teacake

Yes, exactly... the conflict brought the characters up against something that took them somewhere. Most of conflict now isn't really going anywhere. What does Tripp putting the screws to Kayla add up to? When Jack hated her and Steve, his vendetta made dramatic sense because even as S&K were being "punished" for their affair and bad choices, they finally had each other after being kept apart for so long. Yet because Jack was Steve's brother and had raped Kayla, S&K had their own separate roles and perspectives in the story, too. There's no such structure or sense to the current story, because they haven't allowed Steve and Kayla's relationship and potential divided loyalties to be part of the story. How easy would it be for Kayla to be more protective of Joey and the potential consequences of telling Tripp the truth, and Steve feel more torn? That kind of individual drama is where the beats and development between the big events come from, and then in the end, the consequences of Tripp targeting Kayla have specific impact with everyone involved. Instead we've had the same conversations over and over, because everyone was on the same page about Tripp to start and the way it's set up with the secrets, there is no give and take between the characters. Anyway, lol.

You don't even have to go back 30 years. Has it been six months, since the last time a trio of villains came to town looking for revenge? The character and stories used to be individual enough to elevate the tropes.

Oh, Jack was definitely insulated from the consequences of his crime by his wealth and his family coddling him. The difference was that there was a coherent character story for him in it. Joey was crippled with guilt from the start so there's been nowhere to go with it, where it took Jack a long time to process what he did and how it hurt people. Joey wasn't motivated by family dysfunction so much as he was motivated by being manipulated by a psychopath and to protect his mother from Ava's vendetta. He's been wanting to face the consequences that other people are shielding him from. He sees how it hurts Tripp and is empathetic to him, where Tripp doesn't seem able to have real empathy about how his mother hurt the Johnsons, and how being targeted again and again might make someone act. The problem with Joey is that he just doesn't do anything about his guilt, and that makes his motivations seem weak and feckless. I did wish that, since Ava's death didn't play out as self-defense in the moment, they would have played up Joey's destructive impulsiveness, and maybe the danger to the women in his life. There were times when I thought someone should have been watching out for Kayla and Jade around him. But the writing never really played into that angle. Kayla being punished by her husband's love child with the woman who killed her father, ruined her reunion with Steve, and assaulted and kidnapped her -- and who she has totally embraced anyway -- doesn't really seem like a karma story to me, so much as a Job one.

Wally Kurth and the original Anjelica went on to play mother and son on General Hospital. If anything I think Anjelica was cast too young. She's supposed to be almost an entire generation older than Steve/Kayla/Jack.

Really good point. As a first story, I would much rather have seen something showing where Ron will take the central characters. Gimmickry as a first stop doesn't seem like a good sign.

I'd rather see Steve try to get Tripp involved in the investigation into who is framing Kayla, and Tripp use that to throw him off the trail. There should be some payoff for all of the forced and unearned "bonding" between them. I want to see Steve get the rug pulled out from under him.

Martha just took a new job outside acting, so I hope it's not for long. I don't care for them (although I'd like to see Shawn alone for a while) and so tired of their returns.

Wrong thread, sorry!

I hope nobody tells him about "Lee" beating up Hope with a sack of oranges in prison a few years ago.

It's not that big of a gap. Adrienne was 20-ish in 1987, and Lucas was 20-ish in 1993. There was so much that changed on the show between those years, though, and those eras don't really "talk" to each other that well. I still have a soft spot for Justin and Adrienne. I thought their reunion story in 2011 or 2012 was one of the better ones in recent years, even though it was a C story. I've always liked that they are different among the supercouples -- they have affairs and breakup, and they can make amends without a lot of the BS that Steve and Kayla and Bo and Hope have to go through. I always thought the point was to get them back together, but Dena really whiffed the whole triangle. They should have used Adrienne's cancer a lot differently in the story.

I don't think Dan and Chelsea ever slept together, if I remember right. That was a weird one... Chelsea's crush on Dan played well as a foil for the Nick/Chelsea relationship, but then they dropped that angle and went forward with Dan/Chelsea in earnest, until they had to throw the Kate reveal in front of it to stop it. It was very strange -- one of Dena's first moves in 2008.

Nick and Jack worked for me, because the taboo-breaking was supposed to be the story. With Kate and others, it's just a sign of how incestuous Salem is. I don't want to see Tripp/Claire because I don't like either of them, but it's better than Tripp/Ciara, which with Bo/Hope/Steve as parents would be too close for me, blood ties or not. Same problem with Shelle, which was some kind of point of no return for the canvas, IMO. And of course having Ava anywhere near something like that is another kick in the teeth.

BF brings a lot to the screen, but I totally agree. If you can't integrate some writing like Chad/Ciara or Chad/Gabi into your soap character, the character is probably not as interesting as you think.

Tripp decided it was Kayla before he ever talked to Jade, though. She lied and confirmed his theory, but Jade didn't lead him down any path that he didn't want to be on. He's been totally gung ho about revenge, and he's the one Steve and Kayla trust for some reason. They already dislike Jade so Tripp should play as the greater betrayal. I think both of their characters are worthless at this point, but I don't think Tripp's reasons make any more sense than Jade's. She's been looking for a family and felt rejected by the Johnsons. She's delusional and she's lashing out, but that story played out on screen. Tripp's muddled backstory, where he's some scrappy do-gooder with a heart of gold for the underdog, who also doesn't care at all about how his mother hurt people and wants to punish Kayla instead of just letting the truth be known, doesn't really add up for me. And Hope keeps getting her job back after going to prison. It's a soap, but it's absurd to me. And he doesn't come across as genuinely interested in it to me.

I don't think this is a Kayla storyline at all... all she gets to do is wax rhapsodically over how her husband's love child with a psychopath is the best thing that ever happened to her. It's so gross, when he mocks her behind her back. With how easily he believed lies about her, and has no empathy for what his mother put her through, I can't imagine ever believing any kind of familial relationship between them. And when was the last time she had scenes with Joey? With Tripp's Ava obsession, they've really missed the boat on using the Joey/Kayla angle as a foil. I hope Tripp takes a major fall for everything he's done, but I suspect they will put it all on Jade. At the very least, after conspiring to tamper with medical records, he cannot be a doctor. This story has pretty well killed the last part of the show I cared about, the Johnson family dynamic, but it would start to help if Steve would disown him.

ED has a tendency to eat the show that I don't care for. Not really enjoying how the big picture is shaping up with RC -- Will, Sami, Kristen, EJ?. Been there, FFWD'd that...

Yeah, I agree. Plus some actors just don't have a DAYS vibe, and that's KdP for me. But I'm very very glad to hear that she is well enough to work.

Such a good point. I'd find it harder to believe Tripp believed Jade's lies, if she wasn't just confirming what he already believed. But since he came to her with the story, he seems more delusional than dumb to me. His apologetics for Ava's crazy and now Jade's seem like a pretty consistent character trait.

If Adrienne doesn't at least nod at the fact that Kayla is dealing with her husband and his mistress's bastard son, I will scream so loud they will hear me in Burbank. It's insulting.

She doesn't know the truth. Did anyone else find Adrienne's reaction weirdly inappropriate? Family first, yadda yadda yadda, but is it really "exciting" to find out your brother had a love child with a psycho who tried to kill your sister-in-law? I don't understand these people anymore. And has she even met Joey? I can't remember. Jade narrating last year's Ava story for Tripp... she was barely on canvas when Ava died. So gross to hear Steve and Kayla's intimate business in her mouth, when they aren't allowed to discuss it themselves. The Chad/Hope vibe is so off. It feels like a failed chemistry test in every scene, but I doubt that's what they were going for. I did think Chloe/Dario were worth a second look, though. And Abby looked beautiful when she was crying with Dario. That's all I have.

Yes, you're right. That always slips my mind because they had such a mother/son relationship -- although just a little twisted.

The soap message boards' game of telephone really did a number on this one, but now that it's been reported by SOD, I think it's true. Jason47 was playing one of his guessing games, and I think when it got down to MF and DM, people assumed it was the latter because she had worked with Ron Carlivati on General Hospital. Adoptive mother, yes. I'm a little puzzled by the possibilities here. She could be to play a role in the Lucas/Adrienne/Justin story, but that seems like an overshoot. I'd be most interested to see her with her grandchildren, but I guess there's always the possibility that Alexander shows up.

I think it was more thoughtless than anything. Sami was trying to sublet her apartment to Ava. But at that point Ava was off the pills and on her way out of town, so there were no real consequences to S&K except giving them an opportunity to air out what had happened. That was in July and they hadn't discussed even once Steve almost sleeping with Ava in April. If there was going to be conflict between Sami and S&K, her relationship with EJ (who tortured Steve during his missing years) would have been a good source, but the writing totally dropped that ball. But I always thought it was fair enough for Kayla to be annoyed at Sami using her hospital board position and involving her in her payback to Abby.

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