Howard Wise/jpistudios.com
Easy Street: Traci (Beth Maitland, center) could have penned a better ending than Alan's (Christopher Cousins) brother's involvement in Ashley's (Eileen Davidson) DID story.
Giving a popular character a front-burner story makes perfect sense. Filling that story with newbies and strangers does not.
I’m looking at you, Y&R. It was past time for Eileen Davidson to be given her flowers, and the story they wrote for Ashley — a violent occurrence during her 2023 Paris honeymoon with Tucker — looked promising. That event caused Ashley to disassociate and develop alternate personalities who argued with each other in a white room (with Davidson playing all the parts) for months.
Tucker claimed innocence, but no one believed him because he is such a slimeball. The action built to a reveal in Paris where a guy named Martin (who looked like Ashley’s new therapist, Alan) turned out to have accosted Ashley.
Traci: “So much anger… for Alan to find his brother and lose him again in one night.”
Ashley: “All the time he spent trying to save his brother and in the end Martin’s illness was too strong.”
Huh? A stranger had an evil twin who hurt Ashley and died a day later? What a cop-out! After 10 months of replaying that scene of Tucker threatening Ashley and throwing glassware, suddenly he was some kind of innocent hero wishing her well.
Tucker: “I always had a sense you weren’t in control.”
Ashley: “That fight we had at the bistro last year? After that I went to meet Alan, but I didn’t know Alan had a twin brother, Martin, who was impersonating Alan. Martin was aggressive towards me and full of rage. I somehow conflated the two events — you in the bistro and Martin in the apartment — and I snapped. I was blaming you instead of Martin for what happened.”
Tucker: “I wish you all the best always.”
Since when?!
On the bright side, Eileen Davidson has her Emmy reel for next year. There were also some really lovely scenes between the Abbott sisters, recalling Traci’s caretaker role and giving Ashley a safe place to land after that bizarre evil twin detour. What will sweet Traci do when Ashley goes to the clinic?
Traci: “I will have a good, long cry because that is what I do. Maybe I’ll write a good book.”
I would read that book — as long as it’s about the Abbotts and not interlopers.
Speaking of interlopers, did you catch Maggie’s non-wedding to Konstantin on DAYS? I’m all for giving Maggie as much airtime as possible, but scripting her late husband Victor an enemy we never knew about and rewriting years of history (and paternity tests) was a stretch.
Maggie agreed to a marriage of convenience with the Kon Man because his visa was running out and then Patch and John clued her in to Konstantin’s nefarious plan to steal her money. The three of them set a trap to catch him which was a good set-up.
Cue yet another living room wedding as Justin was officiating.
Justin ( getting an alert on his phone) : “A large amount of money is missing from Victor’s charitable trust.”
Maggie: “Do you know about this?”
Konstantin feigned ignorance, Maggie said he’s going to prison, and chaos ensued.
Konstantin: “I am the one who sabotaged Victor’s plane!”
Wait, what? Victor was murdered? Turned out Konstantin was controlling John with the Pawn card (don’t ask), Steve got shot, and Xander killed Konstantin.
Bonnie: “Poor Maggie. First, she loses her husband, then that con man waltzes in here planning to murder her and steal her inheritance.”
Justin: “It’s going to be a while before she recovers from this.”
Bonnie: “Maybe I can fix her up with my dentist.”
Okay, that was funny. Maggie’s flashbacks to when Konstantin showed up with photos of young Victor and tales of them growing up together helped explain why she fell for his lies, but it was a convoluted end to a confusing tale.
Here’s hoping the aftermath features a strong Maggie on the mend — and perhaps a double date with Justin, Bonnie and the dentist.
To B&B’s credit, they showcase very few strangers. Poppy appeared in 2023 as a magical one-night stand Bill had long ago that meant everything to him even though he never mentioned it once in his 15 years on the show. Poppy had a daughter named Luna who had no father, so it was only a matter of time until B&B connected the dots and gave Bill his third unknown child.
It was all very hokey (“A dream come true!”) but the reaction from Bill's peers helped.
Eric: “That’s not exactly uncharted territory for Bill Spencer.”
Bill’s ex-wife needed a moment.
Katie (to Poppy and Luna) : “You two are living here now?”
Poppy: “Bill insisted. I’m hoping you’ll give us your blessing.”
Katie: “Bill and I haven’t had a chance to discuss this…”
Poppy: “I’ll let Bill know you stopped by, although I’m certain he’ll want to be alone with Luna and me.”
Oooh, was Li right? Is her sister a gold digger?
The fun will come when Steffy “the Logans are bad!” Forrester learns there’s a newfound Spencer working at Forrester and dating her half-brother, R.J.
Conversely, it is not fun that GH is giving Drew yet another career. He has no shot at becoming an A-lister because they have literally changed his character every few months since he first appeared in 2014. When he was “Jake Doe” he kidnapped, robbed, shot and assaulted people (Nikolas, Nathan, Franco, Shiloh, Valentin). He evolved into a Navy SEAL who also happened to be Jason’s twin (!), had a kid with Sam, got a sudden son named Oscar who died, was presumed dead, and then resurfaced as a heroic love interest for Carly like none of that ever happened. Recently released from prison for insider trading, Drew currently runs Aurora Media while having hate-sex with his employee Nina, launched a “wellness division” as part of ELQ, and just announced his intention to run for Congress.
Willow: “I’d vote for you!”
Michael: “I think it’s dicey to split focus with the launch of the wellness division.”
Ya think? None of these moves are believable, so Willow elected herself President of the Drew Cain Fan Club.
Willow: “Drew is a decorated war hero who has already served our country; a man of determination and strong character who can more than withstand any bad press. His wealth is proof Drew won’t have special interest groups pulling the strings. You can handle Aurora without Drew. Right now, Drew has something more important to do. Contributing to a functioning government is worth a few sacrifices.”
Michael: “You’ve convinced me.”
Willow: “We’re all in, Congressman Cain!”
It’s funny that GH thinks making Drew a congressman will make him more popular, but I digress. What Drew needs is one consistent job and one believable love interest for a year if he is to ever earn front-burner status. Having Willow, Michael, Nina, Curtis, etc. tell him how “amazing!” he is doesn’t make it true.
Leave it to Carly to be the voice of reason.
Drew: “I’m thinking of running for public office.”
Carly: “Is that a joke?”
Thank you.
More serious was the breakup of Nurse Elizabeth Webber and Dr. Hamilton Finn, who spent their entire courtship unencumbered by any believable chemistry. Finn’s dad died so he fell off the wagon, lashed out, and picked up a woman at a bar. Jake spied the cheater and told his mom.
Jake: “Finn was with this lady, and it was obvious he was drinking with her.”
Liz hightailed it over to Finn’s apartment and found him drunkenly kissing that “lady.” “Go home, Barb,” she snarked. A fight ensued, and guess who appeared?
Jason: “Don’t go near her.”
I know Liz can fight her own battles, but Jake calling his dad because his mom was in trouble unspooled years of rich history into one episode. The exes retreated to the Metro Court pool, where we learned our favorite hitman has an Achilles heel.
Liz (dangling their feet in the water) : “I can’t believe I got Jason Morgan to take off his shoes.”
Jason: “Don’t tell anybody.”
You know what’s better than a popular character in a front-burner story? Two popular characters in a front-burner story.
Hey. It’s only my opinion.
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