P.J.

Curiously, Long really seemed to skip over the engagement to Alan plot point when Maeve returned. Vanessa goes right back to zeroing in on Ross, and Ross at one point asserts that she left him to go to Venezuela and take care of Billy.

I kept seeing Sharon Leal (Dahlia) in things too. I totally get Bomer wanting to move on. I loved him in White Collar. I just don't think he made the role unrecastable. Although with Nancy St Alban and Mandy Bruno as evidence, maybe they had a point.

Well, they did try to rebuild Van and Ross, but it just didn't work. Whether it was too soon to move Van on from Billy (who were trying to reunite practically until Billy left) or just the changes in Ross and Vanessa that no longer meshed, I don't know. I do buy Alan's first proposal, which was more about screwing over Billy and keeping the Chamberlains under the Spaulding wing and influence. Van's transformation was still fresh, so it wasn't as hard to believe she might be swayed by the power of being a Spaulding. I don't get the second one as much, other than Alan is happy to score one on Ross, and Van is perhaps seeking refuge from her recent disappointments in love. And tbf, Van was sacrificed for the Reva and Alan story. She even becomes the lynchpin (in a way) of Phillip's takeover of Spaulding, as Phillip and Alex are using the engagement (or breaking thereof) to prod Henry and HB into siding with them and throwing Alan out. I get the criticism of Van's transformation, but I don't find her as watered down as some. Granted, she has an impressive two-plus years perfecting every intonation of "oh Billy" and managing the domestic end of the Lewises. Had Long allowed the natural rivalry between Van and Reva to develop (which would've echoed the Van/Nola relationship) instead of insisting that Reva was some kind of "authentic" heartstone only the foolish or pure bitch would dare cross, it would've been aces. Every time Vanessa has to kind of grit her teeth and let Reva's actions pass just chaps my hide. The 1:30 where she gets to throw Reva's treatment of Billy in her face after Billy finds out Dylan's his son make me stand up and cheer. Of course, it immediately dissolves into more "poor Reva, we can't upset her" schtick that makes my eyes roll back into my head.

Ben had always gotten the least amount of attention. But he'd have been an important component in the future, until TIIC decided to make him a serial killer. Morons. I was okay with Ashley Peldon. But I'm not sure I could've stood years of her being the cutesy Reva mini-me they looked like they wanted to make her into. I agree---you have to age characters together. It's still nonsense that Daisy/Susan was born before nearly EVERYONE, yet Marina, Lizzie, Coop and Shayne became a decade older than her by the end. Or that Jason and Kevin simply disappeared off the canvas.

No wonder McTavish pushed them hard, any bad idea, she glommed on to. Ugh.

I don't often agree that Marland didn't have a plan for his characters, but other working her back to Ross, I'm not seeing any true options for her in '82.

I'm not as sure that it's sexism. Budig arrived sometime before Peter Simon left, and making Michelle slightly older sort of lets Ed off the hook of being a horrible father just leaving a teen with her older brother. Meanwhile, had Maeve not decided to take time off, they might have very well recast Bryan around the same time. It would've been very jarring to see Van come home to a new face or watch Matt and Dinah "raise" a kid who looked old enough to be out on his own.

Bill, Michelle and Ben really should've been the building block for the next generation of Springfield, and instead they ruined it by shipping off Ben and recasting Michelle. I know Budig has her fans, but I don't like her.

@alwaysAMCwait---so Van didn't even get to spy on Peter before Bridget left? bastards. One of the few positives about the entire stupid story was that Bryan Buffinton was still there as Bill. Bill was the kid we saw Vanessa raise. Dinah, even when she wasn't psycho, was never as close to Vanessa as Bill was.

Now that's interesting. I can only imagine the sparks between Barbara and Vanessa if that had gone anywhere. Barbara was certainly no shrinking violet.

admittedly, I don't think I listened to much of his and Alan's conversations, or even much of Alan's '86 return. As much as I love Chris Bernau.

Speaking of Henry and fathers, does anyone remember if Henry truly met Viola Stapleton? that factoid is in some wiki, but I can't see it referenced in any recap, and just from what I've gathered, Viola didn't live in Springfield, other than when she was sick.

Yes, the Baron appeared. When they showed Alan hiding in Andorra, he was hiding with the Baron. I think India goes to visit him, but I don't think he ever comes to Springfield. I wouldn't be surprised if they flirted with the idea of one or more of Eleni's brothers moving to town, but they never got around to it.

Yes. In fact, that's why Quint returns, with the news that Henry died while visiting him.

It may even be buried somewhere in the quint/nola clips, but I haven't watched them all. I'm not sure we ever got the answer as to why he came to town and then invested heavily in a company he knew his father was involved in, when he didn't want Henry to know he was in town. It's probably just that he didn't want people to know he was Sean Ryan, while he was facing charges in Renfield's death.

Blanche does show up. This is her with Anna Stuart's Vanessa. But IIRC, there was supposed to be some big deal about her and Quint knowing each other, which is why he spirits Nola out to Hollywood, but I don't ever think that was explained (as well as Trish thinking she'd met Quint in Europe) There's also a running joke about one of Wanda's boyfriends, Lowell who we never meet, although they did shoot him from the back when Billy comes back to town.

Fletch was adopted? The Lemays (Daisy/Susan's) adoptive parents have another child in '89. But when Jim shows up in the late '90's, I don't think they ever mentioned it. Vanessa's first husband, Gerald something-or-other, never stormed into town. Neither did the mysterious Dietrich Lindsey, yet Holly kept his name.

Billy and Marah are honkin' adorable. It's really hard to believe that that was scripted.

I hadn't realized (or maybe I forgot), but all four Musketeers lived at the Lighthouse. Rick/Meredith, Phillip/Beth, and then Mindy/Nick. It's so weird, in an interview, Grant says that they said "blue skies and Palamino ponies" so much they got sick of it, and I remember it, but I couldn't find them saying it in any of the episodes that are up.

Oh, the return of Vanessa's huge hat syndrome! Van used to love hats back in the early '80's.

lol...okay, today's **** nickname....Shrimpy McNutter. No, Van wouldn't melt at the idea of **** moving on, and she wouldn't have left her kids. The sun rose and set on Bill when he was young.

Ouch...on rewatch, Van doesn't call Nadine a hothouse flower, she said Ross likes hothouse flowers. Which isn't exactly a compliment on his taste. But Nadine is less than a hothouse flower, she's ordinary. LOL.

@alwaysAMC I hope you keep on with your recaps. In part because I'm fascinated with guessing how far you'll go. Sometimes I try to refrain on commenting because I don't want to rain on your parade, and not having rewatched, I don't have much to add other than finding another insulting name to call ****. lol I did recently rewatch some of Vanessa's rehab in Switzerland. I liked Peter Herrmann in the role of Michael Burke. And Vanessa seemed to regain some of her spunk away from ****. It's a little disheartening to see that TIIC had her speak some bilge about not having anything to live for if **** had moved on. There's no way Vanessa would speak that with her kids in Springfield. SMH. That's another thing I admire about '89-'93 GL---the adults aren't acting like lovesick teenagers.

In a choice between Nadine and Buzz....I'll plead the fifth! And any other show would've recognized the talent and gone with it. She was this show's Tricia Cast.

I think the first half of '93 is dang good. But Buzz's hijinks are already wearing thin in the first three months, being shoehorned in on the biggest plot going--the Peter reveal--feels forced. I kinda wish it had simply been Vanessa finally getting the goods on that bleach blonde hussy all by herself.