31 minutes ago, AbcNbc247 said:

I always thought it was meant to be, and that Kate and Xander expected Dimera to settle. But Johnny refusing to do it was a curve ball that they didn't expect.

The writers just needed to do a much better job at explaining all of that

Exactly. It's confusing as to why Xander/Kate thought Johnny would settle no questions asked and why they went to all that trouble to set him up over a book. Surely, Xander and Kate could have figured out something better.

I've been catching up on the show. My random thoughts:

1. The Lexie is Alive storyline is awful and the actress playing Lexie is a cold, brittle, dud. Renee Jones imbued Lexie with a warmth and sparkle to the point that half the audience was rooting for her when she kidnapped Hope's baby, and the other half at least understood why she did it. This storyline was never a good idea, but in the hands of this particular actress, Lexie is just an unlikable bitch. The pub scene with Marlena, Abe, and Lexie highlighted this so harshly as Deidre and James Reynolds were so warm and then you've got Nikki Crawford patting Abe on the arm patronizingly saying she wanted him to focus on their family while she's been dead for 14 years. This storyline is ill conceived and nobody could have made this work...though if Renee Jones had done it, at least we'd feel something for Lexie. But this particular casting choice...whew.

2. Leo is still annoying as hell.

3. I liked the Cat and Rafe scenes.

4. The Xander and Kate sabotaging Johnny storyline is the one with the highest stakes and yet it's the one that's gotten the least attention, and been burning so slowly, that it's like it was an afterthought on the part of the writers, and somewhere along the way a producer noticed how good it is and have pushed it along. That's all down to Paul Telfer and Lauren Koslow. God knows it isn't the writing.

5. The writing for the Chanel medical scenes has been very unfortunate and made me cringe. They went the cliche route of having Chanel quote maternal mortality statistics to the robotic jerk white male doctor. Wouldn't it have been more original for Chanel to express her concerns to the doctor and for him to surprise her by acknowledging her concerns and saying he's got her back? Characterizing doctors as villains really bothers me because 99% of the profession are stellar people, especially those in oncology.

6. The scenes with 'Destiny' were also cringe. Like...isn't it pretty clear she was drug addicted, malingering, and looking for painkillers? Why make Sarah look like an idiot?

Edited 59 minutes ago59 min by DaytimeFan