Spooky Kitty

Kayla and Steve today were wonderful. I got a little misty too. I love what the actors can do when they get anything to work with at all. This is unlike certain other actors on the show. I don't understand the fascination with Abigail as a character or as an actress. She's not compelling, and the continual praising of her to the high heavens by a wide array of characters combined with her ongoing front-burner status makes me actively loathe her where she would typically be a character I could just ignore. Which brings me to this awful DID plotline. Every time I see "Gabby" on my screen, I cringe and fast-forward. It's bad acting, bad dialogue, and it's beyond ridiculous. Maybe Marci Miller could have done something with an original personality to make her own, but I don't find her convincing at all as any impression of Gabi. I feel like she's attempting to be "feisty" and it's really not coming off well. On the other hand, I actually liked what Marci Miller did with the "Dr. Laura" personality, though I don't see any real resemblance to the actual person from the personality. Between showing some inkling of intelligence and shutting Stefan down cold, there was a character there who could actually interest me beyond the milquetoast Abby. The Stefan angle is also awful. He's already lacking in character development, and this is making him come across as a truly horrible person beyond simple ruthlessness or whatever he is trying to be sold as. Are we supposed to be rooting for him and "Gabby" in some way? Because I know that will never be possible for me--they're both awful on many levels and this insta-romance makes negative sense. Others have already mentioned that going the Nash route from OLTL would have worked much better for Stefan, and I couldn't agree more. The only way this could ever work would be if Stefan didn't know she was mentally ill, and that ship has more than already sailed. This is actually what I came on to say too! If the Chloe secret admirer plot starts off separately and ties into Theresa somehow, I will be impressed. At least I will until it goes off the rails in some fashion. I do think it would be a great way to potentially pull in Eve as Chloe's friend and fellow music-lover, and the fact that the ominous and wealthy admirer is from Mexico could be linked to the guy who ushered Theresa back off. It's a less expected route, so here's hoping there's a good plot waiting.

Is it just me, or is the writing for this whole Kate/Deimos/Nicole thing simply atrocious? I had high hopes when Deimos first appeared due to my fondness for the actor, and I think Deimos and Nicole do have chemistry, but the writing for all of it has completely gone off the rails. I'll admit that I've been reading recaps and watching only occasionally, mostly as background noise when I'm doing something else, but it seems to me that all aspects of this plot have 1) gone into fast forward and 2) make very little sense. I watched today, and unless I completely misunderstood, Deimos decided Nicole must be a plant from Victor because she wouldn't have sex with him on the spot and kept insisting that he would need to end things with Kate to be with him. Given the very few interactions between Deimos and Nicole leading up to this point that were even remotely flirtatious on her part, this seems quite insane. I think even if she did like him (I refuse to say love, because it's just so absurd with the timeline), wanting him not to marry someone else before being with him would be a totally reasonable request. If he loves her as he claimed, then why does he need to marry Kate? Why does he need to marry Kate at all? He has the money and power, and Kate isn't exactly the most upstanding member of Salem high society. I don't understand what Deimos even really wants, and that's a huge problem in terms of making him sympathetic. It's hard to sympathize with a character that remains a cipher, and it's frustrating because I know VI could sell it easily. He made David Hayward sympathetic, and that guy did a lot of awful things over the years. Show needs to show us more of his motivations and make them make some kind of sense. The most pathetic part of this is that it's actually really easy to write, maybe because this kind of a plot is a soap staple. Why not write it as a slow burn--Deimos wary and resisting Nicole, while involving himself with Kate to try to resist? Give him someone to confide him, let him reveal his true feelings to someone somewhere, let us feel for him as he slowly falls in love with Nicole for real. The show already stuck them into the same company, so you have a million excuses for ongoing interactions. You could have Nicole slowly falling for Deimos in spite of herself, and ultimately he either throws over Kate/is dumped by her because of his obvious feelings for Nicole, and then he gets together with Nicole at last. All goes according to plan for her scheme with Victor. Then you have so many options--Nicole being in a position to turn on Deimos and having a hard time doing so, someone blowing the whistle on Nicole's plan right as she has fallen for Deimos and is about to tell Victor to piss off, etc. I would've watched it to see it unfold, and I would have liked it a lot better than what we got. I was glad Nicole defended herself today and didn't back down, but I hated seeing her acting so desperate lately in trying to win him over. I can believe Nicole would want to lose herself in some caper and act to avenge Maggie, but why she would jump in on a plan put forth by Victor and for his ultimate benefit? This whole must-seduce-him-so-he-doesn't-marry-Kate thing is also ridiculous. Which brings me to... Kate. Why does she want to marry Deimos exactly, after knowing him for about five minutes? Money, which she claims to have? Power, which she already has as Co-CEO of Titan? I don't love the character most of the time, but the actress is great, and it's frustrating to see her acting uncharacteristically pathetic in all of this. I don't believe for a second she would have gone back to Deimos after she smelled Nicole's perfume on him, least of all proposing marriage and making him promise to stay away from Nicole. The scene of her hitting him and him falling into the river was actually kind of hilarious. He staggered past Kate in the process, and she just watched. I'm going to assume that she wanted him dead at that point. What is it with Kate and putting bodies into the water?

Oh, Days, I was so close to quitting you, but then you go and bring in Deimos Hayward, and I am intrigued anew. I know I should probably be pessimistic about how Vincent Irizarry will ultimately be used, but I can't help but be curious about how his plot is going to unfold at this point. I think the idea of pitting him against Victor and bringing him in with a revenge agenda is a good one--it's right in his wheelhouse and could be great if they can actually follow through with it without dumbing down all involved. Unlike... whatever it is that they're doing with Rafe and Hope. I thought Higley liked Rafe, but boy, she sure isn't doing him any favors in the competence department. Blood left at the crime scene and driving past the place he hid the body on a daily basis--are we sure Rafe didn't just imagine that he worked at the FBI all those years? Maybe they gave him some honorary apparel while he was touring the facilities and he misunderstood and thought he worked there? It was particularly hilarious after his lines to Hope about knowing how to cover all of this up so very well that he would be the one who completely outed them to Andre. And there was more unintentional hilarity to be had today with Andre in the construction site getting trapped in the demolition. That was absurd on every level, and if that was all of the destruction Rafe was counting on, I think even less of his body hiding skills than I did before. I'm not going to comment much on the impending Rafe-Hope romance save to say that it's way too much too soon on the Hope front. If she's having psychotic breaks and shooting Stephano over the most recent loss of Bo, she's not really in a romantic place. It would be great if the show tried to remember that and had Rafe keep it in his pants for at least another couple of months. I wouldn't have minded Hope killing off Stephano so much if they had just actually used the plot they wrote and worked in the blackmail of Aiden to murder her, and I can't for the life of me think of why they wouldn't. I have a feeling that we're never going to get that reveal at this point, which is a real shame. I will be so irritated if there's a later reveal that someone else was responsible for Bo's captivity and Hope ends up feeling guilty about all of this--especially if that Aiden business never comes out. I can't believe Chad wants to buy DiMansion and make it into his love nest with Abby. At this point, I might have found it more convincing if she had floated the idea, because it's just weird to me that he would want to live there right now under any circumstances. Not to mention how he has to know the whole Horton clan is going to feel about it, judgmental as that bunch is. I have to attribute it to the need to keep using the sets, because I don't even know how to make that particular idea make sense. It was nice to see Steve actually snapping out of all of the Ava-induced bullshit today and going after her hard for the truth. It was also nice to see Kayla not being completely stupid or gullible the last time we saw her, but I'd like to see more of her at this point. More Kayla is always good. Joey, on the other hand... I really need him to stop chasing Ava. It makes me cringe from both an acting and storyline perspective. I reallllly hope that Joey finds out about the supposed Ava-Steve lovechild soon so he can cool his jets. I get why Ava keeps dangling herself in front of him, but it's just gross to me. I actually find myself not minding the rest of the teen scene too much. Chase and Theo seem decent, and Ciara is growing on me. Claire does really resemble Belle. I don't hate seeing them around as long as they don't become the overwhelming focus. On the other hand... I am not liking this Phillip-Belle-Shawn business at all. Phillip and Belle can have each other, and I can fast forward, but what is with the 180 on Shawn Douglas' part? I'm actually finding Beemer decent this go around, but I am hating the direction of this. Shawn does not need to be chasing Belle the cheater after sending her divorce papers. If you want to pair them, show, go the other way, but I don't know how the show thinks Belle seems rootable at all right now. Blowing off her daughter for a trip to Vegas to bang Phillip is not good behavior, and I just haven't seen much this go around to remind me of what I ever liked about Belle in the first place. I did prefer Kirsten Storms in the role, but I think this is more about the writing than the acting--I just don't see much of the familiar Belle in this Belle right now.

As others have mentioned, Jane's TA plot was oddly done, and not reflective of reality beyond the usual soapiness that one expects from the show. I don't need everything to be realistic, but if the show is going to follow Jane through graduate school, getting the basic idea of how it works would probably be beneficial to the show as a whole. Jane grading the papers didn't shock me (I've done that myself as a TA), but surely the TAs for the class would interact with the professor and take their cues from the professor, who would have ultimate authority over grades when the whole kerfuffle happened. It's also odd that an isolated "F" on one paper would affect sports eligibility--wouldn't that be an overall GPA issue? I wasn't aware the school would even care about an early semester grade. In any case, I've seen the whole "someone tries to get the teacher to let the jocks pass regardless of them actually doing the academic work" plot on a variety of shows, and I'm not really desperate to see it again, so I'm not sure why the show was contorting itself to make it happen right now. I did like that Jane was able to solve her problem for herself--it's nice to see her acting like the plucky heroine again. I feel like these motherhood plots have pushed her more toward the neurotic/uptight aspects of her personality. I'm hoping we do get a break from the "baby issue of the week" type plots for a little while, not to mention the varying forms of maternal guilt that keep coming up. There was some good stuff this week as well. Once again, the Rogelio plot was a gem, and all of the family interactions with the Villanuevas, Rogelio, and his family were great. It's fun to see all these new family dynamics unfolding. I am also interested to see where the Petra plot goes from here, as well as Rafael's plot with his mother. Prior to this week, I didn't see that twist coming, but it's nice to see some actual movement on the whole "Mutter" plot and have it tie back to a main character. It looks like Rafael is going to be the one in jeopardy for the immediate future, at least. Lastly, there is the whole plot with Michael having a new girlfriend and Jane deciding to move on. Of course as soon as Jane decides she wants Michael again, he's not available. It makes logical sense on Michael's part, given the finality that Jane expressed about their last parting, but I'm not liking it right now. I can't help but feel like this is all just to keep Michael and Jane apart for a while, and my guess is (I have no information on spoilers, I'm just speculating) that we'll get a placeholder guy or two in the middle there for Jane before we get back to some permutation of the love triangle. I kind of regret that I enjoy the pairing of Michael and Jane (not to mention his bromance with Rogelio), because the show seems like it prefers to eternally tease the idea of them being together rather than paying it off at all. Not that they've done a whole lot better with the Rafael-Jane pairing this season either.

I really enjoyed all of the bits involving Clive this episode. It's about time we learned more about him, and it was so much fun seeing Ravi and Liv put what they learned into their interactions with him. That bit where they were teasing him about the sandwiches was a really cute scene. I also especially liked all of the "Game of Thrones" bits, possibly because I wouldn't have immediately pegged Clive as a George R.R. Martin fan, and picturing his reactions to the series cracked me up. With all of Liv's snooping, I was really expecting Gilda/Rita's identity to be blown by the end of the episode, at least in terms of her being Major's lover. It seemed like the perfect set-up, and I really hope we get some movement on that front soon. I'm less surprised but still disappointed that Major hasn't come clean about Max Rager and the blackmail. Given that his motivation for appearing to follow their orders is protecting Liv, it seems like admitting everything to her would give them the best chance to work together and get him out of it. Even if taking orders from Max Rager was a viable plan for his future (it's clearly not), I don't see how Major thinks he can keep this to himself forever, what with all of those disappearances being investigated by the police. I've got a bad feeling that this is the thing that is going to actually break up Major and Liv whenever it comes out. I'd imagine that whenever Liv isn't on stalker brains, she'll be more rational about the texts, assuming that Major can forgive the invasion of privacy if he finds out about it.

Thanks guys, for the warm welcome! I have a few thoughts on the shows thus far this week. It has been a strange anniversary celebration, to be sure. The shows have been pretty watchable for me, but as others here have mentioned, it's all really dark. It seems like just about everyone on the canvas is mourning someone dead, experienced recent mortal peril, or evil. I would have liked to see a lot more happiness, even knowing that it's only temporary on any soap. It's also really odd that they didn't go to the flashback well. They could have even used Hope's near-death experience as a vehicle for doing so if they were dead set on keeping the plots they chose for this. I am glad that Hope defended herself against Aiden, though I wouldn't have been opposed to seeing her actually be the one to overcome him in the end. It is nice seeing Bo reuniting with more people--it was great to have a scenes of him with Victor, Roman, and Kayla today. I hope we get to see him with Shawn D and Ciera next, rather than glossing over that beat. I'm also actually liking JJ with Gabi, which is a surprise for me, as I haven't been the biggest fan of Gabi in the past. Also, I have to mention that the recent Brady and Theresa business makes my head spin. If they were going to redeem Theresa, it would have been nice to actually see redemption beyond "I want to be a fashion designer now," so that when Brady defends her to Victor, it actually makes sense. Instead, I just find myself totally agreeing with Victor's points, possibly minus some of the more misogynistic language. I don't think this pairing is doing Brady and Theresa any favors, either. He looks like an idiot, she looks totally desperate. I think Jen Lilley is great, but it would have been really nice to give her a new pairing (I'd love to see Theresa with Chad, if they could ever liberate him from Abigail) away from Brady, and to give her more time to flesh out her character/possibly become a slightly better person, before trying to sell us on the idea that she's "good" now. She's done too many awful things for too long for me to be able to root for her with Brady.

I'm a big fan of the show, but I really didn't like this episode. I'll admit I am a fan the pairing of Michael and Jane, and also Michael as a character, and boy was it a bad week for him. I was hoping we'd get a couple of weeks of Michael and Jane together. I'm not naive enough to think that the matter would be settled with any finality, but it disappoints me that it went this route. We got plenty of episodes with Jane/Rafael, so why the rush to stop Jane/Michael before it starts? Plus, they way they broke them up was not kind to Michael's character--I thought he had learned his lesson after last season, as he has been so good and generous this season, even in terms of giving Rafael good advice. I don't know why he had to immediately jump to fisticuffs, especially with Jane and Mateo right there and potentially at risk of getting hurt in the crossfire. I realize tensions have built up with Jane's indecisiveness, but even with that and the slap on the wrists at work, it didn't seem like a great motivation for Michael to get that angry. Plus, everything with the main love triangle felt really predictable, and while certain things in the past do follow a soapy formula, this one felt especially obvious--the stall tactics by Rafael, his obvious innocence in turning Michael in, the doom that followed for Jane/Michael's chance at a relationship (for the present moment). I really wouldn't mind a break from the triangle for a while, but what are the odds of that? I'm not looking forward to next week as much as I usually do, which is a trend I hope does not continue. At this point, I'm just hoping that this Michael plot does not have him go over to the Sin Rostro side of things, unless he is a double agent, which is very possible. His firing seemed pretty conveniently timed. On the other hand, the stuff with Rogelio and his feud was hilarious. He is always a highlight of the show for me, more than enough to fill any shortfalls in Britney Spears' acting ability. I also really enjoyed Alba and Xo's excellent adventure, though I do wonder why Jane held onto the chocolate bar long enough for them to find it and eat it while she wasn't home. I could have watched a whole lot more of both of those storylines and less of the other stuff.

Frequent lurker, first-time poster. Actually, it's my first time posting in these forums, though I suspect it won't be my last now that I actually have an account. Of all things, it's this current plot with Aiden and Hope that is dragging me out of my lurk-dom. It's honestly driving me away from the show, because I don't think I can take watching this plot play out to its likely conclusion. Every day gets a little worse. It's definitely not the acting. Daniel Cosgrove in particular is giving a fantastic performance, but that's just making this all the more stomach-turning watching it slowly unfold. This Aiden-under-the bus storyline feels like a huge mistake to me, and that's partially due to how good Cosgrove is. There were so many good, soapy ways this could have been written with Bo coming back, and they chose just about the crappiest one thus far. The simplest one would be not changing Aiden's character in the first place and move forward: let Hope happily move towards marrying good-guy Aiden (while still evincing some feelings for Bo) while Bo is fighting his way to reach her before the wedding. That's such a dramatic situation--say that Bo makes it to the wedding, does Hope still go through with it? If he shows right after the wedding, does it change anything? A writer could play with that dynamic for a long time, and it sets up a love triangle where both sides are rootable. If the writers are hell-bent on a Bo-Hope reunion, Hope could still end up choosing Bo, Aiden could stick around for someone else or leave town with a broken heart, etc. However, I realize new writing regimes often want to eliminate the characters created by previous regimes, for financial as well as creative reasons, so let's hypothetically say that they absolutely must get rid of Aiden. There are some other easy options, even to let Bo have his hero moment. You could have the Dimeras using a hired killer to kill Hope as the necktie killer to clear Chad's name--you could even have them planning to frame Aiden because of some previous conflict/tension (heck, if they want to toss in the whole taunting Stephano/stealing his checkbook while he was in the hospital as a motive, they could even use that). Bo could save the day at the last second, and you could have Aiden killed in the crossfire without ever needing him to be a bad guy. And kind of an idiot, when you think about it. This whole "debt" business was just so poorly written. The Dimeras buy up his debt, change the amount he owes arbitrarily to one gazillion dollars, and Aiden thinks his best choice in this situation is to murder Hope for insurance money? This is how he thinks he is going to save himself and Chase? I won't even go into all of the other options he had at his disposal, and given that he genuinely seems to love Hope even now, none of this makes any kind of sense. Now we have Caroline and this "Bo is coming home!" and "Marrying Aiden is a huge mistake!" business. I realize that this is supposed to be some kind of an anvil that Hope is making a mistake, but it's just ridiculous. We won't go into the fact that Hope has been through this ad infinitum with Caroline in the past (not to mention just about everyone else in her orbit), thereby making this really tedious. More importantly, Hope's response to this news should basically be "So what?" at this point. She never thought Bo was dead (for whatever reason, the show never went there that I can recall), so logically he would come home someday whenever his mission/wanderlust/what have you was over. Presumably she decided it was over when she divorced him, so his presence should be irrelevant to her (I know we're going to get Bo's "explanation" when he shows up, but that's information Hope doesn't have at his point). As several of you insightful posters have mentioned, this is also just terrible for Hope's character. Just based on what I'm seeing on the screen, I feel like they're probably going to "wipe away" everything Bo did (even with the retcon, he chose to leave and not tell her his real reasons or what he was actually doing, and he kept that up until whenever he was captured, which is not exactly great behavior). On the other hand, Hope is going to be punished for the great crime of moving on from Bo. Greeeat. She's going to feel so foolish, as will Kayla and everybody else who supported Hope being with Aiden, which is going to disgust me, I know. I've always liked Hope and rooted for her. After the whole Chelsea-killing-Zack thing, I liked Bo a whole lot less, and I really didn't need to see them together after that, but I wouldn't mind it if they were if the endgame here for the anniversary if it weren't being done so shoddily. Lastly, I have to say that having Aiden go murderous at the same time Ben is in the throes of the serial killer reveal was not great planning. In one case, the acting is compelling in spite of the writing. In the other case, I'm getting bored and feeling nothing. "Chad made me do it" is coming across to me more like whining than anything. I apologize for the lengthy post. I needed somewhere to vent all of these thoughts I have, and you guys seem like a nice welcoming bunch.