Knots Landing/Jill Bennett

Jill Bennett
Knots Landing
Actor	Teri Austin
First Appearance	6x27 - A Price to Pay
Last Appearance	10x19 - Guilty Until Proven Innocent
Series Billing	Guest Starring (seasons 6-9) Main cast (season 10)
Episode Count	106
Also Appears On	optional

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Jill Bennett was a character on Knots Landing portrayed by actress Teri Austin from 1985 to 1989.

Pre-Series

She was born Dorothy "Jill" Simpkins on March 31, 1957, in the small town of Westfall, California. Her father owned a land that he worked on, her mother was a homemaker, Dottie, as everyone called her, had a younger brother Peter Simpkins, who shared a closed relationship with Jill. Soon, tragedy stroke, as Dorothy's father was forced to loose his land to the greedy tycoon, Paul Galveston. Dorothy's father never recovered from that and later killed himself. Things got even worse, Dorothy's mother suffered an incurable disease and died shortly after. Both Dorothy and Peter entered the foster care system and were separated. Peter was taken by the Hollister family, while Dorothy was taken by another, the Carters. Dorothy and Peter were able to see each other occasionally. Meanwhile, Dorothy watched a lot of coverage on Paul Galveston and vowed revenge on him. In 1975, Dorothy graduated from high school, with a scholarship at Yale University. She enrolled in the fall of that year and, and there caught the attention, of another student studying law, John Bennett. She fell in love with John, and the couple were married by June 1976. Dorothy had told John that she was pregnant, John married her and quickly after she supposedly suffered a miscarriage. But darker days were ahead, John became tired of Dorothy's obsessive ways, and had an affair with another woman. The rest became a mystery, John disappeared, and his dead body was later found in a lake at a small village near Boston, the autopsy report revealed that John had overdosed on alcohol. Of course, Dorothy became the prime suspect, but she had many alibis to cover her story. Jill graduated in 1979 from Yale, and finished her law degree in 1982, at UCLA, she had moved back to California. Jill also regained contact with her brother Peter Hollister who was on his way to Law School. By 1983, Jill Bennett worked for the Silberstein & Brickman law firm in Los Angeles. She showed much potential, that her boss persuaded her to apply for an open governmental position to work with the governor in Washington. Jill easily got the job and was on her way to the nation's capital. By the end of 1983, Jill was working in Washington with the governor, and saw it as an opportunity to find a way to destroy Paul Galveston. In order to put her plan in action, she pressured the governor to move his office to Sacramento knowing that Galveston industries was based in California.

Season 7

Jill Bennett comes to town to appoint Mack MacKenzie to the Senate seat recently vacated by Gregory Sumner. She starts to fall for Mack and contemplates having an affair with him. Mack almost reciprocates but doesn't because of his faithfulness to his wife Karen. But he does introduce Jill to Gary Ewing, who begins an affair with her. Jill also investigates Mack's Westfall files, and Mack is trying to figure out why she is doing this. Then it is discovered that her name is Dorothy Simpkins and she went to Westfall High. Abby, Gary's wife, doesn't like how closely Jill is getting towards Gary, so he hires Peter Hollister, who started working and spying for Sumner, to "keep her busy". Jill tells Mack that her father used to own Empire Valley, the land that Gary acquired from Galveston when his son, who turned out to be Greg, wasn't interested. Gary then divorces Abby, who then starts an affair with Peter. When Jill finds out Gary gave Empire Valley to Abby, she agrees to work with Peter to get it from Abby. Jill tells Peter that she want out of the plan, because she's fallen in love with Gary and doesn't want to hurt him. Peter reminds her that Galveston killed their parents, and that they've come too far to turn back now. So she admits to being with Gary in order to get Empire Valley, and Gary accepts her in his life.

Season 8

Gary briefly runs for Senator with Peter as his opponent, but loses the election when news of his affair with Jill hits the papers. It didn't matter because Gary and Jill professed their love for one another. Gary wanted to know why Peter is always hanging around Jill and thinks they are having an affair. Jill wanted to tell Gary that she and Peter are siblings, but Peter freaks out and one day while they are arguing near a cliff, she falls off the side and is injured. In the hospital, it was discovered that she was carrying Gary's child and has lost it when she fell. Gary then finds out her real name when she looks through her yearbook and discovers that Peter is her brother. Jill admits to Gary that Peter is her brother. Gary thinks she means she is Galveston's daughter (not true). Gary asks Jill to marry him, but he keeps postponing the date. Abby then warns her about Valene, Gary's first wife. Jill and Gary resume their affair and decide to go away, but when Peter's mother Sylvia Lean dies and is about to be buried, they decide to stay. Soon, Peter is found dead at Lotus Point and the prime suspects are Abby (whom he had an affair with) and her daughter Olivia (who he was leading on to retrieve a letter Sylvia had written).

Season 9

Jill then gets upset that Gary is spending a lot of his time with Valene, whose recent husband, Ben Gibson, left for South America. Valene tells Gary he is the father of the twins. Jill tells Gary that she is sick of his ex-wives, step-children and secret children, and moves out. Later they make up, and she moves back in. Then it is revealed that Peter was accidentally killed by his latest lover, Paige Matheson, and his ashes are on Greg's mantlepiece. She steals the ashes and scatters them off a mountainside. Gary and Val then make love, but she feels guilty about hurting Jill. Gary then tells Jill that his heart will always go to Val. This sets Jill off, and she tries to get Val to sign a document stating that Gary is indeed the twins' real father. Val signs the paper saying Gary is the twins' father. She gives it to him and says she knows he loves them, and would want him to raise them if anything ever happened to her. He says she's a good mother and rips the paper up. When Gary spends more and more time with Val, Jill gets so mad that she hires a forger to write letters to Val pretending to be Ben. Then she sends a taped message of Ben's voice to Val's answering machine. Then she secretly breaks into Val's house and steals the tapes back, making Val out to be a crazy person. Jill overhears Val tell neighbors that she is so wound up about Ben that her doctor prescribed sleeping pills, but she won't get them. Jill steals the prescription and gets it filled. The next phase of her plan to get rid of Val: Jill tells Gary she is going to a conference in San Francisco. Wearing a disguise, she buys a junket car and hides a gun in it. On the plane and at the conference, Jill introduces herself to lots of people. She seduces a man named David, and slips a pill into his drink. She takes him to her room where he passes out. Jill undresses him and messes up the bed. She calls Gary, then tells the hotel operator to hold her calls until the next morning. Jill flies back to Los Angeles and dons another disguise. In the season finale, Jill then goes to Val's house and holds her at gunpoint. She says the letters and calls from Ben were a hoax, and she had the forger write a suicide note for Val that says Val found out Ben is dead. Jill forces Val to take sleeping pills saying if she doesn't, she'll shoot Val, and it's better if the twins find her asleep rather than with her brains splattered all over the room. Val pleads with her, and Jill says she's sick of everyone calling her "Poor Val" and as long as she's alive, Gary will always run to take care of her. Jill forces her to take more pills. David wakes up and Jill comes out of the shower saying she had a great night with him. Back home, Val's passed out on the floor with the phone off the hook in her hands.....

"Poor Jill"

The following season, Val is discovered by neighbor Frank Williams and his wife Patricia and rushed to the hospital. Jill then tries to kill Val again by messing with her IV tube, but is stopped by a roommate. Val wakes up, but no one believes her accusations that Jill tried to murder her, and say she hallucinated because of the pills. Val is then scared out of her wits and tells Gary to leave her alone so Jill can leave her alone. They then investigate Jill's trip to San Francisco. Jill then tells Gary about her affair with David Lamb. Val meets with David, but he denies the affair. Jill tells Gary she can prove it, and meets David at a restaurant to talk about their affair, while Gary sits nearby to listen. Gary tells Val that Jill really did have an affair. Gary orders Jill out of his life. Jill spies on Gary and orders invitations for her and Gary's wedding. David bursts into Jill's office and says she is a slut who gave him VD. The Health Dept. calls both Jill and Gary to say that they have been exposed to Syphilis. Jill makes her appointment right before Gary's and tells the doctor they're getting married. Gary overhears the nurse ask Jill if she wants another prescription. Gary calls the doctor and says Jill wants another prescription, and he'd like the insurance transcript. He discovers it was for barbiturates, and was filled before Jill went to San Francisco. The doctor tells Gary that neither he nor Jill has an STD. Gary thinks it's strange that Jill didn't get VD from David, and tells Mack he thinks Val may be telling the truth. Gary, the MacKenzies and the Williams wonder why Jill had gotten barbiturates, and remember that Val hadn't had her prescription filled. Pat says if a barbiturate is mixed with alcohol, it will knock someone out. Mack and Gary go to see David Lamb, who admits to them that all he remembers is going to Jill's room, and then waking up the next day. Gary then takes Val and the kids to the ranch where they can be safe. Jill then tried to debilitate Gary by cutting a strap on one of his horse saddles, but the Williams' daughter Julie gets hurt instead! A ranch hand tells Gary his saddle had deliberately been cut. Gary goes to Jill and screams at her that he will not allow her to hurt Val or the twins. Finally, Jill continues breaking into the ranch, so Gary bursts into her office and screams to get out of his life. The Police later serve Gary with a restraining order. Jill runs into the twins at the library, and when Val finds out she barges into Jill's office and trashes it. Val screams at Jill to stay away from her and grabs a scissors. Scared Val will stab her, she runs from the office. Hearing Jill saw the twins, Gary rushes to Jill's apartment. Val goes to Jill's and tries to calm Gary down. They walk over to a park to talk. Driving home, Gary is pulled over by the police. They open his trunk. Jill is in the trunk - bound, gagged, and dead.

Murder or Suicide?

Gary is arrested and charged for Jill's murder, but an interesting discovery gets him off: The key to his car is found with Jill's print on it. Bobby shows Karen some rope tricks. She recognizes the "clove hitch" which is the knot on the ropes tying up Jill. It is a trick knot, and they realize Jill tied herself up. They find out Jill took 3 books out of the library that explained how to do this knot. Mac and Karen recreate how Jill could have killed herself, and a fingerprint in Gary's trunk confirms this. All charges against Gary are dropped.