Cool Breeze

What's worse is I can't figure out what's behind $Bill's complete meltdown. Was it the double-whammy of Katie's rejection coming on the heels of Brooke's rejection? This desperation seems so out-of-character. And cringe.

We are supposed to be rooting for the Duttons, right? That's usually how television works. But I can't stand hardly any of these people. John, with his "straight talk", "common-sense" approach to politics, firing everyone and being his own advisor is really rubbing me the wrong way. No experience at all? Sure, go be governor. Doesn't work that way with surgeons or helicopter pilots and doesn't work that way here. Getting rid of everyone who's studied and contemplated issues, and has in-depth understanding borne of years of familiarity? Idiot. And Jamie bamboozling Beth's victim? Dick. You're only rootable to me if you're getting over on your malicious, abusive sister. Speaking of Beth. Oh, evil, mean Beth. Assault and battery? You're the governor's daughter and Chief-of-Staff. There will be consequences. But, who knows? Maybe this flies in Montana. Bottom line? I'm rooting for the downfall of the Duttons so I have to conclude I must be watching this wrong.

I came here to see if I was the only one underwhelmed by this premiere. Glad to know I'm not. I agree with others that I almost hope the Duttons do get taken out. Josh Lucas' John just punching that cell tower guy, then dousing him and his home with pesticide? Rip's callous treatment of Carter after the kid broke his arm? The list goes on. It is really becoming difficult to root for these asshats. As for Jamie, Beth's hold over him is based on photographic evidence of him disposing of a (wrapped up) body. His "oh shit!" look when caught and photographed filled in the blanks. Beth also assumes Jamie was in on his bio-dad's plot to kill the Duttons. So, she's blackmailing him based on this. The problem is Jamie knows every single illegal thing the Duttons have ever done. Given his role as consigliere (hey, adopted just like Tom Hagen!), there's a chance he knows even more than Beth, particularly as she was living out of state prior to the show start. Jamie should push back on Beth and tell her files on every body taken to the train station, every hanging, every murder, every assault, every theft have been sent to various points in the country to be opened and sent to proper authorities upon his untimely demise. And he should give her a copy just so she knows he's not bluffing. So, if she wants to turn him in for a possible murder, she'd better be ready to say goodbye to her beloved Daddy and Rip too. Check. Mate.

I think Douglas truly cares about Liam. He just loves his father and wants to spend time with him. Liam should understand the pull of a son being with his father. He started out as Liam Cooper, raised by a man who wasn't his biological dad and we've not heard more than five words about that guy while Liam has fixed all his attention on his bio-dad Bill.

Feels as if the most likely (reasonable?) option for Aemond is to tell his mother and Otto the truth but shade it for the rest of the realm that he is an unpredictable, bloodthirsty, psychopathic kinslayer. The inference being, if he does this to his blood, imagine what he would do to you. Best of both worlds. His family doesn't think the absolute worst of him. And the realm does.

I'm going to reference Old School Y&R here with, hopefully, some accuracy. Whatever happened to getting away with something scot-free? With no one ever finding out about the nefarious deed? Seems like that happened in the old days. I recall when Leanna Love painted Ashley Abbott's office with poison paint, almost killing her. My memory is she got away with that. Here, I wouldn't mind seeing Thomas get away with his voice modifying trick. Sure beats Douglas learning the truth. And outing his dad. And so on and so on. Again. And there was the time Sean(?) blackmailed happily-married Lauren and Paul to divorce for some reason or another. And even though they were forced into it, they actually stayed divorced. Here, I wouldn't mind, if Thomas is found out, for Ridge and Taylor to stay together even though the origins of their reunion were manipulated. They could reflect on some of the genuine reasons they were drawn to each other, while also questioning whether they'd be together if not for the Thomas' deception. Brooke could take the opportunity to really reflect on her exhausting cycle with Ridge and "destiny" and realize she wants to move on. Again, it just beats the wash-rinse-repeat cycle of Ridge finding out he was duped, Brooke forgiving him, Taylor forlorn, kids upset, blah, blah, blah.

I wonder if the Baratheons will change sides now given Aemond's killing of his nephew. No word-parsing here. He killed him. And the Baratheons have more than enough reason to believe it was intentional given Aemond's actions in their castle. Perhaps they'll determine Aemond, and by extension, the Greens, are unstable psychopaths who can't be trusted and to whom he doesn't want any of his daughters betrothed? And then, maybe Baratheon will reverse course and decide to uphold his father's original oath to Rhaenyra? Maybe?

I have rarely had much use for Brooke and, more often than not, I've been Team Forrester, but Brooke's endless, painful whining and crying about Not!Ridge is driving me crazy and seems quite out of character. I've never held the belief (ha!) that RedSuitBrooke was the true version of the character (as opposed to a one-off relatively brief period in her history) but this sappy, weak, spineless pushover isn't her either and it needs to end. Please. As for Team Forrester, do TPTB really expect us to sympathize and cheer for the rude, inconsiderate, bratty Steffy and Thomas as they openly crow over their parents' reunion? They are, quite simply, relishing in their cruelty to "the Logans". And it's gross. Sidenote: SK is now trimmer and clean-shaven and has never looked better. Good for him.

It was a nice change of pace to see a woman (Katie) initiating a passionate kiss. Hardly ever happens on this show. And this was a first kiss, no less.

So Larys is a Sole Man. I guess that makes Alicent his Sole Provider.

I don't believe the ex-FC employee works for CPS. He was IT at FC and he's an independent IT contractor now. He has his own company and CPS is a client. Storyline is still stupid though.

"Where'd you go to school that you think 'sad' is the opposite of 'funny'?" I mean, TK is an absolutely horrid Ridge but I laughed hard at that. Twice.

Is Hope playing Thomas? Where'd all this sudden interest and ogling and casual touching come from? Literally wasn't there yesterday. And spending the night at Eric's with Beth?! What?! No love for The Waffle, and, no, he doesn't need to be invited to Eric's to see how Douglas is doing, but he does have a right to be pissed about his wife and daughter spending the night at the home of another man. This show gets dumber all the time.

I think the point is that Alicent oversteps. Madly. Sassing the king at the council meetings and just generally behaving as a Queen instead of a Queen Consort. You have no bloodline of any import, Alicent, at least not compared to Rhaenyra or your husband. No status flows directly from you. Only from your husband. Comparing yourself to a Princess of the blood, the heir to the throne, no less, will drive you mad. But you seem to be there already.

Baela and Rhaena just lost their mother. Jace and Luke just lost their (biological) father. They were in the depths of grief and despair. And they’re all children. Aemond chatted shit and got hit. And, after the attack had subsided a bit, and when he was in no immediate danger, was about to bash his nephew’s brains in with a rock.

Another marker of how stupid the custody arrangements are on this show is that Douglas’s pseudo-dad Liam talks about his “home” and his “family” and that never ever includes his first-born child Kelly. And if Liam is supposed to be some kind of father figure to Douglas, shouldn’t Kelly also be considered the kid’s “sister”? And, adoption and other contrived family situations aside, Beth and Kelly are blood sisters with the same father and those girls are never ever together. Not quite sure what Liam means when he says the word “family”.

KB and SK look very friendly together. Between his butt grab yesterday and her frequent hands on his upper thigh, I'm beginning to wonder.

Of course the Forresters are going to "lose". They almost always do when it comes to the Logan family. The Logans may be put-upon, with "Ho for the Future" and "Slut from the Valley" and all that but, ultimately, Steffy was fired by her own father for that stunt and Stephanie saw every man in her life marry Brooke and adore her forever. So, even though Taylor had some very good points (amidst all the unnecessary gloating and "Douglas is a Forrester" talk), e.g., questioning Douglas living full-time with Hope; supposed to be "shared custody", etc., Thomas will become loony again very soon and Liam, Brooke, et al, will be vindicated, Ridge, Taylor and Steffy will be proven wrong, and Douglas will remain with Hope. ETA, I have to say I did enjoy Brooke being the incredulous, screechy one this time instead of HT's Taylor. I don't think KA has "screech" in her so I'm thankful for small favors.

It may fall on a lot of deaf ears but can we lose the "Fauxrrester" tag? Ridge's last name is Forrester. That's because he is a Forrester. As Eric's and Stephanie's oldest and by far most favored child, he's much more "Forrester" than any of his siblings. The ridiculous SL that made him Massimo's bio-kid happened when Ridge was in his forties. In the decades prior, there'd been no inkling he was anything other than Eric's son. And in all ways that matter, Ridge is Eric's son. If Douglas is Hope's child (and he is), Ridge is Eric's. That's how adoption works.

Legally speaking, neither Thomas nor Hope is more of a parent to Douglas than the other. It's no more acceptable for Hope to magnanimously tell Thomas he "can see Douglas whenever he wants" while she has sole physical custody than it is for him to say the same to her. The kid's parents are divorced. They can share physical custody as so many other parents do just fine. Also, Liam has zero say so Thomas was right about that. But Taylor and Brooke and Ridge and Steffy and Deacon also need a nice, tall glass of STFU. Not their business. Certainly not their place to settle old grudges or ingratiate themselves (Deacon) using custody of Douglas as a proxy war.

There is no dispute that Hope is Douglas' mother. Stupid, conniving Thomas forged a note from dead Caroline asking Hope to be a mother to her son after she died. Hope didn't "steal" Douglas from Thomas in any way, shape or form. She adopted him. She's his mother. Period. Full stop. But 50/50 or "joint custody" usually means both parents have equal time with the child. Thomas only visits Douglas at Hope's house. This whole concept of the mother never "keeping" a child from seeing his father is mindboggling and belongs in decades long past. Fathers have joint physical custody and no longer have to "visit" their own kids at their ex's house. Even accepting that Thomas is a loon and there's an argument he shouldn't have custody, why is it that Liam doesn't have joint custody? Why does he never have Kelly at his house? He only goes to Steffy's to see his daughter. Liam is a weak waffle but he's in no way a threat to his daughter. So why does Steffy have sole custody again? Including taking his daughter to Europe for weeks (months?)? Hope should be just as much a parental figure to Kelly as Finn is but she just isn't because of this weird outdated construct the show just can't discard. Beyond stupid.

Totally agree. They each should have 50% custody. Hope crying and Deacon the Deadbeat acting tough is ridiculous and inappropriate. Hope has no (or at least a shaky) leg to stand on, legally or emotionally, that she should have sole physical custody of Douglas. She and Thomas are both his parents and they should have joint custody. This isn’t complicated. It happens literally every day.

Douglas living with Hope and Liam with Thomas having visitation rights is just a stupid construct to begin with. Thomas is his father and has sufficient resources to have a home of his own with a room for Douglas. He should have had joint custody for most of the time that Hope has been Douglas' "mother". Similarly, Douglas has lived with Hope for a while now so, while she should not be crying because the boy is going to spend more time with his dad, she should have 50% custody too. The problem is this show is so very conservative and stuck in the '50s that joint custody doesn't even exist in BellLA. Liam shouldn't be going to Steffy's to see Kelly. He's her father. Kelly should be spending just as much time with him as she does with Steffy and Finn. The idea that mothers get 100% custody and fathers get to visit their own children, or on the rare occasion when the children are with them (eg, Steffy's drug addiction), they get praised for actually doing their jobs as parents, is sexist and ridiculous. Of course, YMMV.

BTW, as the world's smalles principality, with an area of 0.8 square miles, Monaco is smaller than most of our neighborhoods. Should have taken no more than thirteen minutes to find Steffy.

Grace is right that Paris shouldn't marry Carter because his motives are likely impure. But Grace is wrong that any pain he caused Zoe was underserved. Zoe tried her damndest to get Zende (whom Grace now wants for her other daughter Paris) into bed but, thankfully, he resisted. Grace is wrong for barging into Ridge's office to "tell" on Carter, accusing him of sexual harrassment. What? Grace is wrong to birddog Zende, pressuring him at every turn to, what, throw himself at Paris and beg her to take him back? Grace is wrong for stalking the offices of FC (unsupervised, mind you; whatever happened to security ensuring the designs aren't stolen?), eavesdropping and generally being unpleasant in a space she shouldn't be in in the first place. Grace may be right but she sure is wrong.