Current Plots Discussion: Actually Today's Episode

[Maelstrom]

Do you have the link?  I did a quick Google search and there's a million links about Sami/Alison, but nothing that stood out as a new interview.

Haven't seen the article. Do you have a link?  So should we assume she did not know what the plot/script would be when she signed on to come back for the 50th? How does that work when actors only come back temporarily? Do they know what's in store for their character?

 

If anyone's still looking for it, here it is:

Ali Sweeney interview

(headline is spoilery, I'm erring on the side of caution)

 

ETA - Billy Flynn's Twitter feed is hilarious

Edited October 9, 2015 by Maelstrom

[Paron Xanthis]

Is Gabi back short term or long term?

Long-term.  Camila Banus signed on for at least a year.

[callmebetty]

I forgot to comment on how fabulous James Read was yesterday -- he can play creepy and dangerous, that's for sure. I ran into him (almost physically, lol) at LAX last spring and he was looking quite serious then, too. And very, very tall. Come to think of it, that sighting was probably right around the time they filmed these scenes.

I can't even describe how extremely jealous I am of you. I've been in love with James Read for the past 30 years. I think he is a good actor and know he would of been a worthy long time villain if the writing had been better.

[ShadowSixx]

Haven't seen the article. Do you have a link?  So should we assume she did not know what the plot/script would be when she signed on to come back for the 50th? How does that work when actors only come back temporarily? Do they know what's in store for their character? 

 

I posted the link in the spoiler thread :)

Edited October 9, 2015 by ShadowSixx

[Paron Xanthis]

So was today it for Clyde?  Or does James Read still have longer to go before Clyde's gone?

[boes]

So Will says "Abigail, you need to put yourself first!".  Ummmmm, exactly when she has she done anything else??

 

Next are we going to hear somebody say "Abigail, she just loves too much".  

 

Yeah, and unicorns fart Days scripts.

 

So Will is going to wait around for THE CABLE GUY??

 

Best new Days Supercouple - Andre and Chad.  Those two are not only great in character, the two actors look like they're having a hell of a good time together too.

 

JJ and Ollie Ben trying to fight each other looked a lot more like this 

 

 

than this

 

 

 

Oh yeah, I'm going to check to see if I have a fever, but Abigail wasn't as horrible as usual in her scenes with Chad.  And that's as nice as I'm gonna get about her.

Edited October 9, 2015 by boes

[Lastwaltz]

I can't even describe how extremely jealous I am of you. I've been in love with James Read for the past 30 years. I think he is a good actor and know he would of been a worthy long time villain if the writing had been better.

Oh you would have died, lol. He is a big strapping man and was very, very handsome, of course. I have a habit of walking with my head lowered, so I literally almost walked into him, saving myself at the last minute. 

[shesajar]

JJ and Ollie Ben trying to fight each other looked a lot more like this 

 

 

I skimmed the forum before I saw the show, and was pleased to see that yes, this is exactly how it happened. I'd have paid really good money if JJ would've yelled out "Make yourself a dang quesadilla!" or mumbled something about chapstick, but this was good enough.

In days of yore (like a month ago), this kind of unintentional humor would have been the highlight of the episode, but damn, if Show's not hitting a stride. Even without Nicole, I am paying attention. I like the story, I like the darkness (not the literal darkness, the noir look they're going for isn't working), I like Chad and Abby (which, what?), I like the Dimera secret passageways.Even Will took some, however overdue, responsibility (he was probably just doped up on cold meds and didn't know what he was doing). But most of all? I love (LOVE) Chad and Andre, which is not something I ever could have imagined.

I just hope that they can keep things up at this pace, and that the concurrent stories are as interesting. The other main things I'm interested in all involve my sentimental favorites, but I'm hoping that that's not the only thing that will make me want to watch.

[kitmerlot1213]

My GOD, but when did Days turn into the ID Channel?!  That was one violent death scene and I can't get over how deliberate Ben was about the whole thing--he's angry that Abby is believing her own brother so he decides to take that anger out on Will.  The minute Will tried to make a run for it, I knew his death was going to be horrible.

 

Ben grabbed Will, threw him to the ground and then stood over him, contemplating what he was going to do, all the while holding the red tie and kneading it in his hands--Ben just glided past Clyde in the creepy department. He could have let Will go and made a run for it or he even could have brazened it out because all Will had was suspicion that Ben's was the killer but then Ben just lost it.

 

And did we really need to see Will's death from his own viewpoint, what with seeing Ben's enraged face and then Will's vision getting blurry and then going dark?  Are the directors going for an Emmy with the arty camera work?

 

Damn, but that was intense.

Edited October 9, 2015 by kitmerlot1213

[Peanut6711]

So I don't know about anyone else but if I was alone in the same room with a necktie serial killer and I had said red necktie in my hands, I would not give it back to said killer. Me thinks I would exclaim it the most gorgeous tie I'd ever seen, say thanks for letting me have it, and get the hell out of there! But then maybe that's just my survival instincts talking ;-)

[TeeVee329]

The whole set-up was so lame.  Will has to wait around in Abigail's place for the cable guy?  He found the tie because he was bored and playing trash can hoops?  So silly.

 

I mean, Will is a terrible fictional journalist, but him having decide Chad was innocent and investigating and that's how he stumbled across Ben's secret would at least given him some agency.

Edited October 9, 2015 by TeeVee329

[Apprentice79]

This was horrible..What were they thinking? Shame on you Ken Corday! It was sadistic and it turned Ben on to the point that he had sex with Abigail, after leaving Will's dead body at home...I feel like I just watched an episode of Criminal minds..This was too intense for Daytime....It reminded me of Frankie's death on Another World many moons ago.....Poor Lumi, Sonny, Marlena and Kate are going to be out of their minds with grief...

[Peanut6711]

The whole set-up was so lame.  Will has to wait around in Abigail's place for the cable guy?  He found the tie because he was bored and playing trash can hoops?  So silly.

 

I mean, Will is a terrible fictional journalist, but him having decide Chad was innocent and investigating and that's how he stumbled across Ben's secret would at least given him some agency.

Having Will discover it through some kind of investigative reporting would have been much better.  While the scene was acted well by Ben (and I've said that like...never), it did nothing for Will's character. He gave away what he knew and didn't take the outs he had. When Ben mentioned Abby listening to the wrong people, Will should have jumped at the chance to offer to talk to her and go then, before he claimed he had a deadline that he had to work on while at the same time offering to go somewhere else to talk.  I couldn't help but wonder how much better CM would have done if he was still playing Will.  They certainly dumbed Will down when the actors changed. 

[Apprentice79]

To be fair, Will became an idiot, when he became a blond..Mophead Will was a computer genius who liked photography and was very athletic...

Edited October 9, 2015 by Apprentice79

[howmanywords]

I'm not even a Will fan and I feel like I got punched in the gut watching that. Yep Frankie on AW being strangled to death and pleading for her life was exactly what that reminded me of. So disturbing.

[lilly6]

I've surely had my issues with Will but that was gruesome and horrible.

 

Though I'm pretty sure I saw Guy Wilson move the tiniest little bit when he was supposed to be dead on the floor of his apartment, so that helped a little.

 

But still...not good.  And I'd finally gotten used to not seeing Freddie Smith's pretty face and now Sonny has to come back and grieve over Will.  Ack.

Edited October 9, 2015 by lilly6

[backhometome]

I stopped watching after Chandler left but sucks that they killed Will off. He was such a legacy character. 

[jlrd2000]

I'm right there with you all. This was a crap ending for the character of Will. Marlena struggled more during her attack and so did Paige and Serena. Just having will there for the cable guy was senseless. Having him there and discovering that Ben was the killer would have been more fitting.

I am still convinced that Ben did not attack Marlena. We watched him out of breath after dealing with Will's body today. After Marlena's attack and struggle, he was not out of breath. Clyde was! Clyde knew that Marlena was seeing Chad as a therapist, but I'm not sure that Ben did.

Now, let's bring on the hell and fury of Sami!!!!

[LeftPhalange]

So they killed off a legacy character that has driven 20 years worth of story (either directly or indirectly) for momentary shock and awe in the service of the lamest serial killer story I've ever seen. I mean really, this whole story line is garbage. It's like they realized the first two victims were forgettable so they chose Will for whatever reason to make this thing seem SHOCKING. If you're going to kill off a legacy character with ties to everyone on canvas at least have the decency to tell a good story before and after the murder. After Sonny left Will was basically forgotten about until they brought him down from the attic to kill him off. Will's death is just a plot point to give other characters something to react to.

Edited October 9, 2015 by LeftPhalange

[roomtorome]

Decided I'm not going to watch this today - don't need to see another death - they really have been so graphic.  I guess they feel they have to catch up the rest of tv that can't stop having horribly violent scenes in practically every show now.  

 

I'll pass on today's episode and hope there aren't too many flash backs to this thing - Gosh, so Ben got horny after??  Yikes.

 

So - Ben knows what he's doing or he doesn't?  

[DisneyBoy]

It's so nice to hear that you guys also remember poor Frankie. The Another World message board is so, well... dead for lack of a better word. You guys should go over there and reminisce a bit with the rest of us. I miss that show something fierce!

But yes...that was very graphic today. I happened to turn on the television just as the attack was winding down, and with the television on mute couldn't hear what Ben was saying to Will, if anything. Can someone please recap the dialogue?

It says a lot about the producer's feelings towards the character of Will, as well as their perception of the audience's feelings, that they gave him such a lame death. They must have felt he was pointless and expendable.

For a second there, I almost thought the inclusion of the wedding photograph had been pre-planned back when the character was recast. That maybe they wanted Guy there at the wedding so they could intentionally flashback to the ceremony once Will was dead a year or so later. Then I remembered that this murder was part of the new regime and their plan.

While I don't entirely approve of everything the new regime is doing, this is probably the first time where I'm actually curious about what would have become of a character had the old writers continued with their original plan. We probably would have just seen more of Paul and Sonny and the confusing love triangle, though. Maybe this was more merciful in a way...

If they milk the heck out of Sami and Lucas and Kate and Marlena's grief however, and I suspect they will, I'm going to be pissed. Will was kind of a groundbreaking character and this show should be respecting that on the 50th anniversary, not using it for melodrama and cutting the character's journey short.

I don't really care anymore that the actor playing Ben suddenly has more dynamic material. The fact that he was growing close to his rapist father who also deals drugs and killed off other two main characters should have been enough to make been interesting.

Ben should have just suffered a heart attack upon learning his father's secrets and died immediately, sparing Serena, Paige and Will.

Edited October 9, 2015 by DisneyBoy

[shesajar]

But Will's been a plot point all of his life. That's been my main problem with his character, and why I don't care that he's dead. For a legacy kid, he really has nothing going for him; he's a really boring character. It's always been about Sami, Lucas, and Kate, so I don't expect his death to be about anything else.

[Apprentice79]

I want Kate to suffer too for bringing the damn Westons in town, Kate loved Will something fierce, she was willing to kill Sami to get custody of him....Her inappropriate interest in Rafe provoked all of this terror in Salem..I hope that the show does not forget that fact....Tomsell have said that it was Ken Corday's idea to give Will a personality transplant....

But Will's been a plot point all of his life. That's been my main problem with his character, and why I don't care that he's dead. For a legacy kid, he really has nothing going for him; he's a really boring character. It's always been about Sami, Lucas, and Kate, so I don't expect his death to be about anything else.

All of the legacy children are...Sonny who is beloved was also plot point for Jack Devereaux...He was named after Jack...

Edited October 9, 2015 by Apprentice79

[shesajar]

 

All of the legacy children are...Sonny who is beloved was also plot point for Jack Devereaux...He was named after Jack...

But others have their own stories, develop personalities, and their stories aren't almost entirely about how other people react to them.  Shawn D, Belle, Philip, even JJ and Abby, are characters that don't exist almost solely to give their parents a story. Will was terribly developed in that way. Anything, aside from relief that I won't have to listen to him whine anymore, that I feel about his death is for his family. That shouldn't be the case for a character we've seen grow up on the show.

[TeeVee329]

Will was kind of a groundbreaking character.

 

Can I ask - I've seen this mentioned before, but...what makes Will himself groundbreaking?  The marriage to Sonny yes, as it was the first same-sex marriage between two leading male characters in daytime (Bianca and the horrible Reese on AMC had the first same-sex marriage period).  But beyond that?  Will wasn't daytime's first gay character.  He wasn't the first legacy kid to come out (Bianca, then Luke).  He wasn't even Day's first gay character because that's Sonny.  Am I missing something?

After Sonny left Will was basically forgotten about until they brought him down from the attic to kill him off. Will's death is just a plot point to give other characters something to react to.

 

I totally agree with that.  And because the two characters whose grief the audience will invest in the most - Sami and Sonny - are only guesting, they're not sticking around for a while, I feel like the drama isn't going to be there in the aftermath either.  We'll probably hear a lot of whining from Abigail instead.

Edited October 9, 2015 by TeeVee329

[Apprentice79]

I think the show telegraphed that Will was gay since he was with Mia, when  he could not or would not sleep with her...That was before Sonny was on the show..Mia wanted Will so bad and was practically begging for it and Will was so disinterested...People started saying that he was and then the show recasted Will with Chandler..and the rest is history...

 

Will is the only legacy child that actually grew up on the show...He was born on November 1995..He was aged only by 2 years...It is why people say that he is iconic...

Edited October 9, 2015 by Apprentice79

[Peanut6711]

So - Ben knows what he's doing or he doesn't?  

After today's episode I would say he does. He seemed pretty with it to me. He always knew who he was and who Will was and he seemed to know exactly what he was doing.

[Apprentice79]

I also think that he enjoyed killing another human being...It turned him on for sex...I think he has a dark past in Miami...Jordan needs to come back and I would like to see her reaction...I hate it that nobody knows what he did to her...

[TeeVee329]

I think the show telegraphed that Will was gay since he was with Mia, when  he could not or would not sleep with her...That was before Sonny was on the show..Mia wanted Will so bad and was practically begging for it and Will was so disinterested...People started saying that he was and then the show recasted Will with Chandler..and the rest is history...

 

Will is the only legacy child that actually grew up on the show...He was born on November 1995..He was aged only by 2 years...It is why people say that he is iconic...

 

...but again, Will's the not first legacy child to come out (Bianca really set the bar there and, if OLTL had their way back in the Billy Douglas day, it would have been Joey Buchanan).  That in and of itself doesn't make him groundbreaking.

 

And I get what you're saying, but I feel like a case where the child actually grows into the role without a recast (thinking Robin on GH or Starr on OLTL) is more iconic than Will who's been recast several times.

[buffynut]

Knowing what was going to happen to Will today, only having watched the character for a year, and not even liking him, that was still really, really hard to watch.  And I hated that instead of going to a commercial, they went to the next scene with JJ & Gabi like everything was normal.  Did they not realize how traumatizing the murder would be for the viewers watching.  Or was it only me who was unable to focus or care about whatever JJ & Gabi were yapping about?

[Apprentice79]

He has been recast several times but he has been present on the show  and always involved in a storyline...Except for when he was sent to Switzerland by Lucas after trying to kill EJ.. I think the fact that Will was always used as a weapon by his parents against each other has always affected the character's writing by different regimes...

Edited October 9, 2015 by Apprentice79

[Rick Kitchen]

I also think that he enjoyed killing another human being...It turned him on for sex...I think he has a dark past in Miami...Jordan needs to come back and I would like to see her reaction...I hate it that nobody knows what he did to her...

 

Ben didn't do anything to Jordan, that was Clyde.

[TeeVee329]

He has been recast several times but he has been present on the show  and always involved in a storyline...Except for when he was sent to Switzerland by Lucas after trying to kill Lucas..

 

So...like Starr?

[Apprentice79]

Ben didn't do anything to Jordan, that was Clyde.

I meant to say Clyde...

So...like Starr?

Yes, Sami  used him in the womb to stop Carrie and Austin from getting married...She used Will to bind Austin to her. She knew that Austin was both scared and happy to be a father, due to his hellish childhood with Curtis...She found out that Will was really Lucas' and chose to suppress that information. Once Lucas found out the truth, he and Kate teamed up to destroy Sami and take Will away from her..It was back and forth for years...

[roomtorome]

Usually, someone doesn't suddenly turn into a serial killer.  Sociopaths have tells along the way - the most common being the killing of animals (ugh) - so, I wonder if we are to believe that suddenly just because he's so jealous of Chad he turned into a serial killer?  

 

Curious how they plan to explain his becoming a monster like this - I'm guessing lots will be laid at the feet of his psycho father but I want more of an explanation than that.

 

And, secondly, if he is the one and only killer?  Well, boo!  They said it would be shocking.  It wasn't shocking (to me anyway) in the least.  Now, Aiden or Daniel or Roman (and some others) would be shocking.  This kid?  Not so much.  

[madhacker]

Whelp......after prcessing what I just watched a couple hours ago I can say that after next week when Sonny comes back to bury his husband, I'm out. I'm free of this damn show finally. I just hope the producers of the show are ready for the backlash that's coming. Personally, I'm willing to bet that this time next year they'll be wrapping up the whole show, cause I can't see the ratings going nowhere but down from here.

 

OK just to compare the soaps gay couples and the story lines endings:

 

Luke and Noah: broke up but it was implied that they might get back together in the future.

 

Kyle and Oliver: stayed together to raise Oliver's daughter, walked around a corner never to be seen again.

 

Will and Sonny: got married and were raising Arianna until it was revealed that Will broke his vows (possibly several times, I really don't believe that it was only the one time in L.A.). They separated and Will got strangled to death by a living Ken doll.

 

Soooooo, it appears to me that the ones who actually gat a happy ending was Kyle and Oliver.

 

Thank God this is almost over for me. After next week I'm pretending that the last year was a horrible nightmare that Sonny was having. He wakes up and finds that it's the day after his wedding,his husband is in the shower, and it's Chandler Massey back as Will. Yeah Dallas did it first but hey it's my way of dealing with this travesty.

Edited October 9, 2015 by madhacker

[TeeVee329]

Soooooo, it appears to me that the ones who actually got a happy ending was Kyle and Oliver.

 

Yay Kish lol!

 

But also, in all seriousness, what soap couple of any sexual orientation gets a lasting happy ending?  None, because that's not the genre.  There are no endings, period.  That's why I could see why the Luke/Reid/Noah fans were so upset with how they ended because that whole show was ending and the gays were the only ones left unhappy and alone, IIRC.

Edited October 9, 2015 by TeeVee329

[Apprentice79]

They could have written Wilson out, without death and mayhem. The viciousness of Will's death said a lot to me. There was an undercurrent of Will getting his, for being a douchebag. Other characters that have done worst, did not get such a horrible ending.. Clyde a pedophile just went to prison...Xander as well...I think it  is ironic that the Westons literally destroyed Wilson, first Clyde tried to kill Sonny and Ben has killed Will...

 

Bo and Hope, Jack and Jennifer, Shawn and Belle got a happy ending at some point in their storyline, when they were written out...Couples don't stay happy for long on a show..

Edited October 9, 2015 by Apprentice79

[TeeVee329]

They could have written Wilson out, without death and mayhem..Bo and Hope, Jack and Jennifer, Shawn and Belle got a happy ending at some point in their storyline...Couples don't stay happy for long on a show..

 

You say it yourself, at some point in their storyline, not forever.  And Will and Sonny definitely got that, when they got married and had that pretty extended honeymoon period with no drama.

 

Also, and it's not exactly what happened here, but I don't think if one half of a soap couple wants to leave the show, the other actor needs to give up their job to keep the coupling together off-screen. 

 

All this said, I do think killing Will (and so graphically) instead of just having him rendered comatose and shipping him off-screen was overall a misstep.  But it's a misstep many soaps have made with many characters.

Edited October 9, 2015 by TeeVee329

[Apprentice79]

I think to keep the integrity of the couple and their fanbase, sometimes you have to do that...Write both out...Kayla had no story for years after Steve "died" and they tried to push her and Shane as the next couple to the ire of both the Steve/Kayla and Kim/Shane fanbases..Plus, I thought it was a big F you to Patsy Pease who had problems with the producers at the time..They always seemed to respect Charles more than Patsy...When they were both beloved as Kim and Shane...If the show did not have any plans for Kayla, then they should have written out Steve and Kayla with Stefanie. They did it with Justin and Adrienne with their 4 sons..

Edited October 9, 2015 by Apprentice79

[Rick Kitchen]

Why would Adrienne be opening her test results in public?

 

How would Gabi know if Lani is new or not?  She's been ... out of town ... for a while.

 

Sounds like they're toning Justin down.  Glad to see it.

[Peanut6711]

If you want to look at it this way, Will/Sonny just went down like most of the Supercouples have. Steve/Kayla, Bo/Hope, Ej/Sami...they've all had one of the pair dead at one time or another and...

none of them have stayed dead thankfully.

 All I hope is whenever they bring Will back and I don't doubt at some point they will because no one stays dead in Salem, that it's CM that reprises the role. 

[TeeVee329]

Me personally, I'd have the show focus on Sonny first.  Keep him off-screen to mourn Will for a bit, but then you bring him back with a  strong recast and ready to jump into family stories and then eventually a relationship (not necessarily with Paul) and then you could potentially play the BFTD card.

[Apprentice79]

Will is different though...Steve's coffin was swtiched  by Lawrence at his funeral, so we knew that he was alive..Hope fell into a vat of acid, but the show had wiggle room to say that it was not really Hope, but a lookalike that Ernesto had put in Hope's place..There was a finality to Will's death...

[TeeVee329]

There is no finality to deaths on soaps.  Hell, AMC showed Jesse as an angel in heaven MULTIPLE times after he flatlined in Angie's arms and had his organs donated and they had no problem bringing him back.

Edited October 9, 2015 by TeeVee329

[Apprentice79]

Me personally, I'd have the show focus on Sonny first.  Keep him off-screen to mourn Will for a bit, but then you bring him back with a  strong recast and ready to jump into family stories and then eventually a relationship (not necessarily with Paul) and then you could potentially play the BFTD card.

Sonny needs to come back a bit harder and cynical about life..He tried to be a nice guy and got shitted on..Will cheated on him, Paul chose his career over him, Gabi treated him like shit during the Nick debacle, and now his good friend Ben that he defended against his best friend Chad, got him a job and an apartment killed his husband and his dreams of a family with that husband..You cannot come out unscathed after going through something like that....I need Sonny to find out that Victor's power play with Clyde almost cost  him his life and that Chad fucked up his dreams of a second club that brought more stress to his troubled marriage....

Edited October 9, 2015 by Apprentice79

[Ruby Red]

Wait, so this was it? This is how Will dies? It seemed like nothing, a waste, something so small. Is he in a coma or actually dead??

 

Well, speaking of gay couples and unhappy endings. I will forever be bitter about Luke and Reid :(

Edited October 9, 2015 by Ruby Red

[Peanut6711]

Will is different though...Steve's coffin was swtiched  by Lawrence at his funeral, so we knew that he was alive..Hope fell into a vat of acid, but the show had wiggle room to say that it was not really Hope, but a lookalike that Ernesto had put in Hope's place..There was a finality to Will's death...

Don't worry Apprentice 79, Days can pull anything out of their ass if they want to bring someone back. Look at Andre; we haven't even gotten an explanation on him yet. I'm pretty much expecting at this point that the show is just going to brush over it.  Some day, Will might just walk out of a fog like Marlena did or crawl out of the swamp like Chelsea. Who knows but I'm pretty sure the list of characters that have come back from the dead is probably bigger than the ones that stayed dead. It's all just a matter of time.

Edited October 9, 2015 by Peanut6711

[Apprentice79]

You are so right..Chelsea was a dead fetus buried in the swamps and she came back a  teenager...lol There was a rumor that the show wanted to undo Zack's death, but Kristian refused to play it..So the show left him dead...

Edited October 9, 2015 by Apprentice79

[Peanut6711]

You are so right..Chelsea was a dead fetus buried in the swamps and she came back a  teenager...lol There was a rumor that the show wanted to undo Zack's death, but Kristian refused to play it..So the show left him dead...

The regenerative powers of the Maison Blache ruins in the bayou ;-) So hey, maybe they should have Will's ashes spread there! 

 

I'm actually surprised they haven't undone Zack's death so I guess that explains it.