Michael

Totally. This was a crazy story to do without Sami and Sydney! There's just an entire dimension of the whole thing completely absent.

I really struggled with the fact that EJ and Nicole never dealt with the ugliness of their past. Their first two marriages were a disaster. They just kinda... got back together. I also think it was insane to do a story about them getting remarried and having a child (ostensibly) without involving Sydney at all. Nicole being Sydney's stepmother should've been a HUGE thing.

Connie could get a pass for her crimes if she tore down those ugly-ass curtains in the 'new' Horton living room!

Thank you. My last two remaining brain cells strung it together before enduring the rest of Tuesday's episode, LOL. That was my thought, as well. Seems unnecessarily complicated, so maybe they screwed up filming the flashbacks and have to insert something to explain it. Or they just won't explain it! Things barely make sense from day to day on this show anyway.

We got rid of Konnie and now we get Connie. Sigh. Have they even tried to explain why she was covered in Li's blood when Bobby/Everett saw her in the park, but her dress was spotless in the aftermath of the crime itself?

Isn't Holly also about to be homeless? There are only about 8 places in town for them to meet up as it is...

It's a miracle they even have dressing rooms to use and don't have to get dressed in the bathroom of the Wienerschnitzel across the street, at this point...

There was one guy in the background at the press conference staring open-mouthed at the whole reveal, which was cracking me up because everyone else was just milling around like they were at a really boring cocktail party.

Abigail Klein, from the looks of it. It's common practice to use regulars' dressing rooms for recurring players on days that the main "resident" of the dressing room isn't working. Also that poorly removed sticker looks like it's from Monkeywench, which was Christie Clark's brand!

No, the character's name is Javi.

I think Theresa vs Holly works in the sense that it's less about their actual interaction and more about Theresa seeing Holly as too similar to her younger self and not wanting her own son to be subjected to a girl like that. I do think some of the conflict should be coming from the couple themselves (like with Tate having it out for EJ, for example) rather than completely external, though. But it feels like this has been a few different short stories stitched together without clear transitions.

I feel like the emphasis even with the Romeo & Juliet angle is off. People should be mad at Holly for taking the drugs in the first place, not for "lying and getting Tate locked up" -- she was in a coma for 95% of the time he was in trouble for that incident, and it was like 3 days after she woke up that she came out with the truth. She woke up completely disoriented, found out she'd been in a coma (and overseas and back!) for months, then panicked for a pretty short period of time before she told the truth. Yeah, she should've spoken up the minute she realized what had happened, but it's not like she deviously let it go on for months longer.

They could very plausibly cast Jeremy as 35-ish. They have him and Nathan both sitting out there as fairly blank-slate Hortons who have history with Stephanie, too. Actually kind of surprised they didn't just cast Blake as one of them and do a bunch of, "You remind me of your cousin Nick!" schtick.

I don't think I have the mental or emotional strength to get through the sh!t-show of "hilarious" inside jokes that this Body & Soul thing is going to be.

Didn't Vern and Jo actually get married? He appeared with her in the 2000s a few times. So Tanner has actually been Jack and Steve's step-brother for like 30 years... meaning there would be no need for some convoluted retcon because they are family, for all intents and purposes. Not that we need Tanner or Easton.

Ah okay. I forgot Marci Miller aired after Abigail died.

Ah, yeah, that makes sense. Although they bumped up the anniversary of Abby's death -- she originally died in July, and I'm pretty sure they marked the occasion in actual July last year.

Did Jack come because of Abby's journal that was discovered? I thought that was the catalyst, and although I'm always happy to see MA, it feels like the kind of info that could've come through an offscreen phone call.

Why did Leo go to the hospital and THEN call Marlena's office to ask if he could see her? Wouldn't you do that before making the trip down there? I know the answer is "because they wanted Mark to run into him and ask if he's okay," but lord. It didn't make any damn sense.

I thought we wanted Lulu to wake up from the coma. 😜

Days still airs on terrestrial TV in other countries, so I assume that's (part of) why we didn't notice a big change content-wise when it jumped to Peacock.

I think the blowback to the Stefan/Abby/Chad thing was pretty negative, but Ron moved Stefan on to the Gabi pairing (and then killed him off and created Jake when that actually proved popular) pretty quickly. Marci Miller left in the middle of the DID story, and they brought Kate Mansi in, kept her until the story was resolved, WROTE A DIGITAL SERIES FOR HER, and brought her and Chad back when they did the time jump. Then Mansi wouldn't commit, and they brought Miller in and kept using her for as long as they could until she wouldn't work anymore. So I agree the DID story was awful and offensive, but I don't think it boiled down to "Ron hated the character." He also didn't choose to write out Jennifer, Hope, Ciara, Will, or Eli. Or even Claire, really. (ORK left and they recast and it was terrible.) Not saying the writing for any of these people or their stories was even decent, but he didn't shuffle them all offscreen with force.

Rita's appearance was so random. I wonder if the scabs had some greater plan there? I thought her scenes with EJ felt very forced but I'm even more confused that there was no follow-up. The Juneteenth stuff today was sweet, but it was tough to watch James Reynolds's hand shaking so badly as he pulled out his phone to read the phone. I'm surprised they didn't find an alternative to that (or, if you're going to show it, address it -- I know that can be difficult and sensitive when it's the actor's real life business, but there's an honesty and vulnerability in writing that stuff in, as well).

I believe both Miller and Mansi didn't want to be on contract. The show was willing to work with them for a while and then it got to be too much.

Thanks. I figured the answer was "with Fletcher offscreen." I guess Holly was offscreen a lot by the mid-2000s, too.