Y&R: Week of June 15-19, 2009

[lmfan]

She was showing so she had to be a few months along, at least, and if she was feeling the baby kick even further. It is one thing to say she expelled the fetus (which Adam would have burned in the fireplace (sick) along with Ashley's nightgown and underwear), but then to say she has no bleeding, spotting or cramping and now thinks she is still pregnant is asking the audience to really accept an awful lot. Let's totally ignore also that she would have been very sore from falling down the stairs.

When you consider the bulk of the audience are women, many of whom have given birth, been pregnant, or sadly may have sufferred a miscarriage in real life this story is really pushing the boundary of good taste. That's why I think this asppect of the Adam/Ashley story is so very tasteless at this point. It was one thing to have her being gaslighting by Adam, but to really accept what has happened to Ashley and her fetus is disturbing and not in a good way.

[cara mia]

Is ED right? So that means Adam was cleaning up/burning a dead fetus. Oh, my! Then again Ashley carrying around a dead fetus is also heinous. No win on this one. A woman can have a dead fetus inside of her for a while and even deliver it. It's rare but possible.

Sharon's baby is kicking, so going by Y&R's ever shifting time-line, Ashley's fetus should have been AT LEAST 16 weeks -- looks like a tiny kid, about 5 inches long, weighs about 4-5 ounces. It's probably closer to 20 weeks, even though Sharon's not showing -- Ashley is/was, and some women don't show until the sixth month.

I am and will always be a fan of Y&R's corporate stories. It's a great way to umbrella a lot of the disparate characters. You have three companies here:

• CI:you can have Kevin working at CI, being a pain to Neil, and Mac heading the philanthropy department, and Cane sitting on the board and you can have Katherine funding Amber's design business but Amber still having to report to Kevin & Neil on the numbers
• Jabot: Tyra is born to model, use this as a way to reinvent the character. With Jack, Billy and Ashley all in their own worlds, CI could pitch a fit about the poor management and Neil could throw his weight around. Hell, Neil could go ahead and hire Jill to run Jabot if he thinks the Abbotts can't pull their own weight.
• NE: Does Devon still intern there? And the whole Colleen on the board story and maybe causing a rift between JToria is a possible plot. Plus Nick & Vicky clashing. And surely not-blind Adam could get his hands on some insider information and either use it make some money and/or sabotage NE.

A good corporate story would also be to have CI, Jabot or NE buy out Restless Style and thus forcing Nikki and Phyllis to report into someone. I like the idea of NE buying it but any of the three would yield story.

[Juliajms]

I'll miss CE, but I'm still excited for the new guy to show up.

I agree. I would have rather she carried this baby to term and Adam just screwed with her mental state and trashed her relationship with Victor.

[lmfan]

They could have been a couple to root for. This is bad storytelling IMO. In her rush to bring on Mac for some bizarre reason MAB has failed to play what is right in front of her. They should have let Billy and Chloe start to have genuine feelings for each other and then brought back Mac. Now we are being force fed a couple that lacks chemistry while another couple that had tons of chemistry was not given the chance to develop into anything.

[MarkH]

OMG. Burned a fetus? Really? You think that happened? Adam burned a dead baby?

NO WONDER ENGEN QUIT.

I'm just reeling here, ladies.

Adam burned a dead baby? I'm taking Eileen at her word and assuming there is no "residual" left inside her. (Do you think Dr. Taylor did a homemade D&C?).

Adam burned a fetus? I'm just...appalled.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Ashley was pregnant for what? 6 months? That's a huge fetus for that body to just expel like that. I don't buy that Ashley wouldn't know something that big came out of her and isn't suffering any health ramifications because it.

[lmfan]

I honestly don't know why they didn't do that. They should have let Ashley go further along before having her lose the baby or having a still birth, and then they could have made their baby switch which I think they are likely going for. What was the point of having her lose the fetus so early and also to give her a OB/GYN who is being blackmailed because he has sexually molested former patients. Yet another pleasant thought for women. Ashley will be having her examinations performed by a sexual molester.

[MarkH]

I wish I could remember when she announced the pregnancy. I'm thinking February. If that is right, let's say she conceived in January which would have made her five months pregnant.

You're right...in real life, she would have likely needed a D&C.

But whether it was tiny or big, I'm just sitting here shocked and appalled. I kind of figured "Oh, well, he burned a bloody towel". It never crossed my mind he might have burned up the residuals of that baby!!! But of course he did. How AWFUL.

I think this should forever put to rest all the aspersions about about why CE quit. Burning dead babies is really far, far beyond anything reasonable. I could see how that would mess with a man's head. As the father of a 10-year old son, I could totally see how that would be the straw that broke the camel's back.

[cara mia]

I do wish MM the best but I am the kind of annoying viewer that is slow to warm to recasts. My bad, I know. It's even harder in the case because I am such a fan of CE but hey, the show must go on. Anyone think this the episode where CE had his sick day and officially quit? I bet there was supposed to be a scene of the doctor taking to Adam in person that was turned into that phone conversation.

One part I would LOVE to see recast -- Mac!!! How much longer do we have to put up with Clementine Ford? Lord, I would rather watch CE in a dress play Mac than to have to watch another moment of Miss Ford. It's doubly frustrating because Mac isn't that hard of a role to cast. Why couldn't we have Eden Riegel as Mac? Can you imagine the delicious enemy chemistry between her Mac and Chloe? And I have no doubt she would be hot with BM or any guy they threw her way.

[MarkH]

I confess I couldn't look at Dr. Taylor today, thinking of what he has done to molest women.

I like that Taylor knows his fate: "Victor Newman will crush me like a bug". Yup.

[lmfan]

It's a sick thought, but if her body expelled the fetus he had to get rid of the evidence somehow and Adam did go on and on about how much blood there was. The fetus would not just disappear. If she did not expel the fetus and it was still inside her, there would be a high chance of infection.

Ashley would have to go into his office for a D&C and I don't know how she would not know this was happening to her. It's not the most pleasant experience.

This is actually turning my stomach to think about this. I wonder how the general audience is reacting to this turn of events. Maybe they didn't think of all the ramifications although I know that is exactly where my mind went as soon as she fell down the stairs.

[MarkH]

I really don't see Riegel in the Mac part...although she does have a certain resemblance with Denise Duff, who played her mom.

But Rachel Kimsey lost the part, in part, because of a certain perky Mary-Tyler-Moore nature that didn't befit her "former runaway/step-daughter of a molester" backstory. Riegel just doesn't fit in my mind's eye, although I admit she'd be fun to see paired with EH again.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

I would think so, since two prior recasts failed, and some are slow to warm up to the current one.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Do we know if Ashley's body expelled the fetus though? I would think it would be a bigger mess that a simple bloody towel wouldn't be able to clean up. Part of that towel was clean too, and Nikki didn't notice any blood on it from the side she was holding.

[Juliajms]

Yeah, I'm just trying to block that part out. Seriously. I'm planning on having a baby next year and I really need to not have any of that in my mind, if you know what I mean. I don't care if it is denial, I live in a world where my doctor has no interest in me as a woman, especially when I'm pregnant. I may have to check out female doctors...