Disney/Christine Bartolucci; CBS
GH's Brennan (Charles Mesure) and B&B's Katie (Heather Tom) were highlights of the soap week.
The Best
General Hospital: Brennan Flips The Script
It appears that the long and winding (read: hard to follow) Pikeman story has finally ended, and the payoff is that the show has figured out a way to keep Jack Brennan — played by the charming Charles Mesure — in the mix. Turns out the smooth-talking Aussie in the orange jumpsuit is actually a WSB honcho who had been working undercover to stop the flow of arms through Port Charles via Pikeman. That indicates he’s sticking around, offering lots of possibilities to act as foil to everyone from FBI agent John Cates to mobster Sonny Corinthos. Brennan’s also the white knight who disappeared the RICO charges hanging over Jason and Carly’s heads, perhaps because he’s crushing on Carly (or is it Anna who he fancies?). Sure, the wind-up of the years-long Pikeman story was a bit anticlimactic, but moving forward with their A-listers free — and a sexy new lawman on the canvas — makes sense.
“What can I say?” Brennan teased Anna. “The bureau found a use for me.”
Thankfully, so did GH .
Days of our Lives: Johnny and Chanel Stay In Salem
How many loving young couples currently reside in Salem? One: Johnny and Chanel DiMera. They’ve only been in town a few years, but in that short time, they’ve survived a break-up, a miscarriage and the devil (literally). Johnny is a solid legacy character via his parents, EJ DiMera and Sami Brady (who is coming home to Salem next year, woo-hoo!), which also makes him the grandson of Stefano DiMera and Marlena/Roman Brady. Chanel’s mom is Mayor Paulina Price and her stepdad is Abe Carver, arguably the most beloved man in town.
So it made no sense a few months ago when Johnny nabbed a directing job in Hollywood and the duo announced they were moving to L.A.
Enter Abe, who recently bought the rights to a soap opera (!) and needs a good director to bring out “the latent talents of some of our less experienced actors” (read: Hattie). Chanel pointed out that the job was right there in Salem and Johnny accepted on the spot, guaranteeing much more screen time for these fun newlyweds. We can thank Body and Soul for that!
Bold and Beautiful: Katie Busts Poppy
Something has been up with Li’s “mint”-popping sister Poppy (get portrayer Romy Park's take on those mints here ) ever since she hit L.A. last fall. Poppy’s drugs upended her daughter Luna’s life and looked similar to the ones that killed Poppy’s ex-lover, Tom, so an unlikely person started investigating: Katie!
Waiting 20 years for a paternity test was suspicious, so Katie went to Li to ask if the test could be wrong; No. Did Poppy do drugs? She did; not anymore. Katie turned to RJ who spilled about the mints — and that Poppy has a dark side. Next up was Bill, telling him she got a “weird vibe” from Poppy and he needed to watch his back. Katie claimed her interest was in protecting her ex-husband and their recently returned son Will, but a streak of jealousy ran through her every time she entered Bill’s house and found Poppy there. Her questions escalated to the point where Poppy felt forced to come clean with Bill about her past relationship with Tom, which seemed to finally raise his eyebrow.
It would be nice if the police were investigating the Il Giardino murders, but who knew a fashion marketing exec could conduct such a thorough procedural crime drama?
Young and Restless: Devon and Lily Team Up
We’ve written before about how hard it is to keep up with the corporate machinations on Y&R , but a silver lining has emerged from the convoluted Chancellor-Winters split: Devon and Lily are back on the same side. Yes, she stayed with the Chancellor end of the business (and Billy) when Devon took Winters for himself, but Victor’s warning that he was preparing to go after Chancellor prompted Devon to warn his sister that Chancellor was vulnerable. Lily’s response surprised him: She’s playing Billy! Turns out she kept that from Devon because she wanted their conflict to look believable. Devon wasn’t pleased, but he had to admit it worked.
It’s unclear how Victor’s potential takeover will affect Chancellor (or Abbott-Chancellor as Billy confidently renamed it) but the conceited Abbot scion should definitely watch his back — because Winters is coming.
The Worst
Y&R's Adam and Chelsea Make Chumps of Their Partners
It’s been over six months of ex-lovers Adam and Chelsea talking about their son Connor’s problems while their partners Sally and Billy showed remarkable interest (and patience) during discussions about what Connor was eating, etc. So it was a strange day when Adam and Chelsea “coped” with their son’s psychological setback by getting drunk and having sex. They returned to Genoa City with guilt written all over their hungover faces, which Sally and Billy noticed. But rather than come clean, they lied, made their partners feel dumb, and lied again. “I’m sorry if I added to your stress,” Sally apologized to the cheating Adam who turned around and hissed to Chelsea, “Our secret can never come out!” It would be one thing if Adam/Sally and Billy/Chelsea shared conversations about something other than Connor — or shared any love scenes. As it is, the story looks like two terrible people cheating on two supportive ones who actually seemed to care about things like Connor eating soup. (For Melissa Claire Egan's take on the story, click here ; for Mark Grossman's, click here .)
DAYS's Nicole Leaves Salem
After 26 years of husbands and paternity tests and baby switches and kidnappings and (insert crime here), Nicole finally got her baby back and reunited with the love of her life , Eric Brady. But we won’t get to see any of that because the two of them moved to Paris. “I’ve never been more ready,” she told Eric. Really? There are two teenagers on the show and one of them belongs to Nicole. Up until a month ago, Nicole was all up in Holly’s business, telling her who she could date, what she could wear, and where she could go. It strains credulity that Nicole would now leave Holly behind with Grandma Maggie, and all that talk of how Holly hopes her mother will “have a great life” made no sense in this day of cell phones, email, WhatsApp, etc.
Word has it Eric will bop back to Salem before long, but this looks like a series wrap on Nicole Walker Robbins Horton Kiriakis DiMera DiMera Brady Hernandez DiMera. Like sands through the hourglass, the jours of her life are over.
Applause, Applause
That was an amusing scene on B&B when Steffy forgot her passport and Hope tried to catch her; Steffy closed the elevator door on her. “Bon voyage, Steffy,” shrugged Hope, knowing her rival would never get on that plane…. Kudos to Y&R for having Daniel talk to Lucy about the dangers of underage drinking since she is the same age Cassie was when his drinking contributed to Cassie’s death…. Great camera and stunt work on GH when Kristina went out that hotel window and into the Metro Court pool.
Picky, Picky
It doesn’t say much for Sharon’s training as a therapist on Y&R that she went off her meds on purpose to spark all those hallucinations… B&B’s Tom was a homeless man living in an alley but he had a clean backpack full of stamped letters he had written on nice stationery to Luna?... Amidst all the drama surrounding Jude's maternity and paternity on DAYS, just who took the time to procure the baby a passport before Eric and Nicole took him to Paris?
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