(airdate: 10 Jul 96) The Buck Stops Here sound files

Selena and Billy are in Lucas' bed talking about ways to kill him while they are making out. When they hear Lucas' car, they jump out of bed. As soon as Lucas enters the house, he senses them. Billy is already hurriedly putting on his clothes but Selena seems nonplussed. She tells Billy that she really wants Lucas dead but Billy doesn't pay much attention to her.

When Lucas finally reaches his room, they are already gone but he knows what they've been doing. Selena even leaves a lipstick print purposely on the window as evidence that she was here with someone else.

At the hospital, the pharmacist, Yancy, is reading Wordsworth to his wife who is comatose. She suddenly goes into convulsions. Just then, Billy enters and tells him that he couldn't find her files at Lucas' home. Yancy tells him that without the files, he can't even find out why she's the way she is. He knows Lucas is behind this but there is nothing he can do about it.

Lucas pays Selena and her students a visit while she is giving a lesson on presidents in the classroom. He starts talking about a dollar bill and how the back has a Masonic Temple--Temple like Caleb Temple--and an eye which stands for all-seeing eye. Caleb is fascinated by all this. Lucas tells Caleb that the Latin phrase on top of the temple means "An old order of the ages is born anew" and he also tells him how each generation can only have one. This seems to be quite meaningful to Caleb as he ponders this. Lucas then goes up to Selena and warns her that if she should ever dirty his place again, he will basically kill her. Selena is genuinely scared by his threat as she knows he means it this time.

Gail finds out that her baby is growing at an abnormally fast rate. Doctor Muron tells her that the same thing happened with Caleb when his mother was just in the first trimester, like Gail is. He lets Gail know that Caleb is Lucas' illegitimate son. Gail then wonders if Caleb's mom knew something which she doesn't and hence she threw herself out the window after Caleb's birth.

Yancy is in Lucas' office asking Lucas why his wife is still in the state she is. He thought a deal was made where if he gave a Judge a placebo, in return, Lucas will help his wife. Lucas corrects him and says he only promised him that he will not lose his wife, but Yancy had thought all along that he will make her wake up since that is what he wanted. Yancy feels he's been cheated and is very angry. He tells Lucas that he's gonna end it but Lucas warns him that if anything happens to his wife, Yancy will go to jail for it. Yancy leaves muttering "no more."

Ben is over at the boarding house while Gail is cooking up quite a meal. He kids her about her appetite and mentions the baby to which Gail tells him that she doesn't want Caleb to know about it yet. Caleb then comes in talking about running errands so Ben hands him a five dollar bill on behalf of Mrs. Holt who owes Caleb. Caleb asks instead for five ones and then leaves after Ben gives them to him.

As Ben is talking to Caleb, Gail starts drinking the blood that came out from the roast she was baking. She then starts eating the raw roast itself. Ben is alarmed by her actions as he sees what she's doing after Caleb leaves. She assures him that she's just hungry but he thinks it's highly abnormal. He tries to stop her from eating the bloody roast but to no avail as she only tells him to mind his own business.

Meanwhile, Caleb has gone up to his bedroom and is in the middle of cutting out the pyramid and eye circle on his dollar bill. Merlyn appears and voices her disapproval of what he is doing. He starts explaining to her how Temple and Buck goes together as the dollar bill shows. He goes on to tell her about the old generation giving rise to a new one, basically repeating everything Lucas told her and even imitating his phrases. This really worries Merlyn as she sees he's becoming more like his dad.

Yancy is visiting his wife again to tell her how he is planning to put an end to everything. He takes out a gun and is about to leave when he hears Selena and Billy talking in the other room thru the ventilation grill. Selena is telling Billy that she was serious about killing Lucas because she hates him. She tells him that in order to kill him, he must pierce Lucas' third eye since that was his Achilles' heel. Yancy leaves immediately after hearing this but Billy just thinks that Selena is insane and tells her he wants no part of murder. He has decided to go over to Lucas' house to try to get the files again and to apologize for breaking into his home the other night.

Billy arrives at Lucas' house but he is not alone since Yancy is already hiding in the shadows, waiting for Lucas. When Lucas returns, he again senses intruders in his home. As Lucas is going around the house looking for his uninvited guests, Yancy appears around a corner and stabs Lucas right in the temple with a metal apparatus; he aims and hits the area where Lucas' third eye is suppose to be. Billy finds Lucas lying on the ground, unconscious with his forehead pierced.

Lucas is rushed to the hospital. Muron asks what happened to him and when Billy tells him that he found him in that condition, Muron expresses doubt in his words and the suspicion that Billy was the culprit.

Later in Muron's office, Ben interrogates Billy. He tells Billy that they found the instrument that wounded Lucas in a sewer behind his house. Muron tells Ben that it is a trocar; otherwise known as a brain piercer in layman's terms. Ben tells Billy that the evidence against him is great since only his fingerprints are on the trocar and his fingerprints were also found on a window. Just then, the nurse comes in to tell Ben that Lucas has asked for him.

When Ben is at Lucas' bedside, Lucas tells Ben to bring Caleb to him. Ben asks him if he knows who did this to him but Lucas only tells him to bring Caleb to him.

Caleb visits Billy in jail since he has been locked up on suspicion of murder. With an evil look on his face, Caleb asks Billy if he knows Lucas is his dad. He then points out that he's been intruding on Lucas' property, which includes Selena. He tells Billy that he believes that he killed his dad since Selena wanted him to. Billy denies this and says Selena is still very much Lucas' but Caleb ignores his denial.

Caleb then arrives at the hospital and by Lucas' bedside. Lucas tells him to lean in closer and then whispers something into his ear. He then asks Caleb out loud if he'll do that for him and Caleb says yes. Lucas goes into cardiac arrest right after and altho Muron and the nurses try to revive him, he flatlines. Lucas Buck is dead!

At Lucas' wake, various citizens file past his coffin to pay their respects. Included are Floyd, who starts crying; an old man who spits on him; Bertie who then wipes off the spit from Lucas' hand; Waylon who actually raises his claw in an attempt to hit the corpse, but Ben stops him. When it's Ben's turn to pay his respects, he tells Lucas how he doesn't know how Trinity will go on without him and how he doesn't know how he will either. When Caleb goes by, he only smiles wickedly. Whereas Gail starts crying and saying how much she loved him. Selena cuts her short by a snide remark. After Gail leaves, Selena looks down upon Lucas' form and wipes away her tears. She tells him that Gail's child will rot with him and then kisses him on the lips. Merlyn watches all this from the side. After everyone leaves, a fierce wind blows thru the church, knocking everything down.

Yancy is about to euthanize his wife. It pains him but he doesn't want her to go on that way. Merlyn revives his wife so that she can say good-bye to him. He can't bear to, but finally, he does and his wife dies.

At the jail cells, Ben comes in and tells Billy that they found a book in the sewer: it's Wordsworth. Billy knows immediately that the real killer is Yancy and tells Ben. He believes he did it since he blames Lucas for his wife's condition. Ben believes Billy and releases him so that they can go find Yancy to clear this up.

Yancy is on the phone in the hospital's pharmacy when Caleb appears and tells him that Lucas sent him.

Ben and Billy arrive at the hospital looking for Yancy. They find Caleb standing by his office door. When they go in, they find Yancy on the floor struggling to breath for his mouth is stuffed with pills. Billy opens a hole in his throat to allow him to breath and then they are able to get a confession out of him. Ben also asks if Caleb was in here with him and the terrified look on Yancy's face at the mention of the boy tells him who did this to Yancy. Caleb has returned to the church. He leaves a dollar Bill on Lucas' coffin and says "The Buck starts here" and departs. Inside the coffin, Lucas' eyes open.

1. August 2002