enchantingmonkey

I totally thought of you when Clyde told Ben to take the phone the phone to the police. Made me chuckle. Why do they need to include those types of comments in the dialogue? It's so unnecessary. Gabi and Abigail snarking at each other is good for a laugh. And, I loved Abigail thinking she was going to get the truth out of Gwen, someone who has toyed with her and lied to her for months. It's funny how certain emotional states can relegate rational thought to the back burner. If Gwen ever starts telling the "truth", I'm going to be disappointed. The best thing about the Gabi-Chic-Lease-Nonsense was Kate giving Jake and Gabi a reason to be in each other's orbit, again, and Philip being the one to point that out to her. I enjoyed Philip telling his own mother what a stupid move she made. At least they gave Evan one tiny moment of inner conflict when Ciara tried to tempt him with the idea of letting her escape and possibly making a decent life for himself. Otherwise, this story is moving Full Steam Ahead at being one-dimensional drivel. I don't know why but I feel like they've painted Anna morally ambiguous enough to wonder if she'll just leave Gwen there, so they kinda-sorta succeeded at a Friday Cliffhanger.

I usually love Sami's return to Salem, USA but this "Who Killed Charlie" thing is such a buzzkill. I would have much rather watched Sami threaten Charlie in a game of Cat-And-Mouse, and seen how far the one could have pushed the other. That would have been a lot more fun than this. Ben and Ciara make for good comedy relief for at least a couple scenes. So Clyde stabbed Orpheus just to get his phone? Was that supposed to be an example of parental instinct trumping reason? It seemed unnecessary that Sami needed Belle, and only Belle, to be her lawyer but I did appreciate the interaction between the two sisters. That was the only thing that kept me from thinking those scenes were mostly stupid. Why can't there be an unscrupulous lawyer in town who doesn't give a damn about whether Sami is guilty or innocent? That could be fun if there was a sleazy lawyer who kept getting all of the work while Belle and Justin were struggling to get a case. Where is Saul Goodman when you need him!?!

When I watched Guiding Light, there was someone on the board I posted on who used to make fun of Justin Deas' spitting, sputtering and windmill arms in his scenes. I like Matthew Ashford but I was reminded of that person making fun of Justin Deas during those scenes with Billy Flynn/Chad. It wasn't great. I'm happy to be getting more of Cady McClain but those scenes seem a little odd with her talking on the phone with no real interaction with another character in her actual environment.

Does anyone know why we're still seeing Cady McClain when it was reported that she'd be done in February? Is she actually "OUT", or was the date of her last episode wrong?

Today's episode had to be written by that one script writer that I like. We got a reference to Kayla being the only doctor at the hospital, Gabi using the word "aphorism" in a sentence, and Chad mentioning a show (Father Knows Best) that he's likely never seen or heard of, all in one episode. Judi Evans decided to tone down that awful accent she was using for Bonnie but I still couldn't get through all of those Gabi/Abigail scenes because of her. While I agree that Gwen is completely untrustworthy, I can see where Jack is coming from in wanting to support her, and I hope he gets tired of defending himself real soon. Chad is the last person who needs to be throwing a stone. It's hilarious that Gabi thinks that when Gwen wakes up she'll be facing her worst nightmare, because if there's anyone who can give Abigail and Gabi a run for their money, it's Gwen. Gwen is stone cold, heartless at times. I suspect MM has a little more confidence in herself, which is showing up in her performance, and I also think that Billy Flynn's desire to have her there portraying Abigail has helped this time around.

Uhhh, yes. Have you watched any of their scenes together? Abigail being too naive to know how to devise her own revenge plot against Gwen is an perfect example of how the show prefers plot over character, but I was also leaning towards Abigail subconsciously using Gabi as a kind of scapegoat for whatever happens with Gwen. And in a way, that actually does fall in line with the dynamic between Abigail and Gabi. Me, too. I love how Kristin's hatred for Chloe is totally clouding her ability to be a convincing "Susan". The Weeping-Mother-In-Prison version of Kristin is groan-worthy. I think Stacy Haiduk is more entertaining when Kristin is allowed to be the rotten person she is. For once we're on the same page about Philip! I enjoyed JKJ throughout all of those scenes, and my only disappointment was that Philip didn't get to figure out that "Susan" was Kristin, because it felt like he was smart enough to figure her out. But dragging out plot points usually trumps characters in Salem, USA. I enjoyed how JKJ and Nadia Bjorlin played those scenes, with Philip seeming sincerely hopeful that "Susan" could be right, and Chloe looking relieved that she avoided having dinner with Philip. Poor Philip. That's expensive, lol. Whoever has to plan out how much it costs for each scene probably hates it that it can't be explained away why two newborns aren't with their mother, like just about every other young child on the show.

This could be so fascinating but I don't think the writers are bold enough to explore it.

There was a below-the-waist shot of her when she was talking to Jack but her back was to the camera, so you couldn't really see anything. If Marci Miller is going on a maternity leave anytime soon, I'm going to miss her. On that note, I kinda hate that MM's Abigail is making a Deal-With-The-Devil/Gabi but I also love that her quest for revenge is leading her down a path that will likely come with undesirable results. Jake has been a good friend to her. It's so frustrating because I love AZ but this whimpering, flaccid version of Nicole is not something that makes any sense at all. I used to root for Nicole, even when she was at her worst, but now I do a little dance with my finger over the FF button when she's on screen. Not that I'm saying anyone is wrong about Charlie's killer being some random, currently off-screen character but the show doesn't necessarily function like that anymore. There are plenty of characters who have committed multiple felonies on-screen at this time, so it could be anyone. But please, please, please don't make Charlie dead-dead.

It was probably one of the neighbors we were told couldn't hear Ava a few weeks back. That was rather anti-climatic for what I'm assuming was to be the BIG ENDING of February Sweeps. Maybe I'm just annoyed that Charlie won't be on-screen for awhile, or ever, and I mostly don't give a damn who shot/killed him. Kristin and her pessimistic view of the world trying to be Susan and help Claire and Ben made me chuckle. I can see Susan almost pulling off Kristin but Kristin is too self-absorbed and cynical to ever be Susan. It's funny that Kristin can't contain her Inner Bitch, even when her freedom depends on it. My reading of those scenes is more of a sympathy towards Charlie, as Ava is openly stating that she wasn't able to love her own child, and she imagines that has damaged his psyche. I don't even see Tamara Braun playing those scenes in a way that would incite sympathy for her character, but rather a realistic acceptance of the circumstances.

Jackee was so good on 227. I'm hoping they give her something with a bit of substance with work with here but I'm not holding my breath. This Show is so All-Over-The-Place with which characters they give something meaningful to, and which characters are mostly just making noises with their mouths. Do we know how far ahead they are with filming episodes now? I thought we'd have seen her by now.

She didn't seem to care enough about him to be concerned where he was raised. I thought Ava's scenes in which she revealed her lack of connection to her own child were well written for a Show that doesn't make many attempts at delving deep into their character's psyche. I don't even mind that the conversation may have been a ploy to distract Rafe from whether she actually slept in her bed, or not, because the whole thing was both surprising frank and tragic. I kept telling her she could lie about that entire conversation with Ben but she wouldn't listen to me. It's so weird that she's mostly being written as an idiot in this storyline, and the only thing that's going to "save" her is some antiquated belief that True Lurve Conquers All. Perhaps that's more appealing to the Ben/Ciara fan base than her being savvy enough to outsmart her captor. I just loved Evan/Christian deciding now might be the time to exercise his own sense of authority. Poor Orpheus, with his plans going awry because his son is now behaving like a Chip-Off-the-Old-Block. Clyde and Orpheus snarking at each other made me chuckle. Just another example of Orpheus thinking he has the Whole World in his hands, and things going to crap.

What do you do about a problem like Charlie Dale? Apparently, if you take a drink every time someone threatens to kill him, you may, or may not, be as drunk as a skunk right now. Or, you could be drunk on rage, like John Black, and be wandering around Salem, USA trying to find him. I have no faith that Who-Shot-Charlie? is going to be as interesting as What-Will-Charlie-Do-Next? Crossing my fingers and toes that he only ends up in a coma, or something of the sort. Why did they even bother with that? LOL! How many times has their arrangement of time made no sense in the past? Vivian was miraculously an inmate at Statesville in a matter of minutes just a few episodes ago. Maybe they finally decided to give his previous Post-Stroke Rage-O-Holic John storyline a climax? I thought it was strange they spent so much time on that, and didn't do anything significant with it.

Considering how devious she was when she was starting fires, it's so disappointing she has to be an idiot now. Those scenes with Charlie could have been a Matching-of-Wits between two people with dark impulses, and potentially something that forced Claire to go back to her former self, rather than crying out for help and sobbing on her mother's shoulder. Where is ORK when I need her??? And that amounted to nothing. Odd that it seemed like they were trying to clue us in to something that played no part in the following day's episode. Unless there's a quota for weekly threats against Charlie, so that there's absolutely no one in the audience who's surprised when Charlie ends up "dead." (not a spoiler, just speculation based on the way this writing team spoon feeds us plot points.) The thing with Maggie felt so Out-of-Left-Field that I could only think that they were actually preparing for why they can't afford to pay anyone to be in the Sarah/Xander wedding scenes but the two of them. Bug-eyed? Ouch. I think ORK has enigmatic eyes, and is an attractive, young actress. To each their own!

Linda Dano as snarky Vivian stuck in prison is an improvement over her involvement with Lani and Eli, so if they continue to write her scenes with hints of comedy I'll probably keep watching them. Another vote for Mike Manning being too good for this garbage writing but I'm so glad he's here to make me want to root for Charlie when I shouldn't. I'm assuming we got multiple glimpses of Claire's phone because it ran out of memory/storage before Charlie made his confession, at least that's how it appeared. Otherwise, I'll be rooting for Charlie's revenge against Claire, even though I don't dislike Isabel Durant as much I did previously. But sheesh, she's still so robotic in too many of her scenes. I have to keep telling myself that all of the meds she takes has stripped Claire of her personality. There was someone her who speculated that Tripp might be romantically involved with Allie after everything was cleared up, so his big, cheesy smile at the end came as no surprise.

Even better. If they could find a good, younger actor in that age range, my Johnny/Stefano-Frankenstein-Creation would be a force to be reckoned with. It said something like "Unknown Caller", so I don't know how much help that would be in Salem, USA. Probably depends on which dart hits the dartboard for the Storyline-of-the-Day. Emily O'Brien has gotten much better since they gave her a back story she can work with. I enjoyed everything she did in this episode with Charlie. I even felt like she infused some ambiguity into whether she really believed Charlie is a rapist, or she was preying on his fears as a manipulation tactic. Evan claiming to have a conscience after leaving Bayview was hilarious. Does Dr Rolf know about this procedure??? Why bother pining away for your wooden, underwear model, Ciara, when you have an underwear model with far more personality right in front of you? A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. At least that's the rumor going around town. By the looks of Rhodes' pathetic apartment, I can see why he was willing to hold Ciara captive for a regular paycheck. That place made a pigsty look good.

EJ as a Cyberman would be hilarious! This is a good summation, and a smart writer would try to work Gabi's struggle to keep her successful company alive by the whims of fickle men as a motivation behind her current state of desperation/OTT bravado. She's been painted into a corner of believing her sexuality is the means of the survival of her business. The crazy thing is that they have Rafe there, with whom she could vent some of these frustrations, and we don't get a hint of a scene like this. Salem PD has their own unique way of dealing with criminal behavior but I feel confident that Shawn would ask questions before shooting an unarmed man. I'm leaning in that direction. Not buying Jake as a CEO of DiMera, and while I don't hate his relationship with Kate, I don't care about it from his POV. But when he goes at it with Gwen, I usually end up with a few laughs. OMG, I want one so I can be a part of the Mad Scientist Crowd!!!!! I'd like to implant mine into Johnny DiMera, which would allow an early-teen Johnny to return to Salem, take over DiMera Enterprises and wreak havoc far and wide.

Wait, didn't Evan/Christian willingly go to prison, or did he run off at the last minute? Disappointed that Rhodes will go so soon but I guess Evan has more history with Ben and other characters than Rhodes has with anyone that we know of.

It probably helped that they needed a way for Jennifer to explain that she's "going off to Boston." Good grief, just wait until Dr Rolf figures out how to construct a Dalek!!! As soon as Jake showed up there with Gwenny, I couldn't help but laugh. I love the way they snark at each other. Looks like Gwen is about to drag Abigail down into the mud with her with her hands tied behind her back. Let me get the popcorn ready!

Yes. Susan has been involved in plots in the past that required her to be smarter than this. Susan actually made me laugh with the discerning look she gave to Chloe/Brady right after everyone else had left the apartment. I don't know how the hell Vivian ended up in Statesville so quickly but that was the most alive I've seen Linda Dano in a scene since she started. Maybe she enjoyed working with Stacy Haiduk? Poor Claire. Playing the third wheel to Ciara and one of her love interests again. At least it made sense, to me anyways, that Orpheus would figure out what Vincent is up to and try to use it to his advantage. I kinda liked the idea of Rhodes reluctantly being inducted into Orpheus' Boys-Club-of-Villains. It would have been funny if he'd had pics of Clyde and Dr Rolf to use to introduce Rhodes to the gang. Was it Irony©️ that motivated one of those writers to decide to make a professional, educated woman too stupid to know when to and not to use eggs? Enquiring Minds don't really want to know.

It seems to me that Charlie would have convinced himself that he didn't rape Allie, so the actor should embody that in his performance. I'm missing how someone isn't doing a good job. I wondered this, too. Could Orpheus somehow be the one behind the kidnapping, and Vincent really does believe Ciara is dead? It's not like this writing team is committed to their stories making sense. I drives me crazy that Ava is so completely lacking in empathy towards Charlie, and doesn't seem the least bit conflicted in what consequences may come his way. The look of hurt on Charlie's face when Claire rejected him. He'll burn that city to the ground without a second thought. One ringy-dingy. Two ringy-dingies. There's static on the line of the super, amazing connection between Ben and Ciara, and who could be the culprit? Oh my!

Regarding that old pic, maybe I was taking a break at the time but I knew everyone but Cameron. Did the Chad/Cameron competition happen before Abigail fake-seduced Austin? Because I was watching when the Austin thing happened. The only reason I know is because Peacock shows the length of the episode. The daily broadcast on NBC is thisclose to being half show/half advertising. It was 43 minutes before they got caught up from the COVID shutdown, so this is a recent development. My feeling is that one of the script writers is the one injecting all of the literary references. I'm not willing to give that credit to Carlivati. And while I'm still not convinced Jake would be familiar with a line from Blanche DuBois, as least they explained why he would know what Vivian was talking about. I was more intrigued by this than any of the noises that Ben and Ciara were making with their mouths. AKA talking. Really wished I could have watched this on my television, rather than my phone, because I love all of the wounded faces Mike Manning makes when Ava says awful things to Charlie. Such a complicated mother/son relationship. Charlie is damaged goods but I kinda feel bad that he has to know how much his mother dislikes him. That quick choke-hold he threw at her gave me goosebumps. Call me crazy but I almost-sorta-kinda thought Isabel Durant was good in all of those scenes about Ben's silly, wet dream about Ciara. Those Kate/Vivian/Jake scenes would have been so much better if we'd have seen the pained look in Vivian's eyes as she never broke from her "insanity plea" but had to deny her son. Gawd, this show has to make everyone so incompetent for their Absolutely-Necessary-Plot-Points. *pointlessly shakes fists at the sky*

No surprise here that I'm sad to see Cady McClain go. If they let her go, it was probably because the show is too poor to keep her but I was really hoping we'd see Jack torn between Jennifer and Abigail thinking Gwen killed Laura and Gwen insisting it was an accident. Why isn't that a story worth paying for??? Oh right, I've been waiting all of my life to watch Ben and Ciara rolling around in bed thinking they're Romeo and Juliet.

Peacock made me watch a handful of commercials but not as many as the NBC app. I had to watch it on my phone, though, as my Firestick wouldn't allow me to download the Peacock app. It's crazy that the show is only 37 minutes now, and that includes the credits at the end of the show. That's what I was thinking. Isn't the wedding day supposed to be the Bride's Day? Steve kinda decided it was all about what he wanted to happen, which made me think of when he was playing games with Kayla and Justin after the Stefano Chip was removed. Thankfully, Peacock allowed me to Fast-Forward. I would have never made it through the episode if I'd have had to watch the debacle of Ciara and Ben as Romeo and Juliet. Someone is trying so hard to make that happen. *giggle* There is something about Linda Dano that kinda-sorta feels like she embodies Vivian but she doesn't seem to be having any fun with the character, and at least Robin Strasser looked like she was having fun doing whatever she was doing. Screeching.

Did you have to pay for it? Maybe I should switch from the NBC app to Peacock. If it was actually an accident, yes. If Gwen pushed Laura, making it more of a manslaughter kind of thing rather than an accident, then not showing it makes a little more sense. Another vote for being pleasantly surprised that Jack got to make choices that made sense for his character. Who was sitting in the writer's room that day? Emily O'Brien is so funny with her bitchy snark. I loved her Salute to Rafe when he was Mansplaining to her. But why is she there answering questions without a lawyer??? OMG, that drives me so crazy! Looked like Eli and Lani got there babies back. Hopefully, that will be the end of the painfully stupid Ivan-Steals-Some-Babies storyline. And is Dr Raynor in jail now because of this? Sheesh.

I don't think someone wakes up in the morning and consciously chooses to be a remorseless criminal. That's the main reason I find Gwen to be interesting, because it seems like she is self aware enough to know that she is trouble but there's also an element of not being able to control her impulses. And wow, did her revenge impulses pay off sooner than I expected with Laura laying there in a pool of her own blood. They skipped the actual altercation, which I'm assuming will be important to Future-Plot-Contrivances.