DAYS: Thursday August 30

[Toups]

Hopefully another good show again.

[MichaelGL]

So far so good.

OMG does anyone else notice a significant difference in the lighting on today's show? You can actually tell it's night in Salem!

[Shawn]

I'm gonna have to catch it this weekend hopefully during the mini marathon since I won't be home tonight to watch on Soapnet.

This week has been fantastic, and I hope it stays that way.

[Toups]

Yup, the lighting is darker now. It reminded me of the mid 90's during the gothic era.

Also, there's no more special effects in the flashbacks and in the previews.

[brimike]

LOVED the Bo and Steve scenes. there was a lot of exposition, and it could have been boring as hell... but the dialogue really snapped, and Peter/Stephen were outstanding. (this is one of those episodes where the "spoiler" would say "Bo and Steve talk about the vendetta" and we'd all roll our eyes.)

EtA: Am I the only person who notices Bryan Datillo adds "I'm serious" a lot to his lines? I hear him say "I'm serious, Sami! I'm serious!" a lot, and repetitively within the same line of dialogue. And not just in today's episode, but in lots of episodes. It's infuriating.

[Toups]

Same here. Great acting by Peter and Stephen. This plan of Bo's sounds very good. Can't wait to see it.

I also really liked the Sami/Lucas scenes. Lucas clearly sees what's going on beween Sami/EJ and deep down, Sami knows he's not totally wrong.

I loved Sami's line about the trouble maker taking the military brat to her first dance who eventually became the love of her life. Nice dialogue there by Bettina.

The Max/Shawn scenes were nice too.

[brimike]

Ed Scott first listed!!!!!!!!!!!

And a new day(s) begins...

[IMissAremid]

YEP! Love the lighting and the camera angles. I don't know if I've ever seen the pub and hospital so dark before. It's BEAUTIFUL. Everything and everyone looks BEAUTIFUL. I think the flashbacks are even better done too with the fizzy fade in and out of them but not that stupid smokey-looking film over the flashbacks themselves that we had before.

Glad to see JKJ and Julie Pinson together again. Just love those two. Although I still don't understand why Billie couldn't help Phillip and it had to be Belle. She said something about the fall semester starting up soon. Did I miss something?

As for the Max-Shawn stuff, I like that this TTS storyline is finally having consequences for someone and that the writers finally found a way to have it affect others with it causing Max to lose the garage and cause Shelle problems. I hadn't thought about that possibility and I'm glad that things are moving FORWARD finally. Well scratch that, I say that and then it looks like we're getting more Shelle secrets from each other. LOL. OK almost all the stories are moving forward.

Stephen Nichols is INTENSE. I am loving renegade, mad as hell and not going to take it any more Steve. Both he and Peter did a great job today, I thought. Also enjoyed Stefano's eyes perking up when Steve talked about Benjy. I hope we get some scenes where Stefano thinks about what his need for the liver did to Benjy because I know Joe Mascolo would rock them. Love the simmering Steve-Bo tensions, but Bo talking about rules and legal recourse was kind of funny considering the history of the character. At least though at the end we got the real Bo who came up with that half-baked bending the rules scheme to set up the DiMeras. Of course, it won't work but I'll so enjoy seeing yet another Brady blunder blow up in their faces.

Now as for the steam room stuff... wow. A few weeks ago I never thought something like this would have been possible. I thought the show was beyond the point where the EJami/Lumi triangle could be interesting. But to my surprise, I find it riveting. The whole thing. Not just the EJ and Sami component, even if that's the side I root for.

I love Sami's freaking out over EJ and her ordering him not to die on her yet threatening him at the same time. Sami is much more interesting this way when we get to see her finally forced to be honest with herself so that we see her true conflicted feelings rather than just her as the ice princess claiming EJ is irrelevant to her or she's scared of him or crap like that. I love the way she fell into the kiss with him when she was doing CPR, then freaked out, then her lips were back on his mouth again as Lucas opened the door, because I thought it came across as natural and realistic rather than contrived melodrama.

I loved the way Ali portrayed Sami's concern for EJ at the same time Sami was trying to mask her concern for EJ. It was so intense the way Sami was making Lucas give EJ CPR and James was effing hilarious the way he made that kissyface at Lucas. OMG. Oh and damn if EJ out of breath wasn't SEXY AS HELL to watch and listen to! But could anyone tell me what EJ was mumbling about the freezer truck after he came to? Was he saying it was an act of grace that he locked Lucas in the truck because it resulted in Lucas saving him this time in the sauna? All I could make out that he said was the word grace. If that's the case though that's an interesting thought for all the talk of sin and grace and fate and destiny around this storyline.

Then when they had EJ at the door as Lucas sort of whispered how he thought saving EJ's life ruined their future that was just so perfect. And when Sami was alone I just loved the way she just sort of stared at Lucas's wedding ring in her hand as she then turned her head to look at EJ who was just laying their staring at her with those big brown eyes with the oxygen mask on and Sami looked so worried about him even if she tried to shake it off when he was wheeled away. It's little detailed shots and non-verbal things like that that make all the difference and I'm so glad to see them.

And FINALLY I know I can be a bit of a Bryan Datillo hater regarding his acting ability but I was actually VERY impressed with what he brought to the scenes as well with his character's desperation and insecurity over EJ and it turns out he actually *WAS* right in that SOD article or whatever it was that these were the best Lucas and Sami scenes of the year. Lucas wasn't an aloof doofus lapdog for Sami today like he is sometimes when Sami manipulates him, but he wasn't an immature bully throwing a tantrum either when he was trying to get to the truth of his wife's feelings for EJ. He was a real guy talking about his real insecurities in a real way. And you know what? The result was I liked Lucas AGAIN today. Who knew? Now I still don't want Lucas with Sami by any means... but still I was just very pleased with the scene. And Toups you are right that was a good line about the military brat and troublemaker.

[Toups]

He was??!!

Damn stupid Canadian credits for still listing Wyman!!

[brimike]

I just went back and looked, and yup... New York credits had Edward Scott as Co-Executive producer!

[MichaelGL]

IMA you touched upon everything I enjoyed about this episode. It wasn't as intense or action packed as the past couple of days, but the dialogue and movement of stories kept me glued.

Okay, I never been too much of a Peter Reckell fan. While I did see him as a good actor, I've just never really been wowed by him since the Zach storyline. It wasn't until today, Bo's intensity in the scenes he shared with Patch that made me a complete fan of PR's. He's been so incredible lately.

Did I hear Bo say "Gitterdone"?

The camera angles during the Max and Shawn scenes outside were good.

During the teaser today, when we started off with Patch's showdown with Bo and the DiMeras, those scenes were really dark and gave a unique gothic feel to them. I have to say the Pub looked amazing.

Belle made me laugh today taking money out of poor Shawn's wallet haha. Belle and Philip are such a good team.

[Toups]

Yay!! The Ed Scott era begins!!

Hopefully the Canadian credits will have him listed tomorrow. I don't want to see Wyman's name anymore.

[Andrew]

Who, Bettina?..............

[brimike]

Bettina Bradbury. the script writer.

[Days4Life]

I'm in the middle of watching now, but Lucas just said regarding EJ "Einstein here electrocuted himself"....uh, didn't Lucas do something similar in the freezer truck? Short memory, I guess.

Also, noticed the "night" lighting immediately.

I missed a big chunk of the first half of the show because of a news bulletin--I'll have to catch it later on Soapnet.