Season 2, Episode 08:
You Belong to Me!
Adam is holding a board meeting at the Communique offices and tells the assembled members about the takeover Allan is trying to launch against Brock Communications. Despite the uncertainty of the board, Adam assures them that Allan won't have enough support to get his bid through...
Tyler meets with Dianna and Allan at a fancy restaurant for lunch, and he once again tells him about how marginalized and unimportant he feels at his father's company. Allan compliments him on his perseverance and tenacity, then sees a group of Brock's shareholders eating a few tables over. He walks by and greets them, while Tyler asks his mother why she's decided to start a relationship with Brock. She tells him about the takeover bid and promises that he will have a big role in the company when it passes.
At the psychiatric hospital, Linda successfully convinces the lead doctor to release Carrie into the care of another doctor at a private clinic after telling him that Mark didn't file any charges. Carrie promises the doctor that she's ready to get Mark Merrill out of her life once and for all...
Adam and Gil are discussing how to get the necessary support for a majority vote when Tyler comes in and tells them the same news about the takeover bid. Although Gil is annoyed by Tyler's antics, Adam says that they need all the support they can get and tells his son that he's happy to see him on the team. Afterwards, Tyler goes to drop off a package in Gil's office, but decides to sneak a peek at the latter's email after seeing a notification on his computer. The e-mail is from one Gil's accountant, who wants him to buy shares of a specific company. Tyler writes back a message telling the accountant to dump all of Gil's shares and invest it all into Brock Communications, believing that the latter will be wiped out completely when Allan's takeover bid goes through. Rachel comes by and asks what he's doing, and Tyler makes up an excuse before kissing her again.
At Jordan's apartment, she and Mark are reaffirming their hatred for Carrie when Adam arrives to lobby for her shareholder support against Allan's takeover bid. He agrees to stay over for dinner when Mark invites him in, but is unconvinced of his motives and privately tells her so. He also reveals that Linda walked out on him because of his skewed priorities, and she promises him that they'll get back together. At that moment, a local news report mentions that Allan is commencing his takeover attempt of Brock Communications. Adam cries while watching the report.
The next morning, Linda (who is staying at Carrie's apartment) listens to her read a newspaper with allegations made by Dianna that Linda slept with Allan to get a divorce settlement. Realizing that Dianna has been the cause of Adam's recent woes with the takeover bid, Linda tells Carrie that she's going to get to the bottom of things before storming out.
She goes to the Communique offices and interrupts Adam's board meeting, where he is attempting to calm the shareholders and tell them not to talk to Allan. Outside the boardroom, she tells him she was foolish for storming out on him and says that Dianna is a manipulative liar.
Dianna goes to Jordan's office at the same time and invites her to her wedding ceremony the next day. Although Jordan is surprised, she congratulates her mother and promises to be there.
In his office, Gil receives a call from a trader from his old workplace telling him about the email he sent advising him about buying up the Brock Global stock. When the man questions what he's going to say to the securities commission about the suspicious purchase, Gil advises him to dump the stock and keep his head down. At the same time, Tyler further sabotages Gil by calling the commission himself and tipping them off to Gil's activities. Soon after, Adam gets a call from the head of the securities commission advising him about the suspicious trade, and calls Gil out on it before unceremoniously firing him.
As Gil is leaving, he discovers Tyler and Rachel passionately kissing in her office. He walks in and punches Tyler in the face before telling her about what happened. When she refuses to leave Tyler's side, Gil tells them to be happy with each other before storming out.
Adam and Linda are out having dinner at a high-class restaurant that night when they see Allan and Dianna walk in. Although Linda moves to leave, Adam tells her that they're already winning and to brush them off. However, after Dianna walks up and insults Peter to Linda's face, the latter splashes her a glass of water and they fall into a pool, tearing at each other's heads all the while. The fight eventually breaks up and Dianna storms off in anger.
Mark is getting ready for another day of writing when he receives a call from Carrie, who reveals that she's left New York and gone "somewhere far away" (her home in the Hamptons). She refuses to disclose her location and dares him to come and find her, before it's revealed that she has a loaded gun. After she hangs up, Mark dials an operator and asks her to find out if the call he just received was made out of state. Soon after, he makes up an excuse to Jordan about having to take care of his mother for a while before leaving to get on a plane, having learned that Carrie is in the Hamptons.
That night, Carrie is looking outside the window of the home when she's ambushed by Mark, who takes her hostage and tells her that she's going to see how her story ends.
Just before Allan and Dianna's wedding, Tyler convinces Jordan to sign over her assigned shares to him so he can act as a proxy on her behalf. At the ceremony, Allan and Dianna are exchanging vows when Adam shows up... with a restraining order freezing Dianna's assets so she can't vote for the takeover, and a fraud lawsuit for interfering with the Starworks deal. She is understandably shocked, but goes through with the ceremony anyway before storming off.
The next morning, Allan and Dianna attend a court hearing with Adam and his lawyer. The judge rules that Dianna's voting rights can be restored, but their happiness is short-lived as Adam tells Allan that he's paid too high a price for his takeover attempt.
At the same time, Jordan learns that Mark's alibi was a lie and accesses his computer, where she discovers the draft of his novel and realizes that Carrie was telling the truth about his infatuation and villainous plans for her. She also discovers that he's gone to Carrie's house in the Hamptons and immediately calls the police before heading out to the area herself.
At the Brock Communications' shareholders meeting, Allan gets his takeover attempt underway by giving a speech where he promises to take the company to new heights. As the shareholders break for lunch, Adam tells Tyler to wish him luck before his own speech, and tells his son that he's demonstrated the capability to become an executive.
As Adam takes the stand for his speech, Tyler follows his mother backstage and eavesdrops on a conversation she is having with Allan and a board member, who all accuse Tyler of being lazy and ungrateful. Realizing that he's been manipulated, Tyler walks back out and sees his father congratulating him on-stage for joining the company. He sits and thinks, while Dianna comes by and tries to reassure him.
Mark has tied Carrie up at the Hamptons home and rants to her about her inability to do anything to stop him, and how he plans on making her death look like a suicide. After he takes the gag off her mouth, he tries to goad her into shooting herself by freeing her hand. At that moment, Jordan arrives with a pair of police officers, and they attempt to break in after hearing Carrie scream. At that moment, Carrie uses the distraction to direct the gun away from herself and fires it twice into Mark's chest, killing him instantly. The police storm in as Carrie stares in shock at what she's done.
The shareholders vote on whether to accept or reject Allan's takeover, and the final vote is split at 49% support for each. Just when it seems as though there will be a stalemate, Tyler reveals that he can act as the proxy for Jordan... and supports his father, breaking the tie and allowing Adam to retain control of Brock Communications. Adam congratulates his son, while Dianna and Allan storm off in anger.
Allan tries to relax that night, blaming all his problems on Adam and lamenting how much money and prestige he's lost because of the takeover attempt. He's distracted by Dianna, who walks out in a negligee and promises to make him feel better. When she goes to seduce him, however, he suffers from a massive heart attack and collapses on the bed.
Some time later, Adam and Linda wake up to a ringing phone. When he picks up, Dianna greets him and says she didn't know who else to call. When he asks what she wants, she tells him that Allan has suffered from a heart attack and isn't responding, and that she's due to inherit all of his assets. She wonders aloud if she would look good in black before hanging up.
When Linda asks him what happened, Adam reveals that he has some good news and some bad news...
Tropes:
- Aborted Arc: Gil's departure from the company and Rachel's uncertainty after he discovers her cheating is never resolved, and the series ends without revealing if Tyler revealed his revenge plot to his father.
- Asshole Victim:
- Mark, who rants and raves to Carrie before being killed with his own weapon.
- Allan loses a large amount of money and reputation in his failed takeover bid, then suffers from a heart attack just before Dianna seduces him. Judging from her reaction afterward, she doesn't miss him much.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Dianna is revealed to be this, as she insults her own son right behind his back, while telling him otherwise. This provides the motivation for Tyler's Heel–Face Turn.
- Bittersweet Ending: The series ends with Adam and Linda's relationship restored, his son doing the right thing and rejecting Dianna's influence, and Mark killed by Carrie's hand... but Gil has been unceremoniously forced out of Brock's company because of Tyler's manipulations (and has lost Rachel to him), while Dianna is set to inherit all of Allan's assets and Adam looking none too happy about it.
- Black Comedy: Dianna's phonecall to Adam at the end of the episode concludes with her wondering if black is her color, as she stands over the corpse of her newlywed husband after he's suffered from a heart attack.
- Book Ends:
- The first time Carrie attempts to actively seduce Mark is at her Hamptons home early on in the first season. The sight of their final encounter also takes place in the same home, and is planned by Mark to be the culmination of a story that revolves around a narcissistic woman who has the tables turned on her after attempting to seduce someone else.
- Also, from the same episode ("Days of Thunder"), just after the first time Gil meets Rachel, he attempts to convince her to go somewhere with him (a party in the Hamptons), but she refuses (because she loves someone else). In this episode, he attempts to do the same thing, and she refuses on the same grounds, which causes the dissolution of their relationship.
- Cat Fight: Dianna and Linda get into this at a high-class restaurant... and right beside a pool, no less.
- Continuity Nod: The place where Carrie and Mark have their final encounter is her beachfront home in the Hamptons.
- Contrived Coincidence: Adam just happens to see the news report announcing Allan's takeover bid after he's finished telling Jordan about his plans to fight it.
- Dull Surprise: When Dianna greets Jordan, the latter expresses shock and surprise in... a disaffected and bored tone. It's unclear whether this is intentional or not.
- Heel–Face Turn: Tyler eventually rejects Dianna's influence and changes his mind at the last minute, allowing Adam to retain control of the company.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Mark dies after his own gun discharges into his chest as he fights with the restrained Carrie.
- Humiliation Conga:
- Gil gets this in spades, as Tyler screws him over by dumping his stock and investing it in Brock Global, Adam firing him once he discovers what happened, and his discovery that Rachel is having a fling with Mark before he leaves the company for good.
- Allan also gets this, as his planned takeover of Brock Communications blows up in his face when Tyler performs a Heel–Face Turn, his marriage to Dianna is interrupted by Adam dropping a lawsuit and restraining order on her, and his honeymoon results in him suffering a heart attack and presumably dying.
- Informed Ability: Played with. The audience finally gets to see examples of Mark's writing... and it's predictably-bad thriller schlock, which provides the motivation for Jordan to go after Mark at the end of the episode.
- Just in Time: Jordan arrives with the cops just as Mark tries to shoot Carrie, and their distraction is what allows the latter to fire the gun into his chest.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Mark's attempt to throw off Jordan by telling her a lie about how he has to "go take care of his mother" is immediately scuttled when she figures out that he was lying, accesses his computer and discovers the draft of his novel, then arrives outside Carrie's Hamptons home just before he intends on killing the latter.
- Left Hanging:
- Although most of the major plot arcs are wrapped up, the show ends with Allan presumably dead after his heart attack, and Dianna noting that she will inherit his assets.
- The episode itself feels like a regular installment that was hastily converted midway through production to act as a series finale, likely because of the abysmal ratings and the fact that no one probably cared about the storylines at that point (notably, production stills from the Cat Fight in this episode were released prior to the airing of the second season). As a result, several plot threads (like Gil being fired from Brock Communications, Rachel's uncertainty after cheating on him with Tyler and Carrie and Jordan's reactions after Mark's death) are never followed through on.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Gil catches Tyler kissing Rachel in her office, leading to him punching Tyler in response before storming out.
- Manipulative Bastard: Tyler, who destroys Gil's happiness by framing him for insider trading (causing him to get fired), and taking Rachel in the process.
- Manly Tears: Adam cries after seeing footage of himself escorting Linda and Carrie out of the police station.
- Motive Rant: Mark gives one of these just before Carrie kills him.
- Not So Stoic: Allan loses his composure when it becomes clear that his plan to initiate a takeover isn't as foolproof as he thought.
- Out with a Bang: Allan suffers from a heart attack and dies when Dianna attempts to seduce him at the end.
- Rule of Pool: Linda and Dianna end up duking it out in a pool that is conveniently located right next to a table the former is sitting at.
- Sanity Slippage: Mark loses it after kidnapping Carrie, choosing to go into rants about how much she slighted him in the past and how much he plans on enjoying her death.
