Dynasty ends the boring second half of Season 7 with Alexis. upset and afraid of being alone, stealing a car and driving it off a bridge. Note to self - if you steal a car, drive it off a bridge since the police won’t seem to care. Fortunately for Alexis, an individual happens to witness the accident and rescues her. Unfortunately for us, this person was Sean Rowan.

Alexis is determined to find her savior and when she does, she quickly falls in love with and marries him in Mexico. What a beautiful story? The only problem is that Sean Rowan is actually the son of Joseph Anders who happened to have kept secret the fact that he had two children in addition to Kirby.. And Sean wants revenge against Alexis, Adam and Blake for what they did to Joseph and Kirby. Of course, Blake did nothing to Joseph and they were close friends until the end - but that does not matter.

Maybe it would have been better had Alexis drowned

And it is easy for Sean to get his revenge since Alexis is so quick to integrate Sean into her family and her empire. Determined to stop Blake from becoming Governor (jealousy perhaps?), Alexis runs for Governor herself and puts Sean in charge of Colby Co since her three children (remember, Amanda has ceased to exist) are co-running Denver Carrington. Alexis never put Dex in charge of Colby Co and Dex is a far better business person than Sean. Sean, of course, uses the power to enrich himself and sow seeds of discord among the Carrington siblings.

But, Sean is not done. To keep Alexis from dropping out of the race, Sean tries to assassinate Blake (would it not be easier just to kill Alexis at this point since that is Sean’s ultimate goal). Alexis takes the bullet which revives her campaign (did Alexis even run on an issue?) which, ironically, helps him retain control at Colby Co. He seduces Leslie, blackmails Dana, and interferes in Adam’s adoption of his son by bringing back the estranged husband of the surrogate mother. I am surprised he didn’t sell the drugs to Josh before Josh ODed or try to convince the aliens to abduct Fallon again.

Even after everyone learns the truth about Sean, his reign of terror does not end. He tries to kill Blake and Dex in Africa; kidnaps Adam’s baby and beats the hell out of Leslie (is Leslie still in that cabin?) before he finally is able to confront Alexis one last time. Of course, Dex is there to save Alexis and Sean is finally killed.

Revenge is a common theme throughout Dynasty - especially to avenge a wronged family member. Blake had to deal with members of the Grimes family, Jason had to deal with Zach Powers, and Alexis had to deal with the Anders family (among her several enemies).

Sean Rowan so dominated a Season 8 that was not really that bad if you take him out of the equation. Alexis just happens to be rescued by Joseph’s son that no one knew about? Come on. Alexis just happens to marry him and hand Colby Co over to him? Come on. (Alexis being undone by her irrational hatred/love of Blake). Sean just happens to become so pervasive in the lives of many? Come on.

I get that there needed to be more conflict in Season 8 after the snooze fest that was the second half of Season 7, but this storyline just didn’t do it. Further, the storyline did not need to last all season. You can also see how the writers/producers knew the popularity of the show was fading so they would reach back to a time when the show was more popular (that happened a lot in the later season). for storylines. It actually worked in Season 9, but did not work here (or in Season 7).