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Her need to be accepted by the country club crowd does indicate a bit of a desire to social climb, but otherwise it hasn't been focused on. At this point the writers are trying to jump start her character after months of standard dialogue and conversations.

Hayley wants to be on equal footing with Dani and that means having children. Plus, a child means she can secure money even if the marriage doesn't last.

Not buying that Allison's husband pushed her especially considering that she didn't go to the hospital. You're bleeding and you're going to go to a diner? Psycho, please. Sharon and Tracy need that check which is why they showed up. Sharon just cannot contain her sarcasm, though. Eva is being masterfully manipulative and Kat gave her the opening to do it. Tomas is just incredibly trashy and a player.

Of course he is, because he's a dirty skank. Ted has messed up but Carlton seems sleazy and even more untrustworthy. I can understand how Dani could come off as naive, but she is the type of character that would be aloof and extremely sheltered from reality. All she knows is modeling and Bill. As far as Anita, she's desperate to make the cover up right by citing the civil rights struggle. To be fair to the writers, I think the "see you later alligator" line was intended to be awkward and bad.

If you count the main cast that was in the credits then everyone except for Malcolm is living. Earle Hyman and Clarice Taylor who recurred as the grandparents both passed on some time ago.

Ashley was being immature and pathetic. Plus, Derek and Shanice weren't even paying attention to that silly show she put on. Nicole has a right to be angry, but I felt her confrontation with Ted was more about the affair than him not telling about Martin. If she wants to divorce him she should just say it and make veiled comments and then walk out. Anita is being much too comfortable in making excuses for the cover up.

I just saw this and immediately said "no no no". There are no words.

When she mentioned the grandchildren coming to their house to stay that was sign that she is ready to draw battle lines and try to shut Smitty out of the family if it comes down to it.

There could be a Dupree nephew brought in. Vernon's family hasn't been mapped out yet so he could be given a sibling that has a son.

First some of you all wanted Jacob cheating on Naomi with Kat, now it's Smitty. Please, no cheating with cousins. The show has already made cheating the center of two storylines so no more is needed.

Probably a sonogram off Google. "Baby Hamilton is going to be Babies Hamilton! We're having twins!"

The character and relationship development has been done in blocks with the Richardsons having the least development as a family. Nicole has had more and better interactions with her nephew than with her son and as a matter of fact, so has Ted. The writers have dropped the ball here and will have to do a lot of catch up to develop those family bonds for the Richardsons.

Anita was so busy justifying the cover up that she was missing the entire point of why Nicole was angry. If your child kills somebody it would be kind of nice to be clued in on it. Not sure if it's the writer's intention, but Vernon and Anita not having a son seems to have pushed them to overstep with Martin. I won't go as far as saying Vernon and Anita are bad parents, but they aren't the best. Smitty is going on and on about Martin endangering the family when he is doing a lot of digging for his article that could expose them to danger. And his whole attitude with Jacob was uncalled for after he dragged Jacob into getting into his investigation.

Giving away the secret in parts did take away the traditional big reveal and I can see how that might not work for some people. Now an area where inequality could have been tackled was with Smitty having a more black and white view (no pun intended) view of the legal system and not believing that bias would have harmed Martin if he came forward in the first place.

Agreed that it's more believable. It seems like it is intentionally avoiding the obvious mistakes of other soaps. Now to unpack the episode. Smitty's anger at Martin is understandable, but putting him out the house is a bit much considering that Martin is extremely traumatized. Anita's comment about the children being welcomed to stay with them as well made me think that she's ready to draw battle lines against Smitty if it comes down to it. But that's not surprising considering that the Duprees are a unit. Jacob's world is about to collapse as well because he holds his father to such a high standard. Him arresting Dani early on may have been a form of foreshadowing of him having to expose the whole scandal eventually and causing tension between him and Naomi. Nicole's reaction is going to be critical too, because she doesn't like secrets and might feel compelled to talk even if it hurts her family.

It's only Thursday.

The show clearly wants being gay to be normalized as opposed to following the gay bashing or closeted tropes that other soaps have used. At this point those are kind of tired and Martin's secret being unrelated to being gay was a better idea.

That was probably Tracy calling Anita trying to get the show going again and not fumble that check.

The secret was already more or less revealed for the most part over course of the past couple of months so I wasn't let down. The suspense has shifted to what happens now and if the cover up will backfire.

The idea is probably that even a prominent Black man would not have been believed even in a situation of self-defense. And on top of that it is a soap so the characters have to make an already bad situation ten times worse.

Martin beat that man in the face like he was pounding out a steak to fry.

Once again just about every story is being set up to have long term repercussions. As far as the secret goes we already sort of know what happened, just not all the details. Too many times soaps will drag a secret out with no clues, then reveal everything all at once and afterwards all that is left is the lull of characters having filler conversations.

Martin is going to be seriously messed up mentally and emotionally after all this. It definitely was Vernon's idea to cover up this incident so he holds a lot of responsibility for the consequences. Yes, black men are not going to be given the benefit of the doubt for self-defense, but covering up a situation makes it look actually suspicious. Vernon is a terrible schemer despite his aggressive attitude.

Yes. There would be no value in Jacob and Smitty hooking up. The show already has two storylines driven by cheating so adding another one would be pointless.

Is Allison's husband still alive? She has gone unhinged and it wouldn't be surprising if she had done something to him. Vernon treats Bill like a doormat and I'm here for it. Bill wanted to maintain the clout that the Duprees have so he can't complain about being caught up in their orbit. With that said, Vernon should have had some plans of his own. They didn't have to kill Kenny, but they could have scared enough to back off. This storyline with Hayley might be where Ashley actually works. Their interaction was interesting and I think Ashley has her number.