Season Four of Falcon Crest is dominated by a storyline involving "The Cartel", a widespread criminal organization headed by war criminal Gustav Riebmann (J. Paul Freeman)--who turns out to have been the former lover of Jacqueline Perrault, the late mother of Tuscany Valley winery owner Chase Roberti (Robert Foxworth) and Chase's half-brother, ruthless newspaper owner Richard Channing (Doug Selby). While the upright Chase has no connection with The Cartel, Richard had spent the previous season conspiring with Riebmann to construct a race track on land owned by Chase's business partner, aunt, and principal antagonist Angela Channing (Jane Wyman). Angela holds Chase responsible for the death of her lawyer and fiancé Phillip Erikson, but Richard knows that the Cartel did the dirty work, and his knowledge may very well lead to his own demise. In other developments this season, Angela manages to take control of Richard's newspaper, the "San Francisco Globe", appointing her playboy grandson Lance (Lorenzo Lamas) as editor. When someone tries to murder Angela, Richard attempts to frame Lance for the crime. And later on, Richard assumes one-third control of Angela's Falcon Crest winery with the help of Angela's vengeful Italian half-sister, Francesca Gioberti (Gina Lollobrigida). This being Falcon Crest, Francesca is not content with merely grabbing up a portion of Falcon Crest; she has a long-standing grudge against the Channing family, and won't be satisfied until everyone in the clan is left twisting slowly in the wind! With all this going on, it is amazing that any time is left over for another of the season's principal plot strands, this one involving the breakup of Lance's marriage to Melissa Agretti (Ana Alicia) and the dissolution of the union between Cole Gioberti (William R. Moses) and Linda Caproni (Mary Kate McGheehan)--leading inexorably to the wedding of Cole and Melissa (who, after all, ARE the parents of Angela's great-grandson Joseph).
