dubbel zout

I'm surprised there wasn't the standard PSA for the mental health hot line. It was pretty obvious Sonny wasn't only indulging in his usual woe-is-me self-pity party. If the windows are that fragile, the soundproofing must be terrible. Some luxury hotel!

I had to LOL at the plot point of Dante's conflict of interest. I'm kind of surprised they tocked the baby so early in the episode, but it does get the rest of the story going. Blaze, you could have stayed at GH. You, not your mom, are the boss of you. Natalia asking Blaze to explain her relationship with Kristina is gross. Natalia wouldn't have required that if Blaze were seeing a dude. She's still a terrible bigot. Don't let her off the hook, Blaze. I liked that Molly blamed Sonny for Kristina losing the baby. He's going to make it all about himself anyway, so why not have others hold him responsible?

You know Kristina would still somehow get the blame: "I was thinking of how she [insert petty grievance here] and got distracted!"

I should have known Grantchester would wrap up everything with a neat bow in the season finale. I'm not mad about that, though. The Sam/John thing was a bit anticlimactic as it related to him specifically, but the action side was done well. Larry getting shot was a decent bit of suspense, and while Leonard wasn't shot, getting speared by a giant splinter is nothing to sneeze at, Sylvia! He could have developed sepsis! I was holding my breath a bit when Sam/John locked himself and Leonard in the bedroom—thank goodness Sam/John didn't hit Leonard. The not-to-be vicar was too cartoonish for me—would he really call someone like Mrs. C "poppet"? I don't think so—and the bishop is also a bit too aloof for my taste (was he always like this, or is it just with Alphy?), but at least we know how Alphy gets to stay. People bemoaning the lack of the Keating kids should be happy with this episode. ;-)

I run hot and cold on Ava (and MW, though never on her professionalism), but I hate it when the show decides to make someone the town goat. Yes, Ava has done some terrible things, but so has everyone in Port Charles. The pile-on is very tiresome to me. I hated it for AJ, hated it for Julian, hated it for Nina.

Remember when Carly was "high risk" pregnant with Donna and she could stroke out at any minute but didn't even get woozy? I'm shocked Kristina not being high risk hasn't resulted in her fainting every 20 minutes.

Skip the middlemen and hand Avery directly to the army of Q nannies. You know that's where Sam would park her anyway.

Especially when that lawyer is Scott. That's equally true of Sonny. Neither side is a shining example of upstanding citizenship. NGL, that totally cracked me up.

LOL at Joss suddenly being Miss Professional Lifeguard 2024. And way to leave your duties to go with Kristina in the ambulance. Blaze wasn't that far behind. Gio's expressions were the best! I bet this was once sequence they were all glad they didn't have to film a lot of takes for. Lots of flashbacks of—they are certainly getting their money's worth from the stunt. I hope the stunt double was paid well. Thank goodness the ER doctor told TJ to stay out. He has no business being a part of Kristina's treatment. I wouldn't be surprised if he put the baby's well-being over hers, given his current feelings for her. Dante shouldn't be the one questioning Ava, but conflict of interest is raised only as a plot point. And given how many people Dante is connected to, he'd never be able to work at least 90 percent of the cases that hit the PCPD. Chase is rapidly gaining on that, too. Lois's pants were so high-waisted they were practically acting as a bra.

Kristina didn't have to confront Ava in her hotel room; that's entirely on her (Kristina). What did she expect, that Ava would tell her, "I've changed my mind, you don't have to testify"? Kristina was impulsive, as usual. Ava acted as Ava acts.

Wagger is being too stupid for me to enjoy the pretty and the sparkle. If they weren't both trying to take down Sonny, would they have hooked up? I don't know. The only thing I liked about the Ric/Madeline/Nina con story was that he had an app called Waaaa that cried like a baby, and he used it to torture Nina. It was horrible but so funny at the same time. At least to my twisted sense of humor. A lot of us are hoping this baby ends up a tock.

The only thing that shocks me is how stupid Wagger is for throwing in his lot with Ava, especially for a custody battle. Kristina going out the window was hilarious. She was at least three feet away from it. She should have slipped on that bag and hit her head on the windowsill, rendering her unconscious, and then we see Ava having to deal with that. If they're going to blame Ava for hurting Kristina and the baby, go all in. Don't weasel it.

He's always been recurring; the show works around his other commitments. It's not unusual for Valentin to be offscreen for a few months at a time, which is what I expect this will turn out to be.

A lot of people are smarter than Larry; his dimwittedness has been a major characteristic since the first season (or whenever he was introduced).

I FFed that excruciating birthday party for stupid Wiley. I had to laugh when Molly said she'd help Kristina prep for the custody battle. There's not even a court date yet. I really hope Brennan didn't get rid of the recording of Carly because he wuvs her, but I'm not holding my breath.

Joss doesn't pay attention to the pool when she is supposedly working, so it's not as if having a lifeguard makes a difference.

Another story that ends with less than a whimper. So I guess Valentin went on the run for nothing? Not that I care, but they made such a big deal of Anna giving him that two-hour head start, and if Brennan can erase all of his (Brennan's) records, he can do the same for Val's. Whatever. If the story is dead and buried, yay. Maybe now Anna can stop crying over Val and Charlotte and toughen up to do her PCPD job.

Unless they're braiding flowers into Leonard's hair, of course!

Ugh, Wiley and James. There is not enough I DON'T CARE in the world for those two brats. Again, Carly was in lockup at the PCPD. Everyone is acting as if it was the gulag. Of course her case was dismissed, because why eke out any drama from Carly being behind bars for less than 24 hours? And the US attorney apologizes? Barf. But the best part was Sonny making it all about him, as always. Never change, Corinthos! Anna had quite the exposition dump today with Brennan. Tock the stupid baby and blame be damned. I HATE this story.

Doesn't matter what the ratings are, because ABCD doesn't have anything to replace GH. If they had something viable, I think GH would be long gone. We haven't seen Molly and TJ talk about any of this stuff, so it's not as if we can see they are deliberately leaving Kristina out of things. That's why I can't get too worked up about her not knowing anything. Viewers don't either. Again, more stupidity.

It's not as if Donna is deathly allergic to tomatoes and Sonny is unaware. It's where she wants her tomatoes when she eats them. She'll survive if they're in the wrong place. Good grief. ETA: And we all know Sonny does more actual cooking for Donna than Carly ever has. He probably knows Donna's tomato preferences. It would have made more sense if Carly said that Donna has recently started hating them and won't eat them. But the writers are this show have no sense.

None of that exchange made sense. If Robert did agree to release the records Wagger wants, why didn't Molly stop by the office first? Or why didn't Robert send someone who was at the office in the first place over to the courthouse? It was all to set up Wagger yelling at Molly to goad Sonny into taking a swing at Wagger. I laughed out loud when Carly mentioned Jason looking after Michael. Joss, too, to a lesser degree, given she has a father who may be absent but has never been derelict in his parental duties. And Donna has nannies (and Sonny, regardless of his current mental state), so Jason doesn't need to look after any of Carly's kids. I disagree a bit with this. Kristina isn't entitled to know every thought Molly and TJ have about the baby. We definitely should have seen Molly and TJ talk about their plans, but the show wants to keep things so both sides can stay on their respective high horses, valid or not. SO MUCH STUPID.

So much whining today. Everbody, SHUT UP. Also, so much stupid. If Michael is such a wheeler-dealer, he should be working the phones to get Carly off the hook, or at least get her bail. What a loser. "You know, in retrospect it was probably a mistake to force [the parental termination issue]." Oh, ya think, Molly? And when Alexis asked Kristina what Molly and TJ fought about and Kristina said her, there was no acknowledgement that maybe that was something Kristina needed to think about. "What if [Molly and TJ] break up?" What if Port Charles falls into a sinkhole, Kristina? I cannot with anyone in this story.

I'm glad she's feeling well enough to work, but Holly isn't needed.

Finally, we get confirmation Kathy is in menopause and not turning into her mother. I had to laugh that she expected Geordie to get it when her own doctor seemed pretty clueless. Love it when Jack noped out of the conversation when Mrs C. mentioned "dryness downstairs." (I did think that was unrealistic coming from Sylvia, but on the other hand, she can be very blunt.) I don't care about the Keating children, so it doesn't matter to me how many of them we see. I wonder if the season will end on a cliffhanger. The show doesn't usually do that, but I feel like we're building toward a few things that won't be wrapped up in 50 minutes.