S07.E13: Gift Wrapped

[Primetimer]

Kelly finds out she has a secret sister, and is a bitch about it...at least at first.

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[Primetimer]

We've collected the most important imagery from 'Gift Wrapped'!

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[TeeVee329]

Hello secret sibling!  Now, you would think that when a show introduces the half-sister of the show's (sigh) main heroine, they would be grooming her to be part of the cast.  But no, we see Joy one more time, I think, and that's it.  So bizarre.

Valerie and Kelly's truce over the journals is a memorable one.  But also extremely short, if memory serves, I'm pretty sure they fall out again in the next episode.

Loved Felice's bitchery and Jackie's reactions to same.  I also loved Donna pointing out that Felice being a bitchy schemer at Christmas is an annual tradition, lol.

Edited August 14, 2017 by TeeVee329

[Nanna]

The old folks ARE cute (and I must be getting old since I find the chancellor to way more attractive than Brandon). It must be killing Kelly that her sister is so pretty, how can se be sure that she herself is the prettiest in the world? She looks good for once, though, so perhaps the christmas spirit is good for her. 

[ZeroDiscipline]

No one rocks short hair like Jackie. I love her so much.

[CurlyATX]

It would have been cool to have Joy be on the show-- maybe be a bit of a bitch too (since she's brunette). We're getting close to the Parker Lewis scam, aren't we? And the loss of Donna's V-card.

[ZeroDiscipline]

Mel handled Felice's passive aggression perfectly:
Felice: "Unless you are passing out champagne"
Mel: "I think we have some champagne" (shrugs).

[ilovebeaarthur]

I hate that I know this, but Chancellor Arnold and Samantha Sanders are married in real life (thank you, wikipedia rabbit hole).

[MCMLXXVII]

5 hours ago, TeeVee329 said:

Hello secret sibling!  Now, you would think that when a show introduces the half-sister of the show's (sigh) main heroine, they would be grooming her to be part of the cast.  But no, we see Joy one more time, I think, and that's it.  So bizarre.

Yup, she and Steve's brothers were there for the graduation party if I recall correctly, so it seemed like they were maybe angling for a "The New Class", but I guess not. You'd think Kelly would invite her to her wedding at least. Weird.

 Also, weren't TV contracts at the time typically for seven seasons? Perhaps they wanted something lined up in case some of the leads didn't return? 

[Tara Ariano]

21 hours ago, ilovebeaarthur said:

I hate that I know this, but Chancellor Arnold and Samantha Sanders are married in real life (thank you, wikipedia rabbit hole).

WHAT? That's awesome.

[Carmen MacCodykins]

On 8/14/2017 at 4:04 PM, ilovebeaarthur said:

I hate that I know this, but Chancellor Arnold and Samantha Sanders are married in real life (thank you, wikipedia rabbit hole).

Would anyone else rather watch a show about their two characters than the actual gang? Just me? Team Samarnold!!

[benteen]

Felice getting on Mel and Jackie for their relationship woes is laughable considering she once had an affair herself.

[Sarah D. Bunting]

I always think about that when Felice is getting self-righteous, and then I always remember the writing staff completely forgot about it and I need to let it go.

[Earmuffs Mom]

6 hours ago, Sarah D. Bunting said:

the writing staff completely forgot about it

But it comes up again later this season when Dr. Martin has the stroke and Donna catches Felice talking to her ex-paramour about Dr. Martin's condition at some reunion or such.  Don't let them off that easily!

[MCMLXXVII]

Not to mention when Gina shows up- talk about "confusion". You can tell the writers didn't map Felice out very well- like is she supposed to be  Candy Spelling lite (a wealthy Beverly Hills High graduate pre-Aaron according to Wikipedia), or a pretentious striver? 

Also, is Gina supposed to be younger than Donna? That whole storyline doesn't really track with Felice getting knocked up and out of the Rose Court in college. Doctor or not, who stays with a dude who does that Springer shit? Like she's selectively Catholic about virginity and I guess divorce, but not about her own pre-martial sex, affairs, and husband's affair? Ok then.

Edited August 17, 2017 by MCMLXXVII

[Klaw]

Hey now,, let's take it easy on throwing around the "seniors" label. Maybe Chancellor Arnold was in his 60s at the time, but the actress who played Samantha Sanders, Christine Belford, was in her late 40s at the time... and since I'm around the same age now as she was then, that kinda stung. lol!

Enough with the frickin' secret siblings. The "monkey twins" for Steve who didn't exist until season 6 (0 mention of them before), Joy, Gina...so lame. And Kelly? Fuck all the way off.

While I'm at it, fuck the Salvation army. I had no idea they were such assholes. Good to know (insert music cue).

I don't give the show enough credit for this, but they did a great job casting the parents. Jackie. Rush. Mel. Cindy. Felice. Maybe it's because I'm an old and this part of the series is so terrible, but I actually enjoy the parents. 

Not trying to Body shame Tori (But that hair is another matter, sweet Jesus), but Donna is looking scary skinny in these episodes...it's actually distracting.

[ZeroDiscipline]

20 hours ago, MCMLXXVII said:

Doctor or not, who stays with a dude who does that Springer shit? Like she's selectively Catholic about virginity and I guess divorce, but not about her own pre-martial sex, affairs, and husband's affair? Ok then.

I believe they explained it by saying "It was the '70s".

[txhorns79]

Quote

Felice getting on Mel and Jackie for their relationship woes is laughable considering she once had an affair herself.

This is something I never get.  She does this kind of thing in front of Donna, but Donna only intermittently seems to recall her mother is a flaming hypocrite.  Mind you, I give Felice partial credit for being the Queen of Passive Agressiveness.   It takes an amazing amount of nerve to be so breathtakingly rude to people who have invited her into their home. 

[Cekrypton1]

That dinner party was amazing. I listened while biking and startled passers-by with my guffaw at Jackie's perfect--PERFECT!--"What a relief." Even Donna's STUFF "It's not getting better" was quite well done.

[CurlyATX]

I absolutely LOVED Felice in this episode... she is just so herself.  I really wised they had a series just on the moms, like a Golden Girls reboot- Jackie, Felice, Cindy and Samantha.  Maybe Cindy divorced Jim and reconnected with Samantha on FB, decides to move into Felice's mansion (since Dr. Martin died spoiler).  In my world, Jackie faked her death or was imprisoned by an evil twin who was the one who really died.

[atlanticslide]

On 8/14/2017 at 11:10 AM, TeeVee329 said:

Hello secret sibling!  Now, you would think that when a show introduces the half-sister of the show's (sigh) main heroine, they would be grooming her to be part of the cast.  But no, we see Joy one more time, I think, and that's it.  So bizarre.

The addition of Joy was super weird. It felt like the whole purpose of it was to again redeem Bill Taylor for absolutely no reason - and really, without much effect. They seemed to play it off as "ohhhhhhhhh, so that's why he's always ditching Kelly, because he has another family to take care of!" Except that a) that's still a lame excuse for skipping town without telling your child that you're ditching them, and b) Joy reports him constantly taking off for parts unknown as well, so he's still basically as much of a deadbeat dad as he always was, just with two emotionally neglected kids instead of one. So ultimately I have no idea what we're supposed to take from this, other than Kelly is still an asshole to her mother and thinks sun shines out of her father's ass (like her rant at her mother about "you wanted me to think he was just ditching me when really it was that he had another family to take care of!" Kelly, that doesn't make it any better. He was still ditching you.)

[MCMLXXVII]

11 hours ago, atlanticslide said:

The addition of Joy was super weird. It felt like the whole purpose of it was to again redeem Bill Taylor for absolutely no reason - and really, without much effect. They seemed to play it off as "ohhhhhhhhh, so that's why he's always ditching Kelly, because he has another family to take care of!" Except that a) that's still a lame excuse for skipping town without telling your child that you're ditching them, and b) Joy reports him constantly taking off for parts unknown as well, so he's still basically as much of a deadbeat dad as he always was, just with two emotionally neglected kids instead of one. So ultimately I have no idea what we're supposed to take from this, other than Kelly is still an asshole to her mother and thinks sun shines out of her father's ass (like her rant at her mother about "you wanted me to think he was just ditching me when really it was that he had another family to take care of!" Kelly, that doesn't make it any better. He was still ditching you.)

Also, it's not like Kelly's parents divorced at her birth. Going by that whole "I left you with your drunk cokehead mother so she'd have something to live for" explanation, it seems like there would have been overlap between Jackie and Joy's mom. Bill is trash.

[benteen]

Yeah, I don't see how Bill looks good in any of this.  Abandoning your firstborn daughter to raise your other family is not noble.  Despite how St. Kelly wants to interpret it.

Edited September 1, 2017 by benteen

[CurlyATX]

But it's really just like others have said, he's basically a Johnnie Appleseed and having kids and just ditching them.  Both girls are missing their dad, though Joy is somehow aware of Kelly and has built a fantasy of how great she is.  My money is that Joy's mom was a side piece and got knocked up around the same time as the divorce? Maybe that is what ultimate caused the divorce?

Also, from what I've seen from friends, most kids don't look kindly on a parent who is distant from him/her but is the full time parent to some other kids.  Kelly would still take it personally that Bill is a fabu parent to Joy and company.