KerleyQ

I won't lie, I've had fears that Ron might decide to save Ava and have it turn out that Connie was trying to write "A jerk I met at the bar who wouldn't take no for an answer showed up and killed me" in blood, but she just couldn't get past those first two letters.

Ah, so that's how they're going to reconcile Hope suddenly changing her mind once she finds out that Quinn pushed Ivy - "It felt like a sign that Liam and I weren't meant to be!" So now it won't be a "sign" any more, it will be that Quinn manipulated things. Gag. Honey, maybe the reason you two haven't been able to make things work, ever, is because the two of you allow yourselves to be easily manipulated and you're looking at "signs." Oh, and neither one of you is capable of waiting two seconds to have an actual conversation with the other when a problem crops up, even though you've been manipulated 7 million times already (this has been going on that long, right?) and each time one of you could have cleared things up by waiting and having a conversation before jumping into bed (or marriage) with your back up option. But, if you want to look for "signs" maybe the fact that you both allow yourselves to be so easily manipulated is a sign that you're not meant to be together. I mean, how many weddings need to not happen for one reason or another before THAT is a sign that you two shouldn't be together? God knows your weddings to Steffy and Wyatt have been able to go off without a hitch.

When she kept going on to the guys like that, I was thinking "why do we need two Carrie Ann's?" And, yeah, her boobs remaining in that dress was likely a miracle of double sided tape. I was thinking the same thing last night - Keo is handling things pretty well with Lolo, I hope that doesn't put the producers in the same mindset they've had with Tristan - "hey, he's good at handling the fragile personalities." I don't want to see him get nothing but Lolo's or grandmas (when Tony isn't there to take them on). And, yeah, it's not like this is a new show, so if Lolo (or any other star) is THAT uncomfortable getting up close and personal with a member of the opposite sex (and Lord help us if she makes it to the rumba!), why agree to do this? I was thinking she probably thinks that it give her credibility to say the same kind of things he says, since he's generally viewed as the most credible/serious of the original three. And she couldn't just be subtle about it and echo the same kind of issues, she just had to hit everyone over the head with it by starting out with "I agree with Len" each time. I expected to love Alfonso, and he didn't disappoint. My other favorites were Randy (which I was not expecting at all), Lea, Jonathon, and Tommy. As much as I'd love to see Lolo gone, I think that we might get a "surprise" elimination in Antonio. He was pretty blah, he went first, and I totally forgot he was there by the end of the show. That generally doesn't bode well. I was prepared to dislike the her, but Sadie was pretty decent and appeared to be having fun, so I'll give her a shot. I do think she was wildly overscored, though. I think they just felt like "she said she's never danced, but she could move, so...9!!" If her lack of exposure to dance hadn't been made a thing in her intro package, I don't think those 9 paddles would have come out (especially when you compare her dance to Alfonso's dance later that got 9's across the board). Janel bothers me, and that outfit was awful. It was like the costume director's mandate for her was "Frederick's of Hollywood Streetwalker." Did she have some lifelong dream to wear a sparkly version of the Pretty Woman boots? And she was generally just trying too hard, especially that whole "oh, every girl is going to be jealous, I'm rubbing Val's abs!" I was glad to see that he looked uncomfortable with that, because I don't want to see him revert to the Kelly season, the one season I haven't liked him. I think this is going to be one of those things where the pro spends all season swearing he adores his partner, but you can really tell that it's obligatory.

I think Ron would absolutely change the Nathan's father story if he felt too many viewers had figured it out ahead of time. He thinks it's far more important to shock the viewers than just tell good story, regardless of whether some fans tweet what they predict the outcome will be. But he needs to pat himself on the back for his "shocking reveals." I think Ron would absolutely change the Nathan's father story if he felt too many viewers had figured it out ahead of time. He thinks it's far more important to shock the viewers than just tell good story, regardless of whether some fans tweet what they predict the outcome will be. But he needs to pat himself on the back for his "shocking reveals."

I would love to see Patrick's stunned disbelief when Sam throws him over for Jason. Because getting thrown over for any other guy would be bad enough, but Jason? When he's already pissed that Robin "chose" to go revive him? I'll enjoy the hell out of that.

I was just saying yesterday that what Shanahan did to him was horrible. You don't put the future of a young player in jeopardy like that for one game. That's your franchise's future.

Don't get me wrong, I think Jason's largest amount of disgust should be reserved for himself and for what he's become. But, he should also have a hearty dose for Sonny and Carly exploiting a brain damaged young man and nurturing him along into becoming what he was.

I can't say I've ever seen the kind of beating AP gave his son used as comedic trope. Yeah, we've seen the "I'm going to get my belt" kind of thing, but this is so far beyond that. Sadly, I think we're not going to see the same level of public/media outrage about AP as we did about Rice (even though, personally, what AP did was worlds worse). And that's for a couple of reasons. First, there's the already discussed attitude of "well, my parents spanked me, and I'm fine." Then, there's the fact that everyone seems to love AP. He was last season's "feel good" story with his return after serious injury. Then he lost one of his sons. So I think there are a lot of people who want him to have not done anything that bad, so the cognitive dissonance comes into play where people are trying to handwave it as just "spanking" or "discipline." I think that's all the more reason for the league (and the legal system) to take a strong stand here. You have to make it clear that what he did is not OK, it's not typical discipline, and that you can't get a pass on something so vicious just because you're a well liked athlete. And, especially, the message needs to get out there to kids that, if your parents are doing this to you, it's not OK.

The Jason story has been screaming for a reverse version where Sonny and Carly lose a child (ideally, Michael) to the Q's for years. And it would seem like that would be why you'd write Carly finding out what Sonny did, keeping it secret, and eventually hooking up with him, because it's reason for Michael to hate both of them, as opposed to just hating Sonny and clinging to Carly as his true family. If they don't take advantage of this point in time to do this right, then Ron's an even bigger dumbass than I thought. It'd be even better if, with defrosted Jason coming back, we get him and Michael both turning their backs on Sonny/Carly and becoming Q's.

The thing that won't make sense to me is if Hope immediately dumps Wyatt to go back to Liam once she finds out Quinn pushed Ivy. She has to know by now that Quinn's shit isn't on Wyatt, and that he doesn't condone his mother's crazy. And she already knew that Liam didn't show up because of circumstances generally outside his control, and she didn't up and dump Wyatt to run back to Liam. And while I can see this cementing her not being at all fond of her mother-in-law, if she was going to leave Wyatt to go back to Liam because it turns out that Liam didn't intend to stand her up and really tried to get there, well, she already knew that, so...

He admitted he did it, but I don't know how sorry he is (or even really said he is). I think he's somewhat sorry that he got him in the crotch, but that's about it. He's called it a "normal spanking." And in those texts to the mother, he seemed perversely proud of it, something to the effect of "he'll remember this one!" As for the duration, that will be interesting. The memo that he sent out to the teams about the new domestic abuse policy said something along the lines of "more severe punishments will apply if the incident involves a weapon, multiple strikings, choking, a pregnant woman, and if a child witnesses it." (I'm paraphrasing, but that was the gist of it.) Now, if you look at that standard for spousal abuse, and translate it to this, he should actually get a harsher than 6 game penalty. He used a weapon and he definitely struck him multiple times. And it actually involved a child. (And I wonder if other kids witnessed it, since he was beating him for pushing one of his cousins, so, potentially, the cousin could have witnessed it.) Personally, while both are awful, what AP did is worse than what Rice did. So if he's indefinitely suspended, AP should be, too. If Roger throws this a two game suspension, I'm going to lose it. I have hope that he won't be that lenient, just because there is already so much attention on them for not being aggressive enough (at first) with Rice. Hopefully, Roger isn't going to want to look soft on this, especially with the pictures out there of his son's injuries, so he can't try the "well we didn't know how bad it was" card.

That's what really gets me the most in this whole sick, sad story - after your child was literally beaten to death, how could you ever bring yourself to hit one of your kids? And not only hit him, but repeatedly whip him with a branch, leaving him bruised and bloodied. Roger must really be crapping his pants now - one of the biggest stars in the league has done something so heinous that there's no way he can let it go with a slap on the wrist.

Honestly, at that age, I wouldn't have a problem with a sleepover. Well, correction, I'd have a problem with a co-ed sleepover with Spencer involved. Because Ron has that kid trying to be a mini-Hefner. But I think the Cameron/Emma thing is relatively innocent. As long as they're not sleeping in the same bed, I wouldn't see it as an issue. As for the relationship with respect to Liz being "Aunt Liz," I don't think it's that uncommon for kids who grow up with their families being close to end up in a relationship at some point in time. I know of at least one couple who started out as the kids of two really close friends who ended up dating all through high school and are now married. I just don't see it as being icky in any way in general. (And, again, I think the ickiest part of the kiddie triangle is, by far, Spencer. Emma calling Liz "aunt" doesn't even enter into the conversation for me versus the ick of everything Spencer.)

To me, there's a huge difference between being pissed and saying "why does the woman who was likely responsible for my baby's death get to have a baby?" and saying that a woman's worth is based on whether she has a baby or not. I don't think either is saying that the measure of a woman's worth is whether she has a baby, they're just saying that, in this instance, they begrudge this specific woman getting the thing they feel she contributed to them losing, which happens to be a baby. I mean, if your neighbor destroys your car, and then she goes out and buys herself a new car while you sit without one, and you get pissed and say "where does she get off getting a new car when she destroyed mine?" I don't think you're saying that having a car is an indicator of a woman's worth.

I don't want to defend anything on this show, but, I don't take either woman's complaints about Ava as a statement that having a baby is an indication of a woman's worth. However, both lost babies that they very much wanted, and both have reasons to resent Ava (or believe they do at this point in time). I can see Sabrina's anger a little more than Nina's, because Sabrina, as of now, believes (with good reason, given that she knows that Ava threatened her to get Carlos to stay in line) that Ava was directly responsible for her losing her baby, so seeing her now having her own would sting. I'm still not sure what Nina knows about everything her mother did (since I can't pay full attention to Nina scenes), but even if she knows that her mother was the one responsible for her coma and the loss of her baby, she still resents Ava for being part of the problem with her marriage to Silas, and Ava went on to have Silas's baby and is now having another baby.

Yeah, Danny's comments were atrocious. Kudos to Deng for his awesome response to the matter. I think, though, that Danny's comments go hand in hand with the owner's statements. In that I think that the whole "has a little African in him" was essentially code for "his skin is really kind of dark." And when you look at that along with the owner's comments about the wealthy white fans being "scared off" by there being "too many blacks" at the games, and the desire to "diversify" their fan base, it's an overall ugly picture of what's going on behind the scenes with the Hawks ownership/management. I mean, really, you're going to hold off on pursuing a free agent (an All Star, a great defender, hard worker, and all around good guy who's been the recipient of the league's humanitarian award) because the tone of the color of his skin might scare off the wealthy white fans you're trying to court? Gross beyond words.

I refuse to believe that ER and DZ didn't break up laughing during every single break in taping. I would be oddly fascinated to watch a Nina/Stavros scene. Throw in Sonny for good measure, and it could be the single most absurd scene ever recorded. I loved Dante's "she was always a whole woman" response to Stavros. I wonder who managed to sneak that line in past Ron, though, because we KNOW Ron doesn't consider a woman a "whole woman" if she's not either getting raped or pregnant. I can't remember which day this was, I want to say Tuesday, but KeMo's line readings were like she spent the past month running lines with MS and MB, and she can't remember how to speak her lines properly as a result. There was way too much "like" and weird pauses/breaks in sentences. It was weird to see it in her. Tequan may very well be the best actor they have on this show. He's too good for this shit. But, yeah, I wanted to smack TJ for that whole double standard towards his mother. I'd settle for being able to get a few good smacks in on whoever wrote crap like "but is Sonny OK with this?" Who cares?

I agree about Robert/Sarah. Robert looked happy to me after the FS (and genuinely upset when Sarah broke things off). And I saw some passion in those kisses in the hot tub. Sarah also seemed perfectly happy with how things went until she listened to the other couples talking about their nights. I think that, had they not sat around the living room talking about it like that with everyone, she would have stuck with Robert to the end and tried to see if the relationship worked for them back home. I'm kind of hoping that, since they do live so close together, they talk things over after seeing the episode and maybe give it a go again.

They would definitely need more raccoons on call if they did it this way.

Yeah, I wonder if the producers gave Michelle and Cody a TMI bonus for trying to liven up the show there. I did not need to contemplate what Cody's packing. And Michelle's being "sore" the next morning and Cody crossing something off his bucket list? Way too TMI, people. If that wasn't at the behest of the producers, then I quote the great Rose Nylund - in my experience, the people who talk about having sex the most are the ones having the least. I was so disappointed that we didn't get an AshLee meltdown when Graham dumped her. When she turned back to him after walking away, I said "Here it is, she's going to eat him!" And she still didn't come through. What a let down.

I think that's why she's his soulmate - because Liam would, essentially, have done the same damn thing in her shoes. So it's not all that out there to him.

I have no actual nieces or nephews, but have about a handful of kids in my life who call me "aunt," courtesy of a few of my closest (but not "special") friends. I've found that to be fairly common. And now I just spent way too much time pondering the genetic connections among the kiddie set. I think I've got it down... Emma has no genetic ties to any of the other little kids. Same for Cameron (other than his brother, of course). Aidan has genetic ties to Spencer (via Lucky/Nik), Joss (via Lucky/Carly), and Rocco (via Lucky/Lulu). Spencer has ties to Rocco (via Nik/Lulu) and the impending Ava Spawn (via Courtney/Sonny or Courtney/Morgan). Joss has ties to Aidan (via Carly/Lucky), Rocco (via Carly/Lulu), and, possibly, the impending Ava spawn (via big brother Morgan, if he's the father).

Only if he looks in a mirror and lays some hard truths on himself, too.

In retrospect, they really shouldn't have made his character this supposed totally amazing doctor. Because I'm not getting "medical genius" from him here. Dude can diagnose cancer in a toddler he's spent 2 minutes with, but now he's clueless?

Exactly. He knows damn well that this is information Sam would want to know. But, if Sam knew what was going on, she'd want to look into it further. And that directly contradicts Patrick's clear desire to sit back, do nothing, and play the victim to Robin's bad guy. And it might distract Sam from getting into bed with him. And there's that, too. He needs to pull his head out of his ass and realize that his daughter could still be in danger if this is something Victor is doing. Regardless of how pissed he is at Robin or how badly he wants to get into Sam's pants, he should be worried about Emma first and foremost. The fact that he's holding back information from the PI investigating the crash because he wants to fuck her is just reprehensible, when you consider that his daughter is one of the people who could ultimately end up hurt if they don't get to the bottom of what's going on. I loved those scenes so much. The Patrick/Liz friendship was so good. But these days, I'd prefer she either not share scenes with him at all or she gets to smack some sense into him. I don't want to see her enable his ridiculous pity party. Sometimes the best thing your friends can do for you is tell you you're being a dumbass.