Sunday, September 6, 2009

OLTL Week in Review

First off, big congrats to OLTL and Susan Haskell for taking home the Emmy this past Sunday! A big welcome to Llanview for Saundra Santiago, who debuted as Carlotta on Thursday I believe. In other news, this week was a little boring.

We were able to find out that the mayor is crooked and has a potential druggie for a son, who Cole just happened to sell the drugs to this week. That let the mayor in on Cole's undercover status, thanks to big-mouthed Dorian and Todd, who both did a very wrong thing for what they mistakenly perceived as being for the right reasons. Dorian overheard Starr telling Todd the truth about what Cole was doing, and immediately ran off to tell the mayor. That's one of the reasons I love and hate Dorian at the same time. She can be such a figure of comfort when you need it, then turn right around and screw you over for her own selfish benefit, like when she allowed the mayor to put a picture of Starr and Hope in the newspaper for Lowell's campaign. Just the day before, she was all 'motherly advice' on Blair, telling her to be a mother and do what's really right for her children, and not even 48 hours later she was exploiting Blair's daughter and grand-daughter for her campaigning efforts. And now, she has just had a hand in endangering the two people she claimed to be protecting.

I think Shaun knows that something is missing between him and Rachel in their relationship, and I think Rachel owes it to herself and to Shaun to be honest with herself and tell him. Since he's waxing poetic and I read spoilers, Shaun may be meeting his maker in the months to come, which is probably going to prompt Rachel's guilt over not treating him right and leave her on the brink of relapse, which Mr. Hotshot Doctor Man Greg will 'miraculously' pull her from. I certainly hope that's not the scenario, but the writers are beginning to paint it that way. I guess we'll see what happens though. As for Rachel and Greg, he seems to be very intent on getting to know Rachel underneath all of the criticisms and zingers she tosses out at everyone. He knows she's fiery and has alot of passion, but somewhere along the way, bottled that all up and instead went for a safe existence: a safe job, a safe relationship, keeping a safe distance from anything that may test her. I don't know how Greg suddenly has all this insight into who Rachel is, but I do think he's right in his assumptions about her. On Friday, we got to see one of the reasons why Rachel decided to leave her true self somewhere beneath the fronts she shows everyone else; she once took someone's life and despite now living clean and sober, I don't think she's found it in her to forgive herself. I didn't like that she took the stand and immediately tried to turn the situation around and say that Greg's entire testimony was about her. So what, all of Greg's prior experience means nothing now because his whole life revolves around her? Whatever, Rach. Just because Greg happened to be spot-on describing you when he was talking about his opinion on why Bo and Nora won't agree to the surgery has nothing to do with it. If the shoe fits, right? She always takes offense to his remarks because I think she knows, somewhere inside of her, that he is right and doesn't like the fact that someone was able to figure her out so easily. At least she admitted it on Friday.

I see some sparks between Ross and Blair, and I think she sees it too, but for obvious reasons she's feeling a little conflicted. He's Tea's not-so-ex husband, and he did once try to kidnap Blair's kids. They're in cramped quarters with no place to go, and if they're both being honest with themselves, still feeling jilted over Todd and Tea being with each other instead of with Blair and Ross, respectively. That almost always in the soap world pushes two people together. But some plotting is on the horizon between these two....and despite the conditions they are acquainted under--this is soap world, anything can happen and besides that, what are Blair's other options, really--I wouldn't mind seeing Blair sniff after someone new whose last name doesn't start with an M.

I gotta say, major kudos to Cris and Layla for being so supportive of Fish. I am enjoying how all three actors have handled this story; at first I wasn't so interested in the Layla-Cris thing because it seemed forced, but slowing it down, removing the unnecessary criticisms and constant mentions of Evangeline and letting them slowly build what appears to be a budding friendship seems to be working better for the characters and the actors playing them. It took a great deal of maturity on Layla's part to avoid getting narcissistic and feeling Fish's being gay had something to do with her and support his heart's decision despite the breaking of her own, and it took a good deal of discretion and loyalty on Cris's part for him not to rub it in Layla's face, let her find out the truth on her own, and not shun Fish when it turned out that his suspicions about Fish were in fact reality.

The trial over Matthew's surgery is starting to take a toll on Matthew and on Friday, tensions finally came to a head. The truth about Rachel's past was revealed, which Matthew didn't like, and the stress of taking his parents to court and trying to maintain a relationship with them despite his resentment and the trial is starting to visibly shake him. Being paralyzed is Matthew's equivalent of hell on earth, which is why he allowed Destiny to convince him to sue his parents, but no matter how angry or resentful he was about it, he has always maintained that he didn't want to hurt them. Now that he sees that he is, and after the ruthless way Tea went after Rachel on Friday, it leaves me to wonder what he's going to do on Tuesday--is he going to regret his decision to fire Tea and decide to stay in the chair to save his relationship with his family? I don't think he saw the trial getting this heated or taking this long, and now that its at a point that he didn't anticipate and therefore cannot control, the need to make things right must be eating at him. Question is, will that need make him sacrifice his desire to walk again?

Suds Up!!
Cris and Layla being supportive of Fish's decision to come out
Todd wearing clothes.....heavens he looks good in them :)
Not seeing alot of Gigi, Rex or Stacy....I love Gigi but I gotta say, I'm glad I didn't see her alot this week
Shaun's conversation with Starr...it was a nice change and I liked seeing Starr being on the giving end of the advice and not talking to just Langston for once
Seeing some sexy Lovett on Friday..its about damn time!
Rachel's meltdown--I was glad to see her being real for once about herself and why she is the way she is today

Popped Bubbles
Todd not listening to Starr's warnings and ratting out Cole, thus putting himself, Starr and Hope in danger
Not seeing alot of David and his 'show'.....I needed my Vick fix this week and didn't get it
Not enough Brody...stop making me wait for days!!
Todd being such a pain in the ass and allowing his dislike for John to overshadow the second warning someone tried to give him


Randomisms:
1)I love my Charlie and Viki! Get more of them on my screen immediately!! 2)Loved the scene with Carlotta where she misread the signals, said she saw the 'signs' and assumed that he was gay! Layla giggling behind him was priceless. 3)Tea is a ruthless bitch. She battered Rachel on the stand without batting an eyelash. Love her! 4)The mayor's an undercover chicken! He's been so frazzled by this re-election campaign; Dorian's doing all his work while he presents a smooth image and takes all the credit. Wonder how true that is for real politicians. 5)I also wonder how real politicians feel about the fact that in movies, on tv or in books most politicians, government officials and authority figures in general are played as being dirty. 6)Does Kassie DePaiva have a sick body or what? I was drinking some serious Haterade when she came out in that bikini this week--alot of chicks my age don't have bodies like that! 7)I read in some spoilers that Marcie will be coming back to Llanview in the upcoming months. Will Kathy Brier be returning to the show, or will Marcie coming back to town with a new look? 8)You do realize that Todd endangering Starr and Hope by not listening to her and going to Lowell is going to start another 'Look what my dad has done to us' jag for her and Cole when all this is over, right?

Moment of the Week: When Nora slapped the hell out of Tea after everything blew up

Character of the Week: (CoW) ---------I don't think there was one this week; nobody stood out in my opinion. Let's try again next week, shall we?

See you back in Llanview on Tuesday!
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