I’m up to January 21, 1998.
For the month of January, the opening now has a voiceover congratulating GL for being named the best soap opera of 1997 by TVGuide and Soap Opera Digest - haha, way to go! Ironically, they weren’t even nominated for best soap in the Daytime Emmys that year (which AMC won over DAYS, GH and Y&R). I’d be curious now to read the reviews by TVG and SOD.
Whelp, I guess that’s the last we’ll see of J. He is no longer in the ending credits as a contract player, so I guess his scenes with Nola were the last, sadly. Out with an unceremonious whimper.
Harley sets up a romantic night with Phillip in NYC for New Year’s Eve, mailing him a plane ticket to meet her. Annie intercepts and never gives Phillip the ticket, and when Harley calls the mansion, Annie tells her that Phillip is spending the night with Beth instead. Meanwhile, Annie has locked Phillip and Beth in the attic. Beth is pouring her heart out to Phillip and tells him she’s still in love with him and wants him back. He gets angry because she threw away their marriage over the last couple years with no good reason and he finds it hard to accept she’s changed her mind out of the blue. He says he now loves Harley and that won’t change. He then realizes Harley is in NYC and takes an axe to the door to unlock them from the attic. He makes it to NYC the next morning on New Year’s Day and reunites with Harley, but she’s upset and they talk through all the details. Once she hears that Beth plans to stay in SF, she says she’s getting off the rollercoaster and no longer able to be with Phillip, and walks out. On the other hand, Beth was supposed to have a date with Ben on New Year’s Eve, but stood him up because of the attic situation. He comes over the next morning and isn’t happy, but she apologizes and he explains to her his entire backstory, eventually saying he has a very cold exterior but even more cold interior. She seems to think she can warm him up a bit.
Michelle and Jesse finally make love for the first time at the lighthouse, which was very sweet, but an interesting choice to have her be blind during her first time. While he’s sleeping, she whispers to him that she’ll always love him and then leaves. Dahlia takes her to the blind school and makes Dahlia promise that she won’t tell Jesse that she’s there and blind. Jesse wakes up the next morning and reads the note Michelle left him and is sad. Michelle struggles in school, but her blind mentor helps her. She calls Dahlia one night and Jesse takes the phone from Dahlia and hears her voice, but she hangs up. Jesse is upset and tries to get the truth out of Dahlia, but she won’t say anything. Jesse heads to a bar and finds his dad, who miraculously says he’s forgiven Jesse and the Bauer’s and won’t go after them anymore. Meanwhile, Ed visits Michelle and apologizes to her for thinking she had to elope because he wasn’t supportive of her relationship with Jesse.
Ok new interesting story developing - Annie’s new business at Spaulding, called Simply Annie, is now operating with Michael as the lead chemist/researcher. Alan/Annie visit him and he has a random cat that he’s taking care of. Ultimately he’s testing new perfumes for Annie to sell, but asks Alan/Annie to call ahead if they plan to visit again which Alan didn’t really like. Later, while alone, he tells the cat that no one can find out what they’re really doing. WHAT? Later, Vanessa visits him and she’s surprised how top-secret secure the place is just for perfume. Michael acts surprised that she was able to get inside easily. Michael then tells her he’s spending time trying to find a cure for her.
Griffin announces to Ross and Blake that he’s been promoted/elected to district judge and later is revealed to be the presiding judge over Abby’s trial.
Holly tells Ross that Fletcher wants to move away and take Meg to a better school in Chicago or Toronto, hmm. While they’re talking, Kevin falls from a chair and sprains his arm. Rick is upset to hear what happened when he’s brought into the hospital, but he treats him. Rick then has a cute little chat with just Kevin in the hospital room where he does a hilarious impersonation of both Billy and Phillip. O’Leary is really funny, you can tell - reminds me of Michael E. Knight.
Reva/Blake/Abby/Jenna/Harley all work together to get information on Ben to bring him down. He walks in on them scheming and reveals how much he knows about all of their pasts. This is probably one of the few times I’m actually enjoying Ben because he’s able to shut the ladies down in a dark, flirtatious way which is kind of sexy and intriguing. Later that night, Blake goes to Ben’s place and pretends to cave to his ultimatum and seduces him. I have to admit, this whole thing was pretty sexy and Ben flirtatiously warns her not to start something she can’t finish. She gets him to close his eyes and she handcuffs him to his couch. After more banter, she takes a knife to his neck, but ultimately she stops herself. As she walks by, he grabs her into a kiss. She then bashes his head with a vase and he goes unconscious. She freaks out, thinking she’s killed him. She calls Rick and tells him what happened, but Ben wakes up while they’re on the phone and he continues to flirt with Blake about their situation. Rick then tells her what happened with Kevin so she throws Ben the keys to the handcuffs and rushes out to be with Kevin/Ross, who just got discharged. She accidentally left her bracelet and Ben now has it, which Blake has realized.
Finally, Matt finds Dinah and says if she ever does what she did on NYE again, he’ll spend his entire life making her regret it. Good job, Matt! But Dinah tries to turn the tables on him and exclaims that he liked it. Otherwise, he would have told Vanessa about what happened, and he hasn’t. He gets more upset.
As Dinah gets into her car in the parking garage, she see Hart and Cassie leaving their date at the Towers. They’re holding each other and eventually kiss and then Hart leaves. Dinah starts her car, slams the pedal and drives right towards Cassie! Great cliffhanger. She eventually slams the breaks just before she hits Cassie and Cassie jumps away to the ground. Dinah pretends like she didn’t see her, but Cassie doesn’t believe it and tries forcing her to accept the truth that she’s with Hart now. Great catfight which includes Cassie beating Dinah’s car with a random tire iron. Matt breaks them up and tells Dinah she really needs some soul searching, and she breaks down alone in the garage. Later, Hart confronts Dinah about the incident and they have a huge fight and Dinah says she’ll make Hart/Cassie’s lives a living hell going forward. Hart then surprises Cassie by buying them the dive bar they met in.
Phillip wants Harley to live with him and it takes her zero seconds to say yes LOL, while Beth calls AC Mallet (off camera) telling him she’s worried about Harley and her well-being. Mallet says he can’t be bothered, but Beth pleads while Phillip overhears from the other room. He then tells her they’ll never get back together and the only reason they are connected is Lizzie. Lizzie overhears this and runs away from the mansion. Everyone starts looking for her and then we see Lizzie fall into a deep well. Harley finds and saves her the next episode, so this was a nothingburger, but probably will bring Phillip/Harley even closer.
Annie goes to Lewis Oil and hands out wedding invitations to Reva/Josh/Billy/Cassie/Hart and asks if Tammy could be her flower girl LOL. They all tell her to F off, but she then announces she’s the newest board member of Lewis Oil LOL. Reva is determined to find more dirt on Annie to get rid of her, so she finds a man (Eddie Banks) from her prior life in Chicago. He tells her that Annie is dead because she committed suicide, and he took the blame for a crime she committed that caused him to go to jail. Reva convinces Eddie that Annie is still alive and wreaking havoc on her life. Eddie then tells her a secret about Annie (that viewers don’t get to hear) that Reva says will finally end Annie once and for all. She later tells Josh/Cassie/Billy (but we don’t see what it is), and they all agree to go to Annie/Alan’s wedding so they can reveal the secret to as many witnesses as possible. Oh boy! Dinah ends up overhearing them gloat about it at the end, and now she’s suspicious that something will happen at the wedding.
Matt/Vanessa have a sonogram and find out they’re having a girl, which they’re both excited about. They decide to name her Maureen, awww. Sadly, soon after, Dr. Sedgewick tells them that there is a recurrence of her disease. So they either need to terminate the pregnancy or Vanessa might die. They look into perhaps inducing the baby early since premature babies often survive. Vanessa is ultimately determined to carry the baby to term, even if she has to die. Matt then threatens to take Vanessa to court to force her to have the baby now so she could be saved (yikes, but I get it). Vanessa of course flips out.
Abby and Ross prepare for trial and Abby tells Ross about Roy mouthing to her that she’s going to die. She assumed he vocalized it and everyone heard, but Ross tells her that he must have mouthed it and only she saw. They think back to Dinah filming the trial and losing the tape and now wonder how they can find it. Meanwhile, Jesse finds the tape that he took from that day, so only a matter of time before Ross/Abby find it.
You're welcome! And you're so right, I've noticed over the past several months how much storyline they churn through. I'm having to take many more notes as I watch (which I love). I don't mind the pace as long as the storylines work and I'm entertained, which I have been. Yeah they dropped J so quickly out of nowhere, and he didn't even really get a storyline with Drew. I think they had 1-2 episodes where he hired her at Company and she was doing an awful job, but they never really hinted at any romance or storyline between the two of them. In fact, Drew is barely used in her first 3-4 months at GL. They seemed to drop the Sugar Hill storyline so quickly, which is what brought her into the show. My only guess is Taye Diggs couldn't keep up with the daytime schedule, because he flubbed lines pretty often. Jesse's father actually got a recast just before Abby's trial where she kills Roy. I had wondered why they did that, but I guess maybe the original actor's schedule picked up. I hate to admit this, but I've actually warmed up to Ben a little. He's dreadful when he's in court or making decisions to bring Ross down, but he shines when he's flirting with women (Beth/Blake). It's strangely sexy to me... we'll see how long that lasts haha. I hated Reva's house too. To your point, it wasn't warm or comfortable looking. I'm excited to see how Watros goes out and where the Annie story continues, since I know she gets a recast. Yeah they really used Watros a ton in these last few months. Dinah has really annoyed the crap out of me since she and Hart broke up. She's lashing out again like she used to in 1995 and it's so off-putting to me. I love Wendy, and she does a great job with the Dinah character, but man she's so mean and entitled sometimes.
