- The scene opens with Lavinia staring at a gigantic portrait of her father in his judge's robes, feeling sorry for him because she knows the truth about Brant and her mother. She's waiting to meet her mother.
- Christine shows up and acts like it's all just in Lavinia's head.
- She's also weirded out by the fact that Lavinia wanted to chat in Papa Mannon's study.
- Lavinia tells Christine that she wasn't actually staying with her pal Hazel, and that she followed her mamma to New York.
- Then Lavinia lets the big one drop: she tells Christine she saw her smooching Captain Brant.
- Christine tries to deny that anything's going on.
- Lavinia calls her on it, and says that she knows they were fooling around in Brant's room in a New York hotel.
- Surprise of all surprises, Christine tries to lie.
- She tells Lavinia that Brant wanted her to meet some random lady. (Pretty weak, right?)
- Christine tries to tell her that Brant just wanted to talk to her about Lavinia.
- Once again, Lavinia's not buying it.
- She tells Christine she overheard them kissing some more, and that her mom had told Brant she was in love with him.
- Christine tries to reason with her by saying she fell for Brant because she hates Lavinia's father.
- That doesn't really go over too well. But Christine keeps at it, saying she's hated herself for staying with old Ezra Mannon for so long.
- Shocked—and more than slightly P.O.'ed—Lavinia asks if Christine ever loved Ezra.
- Christine says that she did once, but—and she doesn't get too specific here—they started hating each other shortly after they got married.
- Lavinia does some quick math, and tells Christine she figures that means that Christine hates her, too—and that she's kind of always felt it.
- Christine tells her that she's right; Lavinia was a symbol of her hated husband. Talk about one messed up mother-daughter relationship.
- But Christine's crazy about her son Orin. Why? Lavinia wants to know.
- And, talk about Mother-of-the-Year, Christine admits that she loves Orin more because Ezra wasn't around when she was raising him, so it was more like Orin belonged only to her.
- As if that wasn't bad enough, Christine admits she blames Lavinia for convincing Orin to fight in the Civil War and taking her baby boy away from her.
- Christine says that she never would have cheated on Ezra if Orin was still around, which basically means she's trying to blame Lavinia for her affair with Brant.
- Lavinia dramatically announces to Christine who Brant really is.
- Guess what—Christine already knows.
- Lavinia's even more P.O.'ed than she was before, so she insults Christine by saying that knowing Brant's past probably made cheating on Ezra with him even hotter for her.
- Christine doesn't seem to care. She just asks Lavinia what she intends to do about it.
- Lavinia demands that she stop seeing Brant, or she'll tell her father.
- Why not just do that right away? Well, Lavinia doesn't want a scandal and her Papa Mannon has a heart condition, so she doesn't want to stress him.
- Christine tells Lavinia she's just jealous because she wants Brant to herself.
- Lavinia's denial isn't all that convincing.
- Christine's on a roll now. She insists that the real reason why Lavinia isn't telling Ezra about the affair is because Christine would just run away with Brant.
- She also says she's known pretty much from day one that Lavinia wanted to take her place as wife and mother in the family.
- Christine says that if she were to admit to cheating on Ezra and just leave with Brant, things would be way worse for the family.
- Lavinia tells Christine that Ezra would use all of his power to make sure Brant never worked again—and that nobody would have anything to do with either of them—so they'd basically die poor and hungry.
- They do a bit of name-calling (mostly it's Christine). It's clear they loathe each other.
- Christine agrees never to see Brant again—after that night, that is.
- Lavinia makes fun of Christine for being able to give Brant up so easily, suggesting she never really loved Brant in the first place.
- Christine goes back to accusing Lavinia of having a crush on Brant herself.
- She says she only told Brant to act interested in Lavinia so she wouldn't get suspicious.
- Lavinia said she was playing a game of her own, and that she never trusted Brant.
- Oh, and she also wrote to her dad and brother right after she got back from New York.
- She didn't tell them the whole story, though. Just that Brant seemed to be getting a little too friendly and people were starting to talk.
- Christine agrees to break it off with Brant again, but menacingly tells Lavinia it's her fault if anything happens. (She doesn't say what.)
- Lavinia gets in one last dig by saying that Christine should be ready and willing to break things off because she owes it to Ezra.
- Lavinia takes off and Christine has a moment with the portrait of Papa Mannon. She tells it—or him—that he can thank Lavinia, but she doesn't say for what.
- Brant shows up and asks Christine if Lavinia knows about their affair.
- Christine tells them that Lavinia does, and that Lavinia's told her she knows who Brant actually is.
- Brant admits he let that info slip.
- Brant notices the portrait of Papa Mannon and gets uncomfortable. He wonders if Christine fell in love with him because he looks like Ezra (they are related, after all).
- Christine tells him he's being ridiculous. She reminded her of Orin. Oh, so that's OK.
- Brant recalls when he first met Christine. He says that his plan was just to use her as part of his revenge against the Mannons. Then he fell in love with her. Doesn't seem like a healthy start to a relationship if you ask us.
- Brant promises he'll never let Old Man Mannon stop him from being with Christine, no matter what.
- Christine gets a little flirty but Brant wants to talk business. He thinks they need to come up with a plan rather than sneaking around and stealing a few moments here and there.
- Of course, Christine's all for it, but she wants to move the discussion to a room where there isn't a huge portrait of the man she's cheating on.
- But she changes her mind, telling Ezra's portrait that she's not afraid of him anymore.
- Brant and Christine take turns blaming themselves for Lavinia finding out. We guess they were going to keep it a secret forever.
- Brant—who's got a little bit of a temper and a major Mannon-hating grudge—says he'll wait for Ezra to get home and tell him about the affair himself, and tell Ezra who he actually is.
- He also says he'll kill Mannon if he tries anything.
- Christine not-so-gently reminds Brant that if he does that, he'll hang for murder and she'll apparently have no choice but to kill herself.
- Brant then has the super-brilliant idea to challenge Mannon to a duel so he could kill him out in the open.
- Christine says that's not a good idea either, because Mannon would just have Brant arrested.
- When Brant says he'd just run off and take her with him, Christine mentions that Mannon would never divorce her and that he'd make sure Brant never worked again.
- Christine casually says that, if only Ezra had been killed in the war, they could be married no problem, and Christine would have a fat chunk of Papa Mannon's money to share with Brant.
- If it seems like Christine's been scheming all along, she has. She's a calculating you-know-what.
- She encourages Brant to pick up some poison pellets that she can give to Mannon in place of his heart medication. She's convinced that it would just look like natural causes.
- Brant's reluctant at first because he thinks it's kind of a chicken move, as opposed to blowing Mannon's brains out, but he decides to go along with it.
- He agrees to have the poison mailed to Christine so she can do the deed.