KerleyQ

Well, you know, as the only one of Brooke's offspring currently living in town, he didn't have to defeat anyone to get a spot in her house, so it's just not as good.

Agreed. I think this was a much more realistic portrayal of how teens "date" than the grand love story thing. For a lot of kids, I think it feels easy and safe to pair up with someone who is friends with their friend's BF/GF.

I think a couple of the others were trying not to break, too. I wonder if those reactions were the best take they could get. I liked this one. I liked that Zay wasn't putting things to Maya like this was some great romance. It was just more "hey, we're both single, you've got this Josh thing in your future, but, for now, our two best friends are a couple, and it would be cool to be able to double date with them instead of feeling like third wheels." I think Zay has somehow become my favorite of the kids, so I like that the Maya/Zay thing was such a low key "we're friends, so let's hang out" thing. (And I loved that he asked Josh "is that OK with you? I don't care, but is that OK with you?") I'll admit that, at some point last season, I was kind of hoping we'd get Zay/Riley, because I saw some chemistry there, and it would have been totally unexpected amid all the Riley/Lucas and Riley/Farkle shippers. But, I like the way this was done. Cory and Auggie were cute with the boxing gloves. I liked that they were both so sincere - Auggie in his "I'll take care of them," and Cory in his "I know you'll try." It was a sweet moment of him understanding from his own childhood that kids are kids, but what's important is that Auggie understood how important they were. My favorite part of the whole episode was definitely Zay's reminders about Riley eating his cookie. It's realistic that, even though he forgave her, he's still going to give her a little shit over it here and there. (And I'd still like to see them have her give him a cookie, preferably because she contacted his grandma, but she can bake it, too, either way).

I'm OK with that one and the Kevin/Laura one. I'm glad that relationship wasn't just some temporary thing they trashed right away. Liz was farther down the org chart on the "Jake is Jason" conspiracy than Hayden was on the "Hayden is married to Jake" conspiracy.

That would have been a much more interesting take on her pregnancy announcement than "oh, no, we all might have malaria!"

I just assume that, after the scenes are over, he heads back to his dressing room and vows to his picture of SBu "Don't worry, I'm not letting him in." They really need to do something about the lighting. It looks like BM is working on some method of slowly morphing his hair and skin into one uniform color.

I don't think John gets bored, because, in his mind, every bit of these challenges is like a tribute to him. It's all "oh, it's tradition for Bananas to lead us in a toast!" and "Bananas gets first shot at the rooms," and shit like that. He enjoys manipulating people, and he enjoys watching people get really drunk and make asses of themselves. And he's not above combining those two hobbies into one, when he helps wind up someone like drunk Camilla so he can sit back and enjoy the show.

That wouldn't even be worthy of dusting off the horn, let alone actually dragging out poor RA. Well, unless he still has that obsession with fire...

I knew it was going to happen, but I hated that Ross and Rachel ended up together in the finale. (Although, at least it happened at the end and we didn't have to watch them together any more.) They brought out the worst in each other, in so many ways, most of which have already been mentioned here. I felt like neither one of them could ever be themselves in that relationship. Ross somehow managed to both have her on a pedestal and look down on her at the same time. Yeah, he apologized for the list, but those things were how he really felt. She was his teenage crush, who he finally got a shot with, but I don't feel like we ever saw him appreciate her beyond that. And their jealousy over the years was obnoxious. The Mark thing was the worst. Ross was a controlling ass. And I don't even think it was solely Mark. I had the impression that he didn't like her becoming more than "just a waitress," because her being less successful than him as adults was some equalizer for him, as in a reversal of their teen roles, where she was the pretty, popular girl and he was her best friend's nerdy older brother. Rachel never gave him even a hint of a reason to think that she was remotely interested in the guy, and he just kept hammering away at it, complete with embarrassing the hell out of her in her first days at her new job. And then he's the one who screws the first girl he gets a shot at while they're on a break. (Superficial side note: I did not get why all three guys were drooling over the copy girl. I mean, she was cute, but Chandler needing to invent things to copy to go stare at her was a bit much.) Beyond that, though, as others have mentioned, there were the jealousy issues for Rachel with Emily, Phoebe's friend, and the woman from the baby store. And for Ross, along with the Mark crap, there was his over the top reaction to Rachel/Joey after Barbados (after he had about two seconds of conflict before making out with the girl who just dumped Joey five minutes ago), and his various post-baby jealousies (the mistaken proposal, the guy from the bar, Gavin). Oh, and his anger at Joey for falling for Rachel in the first place. So much of Ross/Rachel seems to revolve around one or both of them being angry. I actually preferred Joey/Rachel, because I felt like they both appreciated each other for who they were, and, as much as Rachel talked about Ross being her best friend, I feel like Joey really was. (Bonus, they didn't lash out at each other.) Their friendship was probably my favorite relationship on the show, and it matured both of their characters, to some degree. As much as I came to dislike Ross (he's definitely my least favorite overall), in the whole Carol's pregnancy thing, I loathed how Carol and Susan treated him. That scene in the OB's office for the sonogram was awful. They acted like he had just been a sperm donor who was now trying to muscle in on their baby. It was like he was unreasonable to expect to have some say in his child's name. I hate that episode when it comes up in the rotation on TBS.

Did someone dip his head in a vat of bleach??

"Nina Ninas."

Well, you know, that was nannies. Max and Milo are hired muscle. Nothing says love like asking mob lackeys to babysit your kids.

We can always hope that some producer decides to make "The Ryan Lochte Story," and BryDog is taken away from GH for the role he was born to play.

It's extra ridiculous when you remember that, not that long ago, Steffy was acting like Ivy's fear of her was ridiculous, and barging in on her all the time, demanding she get over it, despite restraining orders and Liam telling her to stay away from her. Quinn hasn't pushed you into a single electrical panel, Steffy. Not a one.

Is there some kind of "who can come up with the most appalling story line" contest going on in the writers' room? You have no idea how long it took me to figure out which uncle is the pointless one. (But, isn't the answer really "all of them except Lucky"?)

It would be at least 15 percent less creepy, so there's that, but, yeah. The thing is that, given good writing, RoHo can be quite good. When the writers phone it in, though (as they clearly do here, if they're even putting in that much effort), he tends to fall back on his tics. He was so good when he returned to OLTL, through the end of its ABC run, and then, again, on PP's OLTL. It was bizarre watching that, and then watching him play Carly's giggly BFF on GH. Such a disconnect (and such a blatant illustration of the whole rising up for good writing, hamming it up for crappy writing thing). I will say that there are times he seems to be enjoying working with BH, but, the shit they're giving them is just...ugh. If they insist on doing this, I really wish they'd really, truly examine the issues that should exist here (on both ends, because he should be wary of her infatuation with Jason, and she should be wary of his, well, everything). Give them well written scenes where he addresses his past and expresses actual remorse for it, not this smirky, whiny, "why are you all still bringing up old stuff?" shit. Have her be concerned that she's feeling attracted to him as a means of sticking it to Jason, and wary of making a mistake. She should be wondering if she's feeling things for him simply out of gratitude for his help with Jake. If we're stuck with the "it was a tumor!" BS, then he should be a guy who is fully ashamed of the shit he did under the influence of that tumor. And he could talk to her about that, about how he feels like he's never going to be worthy because of things he did while he was sick. She's had some bouts of mental illness (both real and fake), she can somewhat understand it. Instead of the creepy elevator, car backseat shit, he should be somewhat timid around her, physically, because of his history and hers. Maybe an honest conversation about her rape, and the life long ramifications of it, could spur him to really understand exactly how bad what he did to Sam was. (I mean, if they want to write him as Todd as Franco, then one thing that would be absolutely Todd would be for him to find out Liz was a rape victim and to feel real anguish over that.) Something. Anything other than him being another Sonny, with the expectation that everyone should just get over his past bad shit, and anyone who doesn't is just an ugly hater. I would never, ever, pick Franco for Liz. Never. But, if they're going to do this, there are so many better ways to do it, none of which are happening here. RoHo could be really good as the Franco who is tortured by the knowledge of what he did in the past. They should have made him anyone other than Franco, but Franco is apparently what we're stuck with, so why they refuse to actually put in the work to make him a viable character and romantic partner is beyond me. If it's the same Jason who was a frat boy over the idea of someone watching him have sex with his wife in the barn, he'd probably be looking at Sonny saying "you tapped that, Bro?" and exchanging fist bumps.

I totally forgot about Ava tampering with his meds, so when Morgan was telling Sonny how, even with his meds, he has these urges, I'm thinking "well, yeah, because you're a tool, that's not the bipolar, it's just you."

I actually thought Liz/Jake were cute, you know, before they decided to throw Liz under the bus and she found out he was Jason. Now, though, I retroactively hate every second of it.

How can Liz fall down the stairs? She isn't even pregnant.

Now I just have this image of Kiki sitting on the couch checking her email, while Morgan and Ava are like three feet away, kissing and groping each other. Kiki, of course, has no idea. But, seriously, any time those two need to have a private conversation, Kiki should just assume "they're fucking again, aren't they?" I can't be the only one surprised they didn't save "lurking naked in the dark at her home" for Liz/Franco?

I'm with you, I absolutely would, too. I have a 13 year old son, and if I was ever single and dating again, I'd make the CIA look like amateurs before a guy was ever even introduced to my son. I guess, in this case, he came pretty much fully vetted, since Cory and Topanga have known him their whole lives.

If Wyatt was thinking, what he should do is say "OK, go ahead," then grab a beer and turn on the game. It would drive Steffy insane.

And, they're allegedly suspending them for Adderall. Meanwhile, they just had a PPV last night highlighted by a main event featuring someone everyone knows is roided up. Nice mixed message, WWE. (I just can't with Vince's obsession with Brock. The only good thing about him is Paul Heyman.)

Well, you also have to consider that the guy needs money for other things than his saving up for shoes fund. He has to eat. He likely has some other things he sometimes needs to spend money on. So if he's been saving up for new shoes, that's likely meant putting some portion of what he is given each day aside to build up to pay for the shoes. I think a better resolution to this would have been to see Riley put in the work to earn forgiveness. We could have seen her telling Lucas she needs his help, without us seeing what that help is in that moment. Meanwhile, we could maybe see Zay talking to someone else, most likely Lucas, but maybe also Farkle, or, maybe instead of them, he talks to Smackle, who can somewhat relate, as an "outsider" to their original group of four. He can talk about how he feels like Riley wouldn't have done something this deliberately cruel to Maya, Lucas, or Farkle, and that it's an example of how he's not fully a part of their group. Then, towards the end of the episode, Riley presents Zay with a cookie. Turns out the help she needed was for Lucas to help her get in contact with Zay's grandmother. She either asked her to send a new cookie, or asked her for the recipe so she could make him a cookie. The cookie in itself, however, shouldn't have been the whole deal. Maybe, in addition to the cookie, she had a conversation with his grandmother, and she learned more about him. With the information from that conversation, she does something that would mean something to him. It doesn't even have to be anything big. Maybe she finds out that, when Zay lived near his grandmother, once a week, he went over to her house, she made cookies, and they sat at the kitchen table, having a cookie and doing a puzzle. So, along with the cookie, she bought a puzzle, and she and Zay sit down, work on it together, and actually talk, just the two of them. Ultimately, this should have been about Riley understanding how what she did affected Zay and making a sincere effort to show him that she cares about him, as a friend, on his own, and not just as her boyfriend's friend. It should not have been about Zay understanding how taking his cookie affected Riley. If we're going to teach the kids about the consequences of listening to the devil on our shoulders, then don't show them that easily forgiving someone for hurting you is a requirement to being a good person. Show them that thinking about how your actions hurt someone is the first step in apologizing, and that an apology does not require forgiveness. I'm not someone who typically has a problem with Riley. Is she naive and immature? Of course. But, it's not entirely unrealistic, at her age. She's still in that age range where maturity levels can vary greatly from one kid to the next. She's a girl who has been raised by two parents who dote on her. She has been very sheltered, with no real experience with anything bad happening. Most of her naivete comes from a place of wanting to see the best in everybody. A lot of people don't lose that mentality until they've experienced or witnessed things that make them question it. I've always thought that she's pretty believable as Cory's kid. Cory was always kind of behind the curve, maturity-wise. Much like Riley/Maya, Cory/Shawn displayed a big difference in maturity levels, as Cory and Riley had pretty sheltered childhoods, and Maya and Shawn had more experience with some of the cruelties of life (Shawn to a greater extent). This episode, though? They got it ALL wrong.

To chime in on the Carly discussion, I think that TB was the one whose Carly I ended up liking more often than any of the others. During her time away from Sonny, when she was in a lot of scenes with Jax and Zander (both of whom she had chemistry with), and then her stuff with Lorenzo, I really actually liked Carly. LW would be in second, because I really did like Carly during the time when she wanted Jax to adopt Morgan and seemed to actually be seeing Sonny clearly. With SB's Carly, I appreciated her talent, but I never actually liked Carly. I still can't believe that TIIC were so firmly lodged in Sonny and Jason's backsides that they passed on all three of Jax, Zander, and Lorenzo as love interests for Carly (outside of that brief bit after Sonny shot her in the head, and that was never intended to be anything other than an obstacle for our hero, Sonny, to overcome. I didn't blame TB at all when she decided to get the hell out of there if she was never going to be allowed to move beyond her role as Sonny's property. Also, in thinking over all of the actresses in the role, I've come to one inescapable conclusion - being with Sonny is the worst thing for the character. I cannot think of any point in time where Carly has been likable while involved with Sonny.