dubbel zout

And make Sasha her sole heir. You know the Carlys would pillory Nina for giving up on her family. Nina can't win no matter what. We've suffered through months of Nina being piled on one way or another. When Nina is getting blamed for being blackmailed, it's time to change the direction of the story. I'd like to see her do something for the Carlys that's so significantly good they can't deny it, and then have things go from there. They'll still hate her and accuse of acting in her own self-interest, but at least Nina would have something unarguably decent on her scorecard. And speaking of blackmail, I hope Esmé calls Spencer's bluff. I can't believe that turd put his own feelings for revenge ahead of the well-being of his 1-year-old brother.

Airs 1/23. This is an eclectic couch, for sure!

All of this is why I currently have a rage blackout regarding the show. It's all so badly, stupidly, sloppily written.

Willow's expression when Michael called her during work to tell her about a puppet show Wiley was putting on was hilarious. "I know exactly what you're trying to do and I'm not having it." Emotional blackmail much, Michael? You suck. And Willow, yell at your husband for blackmailing Nina, not for Nina getting blackmailed. LOL that Michael thinks Ned should lose ELQ because Michael was stupid enough to hand over his proxy with those dumb caveats. Ned, why did you cave? "Here you are, my birth mother. Petty, vindictive, and selfish to the core." That also perfectly describes your mother-in-law, Willow. Everything that happened with the SEC stuff gave me a rage blackout. The writers are doubling down on the stupidity of it and piling it all on Nina even more. Drewfus, you can't see why parents would put pressure on their kids? You can't make the leap that maybe that's what you did to Scout with private school? Maybe, but I think the bigger point is that Joss is the one claiming a suicide attempt when she has absolutely no experience or training to make that kind of assessment. Not that that would ever stop her, but for the GH staff to run with it is annoying. I don't get why Spencer could hold the idea that Esmé is a good mother to Ace and also have gotten her memories back and might regress before Nik returned, but once Nik started yapping, Spencer thought it was the best thing for Ace for the father who knows nothing about him to take him away from everything he know. I can sum up today's ep like this: UGH. GAH. STAHP.

It's still difficult to make the crossover from soaps to prime time. Talent is only a part of the equation; I think luck and timing play bigger roles. Even if NAC makes a splash in Monster, he has to follow that up with good choices, in terms of both roles and how he sees his career evolving. None of that is a given.

The drama being in Adam's head is the more interesting story, IMO, so of course the show won't write it. Originally we thought the story might have Adam be some sort of stalker, and I think that would have been more interesting than this. But ultimately I don't care what happens. I think JB is adequate as Adam; nothing special.

The little guy playing Ace today was killing me. Nik dramatically says, "Don't you realize, Spencer, your little brother is in danger!" complete with dramatic music sting, and they cut to Ace with his finger on his mouth, looking like he's deciding what he wants for a snack. Later he looks like he's thinking, "Hey, just put me down for a nap and leave me out of all of this, huh?" Hee. "Adam has been struggling for months. How did I not see it coming?" Because for a while you were in a sex haze with your dolt boyfriend, Joss. If Finn has to have all of his treatments approved by a chief of staff, he shouldn't be assigned to the ER.

Mollly seemed to want a harsher sentence for Esmé too—she wasn't all that thrilled to make a deal with Martin. If it had been anyone else besides Esmé, Ava would likely have not insisted on pressing charges. Ava is out for blood for Trina, which, okay, but it's not really her fight. I've been saying this for a while. We have only Adam's version of things, so who knows how strict they really are. If legally the school and hospital can't contact them, Joss certainly could.

"[Adam] just stormed out of here with his guitar—and my vodka." Hee. And sigh. I wish the show were writing this story with more nuance, which I know is a pointless desire. Also, Joss, you can't do for Adam what he won't do for himself. Of course Molly is the ADA on Esmé's case Same. Nik's supposed self-reflection rang hollow to me. He always apologizes but never changes his behavior. He doesn't even try to change. Won't Trina be in classes all day, with the corresponding coursework? Exactly when will she have hours and hours to spend with Spencer? I wish Ava had emphasized the professional/education advantages of going to Paris, not the romantic ones. Kristina still thinks Sonny hung the moon, which at her age is a bit much.

Steven A. Smith

I agree, but I think the most Sonny will do is bring it up every so often when he's feeling peevish. Sonny has been pretty defanged when it comes to revenge. Beating up Cyrus was something of an anomaly these days, and while Sonny is entirely responsible for his actions, Cyrus did poke the bear. It's not as if he had been sitting quietly in a pew.

Which I thought was appropriate given the context. Felicia doesn't have to justify anything to Carly. Same, but you know Michael won't be held to account for it. Or any anger will last about 10 minutes, because ultimately he was "protecting the family." Ugh.

Whenever our dogs had to go in the shower, we went in with them because it was easier. We always had big dogs—an Irish setter, Labs—so were going to get soaking wet anyway. Might as well embrace it.

Diane is consistently one of the best-dressed women on the show. I wonder how much input CH has into that. Constance Towers always wore her own clothes for Helena because she knew exactly how Helena would dress, and she was absolutely right. I really hope that if it doesn't pan out it's because of something outside of Trina's control, like Paris freezes over or a semester-long public strike or something. Staying in PC because of Curtis or Spencer would be so, so disappointing. Choose yourself, Trina!

Thanks for posting that, @DanaK. It's much better than the usual SOD article, and it sounds like Brighton Hertford has a very happy, fulfilling life. Very nice to read.

Joss is only now telling the RA about Adam? He's been acting erratically for months. And Adam, change the password to your student portal so your parents can't access it. Good grief. When did Dex start dressing in suits instead of his Jason-lite uniform? He looks good, I'll say that. I had to laugh at his dismay when Sonny asked him to kill Cyrus. Did Dex really think it would never happen? What a dolt. "You're unusually and unprofessionally gleeful about all of this," says Diane, who then proceeds to be unprofessionally, at least, gleeful that Robert will never be able to convict Sonny. At least now Diane and Robert might be dunzo for good. Same. I also like how AP has adjusted Esmé's attitude just a bit since she remembered everything. Esmé's a little less wide-eyed, a little more antagonistic. Nice work. I figured Nikolas wouldn't just slink out of town so soon without causing trouble somewhere else.

It was typical Carly (of any era) that she didn't consider who besides her and her immediate target would be affected by her actions. I really liked that Felicia was able to tell Carly she was hurt on both sides, because Bobbie was her best friend and Tony was her brother-in-law. Wait, what?! That's what this was? Man, I totally missed that, as is painfully (for me) obvious. I did like this part.

Airs 1/16.

Carly going around asking "Do you know my mom?" reminded me of the children's book Are You My Mother? And of course she finds the contact three minutes after sitting in the cafe, lol. Way to be discreet, trafficking fighter. I hope that actor didn't think she was using a Dutch accent, because that certainly wasn't one. Carly and Felicia certainly got to Ontario from Amsterdam in a jiffy. Those convenient wormholes! Seriously. WTF was that about? It's okay that Carly doesn't have some sort of connection to every single person in Port Charles, Show. FFS. All I could think was, Carly, tell Cornelia you are Bobbie's daughter right away. Ugh, what a terrible scene, especially after the great flashback of Bobbie taking care of Elizabeth after the rape. But of course Cornelia falls into Carly's arms in gratitude. Gah. At any rate, that was quite the whirlwind trip and resolution. RC probably had 10 lines total in the two days he was onscreen. OH MY GOD. They are retconning the BJ story? I really hope I'm misunderstanding this. I knew they'd change the name of Kelly's to Bobbie's. NGL, I'm kind of bummed with that choice.

No on both counts. It's the old guard, mostly: Steve, Rick, Jessie, Tony, Lee, Gail, Britt, Epiphany, Bobbie. I probably forgot someone, but it will be someone who died a while ago.

Portia was at GH with Curtis before his experimental surgery. Finn was probably off moping somewhere. I didn't miss Deanna or Amy 2.0. Terry should have been there. As usual, it probably came down to budget reasons. Same. I hate that SBu is returning. I didn't miss Jason one iota. The ONLY upside is that Carly will drop Drewfus so fast he won't know it happened until a day later, and we'll be done with that useless nitwit. (Sorry, CamMat, you tried.)

Brief detour from today's ep: I've been watching The Brothers Sun on Netflix (it's very entertaining), and one of the characters is watching GH. It's a scene between Valentin and Victor, and when the show ends, the Sun brother is annoyed he has to wait for the next episode. Hee.

Nice of them to include JZ in the opening slideshow one last time. Elizabeth is being way too nice to Carly. They are not that close, despite their individual feelings for Bobbie. Since when was Bobbie Catholic or Episcopalian? She wasn't an atheist like Luke was, but I don't think organized religion was her thing. OMG, they hauled Felix out of the closet to act as a pallbearer. We got a tiny flashback from the BJ's heart story. I wish the service had been longer so we could see those flashbacks, but for the actors' sake, I'm kind of glad it was on the shorter side. I can't imagine how brutal it was to get through those scenes. Of course Drewfus immediately volunteers to go to Amsterdam with Carly, without a single thought of his daughter. Or the mother of said daughter, for that matter. Not that he needs Sam's permission, but a courtesy head's up wouldn't be amiss.

It will never happen, but I'd love it if Jason explained his absence by saying yes, he was buried under rock, but he was rescued and had only minor, superficial injuries. He stayed in Greece because it was a nice place to be and he really needed a break from everyone and everything in Port Charles.

Ugh, I don't care. Nina will probably be blamed no matter what, since if she'd told everyone that Sonny was in Nixon Falls, Jason wouldn't have had to marry Carly, etc. And of course they use the least interesting option for explaining Jason's absence. I love the color of Esmé's coat. "But there's still a risk." Marshall, life in general is a risk. I'm fine with people being nervous about Curtis's procedure, but everyone is going overboard. I know Marshall blew up at Stella because of that dumb Christmas Eve kiss, which makes this worse. I really wish the show hadn't gone there with those two. He's no prize even on his best days, IMO. We know it’s not completely truthful because she was very much not glad and in her feelings when he was happy with Nina. It’s extremely dependent on who or what is making him happy. I feel like Carly wouldn't spend that much time thinking about Sonny's happiness. If it's in her face, like seeing him laugh with Nina, yes, but otherwise? It takes away time she can think about herself. That's Ava. Esmé never paid for what she did to the other teens, and Ava knows how to hold a grudge. I'm not sure why Laura and Esmé expected Ava to want anything less than jail for Esmé. I suspect Esmé will go to Pentonville for a bit so she and Heather can plot revenge. Tomorrow looks like it's going to be rough watching. I'm sure it was tough for the actors.