alwaysAMC

I don't mind a good villain, which sometimes has to include murder, but generally I'm more into how the actress is playing the character. She's doing a great job.

LOL at Leslie shading Hayley's decor and all the purple. It's like she read what we've been saying since the beginning! Good ending, now let's hope tomorrow has some movement in this poison storyline! June and Heather were fun today. I'm really liking Heather.

I zipped through it and I had to look up the characters (well, I knew Dylan)... but that Hart/Julie/Dylan triangle looks fun! Of course Vanessa/Billy/Nadine - I'm really looking forward to watching that all play out one day, along with the Bridget/Peter stuff.

OMG! That's exciting - I love to see it.

And cleaning up and dressing to the nines over the commercial break while the dog was sniffing up the grave... impressive! Hudson was watching BLQ a little too hard during that last 'Trino' song. I wonder if he falls for her as he gets closer to Phoebe. Curious to see if Anna does any harm to Britt, or will someone stop her...

I got the sense that maybe it was planned and then re-written/changed up when either they confirmed JPS back as Valentin or maybe Finola's health issues forced her long break? I can't think of anything else, because I definitely don't remember there being a Chris/Anna thing on-screen. Just more examples of random BTS change-ups that they already start onscreen and pivot from out of nowhere, or they change things up before they're filmed because of personal things going on with the actors. I do love his attitude - he's clearly bummed, but also appreciative and funny. That Charlotte stays being awkward in the picture.

Lowkey... Naomi was rude AF snatching that sandwich and feeling like she deserves to eat it. Not that I want her poisoned, but damn haha.

Yep! Annie got to nurse Alan and that led to their pairing, which was fun as Annie descended further into her craziness. That A-M was not great, but hard to follow Hearst. I just remember thinking that this A-M and Lucy didn't have the chemistry and now that they were married, with the recast, it was rather boring.

Haha, for those who watch the Beverly Hills housewives, it was giving Kyle Richards to me. The whole "This is my town..." thing was straight out of Kyle's taglines.

That's what I'm wondering. Seems like Chris M. was all pro-GH, posting on his IG all the time, doing events with LW and others... and then out of nowhere, they release a statement he's leaving and spoil his exit in the announcement with the death of his character. Just odd to me. But they've done many odd things lately...

Dang, the Metro Court pool is officially closed for the season - boo. MB's expressions today in those scenes with Drew/Laura were LOL. Britt really is just a b!tch to everyone. I don't get it. I'm bored overall. The show really has gotten to such a weird place. So wait, that ending... was that a dead Brennan?? He just passed out from Ava's drug, fell into the pool and died? That's the last of him? So disappointing.

Eww, Joey was a little b!tch today. Very off-putting.

Two things: 1) They finally gave the San Cristobel characters a vacation, which really allows the other storylines to shine. So much happened during this time that it was hard to write up the recaps because the umbrella storyline kept weaving itself in and out of all the scenes each day, but they seem to be setting things up well for a "Who Killed Ben?" mystery. I don't know if that's what ultimately happens, but they really put many characters in a position to want to kill him (Buzz, Pilar, Bill, Vanessa, Billy, Danny, Phillip). 2) I remember a month or so ago that someone said they couldn't remember how baby Alan Cooper got the name of 'Zach'. That is revealed below. 🙂 ___________________________________________________________________________________________ I’m up to September 27, 1999. *The next day previews came back at the end of the Thursday, 9/23, Friday 9/24 and Monday 9/27 episodes. Reva is back at Cross Creek and Cassie shows up. They talk about how Marah was in Paris for the last month visiting Mindy and now Josh is getting the kids back to school. Cassie then tears into Reva, asking how she could take Jonathan away from Richard again. She tells Reva she was on the beach watching Richard break down, and what she is doing to him is cruel. Reva pushes back, saying she’s been spending the entire day wondering what Jonathan will look like in the future, and she’ll never be able to sleep again without thinking of him. Cassie tells her she chose to leave Jonathan, but she didn’t give Richard that same choice. Reva then accuses Cassie of siding with Richard over her family, and says she’s defending him as if he’s her lover. Cassie then storms over to the door to leave, but stops, looks back at Reva and they are both quiet. Cassie asks what are they doing, and whispers she’s sorry. Reva, without looking at her, says she’s sorry too. Cassie then comes back to Reva and they confirm their love as sisters to each other, with Cassie saying finding each other was the best thing for both she and Tammy. She says no one, not even a prince, will come between them. These scenes were well-acted by both ladies. Meanwhile, Olivia calls Marissa and confirms they were able to get out of the country successfully. Olivia says she shouldn’t call or write anymore, since all communication could be traced. Richard then walks in and asks why she is staying, and she says she still has feelings for him that never went away. Richard says they can never get back together, given what she did. He’ll always look at Olivia and think about how she helped take Jonathan away from him. Olivia says that she’s all he has left, but Richard then thinks back to Cassie and says she’ll be there to help him. Olivia says Cassie would never do that considering she’s so close to Reva, but Richard kicks her out of his room and declares to himself that Cassie must help him. Wow - Eleni is finally back (9/22)! She hasn’t been seen since March. Eleni and Frank visit Harley, Phillip and the baby. Eleni and Frank are clearly happy, so I guess whatever reconciling they did all happened offscreen (boo). Eleni and Harley go outside and bond over little Alan. Harley says she’s concerned about the baby growing up in Alan’s shadow, with his name. Eleni suggests giving him a nickname, something manly. Harley jokes that Coop and Rocky are already taken, and Eleni jokes about the name Spike (which is funny, because AMC named Ryan and Kendall’s kid Spike years later). Eleni then suggests AC (short for Alan Cooper), but Harley reminds her of her ex-husband AC (haha). Harley then says she’s thought about this and came up with the name Zach. Meanwhile inside, Phillip tells Frank about his plan to bring Ben down, saying he’s going to plant a trap so Ben is caught with corporate espionage. Frank asks how he’s going to do it, but Phillip says he’ll worry about that on the inside (using Vicky - but doesn’t say her name), his focus is just bringing down Ben, which will help Frank also bring down Carmen. Phillip asks Frank about the sentence Ben would get when he’s caught and Frank says a good 10-20 years, which is music to their ears. The girls come back in and Frank/Eleni leave. Harley casually refers to baby Alan as ‘Zach’, which catches Phillip off-guard. She explains how she doesn’t want Zach to grow up in Alan’s shadow, which Phillip agrees, but says he assumed a nickname would come later in life. He asks where she got the name Zach and she says she read a book once where the young boy (Zach) was destined to take over the family business, but Zach wanted to become a painter instead and left his overbearing father. Phillip jokes that he must have written that story, given his own experience. Vicky goes to David for support, telling him about Phillip’s offer. He encourages her to take it, since she’s always wanted to feel like part of the family, but she’s nervous and says once you play with the devil (Ben), you can’t escape it. David says he’ll stick with her, regardless of her decision, and they kiss. After they have sex, Vicky says she’s made up her mind - she’s going to dump SanCorp and Ben and prove to Phillip she’s worthy of being part of the family. After Vicky leaves, Frank stops by and tells David all about Phillip’s plan to bring down Ben and Carmen. David is excited, but then puts the pieces together internally that Phillip is using Vicky in this scheme. Michelle goes to Danny and tells him she’s planning to take a part time job at the hospital again, which he supports. She then talks about how nice it was sleeping at the Bauer house, with no Santos family stress. They continue to fight about Danny being involved in the family business. On a new day, Harley and Phillip host a dinner party for the family to celebrate Alan being out of the hospital. Alan and India arrive first, and then Vicky comes in, thanking Phillip for inviting her. Vanessa and Matt then come in (yay!). Alan privately asks Phillip if Vicky has taken the bait and he says not yet, but he expects her to. Later at the party, Vicky pulls Phillip aside and thanks him again and says she wants to be part of the family and earn all their trust. Meanwhile, Vanessa and Matt tell Harley about their trip to Europe and mentions how she really messed up with Bill and Pilar and wants to make things right between them. Later, Harley tells them about naming baby Alan ‘Zach’ after she overhears Matt joking to Vanessa that one Alan Spaulding in the world is bad enough, but two? Vanessa reminds him about Alan-Michael, so technically three, which they laugh about. Uh oh, Harley and Matt leave to get a drink and Vanessa, while alone, seems to get dizzy and has to hold herself up a bit. I wonder if her old disease is rearing its ugly head again. Meanwhile, there is a vibrant salsa party happening at the Santos mansion. David arrives and Carmen/Ben thank him again for aligning with them and working against the police as a mole. David tells them that he overheard Phillip talking at a dinner party about a new Spaulding computer chip that will tank Cyberlink and SanCorp. He shows them a document he ‘stole’ and gives it to Ben, saying it might have important information (it later ends up being a password). Ben and Carmen are happy with him, pay him and then escort him out. David then calls Frank and tells him so far so good with their plan. Back inside, Danny gets a call from Phillip and says the trap is laid and they just need to get Ben to bite. Danny is happy and says this will finally allow him and Michelle to be happy again. After reading the document, Ben tells Carmen that they’re about to be even richer and this is a landmine that will sink Spaulding. He then leaves, saying he needs to take care of business. Carmen asks Danny where Michelle is and he tells her that she’s going back to school and is staying with Rick for a bit so he can help her. Carmen then makes a phone call to a woman named Teresa, inviting her to the party. Teresa (offscreen) can’t make it, but Carmen says they must plan something soon, as Danny would love to see her. Carmen hangs up and smiles to herself, saying she should have thought about this sooner. At the hospital, Buzz is still by Selena’s side when a nurse comes in with flowers. Buzz reads the card and realizes they’re from Ben, which gets Buzz angry, thinking back to when Ben threatened him. Selena says it was a nice gesture, but Ross then walks in and says his brother rarely gives nice gestures and to be careful. Drew and Michelle walk in to visit Selena and the guys leave. Selena encourages Michelle to go to the Santos party and be with Danny and she finally does. Outside, Buzz wants Ross to tell him everything about Ben. Ross eventually says Ben is a sociopath, he’s perverse, and wants everyone to experience the pain he did in his life. Ross leaves and Buzz tells himself that he must do anything he can to keep Ben out of Selena and Drew’s lives. Meanwhile, Pilar visits a working Bill at SanCorp and confides in him about how horrible she feels about Selena. He tells her she shouldn’t beat herself up over it since it wasn’t her fault. She tells Bill how much she hates Ben and how things have gotten worse since he’s moved in, but Bill says Ben made things good for him by giving him a job. Bill thinks Pilar is just upset seeing her mother with another man, but she says that’s not it. She’s about to tell Bill what she did to the stairs when Ben walks in and interrupts them. Ben says he’s bad with computers and asks Bill to help him. Pilar leaves the room at this point and Bill logs into his computer. Ben suggests he use his new computer program to access his files. We then see Frank call both David and Phillip separately about Ben using SanCorp computers to hack into Spaulding’s network. Phillip then assumes to himself that Vicky must have sold them out (even though we know it was actually David). The Spaulding party ends and people start to leave, including Vanessa and Matt. Matt notices she looks pale, but Vanessa says she’s fine, and before they get home, there is one place they need to go first. We then see Phillip pull Vicky aside and angrily ask her why she gave Ben the info and sold their family out. Vicky denies it, but Phillip doesn’t buy it. She gets upset when she realizes Phillip set her up when he says only she, he and the cops knew about the access codes. Vicky tells the family the truth, that she did help Ben once and thought about giving him the Cyberlink information, but she finally felt like part of the family when Phillip treated her well. She decided to be loyal instead, which Harley believes. Harley pleads with Phillip to believe her, but Alan stands firm in that Vicky is a traitor and will no longer be part of the business or their family. After Vicky leaves, Harley lays into Alan first and then into Phillip, saying he set her up and lied to her as well. Phillip apologizes, but says he had to do it. As Alan and India leave, Alan pulls Phillip aside and says he handled the evening perfectly and he’s proud of him. Frank then shows up at SanCorp and announces Ben is under arrest, but quickly realizes Ben isn’t there and only Bill is at his computer, which shocks Frank. He says he tracked the hacker down to this computer, which was being used to hack into the Spaulding network, but Bill says that’s impossible. Vanessa and Matt then arrive, asking what’s going on, but Bill is totally confused. He tells everyone what happened when Ben was there and Frank says that Ben set him up, but Bill doesn’t think Ben would do that to him. Back at the Santos party, Danny is talking to his grandma and she asks why Michelle isn’t there. Just as he’s trying to convince her that nothing wrong is going on, Michelle walks in and Danny smiles. She and Danny talk to Ray (now portrayed by a new actor - 9/23), and they talk about Michelle studying for her exams. Later, Ray privately encourages Michelle to fight for her relationship. Ben and Pilar then walk in, with Ben assuring her that Bill will come when he’s done working at SanCorp. Carmen greets Ben and they watch Danny/Michelle dancing. Carmen tells him she tried to get his ex-girlfriend Teresa to join the party, but she couldn’t make it. He asks why she would do that and Carmen says Teresa is the only person that can get Danny to realize he made a mistake in marrying Michelle, and it’s clear that Carmen likes Teresa. Danny then asks Michelle to leave the party with him because he has a surprise for her. After Danny and Michelle leave, Frank and the police escort Bill, Vanessa and Matt into the Santos party and they confront Ben about what happened that night at SanCorp. Frank asks Pilar if she saw Ben make Bill do something with his computer, but she says she was in the hall and didn’t see anything. Bill then tells Ben to tell Frank what happened, but Ben plays dumb and says he didn’t do anything. Ben then says he’s disappointed in Bill and wouldn’t have thought he’d do something so criminal, which shocks Bill. Bill lays into him for lying, but Ben says he’ll be happy to represent him in court as his lawyer. Vanessa snaps and says he’ll do no such thing. She pleads with Frank that Ben clearly is the one that did this, but Frank says unfortunately all the evidence right now points to Bill and he can’t do anything. Vanessa tells Ben that he’s going to pay for this, if it’s the last thing she does and Matt then punches Ben and the police have to restrain him. Carmen demands they all leave before she presses battery charges. Ben tells Pilar she better play ball with him or she’ll be doing hard jail time. Frank then arrests Bill and they all prepare to leave. Pilar promises Vanessa that she’ll help them, but Vanessa angrily says she doesn’t want her or any of her family’s help. After everyone leaves, Pilar tells Carmen that Bill is innocent, but Carmen doesn’t understand why she’s so against Ben. At the police station, Frank continues to tell Vanessa/Matt/Bill that there’s nothing he can do, so Vanessa calls Ross and asks to find a way to prevent Bill from being in jail overnight. She then opens up her pill bottle and takes a pill as Billy walks up! Billy says he’ll make sure they get Bill out of jail, but is concerned that Vanessa is sick again. Before she can answer to that, Ross calls and tells Vanessa he can’t find a judge to get Bill arraigned, so it looks like he’ll have to stay in jail overnight. Meanwhile, Bill shuns Pilar and tells her to go home because she can’t help him. She unsuccessfully tries to convince Frank that she overheard Ben and Bill from the hall, but he gets her all flustered and he warns her not to perjure herself by lying. Matt tells Bill he was a little too hard on Pilar and Bill says he just doesn’t want her to see him in jail like this. Bill is then escorted to his cell while Billy tells Matt he’s worried about Vanessa. Billy says he needs to fix this and Matt says he should be careful because he’s done time before and knows how bad it can be. Billy walks off, saying Ben is the one who needs to worry. David, who assumes Ben was caught and arrested, has a romantic night planned for him and Vicky. But Vicky shows up crying and tells him what happened with Phillip and he’s surprised and realizes it’s all his fault. He tells her he’s been working undercover to bring Ben and the Santos family down and he’s the one who tipped off Ben. Vicky gets angry and yells at him that all he ever did was lie to her and he ruined everything for her. He promises to fix things, but she storms out and says he’s done enough already. He catches her in the hallway and convinces her that he did this to help her, but it didn’t go the way they expected. She calms down and they hug each other, with David saying he’s going to protect her. They go back to Phillip’s house, where Harley continues to give him a hard time, and David comes clean saying he’s the one that went to Ben because he’s working with Frank. Phillip finally believes it and apologizes to Vicky, telling her she can have her job back and he’ll convince Alan of the truth, but Vicky says thanks but no thanks! She says she wants nothing to do with the family or the company anymore, and she can’t continue to feel like the outsider in the family. She and David leave and Frank calls Phillip to tell him about Bill, which angers him that Ben got off. Phillip tells Harley he feels bad about the Vicky and Bill situation and Harley says that’s at least one difference between himself and his father, that he at least feels bad when Alan wouldn’t. Danny surprises Michelle by taking her to Laurel Falls and says he bought up the surrounding land and they are going to build a home there for the two of them and their future family, which makes her happy. Drew and Jesse try to lift Selena’s spirits at the hospital by hiring a magician, who is a bit washed up, but makes them all laugh. Jesse also makes them laugh pretending to do some tricks, including producing a little kitten. Jesse then gets a phone call and tells the mystery person that he’s surprised they’re already here in SF, and that he hasn’t told Drew anything yet. He says he wants to call them back at a better time and he then tells Drew it was a wrong number. Later, he tells her he has an art class that night so he leaves, but calls the mystery person and tells them he can meet now. After Drew leaves, Ben shows up and visits Selena, telling her he’s about to meet the DNA technician for his paternity results. He gently touches her leg and she’s shocked because she can feel his touch! She’s able to continue feeling his hand and they celebrate in joy, with Selena wishing Buzz was there to witness it. We then see Buzz walk into the DNA testing room, pretending to be Ben. The technician says he’s been waiting for him and hands him the envelope with the results (cliffhanger!). The technician leaves and Buzz opens the envelope and it shows that Ben is Drew’s father, with a 99.8% positive match. He tells himself he can’t let this happen and he needs to do something about it. He then gets into the lab computer database and is able to magically change the results to .08% negative match (that was way too easy). Meanwhile, Drew walks into Selena’s room and they give her the good news that she has feeling in her legs and the three of them are excited about it all. Ben leaves to get his test results, but runs into Rick and gives him the good news about Selena before he’s able to walk into the lab and find Buzz. In the lab, Buzz’s conscience speaks to him (as another Buzz talking to him), saying he can’t do this to Drew. He calls himself a common criminal and is no better than Ben if he goes through with it. Buzz goes on with it anyway and his conscience tells him he’ll regret this. Buzz hands a nurse the results and says they’re for Ben and she takes them away. Rick then tests Selena’s legs and she can feel things and they all celebrate, with Drew saying Ben is a good luck charm for their family. She hugs Ben just as Buzz walks up and watches. Drew tells Buzz the good news and Ben leaves them to celebrate. Ben finds the nurse and gets his test results and sees that he’s not the father and he’s surprised. Buzz and Selena are together and Selena continues saying she hopes Ben is the father because it’ll make Drew happy, and Buzz’s conscience returns, saying he better tell the truth. Ben then walks in and says he got the results and he IS the father, which makes Selena happy and Buzz shocked.

GH, we gotta steer the ship here. This past month has been pretty transitionary though with storylines and characters.

This is great, I love how it opened with a Thanksgiving frame. I didn't realize Jill's first episode was Thanksgiving dinner like that, how fun.