JMO

Knowing who took action would require planning ahead on the part of the writers. I suspect even they don't know yet. It could be an interesting, active story...but it's not. All we keep seeing is Elizabeth standing at some location in GH and Lucky inexplicably standing around next to her. No emotional trauma at being investigated, no horror at the thought that anyone would suspect her of murdering two people who were loved by people she cares about, no angst about revealing the investigation to Aiden, or his reaction to it. Remember Aiden? The son whose respect and love Lucky feared he had lost, and which storyline was wrapped up in a single encounter? The Lulu storyline should have been interesting, but it's not. Where was the drama over waking up to a life that no longer resembled the one she'd left? We got maybe a total of three minutes of that, across several scenes, with different characters. There was a lot of pathos to be mined there, but it went untouched. The Brooklyn/Chase/Gio/Lois/Ned (and Olivia...remember Olivia?) storyline wasn't interesting, isn't interesting, and shows no promise of becoming interesting. The Willow/Drew/Michael/Sasha/Nina storyline has lived up to the horror of its potential. Joss is mostly over Dex, even though there hasn't yet been a funeral. I've been wondering who would arrange it for him, since he is estranged from his bio family and Joss is busy at Bobby's. And then we have the other half of the onscreen stories---and none of them are any better. Each story has potential, but the potential is wasted on too rapidly and clumsily pushing the plot forward, and not having the patience to explore, let alone plumb, the emotional depth of the characters involved. GH is blessed to have some very talented and experienced actors in the current cast, and I'm sorry the writers seem so bound and determined to keep them from their craft.

Yes, apparently 200 students were displaced from their dorm. Even if the code of conduct might not have expelled her for hosting the party, a bunch of mega-donors whose kids had to find new housing would have been persuasive. I don't mind if Emma comes back as a troublemaker; I just want it to make sense. To bring in a new actress with a new personality is basically to bring in a new character. The writers are professionals, and they should be able to tie this new Emma-persona back to the old one, in a reasonable way. But I'm not holding my breath. Also--this Emma doesn't seem 'bad', per se. She took the wallet of someone she'd seen stealing, made the merchant whole and then gave the wallet to a police office as a found item. Maybe a little Robin Hood-ish, at worst. What I don't understand is her lying, when there doesn't really seem to be a need to. As out there as it might sound, I'm kind of drawn to that idea that she's been recruited, even if Brennan recruited her on a false premise for the purpose of keeping Anna off his back. Regardless, I'm glad to see some of normal Anna back, for whatever reason.

You're not alone. If the writers want to give us a back story that makes some sense of the changes in Emma, I'll reconsider. But I suspect it was just convenient for them to give a character an off-screen personality change, and I don't like it.

I am also not a fan of the unexplained personality change in Emma. I'm going to need a significant backstory before I can buy it. Here's the thing with recasts: There will inherently be some degree of change, such as with nuKristina, where the previous actor might have been given the same written dialogue, but emphasized different words or used some other method to put a different spin on it. Even CM's Drew prior to the Willow fiasco might fall into this category. But then we have nuEmma, where the entire behavior pattern is altered, and it's the content of the dialogue, and not just the chosen spin or emphasis, that's different. For me, that's essentially the introduction of a new character, and would be better serviced if they treated it as such. And yet, as much as I don't like the changes, I am so glad they've given Anna another sphere of interaction and potential storylines, especially having just complained about how isolated they'd made the character. I hope this is Valentin's exit story. No spoiler, just a hope.

Or maybe Michael leaving will allow Sasha to stay. She and we are the only ones who know the real reason she is leaving.

Maybe not since Pickle Lila.

I was really hoping Dante would be able to catch that plane. It would be the only saving grace to Lulu's quest. But at least she has a quest, which reflects more thought going into her return than that which has gone into her brother's. Jack waxing philosophic was a pleasant surprise. Liking the character more and more. I'm not really a fan of the changes in Emma, but I am very much a fan of the kind of relaxed family interaction we saw among the Scorpio women. Anna found her personality again, and I enjoyed she and Felicia silently communicating about something being up with Emma. This is a big part of what I have been missing in the show. Go, Lucas, to speak truth to the weak-willed. I'm glad he's in this now. Of all of the pseudo-adults involved, he is the only one who has actually ever put the child's needs above his own. Interesting conversation between Jason and Michael, where Jason could be both encouraging and a realist. Similarly, a nice, non-mobster moment between Sonny and Kristina. It was a genuine father/daughter exchange, no revenge-planning activities involved. And then the heart clutch. Hmm. Where is this going? AS remembered to change Brooklyn's facial expression when Chase said she'd never been pregnant, so I guess we are going there. Wait until they find out that an elevated body temperature can contribute to infertility.

Enjoy! For me, it's the oldies: Going My Way, Miracle on 34th Street, Meet Me in St. Louis, It's a Wonderful Life. Although I may or may not watch them year round.

I guess this is the right place for this. Just wanted to wish everyone a happy holiday, no matter which you celebrate, and a happy new year! You've all made it more fun to watch GH (even when the writers haven't).

And there was Neil, but they killed him, too. Maybe Kevin ought to be looking over his shoulder.

Amen to that, but I think Laura said he was home cooking the feast. And watching Ace, of course.

To my eye, Brooklyn doesn't look like she even remembers she had a baby at all. Despite the spoilers, could it be that Gio belongs to Lois?

Leo and Olivia were ice skating. The Gio/Emma scenes would have played differently if they hadn't been with a re-casted Emma. I'd only seen news of the recast a few minutes before, so I figured out who the girl was, but I would otherwise not have known. Had I seen Brooklyn Rae Silzer pilfering a wallet, I would have assumed there was a good reason. Which there semi-was. Emma wasn't conning anyone; she was righting a wrong--the wrong way. I am glad to have Emma back in town, for Anna's sake. I agree that the actors seemed to enjoy the scenes of Alexis and Rick decorating together, and they made it look like the characters might have enjoyed it just a little bit, too. It's interesting that they're choosing to soften Jason a touch. I guess they have to, if they want to believably pair him with someone, but also because they have nowhere else to go with him. Wish they'd done it many years ago. Poor Laura. So close to having both of her kids home for Christmas, and *poof*! Overall, it was nice, a little Christmas gift, to have so many of my favorite characters on screen all on the same day.

Was Liz offered an administrative leave with pay versus doing administrative work in house? I'd assumed that she'd chosen the in house job because she couldn't afford to go without a paycheck for an indefinite length of time.

It's so ironic that they've kind of rebuilt the Quartermaines by centering so much of the character interaction in the Q mansion, and on the Q grounds, and filling the house with a variety of Q-related and non-Q-related kids--and now we may be facing the loss of 2 key Q business magnates, if Drew is to be done in and Michael sent to limbo. That would leave only Tracy and Ned as key ELQ business actors, and weaken the Q presence on the canvas, unless they've got some impressively major storyline "queued" up. Which, of course, is highly doubtful.

MW looked beautiful today. I wish Ava wasn't so murderous, because I completely enjoy everything else about the character. I'm guessing Anna has Robin and/or Emma up her sleeve. I don't think she would be as happy at the prospect of spending Christmas with Robert and Holly. Only Nina's apartment and the Quartermaine foyer are impressively decorated. Maxie's tree was woefully too small for that big space. Willow, Michael and Drew are each good at casting the others as villains while totally exonerating their own behavior. All three deserve each other. Getting ready to throw Curtis into that mix, too. This is the second stock related crime for Aurora. I can't imagine the feds aren't monitoring them, and I hope they will ultimately cause the company to be dissolved. Glad Cody decided to go to Maxie's after all. He has more chemistry with Lulu anyway. Sasha is carrying a noticeable baby bump, and I'm a little surprised she's not trying to hide it at this point. Also surprised that she seems to have almost completely disassociated the pregnancy from her ONS with Michael. Maybe she was going to tell him, maybe not. But even if so, it came across as an afterthought.

We don't even know yet if it was digitalis that killed Dex. It would make things more interesting (to me) if whoever stabbed Dex had put some kind of late-acting poison on the knife.

Especially given the weakness of the rest of the episode, I could have done with much longer scenes between Joss and Cam, and I wish Trina had also been able to reconnect. Will have to settle for those crumbs. I could be remotely intrigued with a Jason/Sasha friendship based on the converse directions of their lives: he, the good boy gone hitman, she the con artist turned legit cook. When SB plays Jason with a little bit of vulnerability, he has chemistry with a number of people, and today I saw some with Sasha. When he plays the iron man, no one penetrates. When she was with Gregory, Tracy was capable of delivering some considered philosophy on life, and death, and she displayed true empathy. I call foul on the writers who have decided now to write her as blind to the suffering going on in her own household. Shame on them. Unbelievable that Michael didn't shrivel away from Chase's calling him a good man, since Michael knows exactly what he did to cheat on Willow. That would have been a good moment for a flashback. Nina is meddlingly nervy to essentially push Willow and Michael into a separation that neither of them have said they wanted. Have they even spoken alone since the video? To my eye, Isaiah has chemistry with several people, but not with Jordan. Jordan has chemistry with no one, save for an occasional spark with Drew. I would like Jordan and Drew to ride off into the sunset together.

I enjoyed today. The outreach services on the waterfront reminded me of old school GH, it was lovely watching pot and kettle calling each other out over how much Carly should be involved in Michael's business and whether Jason should have ratted on Drew and Willow. I thought EM and TA were pitch perfect in their scenes, hitting just the right tone, and even the dialogue was well written. Well done. For me, the most outstanding aspect of the Nina/Ava/Martin scenes was MW's masterful use of the semi-humorous undertone. She's always good at that. I don't know if what Michael's doing with Aurora is technically insider trading or fraud or some other brand of illegal use of communications, but I'm pretty sure it's one of those. Guess it runs in the family. My favorite, of course, was watching Liz and Lucky celebrate an impromptu Christmas with her boys. I fear it may be the most heartwarming Christmas scene we get on GH this year. Cameron and Lucky singing together reminded me of the Jones boys, although the Frisco and Tony knew how to harmonize. Hope we get more than the one day of Cameron. He doesn't really owe anything to Joss, but he's a good enough guy to express his sympathy to her, and I would expect that he'd want to check in on Trina. Love that he's found himself a cellist who actually seems like a normal person.

This is the kind of thing that made me ask in the first place. I have trouble telling who is supposed to be in which generation. And then, of course, in a few years they might actually be in another generation.

Not sure. Don't have a good sense of how long they've been out of school. TJ would have been about 26 by the time he started as a resident, Molly about 25 by the time she graduated law school. But it's soap time, so who knows?

Everybody who is not yet a teenager is a preteen, for the purposes of my classification.

So, I was struck today by the difference in appearance between Lucky and Ric, both once married to Liz. And it made me wonder, as I have many times before, what generations each of our current characters are supposed to be in. I made a little list with my best guesses, although the 30s/40s and 50s/60s might be mixed up, and I'm sure I've forgotten someone crucial. But I've been struggling to figure out which relationships make sense based on the generations involved, which might be May/December, and which are robbing the cradle. Just an exercise for me, but I'd love input. Hard to account for those who have SORASed and those who have stopped aging. Preteen: Bailey Lou, James, Wiley, Amelia, Ace, Scout, Leo, Donna, Avery Teen: Aiden, Rocco, Danny, Georgie, Charlotte 20s: Dex (RIP), Trina, Joss, Kai, Gio 30s: Sasha, Lulu, Brooklyn, Chase, Dante, Cody, Kristina, Molly, TJ, Willow, Michael 40s: Maxie, Spinelli, Lucky, Liz 50s: Jason, Drew, Nina, Ava, Portia, Curtis, Ric, Ned, Lois, Olivia, Carly, Natalia 60s: Felicia, Mac, Kevin, Laura, Anna, Sonny, Diane, Alexis, Martin, Lucy, Scott, Cyrus, Brennan 70s: Robert, Tracy, Monica (in absentia), Stella

I took it to be more of a result of Anna not knowing who else to call when Carly didn't answer--and, of course, she has Jason on speed dial. Still, she could have called Michael, since she didn't know what was going on with him. Or Portia, as the mother of Joss' best friend, and who was already in the hospital. But then she wouldn't have had an excuse to call Jason.

As much as I'm enjoying AH as Lulu, I wish she was playing the character as a little more thrown by the fact that she's missed out on four years of her life, and the lives of everyone around her. Yes, Lulu has reacted to the changes in Rocco and the recounting of some of the deaths, but I think we should be hearing more about it. Everybody got to move on, except her. They lived their lives, without her. She should be struggling more with it. This is where I miss that too-transient writing team, which was so much better at writing meaningful dialogue. If not that, then I would love for her to start having flashbacks of things said to her while she was in her coma. Not sure what to think of Sidwell being in the chapel, especially since Holly has absconded with the jewels he wants. Will he try to blackmail Sasha over the pregnancy somehow? But how would he know that it isn't planned? Unless more happened to her while she was in his captivity. Lucky for him that GH characters tend to pray aloud, so they can spill all of their secrets to lurkers. I wish that Anna had a friend---say, Felicia---who could confront her on the fact that she's not been acting like herself for many months, and point her in the direction of Kevin. Hate, hate, hate, hate, hate the idea of a historical dalliance between Brooklyn and Dante, and the idea that Gio might be their son. Hate it. So, before the Lulu-needs-a-transplant story line, I thought Dante was "fine". Then I thought DZ was playing him brilliantly as the overwhelmed father, partner and ex. Now I'm wondering if DZ just doesn't have much range. Either that, or he's chronically depressed and Chase needs to drag him to see Kevin, too.