I’m up to February 08, 1999.

Just as Blake and Ben are about to have sex, Ross interrupts and tells her about Hart and they all rush to the hospital.  While at the hospital, Susan calls Harley begging for her help, as a mother, to get her clothes for a school dance, since Jim isn’t capable. Harley promises she’ll call her back and help, but now isn’t the time and she ends by saying Daisy’s name. Reva overhears and asks if that’s her Daisy, her granddaughter, and Harley tells her what happened. Reva is a little upset that she never told her about it, but she gets over it. Harley confides in Reva that she hasn’t told Phillip that she’s still communicating with Daisy, so Reva warns her not to keep secrets from her husband. Meanwhile, Lillian confides in Rick that she still wishes Phillip and Beth would get back together, if only to help Lizzie. She’s worried about Lizzie, especially once she finds out that Harley is pregnant.

Hart is in stable yet critical condition until they can get the bullet out of his chest. While he’s unconscious, Cassie visits with him and she cries asking him to hold on for her and RJ. He wakes up, but can’t say much and she tells him it’ll be ok and to save his energy. We then see Dinah, disguised mostly with her head scarf, watching the two of them from the hospital window. Rick and Cassie leave Hart and Dinah comes in and talks to Hart. Hart is confused and keeps calling for Cassie. Dinah keeps telling him she loves him so much. She asks him if he remembers what happened and he said she shot him, but she says that’s not true and Cassie is warping his mind. He says she’s crazy and tells her to get out, but Dinah keeps crying about why it all happened, blaming Cassie for pushing her to do it. Hart tries to reach the call button, but Dinah stops him and she gets angry at him. She starts shaking him and yelling at him and he panics and can’t breathe and the machines start going off. She says she can’t go to jail, she’s sorry and then leaves Hart. Rick and Cassie run in and Hart is crashing and they’re worried he’s dying. The doctors are going wild, but Hart manages to let out Dinah’s name a few times and Cassie realizes she was there. Meanwhile, Dinah runs out of the hospital but Matt catches her and says she’s not going anywhere, even though she’s begging him to let her go. Matt calls Vanessa and she comes and says she won’t turn her in but they just need to go to the police station and tell her side of the truth. Beth walks by and overhears all this happening, and Vanessa/Dinah get into the car but Vanessa locks Matt out and speeds off! Beth shows herself and tells Matt that Vanessa is helping Dinah escape!

Vanessa has arranged for Dinah to be shipped away to Lucerne in Switzerland, where the nuns took care of Vanessa. She tells Dinah this is the only way to save herself, and the nuns will take care of her and make sure she’s never caught. A crying Dinah thanks her and says she’s always known that she loves her and they hug and Vanessa leaves.  Dinah looks at a picture of Hart from her wallet and we get a flashback montage of their love story (2/04). Gosh, is this the last we’ll see of Dinah played by Wendy Moniz? What a wild 4 year ride it’s been with her (Feb 1995 to Feb 1999). I find Dinah to be selfish and crazy, but I enjoyed the ride for the most part and Moniz was amazing in the role. She was non-stop front-burner for those 4 years!

Vanessa comes back to the hospital and overhears Matt and Beth call Frank, telling Frank that Vanessa has been lying and she helped Dinah escape. Vanessa is incredulous and gives him a death stare. She’s also upset that Beth is involved now too. Beth leaves and Matt asks Vanessa where she took Dinah. She won’t tell him and said it’s not like she can trust him, which Matt says it’s been that way for too long these days. He tells her she gave up on them and didn’t spend enough time on their marriage and baby. This might be the tipping point for Matt/Vanessa, yikes. Matt brings up her decision to leave her family again back when she had the disease, thinking she was dead, saying she didn’t trust him then either and maybe she never did. Vanessa says that Beth has changed Matt and he’s also never really been a parent, so he doesn’t know what it means to make sacrifices for their children. Matt says she treats him like a child and maybe their age difference really is a problem. I have to say, as it relates to Dinah, I really think Matt is in the right here. Ross walks in and asks where Dinah is and Matt said to ask Vanessa, because it’s none of his business anymore and he walks away. This was all pretty heartbreaking to watch and well-acted. Vanessa tells Ross that she’s somewhere safe and she won’t be back. Ross leaves and the cops show up and arrest Vanessa for aiding and abetting a fugitive.

I guess Michelle and Jesse are sadly over, although I really didn’t see the sparks there with the Michelle recast. She does have more spark with the Danny character. Michelle confides in Drew that her plan to free herself from the Santos family will take a long time, but she needs to continue to teach herself that she can’t let people run her over in life. She tells Drew that she’ll always love Jesse, but she doubts he’ll love her by the time she’s finished with her goal. She gives Drew permission to go after Jesse, but to be careful if the attraction is only one-sided. She later tells Danny that she plans to commit to him and see this through, and doesn’t want to be miserable doing it. She wants to get to know him better now and go on a date.

Annie’s arraignment hearing starts and Ben isn’t there. She calls Blake asking where he is, and she reveals to her that she is Annie Dutton. Blake comments about how Annie switched her paternity test results and what an awful friend she is. I’m glad they revisited this because they needed to close that loop between Blake and Annie. Anyway, Blake says she won’t help her and hangs up. Ben arrives at Blake’s and she tells him there is no way he can help Annie after everything she’s done to her, but he convinces her it’s for the best and he has to. At the courthouse, Reva and Josh show up and Reva says she’s never leaving until Annie is found guilty. Ben then arrives and they’re ready to go. Ben agitates Reva during his remarks and she of course can’t keep her mouth shut and makes a scene by yelling to the judge that he must not let Annie go on bail. The judge eventually rules that Annie is a flight risk and is denied bail. Annie freaks out about having to go to jail and tells Reva she’s going to be dead. Billy shows up (2/05) and tells Josh they’re in big trouble because of him. The company is going down and the stock price has dropped, and he needs to turn things around before they lose Lewis Oil forever. There is a takeover bid and Alan shows up and reveals that he’s the one taking it over, and he’s now their boss. Alan makes them an offer, he’ll give back Lewis Oil if Reva and Josh don’t testify against Annie. Reva is totally against it but Josh and Billy want to take the deal because they can’t lose HB’s legacy. Reva is super pissed at them and I don’t blame her considering everything Annie has done to them. Ok nevermind, Alan leaves and thanks them for doing business, but then it’s revealed that Reva/Josh/Billy were plotting together to bluff/lie to Alan and they still plan to bring Annie down.

Holly has now been checked into a rehab facility with Ben’s assistance. She doesn’t like it and the counselor tells her she’s not able to leave, which makes Holly go crazy again. They bring in another nurse and they sedate Holly, telling her that Ben has put her in here and no one will know she’s here. She later finds a phone and calls Blake, begging her to get her out, but Blake thinks she’s exaggerating and tells her she’ll be fine. The call gets disconnected so Blake calls back and speaks to the counselor taking care of Holly, who tells Blake that she has no phone privileges and won’t be allowed to talk to people from her past that got her into this situation. Blake is stunned and the counselor says that was all explained to Ben when he arranged it. She later confronts Ben about it and he reassures her it’s for the best, and the alternative is jail time for being the Stalker. Meanwhile, Holly finds a way to knock out the counselor and escape.

Phillip and Harley tell Lizzie that they’re having a baby and things go well. Beth walks in and Lizzie tells her about it, which surprises her but they deal with it civilly. Beth tells Phillip that this sort of sets her free, but they’ll always be friends. Daisy then calls Harley and says she did something bad because she couldn’t wait for Harley to help her. She stole a dress and now needs her mother’s help. She ran away and is at the bus station with no more money. Harley runs off to find her, but lies to Phillip about why she’s leaving, saying she has an important work meeting with David. Meanwhile, we see a sketchy guy watching Daisy at the bus station. As he’s about to attack Daisy, Harley shows up and stops him. At the diner, Phillip runs into David and realizes he wasn’t meeting with Harley and now wonders what she’s up to. As the attacker is harassing Harley now, Daisy is able to call Phillip and tells him where they are and they need help. Jim shows up first though and gets the attacker away from Harley and saves them. Phillip and David then show up and Phillip gets mad at Harley for lying to him and Jim gets mad at Daisy for running away. They both then get mad at the girls when they realize they’ve been secretly talking to each other on the phone since Daisy left. On the side away from the girls, Phillip offers Jim a job at Spaulding as an accountant so they can be close to SF, and he thinks it over without answering.

Matt shows up at Beth’s door and tells her that his relationship with Vanessa is all over and he’s going to pack his things up tomorrow. Beth surprisingly encourages Matt to go back home to his wife, and she decides to be a grown up and stop anything before he regrets it. Meanwhile, at the police station, Vanessa continues to stay silent about Dinah’s whereabouts. Ross shows up and tries to support her along the way. Ross then calls Beth looking for Matt, and Ross tells Matt that Vanessa is arrested and refusing to talk. Matt is surprised and he and Beth go to the station with a plan to say they’re not sure what they saw because it all happened too fast, meaning Matt wants to save Vanessa. When they arrive, before they can say anything, Vanessa is upset to see Beth and doesn’t want anything to do with them and she’s then escorted to her cell.

@P.J. - curious how you felt about Vanessa here and how she helped Dinah escape. I still can't believe I've seen the last of Dinah!

@alwaysAMC Vanessa is obviously in the wrong here, but me, I loved it! Vanessa is no stranger to trouble, in spite of the way the show whitewashed her past and made her into a pillar of Springfield society. Of course she was going to protect her daughter, and **** calling the cops and expecting Vanessa to turn her daughter over to them was just a step too far.

AFAIC, **** is a pipsqueak who ought to just shut his mouth and stop lecturing a grown woman about her "duty" to her marriage and baby. Vanessa's right---he's barely a parent. And at every turn, he's tried dictating how Vanessa should act. He initially wanted her to have an abortion. He then floated the idea of forcing her to deliver early. Then, after risking her life, she wasn't paying enough attention to her baby. He then went and shared the problems in his marriage with another woman. He's still turning to Beth at this point. Screw him. Back in the day, I would've been #FreeVanessa all over my social media. LOL.

Vanessa deserved better. That's the hill I'll die on. The writing for **** is so sanctimonious it makes my blood boil. I take that kind of crap from Josh because he's endured years of Reva's crap. **** has barely known Vanessa long enough to get her coffee order correct.

3 hours ago, DeeVee said:

@vetsoapfan I had this video in my YouTube feed. I watched more of it and discovered there is another quick clip of Alan and Hope's wedding. I could be wrong, but there is a man in the back on the right-hand side who looks like he could be Bill Bauer! It's at around 2:49

Thank you for alerting me. The clip is kind of blurry (and so is my old computer monitor, LOL), but I don't believe that's Bill Bauer in background.

Still, I appreciate your efforts!❤️

I just watched the episode where AM gets shot in the shoulder saving Harley (while cleaning up his mess), and I believe that's three times he was shot in the span of six years. It got me to thinking, has anyone been in as much peril in such a short period of time as AM from 1990-1996? (Basically Rick Hearst's tenure.)

1. Kidnapped and tortured on his honeymoon in 1990

2. Accidentally shot by Blake in 1991

3. After escaping the hospital from said shooting, held captive by Gary trying to save Blake

4. Shot by Pierre in 1992

5. Held in the boiler room when trying to save Eleni in 1993

6. Almost killed in the explosion when he's lured in by the ex-prisoner trying to seek revenge on Alan in 1994

7. Held at gunpoint by Brent/gun goes off in fight over gun in 1995

8. Held in lighthouse/shot by Brent/Marion in 1995

9. Is basically dead from drowning on his honeymoon but for Zachary in 1996

Roger and maybe Alan are the only contenders I can think of.

On 1/27/2026 at 7:00 AM, DeeVee said:

This picture popped up in my Pinterest feed. Does anyone have any idea when and/or where this was taken? It has to be after Mart and Lenore left GL and before Michael became visibly ill.

This was from the 1987 -Guiding Light -50th Anniversary Party

8 hours ago, GL95 said:

I just watched the episode where AM gets shot in the shoulder saving Harley (while cleaning up his mess), and I believe that's three times he was shot in the span of six years. It got me to thinking, has anyone been in as much peril in such a short period of time as AM from 1990-1996? (Basically Rick Hearst's tenure.)

1. Kidnapped and tortured on his honeymoon in 1990

2. Accidentally shot by Blake in 1991

3. After escaping the hospital from said shooting, held captive by Gary trying to save Blake

4. Shot by Pierre in 1992

5. Held in the boiler room when trying to save Eleni in 1993

6. Almost killed in the explosion when he's lured in by the ex-prisoner trying to seek revenge on Alan in 1994

7. Held at gunpoint by Brent/gun goes off in fight over gun in 1995

8. Held in lighthouse/shot by Brent/Marion in 1995

9. Is basically dead from drowning on his honeymoon but for Zachary in 1996

Roger and maybe Alan are the only contenders I can think of.

I can't recall anyone being that consistently threatened on GL. IIRC, in Frank's years as a cop, he wasn't even shot. Roger, in this same period, was beat up by Billy and then shot by him. He's in some other minor jeopardy from dayplayer thugs when he goes to rescue A-M, but that's about it. Mallet was savagely beaten by his ex-lover's mob father thugs and blown up, resulting in temporary paralysis and loss of hearing.

Now, if you want to talk other soaps, ATWT's Jack was shot/attacked at least once a year for his entire thirteen year run. But he was a cop.

39 minutes ago, P.J. said:

I can't recall anyone being that consistently threatened on GL. IIRC, in Frank's years as a cop, he wasn't even shot. Roger, in this same period, was beat up by Billy and then shot by him. He's in some other minor jeopardy from dayplayer thugs when he goes to rescue A-M, but that's about it. Mallet was savagely beaten by his ex-lover's mob father thugs and blown up, resulting in temporary paralysis and loss of hearing.

Now, if you want to talk other soaps, ATWT's Jack was shot/attacked at least once a year for his entire thirteen year run. But he was a cop.

Frank was shot by accident during academy training to cause two days of friction with Eleni over becoming a cop.

I guess AM’s character does lend itself to peril both good and bad sides of him-he’s arrogant, impulsive, and prone to go full Spaulding when cornered but has something of a white knight complex as well where he’ll put himself in harm’s way. I was amused watching the scenes where the Spauldings are awaiting word on the Lucy/AM yacht and Phillip is openly annoyed with Alan for praising AM for bravery with going to the lighthouse solo while Phillip sees him as being a reckless idiot who does it for attention. (It’s too bad both the writing was terrible when GA first returned and RH left, as there was potentially interesting stuff to mine with Phillip/AM as adults.)

59 minutes ago, P.J. said:

Roger, in this same period, was beat up by Billy and then shot by him.

"Who Shot Roger?": another "Who Shot...?" mystery that led to nothing (except, in this case, temp recast Billy being carted off to jail for awhile). People can argue with me all week about this, but if the bastard doesn't die or see the light, then what's the point?

6 minutes ago, Khan said:

"Who Shot Roger?": another "Who Shot...?" mystery that led to nothing (except, in this case, temp recast Billy being carted off to jail for awhile). People can argue with me all week about this, but if the bastard doesn't die or see the light, then what's the point?

I forget---Roger was shot before he and Holly had sex, right?

ICAM about shootings. And honestly, if Jordan Clarke had still been in the role, Billy wouldn't have even gone to jail. No doubt Roger would've faked the entire thing and framed Billy to try and get access to Peter.

3 minutes ago, Khan said:

"Who Shot Roger?": another "Who Shot...?" mystery that led to nothing (except, in this case, temp recast Billy being carted off to jail for awhile). People can argue with me all week about this, but if the bastard doesn't die or see the light, then what's the point?

It was such a weird reveal because it wasn’t from a singular thing Roger did or even anything particularly recent, and Billy doing it in a drunken rage just made the whole thing more about Billy being a hothead drunk than Roger facing consequences for his actions.

I think for Roger to see the light they needed someone he cared about to be hurt/die as a direct result of his actions, though he’s so skilled at believing his own lies he’d find a way to shift the blame most likely.

11 hours ago, P.J. said:

@alwaysAMC Vanessa is obviously in the wrong here, but me, I loved it! Vanessa is no stranger to trouble, in spite of the way the show whitewashed her past and made her into a pillar of Springfield society. Of course she was going to protect her daughter, and **** calling the cops and expecting Vanessa to turn her daughter over to them was just a step too far.

AFAIC, **** is a pipsqueak who ought to just shut his mouth and stop lecturing a grown woman about her "duty" to her marriage and baby. Vanessa's right---he's barely a parent. And at every turn, he's tried dictating how Vanessa should act. He initially wanted her to have an abortion. He then floated the idea of forcing her to deliver early. Then, after risking her life, she wasn't paying enough attention to her baby. He then went and shared the problems in his marriage with another woman. He's still turning to Beth at this point. Screw him. Back in the day, I would've been #FreeVanessa all over my social media. LOL.

Vanessa deserved better. That's the hill I'll die on. The writing for **** is so sanctimonious it makes my blood boil. I take that kind of crap from Josh because he's endured years of Reva's crap. **** has barely known Vanessa long enough to get her coffee order correct.

I think that's one of my problems with Vanessa. I don't know her personality well from earlier in the show so when she does this with Dinah, or allows her family to think she's dead, it's jarring because I don't expect sweet Vanessa to do that haha.

LOL at your #FreeVanessa campaign :) I totally get your side after you lay out those facts too. It would be so much easier for me to hate Matt if he weren't so charming and handsome (I know, I know haha).

Sanctimonious men on soaps makes my blood boil too, which is why Josh irritates the crap out of me when he gets all huffy and puffy. AMC had a few of my favorite characters that got that way towards the end of its run - Tad, Ryan, Jackson. It's annoying.

16 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

I think that's one of my problems with Vanessa. I don't know her personality well from earlier in the show so when she does this with Dinah, or allows her family to think she's dead, it's jarring because I don't expect sweet Vanessa to do that haha.

LOL at your #FreeVanessa campaign :) I totally get your side after you lay out those facts too. It would be so much easier for me to hate Matt if he weren't so charming and handsome (I know, I know haha).

Sanctimonious men on soaps makes my blood boil too, which is why Josh irritates the crap out of me when he gets all huffy and puffy. AMC had a few of my favorite characters that got that way towards the end of its run - Tad, Ryan, Jackson. It's annoying.

It’s funny because in my viewing I’m up to late 1992 where Henry/Vanessa are scamming Jenna into thinking Henry is Jenna’s father to save Spaulding (long convoluted story haha). I’ve seen a few glimpses of non-staid Vanessa but this is pure chaos devious behavior from both Vanessa/Henry. Jenna is SO excited to have Henry as her father and their current plan is for this lie to last forever. It’s played up a bit as a cat and mouse with Jenna/Roger, but this may be legitimately as cruel of a manipulation as I’ve seen any Spaulding do. That being said, Vanessa/Henry scheming together is fun to watch and Jenna’s childish glee is being laid on thick haha

I do think Fletcher drives me the most insane on the sanctimonious front, mainly because they fairly consistently give him a blind spot for Alex. I’m not sure how you can act like you have the consistent moral high ground but consistently voluntarily align yourself with Alex. The worst is the period when Fletcher is with Alex and Nick is wanting to try out being a Spaulding. (This is the period where I would have loved AM just peacing out to align with Roger and it’s actually when Roger was trying to be “good” for Holly so it would’ve been an interesting dynamic.)

Edited 40 minutes ago40 min by GL95