Edmund Who (by Elaine G. Flores, SOD 9/5/2000)
AMC's Dimitri is Back- and Alex Wants Him

"After a year filled with angst, secrets and deception, AMC's Alex was ready to settle into a nice, peaceful life with Edmund. That domestic dream bites the dust this week when she finally comes face-to-face with her presumed-dead husband, Dimitri.

As far as Alexandra knows, Dimitri, ravaged by a neurological disease, walked into the sea to his death last September. On Tuesday, she's set straight at the Wildwind hunting lodge.

Naturally, the sight of the recovering count leaves Alex speechless. 'There's no dialogue, just long stares,' reports Michael Nader (Dimitri).

At first, Alex, whose grasp on reality has been shaky in the past, doesn't believe her eyes. 'She thinks she's going crazy, that her mind is playing tricks on her and that it's a mirage,' previews executive producer Jean Dadario Burke. 'She thought she saw him in the airport. She "knows" he's dead. She thinks, "What's happening to me?" Her mind has played tricks on her before.'

Count Andrassy, who kept the truth from Alex to spare her more pain because he figured he was going to dies soon,' is like a deer in headlights,' muses Burke. 'He wants to run because he's made such a mess of things, but the sight of her is too much for him to even move.'

The reunited Maricks make love- not conversation. 'He is alive. She has another chance with him. Everything goes out the window because they're soul mates.' And they act upon it,' says Burke. 'For the moment, Alex is so enraptured by the fact that Dimitri is there that she just thinks of nothing but her love for him.'

However, the exec notes, 'There will come a time to pay the piper when she realizes, "Oh, my God, what about Edmund?"' Oh yeah- Alex is engaged to marry her brother-in-law. And Finola Hughes maintains that her character does love Edmund. 'I think it's the kind of love that you can talk yourself into,' muses Hughes. 'He's very kind to Alex. That can certainly move into love. I think it's a kind of love.' Alex's love for Dimitri, on the other hand, is 'passionate, and crazy and the whole thing.'

Though Dimitri is back, there's a lot more of this tale left. Says Burke, 'It's the beginning of the next lag in the story for the three of them. The big issue is the healing of the three characters. What's the journey back to normalcy?'

Burke is proud of how the emotionally charged scenes played out. 'I thought they were fantastic,' she boasts. 'I was in the control room and I had given specific notes to actors, directors and everybody, and I think it just came off really, really good. I think the audience is going to love it.'"