3 hours ago, AbcNbc247 said:

The acting really was the saving grace for today. Because it all came off as really messy. And rushed. And at only 32 minutes too. Was it a Jamey episode?

Lindsey Godfrey and Serena Scott Thomas did some really good work today, but this storyline is just too rushed and messy. One moment, Fiona says she feels terrible and guilty over hitting Sarah but then two seconds later, she’s ready to kill Sarah? And looking like she has no guilt whatsoever? What? I can’t believe we got another one of these rushed six month storylines. You’d think after the way the Dimitri storyline was totally botched, the writers, producers, etc. would stay away from storylines like that. Xander, Sarah, and basically everyone in their orbit deserved a lot better than this. 

And I thought Billy Flynn did pretty well too but I can see why he hinted that he didn’t like this Abigail storyline. It’s making Chad look stupid af. He’s a lot more intelligent than this. And Steve actually let Mark go after he found out that Mark was a fraud? Wtf?

Considering this storyline and what we know about how it came to be (thanks to Billy) I still don’t understand how Ron has so many apologists and defenders that were willing to blame the bad writing on anybody else but him. We could’ve gotten Abigail back but we got this crap instead. He was clearly micromanaged a lot less than other writers are/have been.

Hell, is this the reason why Mark was spared any kind of thing with Leo? I guess that’s a good thing but still…

Ron’s hatred for Abigail is stronger than his 🍆 for Leo? 

There were some good moments in the episode for sure.  I agree they never really fleshed out Fiona enough for me to understand her motives.  She says she was miserable for years and that's why she drank, but she is very well put together and doesn't truly seem like a lush.  What was she doing all those years when Xander wasn't speaking to her?  Is she evil?  Is she just someone who makes bad decisions?  It's another decent storyline with horrible execution.

Yeah, this Chad storyline is dumb.  I feel ya, Billy Flynn.

You would think Mark would look at FAbby's DNA and realize Kayla's DNA was entirely different than the first sample and figure that out quickly.

17 minutes ago, carolineg said:

There were some good moments in the episode for sure.  I agree they never really fleshed out Fiona enough for me to understand her motives.  She says she was miserable for years and that's why she drank, but she is very well put together and doesn't truly seem like a lush.  What was she doing all those years when Xander wasn't speaking to her?  Is she evil?  Is she just someone who makes bad decisions?  It's another decent storyline with horrible execution.

Thats another problem with these mini-stories; it’s like they want the character to be everything but by rushing it, there’s like no way to explain why these characters are the way that they are. 

1 minute ago, AbcNbc247 said:

Thats another problem with these mini-stories; it’s like they want the character to be everything but by rushing it, there’s like no way to explain why these characters are the way that they are. 

Yes.  We never even learned much about Fiona's affair with Victor.  No one asked lol.  And how was Fiona supporting herself all these years?  Did she re-marry?  Does she work?  Has she previously had mental problems?  I don't need to know every minuet detail of her life, but we don't know much about her at all.  

1 minute ago, carolineg said:

Yes.  We never even learned much about Fiona's affair with Victor.  No one asked lol.  And how was Fiona supporting herself all these years?  Did she re-marry?  Does she work?  Has she previously had mental problems? 

I think I would rather have seen all that then this stuff with Brady and Sarah.

2 minutes ago, AbcNbc247 said:

I think I would rather have seen all that then this stuff with Brady and Sarah.

Same.

I guess Serena Scott Thomas got more motivation than, say, poor Julie Dove/Connie, but it was weak as well.   Fiona will be shipped off much like Connie with little resolution never to be heard from again.

37 minutes ago, carolineg said:

Fiona will be shipped off much like Connie with little resolution never to be heard from again.

It feels like this whole story could have been told by using Vivian.  I guess nobody would've believed her about the will.  And we don't know if there was more about Konstanin/Victor tale that got shelved due to Drake's illness.  But, this entire resolve is very Vivian-coded.

Unless RonC and Jamey only know one way to write older female villains (including Megan, they all seem to have gone to the Alexis Carrington School for Wayward Spinsters).

Edited October 14, 20241 yr by j swift

Somebody call the ACLU! How long has Brady been cuffed to that chair in the interrogation room?  It's definitely been more than a day.

I had to laugh when Holly said she was getting a hotel room in Paris.  Firstly, who is renting a room to a 16-year-old in a foreign country?  And second, of course Nicole doesn't have room for guests, she's from Salem where everyone either lives in a studio apartment or a mansion.

Also, after seeing this mess of Fiona trying to push Sarah down the stairs, it is obvious that there were a million other options.  Fiona could've denied it and manipulated Xander to be on her side.  Fiona could've blackmailed EJ to get herself out of trouble.  Fiona could've implicated Maggie.  Like, those are just off the top of my head, and none of them include the ridiculous notion that Fiona could push a heavy wheelchair down the stairs.  And she could've had a dignified exit that would've allowed her to return in the future.

Also, did anyone else notice the flub that Xander referred to Maggie as 'Suzanne' during their scene in the square?

 

 

1 hour ago, j swift said:

I had to laugh when Holly said she was getting a hotel room in Paris.  Firstly, who is renting a room to a 16-year-old in a foreign country?  And second, of course Nicole doesn't have room for guests, she's from Salem where everyone either lives in a studio apartment or a mansion.

Also, after seeing this mess of Fiona trying to push Sarah down the stairs, it is obvious that there were a million other options.  Fiona could've denied it and manipulated Xander to be on her side.  Fiona could've blackmailed EJ to get herself out of trouble.  Fiona could've implicated Maggie.  Like, those are just off the top of my head, and none of them include the ridiculous notion that Fiona could push a heavy wheelchair down the stairs.  And she could've had a dignified exit that would've allowed her to return in the future.

 

 

Holly mentioned in a previous episode Nicole asked her to stay at the apartment but she declined.  They agreed on a hotel nearby because Holly still was upset at Nicole.

Fiona could have gone down 100 different avenues to make this story work.  I think it comes down to SST's short term deal, which in itself sort of makes me wonder what's the point?  Find someone who will commit long term to tell the story correctly.

36 minutes ago, carolineg said:

Fiona could have gone down 100 different avenues to make this story work.  I think it comes down to SST's short term deal, which in itself sort of makes me wonder what's the point?  Find someone who will commit long term to tell the story correctly.

I differ on the point of a short term arc.  I'm fine with a 2-3 month storyline.  However, the pacing is absurd. 

It took weeks for the accident to occur. We didn't need three fake outs of Sarah recalling the accident.  And the whole EJ business and the insta-healed paralysis were unnecessary.

Imagine, if Brady woke up the morning after the wedding, his car is missing, and he finds out Sarah has been in an accident.  Fiona is a hero for revealing the truth about the will and gets closer to Xander, while planting seeds of doubt about Sarah and all the lies she has told.  Any time Maggie is suspicious, Fiona writes it off as PTSD from Konstantin.  We never know that she's lying about sobriety.  In fact, it seems like maybe she's a little paranoid or has dementia. Until the scene with Sophia, and then the next day, she doesn't recall the conversation and calls her a liar.  Brady works on solving the mystery and falls in love with Ava in the meantime.  And the final reveal is that Kristen stole the car and Fiona was the driver.

Edited October 14, 20241 yr by j swift

4 hours ago, j swift said:

Also, did anyone else notice the flub that Xander referred to Maggie as 'Suzanne' during their scene in the square?

 

 

I listened again, I didn't hear it. He did say this is... then start the sentence again quickly, so maybe that is what you heard?

I agree about Fiona. I am annoyed that Ron trashed yet another mother character (see Diana, Angelica) because of his own apparent issues. We never got any back story on her, why and how she slept with Victor, why Victor 'let' Titus die, the real truth about her abandoning of Xander. We got maybe two episodes of Xander 'dealing' with finding out he was Victor's son (and not a single scene of him talking to Sarah about it because we had to rush into him pursuing Theresa) before we rushed into the car crash story. We could have had a few weeks of him asking Fiona the whys of how the affair happened and her explaining her past to him and the audience, instead of Sarah fake remembering for a week and a half.

When Serena Scott Thomas joined the show she had an interview discussing an entire history of Fiona as a girl who grew up in a big house in Scotland with an alcoholic father and an enabling mother, who ran away at 18 to Europe where she was used and abused by older men.  Where was this information on screen? Did the actress create this herself to try to flesh out her character since Ron couldn't be bothered?

If this is how they end her character I will be very sad. I have waited for Xander to get a mother for 5 years, and I didn't expect her to be gone in 3 months. Since they introduced that she spent years in a mental institution, have her committed to Bayview for a bit and we can find out she had a psychotic break after the hit and run. Just don't have her room with Connie and Cardboard Li.

Edited October 14, 20241 yr by brisbydog

5 minutes ago, brisbydog said:

I listened again, I didn't hear it. He did say this is... then start the sentence again quickly, so maybe that is what you heard?

I agree about Fiona. I am annoyed that Ron trashed yet another mother character (see Diana, Angelica) because of his own apparent issues. We never got any back story on her, why and how she slept with Victor, why Victor 'let' Titus die, the real truth about her abandoning of Xander. We got maybe two episodes of Xander 'dealing' with finding out he was Victor's son (and not a single scene of him talking to Sarah about it because we had to rush into him pursuing Theresa) before we rushed into the car crash story. We could have had a few weeks of him asking Fiona the whys of how the affair happened and her explaining her past to him and the audience, instead of Sarah fake remembering for a week and a half.

When Serena Scott Thomas joined the show as Serena she had an interview discussing an entire history of Fiona as a girl who grew up in a big house in Scotland with an alcoholic father and an enabling mother, who ran away at 18 to Europe where she was used and abused by older men.  Where was this information on screen? Did the actress create this herself to try to flesh out her character since Ron couldn't be bothered?

If this is how they end her character I will be very sad. I have waited for Xander to get a mother for 5 years, and I didn't expect her to be gone in 3 months. Since they introduced that she spent years in a mental institution, have her committed to Bayview for a bit and we can find out she had a psychotic break after the hit and run. Just don't have her room with Connie and Cardboard Li.

I 100% agree.  I don't mind short arcs.  They can serve their purpose.  Fiona was a character that needed a longer storyline to play out on screen.  There are so many things that could have been done with her.

Also, not going to lie, if SST just created that backstory for Fiona in her head I might love her.  And probably hire her on as a Days staff writer.

55 minutes ago, brisbydog said:

We could have had a few weeks of him asking Fiona the whys of how the affair happened and her explaining her past to him and the audience, instead of Sarah fake remembering for a week and a half.

or Maggie, I would imagine she'd want to know if Victor harbored lingering feelings for Fiona, especially because he changed his will so close to the time of his death.

I thought the scenes between Linsey and Serena were great. But boy…they sure aren’t giving Serena any redeeming qualities are they?

She has had a few genuine moments, but today they pushed her into irredeemable. Still less offensive than the hatchet job on Diana to prop Leo 

9 hours ago, brisbydog said:

I agree about Fiona. I am annoyed that Ron trashed yet another mother character (see Diana, Angelica) because of his own apparent issues.

The thought had crossed my mind that, with all the emphasis on the relationship between mothers and sons lately, maybe Ron was saying something. 

Edited October 15, 20241 yr by AbcNbc247