I’m up to December 15, 1998.
The Coopers are mourning Jenna’s death at the diner and it’s so heartbreaking to watch. Justin Deas is doing an amazing job, not overacting at all. Susan/Daisy stops by to see Harley while she’s mourning, which surprises her. She wants to tell her Grandpa Buzz how sorry she is for his loss, so Harley introduces her to Buzz and Frank. Side note, Daisy is coming across way too strong here and seems to have an agenda, because she ran away from Phillip to do this when he showed concern for her adopted dad. We’ll see what her true intentions are soon. Phillip shows up and scolds Daisy for lying to him and running out of the house.
Everyone prepares for Jenna’s funeral. Harley is taking it really hard and Jenna’s spirit visits her. They talk about their past and how they started at odds, but how Jenna decided to stay and help Michelle during the blackout years ago, and she turned herself around. Meanwhile Daisy insists on going to the funeral, so Phillip introduces her to the Spauldings, which surprises Beth. Matt and Vanessa get ready to leave for the funeral and Vicky shows up ready for a Spaulding meeting, which irritates Matt, who then says to Vanessa she can’t take a single day off work to help bury her best friend (ouch!). Vanessa tells Vicky to leave and Matt/Vanessa argue about her working too much again. Matt leaves and Jenna’s spirit shows up for Vanessa, telling her she agrees that she’s spending more time with work over family. She needs to always put family first over anything. Jenna makes her promise not to let Matt slip away and to cherish the gift she’s been given, and Vanessa promises. Vanessa asks Jenna to kiss Henry for her (her father), and Jenna says she already has and he looks marvelous. They have a tearful goodbye and it was so sweet. Jenna then visits her boys and kisses them goodbye and tells them to always be there for their father, Buzz. Jenna then sees Alex and Alex says that believe it or not, she’ll miss her (apparently they got off to a really bad start when Jenna was first introduced on GL). They cheers their drinks and Alex says she’ll keep a watch over Buzz. I really like how they creatively gave characters a chance to say goodbye to Jenna like this.
Blake tries to convince Holly to go with her to the funeral, but Holly tells her that Jenna’s death is her fault and she can’t face the Coopers. Blake says that’s ridiculous and pushes her to go. Jenna’s spirit visits Holly and tells her to think about her future and how to proceed. Holly hugs her and cries out an apology and Jenna tells her it’s alright and she understands. She said it was brave to tell Buzz even though Jenna knew she was the Stalker, so she forgives her. Jenna says her boys will be just fine and Holly needs to believe that and she needs to get well for herself. Holly thanks her and feels much better, it seems, and Holly later says it’s all over and she throws away her nursery rhyme book (LOL).
Buzz is alone before the funeral and we see a flashback to their early years. Jenna’s spirit then shows up and they have a very sweet conversation. They both cry and Buzz falls into her lap while she comforts him. This was some of Deas/Hutchison’s best work I’ve seen, great acting and raw emotion. Strangely, we don’t see the funeral ceremony itself, but I’d much prefer to see Jenna have personal closure with each character, like we got, vs. hearing everyone talk about her at the funeral.
Cassie, still out of town, calls Harley and apologizes for missing her wedding, and Harley tells her about Jenna’s death. Cassie stills feels like she needs to stay away because of the Josh situation and then hangs up. I’m assuming Laura Wright being pregnant in real life is why Cassie has been MIA quite a bit lately.
Being suspicious of Teri, Reva flies to Detroit and meets with her brother George DeMarco. George tells her that Teri was in a relationship that didn’t work out, which distanced her from the family. They’re worried about her and want to make sure she’s ok, so he encourages Reva to make sure she finds a nice guy to take care of her. Meanwhile, Annie is confiding in Dinah about how she’s nervous the drug isn’t working anymore, but Josh stops by and forces himself into the house and ends up kissing Annie. He calls her Annie by name in front of Dinah, which surprises them and Teri tells him he can never call her Annie again, she’s Teri only going forward. The next day at work, he is uncharacteristically rude to Wanda, misses a deadline, and orders flowers for Teri with no sender name on the order. Reva comes in and tells Josh about her visit with George and he gets upset for meddling. Reva says it’s odd that Teri didn’t call her family for Thanksgiving and missed her mom’s birthday, but Josh is still upset and Reva can’t believe it. Reva leaves and confides privately with Wanda about how odd Josh is acting these days, which Wanda agrees. Alan then shows up to talk business, but Josh demands that he stop talking to Teri (bc he’s still on the drug, of course). Meanwhile, Annie has broken into Reva/Josh’s house to get to his aftershave, puts on Reva’s lipstick and pretends she’s Reva for a second, but then Reva comes home and finds her there! Reva demands to know why she’s there and Annie says she’s patrolling the neighborhood and thinks Reva could be the next Stalker victim since she’s left her kids alone before (a dig). Reva then calls Josh and tells him Teri is there and he needs to come home. Josh shows up, but Alan does too and takes Reva outside to talk about Josh. He tells her that Josh said to leave Teri alone and that something seems wrong with him. Inside, Josh kisses Teri and tries to get her clothes off. He calls her Annie and said they need to come clean to Reva, but Teri is freaking out and knocks him out. Reva/Alan come in and demand to know what happened and Teri says he just fainted. Josh finally wakes up and can’t remember what happened, so Reva takes him to the hospital. Alan pressures Teri about Josh and she says he told her she reminds him of Annie. Later at the hospital, Josh’s blood is drawn for tests, which Annie realizes the drug will show up in the results, so she finds a way to intercept the tests and show a negative result.
Michelle confides in Drew about Danny kissing her, which confuses them both. Danny starts taking some of the same classes as Michelle at school and she confronts him for following her. He apologizes, but still seems suspicious.
Vanessa confides in Alex that she’s jealous of Beth and that Beth has changed and she’s leeching onto Matt. Alex tells her she’s never been the jealous type, but Vanessa says she just hates Beth. Later, Vanessa and Dinah visit the plastic surgeon and Dinah’s prognosis looks good. Still not over Beth’s constant comments on how old Vanessa is, Vanessa privately asks the doctor if she can have a consult with him, but quickly takes it back and leaves. Later that night, she runs into the doctor at dinner and he says she’s so beautiful and doesn’t need any work done.
Jim Lemay (Susan’s adopted dad) comes by to pick her up and this guy is played by Anthony Addabbo! I remember him as the short-lived second Dimitri Marick on AMC. Anyway, Harley tells him that Susan seems very upset with him, and she told her how he likes to drink too much. Jim denies it and says she likes to exaggerate sometimes. He does seem like a nice guy, and handsome to boot. Jim reveals that her mother died over a year ago, which means it wasn’t just recent like Susan said, which surprises Harley. Susan shows up and he gently confronts her about what she’s been saying, but she starts crying and says she wants to stay and get to know Harley better. Harley tells her it’s for the best if she goes back with her father, but they can always visit and see each other periodically. While Harley and Jim are talking privately, Susan suddenly leaves and runs away and Phillip and Jim run to look after her. Harley later finds her around the house and Susan breaks down about missing her mother so much, which leads to a beautiful moment between the two of them where Harley explains why she and Dylan had to give her up for adoption. The group comes back together and Harley suggests that the four of them spend Christmas together, which really excites Susan but Phillip is visibly annoyed at the idea.
Buzz wants to leave SF with the kids so all reminders of Jenna are gone. Selena is there to help him through all his emotions and convinces him not to leave town.
Holly got Ken a job as the mall Santa Claus, which is cute but also very laughable considering he’s a convicted felon that was in prison for years. Drew and Jesse take Cooper to see Santa (Ken) and Coop asks to see his mom for Christmas, which is sad. Drew does a good job of handling Coop and Jesse gives her a friendly little kiss on the cheek, which Michelle happens to see from a distance. She later confronts Drew about it and Drew tells her the truth of what happened, but pushes back at Michelle saying she’s hungry for attention and has Jesse on one arm and Danny on the other.
By
alwaysAMC ·
