Much of the action in Season Two of Falcon Crest is precipitated by the murder of Carlo Agretti (Carlos Romero) the father of Melissa Agretti (Ana Alicia), the ambitious wife of Lance Cumson (Lorenzo Lamas)--who in turn is the playboy grandson of ruthless Tuscany Valley winery owner Angela Channing (Jane Wyman). The marriage between Lance and Melissa had been engineered by Angela as a power play against her nephew Chase (Robert Foxworth), who owns half of Angela's thriving Falcon Crest winery, and who has joined the Tuscany Board of Supervisors as a means of lessening Angela's financial hold on the valley. In this endeavor, he is assisted by his mother, Jacqueline Perrault (Lana Turner), and by the owner of the muckraking "San Francisco Globe", Richard Channing (David Selby), the illegitimate son of Angela's ex-husband Douglas Channing. But while Chase's opposition to Angela is altruistic in tone, Richard is motivated by greed and an all-consuming lust for power. Recognizing the double threat of Richard and Chase's, Angela's unscrupulous attorney Phillip Erikson (Mel Ferrer) does everything in his power to discredit both men. Meanwhile, Lance cheats on Melissa with his girlfriend Lori, played this season by Maggie Cooper; this so aggravates Melissa that she delivers her baby son Joseph prematurely. Elsewhere, Chase's daughter Victoria falls in love with Nick Hogan (Roy Thinnes), another member of the Board of Supervisors whom Angela has pressured to thwart Chase's plans. In other developments, Chase's son Cole (William R. Moses) is arrested on suspicion of murdering Carlo Agretti, but a series of mysterious accidents befalling various cast members makes it quite clear that the actual killer is still at large. In the tradition of the "Who Shot J.R.?" story arc on Dallas, the cast of Falcon Crest was kept in the dark as to the identity of Carlo's murderer; several possible ending were filmed, with virtually every person in the show being revealed as the culprit. Only in the season's cliffhanger finale is the truth revealed (much to the surprise of the "guilty" actor, who didn't know the outcome of the mystery until the night the episode was telecast!)--at which point both Chase and Jacqueline are shot down and left for dead!
