Episode Discussion II: The TFGH

[Pingaponga]

3 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

What’s this Pod!Emma’s excuse when up until last year or the last time we saw her-maybe two years ago? She was a basically good character with no issues. Plus, this actress has shown no warmth, but brattiness and rudeness.

The last time we saw her was at Epiphany's funeral, and I'm pretty sure that was less than two years ago. And she was nice and sweet and doing an internship or something at some university.

I don't recognize this Emma. I don't think I have ever seen Emma talking to Anna like this. She and Anna have always been super close.

[statsgirl]

I understand being disappointed that Emma seems to be the bad girl in the current young adult set. But at least it gives the character somewhere to go. Look at Gio, a perfectly nice guy but I'd rather watch paint dry (that's not going to change even if he suddenly becomes the child of Brook Lynn and Dante in an effort to give some life to the most boring couple on the show). Or look at Young Liz, the bad girl to her sister's (Sarah?) goody twoshoes. Or Sarah Brown's Carly, causing trouble but still compelling. Both of those characters remain a significant part of GH launched by their bad girl days.

I can also see a scenario of Emma reacting to her perfect parents' expectations of her as a way to try to chart her own path in life.

Or what @Cheyanne11 said.

Edited Saturday at 08:21 PM by statsgirl

[Melgaypet]

As far as I can remember, Emma previously had no personality whatsoever beyond "blandly sweet." I have no objection to a spikier version - god knows this show could use more of that - but I don't have any faith in this regime. They can't write their existing characters with any nuance or bite, I don't imagine they'll do any better with what is essentially a new character.

[Bringonthedrama]

4 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

I realize I’m alone in my opinion of this Emma I don’t recognize and I’m fine with it.

You may not be alone. But it's the *why* the character is unrecognizable that matters.

4 hours ago, JMO said:

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.

Yes, there needs to be a backstory. I want to know, what's the catalyst for the personality change? Did she have a major fight with her parents, or did something ugly happen between her and her little brother? Was there some kind of argument about Grandpa after he told (I'm assuming by now) Robin that a DNA test supposedly shows he's Sasha's father/she has a sister? 

1 hour ago, Cheyanne11 said:

Emma has literally been on the canvas two episodes.  Not sure why it's expected we already have a detailed history of the last few years of her life.  

You don't need to have a detailed history as soon as nuEmma appears, but you do need hints about why she is in Port Charles/why she has changed. Maybe Anna gets a phone call from Robin, who's upset that Emma left school without a word and they don't know where she is. Or someone in the family overhears Emma having an angry conversation with someone and she mentions Mom wants her to give Grandpa's new spawn a chance or my Dad's angry and I can't deal with him.

[Grinaldi]

I understand the objections to the personality change in Emma. But in a few episodes she's managed to call Joss on her crap and allowed Finola to play something other than weepy guilt over Val and Charlotte. For that alone I am willing to with it.

[YaddaYadda]

I'm fine with Emma being a bit bratty. Her parents are overachievers. Her grandparents spies. She has a lot to live up to and maybe she's going through a rebellion of sorts. 

Just don't turn her into Kristina.

[threebluestars]

If this was back in the day the writers would reveal that Emma was sexually assaulted as a freshman and this is her reaction to what happened. And it would be dealt with seriously and done well.

Alas, this is now and we have the writers we have, so I assume it's just a straight up change in the character for no reason.

[sashabear21]

Well maybe not silver lining, possibly more like stainless steel lining, that if they were adding a "bad girl" to that age group they at least brought back a legacy character and not a new character who becomes someone's heretofore unknown/completely forgotten about daughter, niece, granddaughter, father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate, etc. Or God forbid another effing transplant from Bensonhurst.  

[driver18]

They actually have a great reason to explain why Emma is acting different. The whole Peter debacle. Anna allowed this monster into their lives for way too long, defended him way too long, and Emma thought he was her uncle, allowed herself to care for him. That would cause some trust issues. We saw Emma with Peter, her accepting him, etc. and talk here and there about him connecting long distance with her (unless Im misremembering).

Edited Yest. at 04:28 AM by driver18

[jsbt]

I have always wanted Emma to come back as bad news. She'd be the person everyone least suspects. She probably won't be nearly as bad as I'd like her to be, but this is fine by me so far.

There are enough bland 'good' people populating this show, so I have no issue with mixing it up. Emma is also the product of two largely perfect public paragons (Patrick came a long way, anyway) and the grandchild of two local heroes. That's enough to chafe at.

9 hours ago, Melgaypet said:

As far as I can remember, Emma previously had no personality whatsoever beyond "blandly sweet."

Exactly. It's not like we were dealing with Amber Tamblyn's Emily or Jonathan's Lucky (or even, frankly, Bechtel's Spencer who while constantly obnoxious was a clear blueprint for certain elements of the adult character). Emma as a child was not a fleshed-out character.

Edited Yest. at 06:18 AM by jsbt

[Mirabelle]

Emma was expelled from college, ran away to her grandmother, and  immediately enrolled at another college. As far as rebellion goes, that's pretty tame.

While I was taking a walk this afternoon, I did have a What if? moment that Emma could be working with the WSB and getting expelled from Berkeley and enrolled at PCU (surely at the forefront of all STEM) is part of her cover. The mission is to uncover a mole who is selling secrets. I really, really doubt this is where the story is going but I was momentarily entertained by the idea. 

Also, poor Joss (not really). It looks like she's the lone worker at Kelly's now that Cam has left PC. I wonder if Carly is paying her more than minimum wage. 

[jsbt]

How exactly did Ava lose all her money? I've been watching and I still don't know.

This show is so insanely conflict-averse that they couldn't even stick to Michael returning to his vengeful Q roots for longer than 3 minutes. Now his whole persona is being regretful and moping over his wife. He should've gone full Alan/A.J. on Willow and started working on dropping the roof on Drew and Willow; that's the kind of material Chad is actually still good at. But no, as soon as he completed the Aurora bid he's back to Sad Wife Guy. Ridiculous.

Edited Yest. at 07:18 AM by jsbt

[Desperado]

6 hours ago, jsbt said:

How exactly did Ava lose all her money? I've been watching and I still don't know.

I’ve only seen the restaurant scenes where she originally found out. Some people have talked about her divorce settlement being “overturned”, but I haven’t seen anything and she should still have money even if she had to return the proceeds of the Windermere sale.

Said overturning would never happen IRL and Ava would be on the warpath to recover her money, no matter how she lost it, but on this show, she’s too busy playing friends with Nina.

[tessaray]

4 hours ago, Desperado said:

I’ve only seen the restaurant scenes where she originally found out. Some people have talked about her divorce settlement being “overturned”, but I haven’t seen anything and she should still have money even if she had to return the proceeds of the Windermere sale.

Said overturning would never happen IRL and Ava would be on the warpath to recover her money, no matter how she lost it, but on this show, she’s too busy playing friends with Nina.

What would make more sense is that all her assets were frozen due to Nik going full Cassadine and hiring shady lawyers to get his life and his money  back. But that would take a halfway decent recast and writers who were up to the task. 

Also, doesn't she have any dirty Jerome money stashed away?

Edited Yest. at 06:57 PM by tessaray

[Pingaponga]

Very confused about the Cassadine estate. Who exactly decided that Ace is now the heir and Nicholas no longer has anything? It's not like Nik is in jail for the rest of his life. At some point he'll be released.

[ciarra]

13 hours ago, Mirabelle said:

Also, poor Joss (not really). It looks like she's the lone worker at Kelly's now that Cam has left PC. I wonder if Carly is paying her more than minimum wage.

They made a big deal about Carly hiring a new manager, never to be seen again.  And it will always be Kelly's to me.  (Sorry, JZ, but they should have honored you at GH, not at a diner.)

[dubbel zout]

14 hours ago, Mirabelle said:

I wonder if Carly is paying [Joss] more than minimum wage. 

I wonder if Carly is paying Joss at all. It's not as if Joss needs the cash for expenses.

It's ridiculous that Emma was expelled from Berkeley for throwing a rager. IRL (ha!) she'd be tossed from the dorms and maybe put on some sort of probation. Why not just have Emma decide she wanted to be closer to Anna so she transferred to that bastion of academia PCU without telling her parents. Getting expelled doesn't give her a bad-girl rep, IMO, it makes her look careless and dumb.

[Mirabelle]

It's been 25 years since I've lived in student housing on a college campus but we had resident advisors (RAs) that would have shut down any parties like that. Even the apartment style residence halls had them. If a party had gotten than big and out of hand, the RAs would  have been the ones to get the most blow back for not doing their jobs. A similar situation happened my freshman year and the RAs both got fired and we got new ones. 

[Daisy]

On 12/27/2024 at 4:58 PM, statsgirl said:

It's Berkley, home of hippies and drugs. What could possibly be wild enough to get Emma kicked out?  (I could buy bad grades from slacking off more than partying.)

the clip of the day said because of the party she threw caused a lot of damage that's what got her kicked out

[ciarra]

On 12/27/2024 at 3:58 PM, statsgirl said:

It's Berkley, home of hippies and drugs. What could possibly be wild enough to get Emma kicked out?  (I could buy bad grades from slacking off more than partying.)

Fire sprinklers were set off, which would cause thousands of dollars of damage.  Wall board, electronics, carpets, etc. would have to be replaced.

[JMO]

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.

[jsbt]

8 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

It's ridiculous that Emma was expelled from Berkeley for throwing a rager. IRL (ha!) she'd be tossed from the dorms and maybe put on some sort of probation.

Yeah, some sprinklers would not get Emma expelled.

[driver18]

I was thinking about Emma, and right now I'm laying it more on the take by the new actress. She's playing it too hard, too bratty teen. When you actually take the dialogue, it's not that off of the Emma we know.

Re: Berkeley. Emma said she only invited 10 students to her room. Just 10. That fits Emma. But then bunches of other students kept showing up and she couldn't stop it. It got so out of hand that the sprinklers went off and destroyed thousands of dollars of furniture & stuff. Because the party started in her room. It was her room, the blame was laid at her feet. 

Re: Grilling Sasha. I mentioned Peter before, and it makes sense. A few years ago an adult entered their family, a new child of one of her mother's parents. She got to know him, loved him... and he turned out to be an evil mofo. Of course, she's going to grill Sasha.

Re: Joss. All of the dialogue with Joss fit their history. Again, I just think the actress is playing it too emo bratty. She needs to find that sunny warmth that BS made an essential tenet of the character. Otherwise, she's not Emma. She can be bratty. She can be emo, upset, more layered, but that underlying Emma-ness needs to be found.

[sashabear21]

16 hours ago, Mirabelle said:

It's been 25 years since I've lived in student housing on a college campus but we had resident advisors (RAs) that would have shut down any parties like that. 

My RA in college would buy me booze for my parties. He had a legitimate ID on account that he actually was 21 and I had cash and a car so it was a win win situation! Of course we also had smoking floors and the top floor of the dorm was called Cocaine Alley so probably a much different college experience! 

[dubbel zout]

When I was in college back in the Jurassic Age, the drinking age was 18. Our housefellows (i.e., TAs) were pretty strict about that, and kept an eye on the underaged at all of our dorm parties. But if we wanted to smoke pot in our rooms, they turned a blind eye unless the door was open and there was no way not to see it. They also always said they'd show us how to roll up a towel and put it under the door, LOL. They didn't want to discipline us any more than we wanted to be disciplined, but we had to meet them halfway. Except for the drinking, because for some reason that's what the school really cracked down on.

[Auntie Velvet]

I will say, regarding Emma, that my daughter could have fairly been called a goody-two-shoes in high school, and is certainly a morally upright person now. But -- whew! -- a couple of those college years were pretty wild. 

[rur]

50 minutes ago, Auntie Velvet said:

I will say, regarding Emma, that my daughter could have fairly been called a goody-two-shoes in high school, and is certainly a morally upright person now. But -- whew! -- a couple of those college years were pretty wild. 

Uh (shifts a bit uncomfortably and with some nostalgia)  . . . same here  . . .  so thankful that I was in college when people could only talk about you, not film you on their phone. 

[Bringonthedrama]

It's odd to see Laura, Elizabeth, and Lucky color coordinated in teal and black, although not as glaring obvious since Laura was not in scenes with them. It's clear from his scene with Isaiah that he's very much emotionally invested in Elizabeth.  Ric has great timing. I would have had the same reaction as Elizabeth to the hospital's attorney being there and saying Elizabeth wanting an attorney makes it seems like she has something to hide. Hey Portia, if anyone gets suspended, it should be YOU.

I totally forgot that Sam was Kristina and Lucas' mutual sister. 

Of course Valentin leaves out the part that the reason Charlotte got shot/ "isn't safe" in Port Charles last year was because he didn't warn Anna. His angry/indignant reaction to Dante showing up makes it obvious he's much more concerned about himself getting caught than his daughter's safety. I'm going to guess Charlotte gets hit by shattered glass when the sniper pulls the trigger

It's also odd to see Sonny's suit matching the aqua/teal wall color of Alexis and Diane's office. His suit even matches Kristina's cardigan!

MB looked ridiculous in the boxing ring at the end and "acting" a heart attack or panic attack or whatever that was supposed to be. 

I rather enjoyed Alexis slamming the door in Ava's face, after Ava has been such a petty and insufferable biotch to her for yearssss.

 

[MarciNJ]

On 12/29/2024 at 1:51 AM, Mirabelle said:

Emma was expelled from college, ran away to her grandmother, and  immediately enrolled at another college.

if no one knew she was doing this, I'm wondering who paid the tuition bill?

On 12/29/2024 at 2:13 AM, jsbt said:

How exactly did Ava lose all her money? I've been watching and I still don't know.

They said the Cassadine's "took back" her settlement.  How exactly would one do that?  Also, when Ric's credit card was declined because her check bounced, are we to believe the ONLY money he had was Ava's?

[GHScorpiosRule]

17 minutes ago, MarciNJ said:

Also, when Ric's credit card was declined because her check bounced, are we to believe the ONLY money he had was Ava's?

That had to be the lamest, stoopidest plot point of that dinner scene ever. It's one's debit card linked to their checking account or bank account that would have been declined. Like Ric wouldn't have an Amex or other major credit card he could have used. Since he was saying his card probably was declined because Ava's check bounced.

[dubbel zout]

"She's not letting up on this custody thing, and it's going to be an all-out war." Why is Sonny acting as if he's not the one who initiated the custody thing? That he expects Ava to cave is so gross. 

It's also gross that Alexis is telling Sonny about Ava's financial situation so he can use it to his advantage in the custody fight. That is none of Alexis's concern. If she wants Sonny to take Charlie's away from Kristina, that's a separate matter altogether. And I'm pretty sure the FBI knows about Kristina, even if there's no active investigation or anything.

4 minutes ago, MarciNJ said:

They said the Cassadine's "took back" her settlement.  How exactly would one do that? 

Alexis also said Nik gave away Cassadine money that wasn't his to give away, which makes no sense either. 

I don't care about Charlotte, Valentin, and Lulu as a family.

When Trina was going on about the painting, all I could think of was that someone copied all of that out of Art Appreciation 101.

[nilyank]

So the Cassadine Greek law firm has more power than Nikolas Cassadine?

They introduce a 3rd earlier victim from August. I bet she was part of Cyrus' flock and she left him money.

Bartender? Ugh I wanted Lucky back as a cop or PI.

Kristina was saying all the right things about trying to let go of the idea of Ava killing Irene, but I don't believe her even though it would fit with her flaky, easily distracted personality.

[statsgirl]

I remember the photo that Kristina gave Lucas and how chuffed Julian was that he was allowed to be in it. (I guess I'm glad that they didn't just photoshop nuLucas into it instead of RC.)

It took me a while to figure out how Kristina was connected to Lucas: stepbrother? since Lucas and Sam shared a father.  On a shallow note, I really liked Kristina's clothes.

It was a nice moment when Lucas told her that he and Ava talked about how hard it is to lost a child, and Kristina felt a moment of understanding.

Good for Elizabeth, calling in Ric and not being willing to be intimidated. This was the most I've ever like Ric.

Re Emma:  I was remembering when Anna came on the show, a very grey character with a fake scar there to upset Robert's relationship with Holly. That's not a bad character to copy.

The drinking age when I was in college was 18 (Canada) and the college itself supplied sherry to be served at the debates. I'm not going to be shocked that 20 year old Emma served alcohol in her dorm room, we all did.

On 12/29/2024 at 4:14 PM, dubbel zout said:

 Getting expelled doesn't give her a bad-girl rep, IMO, it makes her look careless and dumb.

This show is so milquetoast about their "good" characters, they can't even take them down an interesting path. See: Michael, Joss ...

17 minutes ago, nilyank said:

So the Cassadine Greek law firm has more power than Nikolas Cassadine?

How long was Nik in control of the Cassadine money? A decade? Two? And only now it occurs to someone that he couldn't do with the money what he wanted to do?

And if he makes a profit in a venture, does he get to keep that or does he have to give it back to the estate?

This is so sloppy.

24 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

It's also gross that Alexis is telling Sonny about Ava's financial situation so he can use it to his advantage in the custody fight. That is none of Alexis's concern.

Doubly gross because Ava is trying to do exactly what Alexis did with Kristina -- keep her child away from her mobster father. In fact, that's what Alexis was talking to Sonny about, asking him to distance himself via Charlie's from Kristina.

That painting over the fireplace  in the Miller & Davis office will never not make me laugh. i wonder i anyone is ever tempted to add some more post-it notes to it.

ETA: I like the idea of Lucky being the bartender at Charlie's. It gives him a reason to interact with a lot of people in Port Charles instead of being stuck in just one or two plots.

Edited 23 minutes ago by statsgirl

[dubbel zout]

12 minutes ago, nilyank said:

Kristina was saying all the right things about trying to let go of the idea of Ava killing Irene, but I don't believe her even though it would fit with her flaky, easily distracted personality.

When Lucas mentioned that Ava was having money problems, Kristina got a "Hmm, maybe I can do something with this" look on her face. She'll probably team up with Alexis to make sure Ava is left destitute.

[ciarra]

I totally forgot that Ava was the one who turned Alexis in, and got her law license revoked.  I thought Alexis was angry over the Ava pushed Kristina trial.

[TVbitch]

Another man dazzled by listening to Trina talk about art. Uh huh.

PS. I've seen an elephant on TV make a better painting. 

[nilyank]

2 minutes ago, TVbitch said:

Another man dazzled by listening to Trina talk about art. Uh huh.

PS. I've seen an elephant on TV make a better painting. 

They are young, attractive people. Why can they just hook up and have some fun rather than dragging us through boring "art" talk.

[dubbel zout]

9 minutes ago, ciarra said:

I thought Alexis was angry over the Ava pushed Kristina trial.

Where did Alexis come down on that? I thought she knew it was a terrible accident, that not even Port Charles's own Madame Mao would deliberately hurt a pregnant woman.

1 minute ago, nilyank said:

They are young, attractive people. Why can they just hook up and have some fun rather than dragging us through boring "art" talk.

Seriously. I really disliked how Trina insisted that QB1 had to analyze the painting. Go to an arcade and play pinball instead. Or whatever the kids do these days.

[nilyank]

2 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

Seriously. I really disliked how Trina insisted that QB1 had to analyze the painting. Go to an arcade and play pinball instead. Or whatever the kids do these days.

Fuck. They go fuck.

[ciarra]

11 minutes ago, TVbitch said:

PS. I've seen an elephant on TV make a better painting. 

Is it as bad as the Christmas bonus painting?  The one painted on a Dollar Store canvas?