Expert: Carmen Curtis - 10/27/2006

Question
My question is about Valerie Malone.  I'm a huge Val fan, but I've never seen the episode where she departs the series.  Where does she go and why?  The last episode I've seen with her in it is the episode where she is about to turn herself in to the police for killing her father.  

Thanks!

Answer
Hi Vice,
Val's last episode is the one right after she plans to confess to the police about killing the father. It's the episode called "You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello." It's Thanksgiving, season 9, and Kelly comes over to the Walsh house to pick up some of Brandon's stuff. Kelly discovers a note that Val wrote Brandon telling him not to marry Kelly. Kelly is outraged and tells the rest of the gang. She gets the gang to boycott the Thanksgiving dinner that Val planned, and Val is really hurt. David sees how upset Val is and tells Kelly how Val was abused and killed her father, so a contrite Kelly decides to convince everyone to celebrate with Val as planned (but doesn't tell them about Val's secret). When the gang arrives for the Thanksgiving dinner, Val announces to the whole group that she is moving back to Buffalo, NY to live with her mom. She apologizes for how she treated the gang, saying that even though her methods were off, she really wanted to be a part of the group. She and Kelly make peace and call it even in terms of how they treated each other. Val leaves that night, and says goodbye to David last, telling him it's time for her to look to the future and "never, ever look back." She was crying and it was a sad moment. I think she left because she realized that she needed a fresh start and to put the stuff with her father behind her. Val comes back for the final episode where Donna and David get married and tells the boys that she has a new love interest who knows all about her past and is OK with it, so it seems that she got a happy ending.
Hope this helps!
Carmen