Sammy Jo plans to use Rita to impersonate Krystle and trick the bank into releasing her inheritance. Soon Rita's lover, Joel Abrigore, takes over the scheme, intending for Rita to embezzle as much of Blake's money as possible. Joel kidnaps Krystle, and Rita takes her place in the Carrington mansion. Sammy Jo becomes uncomfortable with the plan when she suspects that Joel and Rita poisoning Blake. In "The Alarm" (1986), a frightened Sammy Jo confesses to Steven. He saves his father from Rita while Sammy Jo frees Krystle from captivity. Blake and Krystle agree not to press charges in return for Sammy Jo's cooperation with the police search for Joel and Rita. Sammy Jo becomes romantically involved with Clay Fallmont. When she catches him kissing his ex-girlfriend Amanda Carrington—Steven's younger sister—at the La Mirage hotel, the women get into a fight and fall into the pool while the hotel is consumed by fire.