ABC; JPI(3)
(From l.) GH’s Ava (Maura West), B&B’s Hope (Annika Noelle), DAYS’s EJ (Dan Feuerriegel) and Y&R’s Traci (Beth Maitland) had big weeks.
I harp all the time about how important it is for shows to use history to advance story, but it has to be actual history to be effective.
A few months ago, B&B’s Brooke told Ridge she deserves a man who loves her completely, and that isn’t him. She was fed up with his insistence on calling Forrester his family business and being attacked by Taylor and Steffy as “inferior” for being a Logan. She even slapped him across the face and declared, “I’m done!”
Fast forward to this week when Brooke begged Ridge to take her back.
Brooke: “I’m still hurt by how you turned to Taylor so quickly, but I am willing to look past that. I want to forget about the pain. I want to move forward [kisses him]. I want you to come home. I’m your Logan, the love of your life. Come back to me where you belong.”
When you have to remind a man that he loves you, he doesn’t. How could Brooke feel she “deserves a man who loves her completely” in January — and two months later beg Ridge to come back after he’s gotten even closer to Taylor? We watched Brooke stand up for herself, and nothing has changed since that moment. Brooke is more inferior than ever at Forrester Creations, Steffy is still dissing “Logan women” (and, yes, fired Hope), and Ridge moved in with Taylor. All that speech did was diminish the feisty character of Brooke Logan Forrester who has spent 38 years fighting for what’s hers.
Better (or worse, depending on how you look at it) was Carter completely wimping out on yet another relationship in favor of his “family,” the Forresters.
Hope: “You folded like a house of cards! You don’t have what it takes to lead a company or to be with me.”
Indeed, Carter flitted from Zoe to Quinn to Paris to Katie to her niece Hope in four years, disappointing all five women in the end by just… fizzling out. Hope did right by dumping him because history shows Carter will always abandon her when the chips are down — like he just did.
History also shows that Y&R’s Traci can’t have nice things in the romance department, but we did get some sweet scenes after she got engaged to Alan. Traci asked Jack to walk her down the aisle, which sparked poignant memories of her weddings to Danny Romalotti, Brad Carlton, and Steve Connolly, and her dad escorting her to the altar back then. You can never go wrong with a love-fest for a departed patriarch like John Abbott (or Neil Winters or Katherine Chancellor) because every mention is like a warm hug.
Back to Traci’s nutbag fiancé… He locked Phyllis and Sharon in a clinic where they alternately screamed, fought, and “died,” and are now struggling to cope on the outside. Weeks of those two women trying to figure out why they hate each other could have been solved with a few quality flashbacks (both were married to Nick Newman and Jack Abbott and had affairs with Billy Abbott, start there) and the end game of them learning how to “co-exist” makes no sense for a soap that needs more drama, not less. But at least fiction writer Traci was the one to put the pieces together re: the kidnapping.
Sharon: “This was a psychological experiment. Our captor may have known us.”
Traci (recalling the gas alert on Alan’s phone): “You were intentionally gassed?”
Traci immediately took her suspicions to the person she’s been counting on for 40 years: Jack.
DAYS has been revisiting EJ’s rape of Sami for weeks now, using it to great effect to create drama and move story along. EJ apologized to an unforgiving Johnny, lashed out at Kate for telling Johnny, diminished his “lover” Belle’s standing as DA when she refused to prosecute him, and most recently cost Johnny and Chanel the baby they were trying to adopt.
Amy (reading from The Spectator): “ ‘Even in a family full of felons, EJ stands out as a ruthless operator.’ The timing of this article is the clear sign from God that I’ve been seeking. This adoption cannot happen.”
Amy also noted that Spectator boss Chad printing the allegations about his own brother must mean they are true. Cue the mayor turning on the dastardly DiMera for costing Chanel her chance to be a mother.
Paulina (to EJ): “The adoption fell through because of you and your litany of crimes. No one messes with my baby and gets away with it!”
Sounds like a threat. Meanwhile, Johnny wants no part of anything DiMera; he moved out of the house and disowned his father.
Johnny (to EJ): “Everything you touch dies. The destruction you leave in your wake, the women you leave as shells of themselves… What you did was unforgivable. You’re dead to me.”
Just how dead remains to be seen, but Johnny repeatedly eyeing a sharp knife and vowing that he won’t let EJ get away with his crimes looks like we’re heading for a whodunnit.
There’s no history to revisit on the month-old Beyond The Gates, but they’ve planted quality seeds in the pasts of their rich characters. We can expect that Dani’s inability to let her former marriage and modeling career go will have dire consequences, Anita will find her way to a microphone and sing again (with “The Articulates”?) and Martin’s “explosive” secret will blow up on all those perfectly-coiffed Duprees.
Martin: “Who died?”
Anita: “Your career if you even think of running for the presidency.”
Sonny almost died on GH, thanks to Ava. Their argument escalated to the point where he clutched his heart and fell to the floor reaching for his pills.
Ava (not helping): “What is it, Sonny? Is something wrong? Should I call 911? Isn’t it awful to be in need when no one will help you?”
That was a fantastic callback to 1980 when Tracy withheld Edward’s heart medication in a similar scenario, except Edward was faking. Sonny later explained to Laura that he got shot in the chest and it damaged his heart. Which time?! It would have been a fun walk down memory lane if the old pals had revisited if Sonny’s heart trouble had been caused by a bullet from Paul Hornsby… or Johnny Zacchara… or mob thug Ronnie D… or was it when he got shot breaking Frank Smith out of prison? Ah, history!
On a similar note, I appreciated Felicia talking to Carly about the hardship of loving a WSB agent (shout-out to Frisco!) and the history lesson on the Cassadine family when Valentin admitted to Alexis that he was the one who made sure Ava’s divorce settlement from Nikolas was clawed back and put into the Cassadine fund for Ace.
But Portia keeping Drew’s blackmail threats from her husband — who also hates Drew — makes no sense. She almost lost Curtis over the lie that Taggert was Trina’s dad, and he warned her to never do it again.
Ava: “Maybe you should tell Curtis what’s going on.”
Portia: “Secrets are what ruined his marriage to Jordan. I don’t want that to destroy mine.”
Oh, sweetie. If there’s one thing history has taught us, it’s that soap secrets always come out.
Hey. It’s only my opinion.
