![maurice benard, maura west](https://www.soapoperadigest.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Maurice-Benard-Maura-West-1024x571.jpg)
ABC
Playing The Long Game: Sonny (Maurice Benard) may have won this round when he kicked Ava (Maura West) out of his penthouse, but she still has an ace or two up her sleeve.
Revenge is a dish best served cold.
Right, Kyle? The Abbott scion had been seething for months on Y&R about his unqualified mother becoming his boss at Jabot, and then he got the chance to do something about it.
Kyle: “My dad appointed her co-CEO — my old job — despite her having no experience. So now I report to my mom. Brutal. I earned that job, and my dad snatched it away from me and gave it to my mom like some sort of wedding present.”
Claire: “Have you thought about going somewhere else?”
Funny you should ask. Claire’s grandfather, Victor Newman, had been wooing Kyle to jump ship to his latest acquisition, Glissade, but Kyle was on the fence — until Diane fired him.
Kyle: “Mom gave me a pink slip. Did you agree to this?”
Jack: “No.”
Diane: “I was trying to reach you to avoid a scene.”
Jack: “It seems a bit late for that. What could possibly have happened that would lead you to fire our son?”
Diane cited Kyle’s insubordination and his insistence on doing “her” job and Kyle retorted that she turned his “good intentions into fireable offenses.” Jack face was like WHAT? but he couldn’t reel in the drama. Kyle stormed out.
Hello Victor!
Victor: “Are you ready to become a serious competitor of Jabot?”
Kyle: “I have every intention of giving Jabot a run for their money.”
But first he had to make peace with chaos agent Audra, with whom he’d had numerous sex romps when they weren’t backstabbing each other.
Audra: “Stay in your lane and we’ll be fine.”
What’s that old adage? The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Audra has no use for Kyle’s mother, so they found common ground.
Audra: “Diane went all snarky mama bear on me. So overprotective of her little boy! You sure she’s turned on you?”
Kyle: “My mom also let me believe she was dead for years, so there’s a lack of consistency there.”
Kudos to Y&R for finally playing Kyle’s resentment at having been abandoned by Diane. Jack and Diane are oblivious to Kyle’s feelings, so of course the news that their son has joined forces with Victor and will now be their competitor hit them hard.
Audra (to Kyle): “Maybe this is what you wanted all along — retaliation against the family who doesn’t appreciate you.”
Bingo! That little schemer is growing on me.
Speaking of schemers, revenge is coming for DAYS’ EJ DiMera. When I watch him, I hear the “Cell Block Tango” from Chicago in my head:
“He had it comin’
He had it comin’
He only had himself to blame.”
EJ had just handled Stefan blackmailing him (to get Gabi out of prison) when Melinda Trask showed up with her new immunity agreement to make EJ pay.
Melinda: “Now there’s nothing you can do to me when I tell Nicole that Eric is Jude’s father.”
EJ: “Why would you do something like that?”
Melinda: “Spite. You forced Mayor Price to move me out so you could take my job. You blew up my life without a second thought. So, I am going to blow up yours.”
Nicole (entering): “What’s going on here?”
Gabi’s homecoming interrupted them, giving EJ the chance to offer Melinda a job at DiMera to keep her quiet. But too many people knew about Jude’s paternity for it to stay secret for long. Gabi was the one who got the honors. Revenge was sweet… for now.
B&B’s Steffy thinks she triumphed over Hope, but there’s Steffy’s husband rubbing Hope’s head to relieve her “headaches,” so that’s a ticking time bomb, too. I wonder how Finn would feel if he saw how his wife talks to his new stepsister and “close friend.”
Hope (to Thomas): “I will always love you.”
Steffy (entering): “Don’t even think about hurting my brother again!”
Meanwhile, I’m a card-carrying fan of Dollar Bill… but in what universe does a smart millionaire accept a DNA test performed in his living room by the sister of the woman claiming he fathered her child? Poppy’s been suspect ever since her “mints” drugged her own child, and her eagerness to jump on that DNA bandwagon should have been a giant red flag to Bill Spencer.
Instead, we got this:
Bill: “I’d like to adopt Luna.”
Poppy: “I couldn’t imagine a better future for my daughter — or for me. Luna Spencer! Nothing and no one can take this from you.”
Cut to Poppy confronting the homeless guy who could take this from her.
Poppy: “Stay away from me and stay away from my daughter!”
Tom: “Our daughter.”
It would serve Bill right to get swindled after his complete lack of due diligence with that gold digger. Tom won’t be talking, though: he’s dead. Is Poppy a murderer? Lots of B-listers at that shindig could have poisoned his “blue drink.” Time will tell.
Karma’s coming for GH’s Ava, too. We still don’t know why she kept quiet after learning Sonny’s meds had been tampered with, but Sonny’s uneven behavior came back to bite her when he kicked her out of his penthouse.
Sonny: “This arrangement no longer works for me.”
Ava: “You can’t just toss me out with no warning.”
Sonny: “Go stay with whatever friends you have left. We are done.”
Sonny turned on Ava so fast she didn’t even have time to make a martini! Enter Blaze’s mother to try and appease the mob boss.
Sonny (to Natalia): “Ava was — and always will be — a treacherous viper.”
So is Natalia. She got hers when Ava released that tape of Natalia trashing gay people, including her own daughter. It was like a round-robin of retribution.
Which brings us to Nina. I used to like her, but I’m starting to hope Drew Cain, er, Drew Quartermaine, takes her with him when he goes to Washington. Her actions are all over the map with Drew, painfully needy with Willow, and woefully missing with Sonny, a slap in the face to all the ‘Sona’ fans who devoted three years to that soapy romance.
However, I did appreciate the finale to all those months of Nina torturing Alexis at The Invader coming down to this:
Alexis: “Excuse me. This is important.”
Nina: “It’s going to have to wait. Or have you forgotten I’m your boss?”
Alexis: “Not anymore.”
Alexis quits.
Nina: “We have a contract!”
Alexis (walking out): “No, we don’t.”
That’s how you serve up revenge: Ice cold.
Hey. It’s only my opinion.