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.

Hidden Meanings

Jane Wyman

David Selby

Robert Foxworth

Lorenzo Lamas

Susan Sullivan

Ana Alicia

Margaret Ladd

Chao Li Chi

William R. Moses

Laura Johnson

Simon MacCorkindale

Philip Leacock

William Schmidt

In Absentia

Law and Ardor

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.

The Phoenix

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.

Unfinished Business

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.

Blood Brothers

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.

Echoes

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.

Ingress and Egress

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.

Sharps and Flats

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.

Changing Partners

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.

Storm Warning

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.

The Naked Truth

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.

Inconceivable Affairs

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.

Strange Bedfellows

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.

False Hope

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.

Fair Game

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.

Conundrum

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.

Checkmate

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.

Collision Course

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.

Shattered Dreams

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.

Gambit Exposed

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.

Finders and Losers

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.

Flesh and Blood

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.

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.

Unholy Alliance

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.

Dangerous Ground

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.

Cease and Desist

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.

Consumed

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.

Captive Hearts

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.

Cataclysm

Falcon Crest is an American primetime television soap opera which aired on the CBS network for nine seasons, from December 4, 1981 to May 17, 1990. A total of 227 episodes were produced.

The series revolves around the feuding factions of the wealthy Gioberti/Channing family in the Californian wine industry. Jane Wyman starred as Angela Channing, the tyrannical matriarch of the Falcon Crest Winery, alongside Robert Foxworth as Chase Gioberti, Angela's nephew who returns to Falcon Crest following the death of his father. The series was set in the fictitious Tuscany Valley northeast of San Francisco.

Hidden Meanings

Seasons9

Season 5 Episodes29

Cast11

Crew2

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Episode Summary