AMC - Friday - July 22, 2011

[Cheap21]

I kept looking at the bench to try and see who's name was on it. I thought for sure it would have said Dixie

[Ms. Chandler Quartermaine]

Can we talk about Susan Lucci/Erica Kane for a second.

I have long since believed this, but Friday's episode cemented what I already knew. Susan Lucci may not be the best actress in the medium, and she may not even be the best on her show, but what she lacks there, she makes up for in spades with her charisma. She is what soaps are about to me, she represents all the best and all the worst female characters posess, and it makes her one of the most well-rounded soap characters around today. Some say she hasn't grown at all throughout her run, but I think she is one of the most well-crafted soap characters ever created.

It's rare, especially now, when a soap character can say something and do something that makes me care about them, on a deeper level than just a fictional character. When she told Jane to say "I'm Jane", and told her to say it again and again, I have never smiled as much, watching a soap, as I did in that moment.

Susan Lucci isn't just All My Children for me, she is soap operas. She is truly in a league of her own.

Sorry for the love letter, but her moment with Jane made me realize how great she really is.

[Cheap21]

+ infinity! I so agree!

[SFK]

Don't apologize, your love letter is very much appreciated. Last Friday's in particular is an episode I will remember Susan Lucci for for years to come. Maybe we have cancellation to thank, but who knew this trite doppelplot would turn out such rich moments for Erica (and Jane, and Susan)?

I think harsh criticism and outside-come-internal pressure for Susan to put a cap on her Erica characterization has hurt the character. I'm all for playing the truth, but a lot of that air sawing, hair tossing, and shoulder shimmying was Erica's truth. Calmer, cooler, and more collected Erica coupled with uneven writing could be a little, dare I say, boring. Now I think we have a nice blend of the feisty vixen who will bite and choke out David and get incredulous over Jack not recognizing an imPOSter (!), and who is capable of quiet moments of deep, objective, self-reflection and reaching out to other hurt people. Had the circumstances been different (i.e., not being held captive and separated from her family), last Friday's episode could have in many ways been a perfect final, full-circle episode for Erica. Very satisfying, whether the character ends or continues past September.

[Jonathan]

+1 to the above three posts!

[MichaelGL]

Let me add that I wholeheartedly agree with the above two posts as well. Who knew this doppelganger storyline would help bring Erica full circle? I think it was a brilliant idea on the part of the writers to do so.

[dragonflies]

I don't like the storyline overall, & haven't been happy that's Erica's last big story, but SL has been amazing!!

I'm wondering now that Kylie mentioned it, if maybe Jane wasn't a split personality of Erica's or something.

[Cheap21]

I briefly thought that early on, but with less than 2 months, I dont see them delving into that. I think that would have made for an awesome twist to this whole thing and really couldhave worked

[marceline]

I just got caught up. Add me to the people who like what this Jane story has meant for Erica's character development as well as those who are glad its over. When Erica looked at Jack and said, "How could you not know that woman wasn't me?" I thought we could finally stick a fork in Jerica because they are done.

David, David, David. I don't know how (or if) they are going to pull him out of this round of supervillain territory. In one episode he throws Erica to the wolves, stands up Angie on her eye appointment and hunts Dixie like an animal. Geez man. why not take a few minutes to tell some kids there no Santa Claus while you're at it?

Whoever said the show has come to a screeching halt for Dixie was right. Lawd, I forgot how much she works my nerves. I just FFed through Tad's memorial service.

Minx is so rushed I can't bring myself to care.

And I love Jesse. Always have, always will. But his attitude towards David makes me want to punch him in the junk. He needs to own up to his feelings and pull David in for a kiss because it's clear to me that man is in love.

[R Sinclair]

That's just Darnell's homosexuality wafting through. Much like MEK's. Can't really blame them, though. Even in his fifties, Irizarry's hot as hell. GUT OR NOT!

[Kylie]

I've thought since Jane and Ben recounted the night of their car accident, completely with blizzard like conditions, both racing to be somewhere, Jane almost dying (Ben not being injured), complete with Eduardo Fashionella as her doctor...that something is off with all of this. It's basically a mirror of David/Erica's accident. I just don't feel like you mention history like, the Eduardo stuff which hasn't been mentioned in over a decade for no reason.

So it's one of three things:

1) Jane is real. The accident really happened, and she really did steal Erica life and then disappear. And David legitimately happened into things.

2) There is something bigger to all of this, and David needed Jane to steal Erica's life for whatever reason and convinced Jane to do this.

3) Erica split personalities after she was kidnapped (by who could be the real story) and Jane is Erica and Erica is Jane.

I've been thinking for awhile, especially after Jane so clearly became the opposite of Erica, saying things, doing things, feeling things Erica can;t ever...that she was just to opposite to be real.

Don't even get me started on Erica excising her demons, and then magically letting Jane go. Whom, still has her face, looks and sounds just like her. No charges? For a women who tried to, and could at any point try against to steal her life.

It could all just be shotty writing on LB's part...who knows. But I think it could very easily be said that everything right before, right after "Jane" and it was exacerbated by the explosion.

[dragonflies]

I can't get over Jack's weird reaction, I mean for months he's been saying Erica's acting not like herself, but when Erica tells him she was replaced with a double, suddenly she grew two heads?

[Kylie]

^Jack's reaction is part of the reason why I wonder if this is in her her head. Something just seems so off with her just letting Jane go. No second thoughts? That woman still has her face, her voice, etc. Jane isn't gone, she's just not there. There HAS to be something else to this.

[Jonathan]

I don't think there is anything more to it. Especially since

[dragonflies]

You telling me as much as Brot has been around both Martin brothers & Jesse, that he has NEVER seen a picture of Dixie, ever?