Episode 1198

 

Soak Up the Praise
Written by: Dallas Walsh | Originally Released: July 30, 2025

Episode Theme song: "John & Jonathan" Allie X

Previously on One Day at a Time
- Donovan & Lukas' past mistakes were brought up when they took the stand at the custody case
- Tyler and Kim grew closer
- Penny had another brief flash of vision while on her date with Cory
- Trenyce worried when Tinah came down with another fever
- Meggan and Logan paid Frederick a visit while Leah encouraged Bryce to sign the divorce papers
- Eva and Will hashed out the fact that Will told Dominick the truth about Felicia being alive

Twin Peaks Law Courts

Judge Franklin Ross reviews the notes of the custody case in front of him before he looks up. He, once again, sees three tables in front of him; one table has Max and Lois, the middle table has Josh, Donovan, and Lukas, and the final table has Ethan and Abby sitting as they are all trying to gain custody of Olly/Sonny. Franklin sighs to himself, realizing that this is one of the most complicated custody cases he has ever been apart of.

"Alright, Mr. Levitt," Franklin looks at Josh quickly. "Do you have anymore witnesses to call?"

"I do," Josh stands up quickly before he looks at Lukas and Donovan and gives them a smile of assurance. "I'd like to call Max Black to the witness stand."

Abby looks at Ethan in surprise as Max looks at Lois with a similar look. No one believed that Max would be called to the stand, so he slowly stands up. As he does, he turns behind him to see Cassie, who smiles at him, hoping to give him comfort that he will be fine on the stand.

Max moves to the witness stand, sits down, and is sworn in. Josh, then, moves closer to Max. "Mr. Black, you just found out that you're a father. How are you feeling?"

Max looks back at Josh with a concerned look on his face. "I'm still in shock, if I am honest with you," Max tells him. "I had no idea that someone I thought was my friend would lie and betray me this way."

"Do you think that someone in a status of 'shock' is the right person to raise a young boy?" Josh asks him next.

"I will get over the shock," Max says. "I want the chance to get to know my son; had I known that I was a father to Sonny, I never would have been out of his life for all these years. That's why I want my son; I want to make up for all the time I've lost."

"That is more than understandable," Josh says as Lukas looks at Donovan, wondering where Josh is headed with these questions. "Let me move on to your own father, Adam Black."

"What about him?"

"You tried to kill him, didn't you?" Josh asks Max, who feels the blood drain from his face. "You tried to kill your own father?"

 
 

The Pink Flamingo at the River Rock Casino

At the back table, Cory and Penny continue their dinner date with one another. Cory believes the date, however, is just a friendship date, while Penny is attempting to seduce Cory so she can keep him away from Robin. Earlier, as they toasted, Penny had, another, flash of her vision, but that has since gone away.

"How is your lobster bisque?" Cory asks Penny, who is about to take another spoonful of the soup.

"It is delicious," Penny smiles back to him. "On the farm, I never had anything like this, so it is a treat to have it now."

Cory chuckles back to her, thinking back to their time on the farm. He realizes that it is true, they didn't have anything like lobster bisque there. "There wasn't a lot of seafood on the farm, that is for sure," Cory tells her. "By the way, do you ever miss it? The farm, I mean?"

"Oh sure," Penny nods back to him before she takes another sip of her wine. "The simple life had it's perks, but I do like it in Twin Peaks too."

"I still hate that you being here cost your vision," he admits to her quickly. "I wish there was something that I could do to help you get your sight back."

"I know you do, Cory," Penny smiles back to him. "And the truth is, wherever you are, that's where I consider my home. So, despite this horrible thing happening to me, I wouldn't want to be anywhere that you weren't," she tells him as Cory uneasily gulps back to her, as he tries not to think about his relationship with Robin. "You mean that much to me, I hope you know that."

"I can tell," he tells her. "And for the record, you mean a hell of a lot to me too."

Tyler's Townhouse

"I had forgotten how delicious your lemon chicken was," Kim chuckles to Tyler as they move back into the living room in Tyler's townhouse as they just finished dinner with one another, where he cooked one of his best dishes.

"Hey, when I have a beautiful woman in my company, I have to pull out all the stops," he winks back to her. "More wine?"

"Yea, I'd love some more," she replies to him as he fills their glasses with the red liquid. "And does that mean that you don't cook that way every night?"

"Hardly," he chuckles back to her. "It can be a challenge to cook for just one person."

"I hear you," she nods to him. "Although, I have it pretty lucky at the mansion. Rosario is a wizard in the kitchen."

"How is that going, by the way?" Tyler asks her as he takes a sip of the wine. "I mean, you're living in same house that Robbie is, isn't that awkward?"

"To be honest, no," Kim tells him. "The house is so huge, I can avoid Robbie, Natasha, anyone that I want too. Despite my marriage not working out, I can't imagine not living there. I've been there for years, even when I was married to Bob."

"That seems like a lifetime ago," he says back to her.

"Doesn't it?" she giggles. "We have lead a life, haven't we? There is something I need to ask you, though, Tyler."

"Of course," he looks back at her with intent. "You can ask me anything."

"This has been really nice," Kim reveals to him. "Us getting closer again, I mean. The kissing, the dinner date, sharing wine together, but before we go any further, I need you to be honest with me."

"I would never lie to you."

She uneasily sighs back to him. "After everything that Robbie has put me through the last few months, I really need to know that I can trust you. You…you can't do anything that would break that trust, because, well, I don't think I could go back from that."

Tyler sets his wine glass down on the coffee table and grabs her hand before he looks into her eyes. "You can trust me, Kim," he whispers back to her. "I would never do anything to hurt you the way Robbie has, you, you have my word on that."

The Sugarbowl

Will turns around from grabbing his latte and sighs when he spots Eva sitting by herself at the window bar. He knows that they saw one another earlier in the day and she lashed out at him for revealing the truth about Felicia being alive to Dominick. The truth is, Will was devastated when Eva, once again, told him that she wanted to make her marriage to Dominick work after they slept together. Will believe that Eva was using him for sex whenever something went wrong in her marriage, and that's why he told Dominick the truth.

"Twice in one day," Will says as he moves up to her. "I'm not sure if I should say it's my lucky day or not."

Eva looks back at him. "I am not sure either," she admits to him. "You and I, we aren't exactly on good terms right now, are we?"

"No, but I think you should take credit in that as well," Will reveals to her. "My feelings about what happened, they are valid, Eva. You can't deny that."

"I won't deny that," Eva looks back at him. "But the truth is, I am desperate to make my marriage to Dominick work, and God willing, somehow, someway, I will make that happen."

"Well, I wish you luck with that," Will tells her, realizing that he has, finally, lost her forever. Inside, he feels his heart break inside his chest as he hates that it has taken him this long to realize that, but now that he has, he just wants to run and hide. "I'll see you around, Eva."

The Victors Mansion; Frederick's Lair

"Interesting that Meggan and Logan stopped by to see you," Bryce tells Frederick as they each have a scotch in their hands as they face one another in the living room of the Victors mansion. Frederick just revealed to Bryce that Meggan came to the mansion to see him with Logan and Sophie; he hasn't spent a lot of time with Logan, so he was thrilled to get to know his grandson better, but he knows that Meggan was not pleased with him for faking his death again.

"I guess it was Logan's friend, Sophie's, idea for him to get to know me better," Frederick grins back to him. "We had a lovely time together."

"Meggan was pleasant?" Bryce asks him with an arched eyebrow. "To me, when I've seen lately, she's drunk out of her mind."

"She was having a couple of drinks here," Frederick admits to him. "I hate seeing her off the wagon; the reason I faked your death all those years ago, was partly to help her get sober. This time, I don't know what it will take for her to realize she can't drink all the time."

"Rock bottom can be a scary place."

"I hate to think what her rock bottom is."

"Leah and I, actually, had a nice conversation the other day," Bryce changes the subject with Frederick, who looks back at him in surprise. "I know; ever since she's found out that I am her son, she's been pressing very hard to be in my life. But you know, she even called me Bryce, instead of Noah."

"That's progress," Frederick chuckles to him. "Just…be careful."

Bryce arches his eyebrow back to him. "Of what? My mother?"

"My daughter, she will always have an angle, Bryce," Frederick warns him. "You'd best keep your guard up with her and always remember, your place is here, with me."

Twin Peaks General Hospital

"I got here as quickly as I could," Chris announces to Trenyce as he storms into the waiting room of Twin Peaks General Hospital. He got word from Trenyce that Albertinah, once again, had a fever, so she called a babysitter for BJ and brought their daughter to the hospital, incase her aplastic anemia returned; the last time Tinah had this, she had to have a bone marrow transplant, and, thankfully, Andrew could donate to save her. "What is going on?"

Trenyce stands up from her chair and looks at her husband with a look of concern on her face. "I was getting BJ to clean his room and then I went to check in on Tinah," Trenyce begins to explain to him. "She was still sleeping, which I thought was odd because she had been sleeping for hours, longer than usual. I…I happen to put my hand on her forehead and she felt warm, so I took her temperature and realized she had a fever again."

"Shit," Chris shakes his head in horror.

"Considering her history, I didn't want to risk it, so I got the sitter and rushed Tinah here," Trenyce continues to tell him. "I…I hope I did the right thing."

"Of course, you did," Chris pulls her into a hug. "Like you said, with Tinah's history, we have to be safe than sorry."

"Yea, and so Stephanie Clarke is with her now," Trenyce tells him as they exit their embrace. "She's only been with her for about 15 minutes, so we might have to wait a while longer before we hear."

"Tinah will be fine," Chris grabs her hands and grabs them tightly. "Our daughter, our beautiful baby girl, she will make it through whatever this is, I know that for a fact."

Twin Peaks Law Courts

Max scuffs back at Josh's question about if he tried to kill Adam. "There was an accident, many years ago," Max finally responds to him. "Where some scaffolding was loose and my father got caught in it and, yes, he almost died," Max explains to them. "I was very young at the time, barely legal, and I did arrange for my father to be there."

"So you did or didn't try to kill him?"

"I didn't," Max says in his defense. "It was a horrible accident, and for the record, my father and I, we are closer than ever before. The tension that was between us, it has long passed."

Lois, then, stands up and looks at Max and then at Franklin. "Let the record show that no charges were ever filed against my client," Lois tells the Judge, who nods back to her. "Mr. Black," she says as Josh sits down, feeling dejected. "Had you known that Sonny was your child, would you have wanted to raise him?"

"More than anything else in the world," Max smiles back to her. "I was ready to be at father then, and I am more than ready to be a father now. I want the chance to be with my son; that's all I want, that's what I deserve."

"No further questions," Lois smiles to Max, thrilled at his response to her question.

Franklin looks at everyone in the courtroom. "We will take a five minute recess then hear final statements," he says before he smashes as his mallet down while Abby looks at Ethan in worry; Lukas and Donovan grab one another's hands, and Cassie hugs Max in support.

Next on One Day at a Time
- The final statements are given
- Kim and Tyler take the next step
- Penny makes her move

 
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