she can convince Rosemont that Lance believes Remick is dead. Rosemont is correct in thinking his decoy has fallen for the Tuscany Valley stud and makes a telephone call to have her eliminated. Although Kathryn has confided her knowledge of The Thirteen to Lance, he has not told her about the note he found hidden in his passport. Now that Angela has bought the little town of Hobart, California and put up a fence around it, Melissa is going to have trouble looking for the Agretti heirloom. The grape queen claims she is keeping the property safe until Frank comes out of his coma. Lucky for Melissa, it turns out that Hobart is just across the state line from Channing, Nevada, Richard's town. She wants to tunnel through to Hobart starting in Channing to a mine where her heritage supposedly waits for her. Playing on her former involvement years ago with Richard, Melissa meets him a
Nightmares have Maggie sleepwalking. She dreams that Vickie and all the people she loves are leaving her. Richard finds her and pulls her from her reverie. He has proof that Nellie Maxwell, their housekeeper, is a spy working for Angela in her determination to find evidence that will enable her to win custody of Michael Channing. Maggie gives Nellie the boot. Frustrated, Angela joins Lance in his investigation of Richard's association with The Thirteen. Coma-bound Frank Agretti needs an operation to save his life. But Dr. Huston informs Angela that Melissa, as his next of kin, has to grant permission. The Tuscany spitfire has a tough time with this one, although Angela begs her to sign the consent form. Dan Fixx's first delivery with his new trucking company is no piece of cake. It's a shipment of nitroglycerin. He won't tell Melissa exactly what he is transporting in his truck, which he has named ""Wendi"", but she eventually finds out and they argue. Carly wants to ride with Dan. He re
Richard sends the children to Emma while Maggie dries out. He's mulling over what to do about Melissa's plan to get into Hobart now that she's decided not to spy on Lance for him. He takes turns with Emma watching over Maggie, who painfully weans herself of alcohol- until she gets a letter from Vickie, delivered by Emma. Maggie is shocked to find that her daughter is in jail in Switzerland and that her husband is responsible. She goes to call Geneva but finds that the telephones have been removed. Furious and frustrated and feeling totally deceived by her husband, Maggie reaches for a hidden bottle of brandy and pours herself a drink. Richard comes home and finds Maggie seated with a glass of brandy. She tells him she knows where Vickie is and what he has done to put her there. He begs Maggie not to take the drink. The smell of it alone makes her sick, Maggie tells him. She pours the brandy into a nearby planter and says, ""A toast to my daughter in Switzerland."" Richard can't find a th
At Falcon Crest, Maggie has a premonition of her husband surrounded by a sinister group of men. Richard is awakened in his home by a contingent of FBI men who have come to question him after the collapse of three foreign banks. Looks like The Thirteen's plan to destroy the world economy is beginning to take shape. Richard tells the Feds The Thirteen is out to drive the stock market into another crash. He can't prove it, though. Richard is chagrined to find the files in his office missing and his secretary replaced. Taking the FBI to The Thirteen's headquarters in New York, Richard finds that the elevator only goes to the twelfth floor. He takes them to the nearest conference room, but it's filled with toy salespeople. On a flight back to the U.S., Vickie barks at the attendants when she finds that her husband isn't with her. Eric doesn't seem to miss Vickie. He's detained in Geneva with Madame Malec, Richard's Communist buddy from Yugoslavia who helped him find Vickie when Dimitrov kid
The Thirteen withdraws fifty billion dollars- their net worth- out of the stock market and the Dow Jones average plummets. They plan to buy back devalued stocks under one of the companies Richard Channing has bought with their assistance, implicating him in their plot. Angela receives her subpoena to testify against her son in front of the Senate Select Committee. Emma is dying to ruin her brother but hasn't received a subpoena. Angela dreads having her family's affairs publicized. Maggie packs up the car and the kids and gets a flat tire shortly after leaving Falcon Crest. A police car appears to assist her, but it's driven by a decoy for The Thirteen. Maggie's spare tire is missing. The cop calls for a tow truck and checks in with Rosemont. Garth finds Maggie's car, abandoned, just as Rosemont drops into Richard's office at The New Globe to offer him yet another deal: testify our way and spend the rest of your life on Easy Street. Maggie eventually calls Richard, and he reveals his c
Maggie creeps out of bed early to meet with Senator Ryder in hopes of getting Richard granted immunity for the remainder of the hearing. Alone in bed, Richard is drugged by a gloved hand. He regains consciousness to find the dead body of Madame Malec next to him. Richard shudders. It could have been Maggie. Maggie meets with Senator Ryder and wins immunity for her husband. Meanwhile, Richard has given up trying to convince anyone in Washington that The Thirteen exists and is responsible for Madame Malec's murder. Maggie persuades vitriolic Vickie to keep her trap shut about Richard at the hearing. Later Vickie blows off her husband outside the hearing room. She's helping her mother now, the brat tells Eric. With Frank out of the hospital, Melissa attempts to convince Angela to let her into Hobart to look for her heirloom. Angela is opposed to the idea. Frank tells his niece to stay put. Next, Melissa enlists Lance in her scheme to get into the fenced-in ghost town from Richard's proper
Frustrated that he has been unable to prove that Senator Horton is a mole for The Thirteen, Richard leaves Washington for home with Maggie and Garth. As they cross that state border, two gunmen open fire on their limo. Garth's expert driving saves them. The limo is bullet-ridden and the passengers are not hurt, but in another part of town Rosemont and Gray Suit watch as Eric Stavros is pumped full of chemicals. The Thirteen is going to turn him into a killing machine. Angela comes home accompanied by Richard's security men. She's off again once she learns that Melissa and Lance are trapped in that underground bank vault in Hobart. At the drill site, Frank Agretti conducts the rescue mission. Underground, Melissa is delirious over her deed: Falcon Crest might actually belong to her. Above ground, several rescue workers resurface coughing up hydrogen sulfide fumes. Frank realizes his efforts may be in vain. Dan Fixx arrives and volunteers his help. Mr. Gray Suit shows up for his regular
As Maggie is haunted by nightmares over her husband Richard's death, Angela surprises her friends and family with her calm resignation over losing control of the winery empire, while Melissa mercilessly wields her newfound power over everyone within her domain, down to the field hands and household help. As Maggie must take control over Richard's vast financial empire, she tries to cope with the agony of his murder by the underground group, The Thirteen. After leaving years ago after a dispute with her family, Pilar Ortega, not only the daughter of the vineyard foreman at Falcon Crest but also now a bank vice president, returns and provokes intense curiosity throughout the valley.
While Maggie is stunned by the return of her supposedly deceased husband Richard, Angela Channing decides to remain in the Tuscany Valley and fight for her family's land. While Richard reveals startling news about The Thirteen, the underground group which had supposedly killed him and which included the son of Peter Stavros, Maggie can't understand why she wasn't allowed to know that Richard was still alive. Meanwhile, Angela launches a new legal attack on Melissa for control of the Falcon Crest vineyards. Melissa's erratic behavior worries those around her. As Emma begins work on an article about an enigmatic mystery writer, Carly decides to leave the Tuscany Valley.
As the Falcon Crest mansion is engulfed in flames, Lance plunges desperately into the inferno to try to save Melissa, who is trapped inside. The aftermath of the fire has surprising repercussions for the residents of Tuscany Valley. Meanwhile, Angela secretly arranges a meeting between Frank Agretti and his long-estranged son, Nick. Richard anxiously launches a search to discover who was behind the assassination of The Thirteen. In pursuit of an exclusive story, Emma obtains a job typing for a reclusive writer, R.D. Young, and soon meets his assistant, Cabot.
Senator Ryder is intent on killing Richard and kidnapping Maggie. Convinced that Senator Ryder's brother John is responsible for the killing of The Thirteen, Richard discovers the secret method by which Ryder and John contact each other. As Richard waits in a park for John, he doesn't know that the senator has already killed his brother and is at Richard's house.
When Angela offers District Attorney Fields her support for the governorship in exchange for dropping the murder charges against Lance, he indignantly refuses; however, when Richard offers to hire Field's leukemic son to join the staff of The New Globe, Fields agrees to the deal. Lance, on the other hand, is not grateful; he wanted to prove his innocence in court. Although not charged with any crime, Maggie is guilt-ridden by the fact that she killed Senator Ryder, even though she did it in order to save Richard's life. After Nick Agretti is enraptured when he witnesses Pilar swimming nude, Angela informs him that she has learned some information he cannot release, revealing that the price for keeping the secret is Falcon Crest itself.
After Angela blackmails Nick with incriminating information about his past, Nick surrenders Falcon Crest to Angela. While Angela makes plans to rebuild the house, Nick regrets his deference to her and warns that he will not bend in the future. Nick decides to tell Ben the truth about his mother, which enrages the young man. Richard's newspaper prints the fact that Melissa had placed a phone call after Lance's departure, proving that Lance is innocent of her death. Richard warns Pilar not to let her affair with Lance interfere with Richard's takeover of the valley. When Frank's old friend Libby appears, Nick and Ben are surprised. Libby requests Frank to join her in Columbia to mine emeralds, which is an offer that disturbs Angela. As Emma and Cabot begin an intimate relationship, Cabot questions her true identity.
As Christmas arrives in Tuscany Valley, Frank agonizes over whether or not to leave his family to mine emeralds with Libby. Ben turns against Nick for lying to him about his mother. Unaware of Richard's assistance, Maggie is delighted with the overwhelming response to her special advertising offer. Richard offers to back Pilar's failing consortium through a blind company for a controlling interest. When Daniel Cabot discovers Emma's true identity, he abandons her. Although Angela celebrates the holiday by surrounding herself with family, Pilar's holiday is spoiled when she spots her brothers Tommy and Paco being chased by security officers. However, Christmas dinner at Pilar's home brings Nick and Ben closer together and Nick to admit his love for his father.
Mercedes and her husband pressure Pilar to sign papers allowing them to adopt Lisa. Although Pilar realizes that Mercedes is the only mother the child has ever known, the thought of a final, legal adoption is more than Pilar can bear. When Pilar goes to Lance for consolation, she discovers him with an attractive young woman. After Angela is outmaneuvered for the purchase of a bottling company, she is determined to learn who is behind the consortium. After Maggie's newspaper office is mysteriously trashed a few days before the first edition, Emma discovers that Cabot has been lying to her about his true identity.
Angela is delighted when Emma announces her intention to marry the famous writer, R.D. Young, but her plans for the wedding conflict with Young's passion for privacy. Hurt by Lance's involvement with Cookie Nash, Pilar turns to Nick for consolation. Moreover, Angela discovers that it was Pilar who organized the consortium with Richard. When Maggie discovers that Tommy was present when her newspaper office was trashed, she must decide whether to give him a second chance.
Angela's hands-on approach to Emma's forthcoming wedding may prove futile when the bride and groom call the festivities off. After Emma breaks the news to Angela that the wedding is off, her prospective bridegroom, R.D. Young, apologizes for his behavior and announces that the wedding is on schedule again. During the wedding rehearsals, Young's nervousness escalates and he convinces Emma to elope. After Pilar accepts Lance's apology about Cookie Nash, their romance resumes. Nick fails to persuade Ben to curtail his relations with the Cellini family, despite his warning that the family is dangerous. An unannounced visitor adds turmoil to Tuscany Valley.
In the continuing battle to keep Angela off balance, Pilar placates her about the consortium, while continuing to plot with Richard. Despite the stir created by her return from Italy, Anna Cellini is delighted to be reunited with Ben, but afraid that her father will ruin everything by insisting that his only surviving grandchild and heir be brought to Italy. When Richard tells Maggie he is in New York, he is really in Chicago with Pilar for meetings with financier Malcolm Sinclair. Cookie reveals to Lance that she is pregnant with his child.
As Angela continues to press for information on the consortium, Pilar divulges surprising news to Lance. After Angela follows the paper trail leading from the consortium to Richard's company, she confronts Richard. Making peace, Nick and Anna reach an accord about Ben. In conclusion, Pilar drops a bombshell piece of news on Lance: he is Lisa's father.
Despite pressure from Angela, Lance refuses to marry Cookie, but he offers her full financial support. Angela inadvertently uncovers Richard's duplicity in the Troilus affair. As Anna and Nick rekindle their love, happiness seems assured for the reunited family. However, Anna continues to hide the facts of her fatal illness and Ben receives a card from Frank telling him that the emerald mine is coming through. Pilar makes it very clear to both Sinclair and Richard that she will side with whomever makes it most worth her while. Sinclair's marriage proposal comes three years too late for Pilar, who turns it down. However, she gladly accepts Lance's proposal to become his wife.
Despite Angela's obvious opposition, Lance and Pilar decide to marry. Maggie, appalled at Richard's plans for the valley, leaves him. Hoping to prevent Lance and Pilar's marriage, Angela, who has made a deal with Sinclair, tells Lance that Pilar was well aware of Richard's business dealings; however, Pilar convinces him otherwise, and the wedding is definitely on. After Nick learns the seriousness of Anna's condition, he convinces her to allow him and Ben to care for her, provided that Ben not be told of her illness. After Raoul and his gang run Ben and Gabriel off the road, the gang leaves them unconscious on the roadside.
Maggie's rebuff of Richard's attempts at reconciliation cause unexpected results. Upon hearing news of the car accident, Lance and Pilar immediately return home. With Ben and Gabriel in serious condition, Anna feels guilty over having given Ben the car. While the hospital staff quibbles about accepting Gabriel, he goes into convulsions, requiring immediate surgery. Angela, though not approving of the marriage, invites the newlyweds to make their home at Falcon Crest. In response to Maggie's rebuff, Richard pressures a judge for a court order that transfers custody of the boys to him. Accompanied by the Sheriff, Richard removes the children from Falcon Crest.
Michael, despondent at his mother's continued absence, runs away. Richard moves to block Angela's latest power play, while Frank Agretti returns to the Tuscany Valley. While Angela is prepared to help Maggie wrest custody of the children from Richard, Richard prepares to clip Angela's wings decisively in the matter of Glenbraddoch. Meanwhile, Michael's disappearance causes concern. Learning of Ben's accident, Frank Agretti returns to the valley, while Pilar and Lance agree to try to make their home at Falcon Crest.
As Anna grows increasingly weaker, she desperately tries to convince Frank and Nick to help end her pain. After Maggie dissolves in tears after a phone conversation with Michael, Tommy consoles her, revealing his true feelings for her. On a business trip to Chicago, Richard encounters a glamorous woman who is a dead ringer for Melissa. Pretending that it will help his ill mother, Richard convinces his new conquest, Samantha Ross, to return to San Francisco and impersonate Melissa. After Richard agrees to Samantha's hefty price, the deal is cemented.
As Pilar and Sinclair plot against Richard, Samantha and Richard continue to scheme against Angela, while Nick Agretti investigates the background of a forged document. When Lance discovers one deed too many in Angela's safe and burns the document, he is unaware that he has been observed by Pilar, who has joined forces with Sinclair to undermine Richard in his upcoming investigation by the S.E.C. Richard misunderstands Tommy's presence in Maggie's hotel suite. Samantha helps Angela to escape from one of Richard's ploys.
Having escaped with Samantha's help, Angela finds her family doubting her kidnapping story, but Pilar gains Angela's confidence with her plan to help her regain control of the Glenbraddoch stock. At the court hearing, Richard wins custody of the children. Angela agrees to protect Samantha from Richard's wrath and calls Lance to pick her up in San Francisco. However, Samantha disappears before he arrives. When Richard warns Pilar about opposing him, he plays a tape that has been edited to indict both her and Sinclair and which will exonerate Richard. Richard also obtains a warrant ordering Angela into custody for a psychiatric evaluation to determine her mental competency.
While undergoing observation in the psychiatric ward, Angela is harassed by other patients. Richard emerges triumphant in winning custody of the children but begins to have qualms about his relationship with Samantha, while Ben becomes increasingly despondent after the death of Anna. Maggie exposes the hospital's negligent treatment of Gabriel, while Nick continues his drive to regain Falcon Crest. Richard dupes Samantha into leaving for Paris. At her judicial review, Angela creates a scene that could prove detrimental to her case.
As Angela's competency hearing proceeds, it becomes obvious that her case is weak, and Maggie's reputation begins to slide because of rumors about her relationship with Tommy. When Frank discovers that the feud between the Agrettis and the Giobertis had begun when the title to Falcon Crest changed hands during a crooked card game, he tries to convince Nick to let sleeping dogs lie. After selling some of her recently acquired Glenbraddoch stock to Lance, Pilar proposes to establish a trauma center in the Ortega name, with her terms including banishment for everyone involved in Gabriel's case. When the court declares Angela mentally incompetent, Angela rocks the court with a startling revelation.
Having successfully frustrated Richard's plans by marrying Frank Agretti, Angela returns to Falcon Crest, where her family rallies to her side and plans are devised for Richard's total downfall. When Samantha returns to Chicago from Paris, Richard tells her to forget their association or she will have to pay consequences. Nonetheless, when Samantha arrives at Falcon Crest, she provides evidence that Richard was involved in Angela's kidnapping. Consequently, Pilar and Angela work with the S.E.C. to facilitate Richard's financial ruin.
As Angela prepares to travel to Greece, she leaves her grandson Lance in charge, though under the strict supervision of her reliable foreman, Frank Agretti. Since Daniel, an unsuccessful author, has turned to gambling, drinking and brutality, Emma has become a battered wife. To escape her troubles, Emma turns to another man, Charley, for much-needed affection. In an effort to get out of prison, Richard decides to testify against his co-conspirator, Michael Sharpe. Richard evades an attempt on his life meant to stop his testimony. Accidentally getting her finger stuck in a pool drain, Maggie drowns. Angela hires a private investigator to tail Pilar.
Emma's old friend Charley arrives just in time for Maggie's funeral. Although Angela disapproves of Charley and changes her vacation plans, Emma stands by Charley despite Angela's interference. Michael Sharpe takes his revenge on Richard for his testimony against him by having Richard's children removed from his custody. Aware that Angela is trying to break up his relationship with Emma, Charley places a pillow over Angela's face and suffocates her.
After being found unconscious, Angela is rushed to the hospital, where she slips into a coma. Lance has a difficult time managing Falcon Crest without Angela, particularly when business associates insist on negotiating with Angela, but fortunately, Pilar is able to help Lance deal with their distributor, Ned Vogel. Richard discovers that Michael was instrumental in Richard's loss of custody over his children. A power outage at the hospital forces the family to consider pulling the plug on Angela's life support.
With his continued influence over Emma, Charley upsets the family. After the bank calls in its loan, Richard saves Falcon Crest from Michael Sharpe. Encouraged by his sister-in-law, Genele Erickson, Frank Agretti goes to the bank with the power of attorney which Angela had given him prior to her aborted trip to Europe and takes over operation of Falcon Crest.
Due to Richard's testimony, the S.E.C. slaps Michael Sharpe with the largest fine in history. Lauren and her husband confront Michael about his schemes and their custody of Richard's children. Frank's obsession with the treacherous Genele escalates. Charley is relieved to hear that Emma's husband has apparently committed suicide, since his death removes the last obstacle for Charley to marry Emma. When the court gives control of Falcon Crest to Emma, she is overwhelmed by the notion of running the business. Emma's new husband Charley, however, has many ideas about running Falcon Crest.
Charley hires his brother Ian and his young, child-like wife, Sidney, to help run the winery. Since the new arrivals put Charley at odds with Lance, the two fight. After Lance soundly beats Charley, Charley immediately fires him. After rescuing his sons, Richard learns that they liked Lauren and returns them to Lauren's care, despite the fact that she is Sharpe's sister. After Pilar and Lance confront Emma about Charley, he throws a bacchanal party, which is crashed by bikers. Ned Vogel, who has taped evidence of Pilar securing his distribution contract through sexual favors, blackmails her. At Angela's bedside, Emma thinks she hears her comatose mother command her to get rid of Charley, but Emma isn't sure whether or not she imagined it.
As Michael Sharpe arranges for Richard to be killed, the contract eventually goes to Sal, Richard's acquaintance from prison. Instead of killing Richard, Sal offers to help him get back at Sharpe, but later pays with his life when Sharpe learns that Sal double-crossed him. After Sydney defies her husband and befriends Emma, Ian beats her. In order to get rid of Lance, Charley shows him a videotape of Pilar's liaison with Ned Vogel. Despite Pilar's pleas, Lance leaves enraged, just as Charley had hoped.
Michael Sharpe convinces Ian and Charley to sell Falcon Crest to him, but Emma backs out. When Sharpe informs Ian and Charley that he has information on them that could put them in jail, Charley agrees to kill Emma and forge her signature. Charley is stopped in his tracks, however, when an unsuspecting Emma informs him that she is pregnant. Lance becomes embroiled in a deadly game of Russian roulette involving scorpions.
Charley keeps the pressure on Emma to sell to Sharpe, despite the fact that she is pregnant. After Charley tells Ian about Sydney's affair with Chris Agretti at the winery, the two brothers agree to kill their wives for deceiving them. Richard lets Lauren know how much she means to him. After Frank sees Sydney and Ian in a struggle, he tries to help, but when Ian gets the upper hand, Sydney saves Frank by killing Ian with a letter opener. Charley chases after Emma, but Emma shoots him in the chest.
With a bullet wound in the chest, Charley disappears from Falcon Crest. Because Chris Agretti is missing, Sydney worries that Ian and Charley might have killed him. Sharpe gains control of Falcon Crest by threatening to press criminal charges against Emma for authorizing the release of tainted wine. Sharpe's son Danny provides his father with crucial evidence, which he found while on a date with Sydney. Richard suspects that Lauren's marital situation is worsening, while Lance resists renewing a sexual relationship with Pilar.
As payback for Jace Sampson's cooperation in Sharpe's takeover of Falcon Crest, Richard talks Jace into making an investment after which Jace loses all his money. Pilar and Lance's estrangement worsens. After Walker catches Richard and Lauren kissing, he confronts them with dynamite strapped to his chest, which is set to go off when the timer runs out. Rather than kill Lauren and the boys along with Richard, Walker runs outside just as the dynamite explodes.
When Genele forces Frank out of his own home in order to entertain her lover Sharpe, Frank delivers the remains of Genele's sister and Frank's ex-wife Renee to the police, informing them that Genele killed her ten years before. Sydney tries to push Pilar and Lance back together. Sharpe is displeased when Lauren moves in with Richard after her ordeal with Walker. Sharpe tries to act as a business mentor for Danny.
Haunted by the memory of her husband's death, Lauren moves out of Richard's place and in with Genele. When Danny invites Sydney for a romantic night on his father's yacht, Sydney maneuvers to put Lance and Pilar on the boat together instead. When Sharpe uses sensitive information about Richard's business dealings, he makes $300 million and Richard loses $52 million. Richard wrongfully accuses Lauren of leaking the information. After showing up at Richard's door, Genele removes her clothes.
Danny fights Sharpe's attempts to control his life and to make him break up with Sydney. After Sydney brings them back together, Lance and Pilar make plans to retake control of Falcon Crest. When Richard learns through Pilar that Genele was responsible for delivering his business secrets to Sharpe, he throws Genele out and attempts to reconcile with Lauren. Realizing that her brother's affection for her is more than just brotherly, Lauren decides she has to leave Sharpe's house.
Richard and Sharpe search for Lauren, who had grown tired of their fighting and ran off to work as a waitress in a diner. Sharpe attempts to convince Danny to drop Sydney, who wants Falcon Crest to return to the Channing's. When Lance and Pilar ask Sharpe what it would take for him to sell them Falcon Crest, Sharpe tells them to break up Sydney and Danny. When Lauren returns to Richard and the boys, she has to deal with Richard's continuing obsession with his dead wife Maggie.
After Genele intercepts stolen bonds that Sharpe is trafficking, she arranges for Richard to cash them. Lance, Pilar and Danny believe that things are finally turning around for the winery. Genele has to pay hush money to a witness, but Richard has decided to keep all the money as revenge for Genele's past deceit. When Richard has the bonds cashed under the name Sharpe, Sharpe assumes his son Danny did it under Sydney's influence. After Sharpe tampers with Sydney's car, Danny happens to borrow her car and ends up in an accident.
Danny has a severe head injury as a result of crashing Sydney's car, which Sharpe had tampered with to get at Sydney. Danny's mother, Anne Bowen, and Sharpe decide to approve a dangerous operation to remove a bone shard from Danny's spinal cord. Discouraged by the bad luck she seems to bring to all her boyfriends, Sydney leaves Falcon Crest. Suspecting that Sharpe was behind the car accident, Richard and Lance track down the auto mechanic, Sacco, who did the tampering. Alerted to Richard and Lance's involvement, Sharpe sends his chauffeur Nick to ensure that Sacco doesn't talk.
Lauren tries to persuade Anne to reconcile with Sharpe. Anne and Lauren work to create an understanding between Sharpe and Richard, but once the women leave, Sharpe and Richard each vow to find the mechanic Sharpe hired to tamper with Sydney's car. Pilar disguises herself as a homeless woman to win the trust of Sacco's girlfriend, who leads Pilar to Sacco. Sharpe's henchman, Nick, follows both of them. However, when Nick is about to shoot Sacco, Lance disarms him from behind. With the informant they need to wrest Falcon Crest from Sharpe, Pilar and Lance call Richard.
Richard knows that Sharpe was behind the sabotage that almost killed his son, Danny, and he has Johnny Sacco, the mechanic paid to tamper with Sydney's car, to prove it. In order to keep Danny and his estranged wife Anne from knowing his involvement in the accident, Sharpe transfers ownership of Falcon Crest to Richard. After Anne agrees to give her marriage with Sharpe a second chance, she changes her mind when Johnny Sacco arrives intoxicated at the Sharpe residence and tells Anne everything. Anne lets Sharpe in on a secret she's kept for 21 years: Richard is Danny's real father. After several months in a coma, Angela revives.
Sharpe reels from the news that his hated rival Richard is Danny's father. Richard's plans to run the winery with Lauren run into a snag when Angela returns after regaining consciousness. When Richard informs Angela that she has no legal claim to the winery, Angela pretends to give in, but she is secretly planning to block Richard's marriage to Lauren with the help of Michael Sharpe.
After Danny learns that Richard is his father, he goes to Sharpe to tell him it doesn't matter, but Sharpe throws him out of his office and tells him that they should go their separate ways. Because Danny has no job and nowhere to live, Lauren invites him to live with her and Richard, but Richard wants nothing to do with Danny. After witnessing this callous side of Richard, Lauren considers calling off their wedding. When Danny threatens suicide, however, Richard and Sharpe agree to help him, which reassures Lauren. With the wedding back on schedule, Angela must find another way to stop it.
As Richard and Lauren enjoy their wedding at the winery, Richard agrees to sell Falcon Crest back to Angela on the condition that half will go to his sons in the event of her death. Lance, however, will receive ten percent now and the remainder after Angela's death. As the wedding reception draws to a close, Angela recalls all the people who passed through Tuscany Valley during the last decade and toasts the future of Falcon Crest.
