BTG: April 2026 Discussion Thread

Ready for another amazing month of this amazing soap opera.

I do wish Tomas was portrayed by a stronger actor, but I'm here for Hayley vs Tomas, also Lynette vs Kat. Please give more Vernon vs Leslie and Bill vs Andre!

I'm curious how the plasma ring moves forward. I hope it is moved along quicker, but I do not want anything to happen to Jacob (maybe other than an injury). I think it would be a mistake to let go a Hawthorne brother. There could be so many ramifications for those on the canvas. Don't mess it up! Keep it messy.

Fingers crossed the ratings keep up and continue grow!

Writers:
Teresa Zimmerman
Jazmen Darnell Brown

Director:
Steven Williford

original release date: Wednesday, April 1, 2026 | writers: Teresa Zimmerman, Jazmen Darnell Brown | director: Steven Williford

Thoughts:

• Ted recovered his slip of tongue quite nicely. However, it does feel like Shancie was hoping it was not a slip.

• I know I appreciated Deanna yesterday, but today she is crossing a line she should not be. She needs to know her place as Vanessa's daughter and verbally bashing you like that is not the thing to do. And Donnell's heartbreak is just written all over his face, too.

• At least Katherine was smart enough to involve a legal mind (Naomi) in the process. Naomi can offer the necessary context. I just hope she listens.

• I appreciate Eva going to Joey and talking about his history with Izaiah. I just hope the talk goes well and does not backfire on anyone.

• Joey just caught Hayley out... and he is not going to let his foot off of Hayley's con artist neck.

• Carlton may trust the process, but his continued jealousy is going to prove to be a difficulty that I do not think Nicole will be able to handle at the end of the day. He is way too stubborn, too.

• Good on Eva for talking about her experiences with Izaiah; perhaps her advice might just help him with his budding romance with Shanice. Hopefully!

• See, Katherine, Eva was trying to be the bigger person and walk away. Instead, you have to be the childish one. Stop it and get over it.

• This double date will be awkwardly interesting with lots of snarky jabs. I cannot wait.

• Naomi is resorting to underhanded tactics. I love it. Gag her! Get her! Yes!

• Joey is projecting his own dirty dealings and preying on those with addictions onto Carlton and Nicole, and neither of them are allowing him to bring them down. Outstanding.

Notes:

• Zimmerman's breakdowns recently have been a bit disappointing. I am hoping this downward trend does not continue, because they began strong. No backtracking.

• Lauren Buglioli (Vanessa), Alex Cheeks (Donnell), and Angela Fairley (Deanna) did OUTSTANDING work today! I was so compelled and trapped in their scenes together. They produced such a range of work. Wowza!

• A grand start to April! I cannot stop watching this soap; it's classic goodness, so deliciously character-driven, and perfectly paced.

So many great scenes today.

Cant wait to see more of this double date lol

Out of town visiting my Mom and we watched live. We were both gasping at Joey, loving Ted and Shanice, and thinking Haley's misdeeds may be coming back around to bite her in the ass.

What's with Eva glazing Joey over Izaiah -- giving him credit for saving him while she disses Izaiah's family at the same time?

I just can't with this show giving flowers to the White Man who saves everyone and also runs the town. Has MAGA infiltrated this writing staff?

That entire conversation made me sick.

17 minutes ago, MontyB said:

Out of town visiting my Mom and we watched live. We were both gasping at Joey, loving Ted and Shanice, and thinking Haley's misdeeds may be coming back around to bite her in the ass.

I know, right? And enjoy your visiting time!

It's definitely not a MAGA thing with Joey. tbqh I think offloading most of the criminal shenanigans onto the white characters might be a note from one of the show's more prominent production partners, in terms of keeping the Dupree core characters more clean out of concerns for representation. Which is a mistake IMO.

Edited 3 hours ago3 hr by Vee

1 hour ago, ranger1rg said:

What's with Eva glazing Joey over Izaiah -- giving him credit for saving him while she disses Izaiah's family at the same time?

I just can't with this show giving flowers to the White Man who saves everyone and also runs the town. Has MAGA infiltrated this writing staff?

That entire conversation made me sick.

Can you keep the politics out of the soap opera board. It would be nice to have one place where that's kept to a minimum.

To me, Joey is the heavy in order to ensure that the Duprees and Duprees adjacent have their hands clean.. and since Joey is in good with the police.. it seems like a win win (even if it's totally unethical).

1 hour ago, Vee said:

It's definitely not a MAGA thing with Joey. tbqh I think offloading most of the criminal shenanigans onto the white characters might be a note from one of the show's more prominent production partners, in terms of keeping the Dupree core characters more clean out of concerns for representation. Which is a mistake IMO.

MVJ wanted to prove with her show that people of color could be "messy" as well as white people, but about the only messy things I've seen on BTG's core family is some of Tamara Tunie's wardrobe.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by Khan

55 minutes ago, Soaplovers said:

Can you keep the politics out of the soap opera board. It would be nice to have one place where that's kept to a minimum.

To me, Joey is the heavy in order to ensure that the Duprees and Duprees adjacent have their hands clean.. and since Joey is in good with the police.. it seems like a win win (even if it's totally unethical).

My MAGA reference was inelegant, I admit. I could have made the same point without mentioning MAGA, but I was not trying to inject politics here. GMAB with that.

Keeping the Duprees and the Dupree-adjacent clean? Sorry, this is a soap opera. Keeping 90% of the characters clean is a terrible idea. It's an even worse Idea when the white guy is pictured as the savior, and I don't see any winning about it.

Just now, Khan said:

MVJ wanted to prove with her show that people of color could be "messy" as well as white people, but about the only messy things I've seen on BTG's core family is some of Tamara Tunie's wardrobe.

Thank you. That's exactly how I feel. The writing works overtime to keep this BTG core family clean, and the messiness we do get is so minor it's cleared up immediately.

And again, I am disgusted that Joey of all people is painted as the guy who cleans up so much mess and who has so much power. I think this is an incredibly wrong and awful move by the show. I am stunned that more people aren't disgusted with Eva's visit to Joey to thank him for essentially saving Izaiah. All of that made me sick.

One problem is that the show never credibly explained the chasm between Izaiah and his father. We know they don't get along, but I haven't seen ANY scenes that tell me why this break is so deep.

And didn't Izaiah have a mother? And brothers? He had a family around him to "save" him. Instead he needed fcuking Joey Armstrong. A better story would have been that this mobster in the pleather jacket tried to recruit him to the dark side -- and failed.

Deanna has Vanessa's number and keeps calling it. Donnell seems to know that Vanessa is a liar, but just doesn't want to accept it.

Naomi threatening Hayley was one of her best moments.

Kat having to intervene every time Eva is having a conversation with someone is very annoying. Eva has pretty much left her alone but apparently that's not enough.

Carlton has his faults, but Joey's attacks were totally uncalled for and I was here for Nicole intervening. That said, it's time for Joey to have a day of reckoning because he's doing too much and it's getting old.

Very curious to see if I turn out to be right and this month the writers will do what they did last year where this month was B plot building and then the end of April was to set up for the anniversary party so momentum really kicked in.

Of course, the anniversary party is replaced by the cotillion.