Michael

I would imagine it's just a hard pivot away from the strike stories.

But no one knows that. Especially not Kristen, who was just a complete b*tch to her because she... brought a latte for the boss who hired her?

Yeah, I'd love to know how the streaming numbers look. I do wonder if some of the viewership has simply shifted to Peacock. We finally cancelled our (horrific) Spectrum service and now just watch the RH shows on Peacock. I also wonder if the positive buzz around OC this season might inspire them to try and revive some of the HW shows through returns and careful rebuilding, as opposed to reboots. It's a crime they aren't filming the OG RHONY girls right now!

I can't believe this Body & Soul crap is supposed to be a legitimate story. What are even the stakes? Maybe if Abe had, I dunno, leveraged his retirement money against this, or someone had real personal investment in it -- like it was Johnny's one last shot to make it as a writer/director. But what are we even supposed to care about here?

Humor is great! Especially when it reveals something about the characters. But it stops being effective when it points out issues in the writing or production, or mocks the stakes of a story, or takes the audience completely out of the situation at hand.

They've tried to revisit Marlena/Roman a good 2-3 times since Josh Taylor took over the role, and it's always been a dud. And they do interact with warmth and familiarity these days. But it's really tough to buy these two as ever having been some grand, passionate love story.

It's crazy to me that they never gave Tony (or even Andre) a kid. Hell, the Stefan/Jake characters could've been Tony's. Not that I want more random DiMeras now, but they have drained the Stefano-has-another-kid well bone-dry. Tony/Kim and Tony/Sandy are such interesting alternate timelines. I always wonder what would've happened if Marlena had been paired with one of the Horton sons (Mickey, Bill, or Tommy) instead of with Don and then Roman, too. It's unlikely you would've gotten that lightning-in-a-bottle thing that happened with her and Roman in the early 80s, but her being tied to the Hortons would've provided a whole new path for that family to flourish.

Kim/Tony is an interesting idea. I also noticed what felt like a Tony/Sandy chem test in an episode (I think from '83) I watched a while back. One has to wonder what the show could've been like if they'd gone either of those directions...

re: Theresa's burned bridges and misdeeds ...Kristen is currently the CEO of DiMera. Convicted murderer Gabi just got a lucrative offer to revive the brand she launched. Ava is... doing something high-level at DiMera. It's ridiculous, but it's Salem. Theresa will probably be running Titan in six months if she's around.

I like Fiona so far, even though I agree that Xander's background makes no damn sense. No one ever pays for anything on this show, so I don't get why everyone is so up-in-arms about Theresa. She forged a letter and kidnapped a baby for 15 minutes. Obviously I don't condone any of it, but why is she more appalling than Xander, who literally laughs in the face of the woman he kidnapped a year ago while being coddled and cooed over by Sarah and Maggie, to whom he's done absolutely unspeakable things?

Ava was in a relationship with RoboJohn for months while he was living in the DiMera mansion. I thought NL was terrible, LOL. Like I didn't even believe she could walk across a room without hurting herself. But I also thought TB was an awful fit for that role.

They chem-tested them back when TB was playing Taylor, and they seemed like they could work together. But does Brady need to be with another lunatic who's slept with his father...?

This is the one story I've wanted them to do with Holly since her birth. A few months back, they made a weird reference to Eric having killed Daniel when Holly was 9 years old or something -- I'm hoping that just gets erased as something the strike writers threw in.

Nah. He'd have Kevin cross over from Y&R, finally in touch with his 'true' sexuality and perving on Thomas, Finn, Bill, Liam, etc.

If this was the team writing during the strike... we're in trouble.

Thank goodness. This show is overdue for some fresh writing, and the aspects of Ron's DOOL that I genuinely enjoyed his first few years have been overshadowed by his reliance on the same devices and "humor." He's clearly burnt out. Thank goodness. This show is overdue for some fresh writing, and the aspects of Ron's DOOL that I genuinely enjoyed his first few years have been overshadowed by his reliance on the same devices and "humor." He's clearly burnt out.

He's "still part of the cast" because they'll bring him in to do a single episode at the holidays or something.

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.