Once you move all things Spencer to the Spencer section, Mac and Felicia weren't doing much. Most of their action was waiting: Mac waiting for Felicia to tell the truth, and Felicia waiting for Luke to come home. It was the calm before the storm, however, and Felicia's fights with Laura were the beginning.
I. Happy Birthday, Mac! (1/17)
Maxie: "So how many candles do you want?"
Mac: "Three. One for my wife and my two beautiful daughters."
Mac looked at Felicia as she lit his candles. It was a nice touch that Mac's girls helped him blow out his birthday candles just as Lulu helped Laura with hers at the end of December.
Mac: "I wouldn't miss my birthday."
Felicia: "You missed New Year's. I'm sorry. I don't mean to nag or to make you feel guilty. This is supposed to be fun."
Mac: "You're right. I'm sorry. I'm spending too much time at work. I'm just trying to get this Faison thing all cleared up."
Felicia: "Faison's dead, isn't he?"
Mac: "I'm sure of it."
Felicia: "Can we get back to us? The girls need you. So do I."
Mac: "I need you, too."
Stefan: "Commissioner? Oh, I seem to have interrupted. Perhaps you could spare a few moments from your private celebration to discuss your reasons for freeing a murderer."
II. About Luke and Laura (1/24)
Mac: "Can you believe Luke didn't tell her anything at all? I mean, it's obvious she's still in love with him."
Felicia: "Well, they haven't seen much of each other, I don't think."
Mac: "Still, it's a hell of a thing to keep quiet about, just the same."
Felicia: "Well, maybe he didn't want to upset her."
Mac: "That must be it."
Felicia: "Well, you know, he'd never do anything to hurt her, not on purpose anyway."
Mac: "But to find out something that important by accident--"
Felicia: "Well, maybe he's trying to protect her."
Mac: "You're probably right."
Felicia: "Well, you know, anyway, Laura's seeing someone else, and Faison wasn't after her. Why would Luke tell her all the gory details?"
Mac: "But if you would have seen the look on her face, Felicia--"
Felicia: "Well, you know Luke. He never tells anybody anything."
Mac: "Still. Makes you wonder."
Felicia: "Luke wants to forget about this whole thing with Faison, and so do I."
Mac: "Does it help to pretend nothing happened?"
Felicia: "Well, I thought I was going to die. I thought that my whole life was going to end in that terrible place and that I was never going to see my girls again and I was never going to see you. I was very confused. I didn't know if it was daytime or nighttime."
Mac: "I'm sorry that you had to go through all that."
Felicia: "I was glad to see Luke. I can't help it, but I--I was so glad to see him."
Mac: "Well, you know what? I think under the circumstances, I probably would have been, too."
Felicia: "Well, I'd been alone for so long, Faison was actually starting to make sense."
Mac: "That happens sometimes."
Felicia: "Well, and it was a big game to him. He didn't care if we lived or died. He could have killed us at any moment. We really thought that we were going to die."
Mac: "I love you, Felicia."
Felicia: "Well, I--I can't think about this anymore. I just - I just want to think about my babies upstairs sleeping and Maxie when she was braiding Georgie's hair the other day and you when I wake up in the morning and I give you a big hug because you've been sleeping with me all night. Faison's behind us. He's dead. I don't want to think about it anymore. You found me, you brought me home, and that's really all that matters. It is."
His questions were measured, and even his smile of support seemed calculated to draw her out. But the hug at the end was real, even though I think this was one of the many times we'd see his serious face over her shoulder as they embraced. I couldn't decide if I thought Mac was doing the right thing in giving Felicia a chance to admit the truth or not. At this point, early on, I still thought so. But as it became clear he was using her not telling him to work himself up into being angrier, I knew that when it came out, it would be worse. At this point, however, I really think he was trying to make excuses for her in his own mind, especially when he noted the Stockholm syndrome, etc. I think he wanted to believe that Felicia would never do this under other circumstances. But the longer she lied to him, the more convinced he was that this was an affair.
And who could blame him? We've accused Laura of having an affair with Stefan in the present, even when she wasn't actually having sex with Stefan. Seems to me Felicia's doing the same thing. What was interesting was that Luke never really put that together. Or if he did, the comparison wasn't close enough for him to credit it much. What mattered was that Felicia was choosing to be with him, despite everything else--precisely what he felt Laura hadn't done in a long, long time.
And for my money, Felicia was indeed choosing Luke over her husband. While Kevin has said, under other circumstances, that her admitting this thing would only make her feel better and Mac worse, at this point Mac already knew. And Felicia's not telling him what had happened proved to me that she wasn't over her connection with Luke. This wasn't about her not wanting to tell him what had been in the past; this was about her hiding something that was still going on in her mind.
III. Felicia Chats With Chloe About Love (1/25)
Felicia: "I love Mac very much, and I want to stay with him. But my feelings jump all over the place, you know?"
Chloe: "Yeah. Do you think Mac senses something?"
Felicia: "He's very preoccupied right now. I--he's not going to tell me anything--anything more than I could tell him, you know?"
Chloe: "Maybe you need to really ask him how he feels."
Felicia: "That's really the best advice. But I'm sure he won't open up to me, and there are so many things I can't tell him. This isn't a very good conversation to have with a girl who just got married, so let's change the subject, ok?"
This was a poor follow-up to the beautiful conversation these two had before. Chloe feels so detached from every character but Jax at this point (we never even had scenes of her and Ned as we did with Jax and Alexis), it would have been a good thing to have some scenes with other women: Felicia, Carly, Elizabeth. We would have them occasionally, but nothing was really developed.
III. Dinner at Luke's (1/27)
Felicia: "I just got off the phone with Lucy. I guess Julie Devlin Ramsey was found not guilty?"
Mac: "Baldwin created reasonable doubt out of the air."
Felicia: "Well, I know that Lucy had her feelings about it."
Mac: "Well, the defense did raise some good points about the Stockholm syndrome."
Felicia: "How are you doing with it?"
Mac: "I was hoping for dinner out with my wife."
Felicia: "Ok. Let's try that new Chinese place."
Mac: "Actually, I was thinking about Luke's."
Felicia: "I--I woke up with a headache this morning, and I've been fighting it ever since. Just the thought of Luke's sound system just sounds absolutely awful to me."
Mac: "Why don't you just take some aspirin, and you'll get over it. Come on, meet me there in an hour."
Mac: "He won't even be there, Felicia. He's probably out of the country."
Felicia: "Now, why would I worry about that?"
Mac: "I don't know. Is there something you're not telling me?"
Felicia: "Not at all."
Mac: "Then what's the matter?"
Felicia: "There's nothing the matter. I'll see you in an hour."
The fight with Laura shows up in the Spencer section.
Mac: "You're all flushed."
Felicia: "I can't believe I lost my temper with Laura."
Mac: "She really got to you, did she?"
Felicia: "The last thing she needs is me yelling at her."
Mac: "Especially about Luke, right?"
Felicia: "You know, I can't say one single, solitary word--even in my own home. And she comes in here and starts in on me about Luke calling me, and I just got really sick of it."
Mac: "Does Luke really mean that much to you?"
Felicia: "Thanks. Luke's a good friend. Laura just can't deal with it."
Mac: "Are you sure friendship is all Luke wants?"
Felicia: "Positive."
Mac: "Felicia, did he ever say anything that would make you wonder? Look, being trapped, thinking you're about to die--people say things, they do things they might not otherwise."
Felicia: "All we wanted was to get out of there."
Mac: "The whole time?"
Felicia: "The whole time. Why don't we just order some cheese fries and pretend like we're the only ones in this joint."
Mac: "That sounds great."
Was Mac trying to convince himself that Luke had forced himself on Felicia, and that's why she wasn't telling? Or was he just trying to let her know that it would be ok to tell him? He gave her every chance to say something, but at this point it was clear that she was lying flat out, not dodging the question.
IV. A Chat With Tammy (1/28)
Tammy: "Wow. Research must really take a long time, huh?"
Felicia: "Well, I--I got a little carried away with it. Anyway, if you could take a look at it, it would help me a lot."
Tammy: "Oh, Felicia. Get me a copy as soon as you can and I'd be happy to read it. I think I could put Rhett and Scarlett aside for a little while."
Felicia: "Oh, forget it. 'Gone With the Wind'? That's way too much competition for me."
Tammy: "Oh, no, no, not if your audience has read this nine times."
Felicia: "You've read this nine times?"
Tammy: "Mm-hmm."
Felicia: "This book is in great shape."
Tammy: "Well, it's new. It was a Christmas present from Mike."
Felicia: "Mike?"
Tammy: "Mike."
Felicia: "Oh, boy, we do have a lot of catching up to do."
Tammy: "Yes, we do, girlfriend."
Felicia: "I'll see you later."
Tammy: "Bye, honey."
I love that Tammy's favorite book is "Gone With the Wind." But I really, really want the conversation in which Tammy finds out that Felicia and Luke are in this little partnership; I'd like to see what she has to say to Luke on the subject. Even more would I like to see Felicia's face when she realizes that Tammy and Luke had sex. I know she walked in just after, but I don't know if she realized what had gone on. I'm convinced that she's put it out of her mind.
V. Waiting for Luke (1/28)
Felicia: "Welcome home."
Roy: "Hi. Oh, you know, I don't actually live in this room. It just feels like it lately."
Felicia: "Well, I thought because of--"
Roy: "Oh. You were right. You just missed him."
Felicia: "Anyway, the real reason I'm here was, I--"
Roy: "You left your scarf on the bar last night. Got you covered."
Felicia: "Along with my dignity. Sorry about that. And thank you."
Roy: "Oh, you know, on the 10-point scale of altercations, that little thing with you and Laura was a minus two, so don't sweat it."
Felicia: "Well, that's somewhat reassuring. Well, tell Luke--"
Roy: "Tell him welcome home? Something along those lines?"
Felicia: "You don't have to tell him anything, actually. I think I'll--I think I'll just tell him myself."
Roy: "Oh, hell. Stop, stop. Oh, hell."
Felicia: "Why don't you let me do that for you?"
Roy: "Oh, no, no, no."
Felicia: "Consider it a payback."
Roy: "No. For what?"
Felicia: "For my little scene with Laura last night. I'm sorry. I put you in the middle of that."
Roy: "No, you didn't put me in the middle. I was totally on the side."
Felicia: "whose side?"
Roy: "Oh. Well--"
Felicia: "Just kidding. I'm just kidding."
Roy: "See, now you did it. Now you bought yourself a lot of trouble, see? But you know, feel free to bail if it gives you a headache."
Roy: "See, the thing is that this number is supposed to match one of these numbers, I think."
Felicia: "Oh. I see what you mean about Luke. Who balances his checkbooks, anyway?"
Roy: "He prefers cash."
Felicia: "Oh. So did Luke say where he'd been or--did he mention that to you at all?"
Roy: "Yeah."
Felicia: "I suppose he'll tell me if he wants me to know. When you saw him, how did he look? I mean, was he--it--sorry. I just--"
Roy: "No, no. You know, it's perfectly cool to ask. The truth is I think he could use a friend right now and somebody who cares about him and, you know, I've got a lot of important things to be doing right now, and, you know, maybe you could--"
Felicia: "Go ahead and go. Yeah, I'll do this. Sure."
Roy: "But you tell him when you see him that he owes me."
Felicia: "Oh? Do you care to expand on that?"
Roy: "No, I don't need to. He'll know."
Felicia's not disappointed, even when she realizes it's Roy. She picks up Luke's hat and is absolutely glowing--smiling as he rates her fight with Laura. Amazing. She then sits in Luke's chair, again, something I'm not sure Roy has ever done in the many days he's been working there in Luke's absence. Very interesting.
It interests me the way Roy negotiates this whole thing. Joan, I think, pointed out to us that Roy has never really been around Luke and Laura together since he's been back; he's taken his cues from Luke. And while he knows the breakup has hurt Luke, what he identifies with, I think, is the Luke who wants the girl he can't have. He's not judgmental, and he even encourages their little partnership. The tail end of the scene above was just great fun. But what I like is that we get these great scenes (such as the one in the Spencer section) in which Roy hears Laura talk about what's going on. But he lets Luke do what he will, refusing to "vote," as it were, for one woman or the other. He'd do the same in the bar fight, and on many other occasions. It's as though he just wants Luke to be happy. Or that he just wants to stay out of it. Either way, he's a dream.