2 minutes ago, dragonflies said:

Yeah they're basically rewarding Leslie with a long lost mother, money etc and she'll never pay for all the crap she's pulled. That's Brad Bell 101, he's currently doing the same crap with Luna on BOLD 

I don't think that's 'rewarding' anything. Soap opera has a certain structure. If Leslie is going to have longevity for the future to continue, she needs essential ties. Barbara does that for the character and was likely planned from the beginning.

It's also been less than a year on the air, so I don't think we can really say Leslie/Dana will never pay for anything. We're not dealing with any B&B characters here.

33 minutes ago, Chris B said:

I also don't think it matters that he hasn't been introduced yet. You can't introduce everyone right away but he could be useful in the future. 

Nor should they have introduced him yet IMO. The many mentions of him and how dark a presence he was have already built the character up a bit. That too is Soap Opera 101. That's the kind of character you unveil in sweeps or something.

Edited August 16, 2025Aug 16 by Vee

Theory/speculation:

My guess is that Dante raped Barbara after she left the Articulettes.  Peaches said that Barbara gave her the baby on condition that Peaches move far away and never connect to Barbara again, never tell anyone where she got the baby, and never tell the child the truth.

If Dana/Leslie was the result of Dante raping Barbara, then I think it's likely that Barbara wanted the child's existence to be kept secret so that Dante wouldn't pursue custody or contact with the child.

Even it it wasn't rape, it's likely that Dante was physically abusive most of the time, and Barbara wouldn't have wanted Dante to know of the child's existence.

Barbara might have not told Peaches about how the child was conceived, so maybe Peaches didn't know.   It seems that all Peaches knows is that Barbara said she(Barbara) wasn't ready to be a mother.

Now that Peaches has revealed to Dana/Leslie that her biological mother was Barbara, you know Dana/Leslie will go public with this.  Once this becomes public, then Dante will appear, seeking money/power/influence.

/end theory

Edited August 16, 2025Aug 16 by janea4old

20 hours ago, Vee said:

I do think people are right that Val Jean learned some of the wrong lessons from working at B&B. I thought that very early on this year and I think I talked about it then. And to a point, I get how it happened and why she's adopted a lot of that house style: B&B and the Bell soaps are a dependable workhorse with a very, very loyal audience that has served them well even as their quality went south. You can see the stylistic similarities to B&B or older Y&R (and the differences from her GH) quite easily, and the even earlier classical Bill Bell, Irna Phillips-style expository dialogue or family material.

As I've said for months, BTG, even when it's not great, is a really fascinating mix of both very old school soap opera foundation work and fundamentals and very blunt and earnest social issue educational stuff as well as some very edgy or contemporary topics or dialogue (sometimes overripe or tryhard, sometimes good) a la the Prospect Park soaps. It's a bit like time travel in that way. I think it has a lot of good things and a lot of issues.

I do think it needs to find a fresher and more consistent and coherent voice, and to mix stronger veteran dialogue staff with its existing ones. I think it needs to go back into the GH writers' corps MVJ came up with, and move away from the B&B house style. (And I think some stuff, particularly with Vanessa going full crime moll, has been pretty good and also pretty redolent of GH.) But I can't argue that that style does not have an audience, or that the heavy audience engagement and interest is not already there online. It's been serving them well both in numbers and on social media.

I stay loving how you word it as a mixture.

 

21 hours ago, MissPhoenixGirl92 said:

I thought that maybe Leslie's dad might've been Dante Green too, but since Peaches mentioned that Barbara got pregnant after she was booted off the Articulettes, it doesn't seem likely. And I'm not exactly sure how this other scenario involving Vernon as the other possible father of Leslie works either. I could be wrong but I was under the impression that the other Articulettes didn't exactly maintain contact with Barbara after she left the group. How would Vernon and Barbara even know each other and maintain a romantic relationship long enough to even conceive Leslie? 

I would have to rewatch the scene (but I do love a rewatch hehe), but I took it to mean at the time to mean that Barbara might have been booted because of it (and Dante giving a story to Anita and the others about how Barbara didn't fit). Or Barbara and Dante had some form of an encounter...perhaps to stay in the group, got booted still, and then she fell preggers. 

 

There's definitely more to the story.

Well just to mention it again, we were discussing how they would be able to keep Silk Press Sheila on the canvas because she had appeared to run her course. The Barbara reveal gives her a new angle to play and also gives her more legs to stay in time. Cuz make no mistake, her and Eva are moving INSIDE the gates.

 

And terms of story, it's a great pivot just down to how it was set up. Anita's story, SilkPress's love of the group, the presence in the background of Dante...who I also agree is intentionally being held back as well...weren't we all theorizing when Kat and Chels started their purse line that it could be him for example...the skeleton of the story is there.

 

4 hours ago, Cheap21 said:

I dont see a Vernon angle. Thats just fans running wild with theories. Based on what the show has put out there, it cant be Vernon bc he did not come into the pictures until years later, after she had been kicked out the group and got pregnant. It makes more sense for the father to be Dante and we set up a new rival family to oppose the Duprees with Dante, Leslie and Eva as the first members. The Duprees do not need more relatives at this point bc htings already feel incestious with everyone being connected to them

Same.

1 hour ago, Chris B said:

Giving Leslie money and potentially a father who can help lead another family would be helpful to the show long run.

A discussion already had here. This new reveal could usher in the second family that everyone was desiring. 

 

Of course, I'm bias and wanted the Hawthornes. 

 

48 minutes ago, janea4old said:

It's been pointed out that when Anita read aloud Barbara's suicide note to herself and then told Vernon about it, Vernon didn't react as if he'd known Barbara at all.

This as well.

 

If Dante turns out to be SilkPress's dad, I do hope we get a name in that role. 

43 minutes ago, dragonflies said:

Dante could have easily kicked out Barbara cause maybe she threatened to reveal they were involved, to the other ladies, then maybe he kept coming around and then got her pregnant

Another good theory. I feel it will be some form of this.

I don't find any of the Hawthornes (including Jacob's father, Evil Overton) terribly compelling, but I do think another family does need to be built up.

16 hours ago, kalbir said:

😢

Elon making the booty pop too?

Is Carlton the new hotness of BtG?

 

😢

 

They still have good scenes together, but yet. He is not treating her like the diamond she is, revealing how much of a player he actually is to me. I was just as fooled as some of the viewers. That said...I do feel that when he gets a clue about Ashley, he will probably fight harder to win Dani back than Ted is doing with Nicole. 

 

Oh, he did from his first episode. And now that I've seen him in normal clothes (and shirtless online  ) yep, yep. Same for Carlton. That bubble do wiggle.

 

6 hours ago, wonderwoman1951 said:

‘can he not see why he’s wrong.’

well, he could… if the writers wanted him to. 

Hehe. True.

7 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

I think the show does a great job at writing a climax and revealing a secret... it just needs to work on hitting all the beats of the story post climax/secret reveal.  

Hitting up on 6 months in a week's time...I agree. 

 

8 hours ago, Soaplovers said:

I do agree that the Barbara reveal was always planned to be the twist to keep Silk Press Sheila in the mix, but I think the show made a miscalculation by actually showing her as the one to run Laura off the run instead of keeping that all off screen.

Now that we have this reveal, I'm afraid now that they are going to want to establish Silk Press Sheila in the gates before Laura comes back into play. Now that I read that, it's truly on ice again like how they stalled Martin's Secret until May, ain't it? 

3 minutes ago, Vee said:

I don't find any of the Hawthornes (including Jacob's father, Evil Overton) terribly compelling, but I do think another family does need to be built up.

Well, the potential new family would be compelling.

 

But I'm a little old school with the Dupree being the money while the Hawthornes bring the common man. And we know Luke would probably be a bad boy.

13 minutes ago, Vee said:

I don't find any of the Hawthornes (including Jacob's father, Evil Overton) terribly compelling

I thought Chief Hawthorne was well worth watching in episode 107 (August 7).  That was the first time I found the character interesting.

Edited August 16, 2025Aug 16 by janea4old

Don't forget (though he is married) his chemistry with Anita.

4 hours ago, All My Shadows said:

The Duprees lie and keep things hidden whenever it suits them. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that Vernon was being phony all along about not knowing Barbara. I’m not saying it’s likely, but it’s not impossible.

I feel like if Dante was the father, he would have already made his appearance. There’s less shock/juice/“soapy goodness” in revealing that her father is a character we’ve only heard about but haven’t actually met yet. Peaches could have known that and dropped it along with the Barbara reveal, and not a single beat would have been skipped.

what motive is there to lie? She's been long dead and there is no knowledge of her having a child. My point initially was that Vernon simply wasnt in the picture when Barbara got picture. He himself did not meet the Articulettes until years later

I dont think Dante has to have apepared already to make him the father. I don think the show is going for shock value her bc it seems rather obvious. I think they are just planting the seeds to establish him once he does make an appearance and is set up to be a rival to Vernon. And I doubt Peaches knows the true identity of the father bc of the rape speculation which is valid reason for Barbera to have not said anything

1 hour ago, dragonflies said:

Yeah they're basically rewarding Leslie with a long lost mother, money etc and she'll never pay for all the crap she's pulled. That's Brad Bell 101, he's currently doing the same crap with Luna on BOLD

Thats not a Bell thing but a classic soap trope. OLTL did it with Todd after her raped Marty and terrorized Nora. Boom now he's the Lord heir and insta-brother to town protagonist, Viki

Edited August 16, 2025Aug 16 by Cheap21

Agreed, with everybody who mentioned the B&B style.

That, IMO, is basically the one major problem that BTG has because I'm enjoying a lot of the storylines. But rushing though them or wrapping them up and completely forgetting about them is not the way to go.

There's a lot of B&B/Bell similarities in the show, but to me a villain like Leslie being tied into the core isn't one of them. It's classic soap operating procedure.

1 hour ago, janea4old said:

I thought Chief Hawthorne was well worth watching in episode 107 (August 7).  That was the first time I found the character interesting.

 

1 hour ago, Taoboi said:

Don't forget (though he is married) his chemistry with Anita.

I just watched the Chief Hawthorne/ Anita scenes. Episode #19 from March 24.  I think it was only that one episode?  He dropped by her house.  They exchanged some initial pleasantries about the Chief's wife Darlene who works as the police dispatcher, and Jacob's brother Luke who is also a cop.  Most of their conversation was about her charity foundation planning an event for the Fallen Officer Fund.  After the chief left,  Anita was on the phone with someone about planning more for this event.

But during all this, as Anita was talking up her own expertise in community events and charities, you could see her looking wistfully at Vernon's recent awards displayed on the shelves, and also her old awards on the same shelves.

Later in the same episode, Naomi dropped by to visit Anita.  Anita again asserted how great she's doing with her current life of doing charity work.  But  ...  Then she finally said she's not old --- and the episode ended with the cute scene of Anita trying to do rap and doing a fair job, and then Anita trying to convince Naomi to rap, but Naomi was like "no".

Anyhow, now that I've rewatched that episode after 5 months have passed, I see it differently.  Originally it seemed like we might see a police benefit onscreen? But now I'm not so sure.  Maybe it was just a set-up to show that Anita was feeling a subconscious need to sing again.

Edited August 16, 2025Aug 16 by janea4old