Episode Discussion II: The TFGH

[jacourt]

So who was spying on Maxie and austin?  I hope it’s not peter. 

[Daisy]

Just now, jacourt said:

So who was spying on Maxie and austin?  I hope it’s not peter. 

he is most sincerely dead. 

[YaddaYadda]

41 minutes ago, mostlylurking said:

Sam is all bent out of shape at how Spinelli is dressing differently but what about her she’s dressing completely different as well and no one’s giving her the third degree. I will say I like how she’s dressing lately though. Trina is wearing really cute clothes too. 

Sam is in a new relationship and in love, her dressing this way doesn't have people concerned about her. Spinelli looking like Chandler Bing from a 1980 flashback episode of Friends is concerning for the people around him because he just came out of a very long term relationship with Ellie. It's all about optics. 

I don't know how hard it is for Carly to understand that Michael doesn't want anything to do with Sonny. If Sonny had gone to see Michael after he was interrogated by Scotty, then Michael would have bit Sonny's head off.

Honestly, I didn't get much from today's episode, although there was a continuity error with Cody and his denim jacket. 

[Cheyanne11]

10 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

40 minutes ago, VioletMarx said:

There is no universe in which Laura told Spencer while he was growing up to call her Grandmother.

It's not as if Nik ever called Laura "Mom." That sort-of-stilted formality works for me, actually.

Yeah, it's got nothing to do with what Laura told him to call her and everything to do with that formality that's been part of Spencer's personality since he was played by Nicholas Betchel.

[dubbel zout]

16 minutes ago, YaddaYadda said:

he just came out of a very long term relationship with Ellie

Hasn't it been at least a year? I know it wasn't, like, last week.

[YaddaYadda]

2 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

Hasn't it been at least a year? I know it wasn't, like, last week.

Right before Jason was buried IIRC.

Britt is still moping around over a 5 minute relationship. Spinelli has been with Ellie for something like 10 years.

Edited June 14, 2022 by YaddaYadda

[Daisy]

Just now, YaddaYadda said:

Right before Jason was buried IIRC.

yeah about then. so about a year or so. but of course they are spinning it that Ellie was all horrible vs. Spinelli choosing to leave her for the mob. so i don't care. 

[dubbel zout]

...

[YaddaYadda]

10 minutes ago, Daisy said:

yeah about then. so about a year or so. but of course they are spinning it that Ellie was all horrible vs. Spinelli choosing to leave her for the mob. so i don't care. 

Nobody cares.

I don't know why Spinelli is still a thing on the this show. He was even useless at the one thing he's supposed to be good at today.

[Cheyanne11]

8 minutes ago, YaddaYadda said:

I don't know why Spinelli is still a thing on the this show.

Evergreen comment.

[Runningwild]

Is anyone else tired of Violet?

[ciarra]

9 minutes ago, Runningwild said:

Is anyone else tired of Violet?

The kid never complains, is never bad, never asks when mom will be returning.  She's a mini adult. 

[dubbel zout]

Frank must be in love with her lisp. Nicholas Bechtel had one, too, though it wasn't as pronounced.

[statsgirl]

I figure that people are talking about Spinelli's new outfits because there really isn't anything else to talk about re Spinelli other than he developed the matchmaking app and no one is supposed to have figured that out yet.

1 hour ago, mostlylurking said:

I feel like he SAID he was going to give her time but actually didn’t. And as soon as she didn’t show up exactly when she was supposed to he jumped in bed with Nina. Not cool. But still, an upgrade in my opinion.

Both Sonny and Carly were wrong but as Sonny begged Carly for something that he could do to show her that he wanted her back, she kept saying "Give me time", which being Sonny he couldn't do without having something specific that he could act on. It felt like she was enjoying her power of being the Wronged Woman and having Sonny beg for her even though she was about to fulfill all her dreams and hop into bed with Jason when Sonny showed up.

Carly had decided that she wasn't going to go to the boat at all until she ran into Kristina who told her that Sonny had made elaborate plans. Meanwhile, after talking to Carly, Kristina told Sonny that Carly wasn't going to show up, which is what Carly told her, and Sonny slept with Nina thinking that his marriage to Carly was over.

So while Sonny was wrong, Carly manipulated it enough that she got to be more sinned against than sinning.

A person of honour would have tried to make sure that none of her children were hurt, but I've never been able to accuse Carly of being a person of honour.

[YaddaYadda]

1 hour ago, Runningwild said:

Is anyone else tired of Violet?

Me. Since the day she showed up. I can't stand precocious TV children.

[Daisy]

I don't have an issue with violet - i think some of the stuff they make her say is dumb - mostly because a lot of children don't act that way. 

but if i had o choose between violet how she is/written and michael (at any age/form) it will always be violet by a country mile.

[ffwbe]

They write Violet perpetually like she’s 5 when I know she must be older since she’s been on the show for 3 years. It reminds me of a kid on a cartoon, not a TV show. She’s also remarkably well adjusted for someone whose mother disappeared and she was left with a father who she only recently met. I don’t recall her ever even mentioning Hayden and she seemed to immediately replace her with Anna and now Liz. 

[Pingaponga]

2 hours ago, jacourt said:

So who was spying on Maxie and austin?  I hope it’s not peter. 

My guess is Georgie, who was pretty clear at not being a fan of the relationship between her mum and Austin. I think she ditched the sleepover and is keeping an eye on Maxie and Austin.

[Blackie]

1 hour ago, ciarra said:

The kid never complains, is never bad, never asks when mom will be returning.  She's a mini adult. 

And she always seems up for a party!

26 minutes ago, ffwbe said:

They write Violet perpetually like she’s 5 when I know she must be older since she’s been on the show for 3 years. It reminds me of a kid on a cartoon, not a TV show.

I guess it is easy for them to do because she hasn't seemed to have grown or changed a all in 3 years, she is like Maggie Simpson

[rur]

2 hours ago, dubbel zout said:

Frank must be in love with her lisp. Nicholas Bechtel had one, too, though it wasn't as pronounced.

54 minutes ago, ffwbe said:

They write Violet perpetually like she’s 5 when I know she must be older since she’s been on the show for 3 years. 

If the lisp isn't something she's learned to "act", I certainly hope that her parents are making sure she's getting some speech correction. A point is coming pretty soon when the lisp will no longer be cute and its correction will be much more difficult.

[Cheyanne11]

What exactly was the point of those Carly/Sonny scenes other than to have the same argument for the 47th time? 

[YaddaYadda]

6 minutes ago, Cheyanne11 said:

What exactly was the point of those Carly/Sonny scenes other than to have the same argument for the 47th time? 

I think it's supposed to be a final break (for now) with Carly and Sonny. I wouldn't be surprised if Sonny finds out about Willow. I think might be building up toward that.

[TeeVee329]

6 hours ago, Daisy said:

Lmao - "it took us a year to fall in love." How is Carly even alive right now? You were in love with Jason for years, you cow. 

Seriously, it might have taken a year, Carls, but that year was 1996/1997.

It's odd, in the periodic moments when the show breaks up Sonny and Carly or has them at odds, I'm usually on Carly's side of things, even if it's just because I think Laura Wright's the better actor.  It's so weird to be leaning more towards Sonny in their current conflict.

Edited June 15, 2022 by TeeVee329

[ffwbe]

45 minutes ago, TeeVee329 said:

Seriously, it might have taken a year, Carls, but that year was 1996/1997.

It's odd, in the periodic moments when the show breaks up Sonny and Carly or has them at odds, I'm usually on Carly's side of things, even if it's just because I think Laura Wright's the better actor.  It's so weird to be leaning more towards Sonny in their current conflict.

I think Carly’s laser focus on Nina and the Sonny/Nina relationship is contributing to that. Sonny has pretty much moved on by now and he only brings up his issues with Michael. Carly hasn’t been doing much lately except obsessing over Nina and occasionally getting thrown into a SL that has nothing to do with her. Like even if she was the true wronged party (and there’s some debate to that being true), it just makes her look petty and bitter that she can’t move on from this and has a meltdown every time she sees them together. While I’m not a fan of Carly, I know a few people that are and they hate that they haven’t moved her out of Sonny/Nina’s orbit and given her a storyline of her own. 

[statsgirl]

2 hours ago, ffwbe said:

They write Violet perpetually like she’s 5 when I know she must be older since she’s been on the show for 3 years. I

The actress is now 8, the age Charlotte and Aiden were when there was the Nina/Willow school conflict.

3 minutes ago, ffwbe said:

that they haven’t moved her out of Sonny/Nina’s orbit and given her a storyline of her own. 

I wonder if it's because they want to keep her free to be involved in everyone else's story from Spinelli to Olivia to this ELQ nonsense. They didn't even give her the mob queen storyline last year when Sonny was gone.

[Auntie Velvet]

Talk about being petty while Rome burns! Carly makes one passing mention of Michael maybe putting himself in danger by undercutting Sonny -- but then goes right back to her main hobby of blaming Nina for everything under the sun.

It's especially stupid because, as we keep mentioning, protecting their loved ones during the Sonny vacuum was the whole reason she and Jason were "forced" to marry in the first place.

[TVbitch]

Whoo boy, I was wearing out my FF today: a Spin story, Cody spying on Spin, Cody still trying to talk Britt into a frivolous law suit, more camping with Wyatt, Cam's Title IX angst, Finn's angst over Cam's angst, and I'm sorry, but too soon for another Maxie story for me. This summer is gonna be brutal.  

[KayVeeTeeVee]

16 hours ago, Cheyanne11 said:

But Sonny was only gone 9 months, so...new math?  Also, shut up, Shrew.

And Nina was only in Nixon Falls for SIX months.  Also, shut up, Shrew!

[sacrebleu]

I find it strange that the entire reason Carly and Jason had to marry was that, as Sonny's widow, Carly was a liability, but somehow, she is not a liability as his ex-wife!?!?

Carly even suggested that Michael could be a target because he wanted to break ties with Sonny, but Carly divorcing Sonny is inexplicably not considered breaking ties with Sonny? 

[dubbel zout]

5 minutes ago, sacrebleu said:

I find it strange that the entire reason Carly and Jason had to marry was that, as Sonny's widow, Carly was a liability, but somehow, she is not a liability as his ex-wife!?!?

I think there was a fear that Carly would try to usurp power from Jason if they weren't married, which is its own level of stupid. Sonny is around now, and he ostensibly is back in charge, so Carly isn't a threat. (No one seems to think she'll challenge Sonny for power.)

It's all dumb and misogynistic.

[YaddaYadda]

20 minutes ago, sacrebleu said:

Carly even suggested that Michael could be a target because he wanted to break ties with Sonny, but Carly divorcing Sonny is inexplicably not considered breaking ties with Sonny? 

That's because they wanted a contrived reason for Sonny and Carly to get married.

[KittyQ]

Yesterday: Carly is blaming Sonny for not "doing something" when Michael was "unfairly" painted as being a jerk to women (actually, it doesn't really need that modifier - he's been a jerk all up). As Sonny pointed out, they were in court, what should he have done? Answer: go to Michael to find out how he is. After all, "the man I married five times" would have done it! Kudos to the actress for saying that line without laughing. I know I laughed. 

[Katy M]

8 minutes ago, KittyQ said:

After all, "the man I married five times" would have done it! Kudos to the actress for saying that line without laughing. I know I laughed. 

Did she really say that?  That is hilarious. I don't even know how she can keep count.

[KittyQ]

1 minute ago, Katy M said:

Did she really say that?  That is hilarious. I don't even know how she can keep count.

That's what I heard. It struck me as an odd reference to their on-again / off-again, multiple marriage relationship, but I guess they couldn't credibly say something that sounded like a single long-term marriage. 

[Daisy]

5 minutes ago, KittyQ said:

That's what I heard. It struck me as an odd reference to their on-again / off-again, multiple marriage relationship, but I guess they couldn't credibly say something that sounded like a single long-term marriage. 

yeah she said it. I cracked up hard.

in regards to Carly being a liability - well she isn't now.  before the issue was that she wouldn't be protected by spousal law privileges (the same BS Willow tried to pull at the NF hearing) and that she would squeal to the feds. there were also two+ other people who would have happily murdered Carly. but now there's just Ms Woo who is working with Snny so who is going to murder her off? (sadly). 

[ffwbe]

51 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:

I think there was a fear that Carly would try to usurp power from Jason if they weren't married, which is its own level of stupid. Sonny is around now, and he ostensibly is back in charge, so Carly isn't a threat. (No one seems to think she'll challenge Sonny for power.)

It's all dumb and misogynistic.

They needed a pp for Jason/Carly. She and Sonny have been divorced multiple times and she’s been involved with a couple of his mob enemies and somehow this was never an issue. Part of me is surprised that LW didn’t complain about the way they wrote it because they gave her a moment leading the mob and then later said that no one took her seriously but at the same time, Jason/Carly has always been a dream SL for her for some reason so I think they were throwing her a bone. Why, I don’t know, because their romantic/couple scenes were painful to watch and she left Twitter for the duration of that SL because she got tired of the negative comments about them. 

[Bazinga]

The concept was that after Carly stepped in for Jason and met with the other families because Jason was in prison for killing Franco, once Jason was released he had to eliminate Carly or else it would show weakness to the other families and make them vulnerable.  So they had to pretend they were falling in love and then getting married, which would be seen as permissible for Jason and Carly to co-exist and run the Corinthos mob family.  Or, this was an excuse to have Jason and Carly fall in love for a reason beyond their control, so they cannot be blamed for doing so.  I never understood the reasoning; why were Sonny and Jason allowed to happily co-exist and Carly and Jason not allowed to co-exist? 

[Asp Burger]

"The man I married five times" was unintentional comedy gold. And it's, unfortunately, on brand for Carly. She lacks the awareness to connect the easy dots: you had to keep marrying him again and again because why?

Admittedly, some of those may have been those "vow renewals" soaps do when they have no idea what else to write for a stagnant couple.

Okay, I just did the research. I got six. Twice to the Sarah Brown version (one a renewal of vows), once to the Tamara Braun version (a renewal of vows), three times to the Laura Wright version (one a renewal of vows). Three official divorces. Two more times when it seems like they got divorced, because they were separated and there were lawyers and they kept talking about it, but they ultimately threw out the papers or didn't sign them or whatever. 

Edited June 15, 2022 by Asp Burger

[KittyQ]

3 minutes ago, Bazinga said:

The concept was that after Carly stepped in for Jason and met with the other families because Jason was in prison for killing Franco, once Jason was released he had to eliminate Carly or else it would show weakness to the other families and make them vulnerable.  So they had to pretend they were falling in love and then getting married, which would be seen as permissible for Jason and Carly to co-exist and run the Corinthos mob family.  Or, this was an excuse to have Jason and Carly fall in love for a reason beyond their control, so they cannot be blamed for doing so.  I never understood the reasoning; why were Sonny and Jason allowed to happily co-exist and Carly and Jason not allowed to co-exist? 

My emphasis added above. 

The simple answer: sexism. Mobs (even on TV) aren't especially concerned with equal opportunity. 

[Bazinga]

18 minutes ago, KittyQ said:

The simple answer: sexism. Mobs (even on TV) aren't especially concerned with equal opportunity. 

Maybe, but the concept doesn't make any sense male or female.  Carly couldn't just step back and allow Jason to run the family on his own without the need for Jason to kill her off?  As long as Carly was not exerting power and making a move to take over the family, why would the other families see her still existing as weakness?  Same sort of idea as Carly/Michael not wanting Nina to continue to exist and that Sonny needed to kill her off to show he was still the man they knew and respected.  Both of these ideas are stupid and convoluted plot points.

Edited June 15, 2022 by Bazinga

[Daisy]

La Melos? lol 

LMAO "Did this kiss happen because you had a fight with your ex wife?" hahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahhahahahahhahahahahhaha. 

Also you slept with Sonny because he had a fight with his current wife. so shut up Nina. 

Joss's "OMG faces were hilarious." she is so stupid. 

[statsgirl]

I'm glad for Dante's sake that Sam is so interested in Dante's childhood reminiscences but I find it all incredibly boring. "Cody has a heart of gold" cut to Cody blackmailing Spinelli.

I really hope that Trina is Taggart's daughter after all because she's smarter than Portia and Curtis put together. But wow that bar fight was stupid. Also, now that Trina knows, couldn't she and Joss just identify the guy to Jordan so that she can get him to identify the photo of Esme?

Campfire songs have really changed since my day. Why are a group of tween boys singing about love?

Ooooh, Austin has a sekrit. It's about time.

I hate that I'm saying this but Sonny and Nina are actually sweet together. Bonus that she calls him on the BS.

1 hour ago, Bazinga said:

Both of these ideas are stupid and convoluted plot points.

The trope of a couple forced to pretend to be in a relationship and falling for each other is an old and much-used trope and they wanted to dabble in it. But this show .... Jason can't be held to be at fault so he may have felt badly at leaving Britt, he may ave made yearning eyes at Carly for a few minutes to up the tension preparing for Sony's return, but in the end, Jason stepped back as soon as Sonny showed up.

It would have been a better story to address Carly's decades long yearning for Jason. It's not like everyone hasn't seen it.

[LexieLily]

Why is the show insisting that Finn/Liz were some kind of committed relationship where he needs to bond with her children (and the children's grandmother is encouraging this) when they went on two dates and were casual friends/new relationship status at best? 

[funnygirl]

40 minutes ago, statsgirl said:

I hate that I'm saying this but Sonny and Nina are actually sweet together. Bonus that she calls him on the BS.

I like Sonny and Nina together. 

And that it gets under both Carly and Michael's skin is a bonus. lol

Edited June 15, 2022 by funnygirl

[YaddaYadda]

Airing of grievances.

The show has managed to make BL and Chase completely uninteresting. So congratulations on a job well done!

Secret backroom poker game that Cody knows about apparently? 

I don't even know what to say about the bar fight. Give the men cowboy hats and have them drinking sarsaparilla while some dude pays the piano. 

No Carly, no Michael. Oh happy day! But the writers are just burning a lot of goodwill. The show is boring AF. There are so many storyline threads dangling and twisting in the wind. And now Austin has a secret too. So, yeah. 

[Daisy]

24 minutes ago, statsgirl said:

It would have been a better story to address Carly's decades long yearning for Jason. It's not like everyone hasn't seen it.

honestly it would have been so much better if - had they just had a tender moment by the fire and talked. She's crying about Sonny, and then she admits if she's being realistic - she's not as sad as she should be because Jason is there He's always there. She's sad that the kids won't have their father, but at least she has Jason. 

Jason says he'll never leave her side and then Carly asks him if she never slept with Sonny that one time would they have been together. Jason goes let's not go into the past tonight. Carly goes, no i thin we really just need to lay it all on the open. I loved you Jason, and I was dumb. but like. you never make a move and I really wish you had. 

they just talk through the night. moments (sexytimes) happen, and move on from there.

23 minutes ago, LexieLily said:

Why is the show insisting that Finn/Liz were some kind of committed relationship where he needs to bond with her children (and the children's grandmother is encouraging this) when they went on two dates and were casual friends/new relationship status at best? 

at the end of the day - even if they weren't in a committed relationship - Violet + the boys are cousins, which makes Finn a quasi-uncle of sorts.  so i'd argue he'd want to bond/have a relationship with them regardless  for that score. 

and considering that their actual uncle gives zero poops about them and we don't have Lucky.... shrug

[GHScorpiosRule]

16 minutes ago, Daisy said:

Jason says he'll never leave her side and then Carly asks him if she never slept with Sonny that one time would they have been together.

In a word? No. That beast tried to start up their sexual relationship before she boinked Mooby. And he cut her off, saying having sex with her always led to them fighting, and he was done with that. This was shortly before he and Robin got back together and made love, finally. Until it all imploded again.

So that revisionist BULLSHIT of Jason having feewings for SheBeast was just fucking insulting and offensive. ROBIN is the one Jason has history with. And it was THEIR bridge.

These stupid hacks think viewers like me, who watched back then, don't remember. We do. At least THIS viewer does.

Wow. I'm still bitter.

[Daisy]

2 minutes ago, GHScorpiosRule said:

In a word? No. That beast tried to start up their sexual relationship before she boinked Mooby. And he cut her off, saying having sex with her always led to them fighting, and he was done with that. This was shortly before he and Robin got back together and made love, finally. Until it all imploded again.

So that revisionist BULLSHIT of Jason having feewings for SheBeast was just fucking insulting and offensive. ROBIN is the one Jason has history with. And it was THEIR bridge.

These stupid hacks think viewers like me, who watched back then, don't remember. We do. At least THIS viewer does.

Wow. I'm still bitter.

Oh i know all of that
but they were clearly rewriting crap so that would/could have worked better than Carly lying how she never loved Jason until then + forcing the stupid marriage thing

[CharethCutestory]

The camping scene wouldn't bother me so much, and I could justify Finn and his dad wanting to do something nice to cheer up the boys, if they hadn't skipped over Liz saying goodbye to Jake and Aiden. She can't get a goodbye scene with all of her sons before heading to SB for who knows how long, but there's a multi episode camping trip with Finn, Finn's dad, Violet, Maxie, Austin and a day player. Frank's priorities are abundantly clear.

[perkie1968]

This whole in the woods thing makes no sense whatsoever. Why are "doctor" Austin and "executive" Maxie suddenly camp counselors? Maxie mentioned Georgie but she was nowhere to be seen, so were they out there with Georgie, who was wearing her invisibility cloak? And then we have Wyatt and Aiden in scout outfits, and I'm confused as to who is who and why Wyatt is even there. Today added a smidge of sense wtih the arrival of whoever was meeting Austin but I could not wrap my head around any of it.

Dante breaks up the argument between Cody and Zelda and sends Cody away. Does Cody not have a legitimate beef, in that he was hired to do a job for a fee and Zelda isn't paying him the full amount he is owed? And then Dante questions why Cody is money hungry. The f*ck? Bitch owes him his paycheck, all of it, not just whatever she's now decided she's going to pay him. So stupid.  And now I'm supposed to think Cody is a bad man because he's blackmailing Spinelli for the money he is rightfully owed??  also, is the blackmail because Spin is the owner of the dating app, because that's just stupid.  

And if I hear one more time, by either Carly or Willow, how poor Michael was attacked on the stand, when A), they attacked Nina first and B) no one attacked him, all they did was ask about his own violent past. It was Scotty's literal job to throw MIchael under the bus on the stand. UGGGHHHHH.