Black Knight

If only Tim Curry could have popped up in the square... "Are you making moral judgments, Mrs. Peacock?"

So Abby fake-cries for about two minutes after Sami leaves the house, and then she goes to Horton Square to pass moral judgment on Eve and slap her? Sami wasn't nearly hard enough on Abby, obviously, if she could recover that fast. And whatever one's opinion about the way Jennifer handled things while Sami was still in the house, she fell down on the job of being a parent afterwards. She could have discussed Abby's poor decision-making - especially since this is the second time she's gone for a man who's involved in a serious relationship! - but instead she excused Abby completely and pooh-poohed Abby's own attempts to take some responsibility for her actions. The show really needs to have Abby go after Jen's man someday. Let Jen's terrible parenting come back to bite her.

Others have already covered the extreme stupidity with messing around with a coffin of soil with no protective suits, and how that guy's body has managed to remain undiscovered for hours even though there are government/security people from various alphabet soup organizations crawling around all over the place, so here's another question I have: How did zombie girl manage to make it to her dad's house? She strolled out of the morgue with nobody seeing? I realize the pathologist was busy being eaten by vambies, but the building itself wasn't on lockdown with security all over the place? And then she walks to her dad's place? What, does he live right down the street?

Is it too much to hope for that we can have some true old school Lumi (by that I mean when they had fun conspiring with each other on various schemes), instead of Lucas joining the parade of those suggesting that Sami ix-nay her revenge? Probably. But I'm looking forward to when he hears the part about Kate being Sami's partner in all this. Theresa whacked John over the head? Oh, Theresa. I knew John was supposed to get hurt, but when the fighting started, I assumed it would be an accident - she would shove him while wrestling over the cell, and he would fall and hit his head, something like that. But she deliberately whacked him. While I applaud that on general principle, it makes me worry for the character. Is she gonna go down the same hole as Nicole, who basically seems like a dead end character with no real story now? I hope so. Jenn marched herself into his house and reamed him out about Chad without any provocation, so it's now her turn to hear a few home truths. I doubt it. I think Jen is going to basically stick to what she said today - JJ wanted to rip EJ's head off and Jen commented that it wouldn't be necessary because Sami would be taking care of that. Which is totally true, as it happens. I think she's going to leave EJ to Sami, and hunker down with her family in anticipation of whatever Sami plans to do to them. And hope that EJ will serve as a lightning rod that will pull Sami's focus from Abby somewhat. I know Jen is not a genius, but she seems to realize she has her hands full with Sami without also running afoul of a DiMera. (Now watch Jen go visit him in jail tomorrow and prove me wrong.)

The thing with Marlena is that, as Dandesun pointed out, her parenting seems more like a science experiment than because she's actually trying to parent. Roman also has done the tough love thing with Sami, but I get the feeling he's emotionally engaged. Sheesh, Marlena actually asked a few episodes ago why it's on her to to bridge the gap between her and Sami. Uh, because you're the mother?

There's no way he'll be able to top the performance he gave when he was dead. :) What I would really find highly entertaining was if Eric became a priest again, only he's DarkEric now, and so he's acting more like one of those Borgia popes than a saintly man of God. With Sami leaving it would be fitting if he stepped in to fill the void by becoming more like her. But I'm sure I won't get anything that exciting. Everyone still thinks it's gonna be Eric/Jen, right? The only positive thing I can say for that couple is that they're not Dannifer.

Seriously, what was the point of the gala? We endured weeks of snooze-inducing scenes of Hope and Aiden planning the stupid thing. For what?

Of course Sami is taking the revenge too far. It's Sami. It's what she does. But that's what is making the SL entertaining for me, which I can't say about any other SL on this show. I find individual scenes here and there entertaining, like Pop-up Victor, Eve and Theresa's sister scenes, sweaty sarcastic bitter Eric, Theresa being nice with Caroline...but the storylines? No, I'm either bored or annoyed. Kami revenge FTW! I loved Sami's eyeroll as Jen moved her toward the door. And you're right, Sami left only because she was ready to leave. Jen had already tried to get her to leave several times, and to stop talking to Abby the way she was, with zero success.

And especially when the character has been recast. It's easier for me to connect to a recast if the real history is being honored. When they retcon so much, that just makes it all the harder for me to feel this is an established character, not a new one. I love KdP, and she's doing a great job in her scenes as she always does, but I constantly have to remind myself she's playing Eve. Eve is interacting with a bunch of characters she's never been with before, and so when the writers retcon the history with the one character she's appearing with that I have seen her with before, Jennifer, it just sets me that much further adrift. I think it's both. I agree with you that the writers would screw up the execution. But to not have anyone from that particular generation on the show is a structural mistake. Not having that generation on the show because the writers would screw it up is not the answer - the writers have to write for someone, after all, this show has to have characters. And as shesajar says, at least with characters with history it is a little easier to overlook bad writing. The Eight Deadly Words of fiction are: "I don't care what happens to these people!" I'll stick with a poorly-written show that has characters I care about over a better-written show that has no characters I care about.

Oh my god, I had forgotten about that. Blocked it out, more likely. But yes, it's all coming back now... To me, the proof that EJ has learned nothing and changed not an iota in eight years, is that he kept the evidence on Sami and Will. That's creepy control to the max; it would be creepy of anyone, but doubly so of someone with EJ's specific history of coercing Sami. They had said they were starting over, clean slate, no more secrets or lies, and all the while he's keeping evidence against her and her son in his safe. I actually find that far worse than the cheating. I could forgive cheating (although I wouldn't bother to forgive EJ's, because he's not worth it), but this I would find unforgivable regardless of circumstances.

Oh, please let the shower sex be the video Sami has. Because it would be all but certain that it's going to be played for the whole town to see. Dare I hope that she's stopping by the gala after her conversation with Will? I just rewatched Friday's episode, because it's just so much fun. And the difference between KM's ability and MR's ability is quite evident just from their joint reaction shot to the photo. MR manages to portray simultaneous shock, confusion, worry, sadness, and horror to the depth of her soul while immediately aging 30 years. KM...I have no idea what KM is trying to portray. She's just blank. And at that point, AS is not screaming, Batman voicing or scenery chewing - all she's said so far is a mock-confused "How in the world did that get on here?" - so KM's complete inability to get anything across to me is not on AS. If KM can't come up with a reaction - any reaction! - to her and her mother being shown a picture of her cheating with someone else's fiancé, there's no hope for her. Abby should pretty much mirror Jen in that moment, but MR's just a far more capable actress. Freeze-frame their joint reaction shot, and the gap between MR and KM is not even funny.

Yes, I think EJ knows his explanation wouldn't fly. When it comes down to it, of course he could have come up with another plan. But another plan wouldn't have been as enjoyable for him. Sami even mentioned one of the obvious other plans available to EJ to Abby on Friday, when she asked Abby if EJ threatened to kill her or her family. MR did a fine job with her scenes on Friday. JS did a fine job with his scenes on Thursday. A long line of actors have been memorable in scenes opposite AS. AS isn't the problem. She's a good actor to be in a scene with because she gives the other person plenty to react to, and like the old quote goes, acting is reacting. Somebody pointed out upthread that every woman is a nonentity opposite Rafe but manages to have a personality in scenes with Sami. That's because GG/Rafe is the equivalent of a green screen while AS/Sami gives them something to play off of.

Most people I have talked to about this thinks that makes it worse - if you are in love with the person you cheated with, then risking what you have in your relationship is more understandable. But if you throw away your whole relationship for somebody you don't even care about? I too have noticed that Sami's mentioned a few times that she doesn't feel that EJ loves her, but the thing is, convincing her that he doesn't love Abby is not going to make Sami think that he does love her. It's going to do the exact opposite, because if he loved her, why would he jeopardize everything for some meaningless sex when he was already on thin ice? I don't think EJ really loves Sami, not the way we usually mean when we talk about love. He's obsessed with her, which is a different thing. Dude's first time with her was by coercing her into sex, and then beaming and gloating about it even afterwards when she was upset and crying. That's not how anyone with a normal, healthy sort of love wants their first time with their love to be - coercing the other person, not caring that she's not enjoying it, in fact is crying instead. I don't understand that. It's just gross. I cannot imagine having sex with someone while they are crying about it, and being able to ignore it so completely that I can enjoy myself as thoroughly as EJ obviously did. So, I'm never going to believe that EJ loves and adores Sami, not when he has such a fundamental disregard for her feelings. Moving on - I'm still marveling over KM. How is she not utterly embarrassed with herself? Friday's episode was a climactic one for her storyline, it should have been Sami vs. Abby, just like Thursday was Sami vs. EJ. If it was Jen Lilley, or even Ashley Benson, in the Abby role, it would've just been Sami and Abby in the room, and Jen's reaction would have been saved for the public humiliating reveal. I understand why TPTB did it, because they knew KM couldn't handle it, and what do you do then if you're TPTB? You don't ask AS to tone it all the way down to KM's level in a climactic episode for her exit SL, not when you know viewers are going to be sitting there with popcorn and ice cream in gleeful anticipation of the smackdown. So you bring in MR because she can act opposite AS in full-on Sami rage mode without getting blown out of the room. That's embarrassing enough for KM as it is, to have her lines taken away and given to MR, but then she does a weak job even with the few lines she's allowed. She should have wanted to rise to the occasion, prove to TPTB that they made a mistake in thinking she couldn't handle it, but no. Since TPTB obviously know what they have - or more to the point, don't have - in KM, they really need to make a decision. Either tailor Abby to KM's strengths (such as they are), or recast the part with someone who can play the kind of Abby they want. But don't try to fit a square peg in a round hole. Can you imagine them taking the smackdown stuff away from AS and giving it to DH, having Marlena be the outraged mommy (hahahaha) while Sami just stands around wordlessly? Because that's the equivalent of what they did with KM and MR.

I think the timeline is going to work out roughly like this: - EJ and Abby have cabin sex - EJ and Abby have shower sex; Sami walks in and notices EJ is super-distracted, but for now just files that away in her head - Abby has pregnancy scare, Sami helps her through it (her fury about how she didn't know then the father was EJ seemed quite genuine) - Sami somehow gets the picture, and probably video, of cabin sex (since several times when looking at the photo, she would see moving images). This is the big question for me, when exactly she got that. I still lean towards after Nick's murder. - Sami recalls EJ's distraction, and goes to security and looks at the tapes of that day and realizes what was going on then - Sami goes to Kate with her plan for revenge. I'm guessing this conversation happened at Ari's birthday party; remember when Kami went out to the hallway to talk, and we never got to see that conversation, we only saw when they came back in and were "arguing." Kate getting the necklace from Stefano, which she was wearing that day, probably gave Sami the idea since she would have understood then that Kate would be in a position to manipulate Stefano. One thing I've noticed is that Sami thinks this has been a regular ongoing affair. She has tangible evidence of the two times they had sex, but she doesn't realize that those are the only two times. Which also helps explain her fury, in addition to the points that have already been made about this being the straw that breaks the camel's back and the EJami relationship not having been great enough anyway to justify doing the work to salvage it. It's an understandable enough conclusion - if you see that your partner has definitely cheated on you more than once, you wouldn't just assume that the times you know about are the only times. I am a little worried that the writers think that this will offer a path to forgiveness, once Sami realizes it was "only" twice. Twice is more than enough. EJ and the EJami relationship aren't worth it.

Watching this storyline, I've been asking myself why soaps don't make the Sami-type character (every soap generally has at least one of them) the betrayed party in a cheating SL more often. It's usually one of the goody-two-shoe heroines, and they'll cry and yell, and sure, it makes for good scenes if the actress is good...but it stops there. What's so fun about this story is that the betrayed woman is one of those characters who routinely thinks in terms of destroying other people, and so the writers can come up with elaborate revenge schemes and bigger consequences than just the cheater getting dumped. I truly can't think of the last time it's been done on any soap. I can remember a few stories where there was a triangle with a good girl and a bad girl where the guy was with the bad girl, but those always played out as the bad girl doing something wrong and the guy leaving her when he found out, then getting with the good girl. The bad girl would then often come up with a scheme, but said scheme would just revolve around trying to get the guy back. So, not the same thing.

Yeah, that's how I feel. I was a teensy bit impressed with Jennifer when she managed to wrestle Sami away from Abby at a point where Sami did look like she was about to physically hit her, and I didn't have a problem with that moment. But all the rest of it? Come on. It was some yelling and a number of harsh but true things being said. Not a fun experience for Abby, but it's not going to kill her, land her in the hospital, or negatively impact her life for as long as she lives. She slept with someone else's fiancé, verbal blowback is to be expected. Jen's doing her entitled, obnoxious daughter no favors by trying to shield her from it. It really is amazing how KM can't cry. But although she didn't exactly do a good job in her scenes today, I still hugely, hugely enjoyed them. AS/Sami was awesome once again. And MR did a good job acting-wise - as bantering said, she really seemed to age overnight when she saw the photo, she looked on the verge of collapse when she heard about the shower sex, and then when she found out about the pregnancy scare? Fantastic reaction. Yeah, I disagreed with virtually every action and sentence of Jennifer's today aside from when it looked like Sami might hit Abby, she's a crap parent, but MR brought it. She wasn't afraid to look about fifty years older and I do commend her for that, and I appreciate it because it made seeing Jennifer go down an awesome sight. The writers were smart to let AS and MR do basically all the work. But enough complimenting of MR - back to how Jennifer sucks. I laughed with disbelief when she ordered - ordered! - Sami not to tell anyone about the affair. What nerve she has. If she had gone the begging route, I still would've rolled my eyes at the overprotective mothering, but at least it wouldn't have shown such unmitigated gall. Even Abby wasn't that stupid, she at least had the sense to say she was sorry, however poorly KM delivered the apology while fake-crying. Bring on the public humiliation!! Actually, if I were Sami, I would let Abby (and Jen) stew for a while, wondering at every turn whether this is the moment Sami's going to suddenly appear and expose the affair publicly in some spectacular fashion. But since Sami is now talking to Will, I guess she intends to do it that same night as she said. Speaking of Will, I enjoyed the look on his face when Sami announced she hoped EJ would rot in jail for the rest of his life. He's not the greatest actor, but he did a good job with that sort of "okay, the train just jumped the tracks, what's going on with Mom now?"thing that you know he has experienced constantly with Sami over his life.

DisneyBoy, Stefano decided not to come to Salem for the board meeting because there is a warrant out for his arrest. Of course, Kami was behind that too...so Stefano gave Kate his proxy, which allowed Kami to pull off their elected-as-co-CEOs maneuver. They will only be CEOs for six months, but they feel that's enough time for them to deal with Stefano and EJ...permanently. We haven't received any more details yet on exactly how they plan to do that, although we know they have sent something big to Rafe. I imagine Kristen will probably show up to help her brother. But she has problems of her own, too, seeing as how now there's evidence that she raped Eric. Not to mention all the people who hate her.

I think, too, that the past transgressions and "fresh start" came before EJ and Sami had ever really made a go of their relationship. That is, they had to work through all that stuff to even be together. Sami spent most of the last 8 years in love with Lucas or Rafe, not EJ. This is the first time she and EJ have been truly together for a sustained period of time, and...I think she just found it's not all that great anyway. Another poster commented upthread that she looked happier in her marriages to Lucas and Rafe than she ever has looked with EJ. So as she said to EJ yesterday, "More importantly, why?" It's not just that she can't forgive him for cheating, she kind of wishes she could but she just can't; it's that she sees no reason to forgive him. She doesn't believe he won't screw up again (and why would she? he spent 8 years trying to get her and then he cheats the first time things got rocky) and what they had is not good enough for her to overlook that.

DisneyBoy, the board meeting was shown on Tuesday and Wednesday's episodes. EJ will undoubtedly fight back, but Sami knows this. However, she's made sure he can't get bail, thanks to the stunt with the passports that made it look like he was planning on fleeing the country, and she's found and destroyed the evidence he had on her and Will, which was his biggest leverage against her. And now Rafe is chasing down some lead or other that Kami undoubtedly sent him that makes things even worse for EJ. The dialogue between Rafe and that state tax agent indicated that the tax evasion evidence has EJ dead to rights. Not that I expect EJ to go to prison for it in the end - he'll probably fake his death or something - but despite what Abby was assuring Sami of yesterday (what, now she's a tax lawyer too??), it's not really that easy to get out of. Just ask Al Capone or Wesley Snipes. I think Sami said some things fast on purpose, to keep EJ and Abby off-balance, constantly a step behind her. It's a fun trick of hers.

Normally I would expect that, but this may be the genius of the first phase of Sami's revenge. Having sex with someone else's fiance is one thing; being the maid of honor of the betrayed fiancee at the wedding is another. Yeah, my jaw dropped too. And the awesome thing is, they got away with the line because it's not the correct euphemism, yet somehow it actually sounds worse. Not to mention it underlines Abby's prissiness, to imagine her saying "arriving" instead of "coming."

It surprises me to say this, but I'm actually rather preferring the private confrontations to the big public humiliation that I assumed would happen. I think it allows Sami to go on longer and be meaner with what she says, whereas if she had a crowd of onlookers, they'd probably be interrupting and trying to drag her away and whatnot. (Yeah, Jen is there for the Abby scenes, but Sami can steamroll her without breaking a sweat.) And maybe there'll be a big public humiliation later. Sami has made it clear she's far from done.

I find the praising of Abby's looks especially ridiculous right now when Sami is looking so damn delicious. When EJ was calling himself an idiot at the end, I initially assumed he meant for his cheating on Sami with Abby. Then it turned out he meant for not realizing Sami knew, and while I'll agree that he was an idiot in that regard too, the cheating was his original idiocy and what led to all of this, so it kind of told me that he's still just not that self-aware. So when he started crying, I just giggled away. And Sami. Oh, Sami. I needed a cigarette several times during her scenes with EJ, and then a couple more times with Abby and Jen. I think my very favorite line of hers was the one about Abby promising God she was "arriving," but I also loved all her lines to Abby that carried double meaning - starting with "it'll be fun." For Sami and for viewers like me, yes. Not so much for Abby. And her laughter in EJ's face was a thing of beauty. I love that this is just the start, too. She has whatever it was that Rafe went haring off after (which means, for the first time ever, I'm actually interested in something Rafe is doing), and they also haven't yet gotten to the evidence EJ was holding onto that Sami burned. So there are more juicy scenes to come. And there's tomorrow with Abby and Jen...oh, this is going to be awesome. It's a crying shame Eve and Theresa aren't there to see. Like cmahorror, I also loved Sami's line about Jack, because those two used to interact and have a friendship and their scenes were always entertaining.

True. And when he admits that he held onto the evidence for a rainy day, well, it demonstrates he's not a poor widdle deceived prince of a boyfriend/husband who's only ever helped Sami. He knows who Sami is, which is reason #1 it was a dumb idea to cheat on her. The difference between Sami and EJ, as a poster commented upthread, is that Sami hasn't made any pretenses with EJ about who she is, at least not until she found out that he cheated and put this revenge plan into motion. But that revenge plan is something he knew she was capable of. It's going to surprise him to learn that she knew about the cheating, but it's not going to surprise him that her reaction was to get revenge on him. But EJ has been pretending to Sami that she can trust him to take care of her and her kids, all the while carefully preserving evidence to use to send Sami and/or Will to prison at any time it served his purposes. And to boot, keeping that evidence in the same safe as the wedding ring he planned to give Sami. So romantic. And not like he can claim that he just forgot that he even still had the evidence because it was in some remote safe he hasn't looked in in forever - it was in his safe in the living room. He probably goes into it at least once a week. I suppose if I were him, I'd try to claim that although I did hold onto the evidence, I planned to give it to her as a wedding present, and was stopped only because I was arrested at the wedding. That's why if I were Sami, I'd wait for him to mention the evidence first, as a threat, rather than bringing it up myself. Makes it harder for him to turn around on a dime and say that keeping it was totally a benign thing and it was going to be a wedding present.

I have no doubt she will, but I hope she doesn't volunteer that information early. Once EJ realizes groveling for forgiveness is not going to work, he'll switch to "I'll ruin your life" mode, and it'll be so much more fun if she drops the bomb then. I hope she saved the ashes of the bonfire she made of the evidence, and tosses them in his face.

The other thing I liked about the juxtaposition of Ezria and Emison, besides the song choice, is that it showed the existence of the network double standard. I appreciate that ABC Family is consistently one of the most gay-friendly networks out there, but even it does have a double standard and PLL just pointed it out for everyone to see in undeniable terms by sandwiching understated Emison right between explicit Ezria scenes. I wonder if maybe TPTB were annoyed about being told the Paily scene in the B&W episode needed to be toned down and that's why they decided to do this? Heh. I think it's two-thirds Emily having evolved from her old self and one-third finally having had sex with Ali. Part of Ali's hold over Emily was that she was unattainable, frustratingly near and yet Emily could never quite have her. Well, now Emily's had her. One night isn't enough to get Ali out of her system altogether - just look at the handholding at the end - but still, it makes a difference. Ali may have thought she was shoring up her hold on Emily by sleeping with her, but it's probably going to work out the opposite way in the end. Emily won't have as much tolerance for Ali's shenanigans as she did before they finally had sex, and the more they have sex the more Emily will get satiated and be increasingly ready to drop Ali when she steps out of line. The only way Emison has any chance of working out in the long run is if the show does go the twin or DID route with Ali, where one Ali is much nicer than the other. Speaking of, I'm so looking forward to Spencer's reaction when she realizes Hanna was right. I think Hanna is mostly resigned to the idea of Emison, since she herself is still pretty caught up with Ali and so she understands how it's not easy to pull away. Aria already figured Emily still has feelings for Ali, so she won't be surprised, and I think she'll mostly try to be nonjudgmental. But Spencer is going to blow a gasket. Emily's her favorite too, I think, and not only will she worry about Emily getting hurt, she'll also see it as a power play against herself. We already got a preview of the fun last season when Emily went to meet Ali, Spencer followed, and Emily got mad at Spencer.