The Cassadines: Cold as Ice (Princess)

[TeeVee329]

Alexis and Helena going to war over Molly's soul does sound super fun.

 

I can't remember, did Alexis get to react on-screen to Helena's "demise"?

Edited September 5, 2014 by TeeVee329

[Chairperson Meow]

I think there was a one off when Nik was recovering from his wounds in the hospital.

[ulkis]

Alexis and Helena going to war over Molly's soul does sound super fun.

 

I can't remember, did Alexis get to react on-screen to Helena's "demise"?

 

Yeah, she said she didn't believe it, that Helena wouldn't stay dead, heh.

[jsbt]

I loved Stefan and Bobbie. I remain convinced the Stefan of 2003 was doped up by Helena on crazy pills.

 

I think Helena is more likely to indoctrinate Spencer these days, turn him into the Bad Seed.

No. Although Stefan did kiss Alexis full on the mouth once . . . but it was a "you're banished from the family, traitor", kiss.

 

It was that, but it was also sort of throwing the whole reason for Alexis's Katherine scheme in her face - the unspoken truth, which was that Alexis had done it all to try and split him and Katherine up because she, his sister/cousin, was in love with her brother. I remember I was pretty shocked that they did it. I don't know if you could get away with that today.

 

This, IIRC, is the introductory scene for Stefan, where Laura - unbeknownst to anyone, I believe - goes to Spoon Island to find him and talk to him about Lulu's illness and need for a donor. They talk around things. This stuff still plays so well, especially since the Cassadines had been gone for over a decade. As a kid I had only the vaguest idea of who they were - I knew they were from Luke and Laura's wild adventurous past, and that they were very bad, and now they were back. Laura had been, for me, up to that point, the earth mother and the world's greatest wife and mom, so for her to have these secrets was something else. I thought the fact that the show was finally getting darker with these very 'safe,' happy characters who I'd been watching planting bulbs and playing with the family dog and so on for a couple years was so cool. And it was cool, and needed at the time. The show needed a change. The creepy, electronic "Cassadines" music they used also still really holds up. This is why I have always felt they can and should do more scary stuff with the Cassadine bloodline.

 

Edited September 5, 2014 by jsbt

[Ambrosefolly]

I think Helena is more likely to indoctrinate Spencer these days, turn him into the Bad Seed.

 

Too late.

Edited September 5, 2014 by Ambrosefolly

[ulkis]

The creepy, electronic "Cassadines" music they used also still really holds up. This is why I have always felt they can and should do more scary stuff with the Cassadine bloodline.

 

I feel like they've always written Nikolas very oddly when it comes to this. As soon as he does something even remotely bad the writing seems to go "oh no, is Nikolas turning eeevil like the other Cassadines?" It's very odd how they can't just let him do bad/ambiguous stuff once in a while without going "oh no is he going full-tilt evil?!"

[jsbt]

I feel like they've always written Nikolas very oddly when it comes to this. As soon as he does something even remotely bad the writing seems to go "oh no, is Nikolas turning eeevil like the other Cassadines?" It's very odd how they can't just let him do bad/ambiguous stuff once in a while without going "oh no is he going full-tilt evil?!"

 

I think a lot of that came out of the later Guza years, when Guza soured on the character and wrote him off entirely like so many others, just stuck him in B or C-plots. I don't think anyone has a handle on him, though. And he is also way too good for the dreck Ron has him playing - befuddled Mr. Mom to Spencer, torn between two women. Tyler looks barely awake most days.

[ulkis]

I think a lot of that came out of the later Guza years, when Guza soured on the character and wrote him off entirely like so many others, just stuck him in B or C-plots. I don't think anyone has a handle on him, though. And he is also way too good for the dreck Ron has him playing - befuddled Mr. Mom to Spencer, torn between two women. Tyler looks barely awake most days.

 

I think it started as soon as Tyler came back in 2003 -  it all played into the corny obstacles that Nik/Em always faced. "Oh no the Cassadine heritage will force Nikolas away from Emilyyyyyyyyyyy."

 

Fucking Nem. What could have been a great couple was written so terribly.

 

Anyway, I found the kiss, it's at 1:22:

 

Edited September 5, 2014 by ulkis

[jsbt]

I think all of that was, on paper, a good idea - Nikolas and Emily, star-crossed lovers who never made a go of it in childhood, with her torn between him and Zander. They had the makings of a supercouple while also having Zander and Emily, who were great and favorites of mine. Even the Stefan angle, him micromanaging them, made sense. It was the execution of it all, from Zander to Stefan and onward, that was so awful.

 

They did darken Nikolas's character again when TC returned, and it was deliberate. He became more of a schemer again, and those were all good things IMO after Coltin Scott's shallow boyband Nik. It just wasn't done right.

Edited September 5, 2014 by jsbt

[Chairperson Meow]

The worst was the look alike ghost bs. I pretend that never happened.

[SlovakPrincess]

That clip illustrates everything that drove me nuts about the Cassadines in the 90s -- the self-seriousness and lack of humor of the characters, Alexis' hair, the convoluted family connections, and most of all the dark sets and dark clothing (at times in that scene, Stefan looks like a floating head).

Much better than the evil campfest the Cassadines are now. But still.

[LeftPhalange]

After everything the Cassadines have done to her family how did Bobbie end up married to one?

[SlovakPrincess]

As I recall, Stefan was the most blameless of the bunch, and was young and had no control over what his family was doing when they abducted Laura. Laura credited him with being kind to her and, I guess, keeping her sane while she was held by Stavros. (Ugh, that whole story is gross).

Eventually, I guess he turned bad, but not when Bobbie liked him in the late 90s.

[TeeVee329]

After everything the Cassadines have done to her family how did Bobbie end up married to one?

 

I don't remember the details, but it was right after she had found out about Tony and Carly's affair and her marriage to Tony ended so that was certainly a factor.

[ulkis]

That clip illustrates everything that drove me nuts about the Cassadines in the 90s -- the self-seriousness and lack of humor of the characters, Alexis' hair, the convoluted family connections, and most of all the dark sets and dark clothing (at times in that scene, Stefan looks like a floating head).

Much better than the evil campfest the Cassadines are now. But still.

 

I think that was mostly Stefan with the lack of humor. But even he had a dry wit. A good scene was where Nikolas and Stefan came down dressed for the first day of his trial and Alexis was all, you people can't wear that funereal clothing and they looked gave each other confused glasses and then Stefan said, "why not overalls and a hard hat while I'm at it?"

 

After everything the Cassadines have done to her family how did Bobbie end up married to one?

 

 

As I recall, Stefan was the most blameless of the bunch, and was young and had no control over what his family was doing when they abducted Laura.

 

 

The only thing the Cassadines had done at that point was kidnap Laura (well, I say only like that's not a big deal, but I just mean it was well before Helena started wreaking havoc on everyone) and Bobbie has always had mixed feelings for Laura anyway. But yeah, Stefan was kind to her, he wasn't responsible for any of the weather or kidnapping stuff, and Luke was running around like a chicken on speed telling everyone how eeeevil the Cassadines were, even though there was Stefan (ostensibly) doing nothing. Bobbie was won over by his love for Nikolas and because Stefan didn't pretend the marriage was about romantic love. He said he liked her, Nikolas liked her, that marriages based on passionate love didn't last and that he thought they could build something stable.

[dubbel zout]

This, IIRC, is the introductory scene for Stefan

That set! We'd never get something that interesting today.

 

I wish Bobbie and Nik had scenes together these days. I really liked their relationship. She was a steadying influence on him and helped him navigate Luke and all that Spencer baggage.

[ulkis]

She did that for Liz too. She'd be a good candidate to slap some sense into them over this romance crap.

[jsbt]

After everything the Cassadines have done to her family how did Bobbie end up married to one?

 

Dude was hot. I could have sworn I remembered Stefan sweeping her off her feet, though, and some hot sex scenes.

 

It took me a long time to warm up to Stefan sans Bobbie, though. I remember hating him at times, until they moved him away from Laura and put him with Chloe. Looking back I think SN and Genie had serious, serious chemistry, but the way they executed it onscreen (after his introduction) was a lot of these awkward, annoying family scenes with dark-ass Stefan trying to have picnics with Laura and baby Lulu. It just didn't work, it squandered their potential. As a kid I was counting the minutes til they finally reunited Luke and Laura, which took forever (and was horribly rushed and unearned). Today I would have given it more of a chance, but I still don't think a lot of their sleepy material worked.

 

The problem with Bobbie today is a) Jackie can barely perform and when she does she acts like a kindergarten teacher, and b) Bobbie is way too easygoing about shit like Franco.

Edited September 5, 2014 by jsbt

[Melgaypet]

 

Dude was hot. I could have sworn I remembered Stefan sweeping her off her feet, though, and some hot sex scenes.

 

Yep. He took her down to the Domincan Republic for a quickie divorce from Tony and they had sex for the first time. I remember it being super-hot.

 

At that time Stefan hadn't done anything to her family, not that Bobbie knew about anyway. He wasn't involved in the '80's Ice Princess freeze-the-world stuff. He was pretty clever and manipulative in how he courted her; not claiming it was true love, making her feel desirable after the humiliation of Tony/Carly, appealing to her maternal instincts with Nikolas. I seem to recall she also married him in part for his money and power, because she was afraid Tony would use her teen hooker past against her in a custody battle over Lucas. He was lying to her pretty much constantly, but I think the story was heading in marriage-of-convenience-turns-into-actual-love direction before it was scrapped for Stefan/Katherine. Ugh.

[ulkis]

Dude was hot. I could have sworn I remembered Stefan sweeping her off her feet, though, and some hot sex scenes.

 

It took me a long time to warm up to Stefan sans Bobbie, though. I remember hating him at times, until they moved him away from Laura and put him with Chloe. Looking back I think SN and Genie had serious, serious chemistry, but the way they executed it onscreen (after his introduction) was a lot of these awkward, annoying family scenes with dark-ass Stefan trying to have picnics with Laura and baby Lulu. It just didn't work, it squandered their potential.

 

Yeah, it was weird, him sitting in the picnic area with his damn suit still on. Also what didn't help later on was a) Genie's bangs, and b) Lucky dying. As Stephen Nichols said, it doesn't exactly encourage a new romance when her son just died. 

[Tiger]

The production values in that Laura/Stefan scene are movie-esque compared to what we have now.  

[Ambrosefolly]

I won't mind the shitty sets so much if we didn't have such crap writing and story telling across the board.

[ulkis]

Stefaaaaaaaaaaaaan is so coming back, although it will probably take another year lol. But today's mention was just way too random. (Although actually it was a very naturalistic piece of dialogue - Nikolas would immediately think of his uncle if someone had merely said "my uncle" and not specified which one, but GH 99% of the time doesn't have dialogue that random without a reason for it.)

[Tiger]

Wasn't the big rumor this time last year that Cartini wanted to bring both SN & GF back together for a story with some story that Laura had been in Europe with an alive Stefan the whole time?  

 

There was that and the still circulating 'Dr. O kept Stefan & Katherine's daughter secretly alive' thing.  

 

Maybe now that the "Luke" story is on hold indefinitely, we will finally get these stories? 

[TeeVee329]

I'm still wondering when the hell Nikolas supposedly became acquainted with Victor before Victor first showed up at Wyndemere earlier this year.

[ulkis]

oh yeah, I was gonna say that either Stefan is showing up or that damned long rumored daughter will finally appear. Gosh I really hope it's Stefan but will probably be said pointless daughter.

[TeeVee329]

I am surprised they didn't include Stefan's name among the frozen Cassadines, at least to give themselves an opening for later.

Edited September 9, 2014 by TeeVee329

[jsbt]

Oh, I firmly believe Stefan is alive. They've been holding on to that for maybe two years and they have been dropping his name almost constantly since TC's return, with only a brief respite until the other day. Ron always holds that shit in reserve until one day he can finally do it. It's a matter of time, assuming Stephen Nichols finally agrees to a recurring paycheck of about tree-fiddy.

 

I know they would've relegated him to the cheap-obstacle-in-a-quad role like Scott to Laura, but I don't care. I want Stefan back and alive.

Edited September 9, 2014 by jsbt

[OnceSane]

 

It's a matter of time, assuming Stephen Nichols finally agrees to a recurring paycheck of about tree-fiddy.

 

If you keep saying stuff like this, I'm gonna fall in love.

 

IA that Stefan will make his return, probably some time in 2015.  I'd rather have him back than any of the other Cassadines.

[dubbel zout]

Stefan is the only Cassadine who isn't a campy joke.

[ulkis]

Well, and Nikolas and Alexis (who I still count as one). Although Alexis does get ridiculous when she does her 50 year old virgin schoolgirl routine about a man

[dubbel zout]

I was going to have a bunch of qualifiers in my post, but decided to keep it simple. So now I'll add them here:

 

If only Alexis would embrace her Cassadine side more. Or at least be more conflicted about it.

 

Nik is a different kind of joke. He's got an annoying son whom he doesn't discipline, and he's a douche when it comes to women. I wish they gave him more to do than ping-pong between Britt and Liz.

Edited September 9, 2014 by dubbel zout

[ulkis]

Yeah, but he's not campy, heh.

[dubbel zout]

Campy Cassadines: Stavros (the undisputed king of the category); Victor, Helena, Spencer.

 

The others don't register much as Cassadines.

Edited September 9, 2014 by dubbel zout

[Tiger]

Does anyone else think that Nina's dad/Madeline's alleged dead husband Mr. Reeves is going to not only turn up alive, but be a Cassadine?

Wasn't there a Tony Cassadine too?

II originallythroughout Victor was going to be revealed as Mr. Reeves, having two-timed the Westborne sisters, but surely Nathan would have recognized the man who raised him.

Edited September 11, 2014 by Tiger

[LegalParrot81]

Does anyone else think that Nina's dad/Madeline's alleged dead husband Mr. Reeves is going to not only turn up alive, but be a Cassadine?

Wasn't there a Tony Cassadine too?

II originallythroughout Victor was going to be revealed as Mr. Reeves, having two-timed the Westborne sisters, but surely Nathan would have recognized the man who raised him.

 

There was indeed a Tony Cassadine.  He was the least diabolical brother.  He was also engaged to Alexandria Quartermaine.

 

Tony and Alex were two of the four victims of Mikko's weather machine.  Luke and Laura found them and another couple frozen solid in Mikkos' giant deep freeze.

Please God, don't let RC thaw him out.  

[jsbt]

I think Victor is Nina's father and that he did two-time both sisters. He doesn't have to be the man who raised Nathan to be the one who fathered him.

[TeeVee329]

I dunno, Victor seems pretty pissed off that he had this child out there he never knew about. I can't imagine him having two.  And he didn't react to Magda/Madeline's name at all when Nathan mentioned it.

 

I do, however, think Papa Reeves will eventually show up alive and he'll be super mega evil (a la Papa Ford on OLTL) in an effort to make Magda and Nina look better by comparison.

Edited September 11, 2014 by TeeVee329

[dubbel zout]

Where is the name Reeves coming from? I haz a befuddlement.

[Tiger]

The allegedly deceased Papa Reeves was Madeline/Magda's husband, Nina's father and the guy who raised Nathan as his son.

The only info they ever revealed about him was that he was uber rich and left everything to Nina in his will.

Edited September 11, 2014 by Tiger

[dubbel zout]

Oh, right. Thanks, Tiger. His mention has been so minimal I completely forgot.

[TeeVee329]

I must admit to some confliction. 

 

I love Helena and Constance Towers and I am enjoying the heck out of Hells being back from the dead, scolding people about their manners, and gunning down goons while impeccably styled.

 

But on the other hand, back when they "killed" off Helena, I did agree with a comment that Ron made in an interview that it was time to "retire" her, shake up the Spencer/Cassadine feud, introduce some new blood into that villainous line, etc.  But here we are again - the less overused Cassadine with possibly interesting story avenues (Victor) is gone and it's just Hells running the show.

Edited September 29, 2014 by TeeVee329

[ulkis]

I agree. I don't mind Hells being alive but if she is going to be I want her to be retired, lol. Just acerbically commenting, maybe giving a nudge here or there towards trouble, but no more super powerful all controlling villain. 

[TeeVee329]

But I do like that Ron has given Helena her fangs back.  She's not just acidly commenting, she's having her daughter (that I'm trying to forget ever existed) killed, she's gunning down goons, etc.  She's not just wasting her quips on Luke and I like that.

 

They should give Hells some kind of protégé, preferably female.

Edited September 29, 2014 by TeeVee329

[Tiger]

Molly!

[dubbel zout]

shake up the Spencer/Cassadine feud

 

Ha! Some shake up. The feud is Luke (and to a lesser extent, Laura) vs. Helena and her various male relatives. It should stop there. As much as I love CT as Helena, the time has come to end this thing. It's been pretty lame for a while now, and Stavros's obsession with Lulu is just plain gross. It's hardly a "feud" when all he does is lech and violate Lulu. And the Victor thing is all plot points to get Dr O and her brood established on the show, not to further any Cassadine agenda.

 

Even if TG comes back fully healed, I don't see him able to do much action stuff, and I don't want to watch endless scenes of Luke and Helena sneering at each other. Zzzzzz.

 

The old guard Cassadines have had their day, IMO. The constant freezing/de-icing is as boring as Sonny and his stupid docks problems. Nothing ever changes.

Edited September 29, 2014 by dubbel zout

[jsbt]

I don't think Helena can be alive without being up to something. They tried it in the Guza years, to have her just float around doing fuck-all for years and it was the worst use possible of the character. Judging by CT's recent comments, she disliked it as well.

 

If they could develop new blood I'd be for it, but I sincerely doubt this team can. I think there are new things to be done with the Cassadines without outright discarding Helena, but I also think things have to change.

Edited September 29, 2014 by jsbt

[TeeVee329]

I'm wondering when Helena had the time to whip up this grand plan for Mr. Morgan considering she's been back from the dead for about five seconds and he's never been on her radar before now.

[jsbt]

This is Helena, she's probably had it on a post-it note since 1999.

[TeeVee329]

True, she's probably got a file cabinet full of evil plans (written on expensive stationary in grand cursive) and she just yanked one out once she was finished defrosting.