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It's clear that Dante views Rocco as his one "real" son and doesn't have the same paternal affection for Gio, who he distrusts. Which is perfectly realistic, since he raised Rocco and only knew Gio vaguely as the neighbor's kid. But in the world of soaps, where a few months after a paternity reveal, we expect a long-lost biological child to be fully accepted as family, it comes off as shockingly harsh. But I think Dante is a self-righteous prick most of the time, so at least it's in character.

I rarely identify with Brook Lynn, but I loved the little head shake and look she gave Dante at the end of that scene.

That probably explains why Alan is talking about his (so-far unseen) family so much in those scenes with Monica. Marland was probably already planning to bring on the Quartermaines to expand the canvas, as the 60 minute format would require. Also, what a delight it is to see Alan and Monica so early in their relationship, where we can already witness some of the dynamics that would play out between them over the next 30 years. And although their scenes were nothing special in this episode, Genie Francis and Anna Stuart both look lovely.

Two questions about today's episode: 1. Is this Rocco storyline the first time Genie Francis has gotten scenes with Daniel Goddard, who played her son on Y&R? They both did a great job with their confrontation scene today, and I wondered if Laura slapping Dalton was improvised, something Genie was comfortable doing because she'd worked closely with Daniel before. 2. Can someone remind me how Ric has intel on Portia? Is this something he found out from talking to Liz?

I think the show struggles a bit when it comes to giving any of its characters psychological depth or believable motivations. But it's particularly pronounced when it comes to the black characters, who seem to have no pasts at all beyond a few references to the relationship dramas we've seen play out onscreen. I mean, Isaiah has been on the show for a year now, and we know literally nothing about his backstory (or even why he's so into Portia). Sawandi Wilson is a good enough actor to mostly make this work, but the character is still almost a blank slate. When it comes to Portia, it would be pretty easy to give her some dialogue with Isaiah where she reflects on her past and explains how she became such a compulsive liar. It would probably have something to do with her perfectionism and the extra burden of having to be a standard bearer for black excellence in otherwise white-dominated communities like GH. It would make perfect sense why she's so guarded and feels like no one can know the real Portia. But I think there's almost no chance these writers will do the work and give her that degree of psychological realism.

Thank you! That explains so much. And I agree that Tabyana gave those scenes with Jordan her all and showed some fire. I'm just struck by the difference in how they write Trina and her (former?) BFF Joss. While Joss has this whole storyline involving international espionage and an older lover, Trina is stuck in scenes where Ava has to explain the concept of divorce to her like she's a special needs child.

Could someone tell me why the show writes Trina like a 14 year old rather than a 21 year old? She came off as absolutely ridiculous in her scenes with Ava and then with Jordan today.

Frankly, ALL of Laura's scenes this week make me want Cosgrove's slimy character to win the election, including the scenes where she decides to skip the well-publicized mayoral debate to be with Rocco and the many scenes where she enumerates things that matter more to her than her job.

I realize they're using the Rocco court scenes to move some plot pieces in action (and probably kill off poor underused Daniel Goddard's Prof. Dalton character). But it's still so silly that they probably could have avoided the whole trial if Britt--who they've already established as being very concerned for Rocco's well-being--had just lied to the cops and claimed she gave him the keyfob and asked him to look for papers in the lab she shares with Dalton.

I've gotta give the show some credit for briefly giving us some actual medical drama in the scene with Britt and Portia. And it was perfectly in character too, with Britt acting in a wildly unprofessional manner in the service of a greater goal (acting fact to save a patient) and Portia being professional to a fault, following hospital protocol even when her inaction could cost Ned his life.

Agreed. They seemed to be competing to see who could pitch his voice lower and speak in a monotone to sound more manly. All I could think when I was watching those scenes is that there's no way you should have Dante AND Nathan AND Chase on the same show; they're serving such similar functions, you need to get of at least one of them.

I know it's a sweeps period for GH, so there's a non-trivial chance that Jacinda the Hooker will end up brutally murdered by the end of the month. But if they do decide to keep her around and put her in a love story with Michael, they really need to recast the part with a stronger actress. Paige Herschell might be great in a different role, but she doesn't have a lot of chemistry with Rory Gibson, and she's not selling some of Jacinda's sassier lines.

To me, it felt like they wrote the story according to Slezak's availability. It was paced so differently than the rest of the show, with major developments in the story happening practically every day, that I can only assume Frank gave the writers an order to front-burner it because he could only convince Slezak to be on set for less than a month.

I thought it was a great scene, because they each had a point. Jordan is absolutely right to call Portia out on being a compulsive liar. But Portia is right to mention Curtis's "impossible standards" because Curtis is a condescending prick who is just looking for opportunities to tell the women in his life, "I'm so disappointed in you."

Yeah, the Tracy/Qs scenes today didn't quite work for me either. Which, to my great shock, meant that my favorite scenes today involved the Portia/Jordan confrontation. A year ago, when I got back into the habit of watching GH, both characters bored me to tears. I thought they were symptomatic of how white soap opera writers and producers either weren't interested or weren't capable of writing black characters who had distinctive personalities and compelling flaws. But now, Portia and Jordan are each getting to show their messy and petty sides, and the actresses seem to be having a blast.

Really good episode today. Great to see Ned and Tracy plotting, just like old times. And I love how they're bringing out more of Michael's Quartermaine ruthlessness. Although I have no use for Jacinda, those scenes with Michael, Nina, and Ava were great. Rory has been playing the brooding "dark Michael" well, but it's nice to see this different side of him and the smug smile on his face as he spars with Nina.

The thing about Carly is that I don't think she needs her own storyline. For most of 2025, she's really been more of a supporting player in other people's storylines (especially the Michael/Willow/Drew affair), and I think that's played to Laura Wright's strengths. It hasn't felt like Carly is eating the show, as it has in some previous years, even though she's still on at least 3 days a week. Because Carly is already this nosy, rude, chaos agent, it feels organic when she butts into other people's storylines and creates conflict.

You've just hit on one of the major weak spots of this storyline: the writers don't seem to know what Rocco's motivation is, and the dialogue has provided very little explanation. As a viewer, I've tried to supply my own explanations: for instance, Rocco's mother Lulu was absent for years because she was in a coma, and then when she came out of the coma, she immediately focused on searching for her other child Charlotte (who was with Valentin) and mostly ignored Rocco. So maybe he's searching for an alternate mother who he thinks "wanted" him, as opposed to Lulu, who made him feel unwanted. But again, none of that is explicitly in the scripts. I think the writers came up with this storyline because they knew it would generate conflict scenes between Lulu and Dante vs. Britt and Obrecht, and they didn't bother fully thinking through the motivations of the teenage boy in the middle.

That promo is so bad, it's low-key hilarious. Even Roger and Tamara look like they're struggling to keep a straight face.

It's not like this show is full of romance anyway, so I'm not sure that Carly even needs a romantic storyline. She definitely doesn't need to be rushed into one, because LW plays Carly with such a hard edge that it takes a very specific kind of actor--one who radiates confidence--who could make a pairing with Carly work. Until they find one, they should just keep giving Carly scenes with the people she really has chemistry with: the women who are her rivals and frenemies.

I actually bought that they were falling in love when Charles Mesure was playing the role, but that totally went out the window when they recast with Chris McKenna. He and Laura Wright generate all the chemistry of two strangers forced to sit together on a bus. However, after the scenes with Carly, her terrible wig, and Valentin this week, I'm actually looking forward to seeing this story play out. I'm so sick of watching McKenna's Brennan, I hope Carly absolutely destroys him, and I'm going to relish every minute of it.

I'll just say that based on where the gun was found, I also think it was a kid, but not Danny.

Today was full of juicy conflict and confrontation scenes. Of course, I loved the blow-up between Ronnie and Tracy, and the Jordan/Portia rivalry makes each character far more compelling. But my favorite adversarial scene of the day came from Drew and Alexis. If my suspicions are right about who actually shot Drew, it will be very interesting to have Alexis in the mix.

Great episode today! I loved seeing so many of the show's veteran actresses (and Erika Slezak) in a room together for the tea party scenes. Those kinds of big party scenes have mostly disappeared from soaps as budgets have gotten smaller, so I'm glad that Frank was able to work his budgetary magic to give us this one. But I have to say that Dante really sucks, both as a cop and as a brother. (And how does that whole "I'm still working on a murder investigation where you're one of the main suspects, but I'm interrogating you as your brother not as a cop" thing even work?) Michael looked like he was about to punch his sanctimonious big brother, and I wish he had.

Clearly Sonny secretes a pheromone that makes otherwise smart women fall foolishly in love (or lust) with him. Unfortunately, since GH is not in Smell-O-Vision, we can't sense this pheromone and so Sonny's charm is completely lost on us viewers.