DeliaIrisFan

I didn't know the actress before and I think she's doing good work as Heather, but I don't understand the point of her character (other than to give Joey family. See above for my thoughts on that). The Impaler 1.0 story was not good, and the "revelation" that Lia (whom we'd just met) was behind the "plasma ring" was played as a climax. I'm not saying that was dramatically satisfying, but now we just seem to be repeating the same story. It's enough of a stretch to believe that Smitty's reporter shtick brought down not only the DC operation but also several(?) in other major cities across the country. If we can't even see the clinic, I don't see how this show has the capacity to bring to fruition the takedown of somewhat at Heather's level. They could have cast AJ in the Lia role and left it at that, leaving Jacob and Smitty with the knowledge that there is a bigger fish out there who eluded them. Maybe they would even have some humility about that fact. On that note, I also meant to comment on Nicole's scenes with Jacob and Smitty this week about the Impaler. I applaud the show for utilizing her in that way instead of more Jacob and Smitty 1:1 in Hardy Boy mode. DDP's experience and charisma make this material much less a chore. It's like each of the Dupree-in-laws' IQs went up just by being in Nicole's presence. Jacob even got the line of the week: noting that Nicole's psychological profiler of the Impaler sounds like certain people in DC. It's interesting that Nicole was occupied with that and then disappeared, so she's been absent from Dani's drama so far. I choose to believe the news is still cascading and we'll get a worthy Nicole reaction this week (I wish Kat had somehow been involved in the reveal, though. Then we could get the added beat of Nicole being mad at Dani for putting her daughter at risk).

It was a really good week. I love this show, and I especially love that KM and TKD have been able to create these characters and their shared history. They're so good together, even though their relationship is probably irredeemably toxic. Even so, it's legitimately toxic, not just weighed down by the baggage of stunt stories over the decades like other remaining soap couples. I too question how quickly so much has been resolved, especially after it dragged out so long, but I'm glad to see it's not completely tied up in a bow. I'm curious to see what leverage Hayley has, so I'll go with it. My guess is she's pregnant, or she'll claim to be. Although I've gone through several theories all week when things seemed too easy: First, I wondered if Hayley would find a way to make it look like Dani had been the one poisoning Bill, when Jacob showed up and disarmed Hayley without gunfire. Then I revisited my on-and-off-again pet theory that Randy had been giving Hayley a placebo this whole time, and thought maybe the vial would test negative. TMG can make almost anything entertaining, and she stole those scenes, but I wish they would pick a lane with this character. I've stated before my preference for the strategic and genuinely dangerous Dana/Leslie from the beginning, but if she's going to be comic relief then at least don't keep trying to present her as a force to be reckoned with. I am genuinely interested in where Leslie and Hayley's alliance is going, but less so because Leslie has seemed soooo desperate. Her whole arc hinged on the fact that she managed to ingratiate herself with Jan and Mona - granted, they are the worst judges of character, but I suspect even they would have smelled a rat if Leslie had come on this strong. I can't add anything to this, but I have to agree. And now another Dupree-in-law is in Joey's debt, and having to be treated like dirt. Blech. After all Dani has been through, she deserved to go home to her gorgeous, confident husband after bringing Hayley down (only for that to blow up eventually when the elevator hookup came to light, but that's another story). Instead, he was off groveling to Joey and his growing brood. Relatedly, why on earth did Joey's machinations merit the last scene on Wednesday, just when we were finally getting the payoff to what has been the central story since the show's premiere? I think this may be the most egregious example yet of him (and Vanessa) overtaking the rest of the show, and that's saying a lot. I would have turned it off when they cut away from the police station with only a couple of minutes or so left in the show, but with EVERYTHING seemingly blowing up this week (and Andre in what was shaping up to be the last scene), I genuinely thought there might be one more twist that would somehow tie back to Kill Bill.

I don't mind Dani being the one to put the pieces together. I just don't understand why she got all the pieces of the puzzle in one day, when Hayley has been poisoning Bill for almost a year. Dani could have witnessed Hayley's involvement in Bill's diet or something months ago, brushed it off at the time with some backhanded dig at their relationship, and then flashed back to that today (as opposed to a scene from earlier in the episode) after Bill finally told her about the life insurance policy. And that Friday preview was even more bizarre than I first thought, when they should have teased the fact that someone was going to finally figure it out today.

I don't know where to post this, but on a much lighter note, am I the only one who immediately thought of Felicia on AW upon learning of Chris Gallant's run for Congress? When I first read his name, I instinctively pronounced it the same way she did in my head, but almost immediately thought better of that. I was genuinely surprised to see in a video clip that's actually how he himself pronounces it. By this point in her life, of course Felicia Gallant would have an adopted(?) gay son, who would have no compunction about posing for semi racy photos. "Honey, I don't know what they're making such a big deal about - I've seen those photos, and my paperbacks had more explicit cover art than that. Why don't I ask Uncle Cass to send a cease and desist order to Page Six? Not that I understand why you would even want to be in Congress anyway...is Grant Harrison still in office? Ewww... But whatever makes you happy. Now, which hat do you think I should wear to your victory party?"

I confess I've completely lost the thread: What exactly is Smitty under suspicion for having done, even with the very convoluted story of Heather buying Uptown to set up the deep fake video? And if a key witness got out of protective custody, wouldn't their safety/continued cooperation be the larger issue, as opposed to whether a reporter met with a source? That said, I still don't understand who was buying the stolen plasma from Heather's ring in the first place, if the intent was to steal from both the main hospital in the area and a free clinic (unless DIY transfusions were the ultimate goal, where were buyers going to go to get this illicit plasma?). The whole Impaler story still makes no sense to me. I appreciated(?) Andre's dig about how many times Bill can end up in the hospital with heart problems. Indeed... If Hayley really is poisoning Bill (I think they've passed the point of being able to reveal that Randy gave her a placebo), I wonder if there has been any real-life case of someone with no inherent cardiac condition having a pacemaker implanted because of foul play. Could they just remove it once the poison is out of Bill's system? Or at this point, would he be better off keeping it just in case a heart condition cropped up down the pike? I really like Darlene, but I'm at best ambivalent about the Hawthornes (is Elon still supposed to be on the take? Does Darlene know? Who thought it was a good idea to have the charming but not super experienced actors playing Jacob and Izaiah regurgitate sooo much exposition every day?). It occurred to me this week that Eva did not need an overbearing mother-in-law at this point in her story, but Vanessa does. Actors' ages on this show have been so fungible, they could have even cast the same actress as Doug's mother: determined to prove there's more to the story of his death. And then she somehow could have ended up in possession of the cooked books that Deanna inexplicably didn't even find after a whole summer of working at Vanessa's real estate company. I felt a little nostalgic when Dani and Andre were leaving at the end of August because I assumed it was, as you said, to accommodate time off: like how soaps used to write out leading ladies for their summer vacations. Of course, the most famous example was Beverlee McKinsey's last, when she exercised that out in her contract at GL. The last one I remember before I all but gave up on soaps for almost 17 years was Erika Slezak in 2008(?), with Viki narrowly missing Tina at the airport - a story which, granted, led to so many characters being destroyed. Didn't Susan Lucci used to do this as well, like when Erica went to prison for kidnapping Maria's baby? I recognize I'm not really making a strong case for this practice, based on these examples. My point is back then, there was at least the promise of what might happen while the diva was away, and what unfinished business she would get around to once she was back. I guess it was silly on my part because, with BtG's taping schedule, KM's vacation schedule probably wouldn't even be a blip on our radar. Anyway, yes, it was weird that they were on-camera fairly consistently the whole time, but isolated, meanwhile nothing happened while they were gone that their absence helped make possible. I have to disagree with this part: Caroline came off as having her own agenda in that scene for me, and they even drove it home with that flashback. I think Caroline's characterization and motivation have made sense throughout: needing her job and doing what she has to do to keep it. If Hayley had opened up about some dirt with that second mimosa, Caroline could have gone back to Bill and used that to her advantage; otherwise, as long as Hayley is married to Bill and by default higher up on the org chart, being on her good side makes sense. I would love to find out about Caroline's life away from the office, ideally in a cliffhanger with a major revelation having to do with a seemingly completely different story.

Maybe I'm a sucker but the high point of the week for me were those scenes with the recording of Barbara singing. TM, AM, and of course TT gave lovely, restrained performances, and the way all these characters who have no love lost reacted in front of each other was believable. Unfortunately, I can only assume those scenes had no relation to whatever Leslie/Dana's arc now is, given what she had been doing earlier in the week, or what it appears she'll be back up to next week. One thing I'll say about Bill's frequent losses of consciousness: They could be setting up a decent Colombo-esque whodunit when it's finally discovered that he is being poisoned. Both Leslie/Dana and Mike have now been in the room several times shortly before Bill nearly died (side note: I don't think "virtual hearings" actually require opposing counsel to be together in person?). All the more reason to stop delaying that discovery, if Hayley wouldn't even have to be exposed right away, let alone written off the show. To the extent that the story has been dragged out this long, seeing Chelsea and Madison juxtaposed with the latest non-courtroom drama on Friday made me realize that someone should suspect Madison is negligent (or worse) by now. The doctor is currently on trial for malpractice, and she can't figure out why her lawyer, who's another patient of hers, keeps passing out/almost dying... As long as I'm on the subject of Hayley red herrings that could have been in: That accusation was really bizarre. I'm vaguely curious where they're going with Tomas, even if he himself is not interesting. They're clearly changing course and making me think he won't be around too much longer, but they could easily just kill him off a la Derek as collateral damage in the Hayley saga. I really thought that might happen when it seemed that we were finally getting to the conclusion after Hayley finally persuaded Bill to go to St Bart's while Tomas was coincidentally on his way home, presumably flying out of San Juan. Now that he seems to be up to no good, it's too bad they didn't decide to cut their losses with Tomas before the Lynette subplot, or they could have made Hayley and Tomas co-conspirators. It's probably not explainable now, after all that went down. I agree with this. I love so much of what MVJ has created. I don't have strong opinions about Thomson, but I cannot be sorry that Guza left. And I actually feel like the direction of the stories improved this time last year, even if I don't understand why we've taken such a scenic route. Hayley turning out to be a con artist is a much better idea than her playing a less conservatively dressed Lily Rivera circa 1996 GH, and all the pieces are in place for a far-reaching fall-out. The tornado was also a great "event," not unlike many a Guza sweeps stunt, except it centered around core characters I care about (none of whom were killed off). And I'll say it again: I wish Leslie/Dana being Barbara's daughter had been the big secret that she and Eva came to reveal all along, instead of yet another affair with a Dupree-in-law. I still think a lot of the problems would be solved with better dialogue writers. I wouldn't mind the slow burn if the time were better spent. I'll say it again: MVJ has probably written the best soap scripts in history. I'm glad she's not spending all her time editing dialogue, even if she clearly could do wonders, because that is easier to fix down the road, whereas with a new soap, the bones have to be there. It's just too bad most of her GH script writing team is presumably retired.

Very disappointing from Connie P. Had she actually watched the show? So much of this is just plain wrong. If PFS actually took over in December 1983 (I thought it was earlier in the fall, but maybe they were officially without a head writer for a month or so there), then that was at most 4 months after CT debuted. How could she have been "wasted"? And some of Maggie's first scenes were with Roger, and there was definitely tension with Frank right from the beginning, so what was she talking about? It's like she genuinely thought Maggie had grown up on the show and PFS was the first to notice she'd grown up. As far as the ratings, I'm not sure when exactly this was written, but presumably before the timeslot change. At that point, RH was still in range with a lot of soaps, and I know back then there were big fluctuations. Hell, didn't almost every soap gain a million or so viewers during the holidays well into the '90s? Maybe even some of PFS's early stunts attracted eyeballs: Delia's return (as Robin Mattson), the explosion at Ryan's Bar, etc. I'm sure you could cherry but AFAIK, the idea that there was any meaningful, sustained gain is about as unfounded as the claim that RH was "once daytime's most popular show." Again, WTF? CP could have framed this as: "This was never my show, but I'm a fan of her prior work and I've been checking it out and here are some things I like. Maybe the changes can help the show make long-term ratings gains." I feel like in her Weekly days, her commentary had that kind of nuance, even when her takes went against the grain. Maybe they also had better fact-checkers? ETA: I'm sure she also had more final say over editorial changes to articles that went out under her byline by then. I mean, Rose was gone by the 4th of July 1981, and the writers had been on strike for several months by then. I would guess Labine meant she wrote those scenes after the strike ended, when they were developing whatever the original plan was for the Kirklands. I think Jack and Rose could have worked as a couple, and I don't feel like the writers were not invested in Rose. But I imagine they decided to cut their losses after that terrible scab exit. Plus in hindsight it was realistic that Jack's first relationship after Mary died didn't last.

Between the holiday weekend, the rerun on Monday, and some personal scheduling, I am caught up on the show and the board. I agree we're definitely in a lull. It's interesting how last year, they built up such a big cliffhanger for the Labor Day (arguably unearned, given how fast Chelsea and Madison became star-crossed lovers and Allison's obsession seemingly came out of left field). Then, this year, the Tuesday-after episode was all B or C stories with no major developments. I absolutely do not hate the show. That said, I am sure there are people who hate the show, and who want it to fail (I'm not talking about anyone in particular, or even anyone on this board. Although I can only imagine the discourse on X). And I really don't want them to get their wish. This show has so much potential, and I am invested in nearly all the main characters - and many of the supporting/background casts. And unlike so many new soaps that have notoriously struggled to gel, the stories and relationships they came out of the gate (no pun intended) with have legs. I did not realize MVJ has been ill. I truly hope she is on the mend, for all the reasons. And if the writing staff has been in a holding pattern waiting for her to return to wrap things up, so be it. That's an interesting observation, because I don't find Heather convincing as a nice person at all. This may be one of the problems with the dialogue for me. It can be bad enough when the Duprees or other "good" characters are clearly pumping their scene partners for needless details and/or reciting research papers on each other's back stories just to catch the audience up. With Heather, especially when I know she has an agenda, I feel like she's coming on so strong in her attempts to ingratiate herself that it would be off-putting for me IRL... I also have to say in several cases now, the (always unspoken) racial dynamics have added to the awkwardness when she puts her foot in it. I'm at least somewhat intrigued that Nicole has Heather's number, and even that she is apparently going to psychologically profile the "Impaler" for Smitty. Relatedly, Smitty should have more scenes with the veteran actors playing his in-laws, as opposed to his scenes with Jacob. It's not entirely the actors' fault, especially when their connection is as supporting players in the worst story on the show, and they're so often stuck providing endless exposition. But neither actor is great at elevating that kind of material. At this point, Smitty just seems like a complete doofus as an investigative reporter, and Jacob comes off like Encyclopedia Brown in The Case of the Bad Blood, so when you put them together... I would much rather see Shanice's relatives built up as a "second" family instead of the Hawthornes, but Monica is barely on and her brothers seemed to be played as a joke, so I don't have much hope. For that matter, Darlene is barely on, so...why even tease an extended family of non Duprees? On top of everything else, it's such a waste because he's one of the best actors! Now that I think about it, they should have at least had fun with the Groundhog Day of it all, and done a bit with Bill secretly giving his "healthy" smoothies to Tomas, whom I would have no trouble believing listens to gym bro podcasts about the virtues of protein maxxing. Then Tomas could be the one who repeatedly ends up unconscious, and of course nobody would notice anything different about him when he came to. And why not Jan as the housekeeper? Is she supposed to be a live-in housekeeper for Vanessa, because I seem to recall Jan cleans multiple houses behind the Gates. Isn't that how Ashley became friends with Naomi? We know Jan is a poor judge of character, and Dana/Leslie actually has an in with her she could have exploited to get onto the premises. For me, the scripts are actually part of the problem. The exposition is often so forced, and especially when nothing much is happening to warrant the detailed recaps. As someone who only knew of MVJ from her GH work, I continue to be stunned that the dialogue is not better. I like this overall, but I don't think Bill should have been Hayley's first mark. It's bad enough they had that flashback of Randy warning her not to try and con Joey because he's too clever, and that's how Bill became her backup plan. The only way this story could work without destroying Bill's character is if Hayley is good at what she's doing, which in theory she is supposed to be, but a year later, it's clear that she's not. Today's dialogue did give me a glimmer of hope that maybe Bill has been onto Hayley for some time and setting her up, although at this point I don't for the life of me understand how, or to what end at this point. He has no more incentive than Randy to drag this out.

I agree the show has stalled again. And the dialogue can be so tough when nothing is happening... Nevertheless, I had some downtime this weekend and probably won't this week, so I made a point to catch up. These characters and performers are (mostly) so great, and all the ingredients are there for the stories to be compelling, but they keep dragging them out and/or skipping over the drama. I can't believe Bill is once again getting out of the hospital with no long-term health consequences or anyone being the wiser that Hayley is poisoning him. After coming so close to figuring out what's going on, it seems like the "Only Murders Beyond the Gates" club has once again gotten distracted on a tangent: this time the idea that Hayley is having an affair with Randy, like with Lynette and the fake mugging except at least they were right that time. Sooooo frustrating, and not in a "Make 'Em Wait" way. And seeing Mike on Friday was just a reminder that Hayley could still be on the show at this point (if that's why they're dragging this out), had this story reached a logical conclusion months ago and he was representing her at trial. Relatedly, they're burning through (wasting) so much material for Dani and Andre. If I actually believed Bill was in any medical jeopardy at this point, that alone could have driven a wedge between Dani and her current husband. There's also Dani carrying the BRCA gene. Exploring Andre's past love(s) definitely should have happened further down the road. And this is a bit late because I've been on the fence but I've finally come down firmly on the side that Dani and Bill hooking up during the tornado was out-of-character for her and just plain illogical (but also unnecessary at this juncture). Dani is a mess but being cheated on was so traumatic for her, I don't think she would do that to Andre, at least without a lot more remorse. Even if they did eventually have an affair, Dani could have been drawn back to Bill organically, like after those other obstacles had taken their toll on her marriage, and then finally acted on her feelings at a time more conducive for sex. They wouldn't even have needed an imminently life-threatening situation, to a degree that would be a turn-off to many people, because they both have had reasons to be feeling their mortality all year. Speaking of skipping over drama, I still believe Martin and Smitty should have met in the first week(s) of the show and gotten to this point over years after a real romance. I think I've said that before and I know I've said the same thing about Jacob and Naomi, but at least those two are not saddled with grown children. And it is not playing to the actors' strengths. They each have many charms and good chemistry together, but they're not nearly as experienced as the cast members who would have the gravitas to be playing matriarchs and patriarchs (some of whom are playing said children's grandparents). Other random musings on the past few episodes: Why would Naomi and Tomas argue over legal strategy in front of a client, let alone in front of opposing counsel? And wasn't Naomi, who sued the firm for sexual harassment last year, being really inappropriate in pulling rank and badgering Caroline about whether she thinks her colleague is cheating on her husband, who's also Caroline's boss? I guess if Caroline filed a complaint there's an argument that Naomi has no actual authority at the firm, but that's also problematic. Was Leslie/Dana being a bartender as well as waiting tables always part of her back story with Bill? I only remember the part about the diner. Couldn't they have just stuck with that and lightly redressed the Orphey Jean's set? Bill and Ted's scenes reminded me that Ted could easily be Bill's confidant, instead of Joey. And the fact that it was the same episode as Iziah laying it on so thick about Joey reminded me that they also initially teased Bill having been a father figure to Iziah. So much of this would be more interesting if you substituted Bill for Joey. Heather is fine, notwithstanding what I said about not being needed in Andre's sphere at this point, but I'd be more interested in meeting someone from Bill's family.

Well, the longest I ever watched AMC was when I streamed (most) all of Natalie in the well --> Who Killed Will? during the first year of COVID, so it would be a stretch to say I'm disappointed, but... I can't really speak to JG, except he seems to be having a hell of a year. I really liked the idea of RC—someone who was actually a fan working his way up the ladder—and his actual early head writing work at OLTL. I even saw a lot of good up and until the purge of all the LGBTQ+ and BIPOC characters. Any early enjoyment of some blasts from the past when he went to GH didn't last long. I guess RC is very personable, at least IRL. People who've worked with him or met him seem to like him (I'm floored they're still referencing the "Carl Ivati" bit on BtG). I hope the movie(s) are more like his initial HW work at OLTL, although it's hard to judge that in hindsight - it's a fine line between nostalgia and...whatever you want to call what he's done with some long-lost characters. Eva makes sense given the history, and she looked amazing on GH during Mulcahey's stint. That said, I wonder if KR and MC would have done better with (current) Hallmark. Lifetime as it is now is not a natural fit for what I've loved most about soaps, nor was that movie a few years back with Linda Gray, et al as "daytime" divas. Although that one was the most consistent with Lucci's brand, but from what little I know of AMC, I think it worked because Erica had so many more grounded characters to play off of. Hallmark has actually had some surprisingly good scripts in recent years, and perhaps some of those writers were soap fans back in the day. Say what you will about the particular writers on board, a < 2 hour movie has got to be a different beast. And maybe Lacey Chabert and possibly even Jonathan Bennett would have helped promote it. 🤷

@safe I'm sorry I didn't see this before now, or even realize the site had vanished. I am alive and well, but apparently Tripod is not. 💔 I went down a rabbit hole and seem to have most if not all of the content saved on backup drive(s), but not formatted/organized in a way that I could easily reconstruct. Not that I would necessarily want to actively put it out into the world again now in such an outdated and amateurish format. I also appreciate that ≥ 50% of the content is not useful now, between YouTube and the Tom Lisanti book (which is much better). That said, RH deserves some kind of website - insofar as websites are still a thing. I'm going to think about what to do with what I still have. In the meantime, if you're still looking for whatever you were looking for a few months back, or have any other questions about the show, I'd be happy to look through my archives. Anyway, apologies again. I spend shockingly little time on the canceled soaps section anymore - I'm trying to keep up with Beyond the Gates, and every time I venture over here, the RH thread always seems to be buried. It's bittersweet, because I have not cared about a current soap this much since at least the turn of the millennium, when I decided I preferred watching reruns from 25 years before.

Got it. I just meant at the time a threat to her life was an A story. Whereas Laura's hit-and-run should have been the canary in the coalmine, culminating in one or more core characters in danger.

I finally got caught up this weekend - and was intrigued enough by Friday's cliffhanger(s) to make time this evening to watch today's episode. And we're only three days into the month, so I also caught up on this thread. I didn't even bother with the July thread, so apologies if it sounds like I'm taking credit for any of these half-baked theories. I love the Dupree women finally(!) starting to put the pieces together about Hayley. I was momentarily hoping the story was actually going to climax in St Bart's after all, with Bill and Hayley taking off just before his family could warn him, and a critical mass of characters following them there to expose the truth. I even looked up flights and confirmed what I suspected: San Juan was a layover on the first few routes that came up for me. Could Tomas even end up crossing paths with the rescue party (and getting caught in the crossfire) on his way home? Maybe some variation on that will still happen, although today was kind of a letdown and the fact that Bill and Hayley are back at the country club doesn't give me much hope for that, though. I'm also just not sure the poisoning story could wrap up in a way that's completely satisfying for me at this point, as opposed to back during February sweeps (more on that below). But I'm still excited. I've never watched Y&R but Chris is the Lauralee Bell character, aka the central heroine, right? My main issue with Leslie/Dana getting away with Laura's accident is that Laura was nobody to her. Somebody who could do that to a complete stranger would never stop there. It should have been building to something with higher stakes. And, yes, at some point she would likely have gotten caught for something. I thought the kidnapping climax at the end of last summer should have been with Nicole being held by Dana/Leslie, but she just pivoted to slapstick comedy and has never hurt a fly again. That said, the show playing up her reaction to Shanice and Bill made me think of something. We've been told Leslie/Dana can hold her fire when it's strategic (i.e., when she was cozying up to Mona and Jan) even if most of that happened off-screen and she's given herself away at every turn since the anniversary party. And she has been really cruel to people she perceives as beneath her newfound economic status. It would be genuinely interesting if she has deliberately avoided violence against her real enemies—Nicole and Anita—because she assumed someone like Laura is expendable but didn't think she could get away with harming a Dupree. Shanice could be what finally pushes her over the edge. As for Joey, nothing could make me want him to stay around. And I really feel like other characters have been undermined because he's constantly outsmarting everyone. I wish there was some way to redeem that, not him. The only thing I can come up with at this point would also solve some of the issues with Hayley outsmarting so many people when she's revealed herself this year to be not that smart: Randy has been playing both Hayley and Joey all this time, he helped Doug stage his death and get safely away from Joey, and he's also been giving Hayley a placebo the whole time. That could maybe explain why Bill has been so easily fooled by Hayley, if he was never in real danger and was correct in his initial assessment that Hayley is no threat. And it would explain why they've bothered with the awkward Mona spirituality subplot, if she turned out to be right and Randy has a moral red line after all. I'm not sure I could buy Randy as the mastermind at this point, after he's also done enough stupid things, but it's the best I've got.

I just hope with one of the recent changes in the writing staff, we're done with her randomly insinuating that Nicole has a sexually adventurous alter ego named "Nikki," presumably as some sort of weird homage to OLTL and Viki/Nikki.

Oh yes, Deanna on FaceTime and that line was a highlight today, and the episode was full of those. Eva needing a liver transplant is a twist I didn't see coming. I thought with all the bleeding and what we saw of Kat in the coming attractions, she would need a transfusion. I was prepared to roll my eyes at Kat not wanting to donate blood, like when she didn't want to get genetic testing. This would be a much more significant sacrifice. More amazing acting today. I'm fascinated to see what they are going to do set-wise while the club is out of commission. Two small quibbles about hospital protocol... How did Martin get a room so quickly? Dupree connections? And why were Dana/Leslie and Izaiah hanging out in an empty, private room - during a natural disaster, no less? They were mostly blocking the bed and I just assumed they were in Eva's room until Ted said he was going to "her" room. Then they sat on the empty bed to pray! Go to the hospital chapel?

It almost makes sense if Martin wanted to demonstrate within the party that he's consolidated support from big donors. Although if the fundraiser was the night before(?) the primary, it was too late. And I think Martin would have had to go to Genoa City...he and Vernon could have stumped for a swing district WI candidate while they were there. Also, given what we can infer about Martin's politics, I don't think he would want to flaunt corporate dollars to the general public. It would have been a closed-door, invitation-only fundraiser. And it's safe to assume the "upstart" challenger (who should have been a character on the show - Izaiah?) would have been vehemently opposed to big money in politics, and called Martin out for it. Not that the show would have been able to go there on CBS now. Or, if they had run with the dropped thread of Bill challenging Martin, Bill could have been old friends/frenemies with Victor. I wouldn't mind a half hour show, and it would be much easier to keep up. Of course, that would depend on which half of the show (roughly) would be distilled to30 minutes... I had stopped watching GH regularly by some point in the late '90s, but for me the pacing on BTG is no worse than what I remember by that point. And what little I saw of Guza's work in the aughts was mostly the splashy and/or violent events; I would tune out soon afterward because everything seemed to grind to a halt in short order. If nothing else, I like BTG's events better - not least because no core family members die (although the way they focused on that precarious chandelier and the inevitable crash, arguably it should have fallen on somebody). As for BTG, for me, the first major issue with pacing/momentum (unless there was something else even earlier that I'm forgetting) was after the anniversary party and, specifically, when nothing came of the investigation into her attempt(s) on Laura's life and her violent tendencies just vanished. Wasn't Guza still around long after that? Bill and Hayley also were adrift for much of last year, again until the audience learned that she had been conning him the whole time. I feel like there is more dramatic tension baked into many of the stories now, just waiting to go. It seems like more of a conscious decision to stall some key things.

It was a really good week - so riveting that I finally caught up. The production and directing were impressive, like with the cotillion, but also the drama was there to match. DD's Nicole was so good. Eva with the blood was genuinely shocking. The dialogue is still an issue, and this week had the added awkwardness of Y&R exposition on top of the usual BTG exposition. Also the fact that the event was focused on Martin's political career when the politics still don't make any sense for 2026... And we'll have to see what happens next: I for one do not want to see a paternity story for Eva let alone a new pregnancy for Dani. There has been such really interesting conversation about this, and I tend to agree with these points although I can also see the arguments for why the show might not want a character like this to be played by a BIPOC actor. But I feel like this week demonstrated that a character like Joey isn't needed at all, and certainly not his growing family. The reveal of the "Impaler" was the previous week's big Friday cliffhanger, and Joey and Heather got all that screen time on Monday, which I feared would continue all week. I still thought he and Vanessa were unnecessary and overly prominent during the tornado, but nobody said the word "Impaler" for days and that was wonderful. And I barely remembered his family drama, because the real drama is what's been the heart of the show since day one. I was also really impressed with CM this week. I think in some ways she has suffered the most from the stilted dialogue and pop culture references. That's partly because she gets saddled with so much of the latter. Also, she has had presence and charisma from day one and she clearly has talent, so she commands scenes more than some other actors of her generation, but she has less experience than some of the veterans who can elevate weaker material further. For example, Tamara Tunie can recite paragraphs of exposition and make it sound like poetry. This week Kat got to be genuinely in the moment reacting, not trying to get out half a dozen too-clever-by-half one-liners strung together while it's her turn to talk. OMG I completely forgot about Mona's event. Why does she show up every other week to explain very involved things that happen to her off-screen? I will never be a fan of Guza and I actually prefer the story shifts that seemed to happen after he left, especially with Hayley/Bill/Dani/Andre. What I don't understand is why they refuse to tell the stories that have been set up: delaying things like poisoning that have already been set in motion, while injecting plot devices like the plasma ring (see above) that is completely out of place and makes no sense. If Derek really had to have a big, dramatic sendoff, there were at least 4 unsolved cases involving core characters still waiting to be resolved that he could have gotten involved in just as easily with similar effects for Jacob and Ashley: the aforementioned poisoning, the police corruption, Doug's murder, or Laura's hit and run.

The plasma story is still so (unnecessarily) convoluted. Unless Lynette actually is dead and Lia killed her, how are we to believe that Lia is sooooo ruthless but hasn't gone after the person responsible for her predicament? And why did Jacob spend weeks "convincing" Grayson he was a dirty cop (he was not convincing) instead of just offering him immunity and making him a confidential informer to begin with? Just to name a couple of things I was preoccupied by during these scenes. I like Kat best when she's sleuthing. I hate to say this because the plasma story is such a drain but, with the connection to the clinic, etc., it could be fun for Kat and Eva to have to work together somehow in the conclusion and at least develop a mutual respect. We could use a breather from the "feud" (and endless exposition about said feud). I agree with this assessment. I probably won't stop watching, but I would be disappointed if Hayley's last stand is a bust. This week was still dicey but I am excited for the rest of May sweeps.

I agree with both of these points. I absolutely appreciate the show's production schedule/script volume do not allow for getting into the weeds of current political events. And I certainly don't expect TPTB to give the new CBS regime any more reason to focus on BTG. That said, the solution is not for Martin to go back to speechifying in meaningless platitudes that are completely divorced from our political reality. I can only imagine the show was so far ahead in scripts/bible that those first months (aside from that one line from Vernon in the first week that was probably added later) were meant to take place in a "normal" second Biden term. Or they expected to be on the air by 2024. I thought we'd finally caught up, and they even teased a really good story idea late last year, then just dropped the ball: Bill being the one to primary Martin. That wouldn't have had to rely on the 24-hour news cycle for the heart of the drama: the family dynamics, and Bill having veto power over the use of opposition research, which would be a credible workaround. I could understand if Bill had to drop out of the race because he was near death from poisoning or something, for example, but of course that story has also stagnated. Sorry, I think Bill is an incredible antagonist and am frustrated that he's not doing more, but I digress. Back to Martin, his empty rhetoric is just hard to take right now when I don't feel my real-life elected officials are doing nearly enough. And Martin thinks the way to do more is to run the Senate? That's like going from the frying pan into the fire...or from the fridge to the freezer, as it were. I really thought the show had course-corrected and was downplaying Martin's career to avoid these pitfalls, and honestly if my real-life Congressional delegation were dealing with family drama akin to the Duprees, I might be more sympathetic.

About the only other thing I can say about this week is that I agree Friday was the strongest episode. I felt badly for both June and Samantha, and that scene was earned. I also felt for Nicole earlier in the week, but that was more because Vanessa is a terrible friend and completely delusional than it was due to any real character development. As others have said, Vanessa and Joey's scenes feel like I've accidentally changed the channel to GH, and that is not a good thing. Hopefully some of the new plot twists will lead to something more compelling next week, although probably not the "will Smitty be caught breaking into his beloved mother-in-law's computer to see an org chart" cliffhanger (there's a joke in there somewhere about how many detectives and investigative reporters it takes to change a lightbulb). It would at least been semi fun if the cliffhanger had been that Ashley discovered Jacob and Smitty in the stairwell, and suspected they were having a clandestine affair. Along the lines of what I said earlier about Jacob and Naomi's trajectory, Martin and Smitty are another couple who might have benefited from having their love story play out on screen in real time. The conversations that would have led to given their respective professions would have also helped with the exposition problem (and, in particular, the problem with actors who are earlier in their careers not being well served with pages and pages of exposition that the characters have no reason to be explaining to each other).

Monday's episode was interesting, at least the concept more so than the on-screen drama. I applaud the ambition, and I agree with others that the execution didn't land, in part because Jacob and Naomi are not a strong enough couple to carry a standalone episode at this time. It also reminded me of something that's occurred to me a few times over the past year: I think Jacob and Naomi should have met on-screen in the first week(s) of the show, instead of being happily married from the outset. Jacob could have debuted as the arresting officer when Dani shot up the wedding on his first day as detective, with Naomi jumping in to defend her mother. The two could have butted heads and slowly fallen for each other in the process (instead of having a C-story married-couple-fight about the whole incident and quickly making up). Most of the "flashbacks" they recreated this week could have easily fit into the drama of the show in real time. I find both characters likeable, for the most part, and I don't think the actors are bad per se, but they are among the less experienced cast members. Maybe having some sort of arc to play in the beginning would have helped them find their footing. And Jacob being introduced as an outsider learning about the Duprees' drama would have allowed for more natural exposition as he questioned witnesses about the history between Bill, Dani, Hayley, etc., which would have helped the show overall. Relatedly, this actor has at times struggled more so than some of the seasoned veterans with those extended scenes of the characters reminding each other in detail of backstory they all supposedly experienced in real time (also with the "Rashad" scenes, but that's another story). While I'm on the subject of Jacob, I think one of the biggest holes in the dynamics of his family that they're attempting to build up is the fact that we've already established the father is running an inherently corrupt department. As far as class conflict, whatever the chief of police's official salary might be (and I agree they've definitely kept the jurisdiction ambiguous), he has to be making even more under the table. Does Darlene know this? Did she think he was really in danger from criminals he was trying to bring to justice all those times when he was allegedly doing undercover work that she keeps talking about, or did she know he was probably off collecting bags or whatever? Is she actually supposed to have the moral high ground? And if the foreshadowing about Jacob in danger leads somewhere, it will be a real letdown for me if it's because of this stupid plasma story, instead of something they've laid the groundwork for from the beginning: Jacob getting too close to the truth about his father. I commented a few weeks ago that the plasma story is a poor substitute for the earned climax of the Hayley/Bill poisoning story, but I should have added that Joey hiring a corrupt cop to murder Doug is also much more worthy fodder for Jacob to be investigating.

Calling Leslie/Dana or even Hayley irredeemable was a poor choice of words on my part, especially because I didn't mean it from a moral standpoint. I'm certainly not saying the characters need to die or go to prison in order for their stories to reach a conclusion that would satisfy me. What I meant was that anyone who is capable of doing what they've already done, especially in such cold and calculating ways, is not going to stop. If anything, they would further escalate, and they're both so self-destructive in different ways that they eventually they would trip up. My issue is that the show seems to be trying to delay and/or prevent that by reducing them to this broad/bumbling "comic relief" material, but in the process we're being deprived of actual story payoff. It sounds like we're in agreement about Hayley, so I'll limit this to Leslie/Dana. I think there is more pathos there, and certainly more emotional reasons for why she does what she does that we could explore for at least a year or two (certainly for however long soap contracts are now). I'm not sure of the logistics but I could also see her coming and going on a recurring basis like a James Stenbeck or Carl Hutchins, especially now that she has the resources to fake her death, etc. To play devil's advocate, I could even argue that maybe there is an aspect to her character where she would draw the line at going after someone like Laura, whom she looks down upon, while she might tread more lightly with someone like Nicole or Anita out of self-preservation. And that could realistically extend her shelf life as a main cast member. But I'm not seeing that in how the character is written now - from my perspective, she's gone from dangerous to annoying for no reason other than so we can avoid dealing with the amazing drama the stage was all set for. I wonder if TPTB's valid concern that you lifted about how Black characters are presented may also be related to to this. I meant what I said about crediting BTG with creating breakout roles for both these actresses. BITD the (almost exclusively white) up and coming performers who burst onto the soap scene as memorable villains could go out in an on-screen blaze of glory and try their luck at primetime or movies, and worst case probably resurface on one of the 10-15 other soaps. I'm not saying either MG or TMG could not go on to even greater success, or that anyone at the show thinks that. Far from it. I'm just recognizing that, especially because of what BTG represents, if a beloved cast member whose career the show helped launch/rejuvenate was written out for story reasons and subsequently got treated badly by the industry, that would really suck. There is no easy way around that, and I also hope this didn't come out wrong...

The Anita scenes this week really were amazing. As far as I'm concerned, TT can take home back-to-back Emmys: for both seasons. The biopsy scenes in December were really strong, and she did so much else last year that was Emmy-worthy. I have to admit, being thankfully ignorant about the side effects of cancer treatment, I initially thought this week's turn in Anita's story seemed like it was out of left field. But the sepsis development makes total sense, and I credit the show with educating the audience about the cascading health effects cancer and its treatments can have (while also serving up some powerful drama in the process). That being said, the more "research" aka Googling I do about the plasma story, the less sense that one makes. My understanding is it's legal in the U.S. to pay for plasma, so I'm still struggling to understand what the crime is supposed to be. Is Grayson stealing plasma from the hospital lab, and potentially going to be doing the same at the clinic? Aside from the size of that bag, as has been pointed out, it apparently takes 90+ minutes to donate plasma. Wouldn't patients notice that their routine blood work is taking a lot longer than it should? Is Lia just so greedy that she doesn't want to pay enough for plasma to get a sufficient supply, or what? While I am caught up on the show/board: I have to agree 200% with these posts. The exposition-laden dialogue really is glaring, and remains my biggest issue with the show. I would be fine with a more leisurely pace if the slice of life scenes of characters talking to each other were at all lifelike. I could even swallow some plot holes - half the problem is having to hear characters explaining their flawed logic to each other in excruciating detail. Agreed, this poisoning story should have climaxed in February sweeps, in much the same way you described. I would argue this was the same problem with Dana/Leslie last year, and that's one reason why I cannot accept that Guza was any sort of lynchpin for plot/momentum. Our first introduction to Leslie was her trying to kill a complete stranger who had done nothing to her (I think that was the plan? At the very least, she had to be indifferent to whether Laura lived or died). Leslie should have grown even more desperate once she was already guilty of one attempted murder, and racked up a body count throughout the spring. And if you'd told me this time last year that the big end-of-summer cliffhanger was going to be be a kidnapping story, it would have seemed like a no-brainer to me: Leslie holding Nicole hostage after Ted continued to reject her. That would have been way more compelling than the Allison business, not to mention the kind of material you should save for the most seasoned actresses who have proven experience with heavy material. Similarly, the plasma nonsense is a contrived but also redundant excuse for much of the same drama that they could have gotten organically by bringing the "Kill Bill" story to its logical conclusion. The plasma business also has the side effect of isolating some of the less experienced cast members and/or newcomers to the show, with only each other to play off. And now we have not one but two dynamic but irredeemable villains played by breakout actresses whom this show essentially discovered. That is a remarkable problem for a daytime soap in 2026(!) to have, but also a shame because they're just spinning their wheels. Again, I hate to complain so much when I started this with well-earned praise for Anita and TT. That is the only reason I caught up on the show and board in time to post this. I definitely agree that Michele Val Jean is indispensable to the show, and any suggestion otherwise is in bad faith - not to mention ridiculous.

What is this poison even supposed to do? Bill has seemed perfectly fine, so if he died it wouldn't seem like he'd been sick. Unless it's meant to give him another stroke or something eventually and the point of lacing his tea over time was to make sure there was an undetectable amount in his system when it finally kicked in. But if that was the plan, I think Hayley ruined it that time she gave him extra.

And/or frame Dani, who has already fired a gun at him on a livestream...