I understood it was time to settle Ross down and give him a family. I'm not sure it did Blake a lot of good, story wise, to give her kids. As Roger and Holly's kid she should've had a self-destructive streak a mile wide. But her sudden attraction to Ben was just weird. 

13 hours ago, P.J. said:

I understood it was time to settle Ross down and give him a family. I'm not sure it did Blake a lot of good, story wise, to give her kids. As Roger and Holly's kid she should've had a self-destructive streak a mile wide. But her sudden attraction to Ben was just weird. 

I find Blake to be SO self-destructive, so far. Ross gives her so many opportunities to tell the truth and come clean, consequence free, and she just doesn't. Sparring with Dinah, testifying against Roger, sleeping with Rick, the Ben situation, etc... that's one thing about Blake that drives me crazy LOL. I do love how during this Ben storyline, there are parallels to Holly/Roger... with Holly pleading with Blake not to make the same mistakes she did (even though I wanted her with Roger).

I’m up to July 31, 1998.

Vanessa tells Matt she’s taken a part-time role back at Spaulding which upsets him because she didn’t consult him first. He’s concerned about Maureen’s care and Vanessa’ health, but she’s determined to make it work.

Phillip proposes to Harley over breakfast in bed with a ring worth over a million dollars. She’s very happy, but nervous to wear it. She later confides in Jenna that she isn’t confident living the Spaulding lifestyle when she came from nothing, but Jenna reassures her. Later at the diner, the ring falls down the garbage disposal and gets messed up. Phillip asks where her ring is and Selena helps cover for her by saying she’s getting it resized. Later, Selena gets the ring fixed for Harley.

Through her connections, Drew introduces Jesse to a big art dealer in hopes to kickstart a career. The guy is impressed and offers him a one-night show. Michelle digs into Drew for having ulterior motives and thinks she paid the art dealer off. Michelle voices her concerns to Jesse, who gets miffed by the accusation. Drew tries to convince Jesse the art dealer is serious (even though she did actually pay him to get his attention). Drew is so desperate, she starts to beg Jesse to give her a chance because she claims she’s really good in bed. This girl is embarrassing.

A frantic Michael tells Josh that Alan wants to clone Annie, but Josh thinks he’s overreacting. Josh then meets with David and finally tells him about the cloning project and why he wants him to spy on Vicky. At Spaulding, Vicky and Alan talk about cloning Annie and Vanessa appears to overhear when walking in and asks why they’re talking about Annie. She refuses to leave until they give her an answer, but Dolly barges in and interrupts. Alan and Vanessa think it’s Reva, but she introduces herself as her cousin and they’re very confused. When Dolly gets Alan alone, she happily tells him she’s Reva’s clone along with how it all happened. She then says she stole some aging formula, which is what Alan/Vicky were needing. She also tells Alan about Annie/Reva and the plane crash. After Dolly leaves, Josh storms in and Alan tells him he knows everything and wants to have Dolly be the spokesperson for the cloning division of Spaulding LOL, so dumb. Josh warns him against it all.

In the lobby, Vicky questions Vanessa about Brandon and Vanessa laters looks into Vicky’s resume because she’s suspicious. Vicky then runs into David and they flirt a bit. David tries to get Vicky to give him a tour of the lab, which Michael just tried to get into but the codes were changed. Vicky tells David no, so he leaves, and she enters the lab. Before the door shuts, Michael comes in and reveals he’s going to blow the place up! This man has really gone off the deep end haha. As they argue, David overhears from the hall and calls Josh to warn him about Michael having a bomb. Josh and David arrive at the lab and try to convince Michael to stop. Alan and security then show up and Michael sets the detonator! He starts to destroy the lab and pushes Josh out the door just as the lab explodes. In true Alan fashion, he is more worried about finding the research while Vicky and Josh are concerned for a dying Michael. Vanessa shows up and is distraught and they tell her about the cloning project (I’m glad they didn’t forget about this friendship!). As Michael is dying, Vanessa tells him he’s a great man and Josh tells him everything was destroyed like he wanted. Vanessa lashes out at Vicky and makes her face the destruction she’s caused. Michael is then pronounced dead. Later, Dolly takes his death hard because he was like her father in a way, and she’s never experienced death before. I thought that was a nice character-driven moment.

Vanessa has a vendetta against Vicky now and she does some digging into her past. She confronts Alan and Vicky with information and Vicky pleads her not to say anything, but she finally reveals to Alan that Vicky is his niece. She’s Brandon’s granddaughter (via Sharina and then Victoria), which is part of the Barbados group of the Spaulding family. Alan doesn’t believe it, but Vicky confirms. Alan refuses to give anything to Vicky, and they seem to set up the next Spaulding family feud here.

Dinah convinces her nurse to compromise and tell Hart/Cassie that it’s in her best interest to wait for a paternity test to keep her and the baby safe, which Cassie doesn’t buy.  Sean is still hiding out at Cassie’s and still remains shirtless, which I don’t mind, but LOL when Cassie asks him if he ever wears a shirt, and then introduces him to her t-shirt collection to use.

Blake survived surgery, but they found that the bullet grazed her spinal cord and they’re not sure if she’ll be paralyzed or not. Ross then pulls the gun on Ben again in the hospital. Beth and Hart convince him to finally put the gun down and Hart gives Ben a stern warning. Holly goes outside and takes a sip from her flask (more Holly drinking!). Ross goes to the hospital chapel and prays. Frank then shows up and both men want the other arrested. They give their sides of the story, but it all comes down to Blake’s version to corroborate the correct story. Blake wakes up and wonders why Frank is there, but then screams out that she can’t feel her legs. She also doesn’t remember being shot and then Frank privately asks Lillian to order a rape test. Blake starts to have flashbacks of everything, but can’t remember exactly. She gets to see Ben and tells Frank Ben couldn’t have raped her. Frank then finds Ross and arrests him. He tells Ross the rape tests were inconclusive. Dinah sees Blake and tells her Ross is in jail and she knows she had sex with Ben, calling her a slut.

Sean shows up to the hospital after Cassie gets the call about Blake, and come to find out, Ben is the one who helped set him up for murder. Sean then reveals he knows Ben raped a woman in his past. He later tells Cassie about Ben, and Dinah sees them together. Later at the police station, she sees the wanted posted for Sean and realizes who he is. She goes to Cassie’s and finds him there, pretending to be a friend, but he is on to her. She goes to Hart/Cassie and reveals Cassie has a man at her place, but when they go back to look, Sean is gone and Cassie laughs at her. Sean then confronts Dinah alone. He realizes she’s Ross’ daughter and they realize they have a common enemy in Ben.

Rick talks to Holly about how much stress she’s under and how he and Abby would be happy to babysit the kids more often. Hart overhears and randomly shows concern about Rick and his motives. He tells Holly that Rick may want full custody of his son and he’ll fight against Rick taking the kid away from Blake.

The July 29th episode has wonderful flashbacks of Holly and Roger, one in particular when he raped her long ago. They are drawing a lot of comparisons to Blake’s infatuation with Ben to Holly’s infatuation with Roger, and Holly keeps pressing Blake not to make the same mistake she did and needs to go back to Ross. She even suggests that Blake tells people she was raped just to get Ben out of their lives so they can move on. I don’t really like this idea, but I get her motivation.

On the July 31st episode, a new character Teresa (Teri) DeMarco shows up to the hospital to remove Ben from Blake’s room. Frank introduces her as a new detective that transferred to SF from Detroit. She’s tasked to figure out what really happened between Ross/Ben/Blake.

*The actress playing Teri is Signy Coleman, who was once married to Vincent Irizarry!  Small world.

We also have a new actress playing Marah on the July 31st episode - Lauren Mayhew, replacing the long-standing Kimberly J. Brown. I wonder why they switched. Kimberly was in that role so long and this new actress isn’t much older, so they didn’t age/SORAS Marah. Weird timing too, right in the middle of the clone storyline. Oh I just Googled it, Halloweentown came out in 1998, so I guess she went on to bigger and better things, good for her!

58 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

She later confides in Jenna that she isn’t confident living the Spaulding lifestyle when she came from nothing, but Jenna reassures her.

Huh?

She was literally married to a Spaulding. She married him BECAUSE she wanted the Spaulding lifestyle.

Holy cats, that's just a ridiculous rewriting of history. Of course, Harley has grown up and changed over the years, but to completely memory-hole all that is CRAZY.

They could have paid a loyal, long-term viewer or two help them with their continuity. There were probably people who would have done it for FREE.

Edited November 15Nov 15 by DeeVee

54 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

She even suggests that Blake tells people she was raped just to get Ben out of their lives so they can move on. I don’t really like this idea, but I get her motivation.

That is also INSANE. Holly would never do that, ESPECIALLY after living through that very public rape trial and many, many people not believing her. Including some she loved, like Adam.

The only thing I seem to remember from this period is the clone story, but it was a real low point for the show. (Not that it doesn't eventually go even lower).

I didn't say that right. Yes, Blake's self-destructive, but under most writers, it got reduced to her being a dumb slut. 

Also--a soap truism, the "tell me the truth" get out of trouble free card is either used too late, or at the wrong time. 

I have rewatched part of this lately, but wasn't quite sure if Vanessa knew about the clone, or if she just thought Alan sounded crazy and told him to shut up about his wild theories. You're getting a glimpse of the OG Vanessa, who wasn't to be trifled with. 

16 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

Huh?

She was literally married to a Spaulding. She married him BECAUSE she wanted the Spaulding lifestyle.

Holy cats, that's just a ridiculous rewriting of history. Of course, Harley has grown up and changed over the years, but to completely memory-hole all that is CRAZY.

They could have paid a loyal, long-term viewer or two help them with their continuity. There were probably people who would have done it for FREE.

LOL really??  Yikes, yeah that's bad. I'm into August now and there's quite a bit of Harley feeling uncomfortable becoming a Spaulding and Phillip giving her money to get ahead in life. She keeps talking about being Buzz's daughter, coming from nothing, and wanting to work hard on her own accord to get ahead in life. She won't let Phillip pay for a new, bigger office, so he actually does it by becoming a fake client, giving her $25K for random tasks, just to get her money... and she then gets poisoned by the apple in the fruit basket, which they think is the fake client until he comes clean about what he did... and then they think Beth did it....and I know it's the start of the Nursery Rhyme storyline haha.  More recaps to come this week.

13 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

That is also INSANE. Holly would never do that, ESPECIALLY after living through that very public rape trial and many, many people not believing her. Including some she loved, like Adam.

The only thing I seem to remember from this period is the clone story, but it was a real low point for the show. (Not that it doesn't eventually go even lower).

It really is offensive, and ignores so much pivotal history. Is this still McTrash? 

10 minutes ago, P.J. said:

I didn't say that right. Yes, Blake's self-destructive, but under most writers, it got reduced to her being a dumb slut. 

Also--a soap truism, the "tell me the truth" get out of trouble free card is either used too late, or at the wrong time. 

I have rewatched part of this lately, but wasn't quite sure if Vanessa knew about the clone, or if she just thought Alan sounded crazy and told him to shut up about his wild theories. You're getting a glimpse of the OG Vanessa, who wasn't to be trifled with. 

Ahh yes, I get what you mean and agree. 

Ok yes, I honestly was confused about Vanessa too and now that I'm through the clone story, I don't think we'll ever get the real truth acknowledged. But Vanessa definitely knows about the cloning project, she even meets Dolly and isn't stupid enough to believe it's a look-alike long lost cousin, but then she later tells Alan how stupid and unbelievable cloning is... we also know Matt knows the truth about Dolly being a clone and surely they've talked about it offscreen haha. I'm just going to assume she knows the truth, doesn't want to discuss it and will keep the secret buried.

I do love the OG Vanessa though, it's been so nice to see.

 

23 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

That is also INSANE. Holly would never do that, ESPECIALLY after living through that very public rape trial and many, many people not believing her. Including some she loved, like Adam.

The only thing I seem to remember from this period is the clone story, but it was a real low point for the show. (Not that it doesn't eventually go even lower).

I agree, it was wild to me, but we are in a period where Holly is drinking a ton and seems unhinged after losing Meg... not that it's a good excuse, but that's where she is mentally right now.

4 minutes ago, P.J. said:

It really is offensive, and ignores so much pivotal history. Is this still McTrash? 

LOL no, McTavish left in 1996... this is B&E!

5 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

LOL really??  Yikes, yeah that's bad. I'm into August now and there's quite a bit of Harley feeling uncomfortable becoming a Spaulding and Phillip giving her money to get ahead in life. She keeps talking about being Buzz's daughter, coming from nothing, and wanting to work hard on her own accord to get ahead in life. She won't let Phillip pay for a new, bigger office, so he actually does it by becoming a fake client, giving her $25K for random tasks, just to get her money... and she then gets poisoned by the apple in the fruit basket, which they think is the fake client until he comes clean about what he did... and then they think Beth did it....and I know it's the start of the Nursery Rhyme storyline haha.  More recaps to come this week.

Harley and Alan-Michael got married because there was a provision in his trust that said if he stayed married for six months, he got control of it. They were hot for each other, and realized later they were in love, but gaining access to the money was the main reason for the marriage. Alan actually pushed them towards it, because at the time he was broke and wanted to manipulate AM into giving him funds. 

There were ample reasons why Harley wouldn't have been comfortable in the "Spaulding world", but her having been poor was the least of it. There was always a power struggle on the horizon with that family. 

40 minutes ago, DeeVee said:

Huh?

She was literally married to a Spaulding. She married him BECAUSE she wanted the Spaulding lifestyle.

Holy cats, that's just a ridiculous rewriting of history. Of course, Harley has grown up and changed over the years, but to completely memory-hole all that is CRAZY.

They could have paid a loyal, long-term viewer or two help them with their continuity. There were probably people who would have done it for FREE.

And it wasn't that hard for them to actually just look it up..some of the writers and production staff from that time were still around..it just seems that the GL staff at that time dont really give a crap..they need to keep the plot moving and the plot at this time was to make Harley a down home gal and the Spaulding EVIL..which is amped up when Wheeler/Kreizman take over.  A mere mention of Harley saying "I lived that life before,  I chased it and it turned out to be a bad thing, at least for me and Im afraid to go back."

A bad thing about this time is that I remember out of all the goofiness,  the Spaudling Lobby and wonder why they got rid of it..perfect place for characters to interact and conspire instead of the one office they always show.  Vicky had real potential as an outsider in the midst of this, and I love OG Van coming back (that scene where she tells Alan to STFU about the clone is great...I feel she knows, thinks it's beneath her to involve herself, but wants to protect Spaulding and Michael and Josh's rep.

Alan is acting so dumb and Phillip is in Dinerville acting like a dope,Van is the only one keeping the office open. It all changes when they bring Alex back (who then disappears) and we did not need Marj/Alex back. They were building on Van getting back to basics and Matt being pouty and jumping on Beth. Van should have kicked Matt to the curb, icely put Beth in her place as the pathetic slut she was, and gotten with Ross again...(the India/Ross thing goes nowhere.)

Terri Dimarco could have worked if it was a crazy woman that Annie manipulated into masquerading as her for revenge on her enemies ( I see the real Annie on James Stenbecks lsland living her best life as she laughs at Jeva from afar.)

Oddly this is GL's highpoint concerning what comes after, (Mob/Island.) 

9 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

LOL really??

Let me give you a little background on Harley Davidson Cooper:

She was introduced as an unmarried pregnant teen being looked after by her big brother Frank. She and Frank were involved in an auto accident on the way to the hospital while she was in labor. Alan Michael and Dinah were on a motorcycle that AM stole when they crashed into the car. 

Harley gave Dinah a phony name, Fallon, who was a character on the 80s TV show Dynasty. She even told the adoptive parents, the Lemays, that was her name when she surrendered her baby Daisy to them. She seemed to be very blase about giving up the baby. 

Dinah (who was COMPLETELY different back then, virginal and sweet and concerned about everyone) took an interest in Harley and tried to befriend her. I think they were trying to strike lightning twice by recreating another Four Musketeers group. There was a kid named Cameron who dated Harley for a while, but he and Dinah eventually got together. AM and Harley were the odd people out, and very miffed about it. Dinah and Cameron left town together. AM and Harley didn't even seem to like each other, but they bonded over the romantic disappointment. 

Then AM found out if he got married, he could get his trust fund early. Alan, who was at this point, um, "short of funds" (Phillip had set him up to take the fall for swindling of Spaulding funds so he could take over Spaulding, so all his assets were frozen) encouraged AM and Harley to get married, so he could get his hands on some of the trust fund money.

Of course, Phillip and Alex lost their sh!t over that. They saw Harley as too low class and as a gold digger, and they didn't want Alan to get money so he could get revenge over the Spaulding takeover. Harley was pretty open about wanting a rich and famous lifestyle. They thought they could use it against her. Phillip pretended to be in favor of the marriage. He set things up to look like he and Harley were sleeping together.

(BY THE WAY: back then, a LOT of people noticed the chemistry between Grant and Beth, and some speculated Phillip and Harley might get together at some point. Which they eventually did, as you know.)

AM and Harley got back together and realized they truly cared for each other. Even though Harley was joyful at having access to the SPAULDING LIFESTYLE, WHICH SHE ADORED, Phillip eventually came around and realized there was more to her. They became friends. He even promised to help her navigate her new sphere in life. AM and Harley had a splendid wedding at the Spaulding mansion.

Of course, there's lots more, but that's the gist of Harley's origins.

25 minutes ago, alwaysAMC said:

Ahh yes, I get what you mean and agree. 

Ok yes, I honestly was confused about Vanessa too and now that I'm through the clone story, I don't think we'll ever get the real truth acknowledged. But Vanessa definitely knows about the cloning project, she even meets Dolly and isn't stupid enough to believe it's a look-alike long lost cousin, but then she later tells Alan how stupid and unbelievable cloning is... we also know Matt knows the truth about Dolly being a clone and surely they've talked about it offscreen haha. I'm just going to assume she knows the truth, doesn't want to discuss it and will keep the secret buried.

I do love the OG Vanessa though, it's been so nice to see.

 

Well, given Vanessa's long his.tory with Reva, she might've thought Reva was mentally ill, or playing some game with Alan.

Even as doormat-y as Vanessa was during these years with Moniz' Dinah, at least she's never written as stupid. The same can't be said for other characters.

6 minutes ago, Mitch64 said:

A bad thing about this time is that I remember out of all the goofiness,  the Spaudling Lobby and wonder why they got rid of it..perfect place for characters to interact and conspire instead of the one office they always show.  Vicky had real potential as an outsider in the midst of this, and I love OG Van coming back (that scene where she tells Alan to STFU about the clone is great...I feel she knows, thinks it's beneath her to involve herself, but wants to protect Spaulding and Michael and Josh's rep.

Alan is acting so dumb and Phillip is in Dinerville acting like a dope,Van is the only one keeping the office open. It all changes when they bring Alex back (who then disappears) and we did not need Marj/Alex back. They were building on Van getting back to basics and Matt being pouty and jumping on Beth. Van should have kicked Matt to the curb, icely put Beth in her place as the pathetic slut she was, and gotten with Ross again...(the India/Ross thing goes nowhere.)

And that plays into Van's longstanding loyalties to Spaulding and her friends. I'd have been so flippin' happy if Van had ended up dumping ****, telling him to STFU about how she chose to fulfil herself, and leaving him to Beth's wounded bird antics.

She and Ross should've gotten a shot at being Springfield's power couple.