Wonderful show.

EJ proves he is really a spoiled, rotten brat.

Good for John and Bo getting closer to EJ. Loved Bo asking his dad for advice and loved Shawn, Sr.'s response and Bo's reaction.

It's frightening to see Steve and Kayla in that set up.

I'm happy Frankie gently allowed Stephanie to see the truth about her and Max.

They mentioned Italy on the show today. I'm wondering where this is leading.

I didn't get to watch the show today, but I have to say yesterday was so good, I have now declared this soap my number one soap. Sami has been on fire lately I am pissed she hasn't won an Emmy yet. I remember AS' first day on the show and she has come so far since then it's amazing. I think that the triangle with her and Lucas will be hot. I love fiesty Sami.

I hope that this situation with Steve and Kayla will bring them closer together as a family unit, which is where I think Hogan is going.

Why oh why did they let Billy Warlock go? He has been great lately and who doesn't want to see him and Julie together? They are so adorable together, and I think that even though they are married IRL, they would have amazing chemistry given good story.

I am even liking Bo again.

However, I will always see Roman as Chris Kostichek, I can't get over it

I agree Tishy. After seeing old episodes with Josh as Chris ... he was just so *gasp* good in the role ... lol. He's just miscast as Roman. I'm used to him now but I have never felt "connected" to his Roman like I did Wayne's. Wayne proved what a good actor he was because honestly, when he was playing Alex, I barely thought of him as Roman ... believe it or not! I honestly think because of Ken's hardon for Josh, that's why Wayne wasn't brought back as Roman. Sigh. Oh well.

Friday's show was great!

Wonderful show.

EJ proves he is really a spoiled, rotten brat.

Good for John and Bo getting closer to EJ. Loved Bo asking his dad for advice and loved Shawn, Sr.'s response and Bo's reaction.

It's frightening to see Steve and Kayla in that set up.

I'm happy Frankie gently allowed Stephanie to see the truth about her and Max.

They mentioned Italy on the show today. I'm wondering where this is leading.

I always suspected that EJ has been trying to get Sami to be with the man she really loves. At first he thought it was Austin and then it became clear that the man she is really in love with is Lucas. Remember all the times he asked her what her feelings for Lucas were and the many times he accused Lucas of jealousy. It seems more like he posed the ridiculous question, "them or me" knowing full well in advance that Sami would chose Will and Lucas and then he be as free of her as Austin, free to go to the woman he really prefers to spend his time with, KATE.

Not that EJ is on the up and up with Kate either. There is a mountain of stuff he knows about her kids that he has chosen to keep Kate in the dark about.

I'm going to miss Billy Warlock. Every scene Frankie was in moved me.

Damm i've been missing this board..I wanted to post yesterday, but couldn't access the site..

Todays show was just great...First off i loved Abe, Bo, and John working together on the case...We now know that the glove is from a store in Florence, Italy...and i liked that Bo flashed back to when Sami brought him the envelope to get tested and it was EJ's prints on it.. (PERFECT use of a flashback).....I'm looking forward to Bo questioning Sami...

Will telling off Kate was great, and i'm glad Will and Lucas are wanting to make things right with Sami....It was funny how Sami thought they were going to yell at her when they first stopped by...and i enjoyed Sami get excited when Will told her he wanted to be a family...

So glad that Stephanie and Max are through...they are family first off..and there is absolutely no chemistry between those two...Now Max and Abby on the other hand....WOW....great scenes between these two...I love that Hogan is considering this route...

Caroline and Shawn also had some great scenes today..I'm happy they are being used for this story...

Today's show was good.

Alison Sweeney and James Scott are so good together. I cannot wait for the big EJ reveal and I hope Sami remains with him. As a LUMI fan, I must admit that I'm getting sick of Lucas' constant flip-flopping. One day, he is chewing Sami out, calling her out on all of her bad deeds and then the next day he is asking her back? I thought Hogan was giving the males their penises back? Is Lucas not a male? He's a begging puppy dog now? "I want to be a family again...Take me back...Boo hoo!" I'm over it. LUMI is dead to me right now. I want to see more EJ/Sami.

I love John working with the cops again. It takes me back to the good DAYS. I love it.

I'm so glad Frankie told Stephanie what was good. You need to move on, you psycho obsessed [!@#$%^&*]! Stephanie fell too hard for Max and she came off desperate. It was revolting. Hopefully, throwing that teddy bear in the garbage was symbolizing the last scenes we ever have to endure of Max/Stephanie.

MABBY was awesome today! It's these innocent scenes that I love. I'm so excited and nothing's even happened yet.

I still like EJ and Sami - I know he's a bad boy, but I don't care...LOL

And, I have to say that I totally wish Billy Warlock was staying.

What struck out for me in today's episode was the characterization in the dialogue, particularly the characterization of both Sami and Max. I think the writer's focus in today's show was developing some depth to the characters and making the audience see the characters from Hogie's viewpoint. The plot was almost secondary.....

For instance, the writers allowed us to see Bo, John and Abe approach the Gloved Hand case in their own ways (in character). Abe, Mr. Play It by the Book, was upset with Bo b/c he failed to follow his orders and stop investigating Patrick. Abe is very much a character about order and following rules. He establishes rules and he expects people to follow them. He becomes incensed when people don't follow the rules.

Bo, on the other hand, is the direct opposite of Abe. He's the iconoclast, the person who never follows the rules. He just is hotheaded and leaps into things first before thinking things through. The conversation b/w Bo and Grandpa Shawn was nice b/c it provided Bo with character motivation to depart from his typical behavior and allow John to tell Abe about John/his investigation.

John is a mix b/w the 2. He's a lot calmer than Bo, But he's also willing to break a few rules, when needed as demonstrated by his willingness to hide Bo/his investigation from Abe. He said that he could have gone either way.

The Sami/EJ; Lucas/Will/Kate scenes were all about providing characterization to Sami. In the Sami/EJ scenes, Hogie clues the audience into the fact that Sami feels like an outsider in her family circle when she whines to EJ about Carrie/Marlena not telling her about their respective weddings. In the Kate/Lucas scene, Kate describes Sami as selfish before calling her a guttersnipe.... She says that Sami hurts people. Lucas talks about Sami as a friend and Will provides viewers with yet another clue about Sami's character. He talks about the vulnerable side of Sami--the person that just wants to be loved. He senses that Sami has abandonment issues.

I think the scene b/w Lucas and Will also provided some characterization for Will. He's confused. He wants stability and is tired of moving back and forth b/w Sami and Lucas. He wants his parents to get along and he loves and is very protective of his mother. At the same time, he's embarrassed by her as well. I wonder if Lucas feels the same way or if Will is expressing in words what Lucas is feeling. As we saw a couple of weeks ago, Lucas has a difficult time communicating his feelings. He's a very passive aggressive character.

Notice how he said that Carrie and Austin forced him to sign the annulment papers at the beginning of the show?

Then, in the final Lucas/Sami/Will/EJ scenes, after Will and Lucas tell her that they're sorry for what they previously said to her, the audience sees Sami so happy and perhaps relieved to be back in her family's good graces again.

The other person that Bruce Neckles, today's writer, focused on was Max. In the scenes b/w Frankie and Max at the beginning of the show, we find out that Max has the capacity to use people. In this case, Stephanie, b/c he wanted to get back at Chelsea. The audience finds out from Frankie that he likes to play the field. We heard the same thing from Shawn a few days ago. I have a feeling that Max's past in playing the field will create conflict when Max and Abby start trying to get together.

The scenes b/w Max and Stephanie reminded us about Max's weakness again--that when faced with a problem, he tries to run away from it. If that doesn't work, he's willing to be duplicitious but b/c as Abby said in her conversation with him later, he's a good guy, his duplicity doesn't come off too well. He's uncomfortable lying to or with playing games with people.

That scene along with the following one between Stephanie and Max also provided us with a glimpse of Stephanie's character. She is a blunt, brash, no nonsense type of person. I think the scene also told us that she doesn't take rejection very well. Today's show reminded me of a scene b/w Stephanie and Kayla at the Brady Pub a few weeks/months ago, when Stephanie told her mom that she couldn't understand why guys weren't interested in her. In most scenes, we see Stephanie as overly confident--a braggert. But in the scene from a few days ago and today's scenes, we saw Stephanie's vulnerable side.

Interestingly enough, the writers decided to provide characterization for Frankie, even though Billy Warlock is leaving the show soon. With Caroline, we saw Frankie's empathy, care and concern for his mother. In the scene with Max, he's the good older brother--a role model. In the scene with Stephanie, Frankie is the diplomat, but unlike Max, when confronted with unpleasantness, he decides to tell Stephanie the truth rather than allow Stephanie to remain in limbo. In his last one-on-one scene with Grandpa Shawn, the writers make it pretty explicit through Shawn's dialogue that Frankie is a good, decent man and that he's a fine example to his brother Max.

I wonder if Hogie plans for there to be tension w/in Max's character b/w emulating his brother Frankie yet dealing with his duplicitious/user side of his personality. I can already see Caroline or Pop Shawn's reaction when Max gets into trouble--why can't you be more like your (perfect) brother Frankie? Thinking about it more, the writers intentionally wanted us to compare the characters of Frankie and Max to each other. Why else have Frankie let Stephanie know that Max wanted to break up with her, rather than Max himself? The scenes b/w Stephanie and Max and then later Stephanie and Frankie were parallel scenes, provided to give us viewers understanding of the differences in character b/w Frankie and Max when confronted with conflict.

I didn't notice much about the direction in today's show. I thought the direction was a bit shoddy. I'm not impressed with Baffico's direction today. I thought that Chris' pacing was off a bit, especially the part where Will tells Lucas that they should go see mom right now. Baffico should have redone that scene b/c the botching of those lines messed up the effectiveness of that scene at the end IMHO. I also noticed that Ashley didn't know what to do with her hands, when Abby was talking with Max. Peggy McKay seemed a bit off too!!

The show was good but it probably would have been more effective if Albert Alar would have directed it....

Pretty good show today. I totally noticed alot of what you did ademption.

I was shocked Lucas and Will had a change of heart but I also udnerstood it. They realized finally that them leaving Sami will only make her continue to do these things because she will feel alone. Kate's reaction was priceless. I also liked Sami/EJ. They are hot and him being evil makes the scenes even better IMO. I loved the ending with him asking her to choose. Another simple fadeout ending and I love it. Ali is on fire and so is Scott.

I am loving the use of Caroline and Shawn Sr from Shawn Sr giving Bo advice to Caroline's worry. Peggy McCay was good in that last scene. I also liked Frankie's scenes and I am going to miss Warlock so much. He does so much with what little material he has and I was happy he told Stephanie what Max couldn't. I was kind of ticked Max couldn't do it himself and kind of wussed out. I was happy Stephanie threw the animal and seemed to take it without hysterics. She seemed like the strong, fiesty girl she was in her early weeks and I loved it. Steve/Kayla in that room with the guys in white suits is freaky and frightening.

Loved the Maby stuff. Innocent and just simple scene. They are HOT and I thought Benson and Brooks played the scenes well.

I am really enjoying Bo and John together and I loved the scenes with Abe and seeing how each handles the case. Good acting by all and I am just loving Drake. Love they are on to EJ and the Italy mention in regards to the glove was great. I also loved Bo remembering Sami coming to him. Now that is how to use a flashback and it played a huge role in moving story. Can't wait to see where this goes.

I am dying for Monday now. I am so glad the board is back to so we can discuss

Is Ashley 18 yet? If not the story between her and Max, triangled with Mimi might take a while to play out.

They are really starting to add some depth to EJ and finally henchman Patrick is getting something shed on his character too. I've been back and forth on whether EJ is trying to fix things his relatives did bad to the Brady's or set them up for something else. So far a lot of the "hands" work has set things straight instead of setting them awry. Each "crisis" it has engineered has eventually brought people together.

I wasn't too crazy about it. I can only handle so much of Chris Gerse...and he's over his limit for the month lol. They have GOT to recast Will!

I am REALLY scared for EJ. How is this NOT writing him into a corner? He'll be off the show before long!!

They are really starting to add some depth to EJ and finally henchman Patrick is getting something shed on his character too. I've been back and forth on whether EJ is trying to fix things his relatives did bad to the Brady's or set them up for something else. So far a lot of the "hands" work has set things straight instead of setting them awry. Each "crisis" it has engineered has eventually brought people together.

We can only guess. At this point, it seems EJ has done things to get people together:

Switched (or had someone switch) the embryos so Shawn and Belle would have another child. The baby was lost, but a Shelle reunion is perhaps on the way.

Arranged Marlena's kidnapping and made it easy so John would find her, now Marlena and John are planning to marry again.

Poisoned Kayla (even if Steve didn't get poisoned by chance too), he still would have come to be there for her.

Threatened Sami to call off her wedding to Austin which she did, then she and Lucas almost hooked up, before he revealed Sami's blackmailing of Lexie which led to Austin and Carrie marrying and leaving Salem. Now Sami is free and clear for Lucas when he forgives her.

It appears he's acting like a demented Cupid. That would be a nice twist to this story, but ultimately I have a feeling he will end up bad, perhaps with Benjy as the good DiMera.

I've often wondered about the character of EJ's longevity, as well. I'd be surprised if he stayed on after this contract is up. I don't think he'll be fired before that though.

Honestly, how can you KILL someone, have the cops find out you did (they seem to be onto him right now) and be redeemed? EJ's probably the best character (imo) since Nicole came on board (and developed as a character), so it would be ridiculous not to make him a 'keeper.' Even if a former writer DID create him, this isn't the same thing as Dena Higley's "goop," this is another writer's element that you KEEP.