beebs

I gotta thank everyone for all their contributions in this thread. They're adding SO MUCH for me. I've been loving learning about the show's history and seeing the bits and pieces I'm too young to remember watching on TV. What a treat to even see the bits and bobs we are able to! Tying Vivian to Laura's return was a stroke of genius, but I agree that Bill really should've been more heavily featured during this time to really play the emotional beats of it all properly. As it stood, it seemed like he was barely present for the story at all! Shall I get started on July '79? So because SOD was on a bizarre once-every-three weeks schedule, The last week of June wasn't in their recaps. And boy did things get wild with Laura after that. Spectre Mom orders Laura to lock herself in her room, swallow all the pills she prescribed herself for her psychosis, and hang herself. Alice arrives, demanding Laura let her in, but Laura refuses. Laura thinks twice momentarily about ending it all, but Ghost Mama insists the only way Laura will have peace and leave her guilt behind is to go through with it. "Join me. You have to do it now!", orders the voice inside Laura's head. The pills taking effect, Laura tightens the noose, and....BILL BUSTS THE DOOR DOWN. The day is saved. Bill gets Laura to barf up the pills. But Jordan, trying to reach Laura and pull her back from the brink, realizes the pills she ingested may cause long-term damage, and insists Bill institutionalize her immediately. Bill realizes Jordan's right when Laura sobs that her mother follows her everywhere and wants to kill her. She wants Bill to take her somewhere her mother can't get to her. He realizes this is the right thing to do, as Laura immediately switches from telling Marlena, Marie, Mickey and Tom that Bill is taking her to the country for a rest, because she wants and needs help, to immediately shouting at them all that they're fools and she's the sanest person in the room. The one thing Ghost Mom was right about, Tom almost immediately offers Marlena the job of replacing Laura as head of psychiatry. Marlena turns the offer down, still likely a little insecure after Laura's gaslighting campaign, and Tom gives the position to Jordan, if only temporarily. Jordan confides in Marie that Laura is making progress. She is now talking rationally about Ghost Mama, but has turned her back on psychiatry, feeling like she can't trust her own mind to help get her through this. She sometimes can't even remember who or where she is. Julie begins to wonder why Laura The Great isn't visiting anymore. Marlena, who's taken over her case, lets her know that Laura's at a sanitarium, and Julie BLAMES HERSELF for it, wondering if her case drove Laura over the edge. I swear, it's like Elizabeth Harrower never read or watched a single episode with Julie in it before taking over. Good GOD, she writes Julie like she's made of glass. The Hortons are planning a picnic (I assume for the 4th of July), so Dr. Goddard lets Julie out for a few hours to attend. Julie doesn't really want to, since she doesn't want to face people's pity yet. Marie correctly guesses that these fears are bulls#!t Loopy Laura planted in Julie's mind. Julie eventually changes her mind and does end up attending the picnic. She also agrees to sign Mickey's insurance papers, provided Maggie isn't held at all liable, and that Doug never know, as she doesn't want to hurt his pride. Robert takes Dougie to France to visit his family and get comfortable with them, just in case something happens to him, he doesn't want them to be strangers to the boy. Hope being away at summer camp, leaves Doug alone to prepare for Julie's return. Doug hopes to take the opportunity to pick up where he and Julie left off before her hospital stay. He'll have to wait awhile, though, as Julie overhears Dr. Goddard say the skin grafts didn't take, and they'll have to do a Round 2. Julie's heartbroken by the news. The operation was painful as hell and the last thing she wants to go through it again. She decides against it, spouting more self-deprecating sob stories about how she'll likely never be the woman she was before. Steve convinces her to at least go get a second opinion, so off Julie goes to Chicago...only to be told exactly what she was telling Doug and Steve, that there's no guarantee the skin grafts will work this time either! Undaunted, Moneybags then heads for Mexico for a THIRD opinion! Any bets on what she hears? Yeah. Yeah, you guessed it. Julie comes back home, sobbing woefully that she'll be a disfigured mess forever, and that she doesn't want to trap Doug in a life with a hideous beast with a bit of scarring on one cheek (I know, I know, the scarring is worse on her arms and chest, but come on, Julie!), so she unilaterally got a divorce in Mexico because life with a woman with burn scarring is apparently a fate worse than death. She loves him too much to let him be chained to the likes of her. Gag me. Doug is pissed off that Julie thinks so little of him that she thinks marriage to her is a trap because she's no longer physically perfect. He rips up the papers and demands they fly back to Mexico together to undo the divorce. Julie won't do it, insisting that she's dragging him down, and gets her own apartment. Steve goes to Paris, finally. This time to go to charity antiques auction to pick up some stuff for Chez Julie, and to reunite with Mimi (I would've dumped this scrub ages ago, Mimi. I don't know what you see in him). While Steve is away, Julie asks Maggie to stay on at Chez Julie's. I don't have a bloody clue what prompts this sudden attitude change, but Julie suddenly gets a pissy attitude with Maggie, and snaps at her "you owe me a debt". MEOW! At the auction, Steve makes friends with Byron Carmichael, who he mentions resembles an older version of Doug. Byron's dying of cancer, and invites Steve to his swanky home (this story would go such a different way today...well...if soaps were anything like they were in the 70s, that is). Steve fills Byron in on the details of Doug's life, and Byron buys a plane ticket to Salem. This...sounds...I am very concerned with what is about to happen. Alice is this month's Only Sane Person in the World, and pounds of Julie's door, refusing to leave until Julie opens up. Once inside, she begs Julie not to dump Doug, and provides her with her usual sage wisdom, but Julie feels she'll be turning Doug into a nursemaid if she were to stay with him. 0/1 Alice having failed, Bill tries the bad cop approach, tearing a strip off Julie when he visits the next day for divorcing Doug and hiding from the world. He's probably projecting a bit, methinks. But he also is fairly certain Laura's therapy fekked up Julie's confidence, and makes it clear to Julie that what she was told by Laura was from a place of profound mental distortion, and not to take it seriously. Julie insists that Laura was "the only one in the family who didn't keep things from me!" 0/2 Just as Julie seems beyond help, it's Stephanie to the rescue! Stephanie visits Julie, and encourages Julie to get the skin grafts done as soon as possible, revealing that she was once in a terrible car wreck, and the skin grafts helped her start a new life. She shows Julie the scars near her hairline, and then, shockingly, reveals that she's actually Brooke! She tells Julie that, if Julie gets this operation done before it's too late, she too, can start a new life. Chris goes to Mary's studio to pick up his things. Mary makes a last ditch attempt to get him back, hoping he regrets breaking things off as much as she does. Except, Chris thinks it was a good idea, and Mary is pretty pissed off about that, reaming him out for using her to advance his career at Anderson, and calling Amanda a tramp. How To Win Friends and Influence People, by Mary Anderson. She then orders him to leave, and he gets in his jeep. As he drives off, Mary runs out with a pile of his clothes he left behind and throws them at his jeep. He can't see, and grazes Mary with the jeep, knocking her over. Steve, who's on his way to pick up Mary for a date, sees Chris knock Mary down with his jeep and believes he intentionally ran her over. Linda sees the ordeal as well from the lakehouse. Mary runs back into the studio to make sure she's okay. Chris parks the jeep, runs back to the studio and bangs on the door to make sure Mary's okay, but Mary, quite rightly, tells him to buzz off. He eventually complies. Steve comes by shortly after, and insists Mary lie down, before calling Neil to check up on her. Chris later calls the studio, and Steve tells him he dialed the wrong number and leaves the phone off the hook. Neil eventually arrives, deducing that Mary is just a bit shaken up, but physically okay. The X-Rays bear this out, Mary doesn't have any broken bones, but lets her know that emotional trauma from the incident may linger. Linda uses what she saw to her advantage with Bob, lying and saying that she heard from Mary that Chris intentionally mowed Mary down and took off straight away. She reminds Bob what a bad temper Chris has to try to further tarnish the poor guy's image in Bob's eyes. Amanda, wisely, warns Chris to contact his insurance company in case Mary decides to go scorched earth on him. Bob asks Mary how she's feeling. Mary claims lower back pain, and embellishes that Chris hates her SO MUCH he wanted to CRIPPLE her! Oh brother. After hearing Chris' completely different take on the accident, Bob isn't sure who to believe, and wonders if Steve, seemingly the only witness, has something to gain by blaming Chris. Steve, at the same time, is trying to rile Mary up to get her to get more X-rays, hoping something will turn up so he can encourage Mary to sue Chris (Steve is awful lawsuit-happy, isn't he?). This time, Mary actually agrees with Steve's idea, and makes an appointment with Don. At the appointment, Mary tells her tall tale of Chris' rage and vitriol...and Don doesn't buy it for a second, telling her she's clearly just out to get back at him for dumping her. Unfazed, Mary takes a new approach, and visits Chris unannounced to "drop off a book he left behind". Mary tells him a sob story about her bad back before Amanda walks in the room. Mary's livid to see her, and calls her every name but a child of God before Amanda can get a breath in. After the bunny boiler leaves, Amanda tells Chris how worried she is that Mary may mess things up for him at work, after all, she is the boss' daughter. Mary's last stop on her Sympathy Tour 1979 is Tom's office, where she's told exactly what she's been told by everyone else: You may be injured in a way that X-rays don't show, but your greatest injury is probably to your ego. Linda tells Bob about Mary's intention to sue Chris. Bob's not impressed, and intends to talk Mary down before taking drastic action, but will support his daughter 100% regardless (fool). Linda keeps quiet about having witnessed the accident until she sees something concrete she can gain from the information. Next, Bob sends Chris, whom he's still extremely supportive of, to San Francisco to speak to Magnis Corporation regarding a new manufacturing contract, which could save Anderson from the major cutbacks Bob was concerned about after Mary's government snafu. Bob does this, in part, because he suspects that Chris' old fashioned nature will cause him to, once at a distance from Amanda, second-guess his hitching his cart to a married woman, and maybe, hopefully, he will find his way back to Mary. Fat chance of that the way Mary's acting: she tells an incensed Bob that she will, in fact, sue Chris, despite having no discernible injury to show for the accident. Bob insists she's just throwing a tantrum to get Chris' attention, but Mary contends that she wants to show the world how vicious and thoughtless Chris is. Chris, I guess once again being thoughtless, decides to bring Amanda with him. Bob hopes that this will make Mary so angry that she'll fight for him instead of suing. Linda suggests Bob only wants this so that he can have Chris run Anderson one day (a thought that turns Linda's stomach, since she never did much like Chris). Linda, seemingly warming to Mary, gives Mary advice with regards to Chris. She tells her that if she sues Chris, it'll drive him further toward Amanda. But if she forgives him, and publicly, they may stand a chance. I love how Linda frames it as well: "make sure you get what you really want". That's a very Linda thing to say. Phyllis encourages Don to suggest to Mary to seek counselling with Marlena (followed that one?), hoping that Marlena will talk Mary out of suing. Don refuses, so Phyllis goes straight to Marlena and proposes the same thing. But Marlena won't bite unless MARY suggests it. Linda slips up, saying she remembered a party Bob threw months ago, but covers her tracks with a quickness when Bob calls her out on it, reminding him the doctors' said Linda had "selective amnesia", and only forgot the bad things in her life. This doesn't placate the old fool, and Bob calls her out for lying to him for months. Tempers die down somewhat, but Linda still senses Bob is stressed about the situation with Mary's extended tantrum, and finally confesses to Bob that she saw the accident. She admits that Mary threw the clothes at Chris' car, and could've gotten herself killed. Bob wonders why Linda kept the truth a secret so long, but Linda covers and states she didn't want to make Mary look like a liar. Bob, still burnt from Linda faking her amnesia, isn't sure he believes her about Mary's malicious intent regarding Chris. Stephanie tries to reason with Mary, and pleads with her to back off the lawsuit with Chris, if only for the sake of Bob's health, warning her that Bob might have another heart attack from the stress of the situation. She reads Mary for filth, saying everyone knows she's just out to get back at Chris, and that getting Chris fired would be a hollow victory, and Mary knows it. Stephanie FINALLY gets through to Mary, and Mary and Chris come to a truce, agreeing to remain friendly colleagues. Amanda moves out of Doug and Julie's, again to try to alleviate any potential rumours about Doug living with ANOTHER WOMAN while Julie's away. She takes a room at the Salem Inn, which disappoints Chris. She reminds him she is, for now, married, and it would look bad on both of them. Greg, finding out about his impending divorce, comes to Salem and demands Doug tell him where Amanda is. When Doug tells him she's out of town with Chris, Greg suddenly realizes "well, damn! I've been a sh!tty husband! WOW!", and figures Amanda is just lashing out by taking up with Chris. A mere infatuation, the clueless doctor surmises. He thinks his little epiphany will win Amanda back over, and refuses to give her a divorce "now -- or EVER!" Yeah, yeah. When Amanda DOES return, she tells Julie all about her great love and how Chris is the greatest thing since sliced bread etc. etc., and Julie, thrilled for her, tells her to follow her lead and get a fekking divorce already. At Amanda's room at the Salem Inn, Chris and Amanda are gettin' busy, when Greg bursts in, and shouts, screams, and hollers how he'll never let Amanda divorce him, and he'll cut her off at every turn!! After more assorted histrionics, Amanda tells Greg she knows there's no hope for their marriage. Greg acts like he didn't hear a damn thing she said, and tells her to go back to Chicago with him for a year, and THEN they can talk about a divorce. Like talking to a brick wall, I swear. Chris realizes the only way he can get Amanda away from Greg without a prolonged fight is if she goes back to Chicago with him, THEN files for divorce when Greg realizes what a dumbass he's being. Phyllis, eager to dump her Anderson stock at the behest of YOU KNOW WHO, trades the shares with Neil for his stake in Magnis Corp. Once that order of business is out of the way, Phyllis then asks Neil for a divorce, which Neil promptly refuses. Surprisingly not for an entirely selfish reason, however. Feeling that Phyllis is being negatively influenced by Alex (who is finally being addressed by SOD by name), Neil senses something predatory in him that Neil wishes to protect Phyllis from, and as long as Phyllis is married to Neil, she won't marry (another) Mr. Wrong. Phyllis informs Neil that she stopped "belonging" to Neil a long time ago, and that their marriage is over. The good news for Phyllis is that her gamble is taking over Neil's Magnis stock paid off! Magnis enters into a contract with Anderson, and all should be flush with cold hard cash in no time. Trish goes to David's to visit Scotty, and is met by a horny David, who puts the moves on her and they end up sleeping together. So I guess that's a thing again. David asks Trish the next morning to move back into his apartment. She agrees as long as he forgets about Trish swiping Scotty and moving to LA, and never brings it up again, and Trish will forget about David's affair with Stephanie. David thinks this is actually a good idea, and throws out a painting Stephanie gave him as a peace offering to Trish. It's been literally a week, and David's already talking to Trish about moving them all into a house together (sigh). Trish, sensibly, tells David to cool his jets, since she's not even sure if this reconciliation is gonna work yet or not since it's LITERALLY BEEN A WEEK. The only rush Speedy Gonzalez isn't in is to get to work, and Stephanie's sick of it. She accuses David of taking advantage of their past relationship to come and go as he pleases. David says he does good work, despite his lateness, but Stephanie isn't putting up with his crap anymore. Trish agrees to move into a larger apartment with David and Scotty. Mealy-mouthed Margo comes by to help Trish pack, and finds a bunch of diamonds taped under Trish's desk (???). Trish yanks them away from Margo, and makes Margo promise she won't tell anyone about them. Apparently among the "terrible things" Trish did to get back to Salem all those months ago include stealing these diamonds, because Steve's business partner, Durant, tells Steve about it while Steve is in Paris. Durant wants REVENGE! (muahhaha). Steve volunteers to track Trish down for Durant. Dumb Donna might not have learned her lesson after all. As Alice is watching Jennifer in Laura's absence, Donna takes a job babysitting the child of a nameless wealthy woman (watch it be Trask's wife LOL). Said nameless rich lady then complains when some items turn up missing from her home. Three guesses who took 'em. The lady now has a name, Mrs. Nevell. And OOPS NEVERMIND! She found the missing gold bracelet under a couch cushion. LOL. No harm done. Don apologizes to Donna for assuming the worst (but like...she kinda walked into that one, for real). Don meets with Mr. Trask again, who is now more than ever convinced that his accountant (Marlena's patient Lester) is stealing from him. Lester insists he hasn't done anything wrong in handling Trask's finances, and then confesses that Don is representing Trask. OOPS! The fight is on at home, with Marlena trying to reason with Don that Lester is emotionally unstable etc. etc., but Don, though understanding, is all law and order about this, and wants Lester to be PUNISHED. Mike, still broke-ass, can't pay the loan shark his instalment on the money he borrowed to cover Loony Laura's momentary tantrum over his gift/loan. So Earl the Loan Shark suggests he start working off his debt by accepting Earl's clients' cash payments while working his valet job at Doug's (all together now: this will end well). Mike plans to quit working at Doug's when the Magnis deal comes through with Anderson, but Earl warns him that that's a nay nay! He gone break ya fingers, Mikey! Earl spooks Mike so that when Chris promotes him at Anderson, Mike refuses the position, saying he HAS to stay on at Doug's Place. Chris is baffled, because who da hell would turn down a DOUBLING OF THEIR SALARY?! I'm actually pretty stunned Stephanie revealed herself to Julie like that. It's not as though Julie was that big a fan of Brooke to begin with, but it's nice to see them getting closer and connecting over this. Stephanie is becoming the voice of reason, and it's...weird! Mary is a bit of a basketcase, but in a way that totally makes sense. I like how they're writing her, even though she's incredibly retaliatory and spiteful. It's that relatable kind of insecure, emotionally volatile character that's not often seen anymore without becoming a caricature. I keep waiting for things with Linda to boil over, and they almost do, and then they...don't? Very odd. I know Byron is tied to Lee somehow, isn't he? I feel like there's a lot of stories starting to tie together, and it's a far more connected show than Ann Marcus' DAYS was. I haven't figured out yet whether that's a good or a bad thing, tbh.

Yeah, I'm actually impressed by it. I'll say one thing for Harrower's DAYS, she certainly took the trouble to SHOW, not tell the action, and it was a better show for it. I think the influence of Y&R and GH around this time meant DAYS really had to step up their game in terms of visual effects, and in some ways, action in their stories to keep up, despite their stories remaining FAR less action-based, and far more dialogue-heavy than what GH would do. Thank you @jam6242 for posting the clip! LOL @Franko, yeah, Laura's reactions are so incongruous, it reads almost like black comedy, except I know full well it wasn't actually played that way on-screen. I suspect SOD's writing doesn't help that assessment. They've never quite caught the tone of the show quite the way DSN did, and I can't quite tell why, but when you actually watch the episodes, the writing is much stronger than their writeups suggests. I feel like they gloss over a LOT of the subtlety from the dialogue in a way DSN didn't. ANYWAY, let's get to June... Julie finally listens to the doctor from out of town and returns to Salem for surgery. Doug lavishes her with attention, and reassurances that he'll always love her, regardless of her appearance. Julie admits to having contemplated suicide, but didn't want to leave Doug with a lifetime of guilt. Doug takes her to the hospital to prep for surgery. Stephanie, of all people, comes to visit her. Stephanie lets her guard down, earnestly revealing to Julie that she knows what Julie's going through, and reassuring her that she will be alright, and to trust her doctors. Not making the connection as to WHY Stephanie can relate so well, Julie is relieved and in good spirits, regardless. She feels she's known Stephanie all her life (I could offer a few explanations for that). The visit even reassures Doug that Julie's back to normal, and encourages Julie to recover soon so that they can get back to the bedroom and try for that baby they've been working towards. That child will apparently not be Dougie, according to Robert, who draws up paperwork saying that, if anything should happen to Robert, Dougie would go not to Doug and Julie, but to Robert's sister in France. Why? Because Doug and Julie are too preoccupied to take care of the boy. Julie preps for surgery, and a slew of visitors come by to butter her up with endless compliments about how beautiful she is inside and out. I'm surprised they don't throw her a parade with fireworks as well. Regardless, this is the confidence boost Julie needs, under the circumstances. Especially since Laura's campaign of pessimism continues, with Laura even warning Julie as she's wheeled in for surgery that "you have scars on your psyche that no doctor can erase." (For fvck's sake, Laura! Just put the gun to her head already!) Marlena, thankfully, counteracts Laura's doomsday scenario, telling her she has the strength to pull through. The skin graft is a success, so now Laura decides it's time to start attacking Julie's psyche again! This time, going after her plans to have Doug's baby. She suggests that Hope will resent Julie for having Doug's baby, leaving less time for Hope and making Hope jealous and resentful of Julie. Dr. Goddard, Julie's plastic surgeon, informs her that the surgery was successful, and that there's a good chance her body will accept the grafts. Stupid Julie makes a point of lavishing praise on Laura for helping her face reality, and that she has complete faith in her lunatic Aunt. Jordan informs Bill of Laura's hallucination, but Bill is dismissive, even believing Jordan to be trying to steal Laura's job. Marie sets him straight, and Jordan encourages Bill to talk to Tom about Laura's condition before the whole hospital is put at risk. Laura then bursts into Marlena's office with a stack of casefiles, dumps them on Marlena's desk, and declares that they're Marlena's problem now, for Laura is going to work with disturbed children in a clinic. She tells Marlena she feels she had a major breakthrough with Julie because Julie made it back to Salem with all limbs still attached. She then goes home, rips a few medical journals off the shelves, and scrawls all over them in red pen, announcing to Rosie and Bill that she's going to begin a whole new career, and wants to celebrate her (alleged) accomplishment with Julie's case. The next day, Laura completely forgets having filled Marlena's desk with paperwork, and accuses Marlena of STEALING it! Then, when alone, tells herself that Julie's better off dead and that she never wants to see her again, and that Julie would be a better person if she learned to live with her scars. Laura, getting ready for bed, then proceeds to hallucinate being burned just like Julie, and begins screaming in agony. Bill rushes in, but Laura plays it off, claiming she just closed a drawer on her finger...which is a perfectly normal reaction to closing a drawer on your finger. I let out sustained bloodcurdling screams at momentary pain regularly. Don't you? Jordan insists that Laura needs to be put in Bayview, not heading up a psychiatric ward at a major hospital. Marlena draws a line there, still dealing with lingering traces of PTSD from when Sam locked HER in Bayview, she begins to make excuses for Laura's behaviour, downplaying it to try to prevent her friend from experiencing the hell she did. Jordan retorts that Laura will cause more harm to her patients if left to run amok, noting her condition, if left untreated, will likely continue to deteriorate. And deteriorate it does. After driving Mike to loan sharks, Laura's Ghost Mother decides she's Marie Kondo and thinks that having small children about the house doesn't spark joy. She convinces Laura that Bill would be much happier if he didn't have a small child to deal with. So she tells Donna, who's babysitting Jennifer as Rosie isn't available that day, that Laura will take Jennifer for a walk, and to stay at the house and not answer the phone. So Donna does, until the umpteenth call from Bill, who she finally fills in on all the bizarre things that happened, and the fact that Laura and Jennifer have been away all day. So what did Laura do with Jennifer? She put her on a Greyhound bound for Dayton, as one does with a three-year-old. Laura then returns home, and accuses Donna of killing Jennifer, before lunging at her! Just as quickly as she does, Bill steps in. Laura instantly calms right down and wonders what all the commotion is about, then stammers and mutters to herself, wondering where Jennifer is. Bill files a missing person's report at this point. Marlena arrives, and tries to walk Laura through her day. Laura insists she was working at UH all day (she wasn't), and insists Donna has Jennifer, randomly screaming out to Donna to bring Jennifer back at once. Marlena, exhausted from these exercises, and the stress of having to deal with her friend's extended breakdown, asks Jordan to take over the case. She feels too closely connected to the case to be objective. Jordan, in consult with Marlena about the case, suggests that the voice instructing Laura is likely an extension of her subconscious, and if that voice is of her mother, whom she KNOWS was insane, and Laura allows that voice to guide her actions, Laura must also have stepped over the line into insanity herself. In Dayton, the bus driver asks Jennifer why she's sitting alone and where her mother is. Jennifer explains that her mother put her on the bus alone. The driver immediately turns her over to the police. The next day, the driver recognizes Jennifer's face in the newspaper, and tells them that she's the girl he found on his bus. The cops fly Jenn back to Salem. Laura greets Jennifer like any sane and rational mother would, tearfully, and vowing they'll never be apart again. Bill stupidly sees this as a sign that Laura's back to normal and just needed a nap or six. Marie is, as usual, the only person in the house with any sense or functioning brain matter, and tells Bill that Laura PROBABLY still needs to get some help cos like...sending a pre-schooler alone on a bus to God-knows-where and then trying to kill the babysitter after accusing her of killing your daughter MIGHT be slightly more serious than needing a couple days off. Laura agrees. So she orders the same drug that her mother used in order to treat herself. I know I say this a lot, but this will SURELY end well! Phyllis' new boyfriend is trying to convince Phyllis to sell her shares in Anderson. Neil worries she's being taken advantage of, somehow, and expresses as much to Bob. Bob has his trusty PI on call to look into it for Neil's sake. Mike is this month's Ultimate Dumbass, spending $400 on a new jacket for Margo, who doesn't realize that he doesn't have any money because he's already up to his neck in debt from trying to keep her happy. After this, Loony Laura snaps at him, demanding the $500 she lent him for the house back because "you can't just keep borrowing money and thinking it's a gift". Mike does the dumbest thing and goes to a loan shark, then pays a bewildered Laura back, who wonders why Mike's so insistent on paying this back when it's a gift. David keeps harping at Trish about how she pissed off to LA with Scotty. Trish wishes he'd shut up about it and forgive her already. David decides he will and kisses her lovingly. Barf. Chris continues to prod Amanda to divorce Greg. She FINALLY listens, going to Mickey to ask him to file the papers, stating that she and Greg are completely out of touch with each other now. Mickey suggests marriage counselling, but Amanda stands firm, it's time. She also sheepishly admits there's another man... Their next night out, Chris and Amanda are on a picnic in the moonlight. Relieved that she's finally setting the ball in motion to escape her marriage to Greg, and feeling genuinely happy and in love with Chris, Amanda finally feels comfortable to sleep with Chris, and they have a nice little al fresco romp, presumably finally relieving Chris' blue balls that were making him so pushy all these weeks. The cause of Donna's sudden influx of cash is revealed: She isn't paying for the things she brings home. She goes to Chez Julie to buy Marlena a birthday gift, and Steve is working the shop. He shows her some rings, and then gets called away for a moment. So Donna takes it upon herself to slip one in her purse and leave. Charming. Donna claims it's an old family heirloom, and Don and Marlena buy into that load of nonsense easily. Later, at Doug's Place, Steve compliments Marlena on the ring, then sees Donna and makes the connection. He makes a mental note to check the inventory log at the shop later. Donna's not lookin' so slick anymore. Steve checks the records, then confronts Don with the evidence. Don has a hard time believing it (why, I don't know), but once he compares Marlena's ring with a picture of it Steve kept at the shop, he quickly write a cheque to cover for Donna's sticky fingers, and asks Steve to keep Donna's continued...teenageness quiet. Don then lays into the brat when she gets home. Donna eventually confesses and goes back to whining and begging Don to forgive her and promises to never ever do anything like that again she swears to God amen. NEW DAYPLAYER DRAMA! Marlena's patient Lester Hall admits to her that he embezzled funds from the same Harold Trask that Steve swindled money out of when he was going on his lavish antique trips to France. Lester says he was doing it to help a cash-strapped teacher. Now, unbeknownst to Lester or Marlena, Trask knows about it, and is pressing charges, with Don as his attorney! Prepare for more nonsense drama in 5...4...3... Putzy Bob's demeanour thaws further toward Linda. He wants to spare Melissa the pain of her parents' divorce, and suggests he and Linda return to sharing the same bed. I feel this mix between feeling intense pathos for Laura, knowing that a lot of mental illness plays out in similarly bizarre ways (in full honesty, it hits close to home, a friend is dealing with similar hallucinations right now and it's...frankly, debilitating), and busting out laughing at the absurdity of how this is playing out. I have a strong feeling, judging from the 6-19-79 episode, that the subject was treated with a degree of respect that SOD just can't capture, but the twists and turns of the story are honestly just...stupefying. And the fact that no one is bothering to tell Julie that, ummm....maybe your Aunt isn't actually helping you right now? Blows my mind! I like that they're once again dropping hints about Stephanie's identity. I would've loved to see that play itself out naturally, and how the relationship evolved between her and Mary once Mary found out who Stephanie really was, and that she was her sister. Killing her off was a stupid decision, and really hampered any attempt to keep the Anderson branch of the show on the canvas after 1980, Chris Kositchek notwithstanding. I do like how Harrower is writing Amanda. She was always very much the victim under PFS. Always pingponging between Neil and Greg, and never really seeming to have much agency of her own. It's refreshing to see her being written as taking charge of her own life, and choosing someone who actually seems to appreciate her and make her feel special as a person, as opposed to being a prize to claim. Donna's stories stay stupid. The less said about them, the better.

Yep. I think it's been set to private, or at least is hidden. I do have a copy on my hard drive so I'll be using that to fill in some of the June recap. The episode seems more intense and thoughtful than the mess that was May, but the story itself still seems ridiculous. It seems obvious EH was trying to give her daughter some meaty material to play, but it comes off so incredibly corny and excessive. I was gonna say it contrasted glaringly to the rest of the show, but, other than David and Trish's story, the rest of the stories on the show are a little off-the-wall as well, what with Stephanie being Brooke with a new face, and Linda faking amnesia. The roots of the ridiculousness that came after are firmly in place here, it seems.

Yeah, Linda is absolutely legendary from everything I've been reading. I really need someone to drop more 70s DAYS episodes, because she seems to be one of the few characters Ann Marcus actually improved during her run. An absolute delight. Stephen Schnetzer must have had issues in chem tests on DAYS. I see him more having flirtations with women on the show that never go anywhere than anything. After the initial fraud story, it's like he was held in limbo for another ten months while they figured out what to do with him, and then decided to do nothing? Bizarre. Can't wait for Alex Marshall. I've always loved Quinn Redeker on Y&R, and I actually don't know a whole lot about his DAYS character, surprisingly. So I'm excited to see what comes next there (I'm presuming he's Phyllis' new boyfriend). On that note, let's check out May '79: Doug asks Don to file Rebecca's letter regarding Dougie separately from his and Julie's other paperwork, and that he set up a living trust fund for baby Dougie as well. Robert, meanwhile, tries to do Doug a favour, and find out any information he can about the artificial insemination that Doug took part in. I guess, hoping to find out if Doug has a child out there somewhere, since he and Julie are struggling to conceive, though SOD doesn't elaborate as to why he's preoccupying himself with this when he has a three year old to watch over. Neil insinuates that the insemination didn't work out, hoping Robert will stop prying. Neil really loves messing with these procedures, doesn't he? Mike and Margo move in. Margo plans a housewarming party for herself, because apparently no one else wants to? Before they even get settled in, the old pipes burst and flood the place, costing them $200 for a plumber. He borrows money from Chris and Mickey, since the bills for the new furniture are coming due soon. Imagine being Wesley Eure and Suzanne Zenor being saddled with such an asinine storyline in the midst of all this lusty drama. I mean, seriously? Everyone is being lit on fire by steaks, faking amnesia and sleeping all over Salem and you're worried about your plumbing bill. Good God. Laura, fresh from lighting a fire under Kate, goes home to Bill and suggests that Kate seems unhappy in her job as of late (wonder why that could be?). Bill doesn't think too much of it. When meeting with Jordan, Laura's mother's ghost appears again, taunting Laura with "news" that Jordan and Bill are liable to gang up on her. Bill might yet. He tries to ask Kate what the hell happened to make her quit, but she won't come near him, telling him only that she's quitting for "personal reasons". How JER of her. Bill tries to suss out what is bugging her, citing her recent nights out with Neil (she went to bed with Neil on the first date! How MODERN!), but Kate loudly retorts that she wouldn't break up "even [HIS] marriage!" Laura's delightful attitude extends to Jennifer as well. She reads Jenn a bedtime story that's about as relaxing as a fistful of caffeine pills, then holds her out the window and instructs her to "reach for the moon!" It's only when their housekeeper, Rosie, returns, that Jennifer is saved from being dropped from the second-floor window. Mary feels dejected after bunging up Anderson's government contract, and expresses her disappointment in herself to Phyllis. Phyllis is reassuring, and makes a pact with Mary to work to trust each other and be close again. Stephanie, closer than ever to Bob, lets him know about her breakup with David. Bob invites Stephanie to stay at the lakehouse while Mary's away, with SOD saying that Bob tells Stephanie that "Linda will enjoy(?) having her nearby..." (?) indeed. Linda, possibly recalling how Bob's involvement with Julie began all those years ago with a similar gesture after Scott Banning died to the one he's currently offering Stephanie, amps up her campaign to get back together with Bob in every sense of the word. She dons a sexy negligée, and, with some work, succeeds in seducing Bob. I earnestly don't know whether to be impressed by Linda or to shake my head at Bob's constant gullibility. The next day, Bob has regrets, and claims nothing's changed between them, he just needed to get off. He even has a moment of clarity, and accuses Linda of using sex to get her way. Linda lays on the wounded dove routine extra thick, claiming she cannot BELIEVE Bob would make her feel so VIOLATED and be so ABUSIVE towards her, and is convinced Stephanie's influence is to blame for his coldness. Linda tries for some financial insurance in case her scheme with Bob doesn't work out, and asks Don for a job as a legal secretary for him and Mickey. Don's all for it, but Mickey points out that their lawfirm handles Anderson's affairs. He isn't so sure, but hires her anyway. Of course, Linda's intent in having the job is to have access to Anderson info to worm her way back into the company. Stephanie also missteps where Chris is concerned. When Chris doesn't obey a business decision Stephanie has handed down, Stephanie chastises him, reminding him how he was instrumental in Anderson losing the government contract. Chris fights back, claiming Stephanie is in way over her head. Stephanie tattles to Bob about Chris' insubordination, but is met with a different reaction from Bob than she anticipated. Bob sides with Chris on the matter, claiming he thinks Chris made a good judgment call. However, Stephanie is still moved in, and emerges one day from the shower, wearing Mary's bathrobe, as Mary returns from San Francisco. Mary is livid, for a multitude of reasons, least of all, how close HAVE Bob and Stephanie become in her absence (ick)? Phyllis came back with Mary this time! She goes to dinner with Neil, and plays all sweetness and light, even convincing Neil to join her at the Andersons to see Bob and Linda. Linda is all side-eyes at Phyllis, knowing for a FACT she's up to something. Phyllis immediately is on her A-Game upon her return. She corners Stephanie in Bob's office and surprises her with a barrage of questions about her background, her education, her previous employment, none of which Stephanie can easily answer. Phyllis is certain something isn't quite right about Bob's new houseguest. She also visits Don, hoping to ensure that Neil doesn't get her Anderson stock as part of a potential divorce petition. Don assures her that they would not be considered community property, and puts Don on retainer, just in case. Sickly David comes to realize how cooped up Trish must've felt playing The Happy Homemaker during their marriage (because apparently he's never been home sick before?), but Trish counters that she has learned that being a housewife isn't so bad if you have someone who loves you coming home to you each day. I wish I hadn't eaten before reading that. Speaking of eating, here it comes! Continuing with Elizabeth Harrower's bizarre theme of steak-related injury, Maggie forgets about the steaks she's cooking for dinner at the farm on a visit with Julie. Julie enters the kitchen and finds a grease fire waiting for her in the oven. Julie opens the stove, and flames shoot out at her, catching her sweater. Julie remembers the rule we were all taught in school: STOP, DROP, AND ROLL! But a lot of good that does. When Maggie hears Julie's horrific screams, she enters to find Julie still on fire. Maggie throws a rug on Julie, then drives her to Brookville Hospital. Julie's in tremendous pain, and has third-degree burns on one side of her face, her neck, her arms, and chest. YIKES! Painkillers the doctors at Brookville Hospital inject her with don't do much to stop the pain. Maggie blames herself for this, because SHE NEGLECTED TO WARN JULIE THE STOVE WAS FAULTY! *headdesk* And someone let this woman run restaurants?? Julie also develops respiratory failure from smoke inhalation, has to have a tracheotomy performed on her, and Bill warns Doug, Julie will need dialysis, hydrotherapy, and likely will need skin grafts, leaving her disfigured. (Is it bad that the Canadian in me is immediately thinking how EXPENSIVE this will all be? -- Like, my God! How will they afford to keep the club and the sh!tty antiques store filled with fake jewellery boxes?! Not that that's ever a consideration in soap world). Bill has Julie transferred to UH Burn Centre. Soon after, Julie goes into kidney failure, but pulls through. Laura insists on offering her services at Julie's therapist, but Bill thinks she's being ridiculous. Wouldn't a stranger make more sense? Laura insists that she's the logical one to help, since she knows Julie and her loved ones, "we know what's best for her" (we, meaning Laura and the hallucination of her mother). Laura is the world's WORST therapist, being the image of motivation and comfort. She tells Julie that no matter how she comes out of this, she should be grateful she's alive, and that people WILL lie to her about her condition during her recovery, and that the only person Julie should trust about this is LAURA. According to SOD, Laura has developed a jealousy of Julie's good looks, and her attitude stems from that. (WTF????) Julie's plastic surgeon isn't sure she won't have permanent disfigurement, and Laura responds by forcing Doug to pretend to be jolly at all times around Julie. This, of course, heightens Julie's paranoia stemming from Laura's "encouraging words". Julie believes Doug's goofy attitude is because he can't stand to look at her, with Laura's refrain "they're all gonna lie to you" playing on a loop in her head. She proceeds to make Julie feel even more optimistic when it comes time for the skin grafts, bluntly warning her that her body may reject the grafts...ESPECIALLY ON HER FACE. She also tells Julie not to coddle herself, and prepare herself because people's attitudes will probably change towards her, including Doug. After her bandages are temporarily removed, Julie gets out of bed and sneaks a look in the mirror. She screams out in horror, disgusted by her looks. She shouts at the nurses "why didn't you tell me I look like this???!", and gagging at the sight of her own face. Julie can't help but sob uncontrollably at her disfigured face. Doug tries to reassure her the skin grafts will begin soon, but Laura's sunny and optimistic words ring over and over in her mind instead. Nobody's reassurance will help at this point, and Julie begs to be left alone, convinced she'll be forever ugly. She bars Doug from visiting her the next day. Laura is insistent that it's Julie's wish to be left alone, and that Doug should respect it. Doug demands to see her, so that she knows he will love her no matter how she looks. Laura won't budge. So Doug visits Julie anyway, and reassures her of his love for her, regardless of her appearance. This doesn't do diddly-sh!t because Julie immediately has a nightmare that she and Doug are in bed and Doug recoils in horror at the sight of her. So much for reassurance. Bill is concerned about Julie's attitude hindering surgery, and confides as much to Marie, who knows just what a big "help" Laura's been. Marie insists that Laura be taken off the case, as her stiff upper lip attitude toward Julie's troubles are just making things worse and worse. Marie consults Marlena on the issue, and, despite being worried the pay raises and ferns will stop, Marlena is certain she needs to stand up to Laura on Julie's behalf. Maggie is tormented by guilt (shockingly), and hopes that seeing Julie might take some weight off both their shoulders. Laura, while SAYING to Maggie that the accident wasn't her fault, actually subconsciously believes Maggie LET the accident happen, and won't let Maggie see Julie. Steve tries to make money off the ordeal, and meets with Don to try to sue Mickey and Maggie on Doug and Julie's behalf. Don tells him where to shove his lawsuit ideas, incredulous that Steve would try to cause an intrafamilial rift for a buck. Steve keeps pressing the matter, and Mickey and Maggie file an insurance form to help cover her expenses out of a sense of obligation. Doug won't hear of it, though, and insists he won't demand any compensation from them over the accident, as they're friends. Oh jeez, it's getting worse and worse. As her mind spirals, Julie hears from visitors that Doug is carrying on as usual while she's in the hospital. Julie is increasingly convinced, thanks in large part to Laura's overwhelmingly optimistic outlook, that it's because Doug is moving on without his ugly wife. So she decides that, if she DOES lose Doug, there's no reason to live, and breaks into the medicine room to steal a fistfull of painkillers, just in case. Laura finally allows Julie visitors again. Maggie is among the first, and casually mentions the insurance payout they got to help Doug and Julie out with their expenses. Julie misunderstands what Maggie's saying and wails to her that there isn't enough money in the world that'll make up for all she's suffered. etc. etc. Laura walks in at this exact moment and orders Maggie leave and not come back. Julie then pops some of the pills she stole, sneaks out of the hospital that night, and heads to the Greyhound station. She calls Doug, but gets a busy signal, so she calls Laura and tells her that she's leaving town for a bit to sort some things out. Laura calmly tells her that's a GREAT idea! 🥴 Julie pops a bunch more pills, then gets on the bus. Marie lets Doug know that Julie's skipped town with a couple months' supply of painkillers in hand and not much else. Doug is in a panic, and blames himself, until Marie reminds him that Julie had been despondent after her sessions with Laura. Doug pieces it all together, and realizes that Laura may not be all right in the head. Everyone is mad at Laura for letting Julie go. Laura is alarmingly blasé about the whole thing, and don't understand why everyone's so upset with her. Julie is doing what's best for her, and Laura facilitated that! She has a whole new direction in life (that's one way to put it). Even Bill telling Laura that if Julie's burns go untreated, they could prove fatal doesn't faze her. She's resolute in her insistence that Julie will be back when she gathers her thoughts. Even Alice can't get through to Laura, demanding Laura tell her where Julie is, or at least to contact Doug to let him know she contacted Laura the night she disappeared, and that Laura approved of her leaving. Julie goes to some hotel room somewhere, and visits a doctor who tells her she's an idiot for running away. She tells him she's running away from her husband so that his love doesn't turn to pity (ugggggh that old line again). The doctor treats her burns and tells her to stop being stupid and go home before it's too late. Back in Salem, Laura blames Marie for interfering, and says that Marie isn't fit to be a nurse. Well, now Marie knows Laura's off her rocker, and goes to Jordan for help. He confronts Laura, hoping to talk her down before things get any more out of hand, but Ghost Mother appears to Laura in the middle of their conversation, and Laura finally blurts out loud in Jordan's presence "SHUT UP, MOTHER!" The cat's out of the bag. Laura's lost it! Returning to the Trish Clayton hour, Trish wants Julie on side, so she visits Julie in the hospital, and tells her all about how close she and David have become, hoping to win Julie's favour. Julie, still much preferring David with Trish than with Stephanie, in spite of everything, agrees to bury the hatchet with Trish. She also requests Trish take care of Doug while she's in the hospital. Chris takes Amanda out for burgers to cheer himself up after Mary's article runs, feeling guilty for letting it slip by without reading it. Amanda tells him to pull himself together, then tells him about the mess she's in with Greg. Chris comforts her, and, according to SOD, they "kiss fervently". I should hope they didn't try this in the middle of the Burger Barn. Amanda puts the brakes on soon after, though. She admits to Chris that she really doesn't want to pursue anything further with him, as she IS still married, and an affair with a married woman could ruin Chris' career (again, oh the 70s). Chris tries to convince Amanda that he doesn't care about anything but the here and now, but Amanda won't budge, and insists she should return to Chicago before things get out of hand. Chris feels once again rejected. After Julie's accident, Amanda cancels her plans to return to Greg in Chicago. Instead, she runs to the comfort of Chris' arms. Chris rents out Mike and Margo's now-vacant apartment so he can have a place to shtoop Amanda in peace. He lays on the promises thick, promising a bright future, and even enlisting her help in redecorating. She still won't move in, though. Greg finally bothers to visit, only to find Neil lurking about. He's certain Amanda and Neil picked up where they left off, but Amanda starts to talk him down, only for Chris to show up to take Amanda out for dinner. Amanda plays this one off as Chris just picking up an antique from the shop. Once Neil and Chris are finally gone, Greg tries to put the moves on Amanda, who is wholly uninterested. Greg suddenly realizes he's been a shitty husband, and his marriage may not be slavageable. Took him long enough. The next morning, Greg decides to head back to Chicago, and wants to try to maintain regular contact with Amanda. Amanda agrees, but is dismissive, and rushes off to work. Greg is certain there's another man. He plies Doug for information, convinced Amanda is sleeping with either Steve or Neil, but Doug only answers that he's wrong on both counts. Doug finally makes Greg realize what a lousy husband he's been, far too dedicated to his work, and not enough to Amanda. Greg stops looking for an outside villain, at last. She then decides to move out of Doug's so that there's no rumours floating about because Amanda's living at Doug's while Julie's in the hospital. She takes a room at the Salem Inn instead. Chris, presumably has balls as blue as ocean, and puts more and more pressure on Amanda to come to the apartment so they can get it on. Amanda won't do it, because, all together now, she's still married to Greg. Phyllis tries to encourage Mary to make a final play for Chris, and encourages her to invite him over to "pick up his things". Mary does this, and tells Chris that she'll have dinner ready, and they can relax and talk things out. Chris plays along, but in his head, tells Mary it's too late. Everyone suspects Donna's shoplifting, as she buys Don and Marlena, as well as Tom and Alice expensive jewellery, but claims it's fake. All from her babysitting money. She's apparently still not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Yeah, this is where EH's run starts to fall apart. This is....bananas, tbh. I like that Julie's story is involving so many people, and it does play on a lot of psychological beats, but I just can't see Julie being so insecure that she'd debate suicide and run away to hide from Doug because she's had some burns. Like, whaaat??? Julie also isn't stupid, and, while Julie is very vulnerable right now, the fact she wouldn't start to clue in that just MAYBE Laura's being a little bit...uncharacteristically awful right now, beggars belief. Not to mention most of the other people that regularly interact with Laura. Marie seems to be the only smart person left in Salem, tbh, though everyone did clue in fairly quickly. The Anderson storyline, while still compelling, is start to feel a little muddled. I feel like maybe they didn't get as much play during May 1979 since the focus was so heavily on Laura's meltdown and Julie's burns, though. The ratings bear out that after a strong showing in March (#8 with an 8.2, tied with RH), DAYS sunk down to #9 by May (6.3, again tied with RH), so it looks like this story hasn't exactly lit the audience on fire either, so to speak. Let's hope June is something less of a train wreck.

So, I was rewatching some episodes from January 1993 a few weeks ago, and saw a scene from just before Kate was introduced where Alice saw Austin at the hospital and commented, I think to Maggie, that Austin reminded her so distinctly of someone from the past. Not a week later, Kate arrives. Now, this was the tail end of Sheri Anderson being co-HW with JER, so I have a strong suspicion that the plan was to have Kate be Dr. Kate, but by that point, JER was solo HW and couldn't be bothered to check the history, and mangled the back story almost instantly. I could see Bill turning to Kate again after Laura's institutionalization, and then producing Lucas, but because JER bent history to fit the narrative he wanted to tell, Bill's affair became the cause of Laura's mental illness instead of the result of it. I also would have been okay with Laura BELIEVING Kate was having the affair that produced Lucas during 1979, but the actual affair happening afterwards, a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts. But Reilly can't think that deeply, so instead we got... A separate character with the same name and a history that makes no sense.

Laemmle will be bonkers, from what I remember reading before. I do feel like the show might have needed to shift gears, admittedly, but that was way too much change way too fast. It's a wonder DAYS survived it. Ann Marcus was liked on LOL, but I do wonder if she kept the pacing she had at DAYS. I'm sure more conservative audience at CBS would not have taken as kindly to Marcus' LOL if the pacing were anything like it was at DAYS. But, then again, would it even matter, considering there were only about 5 people left watching by the end. LOL (the other way) @Titus Andronicus, I figured you'd enjoy seeing some semblance of logic after months and months of stupidity, tbh! I'm sure the wheels will fall off soon enough. Let's see. ONTO APRIL '79: David begins the month by becoming Sucker of the Month. Yes, his anger at Trish subsides slightly, since she's always hanging around anyway, now that they're confirmed neighbours. He finally gives in and lets Trish see Scotty, but only when David is also present. He still intends to divorce Trish, but Trish lays a guilt trip on him, claiming that Scotty will be somehow irreparably damaged by the knowledge that his parents couldn't make their reluctant shotgun marriage work. She also lurks about, cooking and cleaning for him like a good little domestic, hoping to get on David's good side. Stephanie's getting more than a little annoyed by The Happy Homemaker, and demands David get a move on with the divorce, but David hems and haws, hoping to find something that will definitively tip the scales in his favour in a custody case. David's starting to get jealous now, as newly-single Chris has started bringing Trish home from her singing gig at Doug's Place (what a gentleman). Chris admits he's interested in her...as a friend (whatever that means). David ends the month developing walking pneumonia, and Trish steps up her Happy Homemaker game tenfold. With Stephanie still getting over her burns, Trish has an easy way in to help David and Scotty without (much) pushback from Ol' Bandage Hands. Speaking of Stephanie, Bob rewards her for her (alleged) loyalty by gifting her stocks in Anderson. This will go down like the Hindenburg with the rest of the family. Finally fed up of Trish's sucking up to David, Stephanie asks how the divorce is coming along. When David continues to hem and haa, Stephanie dumps him, telling him she has "bigger fish to fry". I've never heard anyone refer to their hands in this way, but go off, sis. Laura starts the month by once again behaving out of character, possibly because of her anxiety over her mother's condition. She now decides to demote Marlena and hire a new psychiatrist! DAMN! Laura hires Dr. Jordan Barr (played by George McDaniel). Laura tells Marlena that if she doesn't step her game up, Laura will fire her. Laura's having some wild nightmares as well, where her mother is in the institution, begging Laura to come see her, to release her. Then threatening that Laura will be sorry she forgot her mother when she was alive. Laura wakes up, shivering and screaming. Shortly thereafter, she gets a call from her mother's doctor. Her mother has committed suicide, and was agitated, calling for Laura to come see her. Laura is heartbroken and extremely guilty for seemingly failing her mother. She blames herself for her mother's death, but keeps all these feelings inside, remaining intensely stoic to all outward appearances. She then asks Mickey and Mike, but not Bill, to accompany her to Chicago for the funeral. Back at UH, Laura asks Marlena to take a smaller office, as she's giving Marlena's office to Jordan Barr. As she does this, she sees an apparition of her mother standing behind Marlena, telling her that Marlena is not her friend and not to trust her. Marlena, meanwhile, is so livid about being mistreated by Laura, she considers resigning. Lanna Saunders' Marie arrives. She goes to visit Laura to offer her support with her mother's death. Laura is composed and even somewhat icy with Marie, insisting she doesn't need any more solace or concern. After debating whether or not to resign, Marlena finally makes her choice, and goes to break the news to Laura, who insists Marlena CAN'T leave her! Suddenly becoming all sweetness and light, Laura offers Marlena her old office back, buys her a fern (???!) and takes her out to lunch! Then offers her a pay raise!!! Marlena is...confused. Apparently, so is Laura. Once Jordan arrives for his first shift, the vision of Laura's mother appears again and goads her into thinking Jordan and Marlena are out to take Laura's job. She later harasses Kate, insisting out of nowhere she stay away from Bill. Kate...is, and tells Laura this. Laura doesn't believe her, and insists that Kate and Bill are the hot gossip topic of the hospital and that she's making a fool of herself. Kate, not wishing to be the subject of gossip, responds by going to Tom and quitting her job. When pressed, she doesn't give a reason, other than to tell Tom that, in the words of Aretha Franklin, there isn't, there wasn't, and there ain't never gonna be anything between her and Bill Horton. Tom has literally no idea what the hell is going on. Neil convinces Amanda to go to dinner with him at Doug's Place. After falling for his trickery once again, Amanda is left alone almost immediately, as Neil gets an emergency call from the hospital and has to bail. Chris, who's been drowning his sorrows over Mary having the audacity to have boundaries, offers to step in for Neil. They hit it off and have a lovely evening. Chris and Amanda go out once again, presumably on a night when Trish isn't singing, this time to the most romantic-sounding restaurant I have heard in my 33 years, bar none: Bernie's Beanery. Amanda finds the dive bar charming (that's how they get you, Mandy!), as well the company. Amanda comes down with the flu, and Chris brings her some soup, but is pushed out of the way by Neil, who comes around on a "house call". Chris is falling hard for Amanda, but Amanda, still wounded by the breakdown of her marriage, is still needing some time. She enjoys Chris' company, but doesn't want to rush things. Chris agrees. Bob is worried about how Mary's breakup with Chris is affecting her, and tells her not to take Chris' affections for granted. To tell him how she feels before it's too late. He tells Mary about the other women he's been seeing. Mary, however, is convinced that Chris is just being a big baby about their breakup and continues to play hardball with Chris. Bob thinks Mary is being a little too confident with Chris' feelings for her, but Mary is certain that Chris is just having an extended tantrum and is trying to punish her for not reacting how he wanted to his proposal. Julie, now back from Scotland, warns Amanda that Chris is cute, but not worth dating. Besides, Amanda is still married. Amanda gets Julie's point, but Chris makes her feel special, unlike Greg. Robert collects Rebecca's safe-deposit box. Inside he discovers a letter addressed to Doug. I WONDER WHAT COULD BE IN THERE. Yep. That's what's in there. Robert hands Doug the letter, and Doug reads it. He decides to keep the news that Dougie is Doug's a deep, dark...secret (alliteration is hard, okay?). From Robert, as he doesn't want to take Dougie away from him as well, but also from Julie, due to her insecurities about her inability to conceive. Maggie decides not to uproot Janice again, and lets her stay with Joanne and he fiancé in San Francisco. Linda plays Bob like a fiddle once again. She suggests to him that she needs to start over with a new job, and a new home, knowing full well Bob's ego wouldn't allow his wife to be working full time as a typist in a cramped apartment. He also feels for Melissa, and wants to give her a secure, stable home life, so he promises Linda he'll provide for her and Melissa generously and she can stay with him, regardless of whether or not they eventually separate. The poor man is dumber than Austin Reed under Reilly, ffs! Linda then asks for a copy of the PI's report on her, then feigns horror at what she "used" to be like. She begs his forgiveness and asks for his help in remembering her "lost" past. Bob feels guilty, but admits he could have forgiven Linda if her affair had been with anyone other than Neil, but doesn't hold what she can't (allegedly) remember against her. Linda then sets about ruining Bob's relationship with Stephanie. She doesn't get it. She doesn't like it. She's gonna END it. She decides to get Mary on-side, convincing her that it is best for Bob if Linda stay at the lakehouse because then Linda can protect Bob from Stephanie. Mary is her usual blunt self, and admits she agrees that Stephanie is not to be trusted, but neither is Linda. Linda is shot down again, this time by Bob, who is lauded with compliments and flirtatious come-ons, and pathetic pleas for forgiveness by Linda. Bob wants to hear none of this, and goes to bed alone. MARY S#!TS THE BED! Cocky Mary ruined the government contract already for Anderson, by publishing a super-detailed article in a magazine about their top-secret project, filled with confidential information! Even better: Neither Bob, nor Stephanie, nor Chris bothered to read the thing before Mary sent it out! So they cancel the contract, and everyone's mad at Mary. Mary's depressed and thinks her life's falling apart, so she goes to visit Phyllis in San Francisco. Except she doesn't tell Bob, since he's too mad at her. Bob can't for the life of him figure out where she went, or why she wouldn't tell him. It's Linda who tells him the obvious: Mary left because she felt like a failure and like she let Bob down. Mensa Bob wonders if he was too hard on her. Eventually Mary calls, and Bob tells her to remember that the blame is not entirely on Mary's shoulders. Mary appreciates the reassurance, but still won't say where she is. In San Fran, Phyllis has a new boyfriend, but is still intent on sticking it to Neil a bit more. Evidently Phyllis has forgiven Mary for her affair with Neil (who I'm pretty sure Phyllis is still married to at this point). In their discussion, Mary reassures her mother that she's over Neil, and that he's back to pining away after Amanda. Another relatively logical month, though I'm surprised the government contract arc ended so quickly. Mary isn't usually this dumb, so it surprised me that she'd be so absent-minded. Then again, dealing with being dumped by your fiancé could mess you up a bit, I'd imagine. David is a sucker. I'm still firmly on Team Bandage Hands Stephanie here. Be forewarned, though. SOD's recaps are running at odd intervals now, and I had to pluck some bits from the May recap for this, so I know that the tail end of April is gonna get a little wonky for Julie. I'm also surprised Steve's stuck around this long, especially as basically a glorified talk-to. If this is all he's gonna do under Harrower, it's no surprise Schnetzer was out by year's end. I'm actually amazed he stuck around through the rest of '79, tbh. Is it just me, or is anyone finding the story bubbles are starting to bleed together a fair bit more now? Harrower is really mixing the cast up a lot more than Ann Marcus did. I'm not totally against it, but stories are getting a little muddled as a result. Thoughts?

I, quite honestly, spent a lot of time on Google, @JAS0N47's site, and SoapCentral trying to piece together who a lot of these people were, and image searching the actors' names (when I could find them) to put faces to names so I could have sense into a lot of this. It's hard when there are only a handful of episodes that have been made available over the last few years, and even moreso when DAYS has made it a habit to forget the show was even on before 1983. The only way they reference the 70s at ALL now is to talk about how Addie died, and that Maggie drinks. Pretty astounding considering it was literally only for about three months in 1978. If you need any holes filled, or need information on who's who, just ask. If I can't answer you, there are a number of folks on here who can fill you in. Don't be afraid to ask, and I HIGHLY recommend spending time on Jason47's page. It's an absolute gold mine for DAYS history.

March 1979 incoming.... So, watching the 3-19-79 episode helps fill in some gaps here as well. But let's get started. The government is prepared to award Anderson with a big contract. Everyone is thrilled, except Stephanie, because the government contract means BACKGROUND CHECKS. and FINGERPRINTING. If you've seen the 3-19-79 episode, you know where this is going. Bob tries to contact Linda in Hartford about the background checks, but Linda has already left for NYC. Bob is, at first, troubled by how it will look for the head of the company to not be able to locate his own wife, but he decides it's probably better if she isn't around for the interviews anyway, under the circumstances. Mickey receives a letter from an employment agency in New York, doing reference checks on Linda, who is trying to find work as a legal secretary there. He passes on the info to Bob, and lets him know she's back to using her maiden name, Patterson. While this is going on, Julie is on an antique hunt in NYC. She ends up running into Linda at her hotel, where Linda's working as a secretary. Linda is apparently getting more of her memories back, as she chooses to pretend she still has amnesia, and that she's in New York to "find herself". They agree to go to coffee later, but Linda quickly packs up and leaves once again as soon as Julie's out of sight. Deciding running isn't worth the hassle, Linda returns home to Salem, and fakes still having amnesia, so that Bob won't kick her and Melissa out. Bob is still icy, but plays dutiful husband, regardless. Mary isn't quite so gracious, laying into Linda for taking off without warning, and leaving Melissa behind. She lets Linda know she doesn't have a job to return to, Stephanie having taken over her duties. Linda, however, is certain she'll be back at Anderson in due time. Bob advises Chris to move out of Mary's, and David and Stephanie agree to cool things for the time being. Both for the background checks, and because of David's impending divorce from Trish. Stephanie isn't thrilled, but agrees, at least to David's face. But when left to her own devices, Stephanie is back in scheming mode. After making excuses for days as to why she can't get the fingerprinting done right away, she sneaks into Linda's office, tears up all her phony letters of recommendation, and lies to Bob about them, saying Linda has all her documents, and that Stephanie has no copies at home. Then, as we saw on the March 19 episode, Stephanie agrees to make dinner for David, only to fortuitously find they're out of butter to fry the steaks in. David rushes off to the store to grab some, and Stephanie, now alone, presses her fingertips onto the flaming hot pan in the hopes of burning off her fingerprints so that they won't match Brooke's. David finds her in the kitchen and rushes her to UH. He calls on Bill to care for her. Stephanie tells everyone she dropped the pan and picked it up again so that it wouldn't damage the floor. Most everyone buys it, though Bill is somewhat skeptical, especially since she burned BOTH hands so thoroughly. He doesn't press the issue, though. All in all, Stephanie will be out of commission for about three weeks, and Bob is the putz once again, deciding to vouch for Stephanie to the government official overseeing the new project for Anderson, claiming Stephanie is "their most trusted employee", citing how she was the whistleblower for the blueprint-selling forgery scam. Too bad she was also the perpetrator, but, of course, Bob thinks Linda is to blame for that one... So, in the end, Stephanie doesn't need to be fingerprinted AT ALL! As a bonus, Stephanie realizes her burnt hands will prevent David from backing away from her, as they previously agreed. Since, despite his refusal to let her stay at his place, he does live in the same building as she does, and will be nursing her back to health. While she recovers, she has another run-in with Trish. This time, Trish may have the upper hand. Stephanie runs her mouth, insisting that she will not give up her career if (when?) she married David, and that Scotty will want for nothing, regardless. Two working parents and being raised by a nanny might not look so hot in a custody case. Mary, on the other hand, decides to move into Bob's lakehouse for the time being, since Linda's out of town. Chris can stay at their studio. Chris is annoyed by this, and suggests marrying now to avoid the associated scandal (oh, the 70s, when this was actually a thing people cared about). Mary thinks it's a bad idea, since they're almost constantly disagreeing as it is. Chris resents Mary's pessimism, and the fight's on. Chris buys Mary a gift as a peace offering, and Mary, still annoyed about their previous argument, responds by returning it, and giving him the money for it back to him in an envelope on his desk. Mary thinks better of it the next day, but because of the chaos created by Stephanie's accident, it's too late. Chris found the envelope, and they have another argument. Mary is also frustrated by the fact Bob won't let her take over Stephanie's work while she's away. Bob tries to reason that it's only a short time Stephanie will be out of commission (only a few days, I'd love to know how they expect her to work with those massive casts on both hands, but okay), but Mary takes the rejection personally. Chris later tries to do the same, but Mary won't hear it, and asks Chris to leave so she can go back to managing "her little PR department". Chris decides to make it clear that he isn't prepared to give up on her, and plans to buy her an engagement ring, condescendingly thinking Mary doesn't REALLY want a career, but a house and family (gag me). When he gets the ring, he plans a romantic moment, having Mary close her eyes, as he slowly slips the diamond ring on her finger. When Mary opens her eyes, she's annoyed that Chris is pressuring her into marriage once again. Chris want a commitment, and gives her an ultimatum. Wear the ring or it's over. Mary, not one to be forced into a decision she isn't ready to make, takes the ring off, and Chris breaks up with her, acting wounded that he can't be with a woman who doesn't accept him for who he is (because that is TOTALLY what Chris is doing for Mary, you know). Laura's headaches come back. Tom suggests hiring another psychiatrist to help ease her pressure, but Laura is insulted, and snaps at Bill when he points her headaches out. She also gets a letter from the hospice her mother is living in, saying that she's finally out of her catatonic state and is beginning to speak again (sounds familiar). Laura is skeptical about her mother's progress, however, after so many years. She's also terrified of visiting her mother, and makes excuses not to go visit, and even having vivid nightmares of her mother. So vivid, in fact, that Bill decides to give her a sedative after one such dream to help calm her back down. Laura's strange attitude extends to Marlena, who, now back from her honeymoon with Don, settles back into work, only to discover Laura has made tremendous progress with Marlena's caseload in her absence. Marlena's insecrurity only increases as Laura expresses that Marlena has been treating some patients unnecessarily. Julie has to go to NYC, so she asks Amanda to mind Chez Julie, and Hope, while she's away. Amanda is thrilled to help out, anything to get her mind off her boring life in Chicago, where she exists only to be ignored by Greg unless he has a charity function she needs to be arm candy for. Greg calls on Amanda to return to Chicago for just this purpose one night, and Amanda can't think of anything she'd like to do less, and tells Greg as much. She resents that Greg didn't call just to enjoy hearing her voice or tell her he loves her, just that he'd be embarrassed not having his wife there. Julie, meanwhile, is irritated by inflation, and doesn't want to pay what the people in New York are offering for their antiques. So she and Doug decide to plan a trip to Scotland instead. Margo and Mike are back looking at houses again. This time Margo doesn't have a meltdown upon seeing the place, but can't afford the place they want now. Mickey and Maggie offer to buy the place for them as a belated wedding gift. In the end, they put a down payment on the place, and Mike quits night school (he's taking writing, btw), and takes on a second job at a garage to cover mortgage payments. Exactly what Margo instructed him NOT to do. Margo, not having much of a spine, makes Mike promise to go back once they're more financially stable. This may take awhile, as Mike almost immediately loses this new job. Thankfully, Doug offers him a valet job at Doug's Place. But Margo wrings her hands at the thought of the hours Mike will have to work to make ends meet. Fret fret fret! Maggie is also a mess, worrying about whether she and Mickey will regain custody of Janice or not. Mickey believes they stand a fighting chance, but Maggie isn't even sure Janice would WANT to come back to them (at this point, who could blame her?) Trish's little spy game is found out, after Trish is followed home by a patron from Doug's Place. He manages to get into the building and tries to force himself on Trish, but Mike and Margo are visiting David, and hear the commotion outside David's apartment. There they find Trish, the would-be rapist scared away. Trish makes up a story to cover her ass, but it won't be long before more people find out her game. Alice hears about Trish's run-in and asks Jeri how Trish is handling her attack. Jeri knows nothing about it, as Trish moved out and isn't in regular contact with her. Not long after, while Donna's babysitting, Trish pays another secret visit. A few minutes later, Alice arrives to check in on how Donna's handling the babysitting gig, and catches Trish there. She scolds Donna for letting Trish in, feeling her trust in Donna has been shaken, and resenting being put in a position to keep secrets from David. Feeling the walls are closing in on her, Trish confesses to David that she's moved in across the hall from him, but insists it wasn't to spy on him (that was just a nice little bonus, y'see). David is furious, and says he'll use this against Trish in court. Trish pleads with David, insisting she only took the apartment because she wanted to be close to "her Timmy". She asks David to grant her visitation. David says he'll consider it. Seems like Harrower really was just continuing the ideas Ann Marcus started, but slowing them down back to a reasonable pace, and giving them a bit more depth. I agree that the story with Linda has become a little silly, but it is very much like Linda to fake amnesia to keep her foot in the door with the Andersons. Bob, for such an accomplished businessman, is incredibly dumb when it comes to people, it seems. No instincts whatsoever. I love watching Stephanie plot, and I like that they're trying to give Trish a bit more of a sympathetic position this time, despite still making her the perpetual victim. Interesting to me that Phyllis sort of left in '77 on something of a whimper. Though I admit, her scheme to emasculate Neil was inspired, I really didn't expect that that would be, by and large, the end of her time on the show. I was just realizing that Phyllis hadn't come back from that world tour yet! There are apparently some more hints that Steve is going to be looking into Baby Dougie's paternity as well, but it didn't come up in the SOD write-up, so I don't know the details there, or if he leaves the show before that comes to pass. I'm still relatively impressed by Harrower so far, compared to Marcus. But it's still early on.

@AbcNbc247 my guess is the cache of nabbing a big prime time writer who worked with Norman Lear was too big a temptation for her. You know how daytime has this self-esteem issue and always sees themselves as inferior quality to primetime. It's just too bad she didn't look at where the characters were and spin out from there, instead of looking to external forces for drama. And it's surprising that she didn't really utilize Marie, especially considering they needed younger Hortons and she is the youngest second-gen Horton with some major backstory but a long gap since she left Salem that could've been utilized. Maybe bringing back Susan, aging up Anne to a teen and using her in the Anderson drama could've been useful, with Susan struggling as a single parent while working full time. The wasted opportunities in the late 70s are startling.

Yeah, I think that would drive me absolutely bonkers as well. She is not her mother's keeper, and, although EH comes from Y&R, and thus was potentially more in keeping with the spirit of the Bell-era DAYS, I think coming in to headwrite the show that your daughter has been starring in for ten years is not a particularly appropriate decision by the brass. We've even seen with Bell how he, perhaps subconsciously, wrote to the favour of Lauralee. No one is impervious to this type of nepotism, and it really can create a toxic environment. In ANY event, off we go to February 1979 (the SOD updates sort of bleed into the first few weeks of Elizabeth Harrower, so maybe we'll get something of a snapshot of the transition here. Sam returns to Salem, and Marlena asks her to come to hers and Don's wedding. Don isn't sure if he wants her there. On the plane trip, Sam sits next to Joanne's lawyer, Jerry Reinhart. They hit it off, and agree to a date. I feel like this is the last we'll hear about this, but since SOD brought it up, we'll see. Marlena is apparently the only one who can console Depressed Donna, who whines endlessly about how she's to blame for Don and Marlena not yet being married and what a terrible daughter she is and how she's worthless and only causes her loved ones pain and wah wah wah et cetera, et cetera... And Marlena and Don may have AGAIN postpone their wedding, as Marlena hears from her brother (Marlena has a brother? That's one missed opportunity there) that her mother, Martha is in hospital with pneumonia, so she flies out to Colorado to see her. Cue more whining from Donna. Turns out Martha has chronic emphysema, and thus is in critical condition. Don decides to fly to Colorado to be with Marlena, who bursts into tears of relief upon seeing him at the hospital there. Don embraces her, promising they'll be married as soon as Martha recovers, which apparently is in two weeks. The day of the wedding is fraught with more nonsense drama. In a moment nearing self-parody, Marlena's car battery dies, Mickey has a flat tire, and Martha has something of a relapse of her illness, but everyone manages to pull it together in time for Don and Marlena to finally take their vows. Julie confronts Maggie about Steve's accusation that she and Doug had been heading towards an affair. Maggie reassures Julie that all they shared were mutual problems. But Maggie remains depressed, and returns to the farm to figure out whether she even belongs in Salem with Mickey or not. Despite previously saying he was too busy to join her, Mickey does find time to make the trip out to see his wife. But Maggie's icy with him, instead spending time with Jay Livingstone, the farm hand who's been tending to the farm in Maggie's absence. Mickey, fed up of Maggie's iciness, confronts her about the sense he gets that Maggie blames him for losing Janice. Maggie admits she does, and wishes Mickey had put more pressure on Joanne to leave earlier on before things got out of control. Mickey retorts that it was Maggie's neurotic behaviour and alcoholism that lost them the case, and points out that Maggie doesn't even want him to touch her since Janice left. Maggie, once again hysterical, blurts out that it doesn't matter anyway since he can't give her any babies. WHOOPS! Maggie stays a few more days at the farm without Mickey, before returning, determined to make her marriage work. Mickey is skeptical, and thinks Maggie is only interested in staying married out of a sense of obligation. Maggie tries to open up with Mickey, and Mickey makes it clear that he wants Maggie to really desire him again. Maggie, feeling pressured from all sides, blurts out that she's trying her best, but all Mickey does is complain. This tension carries on until Don and Marlena's wedding, where, swept up in the moment, they go home and get into bed. Their newfound peace lasts about five minutes before they get a letter from Joanne, stating that she's soon to be married and wants Janice permanently, to be adopted by her new fiancé. Maggie refuses to let this happen, and Mickey vows to fight Joanne tooth and nail at the final custody hearing. Doug and Amanda discuss the jewellery box (this thing is the freaking Fay's Cameo of 1978-79, I swear), and Amanda is certain it's a fake. Doug asks Amanda not to share this with Julie, and instead confronts Steve with the information, which Steve responds to by holding Doug at gunpoint because Doug is withholding Trask's cheque from him, and Steve won't leave for Paris without it because he needs it for the loan sharks antiques. Kelly, one of the staff at Doug's Place whose role I don't actually know, arrives to see Doug, and Steve panics, pushes Doug out the way and leaves the club. Steve comes back later, realizing what an idiot he's being. Doug tells Steve he won't expose him, if Steve at least tells Julie about the fake boxes being fake. Julie takes the news as well as can be expected, but is still worried about refunding the customers' money for the fake boxes, and the impact on the antiques shop. Steve agrees to write a promissory note to repay the debt, though I'm not sure how that'll work when he still owes the loan sharks and now can't afford to go back to France since he has to give that cheque back to Trask. Guess he won't be marrying that Mimi woman after all. Doug also demands Steve sign a full confession to everything he's tried to pull since returning to Salem. Doug says if Steve ever tries anything again, he'll not hesitate to use it. Doug and Julie reconnect after they're rid of Steve, and Julie tells Doug she wants to try for a baby with him before he scoops her up in his arms and they try for one. But, of course... So much for Rebecca LeClair's new life in Japan. Robert gets a call from the Japanese Embassy that Rebecca and Johnny were killed in a plane crash, but they're unsure if Dougie was with them. He later finds out Dougie is safe at home. Robert takes the next flight out to retrieve the boy. Once Neil finds out, the possibility of the truth coming out about baby Dougie being revealed to be Doug's weighs heavily on his mind. Theresa takes off on tour around this time, and Trish takes over temporarily as resident caterwauler at Doug's Place. Julie is once again annoyed by this news, since she hates what Trish did to David. When Robert returns, he doesn't inform Theresa, as he worries a young, vital woman like her would have no interest being saddled with another woman's baby. (Come on, Robert! You're so damned insecure!) When Theresa does return, she's hurt that Robert wouldn't reach out to her with the news of Rebecca and Johnny's death. Robert doesn't want to tie Theresa down, and tells Theresa to rejoin the group she was touring with. Looks like Theresa is the first casualty of Elizabeth Harrower's run. Amanda returns to Doug and Julie's again, still complaining that Greg has no time for her and she's fed up, and insecure. Immediately, Steve, who, for some reason, is still in town, immediately takes a shine to Amanda. However, so does Neil, who, upon finding out Amanda's back in town without her husband, takes every opportunity to remind her of their past romance in the hopes of rekindling it. Gotta love the sleaze's spidey-sense. Trish appears to be living with Sam in LA, who lets her know that Jeri is in Salem, and so is "Timmy". No, I don't know how Sam knows this, but I guess Marlena passed on the info by phone. TIT doesn't give me much info here. Trish also tells her manager that she did "bad things" to get the money to return to LA, so Italy must've really been rough if she's turning to sex work (because you just know that's what they're implying) to get out of there. Stephanie and David start sleeping together, and when Trish makes it to Salem, now certain of Jeri and "Timmy"'s whereabouts, David insists there's nothing left between them, and won't let Trish near their son. Apparently the fisticuffs with SSH meant that David fired Jeri as Scotty's babysitter, hiring instead a woman named Mrs. Goodman. Trish plays nice with the new babysitter, winning some time with her son, only to have Mrs. Goodman find her a little too attached, and take Scotty away for a nap. Later on, Trish stops by David's to drop off a toy for Scotty, only to find Stephanie answering the door. Stephanie takes immense pleasure in telling Trish she's not welcome near Scotty, that David loves Stephanie now, and that David proposed to her. They'll be married as soon as David gets his divorce from Trish. Trish asks that Stephanie at least give "Timmy" the toy she bought him. It doesn't say whether Stephanie does or not. Stephanie is anxious as well, and David tells her she's been talking in her sleep (more dreams of her car crash in 1977 while trying to evade police with a hitchhiker in tow, it appears). Her anxiety doesn't extend to the workplace, though, where she's now been promoted to Bob's executive assistant in Linda's absence. This bothers Mary, who worries Stephanie will now try to make a similar power play to what Linda did when in the same position. To celebrate her promotion, Stephanie and David go out to Doug's Place. Except it happens to be the same night Trish makes her return performance. David is moved to tears, which doesn't help assuage Stephanie's insecurities about Trish's return. Trish admits to Doug and Robert that she regrets leaving the way she did, and asks Doug to talk to David on her behalf, hoping for a reconcilliation, or, at the very least, access to her son. He will have no part in it, but sees how regretful Trish is for leaving taking "Timmy" to LA. Finally got an explanation for why Trish left. Apparently she was desperate to make a proper career for herself on her own terms, and felt trapped by being a domestic, married woman. Gotta love the progressive take Ann Marcus had of women's liberation, eh? Make Trish look as irresponsible and selfish as possible! Soon afterward, Trish pays David a visit at his office at Anderson. She asks David to visitation with "Timmy" and asks to have him that weekend. David is astounded by her chutzpah, and declares once again that he will not allow Trish to see Scotty for the weekend, or at any other time, largely since he can't guarantee she won't take off with the boy again. Trish tries again to explain and apologize, but David shoots her down and demands she leave, as he's busy with work. Trish tells David he cannot keep her from her son (the irony). Stephanie pushes David at this point to start divorce proceedings, and David agrees. It's time. He calls Trish to his apartment to talk, but gets held up at the office. Trish arrives before they can reschedule, and Stephanie once again takes delight in spilling the beans. Trish, of course, thinks David is being pressured to do so by Stephanie, but Stephanie laughs in Trish's face, telling her that it's only sensible thing to do, since David is "obviously" over Trish. Julie isn't so sure, suggesting David take his time with the divorce, as it may backfire when it comes time to work out custody of Scotty if he comes off as if he's divorcing Trish as a punishment. David, on the other hand, worries that Stephanie may not be willing to wait for him if he drags this out, but agrees to follow his mother's advice. Jeri, meanwhile, tries to convince Trish to hire Jerry Reinhart as her lawyer for the divorce, hoping Trish will push for the divorce so that Trish wins custody, knowing that David's acrimony towards Trish could tip the scales in her daughter's favour. Trish isn't convinced, still hoping David will change his mind, but ultimately decides to proceed with hiring Reinhart after Maggie sadly insists that a child's place is with her mother. Julie hears about Stephanie's pressuring David to get the divorce over with, and tries to convince her to back off. Stephanie lashes out at Julie for interfering, and stubbornly proclaims she will do the exact opposite. David decides to get some professional advice one way or another, and consults with Mickey, who confirms that David's affair with Stephanie, despite his extended estrangement with Trish could absolutely hurt his chances for custody of Scotty. Jerry Reinhart agrees, and tells Trish that if she could get a witness to confirm David and Stephanie's affair, it could help her chances in court. Jeri takes it upon herself to do just that, by bursting into David's apartment while Stephanie and David are gettin' busy in the living room, and when David demands she get out, Jeri lays into him for how he's treating Trish. David fights back, telling Jeri he wishes he'd never met either of them. Jeri accuses Stephanie of homewrecking, but David cools off enough to tell Stephanie not to take the bait, and pushes Jeri out of his apartment. Jeri pushes back, calling David a "punk", then takes off on her own. Trish is less-than-thrilled by her mother taking matters into her own hands, and lays into Jeri, worried that her outburst may hamper her chances in court. She also visits David, and apologizes to David on her mother's behalf. But David isn't buying what Trish is selling, and tells her that Scotty hasn't missed her at all, and loves being around Stephanie just fine. Trish can't resist sniping to David about Stephanie, but David won't hear it, and sends Trish packing once again. Trish decides, on Doug's advice, to take an apartment away from Jeri so that she can't interfere. Trish does just that -- across the hall from David (weeeee!), and David hires yet another new babysitter for Scotty: DONNA! Yes, somehow Donna has taken enough of a break from the all-consuming task of pitying herself to get a job babysitting Scotty. Trish takes advantage of this, befriending Donna so she can secretly see "her Timmy" when David's out. Margo is one of about three people happy to see Trish in Salem, because if she dies, at least Mike will have someone to fall back on, so, once she's released from UH, she instructs Mike to go make up with her (gag). Someone needs to tell this woman that being terminally ill is not a personality. Margo and Mike discuss Margo's dreams of buying a house, but Margo won't let Mike give up college or taking on another job to pay for one, so Bill and Laura give Mike the money for a down payment instead (must be nice). He surprises Margo with a house to boost her spirits, instead she freaks out and tells him he's playing games and she doesn't want the house and runs out crying. Laura is now not only having vision problems, but also dizzy spells. She's hiding them from Bill. She's also hiding her frustration with Bill, after he and Kate volunteer together to help flood victims out of town. She overcompensates to a degree when Bill returns, giving him a passionate night of romance, but her headaches and dizzy spells continue, and she begins snapping at everyone. Bill finally gets fed up and demands she go through extensive neurological testing to figure out exactly what is wrong with her. Turns out, it's just anemia. Laura feels like she wasted everyone's time for making them worry for nothing. Turns out Linda's amnesia is worse than we thought. She apparently struggles to remember Melissa, and things aren't improving at all, frustrating her. She asks Bill to have Melissa visit her in the hospital, but Bill doesn't want to upset Melissa and refuses. Linda calls Melissa at home, instead, to her daughter's delight. Mary, meanwhile, is at University Hospital, consulting with Bill on Linda's amnesia, as she's certain Linda's faking it to try to keep her hooks in Bob as long as possible (which, I admit, would be a very Linda thing to do). Bill wants to run more X-rays to see how Linda's recovery is going, to give a better timeline for when Linda's memories may return, and Mary meets with Linda in her hospital room. Linda finds her "lovely but troubled", so presumably Mary kept her fangs inside her mouth. At least around Linda. Mary did have a go at Neil, however. Linda is well enough, despite her amnesia, to return home. Bob stupidly agrees to let her return home with him, and pretend nothing is wrong between them, as he feels guilty for causing her fall to begin with. Melissa, in conversation with her mother, recounts the argument between Linda and Bob that caused her fall. Linda is troubled by the news, and recalls nothing. However, no one will tell her what she and Bob were arguing about that night. Even Bob evades her questions, being intentionally vague as he doesn't think the time is right. Linda can't figure out why so many people in town can't stand her. She asks Mary to explain the animosity she senses with people about town. Mary hesitates, but eventually tells Linda she was a nightmare to work for, and only married Bob for his money. Before they can get any further into the conversation, Bob shows up and Mary pipes down. Once Mary leaves, however, Linda confronts Bob with what Mary told her. Bob is incensed at Mary's interference, but Linda tells Bob that she's sick of being treated like a child, and wants to know the whole truth about where things stood before her accident. Bob only says that it's his duty to take care of her. Linda retorts that she's in love with someone else, but doesn't say who. Shortly thereafter, she calls Mickey up and asks him to come over. What she DOES remember is how much in love she was with him, and all the details of their past affair, wondering if their affair is why Bob is so upset with her. Mickey is...not interested, and makes it clear that that is not the case. Their affair was a decade ago, he is no longer married to Laura, and is now married to Maggie. Linda is furious that Mickey didn't marry HER after divorcing Laura, and demands Mickey help her recover her memories. Mickey is at a loss. He's not in any position to help Linda, and insists to Linda that his marriage to Maggie is a good one, if only to get Linda off his back. At Don and Marlena's wedding, Linda begins to regain some memories of her "courtship" with Bob, and how she pitted Tommy against Bob in order to manipulate Bob into marriage for access to Bob's money and power for herself. She leaves a note for Bob during the reception and leaves without him. The note tells Bob that things cannot continue the way they are, and she needs to go away for awhile to piece things together on her own. Chris meets with Bob, insisting that his signature was forged on the carburator blueprints bill of sale, and that either Stephanie or Linda was the culprit. Inclined to believe Chris, particularly where Linda is concerned, Bob accepts Chris back into the fold, and is pleased to hear that Chris and Mary have agreed to their three months trial of living together before marrying. @Titus Andronicus I'm watching a partial episode from early February 1979, and in there is a scene between Mary and Chris where Mary asks about his past. It confirms Chris was in Vietnam in the army. So I'm now 100% certain that Chris was supposed to be the one with the Vietnamese lover who interrupts his wedding to Mary. I feel like how poorly the Don/Donna story was written, plus the suits' reticence to do another interracial romance story after David/Valerie, thrown in with Ann Marcus' stubborn stance on telling the story, was the final nail in Ann Marcus' tenure on the show. I admit, this is a much longer post than before, and a lot less pithy than what I usually write, but...wow, what a difference! Elizabeth Harrower is really setting things up to be a far more emotionally intense show than what Ann Marcus had written. The difference in the intensity of everyone's interactions, the tightening up of the stories. I'm so far impressed. Now, whether this lasts remains to be seen, and if @Franko is correct, the wheels may fall off again rather quickly, but I'm really enjoying a lot more of what's being built here, despite Jeri being written as something of a basketcase, though she's always been a bit of a loose cannon. It seems to me that Ann Marcus was setting up Laura to have a brain tumour storyline, but Elizabeth Harrower, thankfully, stopped that one with a quickness. Kate's involvement in Bill and Laura's story seems to be once again diminishing, if not totally disappearing. Kate is still appearing in episodes, however, so this may not be the end of her yet. I also see the discovery of Stephanie's identity has been backburnered in favour of highlighting her relationship with David, and her rivalry with Trish. Probably not the worst idea, though I do wish the reveal of her identity had been a little more explosive in the end and less of an afterthought in the rush to be rid of the character. Guess we'll see what happens as March goes on.

I've gotta say, the revue was delightful to watch again (I remember watching it when it popped up on YouTube years ago), so thank you for sharing it again @jam6242, it's a REAL treat! Maggie's macabre "Come On, Get Happy" performance always made me chuckle. C'mon everyone! We're all gonna DIE! Woohoo! Never knew Marty Davich was actually a DAYS cast member! Thanks for sharing the photos @JAS0N47! So, basically, nepotism was in full display during her run. Great. I find it interesting how greatly Laura's role on the show diminished once Susan Flannery left. It's as though they just lost all interest in writing for the character, even introducing a vaguely similar blonde female psychiatrist a year after Flannery left named Marlena Evans. While I feel Pat Falken Smith's intention with Marlena was more to utilize her in Mickey's recovery specifically (as it would make no sense to have Laura treat him when she's so attached to the situation, regardless of Mickey's feelings about her), it seems Ann Marcus really dropped the ball with Laura at that point. I wonder how much of that was not being able to find an organic way to cause problems for her and Bill that the audience would accept, and how much of it was Marlena being more of a blank canvas that she could fill in the backstory for without upsetting the applecart as much. I also remember reading how excited Marcus was at discovering Deidre Hall had a twin, and ran with the information to create the Sam story, which I think contributed to it. Hacky writers will always take the easy way out instead of working with what already exists. Considering it takes her until the Spring of 1980 to finally die, and, if I remember reading the Tune In Tomorrow recaps right, the last couple months of these consist of literally weeks of "Margo is about to die"..."Margo won't live much longer"..."Margo is barely hanging on..." like they're SNL reporting on Francisco Franco's death or something...we're in for a long haul here.

Thank you for that. Yes, this was the one I'd read earlier. I still stand by my thought that Jeri would've been better off being Larry Atwood's killer, and have that be her exit to the show. Especially considering how little she's used after that story ends. Alright, shall we start on January 1979? Only one more month of Ann Marcus after this. Let's see. The Cathode Machine Variety Show finally happens! Maggie sings! Mickey plays a piano! Julie and Alice do some Marx Brothers impersonations! Margo and Donna dress up like flappers and do a Charleston routine! The show is a rousing success and they make more than enough money to buy the cathode. And then Margo starts feeling weak as the night goes on. Nearly fainting at one point. She checks herself into the hospital without letting Mike know in the middle of the show. He doesn't notice until he can't find her afterwards. Finding a note in her dressing room, Mike rushes to the hospital, annoyed that she snuck away, but relieved when Tom finds she's just feeling weak, and her cancer is still in remission. She recovers quickly, and is soon released, but feels weak and dizzy often. Backstage, Donna sneaks off while everyone's busy after her number to meet Pete, who'll take her on his motorcycle out of state so they can elope. Pete doesn't want to, but Donna threatens to kill herself again if he doesn't (this child is literally the worst, but then again, most 15 year olds are). Off they go! INTO A DITCH! Pete crashes his bike and he and Donna are being brought into UH. Donna's in critical condition, and has internal bleeding. Don is called and rushes to the hospital. Donna loses her baby, and Don feels guilty for not letting his 15-year-old daughter have a shotgun wedding like she wanted so she felt she had to elope. Weeeee! Now Donna's depressed, having lost her baby, and feeling like she only ever causes problems for everyone around her. Marlena picks her up from the hospital, and makes it clear that, despite everything, she and Don are there for her and love her and will be her family. God help them both. Pete, meanwhile, has been accepted back at his prep school (thanks to Neil), and pisses off back to wherever he came from, never to be heard from again. Buh-bye! Theresa and Robert go to Doug, certain Steve is being shady after Theresa found a copy of her replica jewellery box in Julie's shop. Doug, knowing Steve is up to some bulls#!t, goes to visit Theresa's neighbour Earl Roscoe, who made the box for her. But Steve got to Earl first and Earl says nothing. Steve, meanwhile, is being threatened by loan sharks, because of course he is. Julie asks Steve to go back to Paris to buy more antiques for her shop. Doug thinks this is a rotten idea and that Julie should go, but won't tell her why. He also refuses to join her on the trip. Julie expresses her confusion to Steve, who, having seen Maggie and Doug's closeness during rehearsals for the benefit, implies that Doug wants to be rid of her to spend more time with Maggie. So when Doug tells Julie he's going to Chicago to work with a lyricist, Julie becomes suspicious. He usually interacts with the lyricist by phone or mail, why the change now? Steve further causes problems by telling Julie that he caught Doug and Maggie in a "passionate embrace", and that Maggie's planning to go to the farm the same weekend Doug is planning to go to Chicago. Julie falls for it. Maggie, incidentally, is actually going to the farm, but it's to escape the memories of Janice. She hopes to find herself once again, and insists Mickey go with her. He can't, as he's too busy with work. Steve manages to con one of Julie's regular customers, Mr. Trask. He first promises them to be secondary partners in the business, which he never asked Julie about. Now, he's convinced him to shell out thousands to finance his buying spree in Paris. Doug is indeed going to Chicago with ulterior motives, but not what Julie thinks. He takes the infamous jewellery box to an expert who confirms that it is a quality replica. Here we go! Trish returns to LA after the movie she was meant to shoot turned out to be a non-starter. She can't find Jeri, panics when the hotel Jeri was living in said she moved out and didn't leave a forwarding address (she's now moved in with David and is Scotty's new babysitter, now that Amy has left for college). Trish calls David. Except Stephanie's there, and Stephanie is insecure about Trish's continued presence in David's mind despite David having just told Stephanie he loves her (David wastes no time, didn't she just get hired like two months ago?). So Stephanie tells Trish that David hasn't seen Timmy in ages. I guess she isn't strictly lying, since David renamed him Scotty, lol. Trish takes a singing gig to get enough money to move back to Salem. Once she does, she makes a beeline for David's, where David finds Trish hugging "her Timmy". David, ever the cool head, rips the boy away from his mother and orders Trish to leave them alone. Considering the stunt she pulled sneaking him away to California for no discernible reason, I can't say I blame him. Trish tries to explain why she left (I'd love to know myself, but they never tell us), but David tells her to buzz off. Chris wants to marry Mary (quite contrary) right away, but Mary isn't so sure, and wants to live with Chris for six months, just to see if they don't kill each other first. Chris is certain they'll be together forever (good luck with that), and insists on three months max. Kate, who's left town after being fired from University Hospital, gets a call from Tom, asking her to come back as Chief of Anesthesiology. She agrees and moves back, but insists upon talking to Laura before finalizing her taking the job. She wants to reassure Laura that she's over Bill. Laura claims to be forgiving and understanding. But she's also not naive, and is going to keep an eye on Kate. Kate starts work, and meets with Bill, who she'll again be working closely with, and swears up and down in a totally blasé and completely convincing way that she is no longer interested in him and their relationship is strictly professional and will remain professional and nothing more will ever happen between them and that is a fact forever and ever, Amen. Totally over him. Yep. 100%. Linda is FOUND OUT! The PI gives Bob enough info that Bob is prepared to strike. He quietly strips Linda of her power of attorney without saying a word to anyone. Then waits. One evening, when Linda goes to meet Neil "at the regular time", Bob corners her at Neil's doorstep, and demands she leave with him to the lakehouse, where they'll discuss things. Once there, Bob drops the bomb: He's had a PI follow Linda around for weeks, he knows all about her affair with Neil, and knows she's been plotting the entire time to take control of Anderson from under his nose. Laying into her, Linda initially fights back, but soon realizes she's been found out, and runs for the staircase (presumably to lock herself in her room so Bob can't throw her out?). Bob follows her, and chases her up, grabbing her midway up the flight of stairs. Him grabbing her causes Linda to lose her balance and she falls down the stairs, ending up unconscious. Oops! He calls an ambulance, and finds out she's hit her head, and they need to do surgery to get the blood pressure down around her brain. Bob is feeling mighty guilty, and wonders how he'll explain this to Melissa, and to MARY (LOL too bad she knows already!). Bill, of course, has to perform the surgery, which requires him and Kate to work together. Which, of course, irritates Laura. The operation is a success, but...wait for it...LINDA HAS AMNESIA! She can't remember anything past when she married Bob. *slams head against his desk* One more month of this, and I snuck a look at some of the summaries for February, and boy, it's...something.

As someone who DID have the virus in March (we didn't get tested because the hospitals didn't have tests and we wouldn't qualify for whatever reason the hospital gave us), I can tell you, it won't manifest itself the same in everyone, but if you are able to take something to control your fever, if you get one, do it. You will likely lose your appetite and everything will taste like paste. I developed a love of orange juice through this time. There will likely be only one or two positions that you can sleep in without coughing uncontrollably, and good luck showering. The steam was good for clearing my lungs out, but I coughed so much I nearly passed out at one point. Please get as much rest as you can, and good luck ❤️

SSH has always had a way with shade so subtle, you could blink and miss it. Didn't someone post the newspaper clipping about the backstage fight a few years ago? I'm pretty sure it was between SSH and Kaye Stevens (Jeri). It really does seem like a perfect storm. And I have to say, it seems like (and I'm sure you all noticed it), a very distinct reboot that happened near the end of 1977. A whole bunch of stories just abruptly stopped and either languished in the backburner for ages (Bill/Kate/Laura), were ended/sent packing abruptly (the entire Grant family, particularly Danny/Toni's story, Trish/David/Mike, Marie, Tommy, Dr. Griffin and his daughter), or ended with a really definite period (the wife beating story, Sam/Marlena). A few came to their natural conclusion, but few had long-reaching consequences. Wouldn't Julie's rape be a better reason why she isn't interested in sex with Doug than being in a snit because he isn't nice to her scammer brother? These conversations needed to be had, and weren't. It was as though Ann Marcus rebooted her own show midway through her run, and it feels like she just wanted us all to forget that 1977 even happened. You are 100% right about the style clash. The show did not need to be constantly scandal-filled, but DAYS was not known as a plotty, action-based show at this point. It did not need to speed through all these stories at breakneck speed like it has under Marcus, with such melodramatic extreme trials coming and going almost every few weeks like it's nothing. Oddly enough, DAYS' ratings stabilized in 1978-79, though I wonder how much of that was down to Elizabeth Harrower taking over in February. 1975-76 - #4 (tied with SFT) - 8.3 1976-77 - #7 - 7.8 1977-78 - #10 - 6.9 1978-79 - #10 - 6.8 So evidently, Ann Marcus' stories were flopping hard, especially the first year. Checking out the Ratings of the 70s thread, I pulled up some interesting notes: NOV 77 - DAYS made it to #6 with an 8.9 during this month, where Fred Barton tripped and fell down the stairs and Bill had to perform surgery on him with Kate's help. Marlena was rescued from Bayview, and Phyllis leaves on her trip after emasculating Neil for his affair with Mary. I suspect these stories' climaxes were surprisingly successful, but the effect was not long-lasting. NOV 78 - The ratings bottom out at #10 and 5.5. So the Janice custody trial was a massive flop, as was Donna's travails. After February 1979, the ratings seem to stabilize, with DAYS now settling around #8 or 9 most months, neck and neck with RH and AW most of that time, so I suspect Elizabeth Harrower wasn't exactly lighting the world on fire, but was keeping things from going entirely down the tubes. Most of the time her DAYS stayed in the Mid-6.0 range. Things bottom out in the Summer of 1980, when they drop to a 4.8 under Nina Laemmle.

Ohhhh lord. I was going to see if I could stomach waiting, but maaaaan. I got about mid-way through reading the Tune In Tomorrow updates before I realized what was going on. I'll just...I'll launch into it. This is how DAYS closed out 1978. So Donna came back to town and tells Don that they slept together. Don spends an inordinate amount of time wondering how it was possible that he'd done this before realizing that Donna's lying. Marlena wants Don to drop his attempt to adopt Donna and be done with her, while Don is more sympathetic to Donna, and decides he won't marry Marlena because Donna needs him more, and Marlena will just resent Donna (I wonder why). Donna's in juvenile hall, and Pete finds out about this when checks in with Neil by phone. Pete feels guilty. Don finally tells Donna he's probably her father and plans to adopt her, and Donna admits to lying. Satisfied that Donna's finished being messy, Don tells Marlena he changed his mind and wants to marry her again. Marlena tells him where to shove it, and suggests he gets his house in order first before he tries again. Marlena's position is cemented when she meets with Toni, who tells her Donna's pregnant. Unsure how to tell Don, Marlena gets Laura to do it for her so that Marlena doesn't look like she's being a troublemaker. Meanwhile, Toni convinces Donna to tell Don. After Don adopts Donna, Donna drops the bomb: she's pregnant. Don's pissed, but calms down shortly thereafter, remembering he's the idiot who signed up for this, so he better suck it up. Pete returns and, once again, tried to convince Donna to abort because he was NOT about to marry her. Then he decides he has to marry her because she won't abort. Donna's happy, and Don's mad as hell. Marlena is still trying to figure out how to convince Donna to abort without coming off as the bad guy. Neil allows Bob to come home, but strictly forbids him to sleep with Linda until NEIL okays it (cheeky b*stard). Neil and Linda insist Bob stay at home and rest, while Linda "works long hours at the office" (read: screws Neil after a regular day's work). Bob becomes the dumbass of the hour, wondering why Linda's working so late. She didn't work late before! *sigh* He's just so damned happy Linda is taking such GREAT CARE of his business. Putz. Linda's scheme is starting to pay off. Because Phyllis' stock in Anderson is in a joint account with Neil, he can vote at the next board meeting on Linda's behalf, and Linda can officially take over Anderson! What a stroke of luck! But remember, Mary knows what Linda's been up to, and when Bob asks Mary to go out of her way to help Linda so she doesn't get overworked, Mary agrees...then seethes the second she steps out of the room, wishing she could tell him what Linda's been up to. Stephanie is also suspicious of Linda, and correctly theorizes that Linda's trying to take over the company, and then wants to merge it with a competitor. After a dinner party Bob hosts where Linda doesn't show because of "work", Mary gets fed up and starts plotting. After dinner, she hightails it to Neil's, but only finds Neil and Pete there. Neil immediately suspects Mary's onto him, and warns Mary that any shock to Bob's system could kill him, hoping that'll keep her quiet. Stephanie and David go on some dates, and after one of them, David comes home to find Jeri skulking about. She apparently "just wants to visit [TimmyScotty]", but David isn't so sure. He tries to keep Jeri away, claiming he has everything he needs here, until Amy decides she has enough money to go to college and plans to move out. Stephanie is up to something, and it's complicated as hell, so bear with me here. So she dates David to get info on what Linda's up to. David gets her access to confidential stockholder reports, then convinces Chris to help her by saying that Linda is trying to take over Anderson. Mary still feels insecure about this after the Dayton nonsense, but goes along with it, regardless (I guess this is a trust exercise of sorts). It lasts about five minutes, as one too many meetings with Stephanie cause Mary to freak out at Chris, and accuse him of using the situation to two-time her. Again, they're STILL not back together at this point. Stephanie finds out about a special carburetor Chris is inventing. She steals it, and sells it to a rival of Anderson's. Mike becomes worried about the quality of the foundation of the building he's working on for Anderson. And is dismissed by everyone but Chris. They go at night to check out the issue, and the floor gives way and they disappear down a hole. After Margo calls around to figure out where Mike is, David finally clues in that Mike had spoken to him about the faulty foundation, and he and Mary (visiting to complain about Chris "standing her up"), rush down to the construction site to make sure. They spot them, and call for help. Mike and Chris are in histrionics, certain they'll never be found and will die in this hole in the ground. They go on long soliloquies, professing their love for the respective women, and wait in the dark to die. Mike nearly does, as the oxygen begins to run out and he almost passes out before the rescue crew arrive. Chris and Mike are saved, and Mary and Chris realize how ridiculous they're being and finally decide to get back together. This makes Stephanie change her plan of attack, and she decides to make Chris the fall guy for her plan to sell Chris' carburetor blueprints instead of an innocent victim, all to stick it to Mary. Stephanie plants the paperwork for the sale in Chris' office for Linda to find, complete with a forged signature. Linda's handling of the situation isn't pleasing Bob, and he tells Mary as much. But Mary is convinced of Chris' innocence, and lets slip the insinuation that Linda may be trying to railroad Chris to cover up something Linda herself is up to, especially with how much Linda's been seeing Neil. This plants the seed in Bob's head that Linda has been fearing for weeks (Bob hasn't been particularly affectionate with her since he's been home from the hospital). Bob realizes how much sense Mary's implication makes, and hires a PI to have Linda tailed. Maggie and Mickey don't entirely lose custody of Janice. Basically Joanne gets her for the school year, and Mickey and Maggie get her for weekends and the summer. If, after six months, Maggie can lay off the booze, she'll get custody of Janice. I guess she never did, because Janice then immediately moved to San Francisco with Joanne and they got one letter after that from her saying how happy she was (presumably to not be in perpetual danger every waking moment). Would that not be a direct violation of the custody agreement?? WTF! Margo convinces Mike to go remind Mickey he exists and considers him his dad and that he loves him. This makes Mickey feel better, at least. But now Maggie is depressed, and confides in Doug, who's miserable because Julie is too busy trying to make Steve a partner in the antiques business he's fleecing to sleep with her husband at any point. Maggie laments not having a baby, and the fact Mickey can't give her one. YES, THEY WERE TEASING PAIRING DOUG AND MAGGIE, Y'ALL. Doug invites Maggie to get involved in organizing the charity variety show Greg had set in motion before he left town. For Maggie, it's a well-needed distraction, and it brings Doug and Maggie together...too together. Mickey starts to get suspicious of Doug and Maggie's closeness. As far as Julie's nonsense story is concerned, Robert learns that Steve is selling fakes (and taking advantage of disabled folks to do it), and then Theresa finds out. Now it's not just jewellery boxes, but fake Queen Anne chairs now! Theresa has the guts to say something to Julie after visiting the shop and finding the exact same jewellery box she had her neighbour make for her at the shop. But of course, Julie can't believe her brother would do such a thing, and scoffs at Theresa's implication. She then makes Steve a full partner in the business. Tom is now chief of staff. His first order of business is to divide responsibility as widely as possible so as to avoid him having more strokes and such. So he makes Bill chief of Surgery at UH. Bill doesn't want it initially because he knows it's only because of nepotism that he's being offered, but later relents. Tom also then tells Bill that, unless Bill objects, he'll rehire Kate as Chief of Anesthesiology. Bill has to break the news to Laura before he can give a clear answer to Tom one way or another. So we have a lot of stuff happening here, and...I dunno what to make of most of it. The Anderson story is getting mighty convoluted, and you can just sense that Linda's thisclose to being exposed, which should be satisfying. It's bizarre because the Anderson storyline, as complex as it is, is largely the only one that's still really grabbing me at this rate, even though they're making Bob as dumb as a post to make it work. Ann Marcus made half of everyone on this show really slow on the uptake. The idea of blind devotion to a loved one doing them very obviously wrong in ways that anyone with functioning eyes could see runs through at least three stories concurrently, and it's frustrating to watch. I did like the fact that something as plotty as Mike and Chris in the pit DID have some resulting effect on the story that came afterward. Ron could take note of that for his own writing. He won't, but he should. Very glad Donna's nonsense is starting to sort itself out, but this story is just such a stinker. I suspect you're onto something @Titus Andronicus, and Ann Marcus only somewhat misremembered what happened there. She rewrote the story, and told it poorly to get out of her contract and do more primetime work. That's my theory, because WOW it's rank. And I can't believe the suits at NBC let her write that.

You know @Titus Andronicus it could very well have been Chris, considering his intentions of marrying Mary by 79, but I think you're right, it seems odd to have two long lost children stories back to back on the same show, regardless of which characters you're dealing with. So it likely was Don and it reworked to be Donna. Thanks for sharing that article @victoria foxton this was during Frons' time at NBC, wasn't it? It seems an awfully familiar refrain to what we saw at ABC in the 2000s, no?

Oh, I absolutely am! Thanks again for everything you do! Gonna try to finish 1978 now. Let's see. We're on November now... A note or four about the previous post: Bob forced Linda's hand as far as rehiring Chris, and Mary resented Stephanie being able to convince Chris to return to Anderson instead of herself (keeping in mind Mary and Chris are, at this point, still not back together). Despite what is said in October's SOD write-up, Chris and Stephanie DO NOT sleep together. Tune In Tomorrow's summary also makes it clear that Stephanie definitively reveals herself to be Brooke at Adele's graveside. Stephanie is still unaware that Mary is the one who called the cops on her for her little bit of corporate espionage, and blames Bob fully for ruining both hers and Adele's life. Laura is currently Donna's psychiatrist, and it's to her that Donna reveals her "trouble with an older man". ONTO NOVEMBER: Linda continues to be a delicious viper. At first, she regrets her tryst with Neil, but when she finds out Phyllis has a block of Anderson stock, she sees possibilities in using Neil, so she sees him whenever possible, with Neil being Bob's doctor, so he can keep Bob in the hospital indefinitely and out of his and Linda's hair. They're brazen about it, even making out in a hospital linen closet at one point. It evolves from physical intimacy both were lacking in their respective lives to something more, especially for Linda, who needs a shoulder to lean on during her depression, her hectic schedule at Anderson, and dealing with Bob's recovery. But it all starts to go wrong when they're caught by Mary, who is called from her house to Linda's by an ill Melissa, who is once again left at home alone until 2am. Mary stays with her, only to see Linda and Neil walk in, arm in arm. OOPS. Mary decides to keep quiet for a bit since she doesn't want to lose control against the ever-calculating Linda, nor does she want to jeopardize Bob's fragile health. The entire time, Stephanie is also suspicious of what's going on. So evidently, they're being extremely discreet. Bob, meanwhile, returns home to a gift of flowers from Phyllis, who appears to still be out of town. He also notices something is different between him and Linda. But for the life of him, can't figure out what it is. HMMMMM.... Mary decides to head down to Dayton as well, only to find Chris and Stephanie in his hotel room together (apparently only in an embrace, not in bed as previously stated), but Mary is sure they're sleeping together. Chris says he only did it to learn what Linda was up to. He insists he's not carrying on an affair with Stephanie, but Mary won't hear it. Stephanie does lay it on thick with Chris to TRY to bed him, though. One night, though, he has legitimate reason to go to her room in the middle of the night. She's having more flashbacks to the accident. Undiagnosed PTSD, it would seem. Chris comforts her until she can rest. Mary returns to Salem and complains to David about what she's seen. David is distraught as well, since he had his eye on Stephanie. He decides to use Amy to make Stephanie jealous when Stephanie returns to Salem. Margo decides to have a cheerful and uplifting conversation about her grave with Mike. No wonder Mike becomes depressed by June if this is the sunny banter at home. He's also back working at Anderson, and Chris promotes him. He's also apparently in school, but they're vague as to whether he's started med school already or not. Janice is having nightmares of being cut in half by Tom, who, in her dreams, is the judge of her custody trial. One half to Maggie, one half to Joanne. Mickey tries to explain that she won't have to choose, because the judge will do his best to decide what's best for her. This absolutely does not help. Maggie's a ball of anxiety as well, but somehow manages to avoid drinking again (probably because the alcoholism was only a plot point, but I digress). She finds out from Mickey that Joanne's lawyer dug up Mickey's breakdown and sterility, and, fearing she'd lose the case (even though Don thinks they still stand a good chance), sneaks out to the farm with Janice to hide (virtually guaranteeing a loss, way to go, Maggie). She finds Hank there, and all is going well until Maggie tells him why she's at the farm. She makes him promise not to tell Mickey why she and Janice are there. He agrees...and then immediately calls Mickey. Maggie overhears the call (Maggie has the best hearing in Salem, I swear), and she and Janice are off once again! Mickey arrives too late, and if he can't get Maggie back to Salem in time for the hearing, they will absolutely lose custody of Janice. Maggie and Janice are on the open road...until Maggie's car breaks down!! Serves you right for crashing it, Mags! They take it into a repair shop, where the mechanic recognizes her face from the paper, and calls "Michael Horton". Too bad that ends up being Mike, who thinks it's a wrong number, until the next morning when he reads the paper (wtf was Mike SO estranged from Mickey at this point that he didn't know this massive family drama going on with the man who raised him???). Mike calls Mickey, and gives him what little info he remembers from the call, and Mickey tracks down the mechanic. He begs him to delay Maggie as long as possible so he can get her to the courthouse in time. Mickey goes to court and tries to stall as much as possible, while Tom goes to Fairfield, where the repair shop is, to track down Maggie and Janice. Maggie won't go with Tom, certain she'll lose Janice. In court, Don stalls as much as he can, and, in chambers, avoids explaining exactly why Maggie isn't in court. Joanne, meanwhile, is less and less certain of whether she's done the right thing by suing for custody in the first place (euuuugh, COMMIT, woman!). She worries about Janice's safety, and realizes just how much Maggie must love Janice to have run off with her. Just as the judge gets fed up, Maggie and Tom walk into the courtroom. The trial begins. The usual back-and-forth ensues. Except one night, during the trial, Linda has Janice come visit Melissa while she's entertaining "friends" aka Neil. While Neil and Linda are busy in bed, Janice and Melissa are goofing off down by the lake where they aren't supposed to be, and Janice falls in. She nearly drowns because she hits her head on a rock and falls unconcious into the water while obviously left unattended, but Chris, who happens to be visiting Mary's (probably to once again try to prove he wasn't shtooping Stephanie), rescues Janice. Janice might have brain damage from being underwater so long, but only Mary knows why the girls were left unchaperoned so late at night, and because she's afraid the truth might kill Bob, she keeps quiet. The news hits Maggie so hard she finally cracks and is back at the bar! But, despite buying a drink, she doesn't take a sip (eyes be rolling). She leaves the house early the next morning, bursts into the judge's chambers and has a meltdown in front of the judge, blaming Joanne's lawyers for smearing her and her family, and that Janice's accident (which the judge hadn't even heard of) is all their fault. Watching Maggie lose her S#!t, he decides the case must be reviewed in a new light. Way to go, Maggie. Doug and Julie are still in their silly story. Julie is jealous of Theresa, who has a crush on Robert, who thinks Theresa is only interested in him because she can't have Doug. Doug only wants to spend more time with Julie, who will only be able to if Steve is a full partner in her antiques business so she can hand over more responsibility and devote more time to Doug. Doug won't hear of it (for obvious reasons), so Julie won't budge and stays mad. Marlena finds out Donna skipped town while speaking with Toni. Don gets an apologetic letter from Donna, which explains absolutely nothing that she did, so Don can't figure out what the hell she did that she needs to apologize for. Greg and Amanda leave for Chicago...literally two weeks later, Amanda's back at Julie's door, sobbing because Greg STILL doesn't have time for her, which comes as a great surprise to her despite the fact he took a similar job to the one he had at UH but at a busier hospital. Julie is sympathetic for some reason but tells Amanda to keep trying. (Like slamming her head against that brick wall. It MUST budge eventually!) I forgot November is sweeps so there's so much going on (as Ann Marcus is wont to do) that I'm already at like...20 paragraphs. I'll leave it there for tonight. I can honestly say, @Titus Andronicus, I'm fairly certain the Bill/Kate affair never actually happened, because unless things change dramatically after this, Bill and Laura stay talk-tos until Laura starts to lose it under Elizabeth Harrower. I'm kinda relieved that the Donna/Don/Marlena debacle is on ice right now, cos that was some gross-ass s#!t. Also, @Franko, you mentioned Donna having an Electra complex, and yeah, her motivation for breaking Marlena and Don up before was definitely because she wanted to shtoop Don. I don't know if I made that clear. So...yeah...that's a thing. A 15 year old wanting to screw a 40-something man, then getting pregnant by an 18+ year old. Yayyyyy....

I started off just filling in some folks on the transition between PFS and Ann Marcus via the Daytime Serial Newsletters you had posted, actually. Now I'm into 1978 and reading the writeups from SOD and Tune In Tomorrow, again thanks to your lovely self. I think I thanked you upthread for posting these gems, but I didn't tag you. And, for the record, I am, of course, definitely editorializing as I type it all out. Haha. I honestly wasn't planning to report back on what I was reading, but a few posters got a real kick out of the writeups I was doing, so I thought I'd keep at it! Yeah, from what little I see Bill and Laura mentioned, they're essentially talk-tos at this point. Bill and Mickey debating whether Tom is up to taking over as chief-of-staff from Greg, and Laura being Maggie's confidant, if not therapist (they don't make it clear if she's seeing Laura professionally or not).

Alright, since I'm waiting for the laundry to finish, it's a good enough time to do the rest of 1978. Turns out Steve has a French lover named Mimi who is deep in debt. Apparently so deep that he has decided to fleece his sister to get this woman out. Soon they will apparently be married. Regardless, once Steve returns to Salem for Julie's antiques store opening, he asks Mary out, and ends up giving her a job at the antiques shop. Back in Salem, Doug is mopey because Julie deigns to have a life outside of him and his full-time business for her OWN business. This irks him so much he tells Julie he wants to get her pregnant.I'm sure the idea is to bring them together despite their separate lives, but it reads as egotistical and chauvinist in retrospect. Doug becomes suspicious of Steve after running into one of their customers, who were charged a $2000 Special Handling fee [!!!] that Doug's never heard of. Doug gets Steve to admit the truth, but as long as he returns the $2000 and never does it again, he won't rat to Julie. Of course, Steve is still plotting the second Doug leaves the room. Upon seeing a gift Theresa has bought in order to woo Robert (who she's now in love with, but he's too insecure to reciprocate), Steve has an idea for how to scam Julie's customers to his advantage again. The gift, a replica of an antique jewellery box, looks so good, Steve pays a visit to the man who created it, a disabled man named Earl. Steve orders a dozen more replicas for Julie's antique store. You know damn well he's gonna charge full price for them and take the difference for himself. Joanne decides that because Maggie showed up to threaten her while day-drunk, maybe Janice isn't in the best of hands. Janice finds Joanne's locket, with a picture of herself and Joanne inside. Janice hurls insults at Maggie, and reveals she knows Joanne is her real mother. A screaming match ensues, then when things calm down, Maggie explains that Joanne gave her up for adoption. Maggie then tells Mickey what happened, and he tells Linda that if she's any kind of friend, she'll fire Joanne (hoping Joanne will finally buzz off out of Salem). Linda doesn't want to, but ultimately does fire Joanne. On her way out of town, Joanne calls Janice, asking for one more visit after school that day in the park. Too bad Maggie overhears the entire call, and spends the day getting drunk to work up her courage. Maggie plans to drive Janice to Mickey's to make Janice reveal the truth of what her and Joanne are talking about, forcing Mickey to actually do something definitive to once and for all get Joanne out of Salem. Maggie intercepts Janice after school, and gets the girl into the car to head for Mickey's office. Except, she's so drunk and worked up, she crashes her car into oncoming traffic. Janice is unconscious, but Maggie only has some scratches. The Salem PD question her, give her a Breathalyzer, and put her under arrest for drunk driving. Mickey is pissed, but Tom and Alice rally to her side. Joanne, finding out about the accident, decides to stay in Salem to fight for custody, since Maggie is evidently too much of a lush to handle the job. Mickey blames himself, and Janice is distant and cold to everyone. Legal Aid tells Joanne that if Maggie pleads guilty to the drunk driving charge, Joanne stands a chance of gaining custody. But Mickey threatens to slap Joanne with a kidnapping charge once again for the Florida trip debacle. Maggie is fined $500 for the drunk driving charge, and is determined to stay off the sauce. I'm sure this will last a whole five minutes, as Legal Aid finds a loophole that gives Joanne legal recourse: Maggie adopted Janice as a single mother, while Mickey was in Bayview. This constitutes fraud. Dumb Don finally figures out that Donna is scheming to break him and Marlena up, and kicks Donna out when she drops by to swoon at Don. Donna goes to Pete's, feeling sorry for herself, and Pete immediately gets Donna drunk and they screw (Pete's just as much of a sleaze as Neil, I see). Pete is revealed to be a bit of a bad seed, confessing to Neil that he got expelled from high school and lied to his parents that Uncle Neil INVITED him up to visit. Neil couldn't possibly rat out his nephew (my eyes are currently lodged in the back of my head). The Sleaze Jr. invites Donna over for a weekend while Neil's out of town. SURPRISE! Donna thinks she's pregnant! Donna goes to visit Toni, who now apparently works for the unwed mothers' clinic. Toni tells Donna to tell Pete right away. Pete wants her to abort, Donna doesn't. Don, meanwhile, grovels at Marlena's feet, and tells her that (WTF?) Donna may actually be his daughter after all? Ann Marcus retconning her own stories. Great. He tells Marlena that while he was away visiting his mother weeks before, he spotted photos of his mother in childhood, and did a double-take. She and Donna could've been twins. Marlena goes digging, figures out their blood types match. So he goes hunting for Lorraine, as Marlena has said she won't marry him THIS TIME until they're able to prove paternity, and they need a tissue sample from Don, Donna, and Lorraine to do it. Don does track down Donna's birth certificate, which lists Don as Donna's father. Marlena thinks he's doing too much too fast because he's remembering the loss of his first daughter, Betsy. Ultimately, Don decides to take on the responsibility of being Donna's father regardless. Marlena grins and bears it. But the night he plans to tell Donna that he's her father, Skeezy Pete leaves town to avoid having to take responsibility for Donna's baby, and so Donna spikes Don's drink with a sleeping pill. Once he's passed out, she strips him naked and leaves, then acts despondent when Marlena calls to ask how the talk went. ICK. ICK. ICK. Don, for his part, doesn't remember a thing that happened, and Donna is being vague about "an encounter with an older man". Donna momentarily has second thoughts about her vile plan, until Pete calls to apologize for being a big baby, and promises to help her out...by paying for an abortion. Donna refuses, and plans to leave town. STEPHANIE ARRIVES. Bob hires her as a new PR person in his fight against the envionmental group Chris is supporting to stop that plant being put in the wildlife refuge. Stephanie sets up a TV debate between Anderson and the environmentalists almost immediately. Mary, in particular, is suspicious of the similarity between Stephanie and Brooke. But Bob slips first, and accidentally calls Stephanie "Brooke". Stephanie is, herself, having flashbacks to the car accident. Seems they weren't working too hard to hide the fact Stephanie and Brooke were one in the same. David is attracted to Stephanie. This displeases Amy. The TV debate is a winner for Anderson. To hell with the wildlife, Bob promises JOBS! Even to Chris, who he offers one to after the matter is settled. Except he has Linda ask him, and Linda doesn't want Chris within 100 miles of Anderson, so she "accidentally" tells Chris that Bob wants him to head up the Green Oaks project that the environmentalists and Chris had been so dead set against. Chris, of course, refuses the job. LOL OOPS! Silly Linda! Linda regrets this after Bob becomes so overworked from taking on so much work with two fewer employees, he suffers a heart attack. Linda jumps into action and, thanks to her first-aid training, saves Bob's life. But Mary still blames Linda for putting the stress on Bob to begin with, and Linda retaliates when Mary convinces Chris to go offer his help at Anderson. Linda refuses him, and kicks Chris out of the office. Still actually in need of help, Linda instead reaches out to Stephanie! Ultimately, Chris does end up reinstated at Anderson, after Stephanie, who has become fast friends with Chris, speaks to Linda on his behalf and smooths things over. They're trying to build a triangle with Stephanie, Chris and Mary, I see. Linda insists on sending Stephanie on a business trip with Chris instead of Mary, who's now helping out again at Anderson after Bob's attack. When Stephanie arrives in Dayton instead of Mary, he calls to Salem to find out "what da hell is goin' ahn". Mary's on a date with Steve! So Stephanie decides to sleep with Chris to get one over on her sister. Stephanie is WAY too overwrought by the news of Bob's heart attack, and everyone notices.Stephanie has more migraines, and flashbacks to the accident. She then, after visiting Bob in the hospital, goes to visit Adele and "Brooke"'s grave. Vowing not the make the same mistakes Brooke did, she will take over Anderson and get what's rightfully hers. I guess there was some misdirection here to maybe make folks think Stephanie was Brooke's twin or something. As Bob recovers, Linda goes for another power grab, and seeks to become power of attorney over Bob's affairs. Mickey draws up the papers, Bob signs them. Bob also wants to split his new will three ways. 1/3 to Mary, 1/3 to Linda, and 1/3 to Melissa, who he's planning to adopt soon. I suspect this will be important later, especially with Stephanie lurking around. Linda, who seems genuinely in love with Bob now, is feeling down after his heart attack. Neil, being the skeeze he is, uses this opportunity to hit on Linda. After trying repeatedly, Neil succeeds, and the two end up in bed together. Greg calls on Doug to organize a charity variety show (I think this has been on YouTube in the past). But he won't be around long, Amanda has decided to put Greg's career first, and be the dutiful wife and leave town with him if that's what he wants. So they're off to Chicago shortly. Tom tells Greg he wants to succeed him as Chief of Staff. Alice doesn't like the idea of the extra workload. I've only just finished October and I have a headache from this. I'll save November and December for later. Lord help me.

EPISODE 187 Written by A. Washington-Beeby Story Consultant: C. Nathaniel Richardson & Nick Monarco At the Kiriakis mansion, Noelle stands in front of her bedroom vanity, dressed in her silk robe, which covers her lacey lingerie she's put on to entice her husband, Alex. We see her spritzing some perfume across her chest, as, in the reflection of the mirror, Alex emerges from the bathroom, freshly showered, and wearing only a towel. Noelle's expression softens immediately upon seeing him, and she smiles at him, looking at him in the mirror. He glistens with steam from the shower, enticing Noelle even more. Alex is somewhat oblivious to his wife's intentions, prompting her to speak up. NOELLE: Have a good shower? Alex suddenly turns his head toward Noelle, who turns to face him, giving him a sensuous look. Alex looks her over carefully, smiling as he steps to his dresser, and pulls out a pair of briefs. ALEX: Yeah. Wasn't bad. He puts the briefs on under his towel, before ripping the towel off, and hanging it on the back of the bathroom door. ALEX: Just what I needed really, after the day I've had. Alex steps back towards the bed he shares with Noelle, and flops down on it. Noelle slowly walks over to it, gracefully setting herself down next to him. She looks lovingly in his eyes, and strokes his hair. NOELLE: Well...You can tell me all about it....or maybe, I can be a distraction from it. Noelle leans in and kisses Alex gently on the lips. Alex doesn't react, and Noelle lifts herself out of the kiss, resting herself upright on the bed on one hand, a little frustrated. ALEX: It's okay. Babe, I just need rest. Noelle rolls her eyes, before gently massaging her partner's shoulder. NOELLE: It's fine. If you want...I can help you relax a little. ALEX: (laughs) I'd love it, but...I don't wanna put you to any trouble. Alex yawns, as Noelle gets up, standing right in Alex's line of vision. She slowly undoes her robe, peeling it off her body, showing her revealing lingerie. She stands proudly before her husband, tempting him to come to attention. NOELLE: It's no trouble at all. ALEX: Noelle, I...I just need to unwind a bit before bed. NOELLE: Then let me help you. Noelle walks over to the bed, ready to straddle Alex, but he instead grabs her by the wrist, pulling to one side, stopping her before she can. ALEX: NO! Noelle looks on, stunned by Alex's explosive reaction. --- The darkness of Eric's suite at the Salem Inn is broken by Eric and Nicole opening the door, and stepping inside. As the light turns on, Nicole groans, exhausted from the events of the day. Nicole cuts ahead of Eric, and flops down on the bed. NICOLE: I never want to get up from this bed as long as I live. Eric chuckles to himself, despite also being exhausted. He drops his car keys on the chest of drawers next to the door. ERIC: You know you're gonna have to eventually. Nicole winces, pained by the mere suggestion of another work day. She whines back at Eric, prompting him to chuckle again. NICOLE: Noooo, I don't wanna. My feeeet. Eric smiles, as he look at his wife, lying pathetically on the bed before him. He slowly kneels before her, slipping her shoes off her feet. ERIC: Maybe this'll help? He takes her right foot in his hands, tenderly massaging the soles of her feet. Nicole lays back, her shoulders instantly relaxing from her new husband's touch. NICOLE: Ugh, yeah. Yeah, that helps. Eric smiles, as Nicole lays back on the bed, looking as though she's in absolute heaven. As Nicole lays back on the bed, Eric massaging her feet out of shot. Eric begins to kiss up Nicole's leg, before eventually laying beside her on the bed, gently kissing her neck. Nicole purrs with pleasure, as Eric makes a suggestion to her. ERIC: You know what? NICOLE: Mmm, what? ERIC: Well. I figure tonight is as good a night as any to make up for our honeymoon night. Eric kisses Nicole's lips, before Nicole turns her head, seeing Eric stare lovingly in her eyes. NICOLE: I think you're right. ERIC: Good. Eric kisses Nicole again, as Nicole suggests something in return, as he nibbles her earlobe, before kissing down the side of her neck. NICOLE: We spend all night together. Here. Just us. Making love all night. Eric stops suddenly, pulling himself back up. Nicole notices immediately and turns to look at Eric with a concerned expression. Eric responds sheepishly after a moment. ERIC: Ahh...maybe not. NICOLE: Wh...Eric, why? ERIC: Mom's asked me to take a DNA test with my dad tomorrow morning. Nicole looks stunned, lifting herself quickly up from the bed. --- Outside Anita's cabin, Brady sits in the passenger seat of Anita's SUV, sobbing. As he lays his head against the steering wheel, Anita emerges from inside the cabin. She holds a book in one hand, as she slowly walks over and stares sadly at her grandson. After a moment of not noticing her, Anita gently knocks on the window. Brady looks up, red-eyed and visibly in turmoil. Anita motions to the lock, asking Brady to unlock the door to the passenger side without saying a word. Brady sighs, taking a moment before he reluctantly obliges. Once he reaches across the vehicle and unlocks the door, Anita gets in. They both sit, completely silently for a moment. Anita looks at Brady's hands, clutching tightly to the steering wheel. For a moment, Anita raises her hand to rest hers on Brady's, but she thinks better of it, and sets her hand back in her lap. Instead, she speaks up. ANITA: Brady.... Brady doesn't respond, his head resting on the steering wheel. Anita makes another attempt to speak to him. ANITA: Brady, I...I'm sorry for keeping this from you. I really am. But I need you to know, whatever you think of me right now...I love you. And I care about what happens to you. I always will. From the moment I found you washed up on the shore-- Brady snaps out of his silence, his head lifting from the steering wheel to look tearfully at Anita. He cuts her off, angrily hissing his words to her. BRADY: If you love me so damn much, you would've left me in that damn river to drown! Anita looks back at Brady, stunned by his pained statement. --- --- Noelle rips her arm out of Alex's tight grasp, enraged by his sudden burst of anger. NOELLE: Don't you EVER grab me like that again! ALEX: Well, don't put me in that position again! Alex breathes for a moment, while Noelle flexes her wrist, hoping Alex didn't actually injure her. Admittedly, she's putting on a bit of a show for effect. Alex sighs after a moment, before speaking again, this time, in a much calmer tone. ALEX: Look, I'm sorry, okay? Just...we had one HELL of a day today, Noelle. Between everything that happened tonight with Nick at the TV station, and...I mean, you know how Anjelica loves to stick her nose in where it doesn't belong. I'm just...I feel smothered. It's not you. NOELLE: It never is. Alex frowns, confused by Noelle's statement. ALEX: What do you mean by that? NOELLE: I mean you haven't been in the mood at all lately. I haven't so much as been kissed by you in bed since we GOT to Salem. ALEX: Well...you know, things have been incredibly busy since we got here. You know that! NOELLE: I do! Noelle walks in closer to her husband, and runs her hand down Alex's muscular arm sensuosly. NOELLE: And I also know how you used to enjoy unwinding from a day like that. Noelle's hand runs down Alex's chest, but he grabs her hand in his before she can make her way south of there. Noelle looks up at Alex, who gives a playful smirk as he pulls her into a quick kiss on the lips. ALEX: You're right. But tonight isn't the night. Noelle rolls her eyes, as Alex keeps his grip on her hand, making sure she listens to what he has to say. NOELLE: Uuggh, whatever-- ALEX: ...No, I'm serious. Noelle. Listen to me. Noelle stops verbalising her disappointement, as Alex takes his hand and turns her head to face him. Staring deeply into her eyes, he continues. ALEX: I love you. Only you. No matter what's going on. No matter what's implied, no matter what is going on in my life. At work, at home, whatever. It's you. I love you. Okay? Just because I'm not up to a wild night in bed doesn't mean that's changed. I promise. NOELLE: Mmhmm. Noelle nods, clearly not believing what Alex is telling her. She turns away, back to her vanity to adjust her robe, as Alex spies the invitation to the Penthouse Grille gala. He quickly grabs it, and, as Noelle looks into the mirror, Alex holds up the invitation, and looks over her shoulder into the mirror to continue talking to her. ALEX: Look, tomorrow night? We'll go to the Penthouse Grille gala together...but I'm gonna make sure we keep the celebration going afterwards, okay? NOELLE: Okay. Alex sets the invite back down, before resting his head on her shoulder, gently caressing her face as he continues. ALEX: Just you. Me. A bottle of champagne. Soft music. Softer lighting. Noelle finally cracks, giggling as Alex lips gently graze the side of her neck. NOELLE: (laughs) Stop. The lights aren't even on a dimmer. ALEX: There's always candlelight. Use your imagination. NOELLE: Alright, fine. It's deal. Alex smiles, lifting his head from his wife's shoulder. ALEX: Good. I love you. NOELLE: I love you too. Alex turns away, walking back to go to bed, leaving Noelle staring into her vanity mirror, her smile quickly fading, as the continued frustration is clear in her expression. --- Eric sits up at the edge of his bed, next to Nicole, as he attempts to explain his plans for tomorrow to her. NICOLE: Eric, what do you mean, a DNA test? ERIC: Yeah, I know. (sigh) It's...it's complicated, but...my mom asked me to be there, and... NICOLE: Does she not think you're Roman's son, or... ERIC: No, she does. It's just...she doesn't know if the man we've been calling my father...is my father. Nicole looks even more confused than before. NICOLE: I think I'm more tired than I thought. I'm even more confused than before! What are you talking about? Eric tries to hold back his laughter, as he tries to explain the situation in more detail. ERIC: No, see...there's been...a lot of confusion over the years about who actually is Roman. NICOLE: Right? Didn't your family think John was Roman at one point? ERIC: Yeah. For a long time. Most of my childhood, actually. But this time...my mom's just making sure, and...at the same time she's trying to rule out something that could be...passed down. Nicole looks immediately concerned. NICOLE: Passed down? Like what? ERIC: Like...dementia. NICOLE: (sigh) Right. First your grandmother, then your dad. ERIC: Exactly. So if my mom can get us both tested to see if we share the same gene that led to my dad's dementia, then we can better prepare for it. Nicole nods. She looks pensive for a moment before responding. NICOLE: I mean...I get that you wanna help your mom, but...what about Sami. Eric rolls her eyes, sighing immediately upon hearing Sami's name. ERIC: Sami won't do it. In fact, she's livid with all of us for even doing the test at all. Nicole responds with more than a hint of derision and mockery in her voice. NICOLE: She figures it's Marlena trying to take her daddy away again. ERIC: Nicole, you know that's not fair. My dad being gone so long really messed with Sami...and with me. Nicole nods, immediately regretting her snarky remark. NICOLE: No, you're right. I'm sorry. Umm...do you want me to be there for you? Just in case...or...? ERIC: No, no! It's okay. I (sigh) I don't ever mind if you want to come but, I know you have a lot going on at the station, and...Aunt Kim and my cousin Andrew will be there, so...I'll have more than enough support. Nicole gives Eric a half-smile, slightly disappointed that he didn't need her there. NICOLE: Okay. Eric notices Nicole's expression, and puts his hand under her chin, gently lifting Nicole's head back up to look into her eyes. ERIC: Hey. Look, I'll take you to the Penthouse Grille gala tomorrow , though. Okay? NICOLE: Yeah. ERIC: And then... Eric properly lays down on the bed, pulling Nicole in close to him. ERIC: How about we take a weekend away. Just us, away from Salem. A little...mini-honeymoon. NICOLE: I love it. Let's do it. Nicole giggles as Eric tickles her. They writhe around for a moment before Eric has her pinned down on the bed. They begin to kiss, solidifying their romantic plans for the weekend, as Eric turns the bedside lamp off. --- Steve sits in the cell he shares with Bo in Stefano's island compound, staring at Jack's locket that he found in the corner of the cell. He's smiling widely, as Bo turns around, standing at the cell door, hoping to figure out how to escape the cell. Steve mutters happily to himself. STEVE: Jack's alive. He turns to look at Bo from the flimsy, dirty cot he's sitting on. STEVE: Bo, he's ALIVE! BO: Maybe. Steve, we don't know if the reason that locket's there is because they took him somewhere and killed him. Steve's face drops immediately, as Bo realizes the effect his words had on his friend. BO: Sorry, Partner. I didn't mean that. Bo walks closer to Steve, trying to reason with Steve. BO: Look, there is a good chance Jack is alive. But I don't want you to get your hopes up. Especially when we don't even know how WE'RE gonna get outta here. Steve becomes emphatic, getting up from the cot, and walking over to the cell's door, studying it as he talks. STEVE: Oh, we are getting outta here, one way or another! I'm gonna make sure of that, my man. BO: Yeah, well, even if we do... STEVE: I know, I know. It's not just us we have to make sure get out of her alive. BO: Exactly. Steve puts the locket in his jeans pocket, before looking around the cell for anything that might help. STEVE: Well...what we could do....is start an argument...raise holy hell in here, get the guards attention. When they come, we knock em out and steal the keys. BO: Yeah, great plan, but we still gotta get... STEVE: I know, still gotta get our neighbour out. That's gonna be... BO: Next to impossible with the amount of security Stefano has in this place. Bo walks over to look over at the cell across the hall from them, where the Patient sits, still tied up. Bo is increasingly concerned as he watches the Patient passed out before him, his hands and legs bound to a steel chair. BO: But we can't just let him stay here. We gotta get him out. Steve walks over, joining his friend in looking at the Patient, as Steve puts a comforting hand on Bo's shoulder. --- Anita sits back in shock by Brady's words, as they sit in her SUV together. ANITA: Brady-- BRADY: I mean it, Anita. You should've just left me to drown. Anita goes to grab Brady's head to pull him in close to her in an embrace, but Brady rebuffs her immediately. ANITA: Shhh-- BRADY: No! Get your hands off me! ANITA: Brady, I-- BRADY: You honestly think I believe your story you and Tyler told me about being my grandmother? Wh...what kind of grandmother leaves her entire family for decades, pretends to be dead even after her daughters die? Huh? Anita looks down, ashamed of the pain she's put her family through. ANITA: I let you down, and I let your mother down. I know that. But Brady, I AM your grandmother. BRADY: Prove it. Anita holds up the book she brough with her from inside the cabin. ANITA: If you ask your uncle about the lengths everyone went to to get their hands on this, they'll tell you. Anita hands the book to Brady. Reluctantly, he takes it from her. She tightens her grip momentarily as Brady takes it into his hand. ANITA: Be careful. There's some loose pages in there. Those are the pages you'd want to read most closely. Brady takes the diary gently in his hands. ANITA: Ernesto wanted the diary because it proved that Isabella was Victor's daughter, and that's why he tried to kill me. When Ernesto was killed, Victor returned the diary to me. Brady studies the cover, afraid to open it, despite wanting to know the answer to his questions. ANITA: You don't have to read it now. But I hope you do. And carefully. Brady looks down at the book, his hands shaking. Anita notices, and puts her hand over Brady's. This time, he lets her. ANITA: But this is the real thing. I promise you. You'll be able to tell. There's...there's things in that book I could never make up. Things that will prove to you...I am your grandmother, Brady Black. And I love you. Brady looks at Anita, the hostility fading in his eyes, as Anita gazes at him, the affection apparent in her expression. ---

It is, I have most of this episode. Donna was apparently Jennifer's babysitter at the time, and Laura came to the house and demanded Donna let her leave with Jennifer. Laura did worry in the past about inheriting her mother's mental illness, so it was smart of Elizabeth Harrower to play on that history. I do wonder, not having made it to the March 1979 headwriter change, whether she was a good shift from Ann Marcus' melodrama. It seems far more intense, contemplative than what I've been reading. I've heard reviews that call 1979 DAYS boring and slow. I suspect that was Harrower yanking back the pacing vs. Marcus' breakneck speed of storytelling. I feel like, because there was such a lack of teen characters ready to go after the first few years, DAYS rushed to fill that gap with Mike and David, but it really caused a lot of problems for them, as Julie went from star young adult character, to middle-aged talk-to overnight. I remember hearing SSH was not exactly impressed by it either.

Yeah the other pictures are a little better, I admit. God, DAYS was certainly a very...blonde show back then, wasn't it? Other than Julie and Maggie, every leading lady on the show was blonde at this point. How weird. Interesting to me that they were so lauded at the Emmys in '79. I suppose the acting and production made up for a lot of the storylines, because I cannot see these competing with what Y&R, GL, GH, AMC, or OLTL were serving up at the time, for example. They have a core of heavy hitters, and they're misusing them terribly! I REALLY hope they do a lot more with Tom and Alice than have Alice preach the gospel to Margo. They started to when Ann Marcus first came on, but it seems like Tom in particular was, for the first time in the show's history, really detached from the action by '78. It suddenly hit me as I was reading the most recent entries. I do wonder if the increasing prominence of young demographics is to blame for this, especially with ABC being so dominant in that area at the time. I am noticing a lot of hastily introduced young characters right now, and none of them seem to be sticking, despite how much they dominate airtime. God, Janice doesn't even LOOK like she wants to be there 🤣

That might be the funniest wedding photo I've ever seen. WTF 🤣🤣🤣 I feel it says something about Patty Weaver's charisma that she was able to be so popular in two roles despite the writing for her being so unforgiving (especially at DAYS, though I disliked what a perpetual victim she was at Y&R too). August time! So, the direction they're going with Maggie/Mickey/Janice/Joanne is starting to become clear. Basically, Mickey, Maggie, and Joanne all agree to not let Janice know that Joanne is her natural mother. Except Hope overheard someone talk about it, so Hope opens her big mouth to Janice, who is now treating Maggie like sh*t. She starts taking a few drinks because, between Janice rejecting her, and Mickey working so much, she feels isolated. Of course, the drinking makes it worse, so when Mickey asks her to do things, Maggie has a "migraine". Janice and Melissa are becoming fast friends, and with Maggie drinking so much and Janice being so snipey toward her, Maggie doesn't mind. Except... Linda has her big party for Steve, and Maggie decides not to go, because of her "migraines". Mickey gets there and sees Joanne working the party, and is even more pissed off when Linda tells him that Joanne is her permanent maid. Mickey's suddenly glad Maggie had that "migraine". He confronts Joanne about it, but insists that Mickey let her keep the job, as it's the only stability she has and it isn't even really in Salem (since it's out at Bob's lakehouse). Mickey isn't entirely convinced but goes along with it. He does end up breaking the news to her. Melissa invites Janice to a party at her house. Maggie doesn't want Janice to go, Mickey says that that would be the worst thing for her relationship with Janice. So, now Janice is going to Melissa's regularly, and now is spending all kinds of time with Joanne, while Maggie stands back in silent horror at, and, instead of stepping in to do something about it, drinks about it. Janice eventually asks Joanne if she's her real mom, but Joanne tells her that if they wish to stay friends, Janice must never ask that question again. Mickey and Maggie, meanwhile, are somehow convinced Janice doesn't know she's adopted. That somehow Janice is just...rebelling? And do nothing except wring their hands. Another story that required everyone to lose a few IQ points to make work, it seems. Laura, who, incidentally, thinks Maggie is overreacting in her fears that Joanne wants to take Janice away, finally convinces Bill to come with her to check on Maggie. They find the house on fire, and Maggie taking a nap after getting sloshed because Janice is at a sleepover at Melissa's. The next morning, Maggie picks Janice up at the Andersons' and rips Joanne a new one, telling her to get out of town or she'll press kidnapping charges after her little fairy godmother stunt in Florida. THE TEENS OF '78 DESCEND UPON SALEM Ann Marcus certainly loves inventing family members for characters on this show. Within a week of each other, we get Neil's cousin Pete Curtis (played by Meegan King) and Chris' sister Amy Kositchek show up. Pete instantly falls for Donna, who is uninterested in him because she's got a creepy infatuation with Don! So THAT's why she's been such a pain in Marlena's backside all this time. Pete is apparently of age, so Neil wans him to back off since Donna is 15. He doesn't listen, and Don encourages Donna to go because she has no friends her own age (Salem apparently was going through a baby rut in the Mid 60s if this is Don's solution). Donna intentionally withholds an apology message from Don to Marlena after one of their endless arguments. An interesting note, Marlena's ex Dr. Paul Whitman comes back to town for a second time (this man was Marlena's great love before she came to Salem, which made JER's inventing Alex North all the more silly). He came before after Marlena got out of Bayview in '77. He comes for a short visit, and once again tries to insinuate himself in Marlena's life while she on the outs with Don. But Marlena insists she will marry Don. Donna uses this to make Don angry and jealous again. When Don confronts Marlena about it, she blames Donna, and Don storms out. Fool. Amy, meanwhile, comes to town looking for a job for college tuition. She initially wants a loan, and Mary's willing to give one to her, but because Chris is a typical man of the 70s and doesn't want to be outshone by his ladyfriend, he refuses. Chris and Mary want to officially move in together, but Chris will only do so if they adhere to HIS lifestyle. Which, because he quit the executive position at Anderson, is pretty sh*tty. He feels guilty, and moves out. David finally tracks Jeri down while Trish is in Italy, takes "Timmy", moves back to Salem, hires Amy as his nanny, and renames him Scott. Then finds out from Danny that Valerie moved back to Washington and, I guess because she realized his life is with Scotty and she's not gonna raise this twit's baby for her, cuts David off permanently (for now). I think they're trying to hint at something more than a employer/employee relationship with Amy, though I know that won't go far. Doug and Julie continues to be a nonsense story. Theresa isn't interested in Doug romantically, but is flirting with him anyway because she wants to get him involved more seriously in the record business. This irritates Julie, who takes off with Steve to Europe to buy more antiques for her new project, an antiques store. When she returns, she gets snarly with Theresa, insisting she stay the hell away from Doug. Doug finds Julie's jealousy adorable. Theresa can't handle the suspicions and hostility, and threatens to quit and leave town after nearly falling off the wagon (God knows why this woman with a drinking problem is working at a bar, but I digress). Doug convinces her to stay. Greg is offered a position at a hospital in Chicago. Amanda doesn't want him to take the position, as she's already feeling neglected by him in Salem. Margo turns to Alice for comfort about the fact she's dying. Alice proselytizes at her until she's in a good mood again. Is it just me or is Ann Marcus dropping a LOT of stories midway here? Like...an unusual number of stories and story threads get picked up, only to disappear from view and memory within weeks, sometimes before they even begin. Is Linda even trying to gather dirt on the Andersons anymore? She rebuffs Bob's insinuation that they start a family, but otherwise has been pretty quiet this month. She's done NOTHING with the information on Neil and Mary's affair, and there's been no mention of her trying to find information on Brooke at all. I can't tell if that's an Ann Marcus failing or bad summary writing on SOD's part. I really don't like how quickly Maggie turns to drinking. It was a rather instantaneous addiction that came out of left field a bit. I could see depression, maybe, but the turn to the bottle was abrupt. Laura/Bill/Kate stays on the backburner, though it seems like Elaine Princi stays on the show into 1979, so maybe they're coming back to it. They definitely were ramping it up before, only to drop it before it even really happened. All to focus on Donna's daddy issues. Yikes!

Okay, July 1978 is even more bonkers than June, somehow. I'm realizing that I'm going to have to take advantage of both the weekly Tune In Tomorrow updates and SOD because SOD is REALLY bad at fleshing out their stories. Entire beats of stories are missing from their recaps, and it's shockingly hard to follow the stories if you aren't able to watch. The nice part about DSN was that, if you weren't watching, you still got a real sense of exactly what was going on on the show, regardless. SOD, not so much. Struggling a bit to figure out where to begin with this. Suffice to say, the Anderson story remains the only story worth watching, but even THAT is starting to get chipped away at. I...am thoroughly unsurprised by the .9 ratings drop DAYS had during 1977-78. Though after reading TIT's recaps, even June made a lot more sense. So... Follow me here. Going back to June a bit, they fleshed out Samantha's story a bit more than what SOD talked about. Sam's guilt about what she did to Marlena really eats at her, so she left for Hollywood for a new film. I suppose Sam's guilt and resolve to clean herself up from her pill addiction really made it plain to Marlena that Sam really did love her, thus explaining her forgiveness, but I still feel like it was a bit easy for Marlena to forgive so quickly. In July, Marlena gets the memo about Don, and returns from Colorado in time for Bill to realize that if he doesn't inject Don with this EXPERIMENTAL DRUG, Don will DIE! (oh brother) Apparently this staph infection has caused internal bleeding, which necessitated surgery. Don gets the drug, he recovers...except HE'S DEAF (I literally hollered upon reading this, WTF!!) He's mopey and brooding in the typical Don fashion about this, and it pisses Marlena right off, until she makes it clear to him how he's hurting her, then he magically becomes tender and loving again...until he decides to move back into his own apartment instead of with Marlena. Apparently Donna is now trying to break Don and Marlena up?? Again, NO idea why she's suddenly become enamoured with Don at Marlena's expense, when she was super chummy with Marlena before, but Marlena is now very resentful of Donna's intrusion, even though she precipitated it. Donna moves into the Horton house, since, apparently she doesn't like Marlena anymore. Also, Greg thinks Marlena is not just rundown from her annus horribilis but actually physically ill (were they hinting at Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?) Apparently completely absent from the SOD recaps was that Linda was all set to move into a new house with Melissa and Bob, only to have it burn down just before she moved in, thus the houseswap with Neil. Neil is being so generous with Linda as a means to potentially get in her pants (the ol' horndog). Linda isn't interested, but will gladly take whatever he's offering (sucker). Chris' job with a rival company of Anderson's was a low level job to keep money coming in while Chris set up his own business with Mary. This does, however, lead to a new opportunity. The new employer utilizes Chris' connections to Anderson to head up an environmental group objecting to Anderson's new project. Anderson's new project takes them into the last remaining wildlife refuge in Salem city boundary (this is starting to sound like my fanfic! Yikes!) and Chris works to try to convince Anderson to build in a different location. Bob agrees, Linda decides to, instead, fight to destroy Chris and his new employer, Jim Bradley, in order to make sure Anderson's new project goes ahead in its initial (cheaper) location. While this goes on, Linda continues to manipulate, throwing Steve a huge welcome party to outdo the Hortons, and simultaneously starts fishing for info about Brooke's involvement with the Andersons, after listening in on Mary tips her off. Jeri MOVED from Salem to meet Trish and live with/take care of Timmy/Scotty. I still don't know why Whiny Trish is so insistent David not see TimmyScotty. A PI tracks down Jeri and Trish in California, where Trish is getting into films. David decides to go to California to bring TimmyScotty home, but the family warns him not to in case of a court battle. Because, even though Trish did exactly the same thing, if David does it, it constitutes kidnapping and will play against him in court. At the same time David plans this trip, Trish gets a role in a film to be shot in Italy (spaghetti western, I'm presuming). She's bringing Jeri and the kid with her. This will end well. Before David leaves, a plant manager at Anderson lets him know that Paul Grant died of a heart attack. He comforts Valerie, and they seem on the path to full reconciliation again.I honestly do not see how Ann Marcus' plan was not to have David and Valerie as endgame, given the way the story is moving here. Why go to the trouble of killing Paul off otherwise? Bland Margo decides to start dating other men after rejecting Mike's marriage proposal. Mike's jealous. A week later they reconcile, and then marry. Whoopie! Steve returns to Salem, and immediately becomes involved in a whole whack of stories. First, Doug hires a new singer to replace Whiny Trish (I confess I've always found Patty Weaver's singing akin to nails on a chalkboard). Her name? THERESA! Theresa, played by Elisabeth Brooks (Toronto, represent!), is immediately Steve's romantic fixation, and yet makes Julie jealous as well. Money starts disappearing from Doug's Place. Robert suspects Theresa. It is obviously actually Steve. Steve meets Mary, and is instantly attracted. Doug suspects Steve is only after Mary's money. Doug is a moron, and hires Steve at the club. Mickey tries to get Joanne out of town ASAP, but Bill and Tom insist that Joanne stay to recuperate, with Bill feeling responsible for his patient. Mickey reluctantly agrees. They'll regret this. Beebs' thoughts: There is too much going on now. Most of it is bad. I really wish someone would explain to me how Trish was a popular character for eight years, because I find her utterly insufferable. Bill and Kate is well and truly dropped, I think. I'm fairly certain that they tried to make Kate Roberts into Kate Winograd when the character was first introduced (Alice very definitely recalled Austin's eyes as being extremely familiar, and Julie warned Bill about selling the house to Jack and Jennifer because "you know what happened in that house", it was absolutely being set up). But JER played FAR too fast and loose with history here. And the fact that it was only 15 years in the past at that point, it seems ludicrous to be THAT liberal with history if you don't plan to be faithful to it. Though, it is telling that the story began under Sheri Anderson. I suspect if Sheri had remained, that the massive plot holes would have been filled in a lot better than they were, but even then, given the fact that their relationship never evolved past flirtation, I would have difficulty buying Lucas as their son. Onto August! Apologies if this is less than cogent. I'm a bottle of wine in as I type this, so, bear with me.

Yeah, Laura...I don't even think was MENTIONED in SOD for the month. It's really weird.I think they had relegated her back to being the catch-all psychiatrist and nothing more for the moment while they figured out what to do with her and Bill.I think the only mention she got at all might have been in giving Donna psychotherapy after she tried to kill herself.