alwaysAMC

LOL - I really hated him in the beginning, but then I thought Ben/Blake got really hot and interesting because of their forbidden flirtation and strong chemistry. I also enjoyed getting to see his softer side with Beth... but I'm starting to really hate him again based on what I've recently been seeing (more recaps coming).

Oh that's cool! I always notice Roger Newman's name in the writing credits because I kept thinking in the beginning of my watch that it was Robert Newman haha. I look forward to seeing him on screen soon!

We don't know yet... Just after Dani texted Andre that she'll see him soon at the airport, she seemingly got another text with news we're unaware of, which she seemed surprised by. Then she rain to the airport and told him the trip is off. I'm hoping we know tomorrow.

Thank you, all - very helpful! LOL at that song too, so true.

Whoa, I didn't realize Daniel Cosgrove was on this show! He isn't in the opening like all other recurring characters (that opening is still seizure-inducing with how fast the faces fly by). Daniel has been on so many soaps. He's gained weight (which of course is fine), and he seems to have a little playful flair to his personality. Happy to see him. I like Laura and Martin's relationship, I hope it continues and he doesn't really backstab her on any occasion. Being new, I know I don't have experience with Willow's prior storylines and acting, but I still see a very young, too innocent looking actress playing this character in this storyline.

Second time in a month too! LOL - I remember Leslie saying it a few weeks or so ago.

Derek and Ashley's storyline really is uninteresting. I'm still trying to figure out if it's the writing, the actors (and their chemistry) or all of the above. I wish I felt differently. LOL at Leslie and her "Mr. Linguine". Much-needed scenes for Ted/Kat today.

I’m up to July 20, 1998. Reva comes up with a plan for the clone and surprises Josh, Cassie, Sean and the kids (Shane/Tammy, Marah is strangely missing) with a visit from her long-lost cousin ‘Dolly’. It’s the clone donning a short red wig, swinging her purse and smacking her chewing gum. Oh brother. When the kids leave, in front of Josh, Dolly presses Reva and Sean if they got romantic and why it took them so long to get off the island, which upsets them both. Dolly continues to press Sean alone about their kiss on the island (and of course they have Sean shirtless throughout these episodes, even when not on the island haha). Later, Dolly takes off the wig and pretends to be Reva and tries to seduce Sean, but he realizes it’s not the real Reva and tells her off. That night, in retaliation, she calls the cops and reports seeing Sean, the runaway fugitive. Later, Sean prepares to leave town but privately admits to Reva he wishes they could be together, but he knows she’s in love with Josh and he respects that. Reva says in another life, maybe they would be together, but she wishes him the best and they say goodbye. How sweet. But, he runs into Dolly, and then the cops show up and she admits she called the police on him. Reva returns and they convince the officer that she was mistaken and the cop leaves. Sean runs off to Cassie’s to hide and takes a shower. After a night drinking with Harley, Cassie returns home, thinks it’s Hart, and gets in the shower. They’re both shocked of course, but I knew this show should go here! I think Cassie/Sean have potential. He explains why he’s there and they bond a little and she lets him stay there overnight. Josh/Michael have breakfast and see Vicky/Alan together, which makes them suspicious. Alan tells Vicky he’s ready to get going with cloning and provides her with a lock of Annie’s hair, which surprises her because he’s pushing too quickly with her first clone attempt. Alan mentions that the only thing Annie had when she escaped was the wedding ring he gave her, and then OMG we have a very quick clip of a woman in all black, face unseen, pawning a wedding ring. Is this Annie??? Anyway, at the next table, Vivian and David are having breakfast and Vivian talks to Alan and asks if he could get David a job at Spaulding. David gets upset and says no, and Vivian says some things never change with David (they don’t get along because they don’t see eye to eye about his career goals, which was a theme years before). Later, David runs into Josh in the hallway and calls Alan scum, and Josh says he has a proposition for David. He wants him to take the job at Spaulding and spy on Vicky and Alan, since David used to work with Frank long ago at his PI firm. David goes to Alan, apologizes, and asks for a job in his security department, which Alan agrees to. Michael catches Vicky in his apartment and threatens to call the police, but she says she has the cloning formula that she stole from him earlier and gave it to Alan. She needs the growing agent formula, but he said it’s destroyed and he’ll never give it to them. Vicky voices her concerns that Alan will do anything to get Annie back now and he needs to help. He kicks her out of his apartment. He later goes to Spaulding Mansion and confronts Alan. They argue, but Michael ultimately leaves and then Alan has flashbacks to good, loving times with Annie. We then see the mysterious woman in black rip up a newspaper annoucement of Josh/Reva getting remarried! Phillip/Harley host Buzz/Jenna for dinner and it’s quite comical, as Buzz keeps making digs at Phillip by joking he’ll be back with Beth by next week with all his flip flopping, etc. Phillip finally convinces him that he’s committed to Harley, and Buzz finally gives his blessing for their marriage. Rob shows up at Dinah’s before he leaves town and finds prenatal vitamins, but she blows it off by saying they’re Vanessa’s. She finally gets Rob to leave, and he later calls Cassie from the airport. He tells her he landed a job in Alaska, but that he and Dinah slept together a couple months ago and she was all over him. Cassie rushes to the hospital, where Dinah and Hart are having their first sonogram. She takes the sonogram picture and taunts Dinah about how much the baby looks like Rob LOL. Dinah says she’s lying and knows she can’t prove it since Rob will be in Alaska and unreachable for months. Hart then demands a paternity test to set the record straight. He takes a blood sample and they should know the results in a week. Dinah secretly tries to bribe the technician to fix the results to show Hart is the father. With the new Bill actor, they’re revisiting the Michelle/Bill relationship. Bill is single, he’s moved back to SF full-time to attend college there, and they’re reminiscing about being kids, supporting each other during Maureen’s death, and their one kiss. I really wish they took the time to do this long ago with Buffington in the role. Elsewhere, Jesse is babysitting Cooper and Drew comes over and admits she was behind the drawings. She says she wanted him to draw her and feel the same way about her as he does with Michelle, but Jesse tells her to find someone else because he’s not interested. They’re watching Cooper and playing with him as Michelle/Bill come in, which upsets Bill (who doesn’t trust Jesse now), and he walks out. Holly gets another telegram from her brother Ken, and tells Ross/Blake that he’s being released from the psychiatric hospital he’s been in for years and plans to see her soon. Ross tells Ben about Blake’s past and how she’s worked hard to find her partner and be happy, which surprisingly gets to Ben emotionally. Ben decides to leave town and move to LA if Ross drops charges against his disbarment, and tells Blake and Beth he’s leaving. Blake seems torn, but ultimately says good riddance and she and Ross make up and have sex, but while they’re in the act, she envisions Ben on top of her instead LOL. Blake just can’t get over this man. Ben and Beth have a nice conversation and decide to take a mini-vacation to Hawaii to get away from their feelings over Blake and Phillip (Lizzie is at camp, so good time for Beth). The next day, Vanessa tells Ross about Ben buying back the pin from the Second Chances charity (from the BBQ auction), and he gets upset because he knows he’ll do something wrong with it. Before she leaves, Vanessa tells him she’s going back to work at Spaulding part-time (hmm). Before leaving, Ben goes to Blake to tell her goodbye. He gives her the pin, which makes her crumble a little. He ends up telling her he loves her and pressures her into telling him that she watched their tape and can’t get her mind off him. He then pulls her into a kiss, which she sort of tries to push off, but he says he loves her and pushes her to admit she wants him and she finally does. She wants him, kisses him back and they seemingly have sex on the couch. After, a shirtless Ben is about to leave and an emotional Blake is still so unsure of what to do, but he kisses her just as Ross walks in! OMG, Ross has a gun and assuming Ben was trying to rape Blake, he shoots at Ben but he hits Blake’s stomach instead! Both men are distraught and call 911, thinking Blake is dead. Blake is rushed to the hospital and treated on. Holly arrives and Ross tells her what happened and she breaks down thinking she’s lost both Meg and Blake now. Beth calls Lillian about going to Hawaii, but Lillian being at the hospital, tells her what happened and Beth rushes to the hospital. Hart also arrives, upset, and Ross tells him that Ben had just raped her, but Ben and Beth both tell him he’s wrong. Ben tells the truth that they both wanted each other, and Ben says if Blake dies, he’ll spend the rest of his life getting revenge.

You are the absolute best, thank you! Thank you again!!!

Oh that's very nice, thank you both!

Ugh, that's annoying then... good villains should have layers, and we should understand and feel for them from time to time.

Man, Drew really isn't likable at all! Do they ever give him redeeming qualities or reasons for us to side with him on anything, or is he just purely a villain? I can't believe he left Ned there having a heart attack, how awful.

Ahh bummer, but thank you for checking!!

Oh how funny, I didn't realize they were in a movie together! Very cool, I'll have to check it out.

Wait is this AI or real? I don't remember this at all, but it's LOL!

The August 24, 1998 episode of GL is corrupt and won't play - any chance someone can re-upload or know how to fix it? Also curious if someone has the full August 21, 1998 episode - the one in the Vault is just partial. Thanks as always to everyone! ETA: Tagging @Daveyboy and @BoldRestless since they were able to help the last time *fingers crossed * Thanks again!

And Tamra and Vicki just reunited (all over Instagram). I really expect Bravo to bring Vicki back for Season 20 (and maybe others?)) and I'm hoping it's going to be back to its former days vs. this online blogger BS that ate up this past season.

Ohhh that's great! I've seen the first 3 seasons of Melbourne and thought it was GREAT. Bravo long ago would play both Melbourne and Cheshire on the weekends randomly, so I got to watch for a bit. They also randomly played the first two seasons of Durban a few years ago and that was interesting.

Ahhh ok - that makes more sense, thank you

I’m up to July 10, 1998. Ben’s hearing starts, because he wouldn’t take Ross’ deal to drop the charges in exchange for leaving town. Beth takes the stand in support of Ben, and even says she would re-do the night they had sex if given the chance. Previously, Beth and Blake fight over Ben a bit, with Beth pushing her to tell the truth and support Ben. Blake doesn’t, of course, and Griffin rules in Ross’ favor, meaning Ben can’t practice law again. Afterwards, Beth invites Ben as her date to the Bauer July 4th BBQ. Jesse draws a nude Michelle (taking inspiration from the recent Titanic movie at the time, it seems), and Drew/Bill show up. Drew finds the drawings and takes them. Reva gets to reunite with Marah/Shane when Rusty brings them home, which was sweet. Meta, Abby, and Selena get things ready for the annual Bauer 4th of July party. Buzz shows up with food and runs into Selena. He tells her she reminds him of his ex-wife, Nadine, and could be a sister of hers. Hmm. After a while, everyone shows up, including a rarely seen Vivian and Charles Grant. Everyone is upset that Beth brought Ben, and when Blake/Beth are alone, Beth accuses her of being jealous that she had sex with Ben. Vanessa/Dinah get into it and Vanessa tells her she wouldn’t be surprised if Hart isn’t the father of her baby. The new Bill seems to all of a sudden be interested in being Dinah’s brother now, and he vows to not let Hart screw her over. Reva and family show up and it was nice to see Abby/Reva finally reconnect. Jason goes missing for a bit and everyone starts to panic, but Ben realizes he fell into the hot tub and saves him. Blake thanks him and hugs him. This scene was pretty silly because Ben pulls the boy out of the hot tub and the little actor isn’t screaming, scared or anything, he just looks happy and smiling LOL. In Cassie’s dumbest decision to-date, she decides to trust the clone to stay put in the pool house while she goes to the BBQ. Of course the clone disobeys her and wants to be part of all the fun, so she heads to the BBQ too. She watches the egg toss, where Reva and Marah are having a blast and she gets jealous. When Reva goes inside, where she thanks Matt for helping Josh find her, the clone decides to step in and do the egg toss again with Marah in front of everyone. Marah asks how she changed her clothes so quickly, because of course she’s wearing pink while Reva is wearing white. They end up winning the contest and are awarded prizes, just as the real Reva sees them from the house. Reva pulls her off to the side and asks her what she’s doing and the clone says she’s being a better Reva than she is. Marah tells Josh about how Reva quickly changed clothes and seemed to have a different personality throughout the day, so he rushes off to find Reva. The clone/Reva argue about her life and Reva starts feeling sorry for how the clone’s life is meaningless and she has nothing to live for. The clone leaves, Josh finds Reva and finally Reva lashes out at Josh for putting them all in this situation. This makes sense to me for Reva to be angry at Josh for playing God and putting their family through this mess. They work through it and eventually kiss and embrace each other. Later, there is an auction to raise money for the Second Chances club, and Abby bids on Rick and they go upstairs immediately to have sex, which was odd but nice to see them have some physical scenes haha. Then, Buzz presents a wrapped painting, which he unwraps in front of everyone and shocker, it’s Jesse’s nude drawings of Michelle. Ed and Michelle are horrified, and Meta tries to calm Michelle down by saying they’re tasteful and she even posed nude back in her day for art classes. Jesse suspects Drew did this, which she did, and Michelle goes off on her. The next item is a pin that Blake told Ross she really loves, so Ben of course bids on it and won’t let Ross win. Ben ends up winning and gives it to Blake, but Blake gives it back to the charity as a donation. Later, Holly receives a telegram from her brother Ken wishing her and Fletcher a happy wedding anniversary, which stings, as Holly tells Ed and Ross that she still has no idea where Fletcher and Meg are. She mentions her brother is in the hospital, she hasn’t heard from him in years and was sent away for shooting Ed in the past. Hmm. Charles doesn’t feel well and Rick takes him to the hospital, thinking maybe he’s having a heart attack. Come to find out, it was a stroke and he’ll need to be taken care of for a while. Vivian mentions that Gilly is on assignment in London, but that David will be coming home soon. Ohh, if true, interesting! Dinah faints so Hart/Cassie take her home and then later to the hospital. The three of them argue about Dinah not taking her pregnancy serious enough, which Dinah is very upset about. Dinah gives Hart an ultimatum, either his baby and her or Cassie, but Cassie gets her to agree to let them both take care of her while she’s pregnant. They continue to fight over the week and Dinah threatens Hart that she’ll terminate the pregnancy so he can’t have the baby, which is just really gross but par for the course with Dinah. She later apologizes and says she could never get rid of her baby, she was just lashing out, which tracks. Later, Rob calls Dinah’s house and leaves a voicemail saying he’s back in town for a night and wants to recreate that night they had. Later, she plays the message with Hart in the room but stops it quickly and Hart grills her on why she’s still talking to Rob. I am curious why Buzz and Jenna are at the BBQ, but no mention of Frank, Eleni and their kids. We haven’t seen Eleni in forever it feels like, and I really want to know why. Also, O’Leary does SUCH a great impression of Grant Aleksander. He did it again in front of Harley and Beth, and Ehlers even cracked, because he clinches the jaws and extends his bottom teeth like Phillip, it’s so funny. Phillip wasn’t at the BBQ, he’s at camp with Lizzie, but contemplating his relationships between Harley and Beth. He calls Rick and tells him he’s made a decision and wants to get married. Rick later tells Jenna and she asks which girl he chose, just as Harley/Beth walk in. The call dropped so Rick didn’t know who he picked, leaving everyone speculating and Beth assuming it’s her. Later, Phillip shows up and Harley sees Phillip/Beth talking so assumes he picked her. She and Jenna prepare themselves that she needs to move on, but Phillip surprises her by saying he chose her and wants to get married. A sad Beth breaks down at the Bauer house with Meta. After the BBQ, Drew tries to convince Bill that she didn’t expose Jesse’s drawings of Michelle. She tells Bill that Jesse is jealous of him and rich people and that he did it to show the town and her family that he ‘has’ their little girl. Jesse/Michelle show up and Bill stands up to Jesse and they fight before Selena (who is randomly working at the diner now), breaks them up and realizes Drew is causing trouble yet again. Later, Jenna shows up and Buzz introduces her to Selena. Selena tells Jenna she has nothing to worry about, she’s not interested in Buzz and Jenna agrees, she wouldn’t be worried about her. Hmm. This reminds me, we haven’t seen Nola in forever which is sad. Griffin and Vicky go on a date and he tells her to be careful with Alan Spaulding, but she assures him she can handle him. They head to the hospital so she can meet with a doctor, and Vicky says her full name is Vicky Brandon (hmm, Brandon Spaulding?). Griffin runs into a distraught Vivian and they hug. She asks about living wills just as David Grant arrives! A new actor is playing him, gosh we haven’t seen David since early 1996. He berates Griffin and says he knows what he did to both Gilly and Vivian, which is why he quit working for his company back then. Vicky introduces herself and David is frosty towards her too, and she thinks he’s a jerk. David then sees an unconscious Charles and starts crying, asking him to wake up and be ok. Later, David stops by the diner and reunites with Buzz and Frank (guess I missed their relationship prior to 1995, because I don’t remember them having much of one before David left). He asks about Lucy (you’d think they would have stayed in touch), and then mentioned Mallet when Buzz says Harley is back in town. Vicky shows up and she and David continue to spar. Sean and Reva have a reunion and Josh shows up and thanks him again. Reva and Josh try to convince Sean to stay so they can help exonerate him, but he refuses. Cassie arrives and alludes to the clone being in the pool house. I really think Cassie/Sean have good chemistry, they should put them together. Alone, Sean voices his frustrations to Cassie about Josh wanting to keep the clone around, thinking he should send her packing immediately. She then lets it slip that the clone and Josh had sex once, and that pushes him over the edge with anger. Ben makes a cryptic comment to Ross and Blake about Kevin’s parentage, which confuses them. Ross thinks there’s something he’s holding over them now, and it upsets him that Blake put them in this position. Ross throws flowers at Blake and walks out, and Blake decides to watch the tape of her and Ben. Meanwhile, a distraught Beth seeks out Ben for comfort after Phillip decided to marry Harley. Ben tries to console her, but she wants sex and he refuses because he wants to keep trying with Blake. Beth gets upset and tells him she hopes he loses Blake like she lost Phillip and storms out. Later we see a crying Beth on the Towers rooftop, teetering over the edge - oh no! Thankfully Ben finds her and saves her before she jumps.

I agree, I've really come around to them as a couple this week. Martin can be such a d!ck sometimes, ugh.

I'm really enjoying the Martin/Kat scenes and the Nicole/Smitty/kids scenes, good family stuff today. Nicole is so great with her grandkids. Enjoyed seeing Pamela twice this week!

Aww poor guy, I'll have to watch his Locher interview this weekend. He got a long time after Budig joined though - over 2 years! She started Dec 1995 and he left late Feb 1998.

I am SO excited for this, I've been wanting to watch it for years!

I was so happy to see that tribute too. I remember he was included in Michelle's graduation storyline in mid-1997 when they commemorated the AIDS/HIV garden that she spoke at... which I think is why they had Michelle talk about him to Jesse, because you're right, otherwise the other characters from 1995 were gone by then. I'm at work now, so don't have my personal computer, but I feel like we saw him one other time post-1995 and Lucy/Susan's HIV storyline, but maybe it was still tagged to Lucy before she left in '96. I'll have to check when I'm home.