Pearson80

I agree with your post and I wish that I could like it one thousand times. I miss Sara and I want Brady and Chloe to get together. They should have done a Brady/Chloe/Philip story with a dash of Shelle and Jan Spears years ago... This show never uses it's rich history to drive stories. It is maddening..

It would be funny if Sami got pregnant over their tryst. A full circle moment when they conceived Will years ago. That was a touching scene between them.

All I have to say is Lumi forever... So much history between them and they are just so right and I have never understood why the show hates them so much..

I think Marlena and Don breaking up was about the slow deterioration of a couple that grew apart stemming from the death of a child. That type of grief often breaks up couples because it is such an overwhelming grief and at times the parents will blame each other for the death. I think Don blamed Marlena for DJ's death, it was unspoken and it tore them apart. Marlena also blamed herself as his mom she felt that she should have done something to save him. Don cheated on Marlena and Marlena got raped. The trust and love was no longer there. So I never saw Don being thrown under the bus for Roman. I love that bittersweet scene when Marlena had the twins and he came to see her. You could tell they were both thinking about their son DJ who died of SIDS. Not to mention that Eric had issues with his lungs that were not as developed as Sami's due to his position in the womb. Roman came into her life when she was concentrating on her work that led to a crazy stalker to terrorize her. It was organic and I think their chemistry took the show by surprise. One of the reasons that Marlena is with John is due to the retcon of him not being Roman. The show's biggest mistake in my opinion but I digress. The show's audience had already moved on from Wayne's Roman/Marlena to Drake's Roman/Marlena so him not being Roman did not change how the audience feel. Plus, Drake's Roman was on the show for 5 years and had his own stories. I think the retcon deepened the bond and love that the they felt for him after losing everything and wanted Marlena to be with him no matter what he called himself. The writing also did Roman no favors. He acted like a controlling jerk and I did sympathize with him but he never once considered Marlena's feelings about anything. It was all about him. He did the same thing to Carrie, expecting her to forget John.

I loved everything in your post except for the Daniel love, we like what we like and it is what it is..

I absolutely adored Kate and Victor back in the day because they were made for each other. A dark grey power couple and together they should have caused mayhem while loving each other no matter what. Like every couple on this show, they had horrific writing that ruined any chance of them getting back together.

The first two segments of the show were very triggering for me. I was under no illusion that the country was going to change overnight due to the unrest last year over George Floyd. It still hurts to hear of a young Black man being killed over nothing and that video of that active military man being disrespected while wearing a uniform while shocking is not surprising. Black men wearing suits have been treated the same.

I think that Kenya looks down on Cynthia and she sees an accomplished and successful woman like Kandi as being more her equal.. Plus, Cynthia is too passive and I think she respects women who have a backbone.

I think the reason that Austin and Carrie were stuck together was because the writers post Sherry had no idea how to write characters like them who were neither grey nor villainous. Carrie was such a great character as a kid and she left a lot to be desired as an adult. The same goes for Belle and Shawn. I think that Belle and Shawn had potential to be great characters away from each other. The show was obsessed with making them a supercouple and it has never worked for me. Notice that Both Carrie and Belle cheated on their husbands multiple times since that was the only issue that the writers could come up with to make them interesting. Carrie had her mommy issues that could have been mined and she suffered the most with the Roman/John situation since she was the oldest. Carrie lashed out a lot after she lost John as her father.

Don't forget he called Marlena a whore and I never forgave Roman for that. You don't call your wife out her name like that and it just showed how Roman no longer knew Marlena anymore. JER really wanted the audience to hate him and it worked. Roman got awful writing and was treated like an extra in his own story. The writing was skewed towards John.

I too was Team Carrie an Austin but only when Sherry wrote for them. She was a genius when writing for couples. I lost interest in them when Sami/Lucas made fools out of them on a regular basis. The fact that they were too stupid to not see through them made them useless in my eyes.. I never saw what Sami saw in Austin.

Kristen is just so nasty and irrelevant. Ron has really made her time on the show a pitiful waste of time. Eileen dodged a bullet not even she can save this piece of shit. Ron should be fired yesterday.. Word on Lucas/Chloe, why Ron? why? I doubt the idiot even knows at this point where he is going with his plots.

I have never understood why anybody would put an expensive outfit on a baby. They poop and pee on themselves. They also spit and throw up. I guess when you are rich it does not matter but still...

He is more than an ex though. She has had the best moments and worst moments of her life with Lucas by her side. Whether they loved each other or hated each other. Their bond was always there. They share 2 children and 2 grandchildren, so they will always be a part of each other. As a Lumi fan, I am not expecting them to go off into the sunset together because it is too late for that so I will take the little crumbs that Ron will give me.. It may be an unpopular opinion on here and I have no problem sitting alone at the Lumi table.

The shade, damn!

I hated JER but Lumi was the best thing to come out of his era.

I understand the precautions surrounding Covid but Steve and Kayla should be having scenes with Abigail, especially Steve. Does Jack over identity with Gwen because he sees himself in her. Is that why he is pushing Abigail to forgive Gwen?

If Ron had any talent as a writer, he would have written Steve and Kayla into this storyline. Both of them dealt with the fallout of Jack their biggest enemy was in fact Steve's beloved baby brother Billy. The baby brother he longed for. Nobody pressured them to forgive Jack. It was a journey for Steve and Kayla individually and collectively as couple filled with heartache misunderstandings and learning how to truly forgive and move on.. Jack too had to face his own demons and he too had to learn to forgive himself and a part of Jack never did. It is why he has always been his own worst enemy, he does not believe he deserves any type of happiness in life because of his ugly past. It was reinforced when Abigail was diagnosed with cancer as a baby due to Jack's illegally dumping toxic wastes into the environment.

I got too busy today to post but Nutmeg is a dumbass and she gets dumber every day. What the hell was her quip about Navalny about? How was it germane to the topic that the ladies were discussing and her hijacking Whoopie's role as moderator and her reaction was priceless. Megan better watch her back, Whoopie is not one to mess with..

That is right so it makes sense why Roman was removed from the dynamic and it became John/Marlena with Kristen being put in his place. The show had so much history to mine with Roman/Marlena and JER just put Roman to the side like he was nothing. I adored Roman whether he was played by Wayne or Drake. Sherri did want the affair though, she had said that even if Isabella had not died, John and Marlena were going to have their affair but she wanted it to build a little more whereas JER just wanted them to jump in the sac. Sherry likes to germinate her plots with emotional beats and let them grow. Sherri and JER did clash and it was why she left. I thought that as a duo they were damn awesome together she tempered his tendencies to overdo it. The pit storyline was just classic Sherry Anderson from the beginning to the end., just wonderful storytelling with Marlena driving it all. Stella Lombard was a fascinating villainess who lost her mind due to losing a child and how that pain fractured her whole family.. That kind of grief never leaves a parent and it is why Marlena became the vehicle for Stella to take out her anger and pain.

The characters were clearly defined with their own motivations whether they were good bad or grey. CIN would have never existed as a couple. Steve was bad when he came on the show but they knew not to push him too far like the show did with Ben.. Victor and Stefano did bad things and paid a price. Stefano's schemes against Roman cost him his daughter's life. We don't have consequences anymore, anything goes.. Kristen can do all the evil she wants cause she is a mother..

That honor goes to Sherry Anderson who created the original supercouple Roman/Marlena that became Rojohn/Marlena and then John/Marlena. She wrote for all three couples. She wrote the affair as well that led to Evil Sami and Belle's conception. The possession storyline was all him..

I agree with you about Reilly, he was a hack of the worst kind. Reilly was insane in my opinion. He had a policy of never speaking to the actors directly about their characters. He instead had dolls made of the characters and would act out the scenes with them. I kid you not.. Reilly damaged the show and it has never recovered in my opinion.. He left a stain on Jack/Jennifer and Bo/Hope that has never left them.. My love for them is nostalgic to be honest and what they once were before Reilly did his best to destroy them.

I hated JER but John Aniston initiated the bad blood that JER had for him because he yelled and cursed at JER in front of everybody during the daytime Emmy awards complaining abut how Victor was being made to look like a fool to make Sami look good. Drake recounted this story in a funny way about everybody being shocked by John's candor. John Aniston was right but everybody at that time was dumb downed by JER to make his villains Kristen, Peter, Vivian Sami e.tc. powerful but I digress. JER immediately called for rewrites regarding Victor and he had a stroke. JER never forgot this slight so every time he came back to write for the show everybody knew that Victor and Jack were going to be thrown under the bus by his poison vindictive pen.

Watching this episode, I was struck with how beautiful the ladies are.. Black women are stunning when they take care of themselves, it is funny how some Black men like to say that other races of women are better than looking, I beg to differ in my humble opinion.. I have always felt that this is the best looking cast in all of the franchise. Having said I will now snark. Kenya is obsessed with Porsha. Why does she care who Porsha sleeps with, jeez. Porsha is not your woman Kenya. Kenya needs to get a life and I don't understand Marlo's preoccupation with this Bolo situation either. Plus, She made a fool out of herself at the dinner. Mature people know how to get along with all of their friends even the ones that you love cannot stand each other. I thought it was interesting when Marlo was bitching about Kenya and Porsha putting her in the middle of their spat. Both ladies refuted that and told Marlo she inserted herself and they had nothing to do with it. It would not surprise if Kenya and Porsha get to a place of understanding at some point and Marlo is out in the cold. You don't get in the middle of people's arguments especially Kenya and Porsha who have been fighting on and off for years. This stupidity will pass too. If Kenya can tolerate being around Porsha after she was dragged by her hair all over the floor by her at the reunion years ago. Then, that tells me that their animosity is not that serious. Porsha and Kenya have had moments of kindness towards each other over the years in addition to the nasty fights. I remember a scene where they both longed to have children and both ladies cried. Seeing them years later with their babies having fun and hanging out was really heartwarming. Sometimes dreams can come true. It is why it would have been smart for Marlo to have stayed out of their dynamic..