CBS; GENERALHOSPITAL/X (formerly Twitter)
1. Days of our Lives: Gabi returns
There’s been a hole in the Salem action without guileful Gabi Hernandez DiMera, so all hail her return from prison! Not surprisingly, Gabi’s husband Stefan blackmailed EJ into shepherding her release (with the info that Eric is Jude’s father) along with an assist from Gabi’s brother. When Rafe arrived with the good news, he and Gabi hugged and were quickly chastised.
Prison guard: “No touching.”
Stefan: “You want to see touching? I’ll show you touching!”
Stefan grabbed his wife and kissed her, foreshadowing some racy shower scenes…
The irony of Gabi being wrongly sent away for killing Li Shin when she actually did kill Nick Fallon was not lost on us, but there are only so many ways to explain the absence of a front-burner character while searching for a replacement actress.
So, welcome back Gabi – and welcome to Salem, Cherie Jimenez!
2. General Hospital: Finn hits rock bottom
Losing Gregory was hard, but watching his son Finn — a recovering addict — hit the bottle was harder. Finn broke up with Liz, told off Alexis, Tracy and Chase, and got so drunk that his daughter Violet found him passed out and bleeding. That brought Tracy into the action for some tough love: Chase and Brook Lynn scooped up Violet and took her to the Q mansion while Finn was served a restraining order.
Finn resisted, asking Scotty to help him sue everyone. He declined.
Scotty: “You have to fix yourself.”
With nothing left to lose, Finn said a tearful good-bye to Violet (hello, Emmy reels!) and checked himself into rehab.
3. Young and Restless: Karma’s a bitch
The scheming Audra thought she had it all figured out when she teamed up with Victor to wrest Glissade away from Tucker. Finally, she would be CEO of a cosmetics company!
Victor: “I want Kyle to become your co-CEO.”
Oops.
Kyle’s calculating mother, Diane, also thought she had a clear path at Jabot after she fired her own son (!). Jack was not pleased, and it caused him to take stock of what’s happened at Jabot since he appointed his wife co-CEO.
Jack: “I hate that the Abbott family company has so few Abbotts. First Ashley, then Billy, now Kyle. It’s depressing.”
Add that to the universal hatred of his wife by the women in Jack’s life (Ashley, Nikki, Phyllis) and Diane’s Karma could be next — especially when Jack learns Kyle accepted that co-CEO job from Victor Newman.
4. Bold and Beautiful: Thomas returns — engaged to Paris!
When we last saw Thomas, he was begging Hope to marry him and she was saying it was too soon after the end of her fifth marriage (to Liam). So Thomas went to Paris and found… Paris.
Thomas (to Hope): “Soon Paris and I will be married and it will be official.”
His quickie engagement did not sit well with Hope, but Steffy was all over it. She got in Hope’s face every chance she got and went out of her way to welcome Paris to the family, saying, “Hope put Thomas through hell. I’m grateful you’re in his life.”
Steffy and Hope already had plenty to fight about (Finn, Sheila, Brooke) but Thomas engaged to yet another Forrester Creations employee just moved to the top of the list.
5. GH: The more the merrier at the Quartermaines
Bringing Tracy back and moving Lois into the mansion was entertaining enough, but now Cody, Sasha, Chase, Brook Lynn, Violet and Gio are staying at the Q’s while Josslyn and Trina are moving into the (suddenly available) garage apartment. The possibilities for skirmishes, run-ins and hook-ups are endless. Bring it!
…. And One Thing We Didn’t Love
DAYS: Lucas leaves again
Lucas Horton is a flawed, fretful, funny legacy character who’s been around for over 30 years. The son of trouble-making Kate Roberts, he’s also related to OG’s Tom, Alice, Julie, Hope and Sarah, and his rocky romance with Sami Brady is legendary — so it makes no sense that DAYS keeps writing him out.
At least he shared some meaningful good-byes before leaving town.
First stop was Kate, unhappy to hear her son was going to Phoenix to visit his kids Will and Allie. Next came Julie and Chad who confided they have a video that might prove Abigail is still alive.
Lucas: “I think Clyde’s playing mind games with you. We all wish it were true.”
And we wish Lucas was sticking around.
