Whereas for several months already, we feel that Santa Barbara is going to disappear from the French televisions, this is the United States which see a blank screen replacing the life of the Capwells and the Lockridges among others. The conclusion is certainly too early, but it remains at least full of magic and with a certain atmosphere characteristic of the show. And above all, this end is a real door opened towards tomorrow, because the show ends on a new wedding and a new arrival : under the moved look of the Capwells and the Lockridges, Warren Lockridge marries B.J. Walker, whereas Julia announces to a delighted Mason that she is waiting for a little brother or a little sister for Samantha...

The show concludes on these images of happiness followed by a slow waltz which is used as a parade to the great couples which marked this end of the show. It is all naturally the father of the bridegroom, Lionel Lockridge, and his quite recent wife, the schemer Gina, who open the ball. To see him waltzing, so happy with Gina, we are however obliged to think of Augusta who, as a Lockridge wife, offered much more spice. Then succeed them the bride's brother, Sawyer Walker, who dances with his charming partner, Aurora DeAngelis. Then, it is to the very first symbolic couple of the show to come : C.C. Capwell and Sophia. After a succession of marriages and divorces, the love always at the rendez-vous seems to have chased away all the clouds over them. C.C. has forgotten his ex-wives. Sophia has erased her dreams of independence. As the first day of their love, they find each other hand in hand, with the hope that around them will meet all their family...

While the music continues, is coming maybe the most improbable couple : Ted Capwell and Lily "Light" Blake. Daughter of the worst enemy of the Capwells, Lily knew how to, by detours, touch Ted's heart. So by seeing them waltzing, we can only think, with nostalgia, of Hayley (she was a member of Gina's family too) and of her impossible love story with the same Ted Capwell. Then it belongs to the day hero to appear, Connor McCabe, to the arm of the fourth Kelly Capwell. The look lost in Connor's, we can imagine that, quite as us, she thinks of the men who crossed her life and who marked with indelible ink the history of the show : naturally, there is Joe Perkins, but also Nick Hartley, Jeffrey Conrad, Robert Barr and Quinn Armitage... It is with a rare smile that Minx Lockridge waltzs in Micah DeAngelis's arm. To see these images, we can only think of the beneficial virtues of Capwridge Water...

Then come the parents of the bride : Reese and Jodie Walker. After many difficulties, the sun seems to shine again on their couple. Reese forgave Jodie her past infidelity, and Jodie, the present one. The bridegrooms finally appear at the front of the camera : B.J. Walker and Warren Lockridge. Symbol of the passion which always livened up the series, the wedding closes in beauty these years of show and, through their wedding, it is all the weddings of the show which scroll in front of our eyes. So many couples gathered since the very first one : Kelly Capwell and Joe Perkins... B.J., after the shock of the loss of "her" fathers, Reese and Cruz, is finding a family within the Lockridge clan.

It is thus finished with the great couples of this end of the show. Naturally, there are the big absentees on whom I shall return... But to pay tribute to the significant characters, some other faces scroll : Rafe Castillo and Lisa Fenimore are the first ones of this new series to appear, after having been married during a false ceremony during the year 1992. It is Rosa Andrade's turn to come, her who marked of small cakes and other sweetmeats the life of the Capwell children. But with her also appears the memory of Santana, this spicy brunette who will have never cease of looking for love and the child whom she lost in her youth... Angela Raymond also says her goodbyes to us. She crossed the life of so many men, from her husband David, to Warren or C.C....

At last it is the turn of the ultimate big couple of the show to close this sweet retrospective : Julia Wainwright and Mason Capwell. It could be said about them : the fire and the ice, the passion and the fury. There were so many contrasts in their couple, so much chemistry in their looks... And it is with them and the announcement of a baby to come that end nine years of beautiful stories.

But, so that this retrospective is complete, are missing these other couples and these other characters who knew how to make us dream, hope, captivate us during so many years, in the course of reunion and of separations. And it is regrettable that for the ultimate episode, the excuse of the souvenirs was not used to make relive, even for a brief moment : Eden and Cruz of course, but also Kelly and Joe, Laken and Ted, Augusta and Lionel, Amy and Brick, Kelly and Nick, Mary and Mason, Victoria and Mason, Gina and Keith, Caroline and Lionel, Andrea and Cain, Scott and Celeste, Laura and Ethan, Nikki and Michael, Eden and Robert, Kelly and Quinn...

Of course, the list of the characters would not stop there, because it would have been necessary to give also an emotional tribute to all the "bad guys" who peppered the small life of the Santa Barbara inhabitants. We think of course of Peter Flint, Kirk Cranston, Steve Bassett, Elena Nikolas, Cassandra Benedict and the four orphans, Ken Mathis, Hollis Castillo, Zack Kelton, Pamela Conrad...

At last, to conclude, it is important to recognize that the show knew (although not aired in France) a real conclusion. And although it is not maybe not perfect, it has the merit to exist, contrary to what has been done for some other shows...

Text written for this site by Lilian