Episode Discussion II: The TFGH

[JMO]

Have we seen Lulu talk to Carly about adoption yet?  Bobbie's giving Carly up when Bobbie was a teenager seems the most parallel situation to Brook Lynn's, even if the specifics are different.  I don't remember how or when Carly found out she was adopted.

Down the road, I wonder if we'll see Lulu use her writing skills to tell the world what it was like to step back into a life that had been lost to her for four years.  After therapy, of course.

5 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

There's a lack of delicacy and nuance that really bothers me. Everyone is just stomping through the story.

This resonated with me.  For me, I think it's because there's been more focus on the characters' unlikeable traits than their likeable ones.  It's hard to root for anyone when no one comes across as genuinely reflective, or vulnerable, or caring about how things might play out for others.

 

[driver18]

57 minutes ago, Sake614 said:

Lulu never would have come up with the adoption angle if not for the files she found in Martin’s locked briefcase. In his locked room that she stole a key card to enter. And then made copies of files that had absolutely nothing to do with why she went there in the first place. 

And? Every single story in the world literally comes from some inspiration. This was what inspired Lulu's pitch. And it wS good enough of a pitch of the three that she gave to the Banner that they chose the adoption one.

[GHScorpiosRule]

23 minutes ago, Melgaypet said:

Maybe he hears something from Rocco about his (Rocco's) mom's mad Girl Reporter skillz and he goes to her to help him look into finding his birth parents and things go on from there.

Except Gio doesn’t know he was adopted. So there’s no need for him to go looking for his birth parents. The dramaz will be the revelation he was adopted.

[Melgaypet]

36 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Except Gio doesn’t know he was adopted. So there’s no need for him to go looking for his birth parents. The dramaz will be the revelation he was adopted.

I...had forgotten that. Ugh, Gio really is a passive pawn in this story.

[KittenPokerCheater]

It would be awesome if Gio turns all angry and mean for awhile once he gets the news that Brooklyn and Dante are his birth parents.

[Bringonthedrama]

3 hours ago, Sake614 said:

Lulu never would have come up with the adoption angle if not for the files she found in Martin’s locked briefcase. In his locked room that she stole a key card to enter. And then made copies of files that had absolutely nothing to do with why she went there in the first place. 

Adoption has been on her mind more since she broke into Martin's room and then confronted Brook Lynn, but it's hardly a shocking or innovative general topic. As soon as nuLulu moved in with Laura and Kevin, Laura told her she and Kevin adopted little Ace because Nikolas is in prison. Right after Lulu went to Nina about Valentin because she wanted to find Charlotte, she and Carly had a talk that daughters need their mothers, and it turned a little emotional because Carly informed her "my mom" passed away while you were in the coma. They both knew they were not talking about Virginia Benson. They both know that Carly came looking for Bobbie as a 20-something adult. Lulu's liver donor/savior, Sam, also reunited with her bio mother Alexis and later (inadvertently) bio father Julian, as an adult. Alexis has mourned the growing up years lost with Sam as she has grieved Sam's death.  Lucas has been her cousin her entire life because Aunt Bobbie adopted him and she knows he met his biological father Julian and biological sister Sam as an adult.  He and Isaiah Gannon worked together to save Lulu's life with the transplant. And as has been mentioned before, as Ethan reunited with bio father Luke, Lulu discovered she had another brother.

You're right that taking those pics of Martin's files has nothing to do with Charlotte. But it absolutely has to do with her son, Rocco since the child is his half-sibling. If Lulu and Dante were divorced without kids, then I'd feel she was 1000% wrong to take the pics of the files and confront Brook Lynn. I have a dear friend who is the mother of a now-teenager and she made an effort years ago for her kid to know his younger half-siblings despite the father's choice to walk away from his exes and (for the most part) his children ... so I have a different perspective than some. Yes Brook Lynn thinks she doesn't know her son or where he is, but she does know Rocco and has seen him grow up in recent years. She was very good with her niece and since then has been all "I want to be a mom ASAP" yet there's never a mention or scene of Bailey Lou spending time with "Mama Brook Lynn" and it appears Brook Lynn hasn't given a moment of thought for her son's brother and his life/future other than to insinuate/accuse Lulu of being a bad mother to him.

I feel bad for Rocco when he finds out Grandma Olivia's stepdaughter who has known Dad well since childhood, kept this secret from them.

Keep in mind, I've never been a fan of either the Brook Lynn or Lulu characters. I wanted GF and JJ to get to perform together again and for both Laura and Lucky to have Lulu in their lives again. Laura has been deprived of having her Spencer kids in her life regularly for decades. Yet the Show can't go a week without Carly and/or Sonny having scenes with their assorted children.

Edited 20 hours ago by Bringonthedrama

[Grinaldi]

While I am certainly sympathetic to anyone with Post Babe is Love Stress Disorder, I do think Brooklyn is the one being irrational here. Lulu dislikes and distrusts BLQ for understandable reasons. But she is not blackmailing her with this information or spending all her time needling her. She thinks it was unfair to keep the info from Dante, which is a valid opinion. Should Lulu have this info? No. But she didn't seek it out. Once she knew it, she couldn't unsee it. And since it impacts both Dante and Rocco, she told BLQ that Dante should be told. I think that's fair. But she has not told Dante because that is not her place. 

The one behaving irrationally is BLQ. That ultimatum to Maxie is way out of line. Too many people know at this point -- most of whom were told by BLQ and Lois, not Lulu. She needs to bite the bullet and go to Dante. Lulu is not forcing her hand here, the sheer number of people in the know and the weight of the secret is. 

And for the record, I like Lulu in the reporter role. Is it an accurate portrayal of the journalistic profession? No. But neither is Isaiah running tox screens or Sonny being a gangster who doesn't deal in drugs, guns or prostitution.

And I have to echo the sentiment that Gio is way too passive here. He's a pawn in the story with no agency. And my guess is that Rocco is going to need something medical and that's how it comes out. That's bog standard soap. But other than Gio being upset to never know he was adopted, the people responsible for that are dead so where is the drama ? Compare that to the drama around Sam's parentage, or Carly's or even Lucas's. At least give us an ELQ story where he becomes the tiebreaker vote. Instead he's an affable guy with no hard edges so this will all be a shrug in the long run.

[Bringonthedrama]

1 hour ago, Grinaldi said:

The one behaving irrationally is BLQ. That ultimatum to Maxie is way out of line. Too many people know at this point -- most of whom were told by BLQ and Lois, not Lulu. She needs to bite the bullet and go to Dante. Lulu is not forcing her hand here, the sheer number of people in the know and the weight of the secret is. 

This! So much this. BLQ told Granny Tracy she only ever told her mother "until recently." In the past few months BLQ and Cody had a conversation that he dropped her off at the bus stop to go home from camp when she told him she was pregnant (and he knew about her and Dante). Did she forget that she told Cody? Or is that a writer's mistake? Six people (including her OB/GYN) know the secret from BLQ and Lois. Lulu has told Carly.

I assume BLQ is going to be forced to tell Dante because he overhears her fighting with someone about the secret and she can't deny what he heard, or Rocco will have a health crisis and she and Lois will both have to tell the truth.

[tessaray]

5 hours ago, Melgaypet said:

Maybe he hears something from Rocco about his (Rocco's) mom's mad Girl Reporter skillz and he goes to her to help him look into finding his birth parents and things go on from there.

That would have been much more interesting. As it is, since it doesn't appear as if Gio knows he was adopted I imagine the writers plan on him feeling betrayed by the adults who let him be orphaned and never said anything? I guess we'll see if he can act angsty. 

Edited 17 hours ago by tessaray

[dubbel zout]

Especially after Lulu talked to Laura, it's a shame the show never had Lulu and BL sit down and have a calm, measured conversation about this whole mess. But why do something thoughtful when you can have two women sniping at each other?

[ciarra]

17 hours ago, KittenPokerCheater said:

It would be awesome if Gio turns all angry and mean for awhile once he gets the news that Brooklyn and Dante are his birth parents.

But then I would have to care about Gio, and I don't. 

[statsgirl]

Emma is an idiot. Why doesn't back up the latest version on their laptop and leaves an old version on it instead? )(I know, I know, plot)

"[Emma] doesn't know what's at stake."  Do you Joss? Has anyone told you just why you need to be Dalton's RA or are you just take it on faith?

I'm with Tracy. Go away Lois. You are as judgemental as  you accuse Tracy of being.

Rocco is going to London for a debate trip (!). London Ohio? London New Hampshire? London Connecticut? Cuz i'm pretty sure he's not good enough for a debate tournament in London UK.

Am i supposed to like Portia? Or sympathize with her? She needs to be a better person first. At least Brad doesn't pretend to be a good person.

A Merck Manual on the bookshelf behind Lucas. Well done, set dresser.

19 hours ago, JMO said:

Down the road, I wonder if we'll see Lulu use her writing skills to tell the world what it was like to step back into a life that had been lost to her for four years.  After therapy, of course.

That would be a much better story, for us and for Lulu. This adoption story is ridiculous because she doesn't even have a focus for it (bad journalism), it's just hauled out so the show can torture Brook Lynn and have her fight with Lulu..

Carly of course sees it as a parallel to Robin telling AJ about Michael. But it's not because everyone knew that Michael was her child; no one knew that Brook Lynn had a baby.

18 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

Except Gio doesn’t know he was adopted. So there’s no need for him to go looking for his birth parents.

Which is why Lulu needs to first talk to him to see if he knows that he is adopted.* If he doesn't (and we know that he doesn't, he thinks that he inherited his musical ability from his violinist mother), she needs to rethink blowing up his life.

There is no nuance to Lulu. It's all a zero sum game to her. There is no nuance to the story either. Just get it over with already.

*just as Alexis should have talked to Kristina first before asking Diane to draw up the commitment papers. TFGH.

[boes]

17 hours ago, Grinaldi said:

While I am certainly sympathetic to anyone with Post Babe is Love Stress Disorder

This is, without a doubt, one of the funniest, understated comment of all time, and I say this as someone diagnosed with the condition.  Thank the gods that Bobbie Eakes is nowhere in sight or there would absolutely be no hope.

As an aside, I've been told my dislike of Ryan Lavery aka Cam Mat has no cure, either.   I'm fine with that.

As for the reaction to the delayed news of "She's Having His Baby", everyone other than Paul Anka should be fine with it by the second cocktail.  The young'uns will have a moment of "Wow, cool, who knew?" and continue on like normal human beings.  But, being a soap, somebody will end up on a bridge, ready to jump, after they find out they're either related to, dating, working for, or having brunch with a previously unknown family member.

Meanwhile, Lulu will be sob-talking endlessly while BrookLynn rages in a sweater three sizes too big in the midst of a summer heat wave.

Is there a recorded song somewhere out there called "I Don't Give a Shit"?  If there is, please put it on "repeat".

All I want is for Tracy to take charge of Gio and keep him away from ALL the other dimwits he's suddenly related to.

Edited 2 hours ago by boes

[JMO]

9 minutes ago, statsgirl said:

Which is why Lulu needs to first talk to him to see if he knows that he is adopted.* If he doesn't (and we know that he doesn't, he thinks that he inherited his musical ability from his violinist mother), she needs to rethink blowing up his life.

Does Lulu know it's Gio, though?  I don't think so. 

I think that, as of today, Tracy knows only that Brook Lynn had a child. Brook Lynn, Chase, Lulu, Cody and Carly know that she had a child with Dante.  Lois and Gloria know also that the child is Gio.  Dante, Gio, Ned and Olivia are clueless.  Is that right, or do I have something mixed up?

I'm going to guess that it's Tracy who puts it together. 

 

[GHScorpiosRule]

22 minutes ago, statsgirl said:

Which is why Lulu needs to first talk to him to see if he knows that he is adopted.* If he doesn't (and we know that he doesn't, he thinks that he inherited his musical ability from his violinist mother)

Gio doesn't know he is adopted. And NuNuLooLoo doesn't know that Gio is Dante's kid. Just that it's a boy.

6 minutes ago, JMO said:

Does Lulu know it's Gio, though? 

No.

So is Rocco still passed out on the beach or did someone find him already?

[YaddaYadda]

26 minutes ago, statsgirl said:

Rocco is going to London for a debate trip (!). London Ohio? London New Hampshire? London Connecticut? Cuz i'm pretty sure he's not good enough for a debate tournament in London UK.

You disappoint me. Where is London, Ontario?!?

Isn't this the debate everyone was supposed to go to? 

[dubbel zout]

Today I could tell Rocco and Danny apart because everyone kept saying their names, LOL.

Color me shocked it was Deana who helped Drew, not Amy.

Portia is so dumb. How does she know Brad won't tell Drew that she forced him to get ketamine? I'm so glad Brad went to Drew. And good for him for wanting some dough from Drew..

30 minutes ago, statsgirl said:

Emma is an idiot. Why doesn't back up the latest version on their laptop and leaves an old version on it instead? )(I know, I know, plot)

So she was working off the file on her thumb drive, on her own laptop?  If she wasn't, where exactly was the latest file? This is the sort of casual carelessness I wish the show would fix. It's not that hard: Have Emma working on someone else's computer and they needed it so urgently she couldn't put the latest version from the thumb drive on the cloud. If I can figure out a solution off the top of my head here, the writers should be able to.

Boo to Dante telling Gio in the preview that Rocco's drinking is Gio's fault. You suck, Dante. I don't care what the situation is.

Edited 2 hours ago by dubbel zout

[Bringonthedrama]

1 hour ago, JMO said:

Does Lulu know it's Gio, though?  I don't think so. 

I think that, as of today, Tracy knows only that Brook Lynn had a child. Brook Lynn, Chase, Lulu, Cody and Carly know that she had a child with Dante.  Lois and Gloria know also that the child is Gio.  Dante, Gio, Ned and Olivia are clueless.  Is that right, or do I have something mixed up?

I'm going to guess that it's Tracy who puts it together. 

 

Lulu only knows Brook Lynn and Dante had a son. 

Lois told Martin (just out of ear shot of Gio and others in the Q mansion) that the young man there - Gio - is the child of Brook Lynn and Dante. Brook Lynn also told her OB/GYN doctor that she had a baby in the past, when she and Chase were a little frustrated that she wasn't pregnant after a few months of trying to conceive. They both decided to have tests done about fertility, and here we are now.

1 hour ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

So is Rocco still passed out on the beach or did someone find him already?

He's still passed out; Danny found out and went back to the party and asked Gio (of course) for help getting Rocco back to the Q property. Danny left the boathouse to go get water, aspirin, etc. for Rocco while Gio stayed with him. Then Cody discovered them. 

EDIT: Cody and Gio got Rocco to the hospital for alcohol poisoning and Dante is under the impression Rocco was drinking at a college party on the beach with/because of Gio.

Lois sounded so much like Carly with the "this family" line to Tracy. It's clear from that scene IMO that Lois didn't want Gio being raised by the Quartermaines, once Brook Lynn said she wasn't ready to be a parent/wanted adoption.  I'm Team Tracy here.

Edited 1 hour ago by Bringonthedrama

[GHScorpiosRule]

48 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

So she was working off the file on her thumb drive, on her own laptop?  If she wasn't, where exactly was the latest file? This is the sort of casual carelessness I wish the show would fix. It's not that hard: Have Emma working on someone else's computer and they needed it so urgently she couldn't put the latest version from the thumb drive on the cloud.

I was thinking the same exact thing! It wasn't already on her hard drive, where was it for her to save on that thumb drive? This show is so stupid and is making ME stupid.

[ljr]

So port Charles has a beach, piers, esplanade, long winding country roads and an esplanade

Why is Emma carrying that thumb drive around?

[dubbel zout]

5 minutes ago, ljr said:

Why is Emma carrying that thumb drive around?

She;s going to give it to Professor Perv. Because apparently that's how the kids hand in their work these days. On a physical thumb drive. 

[statsgirl]

Emma was working on the data program at the hospital. She had a version on her laptop with errors and corrected them while waiting for Trina. And when she was done, she saved the corrected version not on her laptop, not on both the laptop and thumb drive but on the thumb drive only. Idiot. (Plot contrivance, if she had a copy on her laptop, she could have proved to Dalton that the version on the thumb drive had been altered.

I don't think that I've ever handed anything in on a  thumb drive. Do people even use them these days? And as someone said above ( @TVbitch?) what professor wouldn't want 50 thumb drives handed in on an assignment?

I really thought that Martin had written down that Gio was Brook Lynn's baby but I guess that I remember wrong.

1 hour ago, YaddaYadda said:

You disappoint me. Where is London, Ontario?!?

Isn't this the debate everyone was supposed to go to? 

I typed London Ontario first but then I checked to see if there were any Londons in the US (there are five). At least then Rocco would not have needed a passport. (60% of Americans don't have a passport.)

Edited 1 hour ago by statsgirl

[tessaray]

39 minutes ago, Bringonthedrama said:

He's still passed out; Danny found out and went back to the party and asked Gio (of course) for help getting Rocco back to the Q property. Danny left the boathouse to go get water, aspirin, etc. for Rocco while Gio stayed with him. Then Cody discovered them. 

Is Rocco's condition going to be the final straw for Lulu?

While parts of the story have been clumsy, I grudging acknowledge this has been one of those topical stories soaps used to do well and it hasn't completely sucked. Teens binge drinking is a perennial problem. 

[YaddaYadda]

15 minutes ago, statsgirl said:

I typed London Ontario first but then I checked to see if there were any Londons in the US (there are five). At least then Rocco would not have needed a passport. (60% of Americans don't have a passport.)

Rocco is definitely not the international traveler that Charlotte is.

London Ontario might sound like an exotic destination to the idiot writers.

[PatsyandEddie]

I can assure you it is not exotic in the least. 😂

[Bringonthedrama]

11 minutes ago, tessaray said:

Is Rocco's condition going to be the final straw for Lulu?

While parts of the story have been clumsy, I grudging acknowledge this has been one of those topical stories soaps used to do well and it hasn't completely sucked. Teens binge drinking is a perennial problem. 

Good question. The preview shows Dante angry at Gio and Carly talking privately/separately with Danny. Maybe Dante and Lulu will decide they want Rocco to live with her and Charlotte now because Rocco living around Danny and Gio has led to Rocco having his stomach pumped. 

One of my projections was that the boys showing up at a college party where Gio, Emma and Joss were for thumbdrive gate was a plot point set-up for Gio to save his for now unknown younger brother. 

The positive thing is Dante having a conflict with Gio about Rocco must mean he and Gio will both find out the truth soon. Let's move this along.  I am really really, really tired of hearing the words "my baby" out of Brook Lynn's mouth.

[dubbel zout]

48 minutes ago, statsgirl said:

she saved the corrected version not on her laptop, not on both the laptop and thumb drive but on the thumb drive only.

My programs always ask me if I want to save before I quit out of them, which makes this plot point even stupider.

58 minutes ago, tessaray said:

While parts of the story have been clumsy, I grudging acknowledge this has been one of those topical stories soaps used to do well and it hasn't completely sucked. Teens binge drinking is a perennial problem. 

I agree. The way everything happened was pretty true to life, for a change.

48 minutes ago, YaddaYadda said:

London Ontario might sound like an exotic destination to the idiot writers.

I'd be amazed the writers knew there were other Londons besides the one in England. They once told us Bolivia had a coast.