Robert & Anna Romance #7  October 28 – December 3, 1991 – 8 hours

#7A  Robert accuses AJ of being involved in Nancy Eckert’s murder. Alan and Monica defend their snarky son. Robert tired of his lack of cooperation suggests they go down to headquarters for formal questioning. Monica is alarmed and urges Robert that AJ will cooperate and he can question AJ here at the Q mansion. Alan and her both urge AJ to tell Robert anything he knows and if he is truthful they will stand behind him. AJ begins to tell the tale, complete with flashbacks of the night. When Robert feels he is withholding, he threatens to get a search warrant.

Robert knows he is telling half-truths and is getting really ticked off at him. Monica suggests that perhaps AJ needs an attorney before he answers any more questions. A humbled AJ swears he didn’t kill Nancy and that he doesn’t need an attorney, as he didn’t kill her. He promises to tell Robert the complete truth and he tells the story of his last night with her and finding her dead body. AJ reports that he saw Bill outside of Nancy’s house after he found her dead body. AJ goes in to the PCPD with Robert for a lie detector test.

Robert has dinner with Anna and fills her in on the day’s events with Anna. They talk about Bill being drunk during his custody hearing. Bill insisted that he wasn’t drunk and didn’t know what happened. The judge believed he was unstable and gave Nancy full custody. Robert says he wants an analysis of the vials that they found in Nancy’s locker even more now as she may have drugged Bill. Anna pulls out the latex masks in Faison’s image that her and Mac “found” at Faison’s and says this may blow a whole in Faison’s alibi.

Anna shows Robert their Halloween costumes, she will be Lady Hamilton and he will be Lord Nelson. He hates the idea and says no way. He hates the old English period costumes, complete with the naval hat. Anna offers to make an excuse to get him off the hook that he has business. He points out that the mayor’s wife will insist that she attend and he knows she will be miserable and he agrees to go with her. They attend the mayor’s costume dinner party, and Anna regales them with stories after Robert is called into the PCPD.

Bill Eckert has been picked up in Canada and held at the jail. Julia reams Robert for arresting Bill. He is brought into see Anna, Robert, and Sean and he is irate at the violation of his civil rights. They tell him he has been cleared of Nancy’s murder and tells him they need him to join the cartel and report back to them. He declares that Harlan is a friend of his. They inform him that Bill is into some very nasty activities. Sean fills him in on Tiffany’s illness and them using it to blackmail Sean into giving them information.

Tony tells a thrilled Sean and Tiffany that he has duplicated the pill; he just needs to test it to be sure that it will be effective. Robert has arrested Lucy and Scotty on suspicion of their involvement in Nancy’s murder. (Feels like an episode is missing here as Robert suspects Bill and suddenly is looking towards Scotty & Lucy. I was missing Oct 30th & 31st). 

Robert still believes that Faison is probably the murderer but he is investigating all options. There was a scratch on Nancy’s neck, Robert reports he has noticed that Lucy is a nail biter so couldn’t be from her. Anna stops by to visit with Julia and comments her nails. Then very subtly while trimming her own nails, she sees a hang nail on Julia and offers to fix it. Robert is very impressed when she returns with a clipping of Julia’s nail. It later matches the nail found at the scene of Nancy’s murder.

Robert meets with Bill in the back of a movie theatre, very secretively, and calls him Mr. Smith. Bill snarks that he deserves a better name than Mr. Smith (inside joke referring to the Luke and Frank Smith days).

As Robert finds and questions Nik about his involvement with Faison and the cartel. He admits to hiring the spies to work at the Outback but denies knowing anything about Nancy’s murder. Harlan wants to add Bill and Julia to the cartel but Faison points out that will shift the balance of power in his favor. Eventually, he is forced into it in order to get their votes. Taub is also against it as Julia would always vote with her father and they suspect Bill would as well. Faison is beginning to have a meltdown at the incompetence he is surrounded by, as it is all beginning to unravel around him. He declares that Robert knows all of his moves now!

Fun scenes as Tony and Finola have their few scenes together (she joined the show after he had left in 1984, she arrived in 1985… Tony returned in Feb, 1991 but he had no storyline with her as Bill Eckert. So interesting when they work together very briefly towards the end of 1991). They flirt with each other as they play the mysterious spy role; he suggestively asks what is under her overcoat!  Anna reports she is wearing a nurse’s outfit in order to get into Hakim’s room to question him. Unfortunately, Bobbie comes in and throws her out.

Robert goes over his extensive list of suspects and the evidence against each one and recaps how his investigation against Bill, AJ, Lucy, Scotty, Faison, and Julia has progressed. When the bridge goes out during a storm, Robert suddenly figures out who killed Nancy Eckert. He decides to call all of the suspects together to announce the murderer. He sends out invitations to them all.

Robert is in his element as all of the suspects gather and he conducts the evening’s big reveal. This is set at the lighthouse, complete with thunder and lightening rainstorm on a dark night with shots of the eerie lighthouse. Robert runs through the events of the night that Nancy died, complete with flashbacks of everyone’s contact with Nancy that night from Jenny, to Julia, to Scotty, to Lucy. Then it is time for Faison’s actions that night. Faison tries to claim that he had met Nancy earlier that night, and showed up at her house hoping for a “sexual encounter”. Robert muses that Faison sure went to a lot of trouble, having a latex mask in his likeness created and planting a double in a public place. Robert continues that Faison is a wealthy man and could pretty much pay to have sex if that was what he wanted without going to so much trouble.

Robert has a mold of a man’s footprint and insists that everyone put their foot in it. AJ immediately steps forward, his foot is too small, Scotty’s foot is too big, but Bill’s fits perfectly. Robert surmises that he has himself a killer! Bill is indignant and swears this is a setup. Robert orders him taken into custody. Before that happens, Finian O’Toole steps forward and admits that he killed Nancy. She had threatened to kill him with the two vials of carbon sulfate that she had. Everyone is surprised and saddened that Finian is responsible (one gets the feeling even Robert who was hoping it was Faison!). Finian is angry at Mac for turning the gun into Robert. The commissioner stops AJ on his way out and suggests that he look at how he is living his life as he could easily have been going to prison that night!

Anna dresses up in a sexy black dress, little black hat with a veil in order to get back into Hakim’s hospital room. Mac and Connor are there to distract his guard; they are speechless at how great Anna looks. Back home, Robert and Anna lay in bed and Robert sadly tells her about the evenings events. He says a case like this just eats him up inside.

Tony asks Sean for a strand of the actual virus as he believes he might be able to treat it not just cure it. Sean goes over to Paul’s and tells him the good news. Paul is happy to hear it but is very negative about being able to get the virus. Sean gets very irritated with him, as not only is Tiffany affected but Paul’s daughter as well.

Bill meets with Faison who tells him that he will first have to pass a series of loyalty tests. Bill calls Sean and tells him the news.  The next day, Bill arrives at the meeting and the cartel (Faison, Taub, and Harlan Barrett) tell him that he is to bring them the floor plan on the PCPD, the shift rotations, the payroll schedule including Robert Scorpio’s! They claim this is just a test of his information gathering skills.

Chaos reigns at the Scorpio home as there are contractors pounding, the dog comes in barking, Robin runs in freaking out that the zipper on her new jacket is stuck. Sean comes in and offers to help; Mac comes in bringing Robin’s date with him. Robin tells her parents that they are going to a movie after school. Robert starts blustering that she is the police commissioner’s daughter. After they leave, Robert admits that he likes the guy. Mac laughs that he would hate to see how Robert acts if he doesn’t like the guy. Sean comments that the guy seems too old for Robin. Anna jokes that Robert is too old for her. Sean interrupts the repartee to inform them that the WSB has broken Taub’s codebook.

Sean reports that the book refers to the assassination of the Albanian ambassador. They realize that all of the sabotage of ELQ was to weaken them financially, which is when they brought in Harlan as a partner. They knew that Sean was friends with Paul and began setting up Paul’s daughter to become ill to be able to blackmail him and set him up as the ELQ chairman knowing that Sean would vouch for him.

Fun scenes as Bill comes in and plays with Friday, the dog. Robert admonishes Bill to stop pampering the dog. Anna laments that poor Friday needs more attention. Robert does not want some pampered pooch (this whole sequence feels like classic Luke & Robert, I sure miss them together).

Anna and Robert pour over the codebook. They are puzzled when they realize that the cartel had been planning three years in advance. One of dates of the cartel meetings happened just before Edward’s plan went down. Robert reminds Anna of the note Edward left behind indicating that he was being pressured to join some group and that he felt his life was in danger.

Robert meets Bill at the cannery and gets access to the secret room and the vials of the poison. They act out Bill’s opposition to Robert’s search warrant for the security cameras. A security guard sees Bill and Robert coming out of the secret room and tells Faison.

Later that night, an exhausted Robert and Anna hang out on the couch. Robert is worried that it is now 8:05 and Robin isn’t home yet. Robert thinks the boy is weird and he will tear the kid a new belly button when he does finally bring Robin home. Anna reminds them they were going to dinner and a movie. They hear the door as Robin and Roger come in. He seems surprised that she likes action/adventure and that she solved the murder mystery. She laughs that she gets a lot of practice at home! He nervously leans in and quickly kisses her on the cheek and then runs out.

Robert worries about Bill’s safety, as he knows if the cartel figures out that Bill is working for the police that they will kill him. The next morning, Faison questions Bill about allowing Robert into the hidden room. He reports that Robert had a search warrant and knows all about carbon disulphate as a result of his investigation into Nancy’s murder as she had two vials of the poison. He assures him that Robert didn’t find anything. 

#7B  Bill begins questioning them as to why there are cameras in his cannery, after all it is a cannery, why all of the secrecy. Taub warns him that he has not yet adequately proven himself to them and he has to business questioning them. After Bill leaves, Taub says he wants him followed and Faison agrees.

The ladies of Port Charles meet to discuss Founder’s Day: Anna, Monica, Audrey, Simone, Julia, and the mayor’s wife. Later, Anna meets with Bill. He reports that the cartel wants to view the videotapes. He tells her the cartel wants proof of his criminal ability. Bill tells her he thinks he is being followed. Anna notices the tail and picks a fight with Bill over his animosity towards Robert. He catches on and plays along that Robert made his life hell.

Anna and Mac pour over Edward’s logs. They discover that he was meeting with Harlan and Taub before his death. They continue to track the days before Edward’s death. They get a lead on the pilot of Edward’s plane, Jack Stone. She checks into his background and learns that he is Taub’s brother-in-law. She fills Sean and Robert in before heading to Long Island to interview him pretending to be from the insurance company.

Sean tells them that Paul has finally decided to join their side. He says the cartel overplayed their hand as they threatened to kill Tracy and that was the final straw pushing Paul over to their side. Robert declares the only way to stop them from manufacturing the poison is to close down the canneries in a way that doesn’t throw suspicion on their activities.

Anna questions Jack Stone and as she asks questions about the accident and how he was the sole survivor, he becomes visibly upset. He begins having an asthmatic attack.

Jack Stone interrupts Anna’s questioning and tells her that she has to leave so that he can take his medicine. (Note: The next hour has muffled reduced sound, It begins at about 20 minutes into this dvd). Anna reports back to the guys. She then meets with Alan, Monica, and Ned and tells them that she believes that Edward was murdered. She questions them about the supposed accident.

The cartel meet with Paul and are annoyed that the EPA has shut down their Washington DC project. They want to know if Robert had anything to do with this. Paul brushes that off as this is just part of what the EPA does, involving lots of red tape.

Sean and Mac give Anna a list of the dignitaries visiting with the cartel. They are from all over the world, the middle east, Africa, ect and all are out of favor with their government. Mac and Sean meet with Robert and Bill and tell them about the list and that they believe the cartel plans on providing a demonstration of their poison to sell to the dignitaries (budding terrorists?).

Bill meets with the cartel and informs them that Robert is looking for the missing oxygen tanks (they had contained the carbon disulphate). The cartel is alarmed that Robert knows about this and are grateful to Bill for this report. They want to know how Robert knows about the crates? Bill suggests that there is a mole inside the cannery; after all it is open 24 hours a day.

Paul meets with the cartel. They ask if he has obtained the ELQ stock from Tracy? He says no that he needs a few more days. They tell him that time is up and he will give Tracy the poison, this time with no antidote, in order to kill her. When Bill arrives back at the cartel headquarters as instructed, Bill is told his final test of loyalty will be killing Robert Scorpio!

Bill meets with Robert and tells him about the plan. Robert surprises Bill by his calm at planning his own death. Bill insists that they will be watching to verify this and it has to be very real. Bill shows him the gun, and asks about blanks? Robert says that it’s a real gun so they will use real bullets, shocking and scaring Bill just a bit. Bill can’t believe that Harlan is involved in all of this. Robert tells Mac about it later, he hates the idea. Robert tells him that he hasn’t told Anna about it as she has enough on her plate right now and he doesn’t want to worry her.

Robert and Bill go out and get drunk together. When Bill goes to the bathroom, one of the cartels men is waiting in the restroom for him. Bill tells him that he is about to take out Robert and this isn’t a good time. The goon demands to see the gun and he checks the gun and makes sure that it is loaded with real bullets. Bill and Robert weave their way out of the bar. Bill pulls a gun on Robert who pretends to be quite drunk. Bill pulls a gun on him and tells him that they aren’t friends, that friends don’t arrest friends. He shoots at Robert and he goes down. Harlan appears and congratulates Bill. He then demands that Bill insure Robert’s death by putting a bullet in his head. When Bill assures Harlan that Robert is already dead, Harlan raises his gun and Bill shoots and kills him in order to protect Robert.

Bill makes Faison’s day when he gives him Robert’s gun and badge and tells him that Robert is dead! He then reports that Harlan tried to save Robert and Bill had to kill him as well. This confirms Faison and Taub’s suspicions about Harlan’s loyalty and his endless efforts to get Julia into the cartel. Bill continues that Robert was going out of town on business and so won’t be missed for a few days. They thank Bill for his service.

As Anna investigates the plane crash, she begins to suspect that perhaps Edward isn’t dead after all. She calls Mac once she arrives in the West Indies. When she asks about Robert, she says that he went out of town and he hasn’t heard from him since yesterday morning. Anna is worried that this isn’t like Robert. Mac comes in their safe house and finds Robert lying on the couch. He is thrilled and hugs his brother. Mac immediately calls Anna and tells her that Bill tried to kill Robert last night and then hands him the phone. He explains with a number of jokes though she doesn’t appreciate him joking about being murdered. She is loving the tropical paradise but will be right home if someone is trying to kill him. He says that isn’t necessary as they already think he is dead.

After he gets off the phone, he fills Mac in on Harlan trying to kill him and Bill saving Robert by killing Harlan. Robin comes into the safe house and gives her dad a big hug. He tells Robin that she is old enough to be filled in on one of their cases. He tells her that if anyone brings up his name, even a friend from school, that she is to deny having seen him. She is puzzled and doesn’t ask any questions but goes along with it.

Anna meets with a boatman and asks about two passengers who were rescued after the plane crash two years ago that killed Edward. She asks him if any other passengers that the police didn’t know about. She pays him for the information. He brings in a Captain Simon and she asks him the same question. She tells him she is willing to pay for information. She asks if he picked up an old man after a plane crash in Bermuda two years ago. He admits that he did.

Bill tells Mac and Robert that Faison and Taub are going to tell him the details of their plan for Founder’s Day. The boys want to figure out a way to get into the cartel’s secret Red Door Room at the cannery. Mac has an idea and they head over to the PC Hotel. They enter the room of one of the cartels contacts, Mr. Moon. They tie him up and Robert comes out in his uniform, with a hairpiece and mustache and looks surprisingly close to him. They are able to enter the secret room as Mr. Moon is on the approved list.

The room is filled with what looks like oxygen tanks. Robert suggests they can switch these tanks with the oxygen tanks Bill ordered that actually contain oxygen. Bill says they have to be sure that it is the gas. Robert says he will have to release some of the gas, Bill cautions him that one whiff too many and they will both be toast. Robert gets a good whiff of the gas and is immediately intoxicated and goes into a few minutes of Robin Williamsesque improve, including breaking out into singing, “Okalahoma!” that is until Bill slaps him across the face and brings him back to reality.

They continue working together to switch the 7 tanks of the lethal drug with Bill’s 7 tanks of oxygen. Once they have finished and get out of the cannery, Bill realizes that the billing receipt that he has for those indicate there were 10 tanks of the carbon disulphate! They realize that there are still three more tanks out there somewhere!

Faison meets with Paul in the park and tells him that he will personally administer a large dose of poison to Tracy to insure her immediate death. Paul tries to stop him and grabs his arm, threatening to break it if he doesn’t let go of the vials. Faison stabs him, Paul punches Faison and knocks him out and then collapses to the ground. Sean finds him and has him rushed to GH and he weakly calls out for Sean. He mumbles, “overcoat”. Monica orders Sean to get out, as they have to rush Paul into emergency surgery. Sean retrieves the virus from the overcoat and takes it to Tony.

Anna finally finds Edward alive and is thrilled to see him! She throws her arms around him and hugs him in joy. He tells her about his experience after the crash. He didn’t return home as he was worried about the safety of his family should the cartel discover he was alive.

Anna returns home and her and Mac discover the real Mr. Moon has escaped! Robert strolls in and still in disguise kisses his beautiful wife. Mac interrupts to tell Robert that Moon has escaped! Robert is worried as this could ruin everything. She fills him in on Paul’s injury and Edward being alive. Mac calls Bill and warns him that Moon has escaped and asks him to find out if Moon has gotten to Taub. Moon is running around town in his underwear and he is arrested! (LOL, he has on a tank top and boxer shorts, he certainly wasn’t indecently dressed by today Southern California standards!)

Robert laments the collapse of his well-orchestrated plan. He tells her about Harlan coming after him and Bill saving his life. He tells Anna that in that helpless moment before Bill killed Harlan, he really appreciated everything he has in his life. Anna goes down to the PCPD and sees Mr. Moon there and calls Robert to tell him that she is having Burt hold him.

Bill meets with Faison and Taub in their secret room. They turn on the three monitors and tell him that they are for the PCPD, GH, and the Outback and soon each location will be filled with people, with life and with death! Their potential clients enter the room to watch the demonstration. Bill and Robert watch in horror as balloons drop and pop on the crowd at the Outback. Every single person passes out. Bill says in shock that something must have gone horribly wrong.

The terrorists all begin to line up to order this new weapon. But the next scene shows everyone getting up and the “camera crews” working for the cartel taking off in handcuffs. Taub and Faison are flabbergasted as they see their intended victims get up apparently unaffected, having been acting! Bill breaks out into a wide grin of relief; Anna and the police rush in and arrest Taub and Faison. Robert calls Sean at GH with the good news. Tiffany and he head down to PC and she tells the two former cartel members just what scum she thinks they are.

Faison wants to know what blew his little game? Anna says his producer kept hanging his jacket over the fire extinguishers. When she looked at them she noticed that they were no longer dusty and had been replaced with new ones. It is later revealed this isn’t usually done, as they are so expensive to replace. When Anna checked them she discovered those were armed with carbon disulphate. Anna shares via flashback how her and Mac figured out that the balloons at the Outback were filled with the carbon disulphate.

Bill shows up at Robert's office. He thanks Bill for saving his life, and Anna thanks him as well. Anna confronts Faison in jail. She tells him that she is tired of him obsessing over her. He tells her that is just the way it is, there is nothing he can do about it. He suggests that she try it and not be so scared. Anna looks visibly shaken, Sean comes in comments how good Faison looks behind bars. Sean reports to Faison that the punk he sent to kill Paul is going to testify against Faison. Robert, Anna, Mac, and Sean all gather at the Outback to celebrate. Mac wants to know how does he return to a normal life after all of the adventure? Robert toasts to his smart and beautiful wife. They all toast to Bill, as they couldn't have done it without his help.

**The End**