enchantingmonkey

Having a name that can be shortened to a nickname, I've noticed this odd quirk where people will call me by a name I didn't offer up. They'll say, "Enchant,..." and I'm thinking, "It's Enchanting!". *giggle* The best thing about Vincent is that he can tell anything to Ben/Shawn and they will have to consider the possibility of it being truth. The potential for ducking with their minds is almost endless. I didn't hear Vincent telling Ben that he was too good to kill, but rather that Ben's previous mental conditioning somehow superseded the mental conditioning that Vincent subjected him to. More like Vincent conceding not by defeat but by underestimation. \ Still enjoying Steve and Kayla having a story that involves adult conversations even though Tripp-the-Rapist? is frustrating on so many levels.

I know, right!?! I was so in the mindset for one of Ron's "wacky" Halloween episodes....and then most of it ended up being great for a Fast-Forward-Finger workout. Cady McClain's performance was everything I loved about her incarnation of Rosanna Cabot, so I was happy with all of those scenes. But I could see why people who are used to Melissa Reeves' version of Jennifer Rose didn't like them. Reeves isn't doing anything interesting with Jennifer at the moment, so I was pleased that McClain brought some hints of a neurotic edge to them. Matthew Ashford looked like he didn't know what the hell was going on. A little shout out to BIll Hayes who gave me goosebumps when his eyes started watering up about Hope. The Show seems to have no idea how to play Ben wanting to kill Vincent as tragically ironic, so all of those scenes played as tragically stupid for me.

Did anyone else notice several editing glitches right after Ben asked Eli if he could see Clyde? I counted three skips. For as much as I love Dr Rolf, I was relieved that Steve showed up to put an end to the possibility of Kayla being unwillingly impregnated with Stefano's DNA. Allie finally recognizing that she loves her son seems to be the only result of this Spoiler-i-fic Prison Break®️. Did anything else really happen?

There's a documentary about scientists from our reality attempting to resurrect the woolly mammoth from frozen DNA, so I don't see Dr Rolf to be any more crazy than them. But if he believes that a specific genetic code is all that made Stefano the man that he so adores, perhaps he truly has lost his mind. These stories were more fun last week when there was still a bit of mystery as to where they were going. I actually liked Christian not wanting to go on the run with his father to raise his kid but then he ran off? Back to Bayview? Or just to show up as another criminal plot point in the future? And Clyde went from being an ironic figure to another silly plot point. Unless something great happens tomorrow, I can't imagine that this padding was necessary for the Halloween episode to play as Friday's episode.

Geez Belle, way to poke the snake when it's standing right in front of you with a healing crystal that might crack your skull right open. I can see how dealing with a problem like Jan Spears would be exhausting but Belle sounded like an entitled, little snot when she went rambling on about how Shawn hates Jan. At least James Read got to put in a good performance during those groan-worthy scenes of Ben wanting to kill the man who killed the woman he loved, who wanted to kill the man who killed the woman he loved, who wanted to kill the man who killed the woman he loved, who wanted to kill the man who killed the woman he loved....wait, what? I guess the script writer didn't want to engage their characters in that tired old Eye-for-an-Eye conversation. Foiled again! Dr Rolf outsmarts the Salem PD with his hands tied behind his back! HA!

Three cheers for Gwen! YAY! Dr Rolf vs. Gwen was good fun. She scored some major brownie points with me helping him to escape after that little twit, Chad, tied him up. It was funny, though, that Gwen was so confident Chad and Abigail would believe her over Dr Rolf, but then she seemed sheepish when Chad was so confused as to how Rolf could break through those ropes. Did they get a new writer on the script writing team? Belle and John actually had an intelligent Nature-vs-Nurture conversation there for a minute. The three escaped criminals were able to outsmart the Scooby Doo Gang that function as the Salem Police Dept. All is well in the Universe. Jan Spears and her SPOOOOKY flashlight made me chuckle.

John and Marlena live in a floating condo. Whichever floor they're living on depends on the Plot-of-the-Day, so I think Lani only had to go up one flight of stairs for this storyline. There was a light reflecting in the dark of Orpheus' eye when he was holding Marlena by the arms and telling her she had to make a choice, which gave me goosebumps when I noticed it. I loved the irony of a Dick Dastardly villain like Clyde telling Ben he had nothing better to do than be at Ciara's memorial and trying to talk him out of killing Vincent. A father loves his son. Poor Dr Rolf! I don't need to see another actor trying to incarnate Stefano DiMera but that was Dr Rolf's life's work! I was hoping he'd shoot that little twit Chad right in the heart, although I had a feeling that Tony kept the actual Stefano microchip and what Chad burned was an impostor. But why do the writers continue to have Dr Rolf say Stefano's "essence" when the riddle of human consciousness is an actual human endeavor??? The microchip would contain a model of Stefano's consciousness.

Why have Parker been 11 years old when they just as easily have him be old enough to be romantically involved with Allie or Claire. It's not like our Suspension-of-Disbelief muscles are getting flabby at this point.

Clyde and Orpheus? That seemed to come out of nowhere. At least we got a Dr Rolf sighting out of the deal. And while I wasn't watching when Orpheus held Marlena captive, I always get a chill when he shows up on her doorstep/in her living room unannounced. It's harder for me to root for Gwen when Marci Miller is inhabiting Abigail. I have such a soft spot for her. I loved Abigail pointing out to Chad how he made his was up the DiMera Enterprises ladder. What? Cady McClain already? I thought she was a post-Covid addition. Is this some kind of mind game they're playing? Jack staring off into the sunset and musing about whether the power outage was the result of a jail break was so cheesy that I almost laughed out loud.

JKJ's performance feels so forced at times but I did enjoy Phillip being more relaxed with Sarah, and rather effortlessly motivating Xander to behave like as ass. While I can understand Tripp being hurt that friends and family don't believe him, I'd jump on the opportunity to prove that I'm innocent of a crime that I knew I didn't commit. But it was nice to have another day of Steve, Kayla, John and Marlena having adult conversations with each other.

The only thing I can think of with the "our dad" comment is that Victor has a long-lost child out there that has made contact with Phillip and devised some scheme to take over Titan, which feels like something Carlivati would do. That's really obnoxious if it was just the actor misreading his line and the show allowing it to play on screen. Of course, since having a DNA test would be the best way to prove whether Tripp raped Allie or not there's not a single character making mention of it. That said, I do like how the veteran actors are handling the material and it has given them the opportunity to have some interesting scenes together. I thought Stephen Nichols was great in his scenes with Tripp navigating the distance between "You're my son, I firmly believe in you" to "Wait, you're leaving out some details". Nicole and Lucas were good, and I also liked Marlena and Kayla. I was worried that Rage-o-holic John was going to stab Tripp with something. For as much as I want to like the idea of Kristin finally taking responsibility for her actions, she's been a cartoon villain for so long that it's just not resonating with me. I can't figure why she'd be willing to go to prison after all of the rotten things she's done. The only thing that would make it interesting to me is that after getting what she's wanted for so long, a child, she becomes so reasonable and empathetic that she doesn't get to raise her child because she ends up in prison for decades. The ultimate irony! But I'm not sure Carlivati is willing to sacrifice one of his favorite plot devices for irony.

Oh, that reminds me! At the beginning of the episode Phillip says, "Our dad just hired Xander back." With whom does Phillip share Victor as a father? Fixed it! Thank you!

*paging Joan Van Ark*

Does that mean there are only two episodes of pre-Covid shows left?

Ohhhhh, I wondered why we were getting Jack talking about being away from the family in one of those scenes. I noticed that, too. It almost seemed like she was mocking Gwen, and I kept waiting for the scene to take a turn to some kind of argument. I like that Marci Miller is playing Abigail with a little more spark than she did during her first stint, though. While I don't care much about Trask's vendetta over the Haley death, Tina Huang is a nice improvement over the previous actress. I almost makes me wonder if Tina Huang could have made me believe that Melinda actually cared that Haley was her daughter. As a long-time critic of on-screen crying, I thought Kristian Alfonso put in a good performance today. But that was an odd ending for such an important character. I thought maybe they'd have her go off looking for Ciara but then they can't do anything with Ben if Ciara is still alive out there somewhere.

Tamra was a main cast member when I started watching, so it's weird not to have her here with her specific brand of pot-stirring. I was glad to see Vicki go but I kinda missed Tamra's obnoxious presence. Isn't this Gina's third season? She still feels like she's auditioning for the show and doesn't belong here. The new housewife must have gotten her introduction while I was in another room, so her existence is only known to me by the mentions here and there being someone in the season preview I didn't recognize. Speaking of the season preview, some of the fights look good but I didn't make it through BH's season, and I actually like most of them.

Cady McClain as Jennifer makes me wish for the pill-popping, world-weary Jennifer of the past. I loved McClain as Rosanna on ATWT and it would be nice to see her get to play something meaty, rather than the doting grandmother version of Jennifer we're getting these days.

Well this rape storyline is pissing me off so much that I'm posting here two days in a row. At least we got to see Steve and Kayla having what felt like a real conversation those characters would have about this ordeal. That was the best part of this story, so far. Otherwise, I can't find enough rotten tomatoes to throw at the screen. Seriously, Victor fires Xander one minute and then hires him back an hour or so later? This would never happen within a large corporation, would it??? Hopefully, Phillip's E-VOL plot is to unseat Victor as head of Titan and have his Diabolical Smirk take over the company. I'm so proud of that little minx, Jan Spears, for doing Xander a favor and keeping the Phillip vs. Xander thingy alive. Just to be a bit of a cheerleader, I think the actress who portrays Allie is doing a good job with the second rotten storyline she's been handed. You can throw rotten tomatoes at me if you like. Are you sure that department actually exists? I think it might just be the actors/actresses eating breakfast, giggling about their storylines and doing each other's makeup.

Yes, this race to accuse Tripp of rape is maddening. At least we're getting to see Steve in protective father mode, which is the first time I've wanted to watch him since they removed the Stefano Chip®️ from his brain. My only hope is that there's someone on the writing team will give Marlena a thoughtful discussion about how false memories can be created but I don't think crossing all of my fingers and toes will help at this point. While I'll agree that Tripp going to the Salem Police Dept without a lawyer was a terrible idea, I've watched seemingly countless true crime documentaries in which some naive American citizen will sit in a room and talk with police detectives without a lawyer present. Phillip has mostly been annoying me since he smirked his way into the Kiriakis Mansion but I was kinda cheering for him today when he showed up at the office and wiped Xander's nose in the failed attempt to have him fired for threatening that little minx, Jan Spears.

Allie is really growing on me. Sami typically thinks her emotional whims are the most important thing in the room, and I can understand why that would inspire Allie to grow up with a chip-on-her-shoulder®️. What would it be like to grow up with a mother who always has to be the star of the show? And I say this as someone who loves Samantha Jean. Even if Sami was doing the best she could as a mother to her children, and I believe she did her best, what would it be like to grow up in her shadow? Plus, the actress who portrays her has a way of making her a brat with an underlying sense of vulnerability.

It was totally worth it to sit through a bunch of scenes I didn't care about to see Tripp's reaction when Steve told him Allie came back to Salem to have her baby. Good times, good times!

No, I didn't feel like it was a jaw dropper but it was a nice surprise. I agree that it seems a little odd that Vincent would be hopelessly devoted to a nurse from the MidWest, so I had to fan wank that their shared love for the medical field was what brought them together, and her death sent him in him in the darker direction of mind control. Gwen's schadenfreude over Jake being dumped was the best part of the show for me. But please, please, please Show don't put those two back together again. Cautiously optimistic that Marci Miller will play Abigail with the little bit of fire she had at the end of her previous run.

Jan Spears must have happened when I was taking one or more of my breaks from the show, because I recognize her name but didn't remember anything in her biography when I read it. I probably would have appreciated her reappearance even more if I knew the character, as the actress does seem kinda fun. Pleasantly surprised that Vincent had a romantic interest in Wendy The Midwife®️. Adds some layers. I'm intrigued by Vincent's fascination with mind control, so I felt bad for him that he only had Ciara there to share his musings about free will. Way too deep, dude. I like the Eye-For-An-Eye-Makes-The-Whole-World-Blind element of Eve and Vincent's revenge. It's both tragic and a little terrifying. And while I get why Ciara likes to hand wave Ben's past, it's unfortunate that Victoria Konefal doesn't seem to be able to do much with the gravity of being in love with a serial killer when it's placed right there in her lap. Hopefully, I've spoken too soon. Although I'm not loving this silly custody storyline, Hurricane Sami brings a liveliness to the show that isn't there when she exits Salem. I suspect it has something to do with feeling like I've watched Sami grow up and known her for about half of my life. Andre?

Well I'll be crossing all of my fingers and my toes that you'll come back to us sooner than later. Will the return of Abigail be in the form of Marci Miller?

Is @QUEENSERENA quitting the show?