I always thought the only acceptable way Todd should have remained on the show was if he stayed a miserable loner and at odds with everyone. If they HAD to put him with someone, it should have stayed dysfunctional like how it was with Tea. He should have avoided sex and not had any kids.

I don't think serial rapists deserve happy endings🤷‍♀️

I mentioned in my first post here that I've been watching a few different eras. Lately, it's been late March 1993, so here are some assorted thoughts on the week of March 22 to March 26. I don't think I can do something like this with every episode I watch, nor do I think anyone would want me to, but it was fun to write.

It got really long, so I am going to try putting it in spoiler tags.

Stories commented on below are Bo/Nora, Clint/Viki, Marty/Andrew, Cord's need of therapy, Tina/Cain, Mortimer/Renee/Asa, Jason/Dorian, etc.

MONDAY, MARCH 22, 1993
MOMENTS:
- I've said I don't care much for Max/Luna or Luna on her own, but I admired the way she didn't give Suede up to Nora/Bo and the way Susan Batten played the scene, with Luna looking/sounding worried but not giving in.
- There was a nice, really human Cain/Tina moment when Tina admits he's broke and the audience can see Cain react worriedly to that. They do leave town together, right? If I didn't know, I'd wonder if this moment was going to lead to some exploration of whether Cain could be with Tina if she's not an heiress. Then again, I'm pretty sure she comes back without him when KT takes over, so maybe there is something to Cain's reaction?
- Asa is the most entertaining part of the Renee/Mortimer story. Watching Phil Carey get worked up over Mortimer being Carlo, while Renee wearily corrects him (and you can tell each time she's wondering a little more why she's even bothering) is comedy gold.
- Also gold was watching Hank and Sheila have to deal with an increasingly absurd succession of late-night visitors: Cord demanding Cain be arrested for no actual reason...Alex throwing herself at Hank and begging for his protection...Asa dramatically announcing that "Carlo" is hiding at the Palace.

STAND-OUT SCENE:
- Nora sitting in her darkened office, trying to process having just watched Bo try to beat up Suede at Rodi's. When I saw her leave Rodi's, obviously, I could tell she was upset, that Bo's jump to violence bothered her and she didn't want to be around it or be seen to be condoning it, but I was still a little taken aback by the reason she gives Rachel when Rachel finds her there and asks her point-blank what has been hinted at for months now:
Rachel: Mom, you're in love with Bo, aren't you?
Nora: (pauses, shakes her head, and shrugs sadly) I could be.
Rachel: But something's stopping you. What?
Nora: Bo. (smiling sadly) Something in -- something in Bo just pushes me away, you know? It's not Sarah. It's not the memory of Sarah. That, I can deal with. It's, uh, it's this -- rage. It's this anger that he just won't let go of.

Before this scene, I would have pegged her reason for not saying anything to Bo as Sarah-related, or maybe her insecurity that Bo may not feel the same way, or just previous relationship baggage on her end. So I love that my expectations were subverted, all the more because I know how her worry about Bo's mental state plays out in at least one future story. I actually ached a bit at the moment where she hears Bo on the answering machine and runs her fingers over the phone.

And by the way, up to this moment, I had never once heard RSW's voice and thought, "Wow, hot," but that's how I'd characterize his voice when he senses Nora is there and asks her to pick up the phone.

---

TUESDAY, MARCH 23, 1993
MOMENTS:
- First let me just say that I loved this episode and it was what made me decide to write down my thoughts in a more organized fashion. I don't know who was doing the dialogue, but I was riveted.
- Everything about the Marty/Andrew confrontation was electric. From what I've watched so far, I haven't had much trouble believing that Andrew is committed to Cassie, but the way he was looking at Marty after Cassie left and Marty began to play again? Concerning. Also concerning was that he let her touching him go on as long as it did before he jumped up and told her to stop. But the chemistry between SH and WK is undeniable. Marty confessing that she's just waiting for a moment he'll give her a sign had my jaw on the floor. But the best moment was when Marty confessed she snuck into Andrew's room to watch him sleep, and Andrew, head in hands, moans, "You were in my room?" and she snaps back, wild-eyed, "I WANTED TO BE IN YOUR BED!" Yeah, and Andrew's realizing now how he's made his.
- I am grateful to see that even in the early days of their marriage, there's regularly some light friction between Cassie and Andrew about the expectations of a minister's wife. Cassie back at work as a reporter can't come soon enough for me.
- I get to see Wanda in my 1989 episodes and these and I'm delighted every time but also irritated that she'll be leaving soon. I love her, and I think she serves a function on the show no one really replaced.
- Renee gets a nice moment in the stables with Mortimer where she comments that Asa won't go there because it reminds him of Blair. The wistful tone in her voice spoke well to the pain Renee carries and that informs why she keeps turning down Asa's attempts at reconciliation.
- Speaking of Asa, I loved the warmth of his scene with Joey.
Joey: Mom and Dad are talking about their divorce.
Asa: (after a moment's pause) Even that's hard for me to hear, and I'm not their younger son.
I wasn't expecting Asa to be so reassuring and comforting, especially given how angry he is with Viki himself. But he was pitch perfect with Joey, who has another nice line when he says, of his confusion over how his parents divorce could have happened, "It feels like I just opened up the wrong door one day, and I accidentally stepped into someone else's life."
- Dorian/Clint at the Palace was also good:
Clint: Isn't it enough that you helped destroy my marriage?
Dorian: (practically cooing) I didn't help destroy anything, Clint. I didn't get into bed with Sloan Carpenter, and I certainly didn't put Viki there.
It was also nice and unexpected to see Jason and Dorian trading smiles at the end of the scene, showing how charmed he is by watching her fight with Clint:


STAND-OUT SCENE:
- In an episode full of great moments, I have to give it to Viki and Clint's argument at Llanfair. The build-up to the moment is so fine but so wrecking, as just as Clint is telling Joey that the divorce is on hold, Viki is telling Jessica that it's going forward. When Viki and Clint finally get in the same room, CR is particularly good, as he plays first Clint's warmth and anxiousness to tell Viki news he thinks she'll want to hear and then his embarrassment that he covers with anger when he realizes she still wants to leave him. When he asked her if she was going to fire him from the Banner, I gasped.
Viki: I couldn't even imagine the paper without you.
Clint: Well, it's about the only thing you couldn't imagine without me, isn't it? You don't have any trouble imagining our home without me in it, or your life without me in it!
Viki: You know, I hate it when you do this. You retreat behind this barricade of sarcasm and hostility!
Clint: Well, damnit, I'm feeling hostile! And it's all YOUR DOING!
I did laugh though when he so abruptly headed out the door. He's almost already out of the shot by the time the camera angle switches. I watched this scene like three times.

---

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 1993
MOMENTS:
- Loved the moment where Viki and Tina watch an off-screen Cain apparently wandering around the grounds, with Tina yelling at him not to pick the flowers, while Viki rolls her eyes about it.
- Alex, upon stumbling upon Tina's address book in the middle of her and Bulge's plot to lure Tina to the theater: "You know, she is just not making this difficult for me at ALL."
- Todd's first meeting with Viki? Kevin says they've met at the club before this, but I don't know if that was on screen:

This made me think about one of my favorite little moments from 1995, when Todd barges into Llanfair and demands to see "Kevin's mom" before correcting himself to call her "Victoria Lord Buchanan Whatever."
- I understand why Rachel didn't tell Kevin that Todd hit on her, but I wish she would have.
- Cord mentions a name I've read but for a character I haven't seen yet, Angela Holliday, so that's exciting, because I know absolutely nothing about her beyond her name. I don't know what she looks like, if she's good, if she's bad, if she's a love interest for Cord, if she's a love interest for Cain, if she's something else, how she leaves -- nothing.
- When Cord rants at Max about Cain, he clearly demands to know how MAX could let this happen to his kids. I had to rewind it to make sure I'd heard him properly, and I did, but then the glass breaks and distracts them from the conversation I was hoping they were going to have, about Cord apparently resenting that Max didn't stop Tina and the kids getting close to Cain.
- Love this moment from Viki telling Jessica that Jessica can't just skip school because she feels like it:
Jessica: It's a good enough reason for you! You don't feel like being married anymore. How come it's always all right for you to quit but not for me? Hey, I didn't even promise I'd go to school today. You promised you'd love Daddy for the rest of your life.
Viki: ...wow.

STAND-OUT SCENE:
- I didn't expect the episode to open with Marty meeting Jessica for the first time or for it to be so adorable, everything from Marty's joke about living at the mansion ("It's a scary job, but someone has to haunt this place"), to Marty clocking Jessica's lie and coaching her on it, to Jessica's excitement at seeing Marty's car and at Marty's offer to let her ride in it. I bought them as buddies immediately:

---

THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 1993
MOMENTS:
- Asa continues to be the stand-out character in the Mortimer/Renee story, as when they hear him yelling outside the stables, "RENEE? ARE YOU IN MY BARN??" and then when, after Renee lies that she has always loved coming to the stables, he cocks his head at her and asks, "You did?" Poor guy.
- I said in an earlier post that I assumed Cord is not going to get therapy, but earlier this week Sheila suggested it, and now Max is suggesting it, so I'm starting to think it may actually happen? If it happens, I'll apologize for underestimating the show.
- I did like the comedy of Cord trying to get information from the ranch-hand who is only interested in drinking.
- There's also some nice comedy in Nora's reactions to Tina's increasingly unhinged plan to get her kids back from Asa.

STAND-OUT SCENE:
- Well, it has to be Bo and Nora at Rodi's.

The physicality of Bo coming up that close to her at the bar to have Suede get him a new drink is also really something:

---

FRIDAY, MARCH 26, 1993
MOMENTS:
- The guys at Rodi's fighting with or over Marty was hard to follow (and when I realized the way she was bouncing between them, I got uncomfortable at the possible metaphor), but I liked this exchange she had with Suede, who is not a character I've been paying much if any attention to in these episodes:
Marty: When are you gonna come to terms with the fact that you really wanna come home with me now? Finally, after all this waiting?
Suede: Waiting? I know about waiting. Waiting is ten years in prison. What you and me are doing is just passing the time of day.
- And while the other big story of the episode, the Asa/Tina/Alex farce, didn't work for me at all, on any level, I did like this exchange:
Asa: Did Mrs. Buchanan leaves the grounds? She was here earlier today.
Sunny: Uh, Mrs. Buchanan-Renee or Mrs. Buchanan-Blair?
Asa: (icily) Mrs. Buchanan-Renee. There is no other Mrs. Buchanan worth mentioning.
- Very much not looking forward to the Viki/Sloan train thing. I hope I'm surprised. I don't think I will be.
- Jason taking Marty home and giving her his jacket was very sweet -- they're good friends to each other, and it seems like even though Marty nearly slipped by calling Todd, the fact that she did ultimately hang up makes it seem like Jason's words did get through to her, at least a little.

STAND-OUT SCENE:
- Jason and Dorian's argument at Rodi's. So many great exchanges here, like when Dorian complains that Jason left her on the dancefloor and Jason responds, "God, Dorian, you want a dancing partner, call Gene Kelly. I'm your lover -- that's all I signed up for!" Or when Dorian says, "The Jason I first met didn't jump for anyone" and Jason responds, "Yeah, he did. When you were in trouble, I jumped for YOU."

Jason slapping Dorian back was ultra-shocking, though ("stand out" does not mean endorsement, obviously). It reminded me of Diane and Sam slapping each other on Cheers. Are there any other pop-culture instances of a man and woman in a romantic relationship we're supposed to be emotionally invested in to some degree trading slaps like this?

I loved this framing of that part of the fight:

There is absolutely no reason to put Todd and Powell in that frame beyond just that someone thought it would look cool to show their reaction, like it's a play being performed for them. So many good shots in these '90s episodes.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by sunvsbanner
lack of understanding of how the spoiler function worked

13 minutes ago, sunvsbanner said:

Asa is the most entertaining part of the Renee/Mortimer story.

Yes! To me, he's the best part of EVERY story lol. Phil Carey was the best.

Thanks for your episode write up! I am in May 1993 now so it's fun to read other people's thoughts about what I just watched!

3 hours ago, titan1978 said:

I don’t think they did think it was a mistake to be honest. It is wild to think about it this way, especially because I watched it when it was airing and now this just would not be accepted. But if the audience went along for the ride they just didn’t have a problem in those days with a rapist becoming a romantic lead. If it wasn’t for Roger Howarth fighting them the whole time he would have been shirtless and flaunted as a soap hunk and put through the supercouple rounds. He may have been annoying to TPTB, but damn, I’m happy he did fight them. They certainly wanted to walk him back from being a villain, which he was through the Marty story and stalking Nora. Didn’t he also attack Luna once? She was very vocal about him not just walking free around town.

Those are good points, especially that it likely would have gone further if RH hadn't put his foot down.

I know Luna is the one who gave him the scar, I think because he was trying to attack her and maybe Marty? I haven't gotten to those episodes yet.

10 minutes ago, mar4331 said:

Yes! To me, he's the best part of EVERY story lol. Phil Carey was the best.

Thanks for your episode write up! I am in May 1993 now so it's fun to read other people's thoughts about what I just watched!

One of the best things about watching the older episodes is getting to see Asa when he was being utilized much more than he was when I was actually watching the show live, which was either around the time or just before PC was having health issues...I am not sure of the timeline there. He's fantastic. I re-watched his scenes confronting Renee at the barn a few times just because of his delivery of those two lines.

You're welcome, and thank you for saying that! I'm really anxious to get caught up to closer to where others are in re-watching 1993, from what I've seen in the thread.