Season 5

Episode 510: “The Peacemaker”

Episode 510:  “The Peacemaker”
Original Air Date:November 22, 1998
Written by::Christine Pettit
Directed by:Peter H. Hunt
Produced by:

Martha Williamson
Jon Andersen
R.J. Visciglia, Jr.

Guest Cast:
Scott Tanner Bruce Boxleitner
Michelle Tanner Melissa Gilbert
Mark Tanner Zack Graham

 

As part of his application to New York University, seventeen year-old Mark Tanner videotapes the morning coffee ritual that his parents, Scott and Michelle, began during his recovery from a recent drug addiction. Although all appears well, Andrew warns Tess and Monica not to waste any time with this case. Scott arrives at the police precinct where he is a hostage negotiator to meet his new partner, Monica, and invites her to dinner. When Scott is paged by the precinct during dinner, Michelle lashes out, blaming Scott for always choosing his work over his family.

Later, as Michelle rifles through her “Memory Box,” Mark enters. She shows him the wrist watch Scott gave her for their first anniversary but adds that he meant to have it engraved. When Mark asks if they are going to be okay after he goes off to college, she reassures him but her face registers doubt. As she exits, Mark finds divorce papers in the memory box and becomes angry with his mother. Later, while painting a portrait of her most recent client, Tess, Michelle confides that she had considered divorce earlier in their marriage and had not gotten rid of the divorce papers. Tess urges her to do so and she returns to the memory box to find that the watch she had shown Mark is now gone. Beginning to suspect that Mark may have stolen the watch to pay for drugs, her suspicions are further compounded when she interrupts him while he has a secretive phone conversation. Michelle then calls Scott to discuss her fears but he is interrupted by a hostage situation at a bank robbery. When the robbery is over, it is learned that Mark was killed by the robbery while trying to withdraw money from his college fund.

Desolate after losing their son, Scott and Michelle blame each other. When a message from a man named Ivan is found on Mark’s answering machine, both Scott and Michelle are convinced this person was Mark’s drug dealer and both become obsessed with finding the man while deciding to get a divorce. Tess and Monica then intervene by showing Scott and Michelle the videotape Mark had made and it turns out to be a plea for them to work out their problems. Andrew then arrives with Ivan who is not a drug dealer but rather a video editor.  Mark had taken his parents’ home videos to Ivan to have them edited together to show them how much love they truly have for one another.  Now understanding the error of their ways, Scott and Michelle vow to stay together.

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