Black Knight

Indeed, oceanblue. Heck, that's the exact advice Kayla gave Abby's mom (although of course Jen ignored it). The smart thing is to hope that Sami is satisfied with the pound of flesh she's extracted, and really, I think she probably is satisfied. Antagonizing her, running the risk of provoking her into more revenge, is just stupid. Did Jordan think her words would make Sami see the error of her ways or something?

Yeah, especially since we've seen that she doesn't set Sami off that much. She's pulled her punches when it comes to Abby. She could have had Ann haul Abby in for an embarrassing hearing and firing, for maximum damage, but instead she gave the situation to Abby's aunt to handle and let Abby resign. When Abby is ranting on at her, Sami's mostly been amused in a dismissive fashion, much like one would be with a tiny dog yapping about your ankles. Even the way she gave Abby a few light smacks rather than a full-on slap...it's very clear that Sami knows that Abby is not up to her level at all, and is tailoring her actions accordingly, and that makes it work for me. In a weird way, it's almost like a parent teaching a kid a lesson (something Jennifer should have done and failed). That's how it came across with Jordan too. Jordan is a nonentity for Sami, but if she's going to be dumb enough to confront someone way above her fighting weight (and about something that's not even her business), then Sami is going to put her in her place. Sami's attitude with EJ is very different, and I don't just mean that annoying subtext that she might decide to forgive him eventually. She's not pulling her punches with him. And she took protective measures by finding and destroying the incriminating evidence he had on her, precisely because he is a legitimate threat. And their scene together showed that it's as I thought - she's waiting for him to threaten her first with the evidence, before she lets him know she already destroyed it. Smart. She's giving him the rope with which to hang himself.

I think somebody non-creepy would not have gone along with Sonya's request, recognizing it as deeply fucked up. I'm not commenting on auto-eroticism in general, but Sonya's sister was raped and strangled. She was quite clearly trying to put herself in her sister's position at that moment, like it was the only way she could think of to keep a tie to her now that Dobbs is dead, and that is deeply fucked up. And the guy she is asking this of, the guy she wants to simulate the murder, is the rapist/killer's brother to boot, which for him makes the role-playing especially loaded to take part in. I think a normal person would have been completely turned off and jumped up all WTF? instead of going along. "Why yes, I would love to role-play my brother's rape and murder of another woman with her sister." I was sort of expecting Lyle Lovett to tell Charlotte that Fausto would be satisfied with just killing Ray, and I had no doubt at all Charlotte would be like, "I'll shoot him myself right now." Ray really doesn't know Charlotte, does he? I burst out laughing when he said something about how they'd eventually upgrade to a big trailer. Not like Charlotte was onboard with the picture he'd been painting up to then, but he really lost her at that point. Hee.

I'm worried too that the show will have Sami forgive EJ and take him back, but at least she certainly did not just excuse him for everything, blame Abby for everything, and visit her wrath only on Abby. She's already done far worse to EJ than she has to Abby. Abby has had to listen to some insults and harsh truth-telling, and lost her job. EJ was arrested based on evidence we've been told is airtight and is looking at a trial and prison sentence; meanwhile, his company has been taken from him and Sami is selling or giving away everything he cares about. (And, his reaction when he learned from Victor about what Sami did proves, again, that all his blather to Sami about how he doesn't care about his company was just him trying to flatter Sami.) Yeah, I wasn't clear on what Kate was doing until afterwards when she told Sami that she'd been having fun twisting the knife in Abby. Because KM sure gave me no sign of that. Jordan...I had to laugh at her butting in on Sami and Abby's business. And Sami even said that to her. And yeah, Sami hasn't been friendly with Jordan, but we saw from her conversation with Kate earlier that that's just because she doesn't really tend to be friendly in general - she told Kate Jordan was not even on her radar. The dumbass should have kept her mouth shut. There was no need for her to involve herself in somebody else's fight, but since she and Abby were both trying to do the annoyingly smug superiority thing (and I find it especially stupid when they try to affect that attitude over Jordan and Rafe's relationship, because, please - Jordan and Rafe have been together what, a few months? Rafe and Sami were involved for years, and were married, so, you know, call back when you're past the initial phase and then maybe you can try to compare relationships), I'm glad Sami shut them up. With the truth, as it happens. I'm sure Jordan will focus all her anger on Rafe and will let Kate skate, right? Right? As for Chrishell Stause, Jordan is not a well-written part, but Stause could bring more to it, I feel. I watched her on AMC too and I know what she can do. She isn't an awesome actress, but she was competent and she has plenty of charisma when she wants to turn it on. My guess is that she felt she was destined for better than soaps and is disappointed that she's had to take another soap role, so she's not trying.

The Quinns are creeping me out. Sophia is not malicious, but her being "maybe we can keep Callie" in exactly the same way as she was all "I want some pants like Callie's!" earlier in the episode...oof. Callie is a person, not a pair of pants or even a puppy. Sophia clearly has problems of her own - how happy can she really be in that home if she's saying that it might be better for her not to have been born? It makes me wonder how good of parents the Quinns have really been to her. At the very least, they've spoiled her rotten, that's for sure. Jill's talk with Jude made me think that she's had a conversation with Robert that made her aware that he's wanting to keep Callie, and so was looking for dirt on the Fosters that can be used. Asking about why Callie ran away from the Fosters is a natural place to start. And finally, Robert. I don't fault him for having feelings about having discovered a daughter he never knew and not necessarily wanting to give that up. What I do fault him for is his lack of honesty. Initially, when he claimed that he was just waiting for the family lawyers to give the go-ahead on his signing his termination of parental rights paperwork because they wanted to first ensure that Callie would have no rights to the family fortune, which is exactly what his signing the termination paperwork would also do, I was a little iffy but ultimately put it down to sloppy writing. But now he's taking Callie (and her brother) out for a day, and pushing her to accept a college fund? Those are exactly the sorts of things his family lawyers wouldn't want him to do right now. I think what Robert is doing is laying groundwork. Callie accepting the college fund, and spending time with him and his family, can be used for him to argue against terminating his parental rights. And what Sophia said about giving Callie time to get to know them, I think he's had that in the back of his mind all along. Her plan is what he's already been doing. Presumably Jill, after finding out from Stef that Robert was sitting on the paperwork, had a conversation with him and found this out. And she's backing up her husband, however conflicted she may feel about it. As for Sophia, I'm sure Robert knows Sophia well enough to know that she'd want to keep Callie just like a puppy. And again, I'm not faulting the guy for having emotions about wanting to keep the daughter he's just learned about. But I do not like his lack of honesty about it. His pushing Callie about the college fund is what really stepped over the line for me. If his family lawyers are comfortable with him giving her a college fund - yeah right - then they're certainly comfortable about him signing the termination paperwork. I understand his feelings, but it's Callie's life he's affecting here and he needs to be upfront with her about it instead of stringing her (and her brother, and the Fosters) along with nonsense about the lawyers not letting him sign paperwork. But I know in the end Callie will stay with the Fosters. One thing I do notice getting said often by posters, and it bothers me a little, is that Callie won't leave because she wouldn't leave Jude. It seems to be turning the conflict into sort of a Jude vs. Brallie thing, and I don't think that's accurate. Remember, Callie was prepared to do independent living so she could be with Brandon while Jude would be adopted by the Fosters. I think Callie made it very clear last season that this was actually a Brandon vs. Stef/Lena thing for her. She chose Stef and Lena over Brandon. Callie wants her moms, and one of the things she pointed out when she talked to Brandon about it was that Brallie would invalidate her Foster family connection in important ways. And, for Brallie to happen, it's not just about running out the clock until Callie is 18 as Brandon proposed last season. Adoption isn't restricted to minors. Even if Robert refuses to sign the termination paperwork, Callie can still be legally adopted by Stef and Lena once she comes of age, and Robert could not prevent it then. I was adopted as an adult myself, actually, because yes, my stepmom was my mom emotionally...but having her be my legal mother was important to me as well. (I was told by my uncle, a family court judge, that he saw a lot of adult adoptions like that, people who wanted their stepparents to be their legal parents.) It carried emotional significance for us, and it was also important in a pragmatic sense - should I have a serious medical crisis, heaven forbid, my biological mother doesn't have standing to make decisions, my legal mother does. My biological mother's rights were gone once I was adopted, and unlike Callie, because I was an adult, I didn't need her permission (and believe me, if she'd had any say, she would have stopped it). When Callie turns of age, if she's still unadopted because of Robert or whatever other roadblocks the show devised in the meantime, it's still important that she be adopted then. Or her moms have no say in a medical crisis and Robert does. I would be all right with an open adoption for Callie if not for Robert's shadiness about this whole thing. If he'd just been upfront with her about not being sure that he wants to sign away his rights, instead of making excuses to delay the process while he works to get into her affections and lays groundwork for a legal fight, all the while assuring her that he'll sign the paperwork so she can be adopted like she wants...Callie's had the rug pulled out from her enough times already. She deserves honesty, and he's not giving her that. In his own way, he's being as ignorant of the fact that Callie is a person, not a possession, as Sophia is. But Sophia is like 14 years old and quite spoiled. Robert is an adult who should know better.

I don't see Sami losing, anyway. The show will have her leave on some kind of high note, although their definition of high note may differ wildly from mine (i.e. they have her get back together with EJ and they leave Salem happily together). She'll take her lumps, and lose a battle here or there, but the show isn't going to have her slink out of town down and destroyed. This is AS we're talking about - she's been there for 21 years, she's been one of the leading ladies for much of that time, and her outside gigs have helped bring some attention to the show. I can't stop laughing at Abby's reaction now that she's finally had a real-world consequence for her actions. All her verbal attempts to take responsibility really were as half-hearted, and mostly to get positive reinforcement from her sycophants, as I suspected.

Yes, I could see Abby being down with conjugal visits too. Which would be awesome because Jen would have an absolute fit. Her princess of a daughter hooked up with a jailed mobster...just what every mother wants!

Like Sami would care if Abby went after EJ, seeing as how she plans for EJ to be going to prison anyway. However, the rest of Salem would have to shut up about Abby just being a victim of EJ's manipulation, so there's that. So go ahead Abby, chase EJ around some more! Snerk. EJ wouldn't leave Sami for Abby, and wouldn't even keep Abby as his mistress. So, sure, if Abby wants to aspire to being EJ's sidepiece once again while he tries to win Sami back, and would dump Abby's ass the nanosecond Sami agreed to take him back...why not? Let her embarrass herself some more.

Yes, I'm sure the readers of his article will have lots of sympathy for an employee who knowingly violated hospital policy with an firable offense, and not for something admirable like breaking a rule in order to help a sick patient, but to have sex with an engaged man. I actually don't think Will can put it in his article, since one of his goals is to keep Abby from being embarrassed, and if he writes about Abby being fired, he has to write why Abby was fired.

I've never seen this much handwringing...hell, I don't think I've ever seen handwringing, period, by anyone other than the cheaters themselves over an affair being exposed on a soap. It's just really bizarre to me that most everyone is far more concerned that Sami's told people about Abby and EJ cheating than about anything else. Sami didn't even do it in the spectacularly public fashion most of us had been expecting! She went to confront Abby privately, and Jen walked in, so that's how she found out. Then Sami told her son and son-in-law, and Ben. I'm not saying she had nice motives or that she didn't enjoy freaking Jen out and trying to throw a wrench into Abby and Ben's whatever, but all this handwringing and pearl-clutching over a few private conversations when I'd been expecting a slideshow at the wedding or a video being played at the gala or photos splashed all over the tabloids! And what difference has it even made, since Abby's gotten nothing but support and love and understanding from everyone? So why get upset that Sami told people about the affair? Abby's somehow managed to get through it with her (undeserved) reputation for piety and goodness intact.

I'm worried for Carolyn. It seems the (few) people of color on this show all morph into unquestioning, mindless lackeys of Big Jim without warning and regardless of prior feelings towards him. First Linda, then Phil...

I think only Caroline would try to talk Sami out of ruining Theresa. Ironic since she's one of the few who didn't express any real issues with Sami going after Abby, although admittedly almost all their dialogue last week focused on EJ. But certainly Jen Lilley would not have needed a veteran actress to take almost all of the material that should have gone to her. once Sami finally confronted her character. I still don't know how KM hasn't quit the show in embarrassment. The climactic episode of her months-long SL, and the writers give virtually everything to MR. I've frankly never seen anything like it on soaps, ever.

They did the one thing with Nicole they really couldn't afford to do with AS/Sami leaving - wrote her into a corner. Nicole has no family in town, unlike Sami or Theresa, and that means the writers should have been more careful with what they had the character do. Bad girls are a soap staple, but it's easier to keep them viable if they have relatives on the canvas.

How else will we know that Kristen's evil?

Maybe that's why EJ and Stefano have been so interested on getting Kate and Sami to marry back in?

Yes, it was so nice to see Sami do what is so RARELY done on soaps - burn incriminating evidence the second she got her hands on it. These dumbasses who weirdly hold onto evidence forever and ever for no good reason are ridiculous. Even if EJ had no intention ever to do anything nefarious with the evidence he held onto - and that's a humongous "if" given his history - just holding onto it was still an unacceptable risk. As Sami so effectively demonstrated, it's not that hard for a determined person to get into someone else's safe, and the DiMeras have a shitload of enemies. (Of course, Will was such a twerp last week that I kind of wish Sami had only burned the stuff that incriminated her and left the evidence of Will shooting EJ in the safe. Then when EJ tried to blackmail Sami by threatening to send her son to prison, she'd just shrug and say "Go ahead." It'd serve Will right. On a related note, I really need a GIF of Sami slapping Will over and over, because that was awesome.)

That's one of the things I think Abby's family should be talking to her about. Morality aside, it was one thing to mess with Austin and Carrie, entirely another to mess with EJ and Sami. Austin wasn't a murderous mobster obsessed with Carrie and Carrie isn't a murderous hellraiser like Sami. Anyone with a healthy sense of self-preservation - emotionally, physically, psychologically - would stay far far away.

They really do need to figure out what they're going to do. It's not that nobody can replace Sami's function as a plot catalyst and mover, they have actors/characters who are perfectly capable of it. But they're not well-positioned. Kate needs to be moved out of the boring Jordan/Rafe SL - it's just dragging her down. Victor needs a storyline, if John Aniston is physically able to work more. Theresa is nearly written into a corner; Nicole has been written into a corner. The show needs to fix that. Eve is, weirdly, in the best shape currently, despite the OTT nonsense about her past and how evil she is to take money away from the veterans, but the stuff that's likely coming - falling for Dan, her and JJ having sex - is going to bog her down.

Good point, bantering. If Abby is going to have nothing happen to her, it's boring. I wouldn't mind some of her loved ones being supportive - although I feel "supportive" in this situation would include at least a constructive discussion about her poor choices so that she doesn't repeat this with a third attached man - but so far Sami's yelled at her and been criticized for that while everyone else rushes to support and prop up Abby and tell her she's the victim and did nothing wrong. How old is Abby supposed to be now anyway? I agree Abby's made some attempts to take responsibility for her actions rather than saying she was just a victim, and it's mostly the way everyone else has rushed to tell her otherwise that's really galling. However, Abby's not really been that invested in accepting responsibility, and at this juncture it's starting to feel like maybe she says it precisely so that everyone else will tell her no, she did nothing wrong. If she were really seriously thinking about herself, she wouldn't have been in Horton Square moralizing loudly at a woman she doesn't even know, and slapping her, right after Sami had just ripped her a new one. I'm not saying once you've done something wrong you can never judge anyone else's actions, but you know, having the self-awareness to take an appropriate period of time for self-reflection before getting back on her soapbox would be appropriate. She couldn't wait 24 hours. Hell, she couldn't even give herself one night to sleep on things, before she started screeching judgement at others.

I do wonder if the town's inability to understand that Sami has reason to be upset with Abby (seriously, I'd settle even for just that, at this point) is setup for Sami's departure. I'd like to think it's setup for Abby's comeuppance, but seeing how the show seems pretty firm on her being a golden girl (even though her behavior doesn't justify it), maybe it's just that Sami decides to hell with everybody and takes her minor children and leaves.

Yes. Sami cheated. Leaving aside my rant that it was horribly out of character for her, she was divorced by Rafe as a consequence. So she paid for what she did. I really do not understand this. I recall many, many times that Sami has been, rightfully, excoriated, both publicly and privately, for various actions. There's no doubt in my mind that if Sami and Abby were reversed in this story, the whole town of Salem would have lined up to tell Sami how awful she was for sleeping with Abby's fiance while babysitting Abby's kids, pretending to be Abby's friend, leaning on Abby for support when she thought she was pregnant by Abby's fiance, and acting as Abby's maid of honor. But Abby gets a total pass from everyone except Kate. She's a hypocrite, and normally people love to point out a hypocrite. People also tend to be harder on hypocrisy than on other sins. Can we please have a little realism here? I'm not saying I expect them to burn her alive, but Abby's relatives should be having private conversations with her about her poor choices, and the rest of the town should be side-eying her. At the very least. Before Abby's exposure, Nicole was the most recent screw-up in the town, and how many people lined up to tell her how awful she is?

In another example of hypocrisy, I don't see anyone lecturing Eric about letting go of his anger towards Nicole. Yeah, I know he said he forgave her, but he's still obviously very angry with her. Why is he not all zen about it? Why?? He's letting the anger consume him! And he should totally think about reuniting with her, because she loves him so much, she did it all for love of him, and she's apologized insincerely and claimed she feels bad a few times. Just like EJ...

Sami told Ben that the visual evidence she had was quite graphic. Since the picture of Abby and EJ kissing isn't exactly X-rated, I think her "short video" must be of the shower sex. As a smart poster pointed out, it would explain how Sami knew that Abby was saying "Oh God!" I agree that the message that you shouldn't get so caught up in anger that you let it consume your life for all time is a valid one. My issue is that people are lecturing Sami to stop being angry right now. Anger is a normal, natural part of the process for many people when they find out they have been cheated on. It's only been a matter of weeks since Sami found out, and as other posters have mentioned, it's brought up anger as well for having fallen for his act after the previous shitty things he did to her and then claimed he'd changed and would be honest going forward and everything was a clean slate (even as he preserved evidence he could use against her and her son in the event of a rainy day). It's like telling someone who has just experienced the death of a loved one to skip all the stages of grief and go straight to acceptance. It's dismissive and callous. They need time to process. Sami is still obviously in the anger stage, and while she shouldn't stay there forever, it's only been a matter of weeks. Check back in a couple months. Even when someone does take the path of forgiving the other person and repairing the relationship, working through all of the emotions necessary can go on for a year or more.

Oh, but this is romantic! Very romantic! EJ is a prince of a guy! Isn't it amazing how much he loves Samantha? How dare she not appreciate how much he loves her? How dare she not fall into his arms and reward him for his love? Puke. At least most of the town hates EJ and so we haven't really had to hear that angle yet, but given what EJ said to Caroline, we may have to listen to some of that nonsense today.

Sami showed much more warmth and direct support of Marlena than Marlena did of her when she came to the house to allegedly "support" Sami after the wedding - coldly greeting her, no physical contact, and immediately asking to see the grandkids so she could spend time with them. Sooooo...at least Sami's not a robot yet, whatever else can be said about her! Also, I cracked up when Sami used the "that's a fact" catchphrase. EJ's coming into focus for me now. Everything he says to Sami is basically a lie - he's just saying whatever he thinks will calm her down and get her to forgive him. As TigerLynx pointed out, he claimed to Sami that he doesn't care about the company, but with Kate he made it clear that he just views this coup as a temporary thing easily fixed by him and his father. His taking responsibility for the affair instead of making excuses? Just an act because he knows that it would annoy Sami if he did otherwise - he started going down that path with the "you kicked me out of your bed" thing, saw her reaction, immediately backtracked. And all his "I'll lie down and take whatever you want to do to me"? Just an act, he figures it'll win her over. Of course, a big thing is that he does not know that he's lost the evidence that he had on her and Will. In the back of his mind, that's leverage - he's trying the "nice, apologetic" route first, if that doesn't work, he can use the evidence. Except he can't! Whoops! Really looking forward to when he finds out about that tidbit. But EJ is so obsessed with Sami. Run Sami! Run! For god's sake, don't fall for this nonsense again. I really enjoy how Sami is with her grandmother - I liked when she was about to call Abby a name and clearly replaced whatever term she was going to use with the milder word "tramp" instead. But it seems like Caroline is going to support EJ, so she can fuck right off. Sheesh. She's upset that she overheard Sami yelling at EJ? It's not enough that according to everyone (except Kate) Sami is not allowed to be angry with Abby, now she's not allowed to even yell at EJ either? The Kami portrait really is everything. I liked Sami's look when she saw it up. Kate does need to get back to the house pronto and run some interference for Sami. I agree with TigerLynx, she's coming off as territorial of Sami even though the writers probably don't mean it that way. I'm enjoying it. Sure, I realize Kate has her own motives, and I acknowledge Sami's going too far with her revenge (even though it's fun for me to watch), but at this point I'm just so relieved to have somebody in Salem who isn't worshipping Abby or dismissing Sami's anger. Despite Kate's ulterior motives, she's still ahead of Sami's own family.