Michael

I don't think Xander has. Gwen, neither. Wendy hasn't... Johnny was, as a kid. I don't think Paulina and Chanel have been presumed dead. Or Gabi, but I might be forgetting something there. Actually, Brady has been at death's door but I don't think has ever been presumed dead! He's probably the longest-running character right now who hasn't been. What a cartoon.

Why did Tripp go in to work at the hospital right after he was downing tequila shots with Wendy? I know we're low on doctors here, but jeez.

Ugh, hated even seeing these headlines. Hoping for a quick and full recovery.

I have to say, I'm liking Cameron Johnson more as Theo this go-round. I wish they'd invest in this character more.

I think the biggest problem was that we never had a sense that Hope was looking for Bo or had any idea that he was "out there somewhere." The audience was longing for it, but that was never baked into what we saw onscreen. Super-weird. I also have a (completely unfounded) theory that the showdown where Bo was about to shoot Kate was the original climax of the BS3 story, and that was supposed to be Hope on the other end of the gun and that's where Shawn would've shot Bo. So perhaps BS3 itself would've been confined to that lab setting rather than all the crap with "Bo Kiriakis" taking Kayla to Greece. It says a lot that the absolute best part of the entire arc was that final episode where Hope was at the hospital with Shawn and Ciara.

She said numerous times she would never be back "in Salem," for one thing. That's why she agreed to do a BS special but not the main show originally. Editing to avoid drama even though my post has been quoted. I still think the recent Bope arc was a mess and there were a lot of production constraints at play, which have been discussed elsewhere.

She's CHILL! Can't write a press release without input from at least two men, but she's a COOL CHICK!

This always kills me. "Chugging from the bottle" is code for Drinking Problem, whereas "pouring a glass of liquor from your living room bar at 10 a.m." is absolutely normal in soap world.

I thought the Bope arc was terrible for a variety of reasons, but anyone who thinks the actors weren't largely responsible for it -- at least in terms of logistical stuff -- should go back and read every interview KA has given since 2020. I know Jamey backtracked in his tweets, buuuuuuut...

Yikes, I just assumed they were moving under the banner of Peacock PR and this was an outgrowth of shifting away from NBC. More belt-tightening by Ken & co.! I also never thought there was going to be "Peacock money" (why would there be?) aside from whatever was going to be Beyond Salem 3 being folded into the main show.

Nothing will ever be as hilarious to me as the time they went to... Bosnia? Germany?... for something involving Jeff Branson's Shayne and they literally just put the flag of whatever country it was supposed to be in the middle of Peapack's lawn. Guten Tag! Sorry to get off-topic in the GH thread, but uh... Frank can take Steve Burton back now, because I have no idea why he's in Salem.

It was very "90s sitcom coming to an end." I guess I was just glad they bothered wrapping up threads and didn't try too hard to do something daring. Jesus. I just remembered Reva -- REVA! -- even had a baby near the end. Not to defend the explosion of baby and pregnancy stories in the last two decades, but I do think they automatically add stakes, which too often are paper-thin on these shows. So even your most inept executive or half-assed viewer can understand what a character wants if they're trying to save their child or get custody from a nasty ex or whatever. The actual children are just weird Macguffins for the lame drama that surrounds them.

That GL finale was crazy. And also somehow an okay finale?!

SCREAMING.

Yes!

It's insane. I know @Vee has referenced it before, but it reminds me of late-stage Guiding Light where Harley had a kid with Philip and Rick, and Rick had a kid with Mel and Beth, and Beth had a kid with Philip and Alan, and everyone was just half-siblings or half-cousins or whatever commune fantasy Ellen Wheeler was living when she wasn't weeping in her office that had been turned into a 7-11 set or whatever.

Any time I turn on GH and they show or bring up one of the kids, I go down some horrible Wikipedia vortex of trying to figure which f*cking child belongs to which character. Doesn't Maxie have like three children now?

Is that why that kid is named Donna? Now I feel like an a*shole for snarking on the name. The child still should not exist, though!

I'm actually not minding the Abe kidnapping thing as much as I've minded... 75% of what we've had to watch over the last year, but I do agree that I'd like to understand Whitley's motivation and plan better. I'm a little nervous that "lonely cat lady but they're all stuffed cats" is supposed to be shorthand for "she's crazy and that's your explanation!" I liked a lot of today's episode, though. It wasn't incredible or groundbreaking, but there was a heart to it that was nice to see.

I had somehow completely missed that side agreement before this week. Interesting.

It's so weird. As much as I don't care for Harris, her trying to hire him to kill Megan felt like a Kate Roberts move, which I greatly prefer to "Katie Brady" or whoever this has been.

Christopher Sean isn't available to be on contract. I don't know why they've basically tethered Andrew to him, since they've known that for years.

Chad works at "SJPR" with Stephanie still, right? He and the kids do still live at the Horton house, as far as we know.

Good for LVP. This model seems like a better fit for her brand and business model, and it'll also minimize her tacky tourist traps for straight girls in the heart of WeHo. Pump cannot close soon enough.

I found the reunion almost unbearable by the third part, too. Ariana has every right to be pissed at Sandoval and Raquel, of course. (I know there's some amount of hypocrisy considering how she and Tom got together, but she wasn't professing to be Kristen's close friend, so it's also a very different situation.) And this was the first time she'd seen Raquel since it all came out, I think, so it makes sense she'd go in on her. But it got to the point where Andy would ask Tom or Raquel something, and immediately Ariana, James, and Lala would be all screaming over them the second they opened their mouths. It was exhausting and monotonous. I don't even want to sound like I'm defending Raquel, but she came on that stage to do her job and answer questions, so at least shut up long enough to let her do that -- it isn't like she showed up at Ariana's front door in the dead of night insisting on telling her side of the story.