Week 14, Part II

Edward: "Well, think of it, my dear. Has there ever been such a family of scoundrels as the Cassadines? A clan so greedy, so conniving?"

Monica: "Is present company excepted?"

Sean Swindles the Quartermaines: The rollercoaster's still ascending. I cheated and looked up that the other shoe won't drop until Friday, April 18. Anyway, last week, Lorena found out about Monica and Sean, who weren't being particularly discreet while at the spa. Lorena spends this week unsure if she should warn Jimmy Lee and Alan, and also reveals to Monica that she's got a grudge over her cousin having been Celia's maid of honor. That's childish on Lorena's part, but not as childish as ...

Edward's continued la-la-la, I CAN'T HEAR YOU! attitude as more people begin to doubt his certainty in buying out Donely-Cassadine. For his part, Dimitri wants out. He's made enough money and really doesn't want the SEC on his back. Influenced by Monica and Dimitri, Sean goes to the Qs to try stopping them from sinking more money, but Edward and Jimmy Lee figure it's a trick. Alan believes Monica when she says she believes Sean, but hasn't yet put two and two together as to why Monica has him pegged.

Sean ends Wednesday's episode with Dimitri's power of attorney, meaning it's him alone against the Qs. He's going to sink them. Back at the mansion, what should be a five-member vote over whether to believe Sean and go no further with buying out Donely-Cassadine becomes a three-member vote. Alan and Lila abstain, Monica's in favor, and Edward and Jimmy Lee win with the nay votes. I assume this is when Monica decided to hell with them all except for Lila.

Mike's Paternity and Bryan and Claudia: Hey, what do you know, Jeff's still around! It seems that even though he's in a "wonderful" home and doesn't have anything against his foster parents, he's still lonely. Ruby figures that Jeff's jealous of Mike's independence.

Over at GH, Tania and Debbie bond over having previously miscarried, and Tania feels better knowing that her baby could be like Willie, carried to term and having grown up. (Repeating myself, but just about every Tania and/or Tony and/or B.J. scene for the next eight years is going to be heartbreaking in hindsight.) In other news, Debbie's a licensed practical nurse. I don't know how often GH had LPN characters.

Bryan and Debbie decide that what Jeff needs is a gym membership, so they take him to the spa. Claudia and Lorena catch Bryan and Debbie's shared proud moment. The married couple may be frosty to one another, but they are on Ginny's side, and she's getting closer to a victory on Thursday.

Ruby, to Mike, who's baffled that Ginny appears to be "getting along fine without me": "And what did you expect? You're the one who said you didn't want to live with your mother. Did you expect Ginny to curl up and die? What's she supposed to do, put her life on hold until you decide to grow up?"

GO RUBY!

Later in the episode, Mike hangs out at the spa. He tells Lorena that he doesn't think of Kelly's as home, and is allowed to fall asleep on an exercise mat (!). Okay, while I like seeing Lorena get some stepmother practice in, this is just too odd. I could maybe buy Mike resting in a private location of the spa if they weren't using the primary set for those scenes. Anyway, Lorena calls Derek and Ginny to let them know that Mike's homesick and might finally be preparing for a reunion.

(Oh, if only I didn't know what's coming soon.)

Edited Friday at 08:25 PM1 day by Franko

I always keep an eye on this thread tbh, but thank you @Franko !

Did the youtube playlist of 1986 episodes go private? Is there any where to look to find the link?

I also keep tabs on this thread @Franko but I am enjoying your recaps so the reminder doesn’t hurt!

Thanks for the tag @Franko! I enjoy all your recaps and I am so happy when you post them. I know it must take a lot of time.

Adding my thanks @Franko You are providing alot of detail that the summaries at the time ignore, particularly those subplots for the secondary charcters.

When Wes Kenney arrived there was a major housecleaning.

Thanks so much @Franko

I know they likely wanted to show the fallout of Laurelton on the wider canvas after a sluggish start, but it's hard to believe Robin would face bullying at school over the case. Maybe now in the true crime overload era, but I don't know about at that time.

I appreciate you going through every story, even stories I have no interest in (like the story with Mike and Ginny, who are lucky to still be there).

I hate to say it but after reading about Terry crawling into Jake's bed I wonder if DL's abuse of her went even further than I knew.

7 hours ago, DRW50 said:

I appreciate you going through every story, even stories I have no interest in (like the story with Mike and Ginny, who are lucky to still be there).

I think Rick, Mike and ultimately Ginny were dealt a fatal blow when ABC and Denise Alexander could not come to terms. It took a couple of years, but the result was the same either way. Without Lesley and Denise the others were easy to push further from the center of the show. Had Lesley still been on the show I think it would have been harder to justify their slow decline in importance if not actual airtime, and relatively quick exits once a budget reallocation was needed.

I was a big fan of Wes Kenney’s era when he arrived, partly because of Anna. He also brought the hospital back and gave Steve and Audrey something to do, even if Tom wasn’t cast to be the lead he needed to be. I liked him back then just fine, but he was never going to be Steve Hardy, Robert, or a Patrick Drake type which would have benefited the whole thing. But I wonder if the show would have been better suited to Kenney/ABC not being so reticent to play with the visual style of the show. It was solidly in the top two still in those early years at the end of Monty/early Wes Kenney. But imagine he had ushered in some of that lushness from Y&R, moodier lighting, and amped up the dramatics? As it was he maintained the style of what I would consider the middle to end of Monty, and not much of his own visual style. Joe Hardy at least went about really refreshing the sets, like the Q mansion.