DisneyBoy

Wow - no comments in this thread? Then allow me! Rory and Jess were annoying on paper and captivating on screen. I really tire of the "bad boy shows up and throws good girl for a loop" romantic subplots that seem to creep into every show, because, inevitably, the bad boy becomes the romantic lead when in reality, girls all too often get messed over by these relationships. While the same thing played out here, I definitely feel ASP wrote an incredibly well-rounded character in Jess and he was interesting for being more than just some roguish dude that distracted Rory. They had great chemistry, and while I'm frustrated his last appearances were so brief, I liked that the show didn't necessarily force us down a Rory and Jess 4 Eva route, because frankly, they were both too young to really get serious with each other.

Two general questions (I couldn't find the "Questions" thread): -Why was Mia recast for Season Seven? Was the original actress ill or something? -Why was Michel not written as gay? Not to stereotype, but he lived up to so many of the stereotypes. It seemed really, really odd that he wasn't gay. Did the network not want a gay character? There were noticeably none in the series, and only occasional jokes made at the expense of gay folks (Richard's "special friend", Rory: "Ew, gross!", "Heather has two mommies", etc, etc)

In a way, this is kind of just-desserts for both of them. Not only does Sami have to leave behind her friends and family (she has friends, still, right? Kinda?) and listen to Susan prattling on and on and on for a long time...but so does EJ! And clearly, he'd rather be dead than living with his Momma....so HA! Karma. Kinda.

He's not good with buttons? They don't show off the guns? It takes longer for Brady to undress? Honestly, I think part of the character's (limited) charm is that the actor seems to be okay playing the object of desire. He makes ir work, unlike Dirty Tan Dan, who is similarly dressed "ready for action" but leaves a bad taste in our collective mouths. Wasn't Brady wearing that exact same black polo shirt back in 2013, when he and Kristin got back together, but he caught her arguing with Marlena in the DiMerra livingroom and tried to break up with her, but ended up rushing her and getting down? It must sound creepy that I remember this, but I've been watching clips of that storyline recently because I only saw bits and pieces (Kristin and John in a cabin? Who knew!) and that moment - and Kristin's "this is the part we always get right!" line - stayed with me. Let's tell ourselves the producers/wardrobe department actually intentionally created symbolism there, and got us to think Brady would impulsively do Kristin again. Honestly...I think if Marlena didn't call, he would have. The moron. I miss when I respected Kristin. And yes, I really did, for the most part. This rape thing has really hurt her as a character. I hope John was being sincere about starting over. It would be nice if Kristin's next return didn't center all around the rape and pissing off Marlena. In other news: ED is on Real Housewives???? Mind blown. ....why? Why would she have to resort to that?!

Going by his shirt and vest today, I think wardrobe dislikes Will as much as I do. I feel like the Kristin Loves Brady SL has dragged on far too long at this point. Kristin just comes off pathetic now, and given how clearly amazing ED is still, I would rather she be allowed to have some perspective on her life and goals. Do you think she actually got any therapy while she was offscreen for fifteen years? EJ, why are you suddenly concerned about your father being a murdering psycho? You came tothe US to live with him and be a part of his empire! The writers have swung his opinion of Dad back and forth so many times it is laughable.... Can someone confirm if this is the first time we got confirmation of Stefano having intentionally taken his time to free Kristin from sex slavery? I don't remember hearing anything much about how or when Stefano freed her. Was this an already-established plot point?

Neat recollections from AS. And my oh my, that slap-fest YT compilation was eye-opening. Sami repeatedly slapping the truth into Nicole "SAY IT!" was INTENSE. I had to stop in here because I've been watching off-and-on since ED's return in 2012 and I find it amazing how few actually great moments there have been, at least from my perspective. Here they are: -Susan trying to smoke the evil out of the DiMerra mansion, only to be caught by Sami. -Sami and Kate's subtle little high five as one entered and one exited the livingroom -Kristin kicking Jawn out of her bed because she finally realized she had everything she ever wanted, and it wasn't him Special mention goes to the Jawn/Kristin Secret Room scene where she started to admit her real feelings about everything that had happened, and the "He was ALL OVER ME!" taunting in Marlena's face. Other than those three, I really didn't see anything that made me smile or get emotionally invested in the show. Since 2012. That's sad, right? I mean, I like Sonny but he hasn't had a good storyline at all...and neither has Hope. What about you folks - what have been the Highlights of the last two years or so, as you see them? EDIT: Last night I watched Carrie stops Austin & Sami's wedding. That was when my sister & I could not wait to get home from school and watch our tape of the show. I loved Sami but also loved when Carrie punched her! We may have went back to watch that scenes a million times LOL. It IS pretty remarkable that everyone back then (and still now, I guess) looked down on Sami but still loved her. The audience never wanted her to burn even though they loved seeing Carrie undo her schemes. A credit to AS.

*snort* I'm hoping it's during a massive sale in the town's square, so Sami and EJ are rushing out of the crowd when the gunshot goes off. Then we cut to Sami's "EJ???" and then a shot of Kristin, Kate, Marlena, Ciara, Hope, well, everyone and the kids just staring blankly at her and at the body on the ground with innocent "Hun?? Me??? What??" faces. And they everyone continues shopping frantically.

I suspected that Kate would find out about the drugs and Clyde's involvement, but fix it so Clyde would shoot EJ (Kate's real target) and then get the blame for it and be shuffled off to jail, so Kate could comfort Sami and reassure her she'd be fine without her creepy rapist husband. They probably won't go that way, but I think it would be rather nice - Kate getting final revenge against Stefano by killing his son, but having her hands clean of it, while also protecting her grandchildren from a psychotic rapist drug-dealing scumbag...with a little She Actually Cares About Protecting Sami thrown in for good measure. Of course Clyde is too recent an addition to the show, so they won't write him off that fast, especially with the Jordan storyline still to be developed...eventually...someday... ...you know, I've been reading all your comments about how this ending really shafts us on wrapping up Sami's arcs on the show, but it's only now that I think about it and agree. When was the last time Sami and Roman really got a subplot or to bond? Wasn't his last scene with her an argument scene, probably to be bookended with him consoling her during the funeral? And Marlena...Sami's strained relationship with her mother was the source of years of drama. Now it's just....pfffttt. Did Marlena even visit her when she was in jail last year? (Holy lord - have I actually been following this show for that long?? SAD.) Sami's kids don't even have personalities or quirks, far as I can tell. I think their Happy Family On The Couch sequence was the first time all of them were in one room together, right? Brace yourself, Knight - they won't kill EJ for reals. They want to leave all the popular characters open for comebacks. Any theories on how Kristin will exit this time?

I'm shocked that they had such a high-profile character get shot in Everything Happens Here park. Seriously, it's insane how many run-ins occur by that stupid bench. A shame the set is so small that they can't redress it and shoot it some other way so it doesn't seem to be the only "public" location characters can run into each other, other than by the fake mall.

What was John's company Basic Black about? How about Comptesse Wilhelmina? What was John's company Basic Black about? How about Comptesse Wilhelmina?

Days batting practice - possibly the best storyline in three years?

I'm amazed by the fact that John coming out of a coma acts exactly the same way as regular, pre-coma John. Only now the confused eyebrows and expressions are appropriate. Theresa is this show's last saving grace. Don't get me wrong - Kate is cool and I think Eric and Brady can act, but they're all too weighed down in history and crappy storylines to be of immediate interest. Theresa could be the "Rachel Cory", as someone else said (was it you Queen?) who could slowly build over time into a heroine/leading lady. She can act, that's for darn sure, and now...she's going to what? Get the Nicole treatment and be hated for hitting John? Really show? I know John is a legacy character, but you're doing nothing good with him and have in fact made us dislike him more than we ever thought possible, so...don't trash your promising newcomer in favor of him. This show's plotlines are all so random. Gabi gets raped by Nick (because he was raped in jail??? Or was there some other justification for this left-turn?) so she kills him with Sami and Kate's help (again - WHY!?!), but then he's still alive (...???) and then gets Gabi to DATE him again (?!!??!?!?!?!?!? - I'm running out of exclamation marks here) so then she kills him for real (see previous) and goes to jail. Because....hun?? Kristin raping Eric to hurt Marlena was idiotic and random and OOC and poorly played out at the time (if Kristin had been in some truly deeply psychotic haze and robotically carried out, only to block the memory until later, then MAYBE I could have gone along, but even then...) and now we've been through months of EJ's random affair with Abby and random reunion with Sami. And now Theresa randomly konks John out and demands money (since when was that her MO?) and now she's going to get arrested or something...and I just don't see the point in this. NONE of the characters on this show are happy about anything. None of them do anything other than gossip about each other, or yell and trade barbs and threats. GAH. What was the point of today's Kristin scenes? They didn't further anything along. It's was just like "Oh hey, Kristin's still here, she still seriously suspects Theresa for attacking John, but hasn't told anybody, and is now suddenly rushing out of her chair furious." Sure. Why not. Sad to say, but I came back into DOOL because of ED's return in 2012. I'll be going when she goes. It sucks that after all these months, she's done so little, and had so few scenes with Stefano. Didn't I read that he would be back in the mansion this month? He's been off in some mysterious office making phone calls instead. Boo. Whoever edited that "John remembers being attacked" scene was...really not doing it well. It repeated itself and had no rhythm or cohesion. It could have been an exciting, concise fifteen second flash, but it felt more like monkeys pushing random buttons in After Effects threw it together. Cripes. Wonder how this will wrap up at the end of the month? I suspect Kristin will just leave town with little fanfare. They know better than to paint their Emmy-winning actress' subplot into a corner. Hopefully she gets to DO something positive before leaving Salem. Kristin, despite all this inane writing, is at her heart a good person, even though she's also nuts and has a fetish for hurting Marlena's clan. I frankly think ED brings an astonishing amount of sincerity to the character. I think ED felt Kristin saved John because it was the right thing to do and would help Brady. At least they're wrapping up the Eric Rape storyline with her latest return. Hopefully Eric can go and start coaching a hockey team now or doing photography again (wasn't he a photog when he first met Nicole?). Dude needs a hobby. I was thinking how much sense it would make for Hope's house set to still be used, now that she's going to be divorcing and getting with the lawyer. Doesn't she still live in the same house, supposedly? That's ripe for drama. Ciara looking at Daddy's picture while Hope makes out with New Daddy on the couch. Now I'm imagining Ciara going all crazy on Hope and Aiden until Bo returns home. Sounds spooky and fun, but I'm rather tired of family drama on this show, because little of it makes any sense. Can we have one of those Sunset Beach-style disasters? An overturned cruise ship maybe? Oh, and to help bring some perspective to the awful Abby, at least she's not HOPE from Bold and the Beautiful. THAT girl is intolerable. At least Abby has affairs and gets mean. Hope is just perfect, perfect, perfect according to that series.

Aw thanks Queen. Didn't realize my ramblings were so welcomed! I relent on the subject of Abby - we DO need to find our own pleasures on DOOL. Especially if she gets thrust into the spotlight. I don't know Melanie but do you think she could prove a more enjoyable leading lady? Whoever it was that compared Theresa to Rachel Cory on (the wonderful) Another World is right on the money.

JJ is at least somewhat better in this role now than he was when he started, but there's no humor or joy in his storyline (or ANY of the others as well!) so he's become one-note to me. I'm going to make a suggestion/request and I'm hoping you don't all jump on me for saying it but....could we take it easy on the Abigail bashing? It's not that I don't agree with 99% of the negativity, but the "her hair looks awful"/"has she lost weight - it looks bad"/"what a cheap skank" daily commentary is pretty unpleasant and a bit too nasty. We all hate her :) We all agree she's self-righteous and a phoney and hasn't been well-written and that the actress gave some rather odd interviews in recent months. Why don't we all just avoid discussing her until something changes for the better? Because it's getting depressing reading all the comments about her. Let's not remind ourselves of how loathsome she is. ...so was that it for Susan? I hope she reappears. I got to watch her showdown with Kristin thanks to a fan who posts clips to YT and it was very nice but WAY TOO SHORT. Kristin barely asks how Susan escaped the Harem when the subject is switched and Susan's shown the door. No fair! I hope ED gets to play her in a few more scenes. I had this hope that Susan would make good on her promise to stick around, and maybe turn to Kate for help extricating EJ from Stefano's world or something fun. Plus, it reduces her conversation with Marlena to one of those super phoney patronizing "oh yes, let's TOTALLY get together soon, kiss kiss!" chats that people have when they really don't want to spend any time with you. For that brief moment, Marlena actually seemed to have a friend and be happy and sincere and likeable. Wanted it to continue, and Mar and Susan to get to catch either other up on their lives. Oh well.

Oh Sami...Sami Sami Sami....your husband makes light of your brother's rape at his sister's hand and rationalizes it...and you still stay on his lap? As stomach-turning as that is, at least it is consistent with her character. Sami always chooses the worst fate for herself. Him being a slimy monster and then getting happily tickled by his kids? What are these writers thinking? And why does Mr Hick get to off him? Stefano, Sami, Eric, Kate, Susan or Edmund would be SO much more interesting! GAH!

I missed the Susan/Kristin faceoff. Were there a few shots where ED was facing herself directly? I love those, instead of the ones where she is clearly with a stand-in. Saw Susan with John. I guess I was wrong and she won't be staying around after all. Did she say mean/mean/mean at least?

I am still stuck on Kristin's lemon yellow thwarted wedding day beach shirt. I know it happened in 2013...but damn. Why would wardrobe have stuck her in that for such an emotional climactic scene? Nightmare outfit.

I am glad you saw EJ the same way I did today, SwordQueen. callmebetty, it is worth the trip to youtube to see ED's original run as Kristin/Susan. It was a storyline that ran for years and there are some wonderful channels that break each chapter up so you can watch it unfold at your own pace. Search for The Pillow Baby and The Secret Room and you will find it all. The best of Days, for my money...

Edmund. And yes, it was nice to see the Marlena/Susan friendship rekindled.

Oh, you could tell EJ was trying to conceal a smirk a bit in there as ED did her Susan thing. They do everything in one take, right? That would explain the near-laughter that was sneaking through his performance. And like I said earlier today, Marlena was practically GLOWING. Haven't seen in that in ANY of her scenes in the longest time. To be clear, I watched Susan/Kristin back in the day, and I know she's meant to be campy...but she was also written as a three dimensional human being back in those days, and she's now a BIG part of EJ's personal history, and the show has seemingly ignored that altogether. She raised him, right? He grew up with Susan and Edmund, correct? I can't imagine she'd send him to "boarding school" the way all the other kids on this show are. So no...I can't account for his disdain over his mother's presence. Far as we know, he grew up in her loving (if odd) embrace with his kindly step-dad nearby. At some point (feel free to tell me if I'm missing some of his persona history here), EJ learned he was Stefano's kid and abdicated to Salem to become Mr. EJ Wells....and never said a bad word about his mother from the time he arrived on this show, right? In short: Susan's been a kind mother, and I can't see why EJ would be eye-rolling and talking down to her, even if he is smart. The guy is a horrible human being and we know that...but I can't account for it. WHY is EJ evil? WHY did he do all sorts of horrible things after arriving in Salem? Was it just because "he's a Dimerra!" or did they take the time to explain how much he hated living with his idiot mother? There's a huge disconnect here. When Susan left the show 15+ years ago, the audience would have assumed her kid would be raised with love and relatively good morals. I don't see how EJ turned out to be a scumbag, nor why he'd act like such a jerk to his mother after seeing her today. It's all about the in-story reasoning. That's what I'm questioning here. Far as I can tell, there's no justification for his attitude towards Susan. Everyone loves their parents if they were good to them, even if they grow up and discover said parents are simple-minded.

Susan has always loved EJ blindly, right? It's just the way she is. She can't see him for the "vampire" he is. Still, it's ridiculous that in all these intervening years, we never got to hear EJ talk about how he was brought up, or why he wouldn't have deeply loved his mother for trying so long to protect him during the days when she was recruited by Stefano and tormented by Kristin. Even though I've barely watched DOOL and don't know the half of what EJ's done, just seeing the attitude he was throwing Susan's way today makes me hate him. What could she EVER have possibly done to make him so dismissive? No hug? No slight joy at seeing his mother? I know she's a nut and annoying to live with, probably, but come on...she's so sweet! EJ sucks and doesn't deserve to be rescued. I would have preferred the dialogue from Susan today to suggest that EJ's been corrupted by the DiMerras more. I know she probably wasn't kept in the loop on his raping Sami, etc, but I think her return would have played better with a little bit more "these people are warping you!!" dialogue. Because that's the only way the producer can justify Susan coming back to save her baby boy - if she has convinced herself the only thing evil about him is the people in his life now. ...and getting back to the rape subject, my head is spinning. Rape was in almost every plot today, from Kayla and her patient to Eve semi-raping JJ by proxy, to Kristin getting off scott-free and EJ getting his happy ending. No consistency between the storylines, either. Rape and molestation has an impact on practically EVERYONE's lives these days. How could the writers not handle the subject with more sensitivity? Even if these aren't the same writers who cooked up the EJ/Sami rape, or the Kristin/Eric rape...I still place blame on them for continuing to re-use it as a twist for all their plotlines. In real life rapists don't always end up paying for their sins. You'd think on a soap, they could. Or that if they couldn't handle the subject at all, that they'd have the originality to write something else. As for the way these exits are being handled, maybe the producers hooked up EJ and Sami again to please the Ejami fans, and are killing him off to please the rest of us. Think Susan will be around for a few weeks/as long as ED is? I sincerely hope so. I was figuring she'd only come by for one episode or two, to please ED and the fans (since the producers didn't care about Susan back when ED was on for a full year), but from the way today played out, we might get her for the rest of the week, or through till EJ's funeral. That would be fitting. Susan should get to say goodbye to her baby boy, and maybe wave around some burning branches in Sami's face. Think we'll get to see Susan impersonate Kristin? I'm betting we will - notice how Marlena kept repeating how little Susan's looks have changed? Wheeee! Haven't been this happy with the show in a good long while (about Susan returning, at least).

Wow - they really didn't even TRY to attempt to explain how she escaped?? Too much effort I guess. Here's another question - I knew squat about Jennifer back in the day, but now that I watch YT videos and hear Marlena accusing Kristin of hurting Jenn and Jack as well (just prior to getting locked up in the secret room) I have to ask: why on EARTH would Jennifer have become friends with Kristin upon her return two years ago?

I can't believe this show propping one rapist while denouncing another character as a rapist. Oh, I'm sorry...TWO characters. Otherwise, I have been giggling like a child on Xmas morning. STAY Susan. Stay forever. Never leave. In one episode we get two references to Celeste, one to Sami on death row and Marlena being more likable than she has been in YEARS. AMEN MS BANKS

Question: with Sami and her kids leaving, who is still around and in Marlena's family? Carrie is off the show....is it just Brady and Eric and Will??? And Jawn? I forsee dark narrative times ahead for Doc. Lord help us if they have her befriend Abby!!!

Question: with Sami and her kids leaving, who is still around and in Marlena's family? Carrie is pff the show....is it just Brady and Eric and Will??? And Jawn? I forsee dark narrative times ahead for Doc. Lord help us if they have her befriend Abby!!!