I’m up to April 21, 1997.
March 31 is the first day we have new head writers credited at the end: James Harmon Brown and Barbara Esensten!
Reva truly believes Annie is her long lost sister, so instead of telling anyone, she decides to lie to Josh and tell him her sister (Dani) is likely dead and she’s stopping her search. He is shocked and doesn’t think she should stop looking so quickly. Reva then ends it with Josh and gives him no hope of getting back together. Josh uses Billy to get Reva to reconsider, but it doesn’t help. I will say, Reva and Billy do have some good chemistry haha. Reva then breaks down and tells Annie she is her sister, which Annie is egging on through her elaborate plan, but pretends to break down and feign shock. Reva has sympathized so much with Annie now and feels bad for her, which is odd for Reva and almost has neutered her (which annoys me). She’s willing to put Sarah’s wishes above her own kids, because she’s threatening to leave Springfield again if Josh doesn’t leave her alone (which annoys me). Annie is doing a great job of milking her ‘loss’ of never having Sarah as a mother like Reva did LOL. But, then wow, after a very awkward lamaze class, Josh finally mans up and tells Annie he’s no longer in love with her, which breaks Annie down. I can see her spiraling now even more going forward, as she internally says “I’m going to kill you, Reva Shayne!”.
Cooper was kidnapped in the diner when Buzz and Eleni had their backs turned. This new diner set is truly awful. Anyway, it ends up being Jeffrey who takes him, so Jenna would be upset with Buzz, Jeffrey can be the hero who ‘saves’ Cooper, and Jenna will go back to him. Jenna professes her love to Buzz, but says she can’t be with him because Jeffrey is threatening her based on their recent jewelry heists. Jeffrey starts to take it further by assaulting her and holding her against her will. Frank is helping Buzz get to Jenna for now. While Jenna makes Buzz more tolerable for me, and while I actually like them as a couple, this storyline overall is pretty repetitive and boring.
Hmm, I’m not sure I really buy Amanda/Roger as a romantic couple, which is where they seem to be going. Amanda originally wanted to drop the wedding charade once they got the truth about her parentage and ownership, but now she seems to have feelings for him and is flirting with him. Meanwhile, I think Roger still has feelings for Holly and I’m happy with that. He even bought Meg a present, which was sweet.
Roger visits Vanessa in Lucerne again and realizes she now has her eyesight back. He gives her an update on everyone in Springfield, to include Billy being out of prison, and she is grateful to him for the visit. These were very sweet scenes. Vanessa then has a daydream where she’s packing up to go home and Matt walks in and they have a reunion/kiss. I didn’t love that, because it would be more impactful to see the reunion later, when it’s real. Especially since she ‘died’ 8 long months ago. Vanessa is then given a computer and microphone to start journaling and writing family members letters, while Dinah pushes Matt to try using a computer to find partners through chat rooms. Cheese alert: Vanessa then looks at the computer with the Internet icon and says “My gosh, I could talk to anyone in the whole wide world with that thing, anywhere!”. LOL - watching this in 2025 is so funny to me, and clearly the foreshadowing with Matt/Vanessa finding each other online (assuming). Of course, days later, they both enter an empty Poetry chatroom where it’s only the two of them, out of everyone in the world that could be online in a chatroom LOL.
April 14 - we have a new character, Michael Burke, who is now Vanessa’s physical therapist in Lucerne. I can’t help but to think this is just Zachary’s replacement, as it relates to being Vanessa’s confidant and guide. Another young, handsome man. Maeve Kinkead is also back on contract and appears in the closing credits again - yay!
Anyway, Matt gives Bill an early graduation gift, which was Henry’s watch. It was a sweet gesture, but then Bill gets upset and thinks it’s a bribe to get him to move back into the house. They seem to keep going back and forth with Bill and Matt, and I wish they would just settle on something.
Blake/Hart and Dinah/Ross have similar conversations where Blake tries to convince Hart to go back to Dinah, even though the girls aren’t best friends; likewise, Dinah tries to convince Ross to go back to Blake, even though the girls aren’t best friends. The boys seem to lighten their stance and there seems to be a small hope. Ross is softening and tells Blake they can suspend the divorce for now and take things slow. Hart/Dinah eventually kiss.
Ugh, I knew this was coming in 1997, but I didn’t think Bridget’s exit would start to happen so quickly. She talks to Ross at Company about potentially leaving Springfield and what the legal ramnifications would be with Peter. She said she feels like she needs a new start, away from Hart, but I’m very curious how they’re going to write this for Peter/Hart and eventually Vanessa when she returns. It just seems like an awful time to get rid of Bridget/Peter and I can’t see Bridget leaving Peter in Springfield.
Now they have Billy working at the diner with Buzz as part of his community service, oh boy haha.
I’ve also realized that I’ve seen the last of Hamp, since the actor passed away in early Jan 1997. Very sad that the show didn’t even acknowledge his character leaving the show or the actor’s passing.
We haven't seen Jan or Mona in forever. I'm putting that out there in hopes they pop up next week, because that's usually what happens with this show haha.