Allied Forces: The Y&R partnership of Billy (Jason Thompson) and Phyllis (Michelle Stafford) and Anna’s (Finola Hughes) surprise Kenyan reunion with Holly on GH were among the highlights of the week.

The Best

Young and Restless: Phyllis Teams Up With Billy

What could go wrong? The ego-driven Abbott scion (who drove Lily out of the company she helped build) teaming up with his ex who has toiled at every business in Genoa City except Crimson Lights. Jabot, Newman Enterprises, Restless Style, The Grand Phoenix, Dark Horse… you name it, Phyllis has hit it and quit it. But she talks a good game and that’s what Billy needed, so he hired her and welcomed her business plan which consisted of “fighting dirty.” 

First up? Connecting the dots that Victor was pulling a sneak attack on Chancellor (with Lily’s help) to bring Billy Boy down. Fun tentacles include Billy’s past marriage to Victoria Newman and Phyllis’s to Nick Newman, added reasons for Victor to want to bury them. In the battle of two black sheep vs. The Black Knight, who will win? 

Viewers!  

Bold and Beautiful: Taylor’s WHAT?!

There were the Logan sisters talking about how “magical” and “beautiful” Brooke’s relationship was with Ridge, which usually means trouble. “I feel good that I’m with the man I’m meant to be with for the rest of my life,” Brooke gushed to Katie and Donna. 

Cut to Ridge and Taylor reminiscing about their late daughter Phoebe, who hasn’t been mentioned in years. Hmmm. Ridge said he hoped Taylor would stick around L.A. and Taylor admitted she always thought they’d grow old together. “You’re the love of my life,” she told her ex. It looked like B&B was heading for another retread of the Ridge/Brooke/Taylor triangle (Ridge has wed Brooke eight times; Taylor twice) when… Record scratch.

“I’m dying,” Taylor told Li. 

The jury’s out on that, but it does explain Taylor getting nostalgic about Phoebe since mother and daughter may be seeing each other soon. Good for B&B for zigging when we thought they were going to zag.

Days of our Lives: Salem Gets A Clue

A strange woman posing as stabbing victim Abigail Deveraux with plastic surgery is being blackmailed by Clyde Weston into marrying Abigail’s widowed husband Chad. A DNA test was done (which means nothing in Salem; faux Abby’s brother conducted it) so most of Abigail’s loved ones were like Hey, welcome back from the dead! 

But not Abby’s Uncle Steve. He’s been raising questions, finally landing on crooked Clyde. The vile inmate played coy, asking Steve why he would think Abigail is an imposter. “For one thing, she’s got a brand new face,” he quipped.

Meanwhile, Chad’s sister Kristen questioned how Abigail could have survived her brutal stabbing — and where’s she been all this time? Chad accused his sister of being nasty but she chalked it up to healthy skepticism as well as not wanting Chad to get hurt. 

Here’s a sentence we never thought we’d write: Listen to Kristen DiMera.

General Hospital: Holly Returns — With A Caper!

The hunt for Lucky Spencer turned into a James Bond movie when Jason and Anna teamed up to find the international man of mystery holding Lucky hostage in Somalia. They found Sidwell in a Monte Carlo-style casino full of dressy extras with a beautiful moll on his arm: Holly Sutton! There’s no love lost between Robert Scorpio exes Holly and Anna so it looked like Holly was going to rat Anna out for stealing Sidwell’s phone, until Anna explained she was there to save Lulu Spencer. Their mutual love for Luke kicked in and the ladies joined forces to provoke an invite back to Sidwell’s camp where Jason and Anna would inevitably beat back 100 guys with guns to rescue Lucky from his prison cell and bring him (and his organs) home to save Lulu.

But hold up! Sidwell was onto Jason and Anna as they all decamped to the camp, telling Holly the duo would “get what they deserve.” Can Holly stop hustling long enough to be the hero? 

 

The Worst

B&B: Bill’s Family: Just Add Water

B&B has a strange habit of telling us what we should like instead of showing us. Bill Spencer spent months creating a new family with a long-ago love named Poppy and “their” daughter Luna, moving them into his house and announcing he wanted to officially adopt Luna. Then Poppy was arrested, Luna turned out to be a psycho, and Bill wasn’t her dad after all. All of a sudden, Bill now wants to spend quality time with his ex-wife Katie and their recently returned son Will. 

You can’t just slot new people into Bill’s house and call them a family. There are story beats to be played, hurt feelings to be addressed, messy stories from the past to play (like Will’s dad cheating on his mom with his aunt Brooke). But there were Katie, Bill and Will beaming over all the happy memories they had supposedly built in that house, with Katie proposing, “You know what this family needs? A Spencer family hug!” 

As opposed to the family hug Bill was having with Poppy and Luna literally six weeks ago… Don’t tell us that the Spencers are a family. Show us! 

DAYS: Connie Eats The Show

Connie talking to a cardboard cutout is not a story. And the fact that she fooled supposedly smart people like Melinda, Jada, Ava and Gabi is a black mark against all of them. But the worst part of this cartoonish tale was how much of the show it took up. Connie held Melinda hostage for over a month, then kidnapped Gabi and managed to get both women bound, gagged, and into the DiMera basement without anyone noticing — along with a ticking time bomb. Topping off the preposterousness was that Connie walked around narrating her crimes: “Two bitches with one stone, no need to worry about the police finding evidence!” 

Next came holding a knife to Ava’s throat and accusing Stefan of being responsible for her “boyfriend” Li Shin’s death — a crime Connie herself committed. “Now I’m really lost,” replied Stefan. Join the club.