Welcome to the brand-spankin' new 'Moment of the Week,' a weekly (of course!) segment of Sunset Central devoted the week's greatest shocker, funniest fantasy, five-Kleenex tearjerker, or...well, you get it, right?

My personal choice for this week's biggest moment is probably everyone else's pick, too, and if you were watching, you probably know why. If not, this should catch you up:

After already being blown away when Ricardo stopped dropping hints and just beat her over the head with the question about Antonio in bed (right before 'being man and wife together for the first time'), the collective audience could have been knocked over with a feather when (during afterglow, no less!) he just handed her the VCR remote and said to her, "I want you to press play." And, even though some little voice in the back of her mind may have spelled out for her what was going on, she really wasn't expecting it. Then, there it was: that notorious, unforgettable image of his brother, Father Antonio and longtime girlfriend/new wife Gabi's cavorting bodies amidst the rubble of AJ's office after the Liberty Corporation explosion. (Geez, that tape gets around more than most people!)

The look that spread across Gabi's face like jelly on toast was every bit as classic as Ricardo's when he had his first encounter with the tape of his brother and wife's unholy alliance. (I made a funny! Get it, "unholy?" 'Cause, see they're... Oh, forget it.) At once she had the horrible realization of what Ricardo must think of Antonio, of her. He didn't know the full story, and if she were to explain it to him even now, it would never be enough. After months of lying, covering up, circumventing hints, and delicately stepping around questions--just trying to forget the whole sordid mess--here it was, forced into her face. Nowhere to run, too afraid and ashamed to glance at her husband, too mesmerized by the memory of that forbidden, passionate, fearful night, she sat unable to turn her face away from the screen. She pressed her hand to her heart, and you could hear it slowly, painfully shatter piece by piece. Tears rolled down her deeply anguished face and our hearts went out to her, knowing all too well that her entire world had begun to fall down around her ears and the poor girl didn't even have a straw to grasp at.

After playing second fiddle to the divine Margarita Cordova (Carmen) at Gabi and Ricardo's "wedding" (can you really call it that?) back in the spring, Priscilla Garita's heartbroken and conflicted Gabi got to lead the emotion this time around, and an outstanding job she did. It's going to be interesting to see Gabi's reaction to the 'greater scheme of things' that Ricardo has planned...it doesn't appear to be over yet.

Hank Cheyne, who has really made his mark these past few months as Ricardo, sat with stone-faced hatred while Gabi gazed at the television. That was all we needed. He didn't have to say a word. After all these months of silently living with the heart-wrenching secret that the world worked so hard to keep from him, he was finally getting his chance to hurt Gabi the way she had so inevitably hurt him, but he wasn't enjoying it, no; it seems like he thought it would be enjoyable, but it was really only twisting the knife for himself. He, too, had to relive the painful memory. His was different from Gabi's, but boy, was it painful. In addition to that, he had to watch his wife's heart tear in two, knowing that it was he who had done the deed, and knowing, possibly more agonizingly, that seeing her in pain still hurt him.

It has been truly fascinating watching Ricardo grapple with his disgust and hate for Gabi and his very true love for her. Maybe love really can survive anything. (Look what it's stared down so far: An evil twin; an alluring sister; alcoholism; a capsized ship; a wife back from the dead; having a wife "dead" for two years; having the town jerk for a husband; the pain of losing a love to a bitter rival; twenty years, seven husbands, and "a strongbox of divorce papers to keep me warm at night;" and yes, folks, even a turkey baster. Never a dull moment in Sunset Beach, huh?) Cheyne is infinitely lucky to have, in this writer's opinion, one of the most complex and heavily psychological roles in daytime, a role that is allowing him to grow as an actor while simultaneously challenging him; a good, meaty role that some table-waiting audition regulars would kill for; and the chance to consistently surprise his audience by showing a side of his tense, raw talent that has not yet been fleshed out. On the other side of the table, the audience (not to mention "Beach") is very lucky to have the opportunity to watch it all happen.

Gabi's long-awaited discovery that Ricardo knows what she did last winter (Ha!) could have had a much bigger buildup, and was almost anticlimactic, being that it just sort of happened. But, then, everything can't always be big. As executive producer Gary Tomlin once said in an interview, "If you make everything bigger, then nothing is big." And you know what? If you read into the heavily understated performances that this and the following scenes allowed these two of the cast's best to craft, maybe it really was a lot bigger than it looked.

MOMENT OF THE WEEK HOSTED BY: Duante