Vee

This is what she said at We Love Soaps: There's some incredibly bold, candid and in-depth stuff in Labine's run with Viki's therapy re: her sexuality and sexual abuse where sex, orgasms, etc. are discussed in-depth, which I posted here long ago. I'm amazed they got that stuff on air let alone out of Viki's mouth; it wouldn't be done today. There was also wonderful stuff with her and Clint Ritchie, and with Dorian and Mel. (Though my understanding is they kiboshed the Viki/Clint reunion in part because Ritchie and Erika were not in a great place at the time and he may have been drinking again - I know that Malone had paired Clint with Carlotta Vega while slowly moving him back to Viki, and I think Labine may have been the one who put Carlotta with Hank Gannon; I can't remember clearly. I loved all that stuff though with Carlotta and both men.) A lot of the Labine run did not work for me but the stuff that did was great. Admittedly, they were still coasting on the glories, outsize popular characters and supercouples of the Malone/Gottlieb/Horgan/Griffith era during that year with the overall canvas, but by '98 the show was sleepy, the cast was bored and when JFP turned up their luck ran out. I remember a very enthused joint interview from HBS and RSW in the spring of '98, crowing about the Georgie Phillips story finally giving them something to do after being 'in the freezer' for a year or more, and how Jill Phelps had supercharged the show with the story of Georgie faking a sex tape with herself and Bo. (This was before Georgie's murder.) It seemed exciting, like the show had nice energy, so I came back because I too had grown bored with the show getting sleepier in '97 and a lot of characters and couples I liked leaving. But by the end of the year JFP was in full power, and HBS had gone from singing her praises to asking the head of daytime at ABC to get Nora killed off the show.

Yes, although I think the whole circus thing came in under Labine.

Irish stuff (and Irish political intrigue) was also very hot in the early-mid '90s - Irish culture and folklore, the Irish struggles, U2, Clannad, movies like Patriot Games and Blown Away (with both Tommy Lee Jones and Jeff Bridges sporting terrible accents), etc. Later the unfortunate Riverdance. A fair bit of it is embarrassing to recall now, what with the flutes and such, but it was a big thing in those years in pop culture. And Malone was very Irish himself. Yeah, the Men of 21 with Blond Bo got silly by the end, but the early stuff with Patrick and Carlo's return/Poseidon largely worked for me. I think it was Horgan who relayed the story in Llanview in the Afternoon of how someone at ABC said they'd found Thorsten Kaye while looking for someone for AMC, and told her she had 24 hours to figure out a role for him or he was going to Pine Valley. Horgan and presumably Malone came up with Patrick Thornhart, and by god it worked. I don't remember massive critiques of Luna's death at the time, I mostly remember people being heartbroken. But I was also pretty young. I even really liked the introduction of Crystal Chappell's Maggie, Andrew's sister/cousin/whatever, for Max, though looking at some of those eps now from before Malone left they really went pretty hard at those two not long after Luna was gone.

I think it was a collection of people who worked well together - I think there's little doubt they needed Griffith to help them learn to acclimate to the format and sharpen the writing early on. And some of us have said it before, but I think Horgan rarely gets enough credit for her time as EP. She was assigned to continue the Gottlieb house style and for the most part she did so very well in 1994-95 despite some bum stories or divisive couples (all of which existed in 1991-1994 as well). She was always a strong, stable pair of hands in either of her roles behind the camera at various soaps.

His plan was for Drew and Rachel opposed by a racist Becky Lee, which would not have been very good. I believe it was the Labines who were aiming for something with Drew and Nora or her perimenopausal struggles, but don't quote me. A little of Patrick and Marty went a long way at the time and they had plenty of detractors because he never stopped saying that poem (which he kept doing for two more years once Malone was gone) but they were also wildly popular, something people forget. I adored Patrick and Marty in the beginning.

I won't speak for anyone else but I think his first run was largely strong after a few fits and starts in the early months as he and Linda Gottlieb and co. found their feet. 1992 also was an experimental year but it had two rock solid stories, Megan's death and the Billy Douglas saga, which anchored everything, and a lot of popular characters and couples either emerging or already in place (and some stuff that didn't fully work, like the controversial Sarah Gordon recast and centering a murder mystery around her - Grace Phillips was great IMO but didn't get along with the EP who'd hired her, was allegedly not popular with fans, the big story didn't fully click despite being well-written day to day and eventually they shipped Phillips off for months before having her turn up at Thanksgiving to get killed off). 1993 is supposedly the banner year when the entire show began to hum, but there's a lot of fascinating stuff in 1992 and two classic storylines. Not everything he did, all the gauzy romanticism and flights of fancy, was to everyone's taste. It definitely got a little ropey towards the end in late '95/early '96 too, and there was some more bad ideas on the table that didn't fully reach fruition, but it was not a case where a HW starts out good and then becomes unwatchable. That never happened in Malone I. Even in weaker shape it was still head and shoulders above a lot of soaps at the time and AFAIK he was fired simply because Disney was stepping in on the ABC soaps more and more in this period. Which led quickly to a new headwriting team even Erika Slezak publicly moaned about, something she never did, and then to a series of revolving creative teams and disaster. Malone's second run in 2003-2004 was a very complex disaster of his own as well, but that is a whole other topic.

3/10.

I found Nelson Branco's public persona to be deeply toxic and mentally unbalanced, which ultimately seemed to destroy whatever career he had. If there was more to him than what he put out there, as there usually is with most people away from the public eye, that's not for me to discuss; I didn't know it or see it and so I can't eulogize it or a career I didn't care for. I'm sorry for the surviving people who knew and cared for him, I hope his loved ones find some comfort and I hope his passing was painless. That's all I got.

Allison Janney (ex-GL) gets her well-deserved Liam Neeson on in an upcoming thriller for Netflix with Jurnee Smollett:

She's been so ill with long COVID. I'm glad they're able to bring her back and resolve her dangling storyline which I believe largely played out over webcam in quarantine.

Thank you for this.

Season 5, Episode 11 (I'll Tell You No Lies): Abby: There's nothing quite like getting what you want, except maybe getting more of what you want. Here we are. I'm sure most of you know what time this episode is, and I do too but it was no less satisfying. As Kate Bush once said, 'it's in the trees! it's coming!' Yes, Chip/Tony (who I now choose to occasionally refer to as 'Chony' as he's just about worn out his nefarious welcome) is now hiding in the frickin' trees at Westfork while Diana whines on and on to any overworked police offer within minimum aural range. She also gets a well-deserved jolt when she finally meets Cathy Geary, and her discomfort mixed with what seems like spellbound fascination is really spooky. Diana is also rude as fùck to poor Cathy - she seems to get off on telling her Chip killed Ciji somehow, which is just gross. Talk about a sociopathic teenager. I don't know if that's what Claudia Lonow intended to play or the writing called for, but it's what she's often playing. This episode, I believe, gives us the proper mention of the Wolfbridge Group as Mack interrogates the lawyer he sprung from prison for deets on his next targets, the men of power he alluded to with Ben and Karen last time. He doesn't get much out of him though while Karen drifts in and out on her growing pill haze, and there's a nice rhythm to the sequence as Mack's ranting grows more frustrated and ineffectual, realizing he can't penetrate his stool pigeon's fear or his wife's rising mental fog. Is that some new flashy art deco painting on the dining room wall? I don't remember seeing it before and it seems more Mack's upwardly mobile East Coast taste than the homey quasi-hippie furnishings Karen and Sid had for years. Nice touch. I will never get over seeing what appears to be Century City as Mack and Greg's headquarters. Greg is clearly lying to Mack about why he's receiving his commission reports. When she's mostly coherent, Karen is sliding herself into the mother role for Mary Frances Sumner far too easily. It is nice to see her back to doing middle-class domestic tasks in the driveway, painting a chair only for her medicated distraction to cause her to sit on the wet paint without thinking while talking to Mary Frances. In the moment it comes off as a light comedy bit, it isn't played for amped-up drama or angst, but it's smartly and subtly done so that we know it's another sign of Karen losing her grip. There's even more of my favorite longtime use of the cul-de-sac/Seaview Circle (still not used to this name, which I think has only been mentioned once or twice onscreen so far) as a shared suburban arena/roundtable in this sequence as across the street, Ben and Val return home still debating Sumner's motives with Lilimae and the visiting Mary Frances chiming in on Val's front lawn. But who exactly are the random mother and child wandering the cul-de-sac in the background, lol? Did someone move into the Ward house? It's so weird to have nobody extras on the scene at this juncture in the series. But there's even more classic KL suburban social drama this week, as the MacKenzies throw a barbecue like the old times and I am just delighted with all of it. The more intellectual Ben manfully tries to keep up with Mack and Eric's inscrutable Lakers discussion, though for his part Eric mostly seems just happy to be there; the Fairgate boys have always taken so easily and eagerly to Mack for the most part, and you get it at their age and in those times. I thought Eric had a beer at first tbh. Like Lilimae I can't remember the last time most of the neighborhood got together, but it feels great and still true and not inorganic to the show as it is now (it would be weirder if Gary and Abby showed up at this point, and I'm not surprised Laura opted out). But of course Lilimae throws a shoe in things by mentioning Diana, which immediately sends Karen fleeing from the room. Speaking of Abby and Laura, back at the office they're still growing partners in crime, bonded by mutual cause and mutual distaste. Laura is clearly taunting her by refusing to leave; I can't remember if she knows about Sumner for sure, but it seems clear to me she knows (even if she only catches them in the act at the end of the episode). But Abby's striking out again this week, because California's own Greg Sumner is at the MacKenzie barbecue back in humble Seaview Circle! Lilimae and Sumner shining each other on at the front door is great; they're both charmers and cons of a certain kind, and I loved how Greg dismisses Abby to Mary Frances as 'nobody important.' Abby is simply not in his league yet, and that I think is part of both her recurring arousal and her rage. Tension starts to build as Greg meets Ben, who's been suspicious of the new Greg Sumner for some time, and with Mack who won't be snowed by some of Greg's excuses about work. Ben picks up on Mack starting to rethink things about his old friend, and it's nice to see them finding connectivity via mutual skepticism and street smarts. The larger arc of the season continues to very slowly and methodically pick up steam, whereas later primetime soaps barrel through story like hamsters on meth. A nice counterpoint to the men: Val and Karen cleaning up after the barbecue and discussing her romance with Ben. These suburban-arena character roots, behaviors, arenas and motifs were all built out of the first three seasons, which makes them so sturdy and believable now even as the show grows steadily more upwardly mobile. Speaking of the other half, the dejected Abby returns home to Westfork to her loving husband and initially seems totally over him, snapping at him about Diana. Is it really just all the chase for Abby, is that why she's seemingly increasingly over Gary? She does soften a bit when Gary forces the issue about his angst over Ciji and Cathy, and does show some caring for him. That's good to see, but I still don't fully understand where Abby is at. I don't think that's a failing of the plotting or characterization this season, I think it's simply being slowly drawn out as the show explores the depth of Abby's fascination with Greg Sumner and growing into her new self and position in life and business. There's a beautiful musical montage with some melancholy, brooding music I love as the show flows from Karen needing her pills and denying herself back to Abby and Gary in bed, with Donna Mills showing Abby is miles away behind her eyes. She wants more, but gives herself instead to her husband, tenderly and openly. She doesn't seem to be settling or resigned with him in bed, but she is making a choice to console while she remains unfulfilled. It's all the same soft musical cue and swooning physical intimacy as they go right back to Karen and her aching pain, driving her back to the pills again the middle of the night. You can see Karen's eyes and face as she realizes she's becoming reactive and dependent - there's no big beat, no fuss, just Michele Lee giving us a very quiet, internal moment that becomes brisk and softly determined as she walks away without a pill. No grand theater, just simple moves and great musical score. Ben and Val are cuddly back at hers after the barbecue, but Lilimae has no time for poor Ben and I'm not sure why. Is she making Val pay for locking her away? Or is she equating Ben, who initially hid his occupation from Val, with Chip? No comment on Abby's stereotypical Mexican housekeeper and server at Westfork! Cathy wants to talk to her but Abby shuts her down, and now seems increasingly pissed about Cathy and Gary's bond. Meanwhile, "Chony" is happily sunning himself on the property as the cops prowl the land. Chip going all Defiant Ones just cracks me up, but his vaguely messianic attitude re: the increasingly frazzled Diana is disturbing. "Nobody's gonna catch me," he assures her with that sanguine Michael Sabatino vibe. "They can't. It's my karma." I did lose it when Diana muttered that 'things are beginning to get complicated'(!!). There is a really lovely, shocking moment a bit later when we see the MacKenzies + Mary Frances playing Monopoly together as a family and the rotating camera catches Diana watching them from the bushes, weeping in the night. It's surprisingly touching, even now. Lord, now Lilimae is cleaning the whole fridge. Okay. This seems like domestic toil as penance for her sins, and the scene with Val that unfolds quickly makes it clear that Lilimae is in no way over her trauma with Chip after all. There's a wonderful grace moment as Lilimae unspools her guilt over Chip with a simple grocery anecdote, how he stole from her and she let it go. "I'm telling you a story," she tells a baffled Val sorrowfully, still grappling with her torn emotions and clearly still ill. This is fascinating stuff, and something most shows would've let go by now. Across the street, Karen in the garage with Mary Frances illuminates another character-driven storyline wrought by emotional fallout at this juncture of the show. The fact is that Karen is grooming Greg's daughter to replace her own lost child, which we sympathize with while realizing it's deeply unhealthy. Once again there are very few massive musical stings or huge physical gestures that have accompanied this build over multiple episodes, just a lot of increasingly noticeable behavior, choices and cracks in the facade. It's Mary Frances' mention of Diana that breaks Karen and drives her to succumb to the pills (where they finally bring the music up more). Again, you just would not get this or Lilimae's lasting PTSD and obsessive behavior presented in such a nuanced or subtle fashion in most primetime soaps either in the '80s or '90s. As Khan and others have said in the past, it's this kind of nuance that elevates the show to TV drama first, soap second. It is not lost on me again that this sweeping spiral staircase in Abby's office palace is most likely the same one from her old house in the cul-de-sac, because it is most likely the same set redone. This is understandable budget-wise which is surely the main reason, but also fascinating thematically just as a viewer; single mom divorcee Abby Cunningham's slowly metamorphosing cozy suburban house has transmogrified into Abby Ewing's hyper-modern dead-tech Reaganite fortress. Abby wants to move on Lotus Point now over Laura's objections and snubs Sumner's phone call. Abby doesn't like being second choice, isn't used to it, but is charmed when Greg shows up and finally gifts her her beloved variance. She believes in herself and Greg as a team - she used to talk that way about Gary. Is she already thinking of her next union? Baines' long-suffering cop partner finally catches Diana in the act as the walls close in on Chip at Westfork in the stables, where yes, he comes face to face with Cathy. Down he goes on the pitchfork Friday the 13th-style - Ciji's revenge. I knew this was coming but it's so satisfying to see. Adieu, scumbag. More soon.

Yeah, I don't put a lot of the casting since FV on Teschner frankly. But I may be way off on that. I agree Lexi was great in the early years but is messy now. Trey was played by Erik Valdez, who I believe went on to CW shows as well. He wasn't a terrible actor but he was mediocre and the character was obnoxious and pointless.

She was awful, and I said so at the time and people got so mad! I realize Lexi has not covered herself in glory since (and that the recast went on to success on a CW sci-fi show) but woof I could not take Lindsey Morgan or "Trey," Kate's worthless long-lost son whose entire persona and storyline was a very, very lazy rehash of the already bad 'reality TV hunk' story that introduced the equally pointless Ford on OLTL.

In fairness, she wasn't his recast; Garin Wolf's crew (and I think JFP) hired her about six months prior. It was Frank though who was dazzled with her Broadway creds (given how many Broadway talents he'd worked with in NY theater at OLTL) and he and Ron went whole hog with Connie. Supposedly some kind of DID or mental illness story was on the books before they arrived, but it was Frank and Ron who created Connie onscreen. I agree the Connie saga of 2012 was one of the worst and most embarrassing aspects of that year, even if a lot of other stuff they did that year helped save GH. But no, his biggest flops - the return of the OLTL 3, Franco, Silas, Fluke and Denise - IMO came later. I personally did not think Sullivan was bad as Kate initially when she first appeared. I was not a fan of recasting Megan Ward at all but I thought she did okay with straight material, before Frank and Ron fired virtually the entire longtime daily writing team.

I remember this well. I think that was deliberate on the show's part re: this specific character, and I doubt I'm alone.

It was so low-rent, the whole storyline. It was poorly-budgeted, scripted and plotted. I assume whatever Ron had intended for Luke and Laura at one point got scrapped and this is what he threw together instead, and that part is mostly his own fault. But yes, Geary was right about Frank in an iron lung or whatever. And the A.J. mess was personal pettiness IMO from Frank and Ron, with them openly mocking Sean Kanan's body in the scripts. But the Fluke/DID debacle should never have been attempted, and based on Geary's own comments I am 99% it was Ron's own spiteful rewrite. Early on in that story, Tony told press he re-signed because of a story Ron pitched him which he agreed to immediately upon hearing the pitch - he didn't say what it was at the time. Then the "Fluke" saga began. Soon TG's medical leave took over and the story got delayed and extended. But early in the Fluke story, as we've said here before, there were many, many hints that it was Bill Eckert; stuff that would only be said or done by Bill himself. Tony Geary still adores Bill Eckert. His interviews about the character, both when he played the role and when he exited the role, are rhapsodic, passionate and later embittered. There's an infamous interview he gave E!'s soap opera talk show in late '93, as Luke and Laura were returning to great fanfare - I think it's no longer on YT - where he glowers at the camera and monologues about how poorly treated and misunderstood Bill was by the audience, and how he's still angry. As many of us have said before and you have again, Geary ultimately tried to reverse-engineer Luke into a different version of Bill. The problem was, too many fans figured out that Fluke was Bill. Ron Carlivati does not like being questioned by fans and he does not like being found out. He also had at least 6-7 months to string the story along until Geary could finish it. So what did he do? He rewrote it (which TG has confirmed at least, though not as to how) to give Luke DID instead IMO, and it shows onscreen. The final story does not make sense, is very rushed in its climax, and its embarrassing finale (with TG playing the drunken Bill Spencer howling 'come join Daddy in hell, Luke!') became gold on The Soup just before Ron's firing. We don't agree about Ethan, but that's fair enough. I do think regardless of paternity they definitely intended to slot him into a "Lucky-like" role due to Parsons' chemistry with TG, and due to GV's Lucky being a staid vanilla B-lead. Once Jonathan returned though, Ethan was excess baggage.

An issue which persisted at GL - when I first began looking at that show, everything was lit up like floodlamps and half the cast were Rauch's favored peroxide blondes. It was blindingly tacky and I couldn't look directly at the TV. That and the shrill characters and chintzy stories (San Cristobel, the clone) kept me away from GL for years until I got my first taste of Beverlee McKinsey on WOST.

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.