Vee

I think some things were Frank's preference or pressure from within (like from Tony Geary or even occasionally ABC re: Sonny and the mob), but I think Ron mostly dug his own grave. I think the fatal moment was 2013 and the OLTL 3 coming back which really started a slide from their prior rise to glory (after a year full of ugly storylines and bad mistakes as well as good things), but there's a lot of lowlights.

How long have you got?

I think if it had been up to the show, both in 2010-2011 or 2012, Luke would have stopped drinking. But TG had an incredible amount of power to wield at GH because of who he was, so you got a half-assed cartoon intervention where Luke keeps drinking and Tony is still allowed to give ridiculous interviews to Michael Logan or whoever insisting that Luke is not an alcoholic, he can handle his drinking even when he gets drunk and kills people. That was such nonsense he spouted, and he used to be so insightful in his interviews re: Luke's psyche and backstory (the Bill Eckert-era interviews are a journey too, let me tell you). Even his exit interview, while self-serving, had a lot of insight. It was very clearly Ron Carlivati's intent from Day 1 to reunite Luke and Laura. That was the holy grail. He canonizes it by having Starr Manning and Cole from OLTL drive into town raving about the legend of Luke and Laura, IIRC. But he never got to do it, and ultimately that clash and other big mistakes on his part are likely a part of what cost him his job.

I think a lot of the early Todd rehabilitation story worked, particularly the stuff with Rebecca who I adored, and the early romance with Blair. But I also understood what made Howarth leave the first time, the valorization of him as a fantasy dark prince with money. While Roger came back willing to act in 2011 and did a good job then and in 2013, I don't think most of the rest of his time at OLTL was ever the same. Howarth makes it very clear in a recent podcast interview he did with a major media outlet - I think it was Slate Magazine, which talked to him and Susan and Michael Malone, among others - that he was more than happy to leave in 2003 because he 'never felt right' taking the money as Todd in those years; he said he spent it as quickly as he possibly could. It seems like even playing a miscast role on ATWT as a standard male lead was a relief for him from the burden of the rapist. Of course, he's now spent years playing a serial killer so go figure. His attitude has mellowed over time, he made that very clear too (and began doing much more press). I don't regret Roger Howarth starring on the show, and I loved a lot of Todd stories over the years. At the same time I don't think you can ever fully get away from the shadow of sexual violence cast over the show from several stories, not just his, and I don't think there is any need to ever make rapist twins leads on a soap again.

Zero. I suspect the show intended for it to be Robert until TG stepped in, enamored of Nathan Parsons in a way that definitely was not at all creepy onscreen. I suspect Tony did it twice, too - Ron Carlivati seemed revved up to finally reveal Ethan was Robert's on NP's way out the door early in '12 when Tristan Rogers first returned, only for the show to swiftly reset back to TG's preference. (Ron had also tried to handle and do away with Luke's alcoholism, until Tony began improvising drinking at the Q mansion and they just gave up.) I don't think the timeline from the occasional '80s mentions of L&L can necessarily be relied upon based on what we now know of Luke and Laura's family life from the copious mentions of backstory since they all came back. I just assumed they were back on the run sometime from the mid-late '80s onward, and led to many overseas capers, some of them together, some of them separated (hence Luke's quietly tolerated dalliances with Holly and allegedly other women, if you listen to Tony Geary which I don't much).

Episode 10 (Homecoming): John Pleshette directs! Always nice to have him back. A lot of the focus this ep is on Sumner and Mary Frances and the interplay between them, as he flakes on her for a lunch date and then they each catch each other with their respective new partners - she knows he is fùcking Abby and not her absent mother. Danielle Brisebois is great with the Fairgate household and Eric, who eagerly hopes to slot himself into her 'past, present and future'. Steve Shaw has great comic timing with her and they really are sweet, and have chemistry bantering and making out. In the scene near the end of the ep where she's in his bedroom wearing just a t-shirt, I admit I wondered if something had already gone down. He seemed fully dressed though, and I have my doubts Eric has popped his cherry yet. There's an interesting moment early in this ep with Gary in his element at Westfork, riding on his steed with Cathy to triumphal music while Diana is the odd artist out. Cathy takes his offer to work on the ranch and then discovers Ciji's album cover, but still is willing to go out on the town with Gary and adorn herself with all-new clothes and hair, including a very Ciji-adjacent red spangled dress. "My wife's at the office," Gary drolly explains at what is presumably a Beverly Hills boutique. "She works, I shop. It's a very modern relationship." Gary is very clearly doing Cathy up a la Hitchcock's Vertigo, which I understand was the original intent for this storyline - supposedly they'd planned something where Cathy was going to gaslight or torment Gary, but I don't know the details at all of this supposed early concept. Nonetheless, Cathy here seems to be more the ingenue, lost in a whole new world and fascinated by the spectre of Ciji amidst Gary's psychosexual obsession, with Ciji seemingly more confident and capable than her. Seeing her lipsyncing to Ciji's greatest hits in her clothes practically makes Gary nut. Ciji's song hits Laura even from outside Westfork as she approaches the main house, and there's some interesting jump-cutting here to Ciji herself as both Gary and Laura look on at Cathy. They're both stunned and both clearly still smitten, on one level or another (even if I believe Ciji and Laura's relationship was at least physically platonic). Gary tells the outraged Laura that they both loved her and he's right; Ciji and that torch is something they share. I think Gary believes what he tells Laura about having pure motives, and being driven by his guilt over what happened. But that's not all of it, and you can see it in his eyes every time he watches Cathy invoke Ciji in some way. Cathy and Laura together is more pointed and accusatory, but Cathy's candid admission that she'd let Gary do whatever he wanted for what he's giving her was refreshing and not cynical. She seems, at least, very earnest. At the other end of the Ewing household, Laura is now openly fùcking with Abby about Lotus Point and Apolune, her shell company. As she coolly lays out what all her other neighbors and friends and ex-friends have gained over the last couple years (new life, wealth, love) vs. what she has - an empty home, a husband who walked out, a small child - she simply states she wants more and is willing to break or bend old rules to get it. If that means Karen (who was not exactly a pillar of support over Richard, but I don't think that's all her fault) gets the rock, so be it. Pleshette seems keen to focus in on Constance McCashin as much as possible in this episode, and there's a lot of slow zooms in on her as she tells us where she's at on her terms, both her inner and outer life. Gary and Cathy's softcore '80s workouts are too much, and clearly Abby agrees - the framing of the shots as she walks in on Cathy once again pumping iron makes it look like Abby found them mid-coitus. The look she gives Gary is beyond astonishment as she tries to process the doppelganger in their home, but she takes It remarkably in stride the next day, tolerating Gary's confused honesty about his motives, presumably because she's enjoying fùcking Greg Sumner too much. Until Eric and Mary Frances crash her party at the office, that is. Lilimae seemed a little too restrained in and out of the institution as Val finally sprung her. That seems a little too pat for me, I'm not sure where this is going. Meanwhile, Greg's secret parking lot meeting with his mysterious political benefactors is shot and played just like Alan Pakula's classic '70s conspiracy thrillers, a la The Parallax View, All the President's Men, etc. Presumably the "they" being alluded to here is the dreaded Wolfbridge Group or whatever, which both Ben and Mack later seem to allude to at dinner and after as Mack admits to Karen Ben is onto something - he's after some sort of circle of white-collar criminals (operating out of Century City! perish the thought). Again, this raises the question of when and how did they know Devane was staying, because here Greg is very clearly in bed with some murky-seeming people and drawing other characters into it as well. I did like that Mack was classy and genial enough to wipe the slate with Ben and apologize after snapping at him at dinner. He knows Ben is on the right track, but wants to do things his way. Karen couldn't give two [!@#$%^&*] about any of this though, she's still fixated on Mary Frances as a Diana substitute and too dosed on her new happy pills for sex; there's a nice pan to her pill bottle on the nightstand as she dozes off in front of a frustrated Mack. The only thing that cracks Karen's new calm is a painful lunchtime scene with Lilimae and Val. Now that she's out of the cracker barrel Lilimae's instantly gossiping and prodding people again, and that means pill time for Karen! Poor thing. Ben and Val arguing about Mack and making up was sweet. They're already very cozy together but she's not ready for him to stay over. I guess she'll just keep nailing him at his amazing house. Of course Diana is hiding Chip in the stables. What a slug.

Episode 9 (Money Talks): Abby: And what makes you happy? Laura: Money. Still no Lisa Hartman in the opening credits - still wondering when she's added as a contract player. The police are patrolling Westfork searching for Chip/Tony while Diana whines, discovering her own self-obsessed ACAB spirit decades early. Abby, meanwhile, has one of her surprise maternal wisdom moments as she tells Diana she can’t run away from her problems to the ranch or replace Karen with her aunt, and that Chip is running from what he did instead. She's wrong about blaming Karen for Diana's estrangement, but that's Abby's resentments for you. She is still seeking a Dallas-style 'variance' to be able to work on the mysterious Lotus Point property, which makes me think Abby has been watching the same recent repetitive season of the mother show that I casually have on FreeVee where they absolutely could not stop talking about (as always) J.R. and his oil 'variance'. I didn't realize Karen is now working both in Sumner’s campaign office and out of the house for him, but that's typical Karen. The plot point about Mack's formerly jailed colleague who he is springing gets an unusual amount of play in this episode, and we discover later it's connected to his ongoing investigation as a prosecutor-investigator. More on that later on. There's some nice slasher movie camerawork as Cathy creeps up right behind Laura at the ranch to talk to Gary, leaving her gobsmacked, but the real meeting between these two is again, a bit down the road. I was amused at first when Laura suggested a shell company to Gary to stable some of his interests, same as the one Abby's hiding from him, but I should've known - in short order we learn Laura sees right through Abby’s existing scheme, calling her on her dummy corporation and her gambit to cut Karen out of Lotus Point. It seems Laura is willing to hide LP from Karen for a cut though, which did surprise me, but their relationship has unfortunately been degrading for awhile and they were never necessarily on the same emotional wavelength consistently. I suppose Laura feels abandoned by Karen over Richard whereas Laura never abandoned her after Sid. She's still clearly wrestling with her conscience re: hiding Abby's machinations from Gary, so it's interesting to see Laura - the rising liberated reformed housewife of the '80s - continue to evolve personally and professionally, and morally. Her blunt line to Abby up top in this post says a lot about where she is trying to protect herself and her emotions after Richard and Ciji. Her success is her armor, but that's the Me Decade for you. Val and Karen hit the beach again this episode, but Karen's clearly avoiding her pain over Diana when Val tries to reach out a hand, instead opting to nudge Val along re: Ben and Lilimae. Karen urges Val to go for it with Ben, which leads to some sweet silent moments at Ben’s beachhouse and then a tentative dinner, and more come here/go away between the two. This relationship has been reset a bit following the swooning passion and searing chemistry of the Gary/Val near-reunion of several recent eps, but I do like Ben and I'm curious to see how things build. Sumner and Abby continue to spar this episode; she can't put a thing past him and that both infuriates and arouses her. They absolutely crackle together, so it makes me wonder when and how this pairing went south. Greg: If you're gonna hang around you're gonna have to learn to understand politics. Abby: I understand money. Greg: They're not the same thing. Abby: Since when? Abby is apparently ready to fùck Sumner immediately after marrying the man of her dreams, which startles and surprises me. Why now? Is she so secure in her new life that she now feels she can make special exceptions? Giddy enough to sing in the shower about it, because he's another powerful step up the ladder? For his part, Sumner brushes Abby right out of his limo when he feels she's being too demanding of his time, all while hilariously using his electric razor as he leaves her on the side of the road to gather up her ego. The key to Abby still working is that they can always puncture her like this, and preserve her humanity with comedy and vulnerability, both her failings and her family connections (like Diana). Danielle Brisebois from Archie Bunker's Place is unexpectedly here, as Sumner’s daughter! I knew the character existed but wasn't expecting to see her any time soon. Jilted at the train station or wherever, Mary Frances Sumner turns up with a great opening speech roasting her gladhanding father. I know Mary Frances reappears years later but she's a hoot here, cute and fun and does have a sweet chemistry with Steve Shaw as Eric, who I'm excited to see getting what appears to be an actual story as I've always liked Eric. This is something they should continue to cultivate re: shoring up a younger generation, though I'm aware KL has many fits and starts in this area over the coming years. LOL at Eric showing up at the breakfast table looking like it's school picture day as a young yuppie to try to impress the girl. Sleepless nights for Abby and Ben (and Mack, Sumner and Karen) lead to resolution for at least one party, as Val returns to the beach house late in the night to consummate things with Ben. The scene is steamy between JVA and Doug Sheehan, and seems to deliberately crank up the carnal sensuality (including cozy beach afterglow later) in a way we've rarely gotten to see with Val before while also being deeply sweet and affectionate. Perhaps showing Val can play the same games as Gary and Abby. Abby takes her petulance over her affair with Sumner out on her husband, fed up with the easygoing cowboy mogul. She's grasping further and she's discontent when Gary finally is - because Sumner dismisses her? Because she can't control him like other men? Greg remains something of a question mark for me, as his role so far seems designed to be a destabilizing power who comes in and shakes up the paradigm of the show and character relationships while remaining somewhat mysterious and set apart. Again, I know they didn't know at first how long Devane would be around or if it was long-term, so it makes me wonder just when they knew for sure and began writing to that end, because right now his role is still intriguingly controlled. Abby crystallizes her ethos to Sumner at the end, touting her embrace of a strings-free affair of rising entrepreneurs with a famous line: "If I ever have to make a choice between love and money, money's gonna win every time." I believe her, though I still wonder where Gary fits in in her mind now. And Abby finally gets the in she wants at Lotus Point with the variance; eat your heart out, J.R.

I have been rewatching some eps from '92 and '93 tonight (including the Spring Fling) as I assembled my thoughts, so here's a few no one needed: Michael Malone was far from flawless. His AW stint is infamous and seems to have contained mostly recycled material and characters from his mythical 13 Bourbon Street pilot as well as some of OLTL (Cindy on AW in particular seems to have been a melange of Alex and Tina's 1992 storylines). I've roasted the insanity of his second OLTL stint many times, too; it went from dream to disaster very quickly and was one of the most deranged things I've ever watched short of Jim Reilly. But it was never not gonzo and entertaining, and even then there was always some smidge of poetry and soul, however misguided, to his most ill-advised work; you could always see the personal fascinations peeking through, the private obsessions and character work Malone valued, even if it was about stuff you found silly or stupid. I remember how even in 2004 he loved to stop the story flow for single episodes where random people would reconnect and talk over their problems, like when Kevin Buchanan and Jen Rappaport would sit down at Ultra Violet, get boozed up and hash out their differences over his little brother Joey, who they had both cuckolded and run out of town at different times, and discuss how Jen was ultimately a substitute for Kelly, the teenage sweetheart Kevin had taken from his brother. I remember being stunned they got that onscreen in such a plot-driven show. This is essential character stuff, beats we rarely got to see played out on bad soaps in '04 let alone today, and he and his team made the time for it even when most of the show was in the toilet (and Joey had not been onscreen for months). Darn told me (and he's right) that Malone's work defined the last 20 years of OLTL and they never stopped chasing the critical high of the Spring Fling and the DID saga after he was gone. I think that's correct, but the difference is Malone, flaws and all (and his murky fetishization of Todd and Marty aside), usually wanted to turn the page from a lot of that, whereas most of his successors did not. I think the Victor Lord/DID retcon still holds up, though I understand some people's issues with it. I think it's one of the greatest stories they ever told. I think the Dorian twist - that she didn't kill Victor, and had spent twenty years taking the scorn and hatred of the entire town to protect the woman who hated her as easily as breathing - was absolutely brilliant, even if Robin Strasser never liked it. And the Billy Douglas story and climax is still absolutely beautiful and heartbreaking. I have never connected to a soap heroine more than Susan Haskell as Marty and I never will, probably because as a troubled kid I identified with her a little too much. In those days, alongside Nora, Marty was my absolute favorite, because even when she became a full-fledged heroine she always had that fire. I didn't know they let people who behaved like her or seemed as wounded as her (even before the rape) on TV, let alone on daytime television. And the fact that Bob Krimmer's Andrew, the soulful bird watcher and monastic dreamer, was seemingly Malone's onscreen avatar was so telling. His forbidden passion for two women he couldn't have - first Megan, then Marty - hits much differently to me as an adult than as a kid drawn to more outwardly flashy male characters. There's so much more to talk about, of course, like the incessant fascination with avant-garde fantasy episodes that sometimes worked and sometimes flopped in Malone's heyday, and the ones that completely tanked on a much lower budget in 2003-2004. (I'm of the opinion that the Midsummer Night's Dream epilogue to Jake and Megan's story in '92 does mostly work and was incredibly bold, but uh, don't ask me about that whole thing with Luna and Tina going into her past lives or Luna's ghost husband.) The Antonio of it all in the 2000s and the Santis. And can you completely divorce the artistry of 1993-1995's storylines from the fact that the show's leads ultimately were two rapist twin brothers woven out of Malone's work decades later? Maybe not, but I still loved those stories and even the early years of Todd's metamorphosis even if I think today he is a relic who should mostly be put away. And the hard-to-find stuff in '92 sometimes fascinates me most of all, when they were still finding their way - there has never been an Asian-American lead on a soap opera who dominated the way Mia Korf's Blair did that year since, ever. So much of how people view OLTL today, as a multicultural, socially relevant, dynamic and fiery soap, with its finger on the pulse of ugly issues other shows would shy away from, a show that is still relevant and could still be revived, is because of Michael Malone, Linda Gottlieb and their crew. If any soap is relevant to these times it's OLTL. I don't think it'll be back, but the reason it still doesn't feel dead to me is in large part thanks to a man whose work will never die. You can say whatever you want about his work onscreen, but it never settled and never went quietly. RIP. (I do hope someone finally unearths the Bourbon Street pilot now.)

Oh, I didn't even see this. Thanks for this. How classy of Russell to dig up his old script for her and a period that was so up and down.

I could not tolerate Ally McBeal after some time in the late second season and I suspect I'd have even less patience for it today, but I took note of this simply because of the mention of Lisa Nicole Carson and her character who sadly was phased out after her illness. I have no need for this show whatsoever, but I do like Calista Flockhart still.

Yeah, don't quote me but IIRC they were living happily for a time in the '80s and then had to start running and traversing the globe because Frank Smith's people set after them again, which led to many offscreen capers (including Luke's alleged renewed fling with Holly). I believe that was the only life Lucky had known until they attempted to settle at the diner in Canada(?), which also didn't last. Luke has always had plenty of secret cash, but for years much of it was used to keep them running.

I don't know what to begin to say. RIP.

Oh God. I'm on the go but I'll get on this in a bit. I don't know what to say. His and Linda Gottlieb's original run on OLTL is the single biggest reason I am a soap fan today.

Fun fact of the day: Gregg Marx was on the shortlist to play Commander Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Yeah, I remember Luke selling off pieces of the Ice Princess. That kept them flush, IIRC.

A heavily revamped (and well-promoted) Days could thrive on streaming, like many legacy soaps. But not without major changes to cast, crew and production structure, and not if it is expected to prop up an entire weak service.

I think they are legitimately trying to shore up Peacock's subscribers, and think it and DAYS might be able to help each other. But I also think they are expecting far too much if they believe an aging, low-budget soap's customer base will pay a premium fee for a non-revamped program in the same poor creative and budgetary condition, on a fledgling streaming service that has very little draw to new customers for other pay content. Y&R or B&B might still be able to help Paramount Plus if they did something new, but Paramount Plus has a considerable product base already (the Star Trek renaissance, etc) and doesn't need it, and Y&R and B&B are in better shape at least budget and numbers-wise. I don't believe they have any loyalty to DAYS continuing beyond the remaining cycle unless it does the impossible, namely helps boost Peacock considerably. That is an impossible task for DAYS in its current state. So I think they see it as either it helps Peacock somehow, or they burn off its contract and let it go. That's not the same thing as intentionally killing it, but it's essentially the same attitude - if it dies, it dies. A real commitment and investment would've meant more advance notice and a much bigger revamp of the overall show, a la AMC and OLTL. I don't see a real commitment.

It's depressing but I can absolutely see her coming back to play that. I just have my doubts it'll happen. And it would be very weird to have both Lois and Olivia on the show.

Exactly. DAYS and Peacock/NBC never claimed they would do that.

Thanks to a considerable backlog of undiscussed eps I had notes on from the last month as well as the kindness of a lovely stranger, my access to KL has been quickly re-secured. Hence I'll try to cover a bunch of Season 5 episodes in rapid succession if you'll indulge me, but we'll start with just Eps 7 and 8 of Season 5. I can't promise the constant frequency of the past pre-COVID due to life and work, but I will try to remain reasonably regular and cover at least all of Season 5 sequentially, and perhaps Season 6 if I feel like it. I will also keep watching the show at my own pace regardless of spamming this thread, lol. Anyway, where were we? Oh yes - Episode 7 (Sacred Vows): Abby: You know, from the first minute I ever saw you I wanted you. And I've moved Heaven and Earth to get you. And now that I've got you, I'm the happiest woman in the world. I love getting what I want. I'm pretty surprised they let the cat out of the bag on Lisa Hartman's return so quickly in the opening guest credits for this episode. KL had already faked people out on Don Murray's exit by keeping him in the opening intro with the regular cast for the first two episodes of Season 2 even when he was on the way out, something most shows failed to do to keep surprises secret in the '80s and much of the '90s. You'd think they could have left her name for the end credits as she only appears at the end. But we'll get to that. The real focus this week is Abby's Mission: Impossible - marry Gary before he inherits and secure the bag before he falls back in love with Val, which he's basically already done if you'll refer back to my discussion back on page 100. Gary and Val being about a breath away from having an affair behind Abby's back; irony never dies. He even tells the concerned Cunningham kids that he doesn't think he and Abby are breaking up, so what is he actually thinking at this point, how far ahead? He is a self-aware enough man at this point in life to know he and Val are falling for each other again, so where is his endgame in his mind? Abby is on the ragged edge for most of this episode, and we rarely see that. She knows something's happened and she's losing. She tells Westmont she knows what she's doing in her play for Gary but we can see that she doesn't. Sumner is still fascinating to her though, and he lets her vent about Gary before becoming the aggressor, sweeping her into a kiss. She's not used to that from a man, she is the seducer. William Devane is an extremely compelling match with Donna Mills, and it makes me wonder what the show had in mind at this point. I know they get together at some point down the road in a different way and that it didn't work out for the show, but they're great in this relationship. "Give my regards to your fiancé," Greg smirks as he exits, and the feeling on Abby's face is clear: Exhilaration among equals. Diana and Coma Chip at the hospital: I still think he's faked it the whole time tbh. There is a pure Friday the 13th-esque, Harry Manfredini-style horror movie musical sting as he 'flatlines' though. If only. Laura is the x-factor that changes everything in this episode, needling a shirtless Gary about Val, which was a lot to process with the two of them together visually and Laura wearing the pants, so to speak. She warns him off Val here, again comparing Gary's presence in Val's life to alcohol for him - a comparison Val drew herself at the end of last season. "If you really cared about her you'd leave her alone," Laura says flatly, and for Gary it's here the die is finally cast for Abby - last seen ascending to her palace bedroom at her office seemingly beaten and alone. As it's Laura that is key to Abby's Ewing ascendency, I'm not sure either woman will ever get over it. Cute Ben lurks on the outskirts of Sumner's crime commission gala and Karen urges him to fight for Val, but at the same time Val's being jilted by Gary at a downtown diner, not unlike the one she worked in for years outside Dallas, pining for her man and her long-lost daughter, except now she's rich and decked out in her newfound finery. I cannot believe Gary just left her there without a call. It's beautiful drama though, classic; him sitting just outside, sacrificing his own happiness for hers. Again, you wonder how much of what is happening between them, how much could happen he has fully processed. Did Lilimae's rambling mania in this episode confirm that Chip and Ciji knew each other before they were officially introduced by others onscreen? I think it does, and that's what I always suspected based on their behavior and how their affair was revealed last season. This institution plot is a bit of a slow one for me but Harris and JVA are heartbreaking. Knots Landing Motors is seen again, and Eric is working there in uniform! I almost didn't recognize him this episode and in the next one in his monogrammed shirt. Is he in college yet? The strain over Diana remains behind Karen's eyes and in her work patterns, grinding into the middle of the night. Eric can't take it anymore though, confronting Diana and invoking Sid, telling her their father would never tolerate what she's done for Chip. This seems to finally cut into Diana and she turns into a pleading child: "He's my husband, I love him, can't you see that?" She needs that for herself somehow, more than anything else, maybe because she did lose Sid and then the concept of Karen as Mrs. Fairgate, mother and not independent agent. Diana gives constant testimonials to her love to her 'sleeping' man (I still don't believe it!) and her fantasy image of an adult lover, and how 'lucky' she is to be loved by him, but Eric's words have shaken her hard and she's going to tell the cops the truth - which means it's time for Chip to 'wake up'! I honestly didn't think this crazy little bitch would break so soon. Abby alone blasting classical music by the fireplace in her private palace, pondering the ruins of her grand plans is great - Donna Mills says so much with just a look in her eyes. When Gary does come to her and declare himself after all and agrees to marry her, and they consume each other ecstatically by the firelight, Abby clearly can't believe her luck. The morning after, we have the new opening credits shot of Gary on his steed in his glory finally shown in an episode, as he ponders his whole future spread out across Westfork in a glorious pan of the wilderness he owns while also clearly saying goodbye to Val without any cut to her or any dialogue. It's gorgeous stuff. The Gary/Abby wedding against all odds is typically early '80s, all fringe and embarrassing fashion, but the intercutting with Val and Lilimae as the latter is institutionalized is great, with great camera angles on Julie Harris. Meanwhile, at the wedding Laura is hilariously chewing on her cheek and rolling her eyes. The Clements women's heartache is juxtaposed seamlessly with Gary and Abby finally united in a way I didn't think was possible or plausible an episode or two ago. Ultimately while I do think Gary has real love for Abby and a unique aspect of himself twinned with her, he did this and married her because of Val, for Val, and I wonder if Abby will ever find that out. They even cut to JVA weeping for Lilimae an instant after the vows, and then cut right back to the marital kiss! The slow pan through Val's lavish, empty house - formerly her and Gary's humble dream home - is beautifully done, with quiet music. As she slowly learns about the wedding over the phone, it's the restraint and sheer amount of time taken in a primetime drama - not something that would be done today with a scene like that - that makes so much of these kind of sequences on this show. They let things sit and process. Honeymoon Abby is uniquely sated; 'it's just as good legal.' I've seen parts of the big ending twist with Lisa Hartman before but I was waiting for it. While it's blocked and choreographed well and done carefully, I am surprised they showed her full face out of the elevator before Gary saw her in the hotel suite. The tension leading up to it was solid though. Episode 8 (A Change of Heart): Still no Lisa Hartman in the opening credits - okay. I wonder when she gets added. Anyway, Diana's eerily-soundtracked police deposition is great, where she confesses Chip's sins through the interrogation room glass, with the reflection-ghost of Mack fading in and out of the one-way mirror of the box, overlaid onto her form. Neat work by director Robert Becker. Diana crying about 'keeping what we had from falling apart' makes her seem truly pathetic, but I have very little sympathy. I think Mack teared up though, but I can't recall for sure. Even as Diana is confessing that Chip killed Ciji 'for her,' Gary is already preoccupied with Ciji's ghost and his glimpse of Vertigo in her doppelganger, Cathy Geary. I wonder if the resemblance is ever explained; I always assumed she was a blood relation. Meanwhile, Abby is luxuriating in finally being Mrs. Gary Ewing, even affecting a Southern accent to tease her henchman, Westmont - 'ah sweah, Jim, ah don't know what yer talkin' 'bout!' Gary's full inheritance has finally been activated, and this means the new Mrs. Ewing can move in full on the mysterious Lotus Point property and snaking sis-in-law Karen out of it. Sumner wisely suggests forming a PAC (a white-collar maneuver far more relevant today) and the heat between him and Abby is already visible to Laura. Chip is awake! I still think he was faking. Sue me. Lilimae and her new mental institution bob look great but she stays utterly ignoring poor Ben, who can't compete with Val's angst over Gary, or as she often calls him, 'Garrehhh'. Mack and unexpected '80s belly shirt Michael shoot hoops in the driveway of the Fairgate/MacKenzie house and get to play backdrop to Ben and Val's somber conversation about troubled family. Any attempt at a normal get-together for any of them simply falls on sad ears, and the real ghost between Val and Ben is not just the wedding, but the ONS with Gary she's told almost no one of. Meanwhile, Karen's reached her Waterloo: Desperate to have Diana home, she appeals to the awakened Chip, prostrating herself before him and struggling to find his virtues. He just keeps grinning and toying with her in his way, and watching Karen's resolve crumble in the face of his photogenic smile and opaque, studied geniality is a masterclass from Michele Lee. At home, Mack pleads with Karen to go away with him bu she's burnt out, adrift and incoherent. (I can relate these days) Finally, staring down a happy Fairgate family snapshot from better days at KL Motors, she goes for the pills. Gary trailing Cathy all the way to a gym straight out of the Travolta/Jamie Lee Curtis bomb "Perfect" where hyper-aerobicized hardbodies pump iron alongside the unshorn, fried-hair Lisa Hartman makes me wonder how hard butch we are supposed to take her as vs. Ciji. Hmm. Back at Westfork it seems the place has in addition to everything else a gigantic open-air steam room/sweat lodge with hot rocks, because of course it does. Again: How did the folks over at Dallas let KL get away with this without getting an upgrade of their own? Their regular sets look like dated dogshit by comparison to Westfork, I'm sorry. Abby finally allows herself to unveil the big Ewing inheritance news to her new husband, but it seems Gary knew all along. I love his manic, irreverent reaction: "It's Daddy's way of saying 'have a nice day!'" Diana is having yet another tantrum over not getting her way at the hospital, and like me the cops are over it. "It must be a full moon," the lead slob cop says, and I cackled. But sure enough, Chip is gone and of course this crazy bitch is grinning. I cannot wait to see the back of Diana. Anyway: More soon, I have a few more eps on ice and more to come.

Not really, IMO. They all looked old.

Let's not go that far. Thanks for stopping by!

A younger woman, sure. I just don't see why she couldn't have been more physically oriented however many hundreds or thousands of years before LOTR happened.

Same here. But I don't believe she would have come back as Lois at all in the 2000s. She was way too hot in primetime (even in dud roles) for years. I'll be surprised if she goes back to GH now. She has had a healthy career.

I am well aware of how much the right hates Brian Stelter, and how he was targeted by some of CNN's new right wing stakeholders. But I don't care. He was the happy, vacuous face of bothsides Beltway centrism that cheerily parroted any trendy DC article in the face of facts or sensible logic (like last's summer's 'are liberals pandemic addicts for not unmasking and letting me go to brunch?' pieces, which aged like milk) and fastidiously ignored or whitewashed all internal CNN scandals (Cuomo, Jeff Zucker) while whining about Fox News. He was an insidious, jolly and uncurious cancer and I celebrate his unemployment.