The column for the week of December 20 will be post Sunday evening. Thanks for your patience and understanding!

Don't tell the other Two Scoops columnists, but I think my readers are the best. Of course, I have a special place in my heart for everyone that visits the Soap Central site -- without all of your support, there'd be no reason to write opinion columns, recaps, scoops, news, and the like. But the main reason I love all of you who read this column is because you take the time out of your day to send me email and share your thoughts on the show. I don't get to respond to every message because of the sheer volume of mail that I receive, but I do read them.

It's rewarding to read messages from fans who share my opinions or think that something I said was funny or on-point, and it's also amusing for me to read comments from readers who think that I'm absolutely out of my mind. More than that, you ask the hard questions -- and are never without an opinion. So this week, I'm sharing some of your commentary in addition to mine.

"Did I miss an episode that had Ryan getting his vasectomy reversed? I know that neither of his children were conceived the old fashioned way. How could Madison be pregnant with his child?" Julie asked in an email.

I forgot about the vasectomy -- and it appears that the writers did, too. Or did they? Remember back at Caleb's party -- you know, the night David wasn't murdered -- when Madison had gotten a little tipsy, and she and Frankie went off somewhere together. What if Frankie and Madison had drunken sex? I remember Frankie having a really suspicious look on his face when he returned to the party -- and I'd originally thought that it was because he'd killed David (or the writers wanted us to believe that he did). Perhaps there's another reason Frankie was looking guilty.

So for the next however many months are left in Madison's pregnancy, viewers will be watching as Ryan and Madison get closer and possibly reunited all because of the baby. Then, perhaps in the closing minutes of a Friday during a Sweeps period, after Madison has given birth to a healthy baby boy or girl, viewers learn that the infant is biracial.

Meanwhile, Jen has another mystery on her mind. She posed the following question: I wonder why no one has thought of asking why Zach's plane went down? And it's not clear as to who was flying it. Was Zach a pilot too? It occurs to me that perhaps the "disgruntled" casino partners had something to do with it. Seems to me there should have been some kind of investigation.

I hadn't really thought about that either. You'd think, keeping what Jen said in mind, that someone would have said something like, "two lives were lost that day." All that anyone ever mentions is Zach, Zach, Zach. I said it before and I'll say it again: Has anyone checked the safe room?

There do seem to be a lot of things that just end up... un-ended. That "they're after me" storyline involving Zach and the casino was brought up and then it just disappeared as quickly as the pilot of Zach's plane. Linda wrote in because she noticed that too. "It seems like AMC will foreshadow, than forget about it, it is such a waste of my time," she wrote. "Wasn't Tad going to find out who really killed Dixie?"

Yeah, Dixie's "real" killer is another story that just fizzled out without any sort of resolution. Back to Zach for a minute, how about this for a fix: Kendall continues to grieve until she gets a mysterious note that leads her to believe that Zach is not dead. The note urges Kendall to go on with her life because things are too dangerous for Zach to return. Time goes by and, let's say, after a year, Kendall finds it harder to be a single mother, and she ends up finding herself attracted to someone else.

I am not saying that this is a perfect storyline, but let me check off the selling points. Having Zach contact Kendall to say that he's not dead gets rid of any messy "back from the dead" plot in a few years. This also gives the writers time to find someone to figure into Kendall's life at a later date. I don't know about you, but as of the time I am writing this column, I am totally not feeling Griffin as a potential love interest for Kendall. It seems way too soon to even think about that, and I just don't see any chemistry whatsoever at this point. Another payoff for my proposed storyline is that we'd get to see Kendall having to deal with her growing attraction to Mr. Newcomer -- because she and she alone would know the truth about Zach still being alive. She'd have no way to contact him, and... okay either I've sold you on the idea by now or you hate every minute of it. So I won't go into more detail.

Conversely, the goons that were after Zach aren't content that Zach's death will solve whatever issues they have, and they go after Kendall.

Another reader, this time Mary, found some of Kendall's recent story material laughworthy. "I am sure this was not the reaction the writers were going for, but when I saw Kendall with the pillow, intent on smothering David, I laughed out loud -- not an LOL, mind you, but a full-belly ROTFL. Every scene with David has the realistic sound of the ventilator doing his breathing for him. The tube is in his mouth -- covering his nose and mouth with the pillow would do NOTHING! 20 minutes later, poor Kendall would still be muttering, 'Why won't this bastard DIE already?' Oh my goodness, can't you just picture it?! If she really were thinking -- so, clearly, she's not in her right mind -- she would have just disconnected the tube, I would think. Then again, that's just me."

Oh, Mary, you had me laughing out loud with that email. I only pretend to be a doctor, so I'll leave the medical analysis to Dr. Oz.

As much as I've debated this underlying theme of whether or not Greenlee can "understand" what Kendall is going through, I have to say that I like the friction between Kendall and Greenlee. We've seen the two of them as best of friends and we've seen them feuding. This, though, is the first time that we've seen this type of strife between the two. How many times can you spar over sleeping with your friend's lover? It's sort of heartbreaking to watch, and I think that's why I like it so much. It rings true to me.

It's probably way too soon to weigh in on this, but I am liking Lindsay Hartley's addition to the AMC cast. I've seen Lindsay on Passions -- and it's hard to judge someone's acting ability when they share screentime with an orangutan that's a nurse and a 300-year-old witch. I also checked out Lindsay over on DAYS, but her character never quite worked for me -- and then she was killed off by the show. My affection for Lindsay grew with the release of the "Cara: The Backstory" video that ABC released. If you haven't checked it out, after you're done reading this week's Two Scoops, click here and you can watch the whole thing.

Jake and Amanda haven't had a whole lot of story in recent months. I suppose that was the "happy honeymoon" period that we were promised. But now, as they say, the honeymoon is over. Amanda is becoming a little unglued. Every time someone mentions "Cara," she looks like she's looking around for the nearest crowbar. Might some of Janet's mental illness have been passed down to Amanda? When I talked to Chrishell Stause earlier this year on Soap Central Live, I asked her if she thought that Amanda might fear that she could end up being like her mother. Chrishell told me that she believes that somewhere in the back of Amanda's mind, she does worry that she might lose touch of reality the way that Janet did.

I have no way of knowing if that's where the storyline is headed -- but there's a part of me that really wants to see Amanda go nuts. We've seen Chrishell at her best when Amanda had to fake her baby's death, and seeing "Amanda From Another Panda" (Okay, you come up with something that rhymes with Amanda!) go a little cuckoo could be equally entertaining.

Well, it's just about time for me to sign off this week. Before I go, though, my Best and Worst of 2010 columns are coming up in a couple of weeks and I want to give all of you a chance to weigh in with your selections. Hit me up with an email (use the email links at the top or bottom of the column or just click here) and let me know your picks for the best storylines of 2010, the worst storylines, the biggest surprises, and more -- and I'll include some of your picks when I wrap up the year, beginning on December 26.

dan

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