Season Five

August 9, 2009 to December 17, 2010

Production Numbers: 501-532

Written by Andy Eckles

Copyright(c) 2009-2010 Sunset Studios. All rights reserved.

While unconscious from a toxic combination of pills and alcohol, Alex succumbed to smoke inhalation when an electrical fire broke out in her apartment.  Kyle Fenwick rescued her and brought her to the hospital where she underwent treatment for a drug overdose.  Despite doubt from her family, Alex claimed it was an accident.   She immediately became smitten with her handsome rescuer, and they soon fell into bed together.  Kyle was a refreshing change from the men she’d previously been involved with, and he seemed to genuinely care for her.  With her relationship with Stormy and Miranda still marred by recent events, he suggested she adopt a child and get a fresh start.  Meanwhile, Kyle’s reason for coming to Los Angeles was revealed when he made an impromptu statement before the media.  According to Kyle, David and his father had set him up in a drug operation that resulted in an explosion at one of Royce’s hotels in New York where Kyle worked   David immediately went on the defensive, claiming it was Kyle who blew up the hotel to cover his tracks.  Alex blindly stuck by Kyle’s side.  

Jordan began pursuing Detective Stephanie Callahan, charmed by her no-nonsense nature and the fact that she was different from most Hollywood women.  She kept him at arms length, however, revealing to him that she was untrusting of men and relationships.  She’d previously been involved with Kyle, who had gone to prison for allegedly killing her partner in the hotel explosion.   Kyle, however, insisted that Stephanie had a hand in setting him up, along with David and Royce.  Jordan wanted Stephanie give them a chance, and eventually she agreed to a string of awkward dates with him. 

Kyle’s interest in Brooke caused David a great deal of panic.  He assumed he was after her as a way to get to him.  And when Kyle revealed that he was Will Thomerson’s illegitimate son, thereby making him Ethan’s half-brother, suspicions escalated.  Brooke found herself drawn to Kyle, constantly comparing him to Ethan and finding herself intensely curious about him.  David warned her to steer clear of him.  Soon after, Kyle’s adoptive father, Don Fenwick, arrived in town.  Don and Royce Jenner had been lifelong enemies, and revenge was foremost on his mind.  Jackie noticed Kyle’s interest in Brooke and recognized that his presence distracted her from her duties at Sunset Studios, and hoped to capitalize on those feelings.  She arranged for her personal gopher, Steven, to have Kyle and Brooke trapped together in a new restaurant at Moonshadows.  While locked in the building, they shared a passionate kiss.  Don, however, saw potential to exact his revenge and set the building on fire, hoping to rid the world of Royce Jenner’s daughter.  David came to their rescue before they perished in the flames.  When David learned that it was Don who had set the fire, he confronted him.  Don admitted that he was the one who had blown up the hotel in New York in an attempt to frame Royce and David. Even more shocking was Don's revelation that he had sabotaged Royce's car the night it crashed coming back from Santa Barbara.  During a struggle, both men went over the balcony of Don’s room at Moonshadows.  David escaped unscathed but Don was declared brain dead.  The family attorney, Bryan Carlson, arrived to inform Kyle he was next in line to run Fenwick Industries.  Kyle refused and claimed that he was going to stay in Los Angeles, infuriating David and pleasing Brooke. 

Daytime TV Producer Mackenzie Stone offered Suzanne her former role as Faye Richards on The Young at Heart.  After Suzanne declined, the part was given to Alex, who immediately clashed with Mackenzie as well as the show’s veteran star, the diva-like Cassidy Solomon.  Alex began to resent Kyle’s connection to Brooke, and promptly resumed her abuse of prescription pills.  At the premiere of Angel Assassin 2, she witnessed Kyle and Brooke in an intimate moment and became jealous.  High on pills and reeling from the prospect of losing Kyle, she stumbled on the red carpet and broke down before the cameras.  A troublemaking Cassidy was only too happy to empty Alex’s purse and show the media her pills.  Mackenzie promptly and publically fired Alex from the show.  To add salt to the wound, Kyle had fallen for Brooke and told Alex that he couldn’t see her anymore. 

Still upset over Sierra’s return to New York, Benji went about his days longing for the night they shared on the beach together.  Distraction came when his old friend from boarding school arrived in town.  Duke Summerfield exuded class and impeccable manners while in the company of adults.  When apart from parental figures, however, he was just as manipulative as Benji.  The two immediately reconnected and agreed to help one another with their own personal agendas.  Duke wanted revenge against Jeff Branigan, a smarmy drug dealer, for sleeping with Summer Solomon, with whom Duke had been in a relationship.  Little did Duke know, Benji had also slept with Summer the previous year during one of his breakdowns.  In exchange for helping him attack Jeff, Duke would assist Benji in getting Sierra away from her new suitor, wealthy Ivy League prepster, Hunt Roberts.  During a scuffle over a bike Jeff Branigan had won during a bet with Duke, Benji was left holding the gun and promptly arrested.  The gun actually belonged to Duke, who pleaded with his friend to take the fall, lest he feel the wrath of his father, the American Ambassador to Switzerland.  Reluctantly, Benji agreed.  Luckily, Stephanie was assigned to investigate the incident and took pity on Jordan, allowing Benji off without any charges being filed.  The favor complicated things between Jordan and Stephanie, and she left town, unwilling to compromise her career for a man as she had with Kyle years before.

Jackie announced her marriage to Nathan to a stunned crowd during a party at the Blackthorne mansion.  More noteworthy was that her latest marriage provided her with ten percent of the voting shares in Sunset Studios.  She and Brooke immediately clashed and Jackie set out to sabotage her whenever she could.  Renee formed a personal grudge against Jackie, warning her not to mess with Brooke.  The Sunset Studios archives led James to an actress who had been involved with Will back in his Broadway days.  The actress turned out to be Marilee Wells, who admitted to being pregnant by Will and giving the child up for adoption.   She asked James not to tell Kyle the truth.  Jackie, however, overheard a conversation between them and used the information to blackmail Marilee into selling her her shares of Merteuil Industries, giving her controlling interest in Renee’s company.  The loss brought Renee and Kenny together again.  David revealed to Jackie that he’d learned he had an inoperable brain tumor and had less than a year to live.  This introduced the question of what would happen to his estate once he was gone.  Unwilling to leave it to chance, she blackmailed Kenny into showing her David’s will using video footage of Kenny with a prostitute that took place after his reconciliation with Renee.  The will revealed that David was leaving everything to Brooke; a portfolio of assets worth billions.  Horrified, Jackie complained to her confidant, Bryan Carlson, claiming that she wished Brooke would disappear forever. 

Brett adjusted to life as a single parent.  When Suzanne and Benji moved out of Jordan’s mansion in Beverly Hills and into a house in the Valley, he began making regular visits.  Feelings of attraction soon followed, and Suzanne began fantasizing about her handsome son-in-law.  She began taking creative writing courses and penned a steamy short story about her and Brett, which Brett stumbled across and thereby learned of her feelings for him.  After repeated attempts at resistance, they eventually fell into bed and began a secret affair.  Benji witnessed them together and used the information to blackmail Suzanne into letting him out of working for Rydell Productions.  The close call, as well as the guilt over what their affair would do to Heather if she found out, prompted her to end the affair, leaving Brett heartbroken.  When Jordan’s brief dalliance with Stephanie ended, he asked Suzanne to marry him, thereby forming a united front for their son.  Desperate to move on from her feelings for Brett, she agreed and they were wed in a simple courthouse ceremony.  Not long after, however, temptation overwhelmed her and she had a one-time encounter with Brett.  Benji caught wind of their reunion and schemed to get his father over to Brett’s condo.  When he walked in and saw his wife and son-in-law in bed together, he exploded in anger and resentment.  In retaliation for their duplicity, he fired Brett from Rydell and went as far as suing him for custody of Violet.  When Suzanne tearfully provided testimony in Brett’s favor, the judge awarded custody to Brett.  The trial ended with Jordan promising to get Brett out of Heather and Violet’s life, and filing for divorce from Suzanne.    

Miranda’s relationship with Eddie hit a snag when she found out he was helping an old high school flame, Quinn Rainer, locate her missing brother.  Magnum was last seen at Storm Lake, a summer camp in the mountains where he worked as a counselor.  Eddie and Quinn set off into the wilderness in search of him.  Unwilling to leave anything to chance, Miranda adamantly tagged along, only to sprain an ankle their first day there.  While laid up in a bunk with several girl campers, Miranda worried about what Quinn and Eddie were doing.  Back home, Stormy ran into a drunken Magnum at a party at Jeff Branigan’s apartment.  Magnum spilled the details of his sister’s plan to him.  Since their parents split up, they’d been left with little money and a great deal of debt.  Quinn rationalized that finding a rich man would remedy their problems, and since Victor had left Eddie his vast fortune, he was a prime candidate.  Magnum’s alleged disappearance had been a rouse to spend time together.  When Miranda heard about Quinn’s plan, she had the campers help her out to the woods where Quinn said Magnum had last been seen.  She walked into a deserted cabin just in time to see Quinn putting the moves on Eddie.  But Eddie explained that he only had eyes for her, and Quinn was sent packing.

While investigating Kyle’s claim to be Will Thomerson’s son, Stormy found an old screenplay written by Thomerson called House of Palms.  Since Kyle was the only living relative of Will’s, he had to give the authorization to use it.  In exchange, he asked to work on the production.    During a location scouting trip to Acapulco, Kyle and Brooke made love for the first time.  Meanwhile, Jackie continued to obsess over how to get Brooke out of the way.  An innocent remark made to Bryan led to a promise that he would take care of everything, starting with drumming up new import/export deals that would propel Merteuil into the top of the industry.  When filming began in Acapulco, a string of mishaps plagued the production of the movie.  Stormy and Kyle clashed over details, the director, Eric Autumn, made enemies out of natives, Cassidy Solomon and Jack Childers, the films’ leading stars, exhibited diva-like behavior on set, and Steven, Jackie’s spy/production assistant, bought drugs from the locals.  After several days of the crew being gone, Brooke began to miss Kyle and decided to surprise him with a visit.  Late one night while they slept, several crew members were kidnapped, including Stormy, Steven, Brooke, Jack, and Kyle.  Cassidy, Eric and a security guard were viciously gunned down in their rooms.  Upon arrival at an abandoned sugar refinery, Kyle made a bold attempt at escape, suffering a gunshot to the side and fleeing into the jungle so he could find help. 

News spread of the murders and kidnappings, sparking concern with loves ones back home.  Drug cartels were blamed for the attacks.  Soon after James, David and Eddie were on a flight to Acapulco, leaving newly unemployed Brett in charge of the studio during their absence.  Kyle was found and taken to a hospital.  After receiving treatment for his wound, he joined the search operation.  After finding Stormy’s passport amidst a burned up jeep, everyone came to the conclusion that he was dead.  Jack made a deal with one of the cartel members and the group was taken to a palatial house where he was instructed to transfer millions of dollar from his bank account.  A disagreement between the cartel leader, Manuel Pacheco, and the former leader, Ricardo Pacheco, led to gunfire, and Jack escaped.  Brooke, Stormy and Steven were moved to a deserted bunker in the jungle.

Meanwhile, Jackie panicked over her indirect involvement with the murders and kidnappings.  A chain of events led her to believe that Bryan had taken her complaints literally and orchestrated an elaborate way to get rid of Brooke, thereby clearing the way for her to inherit David’s fortune.  Countless attempts to contact Bryan proved unsuccessful.  When a Merteuil executive claimed to have knowledge of a fishy deal between Merteuil and an entity in Acapulco, he was mysteriously killed.  Days later, when Bryan surfaced, he denied to Jackie that he had any involvement.  Brett’s old flame, Devon Graham, arrived in town fresh out of prison.  She recalled seeing Bryan visiting an inmate at prison, and upon investigation, Brett learned that Bryan had struck a deal to get Ricardo Pacheco released on parole.  An ill-fated attempt at getting information from Bryan resulted in Devon’s murder.  After Brett pried Jackie for information, she told him everything and Brett decided to use the knowledge to secure his place in Sunset Studios.  He called James and told him about the deal Bryan had made with the freighters.  James devised a plan to block the freighters from docking at San Pedro with their shipment of drugs.  James and David found Brooke and the others and killed Manuel.  The cartel retaliated by taking Brett, Miranda and Eddie hostage aboard a yacht used in the marina blockade.   Jackie boarded the yacht and disabled one of the men, giving Brett the opportunity to neutralize the other. 

When Bryan learned his plan to get his hands on David’s fortune had failed, he went to Acapulco on the Fenwick jet and held David and Brooke hostage in their hotel room.  David overtook him and he disappeared.   Back in Los Angeles Bryan cornered Jackie in her office at Merteuil and tried to kill her before being shot by an FBI agent.  To cover up for her inadvertent involvement, Jackie finagled a post in Washington D.C. and held a press conference to make her look like a hero for taking down the cartel.  She left town without any repercussions. 

An attempt at adopting a baby from Malawi failed when Alex wasn’t able to stay sober long enough to conduct the interview with the adoption agency.  Realizing there was no one else to care for her, James had her committed to a drug and alcohol treatment facility.  After a month away, she returned with renewed hope.  When Kelly arrived with Stormy’s infant son, however, she began to obsess again over having another baby.  Kelly’s agent, Neil Winslow, had convinced her to give R.J. up, theorizing that he was hurting her image.  Desperate to hold on to Stormy’s memory, Alex gave Kelly money to let her raise R.J. and to keep quiet about their arrangement.  Without much hesitation, Kelly agreed and went back to New York.  When Stormy returned from Acapulco alive and well, however, Alex couldn’t bring herself to reveal who R.J. really was, so she claimed he was the child of a woman she met in rehab.   Jordan didn’t buy her story, however, so she hired an unknown actress named Jane Wheeler to portray R.J.’s biological mother.  Adoption papers were signed and Alex became R.J.’s legal guardian.  Complications arose, however, when Miranda and Jane became friendly, and Stormy developed romantic feelings for her.   Unwilling to risk her lie being exposed, Alex had Jane involuntarily committed to a state run rehabilitation center, claiming that she was using drugs again.  After receiving a frantic phone call from Jane, Stormy began to worry for her safety.  He, Eddie and Miranda broke her out of the treatment facility, but not before Jane admitted that she and Alex had lied about R.J.  During the escape attempt, Miranda was seized by the police and arrested, while Stormy, Jane and Eddie made it out safely.  When Stormy demanded his mother tell him where she got R.J., she told him the truth that R.J. was his son.  But moments before they arrived, Kelly had returned and taken the baby back.  Stormy was left devastated.  

When Miranda learned that David was dying, she became filled with regret over their tumultuous past.  She developed feelings for him all over again and they slept together.  David’s new zest for living each day to its fullest enthralled her.  But when Eddie found out about the affair, Miranda couldn’t bring herself to break it off with either one of them.  To complicate matters, she learned that she was pregnant and that either one could be the father.  Eddie chose to stick by her side no matter what the outcome, while David had a very different reaction.  He told Miranda that he wouldn’t let her see him die, having nothing else but the memories of his last days to pass on to his potential offspring.  So after saying a tearful goodbye to Brooke, he slipped away to a clinic in San Francisco where he would live out his last days.  Secretly, he was planning on undergoing an experimental surgery that could save his life.  He decided it was best to let his loved ones think he was dead in case the procedure didn’t work.

When Sierra returned home with her new beau, Hunt Roberts, Benji quickly learned that she had developed a drug habit resulting in her being kicked out of school.  He pleaded with her to leave Hunt, but she turned him away.  Benji took out his aggressions on Summer, who had developed feelings for him but was using a relationship with Blake as a pawn to make him jealous.  Alone in the pool house, he started to seduce her but stopped when he was reminded of Sierra.  Later, he attacked a homeless man on the beach in a fit of anger.  Meanwhile, he found a copy of Suzanne’s manuscript and secretly had it published without her knowledge, hoping that by broadcasting her affair with Brett, she would see that she was no better than him.  On the night of Magnum Rainer’s twentieth birthday party, Duke suggested that Summer do whatever it took to reduce the chances of Benji and Sierra finding their way back to each other.  She claimed that Benji had tried attacking her, which caused Blake to punch Benji in anger.  Later, Sierra put a drug that Jeff Branigan gave her in Sierra’s drink.  The reaction caused Sierra to run into the street screaming.  Meanwhile, Benji learned that Jeff had given the drug to Sierra and went after him.  They fought and, in an effort to push Sierra out of the way, left Jeff in the path of a speeding car, killing him instantly.  Renee asked Benji to make Hunt pay for getting  her daughter hooked on drugs, so he framed him for snitching on Jeff’s twin brother Joba, who saw to it that Hunt disappeared forever. 

When Valley of Temptation was released, Suzanne threw Benji out of the house and cut him off.  Jordan reluctantly agreed with her decision, although devastated by the fact that he was turning his back on his son.  A torn Benji turned to Sierra.  They made love and awoke the next morning making plans to see one another later that day.  But Duke had plans to destroy Benji for betraying him.  Knowing Sierra was the one thing he cared most about, he put doubt in his old classmate’s mind about his ability to make her happy.  A trusting Benji responded by standing Sierra up for their date.  He believed she would be better off without him.  But when Duke revealed that he’d played him, Benji ran to Sierra to beg her forgiveness.  She refused, but he was adamant, claiming that he wanted to run away with her and get married.

Media attention over Suzanne’s book proved overwhelming.  An obsessed fan named Lon Christensen kidnapped her from a parking lot and held her captive in his apartment for over a day.  Brett and Ross Fuller, Suzanne’s writing professor, tracked her down and rescued her.  Jordan’s dismissive attitude over the incident propelled her to leave with Ross, who had told her about Warren Abbot, his guru in Death Valley that claimed to inspire people to better lives.  Brett got revenge on Jordan for his attempt at taking Violet, and for his treatment of Suzanne, by taking over Rydell Productions and merging it with Sunset Studios. On the day of Renee and Kenny’s wedding, Gemma Sanders, the Hollywood madam, arrived with the videotape of Kenny in bed with one of her call girls, claiming it was a wedding present from Jackie.  A tearful Renee called off their wedding and had Gemma arrested in retaliation.

Kyle and Brooke began to grow closer.  When Michael developed an imaginary friend who led him to misbehave, he was there for her.  Kyle received a number of private phone calls from someone, leading him to a clandestine meeting with Mackenzie Stone, who was revealed to be his biological sister.  Mackenzie, being the only one who knew the truth that he wasn’t really Will Thomerson’s son, seemed to hold his fate in her hands.  When Mackenzie began dating James, Kyle worried that she would spill his secret.  She demanded he tell her why he’d lied to everyone about who he was, so Kyle told her that a man he met in prison named Dan Cody was blackmailing him into taking Brooke’s money, and he used the connection to Ethan to get close to her.  Mackenzie flew to the prison in New York to check up on Kyle’s story, but found much more than she bargained for when she met “Dan Cody”.  Meanwhile, Brooke heard voicemails left by Dan Cody on Kyle’s cell phone and became alarmed when the voice sounded familiar to her.  Brooke ran into Mackenzie, who smugly told her the truth about Kyle’s real identify.  Infuriated, Brooke confronted Kyle and they argued, resulting in Kyle falling and becoming impaled with a broken lamp, clinging to life.  James arrived and Brooke told him everything.  James immediately boarded the Sunset Studios jet and flew to New York where he came face to face with “Dan Cody” who was in fact his nephew, Ethan Blackthorne.   Meanwhile, Brooke was arrested for attempted murder, all the while waiting for James to contact her to confirm that Ethan was really alive…

Producers Remarks

by Andy Eckles

For season five, which I’d already decided would be the second to last in the series, I set out to accomplish several things.  The first was to refocus the series on the here and now.  In the past two seasons much of the story centered on something that happened long ago, often revealed through lengthy flashbacks and endless exposition.  This technique accomplished what I had always intended – to pad the Blackthornes universe with as much history as I could.  But for this go around, I wanted the focus to be on what was happening today, in the present.  For the most part this held true, with the exception of early on in the season when the conflict pertained to Kyle’s history with David.  But I caught the slight detour and eventually got things back on track with my vision for the season.

The second thing I wanted to do with season five was to pile on the action like never before.  I got the idea when watching the season three DVD set of Melrose Place.  I couldn’t believe how much happened in one season.  It seemed that every week there was a new twist and a storyline that changed pace with gleeful abandon.  The Blackthornes was never a stranger to this type of storytelling, but for this season I decided to crank it up a few notches.  The result was a string of events that relentlessly went from one episode to another.  Fires, stalkers, murders, kidnappings, affairs, backstabbing, religious cults, baby snatching, madcap adventures, court proceedings, rehab, corporate takeovers, prostitutes, and any other moral code not broken by the above.  It was like The Blackthornes on crack.  Little time was spent reflecting on what just happened before we were on to the next tragedy.  For season five I thought I could afford to do this.  Season 6 – the final season – would allow for plenty of reflection. 

With the decision to crank up the action this year, I also decided that a longer season was in order.  The past four seasons had 23, 24, 27, and 25 episodes respectively.  This season had 32.  Initially, the first seven were going to focus on the Storm Lake miniseries I had planned, which got scrapped because it wound up reading like an after school special or an episode of Scooby Doo, Where are You? rather than a normal episode of The Blackthornes.   Being a huge Scooby fan, I didn’t have a problem with this, but suspected that readers might.  Additionally, I wanted to create a darker, more sophisticated world for my younger set of characters.  More Cruel Intentions than Drake & Josh. 

Speaking of the younger set of characters, which I often jokingly refer to as the Muppet Babies of the Blackthornes’ world.  They’re often said to be fairly removed from the rest of the cast, a statement which I can’t deny has some truth to it.  I believe it’s a generational thing.  We have the adults like James, Alex, Jordan and Renee who are these powerful forces who are always wheeling and dealing.  Then we have the second generation of characters like Stormy, Miranda, Eddie, and Heather who, despite having had their share of ups and downs of the years, are fairly well adjusted people (well, maybe except for Heather).  Last is Benji, Blake, Duke, Ashton, etc.  With these kids it’s like something went seriously wrong.    Their parents already had kids before them and they’re older, they made it through their adolescence.  So what is the common factor?  These younger kids are all around 19 or 20 years old.  They were born after a time that flashbacks have shown that their parents’ lives were totally out of control (see my comment on flashbacks a few paragraphs above).  They had no proper care or raising, so as a result, turned out to be a nightmare to anyone who crossed their paths.  They live in their own world.  They didn’t sit at the dinner table as a child and talk about school, they heard their parents talk about who they destroyed in the business world that day or who they were going to blackmail to get the part in the movie they were after.   These were their role models.  The forgotten youth, raised with the same privileges as their older siblings, but without the attention they needed.   I wanted to do a couple of big episodes centered on them this year, but didn’t get to as many as I would have liked.  The focus will change for season six, which will center on the bridge between adolescence and adulthood.  How (and if) they cope with that transition is going to be interesting.

You can’t write a series with Hollywood as the backdrop without doing an over the top story about a location shoot gone wrong.  This was an idea I had from the very beginning but never got to use until now.  The idea started during a trip to Mexico I took right around the time a ton of people were getting killed by the cartels.  The day before I was to leave, what happens?  You guessed it – thirteen headless bodies found one morning on the beach.  How fitting would it be to have an entire film crew attacked while on location?   I snared in as many characters as I could, put them through episode after episode of hell, and then….my excitement over the story fizzled.  What I hadn’t counted on was the detail necessary to write something like this and have it be remotely convincing.  I struggled with timelines of events in two different countries, causing me to have to play with the chronology in creative (and exhausting) ways.   I constantly worried that readers were growing tired of reading scenes with Brooke and Stormy locked up in a hot, dirty cell wearing only the necessary articles of clothing to cover their privates.  I still believe these episodes would have translated perfectly on television!  Nonetheless, the end was a little rushed, but I think all in all it was a nice, epic story that spawned a lot of interesting after-affects.  I’m just glad it’s over!  Oh, and I did take that trip to Mexico despite the travel warnings. 

Not surprising to some was the resurrection of Ethan Blackthorne in the final episode of the season.  My plan all along was for him to come back.  How many soap characters don’t come back when they’re killed off in a way that a body was never found?  He was originally killed off halfway through season four because…well, let’s be honest, he wasn’t the most exciting character.  He didn’t have any major issues, didn’t have homicidal tendencies, didn’t struggle with feelings of inferiority.  He was a perfectly normal, nice guy.  So of course he had to go until I could do something new with his character.  To take up the void in the cast this year, and as a new love interest for Brooke, I introduced Kyle Fenwick, whose actor representation I felt looked somewhat similar to Ethan’s.  Kyle was like the funhouse mirror version of Ethan.  Dark, brooding, with tons of secrets.  In the finale he was revealed to have known all along that Ethan was alive but yet said nothing.  This will add to his mystique factor next year. 

Another character who never did much but I felt was vital to the cast was David Jenner.  He’s connected to the core characters on so many levels.  His grandfather was Jonas Lamont, who was responsible for the careers of Nathan, James, Jordan, and for fathering Jackie.  His half-sister is Brooke, who shares the same father as David, whom we’ve never seen but heard plenty about (that’s about to change, btw).  To put it simply, he was too much of a liaison to let go.  So I did the reversal of what I did with Ethan.  I “killed him off” with the readers knowing he isn’t really dead, and the characters believing he is.  Like Ethan did, he’ll come back later when I need him.  

Season five definitely adds a lot of important pieces to the Blackthornes saga.  I consider it more frivilous than others. No huge reveals, no life changing events, just pure fun.  Season six, as I mentioned above, will come the introspection and the reflection on everything we've seen in the last five years.