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I still can't get over "New. And improved. And delicious". And "Gawd, she is as dry as day old cornbread" took me out too.

The Duprees have been cheated on enough for now.

Leslie is nuts! Her pretending to be Nicole was peak insane. Trisha has plenty to put in an Emmy reel so far, but that could seal a nomination. NuTed finally did something to break out of the background and hopefully he keeps it up. Vanessa trying to stand up for Nicole wasn't wrong, but she has no room to judge anyone on adultery. Doug seems like a good person outside of the gambling and clearly has never cheated, yet Vanessa has constantly played in his face with her cheating. Tracy got Anita to be truthful and for the mask to slip. If Tracy is this direct I cannot imagine how much Sharon is going to go in.

Word of mouth might be helping to boost ratings. With the sweeps story going so well there are a lot of viewers who are probably telling friends and family to tune in.

There are still complaints about how Amelia Heinle plays Victoria Newman here and there and it's been 20 years since the recast, so a week is nothing when it comes to complaining. That jacket was embarrassingly small. It's not the actor's fault, but wardrobe for putting it on him. A wealthy doctor would not walk around like that so production really whiffed on that one.

It's convoluted but the CBS soaps that were still on the air in the 2000s are all in the same universe because of Sheila Carter appearing on Another World as an alias named Shelly Clark who hated some unnamed characters that matched Eric and to Stephanie's description. In the 60s Mike Bauer from Guiding Light crossed over to Another World which linked their universes. Cass also appeared on Guiding Light. Now if the Sheila Carter connection is counted as just parody and not a crossover there is still a connection due to Emily Stewart appearing on Y&R looking for Alison.

Ted is definitely much less present now than under Johnson's portrayal. Ted didn't even come off as an equal to Nicole today and was more like some random ex-husband pulled out of the woodwork for a minor plot point.

Thank you for that, I love soap history like that. Sounds about right.

Tracy's scenes were after June's. Interesting. Just a guess, but Anita was probably to Dante what Diana Ross was to Berry Gordy. Leslie just steps up the crazy each episode. Why was she stealing things out of the hotel room? On a technical note, is Keith wearing the clothes that Maurice wore? That jacket was huge on him and clearly the wrong size. I'm surprised production would let anyone go onscreen looking like that.

Chip Fields. She does mostly directing now but she might be coaxed into another acting gig.

Chelsea being angry that a married woman turned her down is so ridiculous and her taking it out on Dani is even more silly. I did like the fact that she told Bill to go away. The fact that Bill allowed Dani to push his buttons enough to say something once again shows that he likes playing these games. And Hayley is too dumb to call him out on it (as well as too clueless to tell him to go to the doctor for an obvious health issue). We are seeing just how diabolical Leslie is with how she manipulated Eva.

This sort of error is not uncommon now because writers don't put much thought into matching language and lingo with time periods.

Leslie's outfit is giving evil Foxy Brown/Coffy energy. She's only drawing more attention to herself by going around trying to imply that Eva caused the accident. Also, I feel like Laura was slightly clueless and not acting afraid enough. She has never seen Leslie before so it seems like a more frightened reaction was an order considering a stranger randomly showed up in her room.

Ashley just wants to schtup Andre. She needed to create a big meltdown in order to get rid of Derek and feel no guilt. Doug needed to lay Joey out on the floor. He needs to get some courage and beat Joey down to the ground. Kat turning down a date with Tomas to see if Eva was locked up is a sign she's going to lose him. Even without Eva in the picture she was going to have problems. The way she talked to him when he bumped into her and she didn't know it was him seemed to be a red flag too. Leslie has revealed a whole lot of the truth on her own. Without her making all those comments to Kat she wouldn't have ended up at the police station.

Just had a random thought that Vanessa Bell Calloway would be good casting for Sharon (The Articulette who hung up on Anita). She usually plays nice, but if you saw the Temptations biopic you'll remember she was pretty good playing that crooked manager that ripped them off. She might also sing because in Polly and Polly Comin' Home her character sang but I can't tell if it was a dub or not. Lastly, she did AMC and DAYS for short stints so she is no stranger to soaps.

Bill is super annoying. He had no reason to go to the Duprees house other than to try to stay connected to them. At first I thought Kat was going to play only part of that recording so it would be easier to implicate just Eva. That Cody guy seems like he might end up being a stalker. Still adjusting to this recast and I'm already seeing the character's aesthetic has changed. At one point it seemed like Robinson tried to make his voice sound deeper and it seems like Tricia Mann-Grant slightly dialed her performance style to fit with his less imposing presence. Reminds of how the character of Lionel Jefferson changed when he was recast with Damon Evans after Mike Evans left.

When put very plainly it wouldn't make sense, but you could say that Ashley would prefer someone that can pay his own way without sharing expenses and has more than a working class experience. Andre might want someone more stable and level headed. Of course the issue is that the characters don't match despite the plausibility of a connection making s

It's evident that there was reset of Derek and Ashley's storyline. The attempt to build tension over Derek not resting enough after being injured on the job was not working but the tension over moving in together is. The characters are still not thrilling, but today they at least were worth paying attention to. The writers do want Ashdre and they are easing toward it again.

Robinson is less imposing than Johnson was and that makes the character seem completely different. If anything he came off as someone who could have played Doug.

I'm sticking to my theory that June is Hayley's sister (maybe a cousin since this show showcases cousins). Hayley really needs someone else to interact with because her being isolated to just Bill is not working. Eva only seems to have a backbone when it comes to Kat. She had no problem rubbing it in her face that they are sisters. Sharon hanging up on Anita was a good little nudge for that storyline. At least one of them having a name is promising to them actually showing up.

Not all friends are alike though and there should be a counterbalance in some friendships on soaps. Dani has already been all over the place enough and doesn't need an unstable friend.

I really don't like Joey. Please get that disaster off the screen. Leslie going off like that finally let everyone see exactly who she is. She said she has more surprises up her sleeve which reinforces my thoughts that she knows something about Martin.

Which is still a form of manipulation. Granted it won't work because Ted isn't interested in Leslie at all no matter how much she tries to make him look like a horrible person. When you consider the situation with Hayley it does make sense why Anita would take that approach.

In fiction there has become an expectation by some that every Black character should represent excellence and perfection. It's not like we are talking about a Tyler Perry show where none of the characters are happy and everyone hates each other with a passion.

Leslie is an extreme liar and manipulator. I'm not sure what her point was in trying to convince Nicole she wasn't trying to hurt her. As much as Eva did help orchestrate the entire plot I feel like there was too much piling on. Eva never said she wanted to be a Dupree so Anita was extremely out of line for that comment.