Steph J

I don't need to know about Sandoval and Raquel's sex roleplay, thanks.

God, imagine just taking your partner of a decade at face value. Lol at Raquel thinking Tom wanted to get their stories straight because it would hurt Arianna, not because he knew it would hurt him if the truth came out.

"I didn't cheat with malicious intent"? Lol, okay bitch.

I've been thinking that the big reveal is going to be that Raquel suffers from the same affliction as Tom Hanks in Big, which is why she has so much difficulty interacting with people and understanding things.

Jeez, watching Sandoval slowly try to formulate a lie is painful. Did he not think the question about what happened between Scheana and Raquel would come up?

Someone get the guy some cranberry juice. "We didn't get married for anyone other than us" says the woman who has televised two weddings, this one to a person to whom she had already been married for a year.

Hard to sit still when you're all coked up.

It's not as though Ned is walking around, telling anyone who will listen that he didn't blow the whistle, and would perhaps welcome the opportunity to show that he's on their side. I did love genius Drew leaving a voicemail for Carly detailing that they plan to blackmail Ned. Not that evidence will ultimately matter since the show thinks Drew and Carly are in the right. It's up to Robert because... reasons, of course. I don't think I'll ever get used to Robert being the DA. It just feels wrong for him not to be a cop/spy. Because I've been rewatching earlier eras of the show, it reminded me of Damien Smith's will reading - except that that one felt more meaningful and wasn't just an excuse for a few jokes.

The mental gymnastics that Lala has to do in order to feel good about herself are so impressive and of such a high degree of difficulty that if it were an Olympic sport, she'd get all three medals plus 4th place. I've been thinking about her claim that Sandoval is on the same level as Randall and I think it perfectly exposes how she constructs rules for herself (to absolve herself) and then refuses to allow them to be applied to anyone else. Lala didn't just have an affair with a married man, she also sent hateful messages to his wife. She and the ex-wife have now buried the hatchet and she claims that her actions were a result of Randall lying to her and manipulating her and weaponizing her against his ex, therefore she's not really at fault for the things she did. Now, Lala considers herself a smart person and she certainly considers herself much smarter than Raquel, so it stands to reason that if a smart person like her can fall under the sway of a master manipulator like Randall, then a dumb person like Raquel can fall under the sway of someone whom Lala says is just like Randall, and yet here's Lala giving Raquel no quarter. I'm not suggesting that Lala should excuse Raquel, mind you; I'm just saying that if Lala truly believes the reasoning she's applied to herself, then she should see enough of herself in Raquel to condemn what she did without going at her like an attack dog. Instead, I fully expect that she's going to go nuclear on Raquel because her anger isn't about morality, or even about defending Arianna; it's about the fact that she hates Raquel and is seizing the chance to go for blood because she thinks the circumstances will allow her to get away with it.

No, they're mad at Schwartz because: 1. As always, he wants to play both sides and have everyone be his friend and no one be mad at him. He can't say he's Arianna's friend and show her zero loyalty and respect. 2. Schwartz is not an innocent bystander in all this; he was an active participant in this scumbaggery by: Facilitating the affair by giving Sandoval and Rachel a place to hook up; Spending the season helping Sandoval try to construct his CYA narrative that would make Arianna look like the bad guy in the break up; Mocking Arianna to her face about what was going on behind her back. He had Sandoval's back, which is what he's always claimed he would do when it comes to cheating. No one should be surprised by that. But he shouldn't be surprised when people get mad at him and don't want to be friends with him once they know what he's been up to.

Jax didn't get fired because Lisa wanted him off the show. He was fired when the producers decided to clean house of all cast members who could be accused of racism. He didn't participate when Stassi and Kristen swatted Faith, but he tweeted accusations about Faith being involved crimes. I seriously doubt that Lisa has any say who stays or goes on the show.

I wasn't trying to suggest that she wasn't ever on the other side of it. Just pointing out that she knows first hand how bad a gang up from this group can be.

Oh, Lala, there has been plenty of bullying on this show - you were the victim of some of it. C'mon.

Why did they show a picture of Jo and then follow it with a picture from the ski trip/double date with her face blurred?

Schwartz: It was reasonable, however - NOPE. STOP. "If the roles were reversed..." But they weren't. You aren't talking about a theoretical situation. You're talking about the actual situation and the agreement you made and then broke.

You forget: He and Schwartz thought they could pull out the signature moves from their playbook and make Arianna look crazy so that Sandoval could emerge from this unscathed.

Now Sandoval's going to re-write history regarding his friendship with James? You don't shell out that kind of money for someone who isn't really a friend... unless, of course, you were really spending the money for Rachel. Was this thing going on last season, too? Lol, you know Sandoval would rather set himself on fire than take accountability for anything.

Worm with white nails. Why is the white nail polish the thing he can commit to?

Rachel is "hoping for the best"? What would "the best" even look like in this situation? 'Cause everyone's not going to just shrug and say "You do you, girl."

Yes, but what Dex has that Spencer doesn't is the plot armor accorded to the Carlys and those they favor. As long as he's Carly-adjacent, he'll always come out on top and humiliate his enemies.

God, Carly is such an irredeemable hosebeast. Her rationalization that her engaging in insider trading shouldn't count because she lost money is basically Sideshow Bob's "Attempted murder? Now, honestly, what is that? Do they give a Nobel Prize for attempted chemistry?" I like Sonny and Nina, I can't help it. It's amazing how breaking up Sonny and Carly and pairing him with Nina has made him 10x more likeable, while pairing her with Drew has taken Drew from "Oh, Cameron Mathison is on GH now? Okay, I guess" to "Get him off my screen, get him off now!" The show very much needs to take a break from Carly as a character. Her dramatic purpose has long since been exhausted and all she does now is go around town being a bitch to people just for the sake of it - and not in a fun way like Tracy does. Send her away on one of those six month vacations that Anthony Geary always used to get and let the show breathe a little in her absence.

He left Brenda at the altar in 1997, which was his exit story when Maurice Benard decided to leave the show. It would have been a great ending for the character, who from 1993-97 played out a solid three act arc that saw him rise to power, have power, and then lose everything that mattered because his power made him a target. He was gone for about 15 months and then returned and started consuming the show.

Michael: Dex can just go to Canada and start a new life. On behalf of Canadians everywhere, please don't send us your trash, Michael.

It also doesn't help Arianna. Sandoval used his and Arianna's shared asset (the house) to fund the bar. If the bar fails before it even gets off the ground, then Arianna is just as screwed as Sandoval because all they'll have to split is debt. I think the fact that word broke just as the season got underway is why this became such a big deal. The timing made the audience watch the show with detectives' eyes and now we've all seen how the sausage is made in terms of how the Toms operate. It's one thing to believe that they're manipulative; it's another to watch it unfold a piece at a time week after week.

It's your prerogative if you want to feel bad for Schwartz, but bear in mind that he already knew about the affair when he went on Rachel's birthday trip and made a joke to Arianna's face that she'd better watch out for Rachel because she likes men who are taken. I imagine Arianna must feel especially hurt and humiliated when she looks back on moments like that and realizes that the trio weren't laughing with her about the absurdity of the statement but laughing at her because she didn't know the truth and they were getting away with it. It wasn't on Schwartz to tell her, but he could have at least had enough respect for her not to make jokes about it at her expense.