Episode 206 Recap: "A Tragic Day"

Jim has reached the end of the line—literally. The bus has not taken him into town, and now a tired, angry driver is kicking him off. Jim tries desperately to convince her to let him use her cell phone, but in the end he must wait across the street for another bus to come in two hours.

Back at the Cryer mansion, Katheryn rushes in to Hanna, demanding to know what happened. Hanna says the police are investigating, but Katheryn only wants to see Amanda. However, the police won't let anyone near the body. Veronica gets her friend to sit down and asks Celine to get them some water, but she refuses.

"I'm upset too," she says flatly.

"You are an employee here," Veronica says quietly. "Now get your ass up and get her some water."

Nevertheless, Celine doesn't move, and Veronica is forced to get it herself.

David tries to comfort Wyatt, who violently brushes him off. Instead, he accepts a hug from his friend Jeffery. When Veronica re-enters with the water, she's clearly unsettled by the scene. She softly but urgently tells him to let go of Wyatt, but Jeffery hugs his friend defiantly for a few moments longer before letting go.

David tells Melissa he'll call her a car service to take her home, but Veronica wants Melissa to stay to be with Jeffery. Disgusted by Veronica's inappropriate request, David insists that Melissa go home. He turns to Celine and asks her to call a car service.

"Do it your damn self," Celine mutters and gets up to talk to the police. She demands that they let her leave, but the police say they need to interview everyone in the house.

"She committed suicide!" Celine screams. "That girl was unstable, and now she finally did it. I want to go home!"

Veronica walks over, scolding Celine for her lack of respect. From the other side of the room, Katheryn tells the police to let her go.

"You are the most wicked soul I have ever met," she snarls at Celine, getting up from her seat.

"That would be your husband," Celine says in disgust.

Incensed, Katheryn grabs a nearby vase and hurls it at her insolent employee. She punctuates the gesture by telling Celine she's fired. Seeing the situation is clearly spinning out of control, Veronica demands that the police release the maid.

"Do you know where you are, son?" she says. "You are in a house full of lawyers and judges. There are more degrees here than a thermometer. Let her go!"

Finally, the officer says he'll take her statement outside.

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Calming down a bit, Katheryn says she still wants to see her daughter, but Hanna tells her that that wouldn't help anything. Katheryn asks whether it's really her upstairs. Sadly, Hanna says it is, and Katheryn breaks down.

Lost somewhere outside Savannah, Jim asks a stranger whether he can use his cell phone. The stranger recognizes Jim—as the judge who put his brother in prison. The man tries to assault Jim until a woman runs up and admonishes the man for his behavior. Jim thanks the woman and tells her who he is. After much persuasion, she finally agrees to give him a ride into town.

On the way, the woman asks Jim whether he wouldn't rather go home than the campaign office, since everyone is at his house. Confused, Jim asks how she knows that. Equally perplexed, the woman says it's been on the news. Jim misunderstands and thinks the coverage has something to do with his mysterious absence.

"I missed an announcement at my office. That's why the press is talking about it," he says.

The woman rejects that, saying people just feel sorry for him because of his daughter. Now truly lost and a little frightened, Jim demands that the woman explain.

"She killed herself," the woman says.

At the Sarandon Hotel, Benny still wants to know where Candace's money came from. Seeing that Benny will be upset by the truth, she lies. Candace tells him she passed the bar and was hired by a prestigious law firm in Savannah. They are paying her a starting salary of $250,000, she continues, and have even given her an advance, which is where the hotel room and shopping bags came from.

She tells Benny she wants to buy him something to celebrate. He mentions the towing company that's going under, but Benny won't accept money from his sister. He gets a page for another tow and heads out, happy to rake in more business for the day.

Once he's gone, Candace calls professor Cannon for the take-the-bar-early card he had given her previously. She also wants to know whom he knows at the law firm.

"I need a job there, ASAP."

At the Cryer mansion, Jim and the good Samaritan pull up outside, and Jim jumps out. Celine is standing with the police.

"Is it true?" he asks her.

Celine can only manage to whisper, "I'm sorry."

Inside, David is there to support his friend. He tells him it's true that Amanda is dead. Jim cries as David leads him to a seat next to Katheryn.

"I told you," she says slowly, "we should have had Amanda committed."

Jim barely responds.

"I told you!" she says again and lunges at Jim. Veronica and Hanna pull her off and into the study. Jim says he wants to see his daughter, but David tells him that that's not possible, and coaxes him out to the sunroom.

In the kitchen, Jeffery offers Wyatt a bottle of water, but Wyatt opts for scotch instead. Uncomfortably, Melissa stands by and watches. Wyatt looks her over and asks where she came from. She says she's Jeffery's date.

Wyatt laughs. "Did he tell you he's in love with me?" he says. "He's gay."

Melissa says she gathered that earlier when another man told her the same thing. Wyatt laughs again and wonders out loud why she's sticking around. Melissa says she didn't want to be rude. Wyatt says she must be a nice girl, just like his sister was, and he sinks into a despairing reverie. However, when Jeffery puts his hand on Wyatt's shoulder to comfort his friend again, Wyatt digs his claws in.

"You see, Melissa?" he says, glancing at Jeffery's hand. "Every chance he gets, he wants to hold hands and comfort me."

Furious, Jeffery tells him to stop. Melissa has finally had enough and says she'll wait outside for her car. She tells Jeffery that she'll call him later—they need to talk.

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In the sunroom, David asks Jim where he was. Jim confesses that he was with Candace, but against his will. He explains how Candace extorted more than $7 million from him and took staged photographs of him in compromising situations. And because he was being held captive, he says, he wasn't home when Amanda needed him most.

"I should have been here," he says, choking on his words, "but I wasn't. So don't you tell me that this is not her fault, don't tell me that it's not her responsibility, and don't you dare tell me that this is not a war worth waging."

David assures his friend that they will deal with that in time, but he tells Jim that now he needs to keep his family together.

Watch part of this scene unfold

In the study, Hanna and Veronica listen as Katheryn ruminates on how she tried to warn Jim of Amanda's mental break. When the subject veers dangerously close to Wyatt, however, Veronica urges her friend to stop talking and asks Hanna to go home for the day. Before Hanna can leave, though, an officer asks them to gather in the front room and wait for the district attorney. Confused, David and Veronica ask why the DA needs to be present for a suicide. The police officer informs them that Amanda's death was a homicide.