Episode Discussion II: The TFGH

[KerleyQ]

That was a really good episode. And after suffering through weeks of Lucky at that damn poker table, I'm glad that they didn't drag out Lulu running into her loved ones. I loved all of her scenes with Rocco and Dante, and I really liked the Lucky/Laura scenes, as well. 

Molly and TJ have been overdue for a split, and this is such a realistic way to do it. A lot of couples don't survive the loss of a child. And since little fractures started becoming apparent in their relationship during the pregnancy, and since the baby's death, it makes perfect sense that this is happening now. And this Molly had more chemistry in her one set of scenes with Isaiah than she's had in all of her scenes with TJ combined. 

I say this as someone who actually liked the Drew/Willow stuff, but damn are they a really making Drew an unlikeable asshole. He was totally willing to fuck his daughter over because he's pissed that Jason hit him. The only thing wrong with Jason hitting him was that it should have been Michael growing up and handling that himself instead of winding up Jason and sending him spinning over to Drew. Drew, dude, you know damn well you've earned some punches with all you've done. Him acting like the innocent injured party, solely because he knows that Jason won't tell anyone why he hit him, is a shitty look. Again, I liked Drew/Willow, but Drew needs to have some kind of guilt or complicated emotions for the story to continue working. And currently? He has none. He was so close to Michael, and he feels nothing at all about fucking Michael's wife?  And he feels no guilt at all about the fact that he's been fucking Willow's mother?  Nothing complicated happening in Drew's emotions at all?  That's boring as fuck. Also, if Willow is supposed to mean something to him, even if it's just him having her up on some kind of pedestal, they should have had her be the one to talk him into not taking his anger at Jason out on Scout's life. Drew pre-emptively broke up with Carly when Jason came back, because he was that insecure about her attachment to Jason. It makes no sense, to me, that he'd give in to Carly urging him to cooperate with Jason. He'd just resent what he saw as her, once again, taking Jason's side. 

So, we've gone from Kristina being troubled by the idea of her father being violent, to the point where she almost had an issue with the pregnancy after seeing him beating on Dex, to her being soothed by the idea of him offing Ava? OK, then. 

Alexis threw all kinds of truth at Ric.  The panic room, his relationship with Kristina, using Kristina to get to Sonny... And NLG and RH have always bounced off each other so well. 

[DanaK]

As I've said before, I liked Alexa as Babe on AMC and I liked her first couple of days on GH, and I continue to really like what she's doing as Lulu. Lulu comes across as feisty and adventurous and so like the spirit of her parents

[ciarra]

46 minutes ago, KerleyQ said:

Molly and TJ have been overdue for a split, and this is such a realistic way to do it. A lot of couples don't survive the loss of a child. And since little fractures started becoming apparent in their relationship during the pregnancy, and since the baby's death, it makes perfect sense that this is happening now.

I'm still waiting for the Christmas Miracle, where they find out Surrogate #1 has their child and hands him/her over.

[tessaray]

1 hour ago, ciarra said:

I'm still waiting for the Christmas Miracle, where they find out Surrogate #1 has their child and hands him/her over.

There's so much going on right now I imagine they're saving that one for further down the line when an adorable little biracial girl pops up needing bone marrow.  

[Sake614]

The thing about Drew is that he still has no idea anyone knows he fucked Willow. As far as he knows, this is all over ONE kiss and he’s completely innocent. It totally isn’t his fault that he’d practically been stalking her for weeks/months before finally giving in to her wicked seduction! Or that he’s refused to stay away from her ever since, no matter how many times she’s asked him. Because we all know that she really didn’t mean it. If she did, she would’ve done everything possible to stay away from him. <sarc>

[GHScorpiosRule]

3 hours ago, TVbitch said:

Just FYI, on another board I read that Genie Francis' mom passed on 11/15, so that might be why Laura is suddenly missing in pivotal moments, as she may have been spending time with her mom.  

I didn't know that. I've been pretty much sticking to just this site since early November.

That said, this explains why we haven't seen Laura in scenes she absolutely should be in, and that she was one of the MAJOR reasons JJ returned.

3 hours ago, CeChase said:

Yes, I saw that too.  That's why I'm not complaining about scenes it seems like Laura should be in, but she's not.  

I won't be either, now that I know what's happened and what she's dealing with.

[Bringonthedrama]

7 hours ago, YaddaYadda said:

While AH's performance as Lulu has been irreproachable, I feel like they brought Lulu out of her coma too quickly. But I guess they have to give Lucky something to do since he's done sweet fuck all since returning. I'm assuming he's the one who'll tell her about Luke's passing going from the preview.

I think it makes sense - for dramatic effect - that nuLulu's/Spencer Family reunion storyline is starting this way. Cyrus is the enemy within, who turned out to be Laura's brother, was responsible for the bomb that put Lulu in a coma, and was just plotting to transfer Lulu away from Port Charles without Laura's consent. Lulu woke up and was fleeing the facility to go to Port Charles because she heard Cyrus, a man she knew was evil. When L&L returned to the Show with child Lucky played by JJ, it started because an L&L enemy blew up the Triple L Diner and they had Lucky flee the area. 

Lulu wakes up just as Dante and Rocco and other PC folk are mourning Sam. Good dramatic conflict. Dante had just declared he and Rocco would stay at the Quartermaines to keep the kids together as a family, but now he has to factor in Rocco needing to spend lots of time with his recovering mom as well as face the fact that he still loves Lulu and what that means for the family he made with Sam's children. Then there's Lucky who is taking action after doing nothing for more than two months other than play poker in "Africa", get tests regarding being Lulu's donor, and whine about having no purpose. We haven't even seen him start developing a relationship with Aiden; we only know he's supposedly "stepped up" because Elizabeth told Terri they've been spending time together. So Elizabeth potentially being in trouble re: Sam's death and Lulu waking up and recovering/reintegrating with loved ones in Port Charles are good reasons for Lucky to have a purpose. Laura is still the mayor and her toddler grandson's adoptive parent (along with Kevin); she will need support now with Lulu in addition to little Ace.

Today's episode: JJ with AH - Loved the embrace and Lucky greeting her as "Lesley Lu". So, Lucky does remember that Jake exists. Lulu hearing about Luke dying because of Victor, and their tearful embrace, was absolutely heartbreaking. I was not expecting the Helena reference. They have excellent sibling chemistry. However, Lucky should have called Laura immediately instead of sitting down with her for tea and a catch up sesh. AH did a nice job showing Lulu's restrained guilt, jealousy and hurt over Sam's death and the revelation about the Dante-Sam blended family.

Loved Laura confronting Cyrus, in handcuffs, for "stalking my daughter." GF is awesome to watch when Laura is feeling feisty. Good for her for correctly figuring out WHY Lulu ran away. Anna soooo did not deserve that hug from Laura. 

So Ric doing his job was worse than Natalia being a bigot and Sonny is totally over Natalia being a bigot, how gross!! Hey Sonny, did you hear the part where Natalia feels remorse because her daughter refuses to communicate with her?

Molly using such words as "weaponize" and "savage" toward her father was excellent. Glad she finally realized she has been cruel to her sister. It was very satisfying to watch Molly make her father cry.

I thought Maxie's tears of joy and sorrow with Dante over Sam's death and Lulu waking up was very well played by KSt.  The black wig (explosion! hair) on AH in the re-created scene ER's Lulu had with Maxie looked horrible and fake.

Even the Danny actor venting to Jason and Carly was well done. But as usual, Carly praising Jason as a father is ... tedious at best.

It was really refreshing that most of the scenes today were about the Spencers! It is beautiful that after years of mostly misery for Laura re: her family, she gets to have some joy with Lucky and Lulu and her and Luke's grandchildren!

Tomorrow: Mother-daughter reunion!!! Where is Kevin? Where is Ace?

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 23 hours ago by Bringonthedrama

[Cheyanne11]

33 minutes ago, Bringonthedrama said:

But as usual, Carly praising Jason as a father is ... tedious at best.

When she told Jason and Drew yesterday that they were "both good men and great fathers" I nearly choked with laughter.

[dubbel zout]

I will not miss CD's smug smirk in the opening credits.

Ugh, Noted Bigot Natalia and Sonny need to be off my screen yesterday. She needs to STFU and he needs to be arrested and convicted for Jagger's murder.

FFS, Jason, give your grieving son a hug. He needs that much more than a gentle hand on his shoulder. I did love him telling Carly she'll never find out why he clocked Drew. 

Poor Lucky, having to fill in Lulu about what's been going on. I'm glad they wrote it so that both were measured in their emotions. That was good soap. (It cracked me up when Lulu said, "What now?" when Lucky hesitated after she said she needed to thank Sam.)

[Nique]

Alexa Havins was really good in that scene with her denial disbelief, then finally acceptance,that the myth of the legend rapist deadbeat cheating babykiller father of hers is dead.

Maxie needs to chill and let Dante get in the house, sit down. Still love James and she better apologize to him for accusing him of lying 🤥 

That was a good scene with Dante & Maxie. DZ & KS were good with the underlying subtext of Lulu being alive and the joy they have for it, but the pain of losing Sam who saved Lulu and died shortly after the surgery due to some nefarious person, who they love outweighs that joy of having her back.

I glad Dante/DZ is getting this pov about his feelings and conflicted heart given what he has been through. Maxie was the perfect person for this given she loves both Sam and Lulu & they're her best friends. Thank God, Maxie didn't open her mouth & tell him the truth about what she knew. Otherwise, these Dante & Maxie scenes are really good👏🏾It's being handled with the sensitive and care that current version isn't always capable of. I'm shocked how good they're & that no one, esp Maxie, is pushing Dante back to Lulu

[absnow54]

Congratulations to Dex for getting paid his full salary to play a background extra today. 

[TVbitch]

I don't recall Carly giving a rat's ass about Danny before, but you just know she is now drooling at the possibility of worming her way in as the new mother figure to Jason's kid. 

[GHScorpiosRule]

Oh the scenes with Lucky and Lesley Lu had me in tears! So, so good. I don’t know if my heart will be able to take it when Laura tells her about Bobbie.

GO LAURA! That’s my LauraFucking!Spencer!

[DanaMB]

On 12/2/2024 at 7:22 PM, tessaray said:

I assumed LB was a typo, for JB or JMB. She (thankfully) is much more like Julie Berman than Emme Rylan. (No offense to ER, who I thought was fine on Y&R.) 

I wrote the original post and later edited it. You assumed correctly. Thank you for explaining. 

On 12/2/2024 at 8:37 PM, Desperado said:

I really like this new Lulu and hope the writers will do her justice.

I like her a lot. I’m not familiar with her other work but she’s doing a great job right out of the gate. 

[Sake614]

ER was all kinds of wrong for the role. The writing certainly didn’t help but she was horribly miscast. I didn’t much care for her on Y&R either. So far I’m very happy with AH. 

[driver18]

Alexa Havins is pitch perfect as Lulu already. No notes. Utterly seamless in the role.

[Grinaldi]

Agree with all the Alexa praise. And it's so nice to have her in a part where I can love her unconditionally after respecting her talent but hating her character on AMC.

I've only seen the Laura scenes on YouTube so far but boy did I love no BS angry Laura!

[Bringonthedrama]

3 hours ago, TVbitch said:

I don't recall Carly giving a rat's ass about Danny before, but you just know she is now drooling at the possibility of worming her way in as the new mother figure to Jason's kid. 

I hope to see Danny get closer to his grandmother, Alexis. She understands his pain over losing his mother/her daughter and can empathize with losing a mother as a kid because her mother was murdered when she was a child. It would also be good soap for Alexis and Carly to clash about Carly trying to play substitute mommy, influence Danny regarding Jason's lifestyle and praising him as a father to Danny.

23 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

 I don’t know if my heart will be able to take it when Laura tells her about Bobbie.

I'm wondering about how Lulu will take hearing that her nephew Spencer is presumed dead. I can't recall if ER's Lulu was ever in a non-group/event scene with Aunt Bobbie, but I know she had a relationship with Nikolas and Spencer. Realizing she never got to connect with Spencer when he had grown into a young adult, and now he's "dead," should play out as devastating. 

[Artsda]

Jason suddenly wants to be a father claiming he'll always be here? What a joke. Then Carly who never bothered to say hello to Jake while Jason was dead is going to say Jason is a great father?

Why do they forget Charlotte and Ethan? Lulu didn't even mention his or her name as possible liver donor options. JMB Lulu and Ethan were close. 

Molly should not have let her deadbeat dad into her house.

[sashabear21]

Maybe they should ease Lulu into some of the bad news that happened while she was in a coma (or maybe they just put all the info onto a flash drive and upload it into her memory bank). I did think AH and JJ were very believable as siblings. Also, Anna there's no reason to rush to find Charlotte and bring her back, really. 

 

 

 

[Grinaldi]

I'm sure Lulu doesn't actually believe she is biologically related to Ethan any more than I do.

[jsbt]

I'll get to talking about these eps more later but I will say Alexa has always been rock solid, which is why she stayed an in-demand performer in soaps despite playing a deeply controversial character in a very messy storyline opposite one of the most beloved soap opera legacy heroines in the last 30+ years, and then basically just walking away from the business. She always conveyed heart and layers onscreen no matter the dreck she was often made to spin.

Given her still strong talent it's wild she's been out of the game so long raising her many children with Justin Bruening and by her own admission in recent interviews was all but retired from the industry, but that kind of return from nowhere happens a lot in daytime. I'm just glad the role was available. She gives Lulu a warmth I frankly never got from Julie Berman, which is why I wasn't as harsh on Emme (a mediocre talent, but at least personable) as some people. But unlike either of them Alexa is the whole package. It's a coup and if anything demands a major creative overhaul at this show it's the revitalization of the Spencers. They deserve a much, much better show.

[driver18]

Honestly, part of the reason I'm enjoying AH so much is that it's giving clarity to my reason for never agreeing with those who clamored for the return of JMB. I knew that ER wasn't it, but I also knew there had to be a better option. And, indeed, there was. GH found her in Alexa Havins.

[jsbt]

I always found the rumors that Jennifer Landon (Gwen on ATWT but best known today for Yellowstone) was the Lulu frontrunner suspect - I thought she would be an amazing choice who has become an even better actress, but she is starring in the biggest show on streaming and has built a considerable career outside daytime. I couldn't see why she'd choose to do GH. I also frankly think that while I would've loved JL she is more of an out of the box choice than Alexa in terms of physicality and attitude. While Alexa still has loads of grit, heart and warmth she's less edgy than Landon, and I think the other option might've alienated people who aren't used to that in a soap heroine. It's apples and oranges, they're both very good. But Alexa seems just right.

[jsbt]

1 hour ago, driver18 said:

Honestly, part of the reason I'm enjoying AH so much is that it's giving clarity to my reason for never agreeing with those who clamored for the return of JMB. I knew that ER wasn't it, but I also knew there had to be a better option. And, indeed, there was. GH found her in Alexa Havins.

I never wanted her back either, because I never fully warmed to her in the first place. She was undoubtedly talented but there's a reason her romances didn't fully work, though Lante Mark I was popular. But I put a lot of that down to the longtime writing team dating back to the '90s, to Dominic and to their innate chemistry. They spun things well despite her often being very cold IMO.

I do live in fear though that FV will cut the excellent Finn Carr (Rocco) for a hunk or marginalize him while favoring the greener Danny (who is improving, but needs the counterbalance). Frank did much the same with fellow normal teenager Eddie Alderson on OLTL, giving away his pairing, story and basically cutting him to coma patient recurring when he couldn't gain 15 minute abs and compete physically with the hardbodied Ford twentysomethings. I was very impressed with how well the kid kept pace with Alexa just as he had with Genie a few weeks ago, neither a mean feat. Like Hudson West (who I will continue to defend against allegations of laziness!) he is the real deal.

Here I'm much more into Lulu and Dante than I ever have been before, though I suspect FV will push her hard with Cody for awhile as a spoiler. Which is okay with me as I like JK and Cody, so long as DZ gets his spotlight pairing back eventually. Alexa and Dominic were quite good together. She is nailing the spunk that was always written into the Lulu character without being hardened and smug like Berman too often was for me, which made it impossible for me to invest. Here it's the right tone and temperature.

[YaddaYadda]

8 hours ago, sashabear21 said:

Also, Anna there's no reason to rush to find Charlotte and bring her back, really. 

There is no reason to. Also, Anna, you told Valentin to take Charlotte and get out of town. Maybe you go and find Valentin on your own and leave Jason out of your mess. 

Does she even know that Sam died?

[CeChase]

I agree so much with the above comments about Lulu.  I did not like Emme in the role at all, but it wasn't because I loved JMB.  I really never liked Lulu, and the above posts hit on exactly why.  JMB really was smug and lacked warmth, and Emme was just a mistcast.

Alexa has nailed it.  She is Lulu after one week, and a better one than I've ever seen before.  Amazing really.  

[Daisy]

the GH clip of the day was behind for me so i got to see Molly and TJ going at it. and I am just like. i know you lost your kid TJ but as a doctor you should really know that people just grieve differently. I know a loss of a child is what generally breaks couples apart but it just felt like "why aren't you didn't it exactly like me." and it bothered me so much

[dubbel zout]

1 hour ago, Daisy said:

I know a loss of a child is what generally breaks couples apart but it just felt like "why aren't you didn't it exactly like me." and it bothered me so much

Ever since the baby rabies started, TJ has been written as a supremely selfish jerk, and I have no idea why. This story has been terrible soap on so many levels, and it's taken down too many characters with it. They can't end this soon enough for me, and it'll be just my (bad) luck this is the story where they decide to drag out the followthrough.

[ciarra]

I wondered where TJ would sleep.  At the hospital?  At Curtis' place?   Because the guy has no friends.

I'm still wondering why Carly was hanging around the boathouse, in the dark.  Does she have a tracker on Jason's phone?

[absnow54]

3 minutes ago, ciarra said:

I wondered where TJ would sleep.  At the hospital?  At Curtis' place?   Because the guy has no friends.

His mother’s place? It’s okay. I forget she still exists too. 

[KittenPokerCheater]

Maybe he checked into the Metro Court where Carly will magically show up to counsel on how to save his marriage. 

[YaddaYadda]

26 minutes ago, ciarra said:

I'm still wondering why Carly was hanging around the boathouse, in the dark.  Does she have a tracker on Jason's phone?

She probably does. But two of spawns live on the Q grounds. So you know, she can come and go as she pleases.

[jsbt]

1 hour ago, ciarra said:

I wondered where TJ would sleep.  At the hospital?  At Curtis' place?   Because the guy has no friends.

I'm still wondering why Carly was hanging around the boathouse, in the dark.  Does she have a tracker on Jason's phone?

Uncle Frank says T.J. is on Week 12.5 of his contract cycle and LW is not going to waste a nickel of his guarantee money! She'll be at Deception at 3 AM next!

Edited 57 minutes ago by jsbt

[ciarra]

48 minutes ago, jsbt said:

She'll be at Deception at 3 AM next!

In Maxie's office, providing Sonny and Natalia are done rolling around on the floor in it.