All My Children: Monday 5.24.10

[Kylie]

I'm going to be the voice of dissent, cause I wasn't that overly impressed with the Erica/Caleb stuff. I liked Caleb, and I thought he was hilarious. And he and Erica do have chemistry...the acting was a bit off for me. Susan especially seemed to struggle at more then a few points. Could just be them falling into sync with one another. But I didn't hate it, I just wasn't as impressed as most.

David---okay, not as much as of a bastard as I'd heard. There was panic there. Wasn't a fan of him trying to pin the whole thing on Erica, love Greenlee calling him on that fact though. Wasn't a fan of him trying to tell Greenlee that PV will blame HER, either. Loved her calling him on it.

What was with the music in scenes? It was louder and more....contemporary? then it's been before. I heard it most in a few of the D&G scenes, and when Scott was talking to Stuart's picture.

[Steve]

I understood it as well. As you said, it was clearly explained on Friday.

Overall, this was a really good episode, imo.

I wasn't expecting to like Caleb/Erica as much as I did. His gruff manner reminds me of her scenes with Matt (Michael Tylo's character) back in the 1980s, though the writers back then never tried to pair them; he just stayed at her house briefly (I can't remember who invited him, possibly Mark? I remember Erica's maid Coral throwing herself at him).

Marissa hasn't quite gotten just how big a threat Annie is if that was the best she could give. I loved Annie's cool reaction to her. I also loved the Annie/JR scene at the end.

As far as David goes, it's just so evident that he only intended for Erica's plane to be grounded. Now, if McTavish or Pratt had written this, he would have been the one-dimensional villain, but as it was written, he's genuinely upset that her plane took off. I'm relieved that Greenlee found out the truth so quickly and I think it's going to be fun to watch the 2 of them work together to cover this up from everyone else!

[R Sinclair]

He didn't try to pin the whole thing on Erica.

David: "I was just trying to ground the plane, stall her so that the scandal would hit the fan at Fusion. How the hell was I supposed to know that she'd be stupid enough to take off before the pilot had a chance to inspect the damn thing?"

Greenlee: "Oh, so this is Erica's fault."

David: "All right, look, don't put words in my mouth, please."

There's nothing but truth in that statement. Erica was the variable that changed the plan David set into motion. I concur. Who the hell would be stupid enough to insist on taking off in a plane when a pilot says they're performing an inspection? David gave Erica credit for having common sense. Oops.

And how did Greenlee call David out on saying PV will blame her?

David: "People will immediately look right in your direction."

Greenlee: "My direction? I had nothing to do with this."

David: "Yeah, but that doesn't mean they won't blame you. Your own father thought you had something to do with Erica's missing funds. What conclusion could anybody possibly draw once it comes out that somebody tampered with that plane right before Erica was about to take over your company?"

Greenlee: "This is a nightmare."

[SFK]

Insisting that a plane that needs maintenance take off is a DUMB move, but that's like taking a chance and hopping in your car when someone tells you there's something funky with your breaks... you are a dummy to take the risk, but you are not the villain who had your breaks cut. I don't think we need to be throwing Erica under the fuselage in order to prop David. x∞

And what fool pilot goes along with that anyway?

[R Sinclair]

Whatever.

People who know how to read what is actually written, the transcript is up there. You can determine for yourself if David was trying to pin the whole thing on Erica or not.

Also for those same people, my post is up there. You can determine for yourself if I was throwing Erica under that cliched bus in order prop David (can we please get some new words to describe when someone expresses a slightly positive opinion about characters we hate?) or not.

[Khan]

Here's my question: why must David have involved himself with Erica's plane at all? Yeah, I get it, he's a bad, bad man. But tampering with an airplane, IMO, is pretty low, regardless of who ordered the takeoff, or who ultimately crashed the mutha. Whatever happened to ne'er-do-well with limits?

For the record: I'm not saying David was trying to pin the whole disaster on Erica or Greenlee, or that either woman was thrown under any buses ("thrown under buses"? God, we some violent sons-of-bitches, ain't we?) in order to prop David. I'm just wondering whether David could have waited until Erica had returned from Dogpatch Hooterville Mayberry Oh-I-give-up to pull some reasonable stunt so that Erica could be there when the fit really hit the shan @ Fusion; and whether it would've been more interesting if the plane had crashed -- without David having anything to do with it whatsoever -- w/ David and Greenlee torn between feeling grief over the tragedy and feeling like this is a "win" for their agenda in taking over Fusion.

[Southofnowhere]

David belongs in prison.

[Southofnowhere]

They couldn't care less if Erica is dead!

[DeeeDee]

Amen.

[alexisfan07]

I. LOVE. CALEB.

That is all.

[dragonflies]

Okay, so Caleb took the pilot to the hospital with an ATV he borrowed, why didn't he just take Erica to town if she irritates him that much?

[All My Shadows]

Come on, now. Jaded as he may be, he still want dat tang.

[SFK]

(Refraining from ribald joke involving Rica's showerless weeks in the wilderness and "tang".)

[Khan]

Maybe he was hoping the bear would eat her this time?

[SFK]

Don't. I'm degreed from one of the top acting conservatories in the nation. If I can break down Shakespeare, Strindberg, and Shaw, I certainly can break down Swajeski and Sinclair. I didn't say that David was trying to pin it all on Erica, but he was definitely downplaying his responsibility. You tend to defend/side with David, and I am often in agreement. Just not in this instance. As I said in my earlier post, I think the writers put David in an unfortunate position tying him to this. I like David the villain, the villainized, when he has these wonderful moments of revealing the hypocrisy of "heros", the dirty underlying truth. But when he's playing life and death games, regardless of his intentions, he doesn't deserve any passes. Regretting that your plan went awry doesn't change the fact that you [!@#$%^&*] with somebody's aeroplane. Having said that, when we rob David of his dirty deeds, we've lost the character. So foul ups like this one are essential to balance out his fluffy moments with Greenlee.

(And my use of "under the [bus]" and "prop" was a playful nod to the *infamous* spats between you and DeeeDee. )