And all those returns won't equate the coverage that Mariah gets for the show. Like always, this show will dip in the ratings and then they'll wanna scurry to bring Mariah back; however, they cannot do that now because of the lawsuit. I cannot wait for Mariah to emerge victorious in her lawsuit. Sending her nothing but positive energy.

We'll have to start a new tracker, this time for After-Massacre Improvements. No. 1 was killing off Cassie.   Marlena's making an impressive bid for Dumbass of the Fortnight. Did she really think the grass was greener on her side of the fence? Or is she just that pissed at Don?   Never mind. Dumbass of the Fortnight clearly goes to Jessica, with Toad a close second.   Good God, how many times are they going to rely on this scene device?   Okay, I have to admit, this is pretty exciting.   And so's this.   Personally, I think Jessica's subconsciously figured out the truth and likes daddy more.    

IA.  There is a sense that Tomlin and Lisanti were working to wrap up and move on from Laemmle's stories as quickly as possible.

It still boggles my mind that for a show that has been yearning for a male vibe for so many years (remember that opening where only the guys where in the final cast "photo"?) the male cast is 80% awful for various reasons.

That's fair. I guess I hadn't thought of it as an umbrella story.   GH did have kind of a Saturday morning serial feel for a while there with the continuing action adventure plots. Dead on re: the never-ending Aztec treasure story. All I know is that by the very end, we could like Sean and Anna.   Not to mention the endless chem testing. Tonia going from (good) Grant to Frisco to Tony, who was also nearly paired with Ginny.