I don't know how involved in the writing process Agnes Nixon really is, but I felt a lot of her presence in the two episodes that were available for viewing last week. There were messages of love, forgiveness, and the resiliency of the human spirit.

I thought that the scenes between Dixie and Billy Clyde Tuggle were really quite moving. There were so many different ways that the writers could have taken those scenes, but I think having Dixie write a letter to Billy Clyde (and then having Cady McClain read the letter as a voiceover) turned out to be a great decision.

I don't want to see the writers have Dixie and Billy Clyde become best friends because that would be unrealistic. What transpired between the two of them is something that will never be erased, and certainly Dixie will never forget the torment she endured. Forgiving, however, does not mean forgetting.

There's something very powerful in the ability to forgive. If Dixie were to allow her anger and rage to consume her every time she sees Billy Clyde, it would affect the quality of her life -- not his. Billy Clyde did save AJ from Hunter and his gang of (un)merry men without know that Dixie was AJ's grandmom. Although, I have to tell you, at the time that scene played out, I very much believed that Billy Clyde had been stalking Dixie and/or AJ and knew exactly what he was getting himself into.

I can't tell if Billy Clyde is serious about his change of life. Before he hit the lottery, Billy Clyde was spouting off Biblical passages (or at least getting close to citing Scripture) and at the same time doing some shady business deals. Remember how he blackmailed his former client into getting access to the strip club where Lea had been working undercover? That's not exactly walking the straight and narrow.

The obsession with Palmer Cortlandt also is more than a little odd to me. At first I thought that Billy Clyde was trying to use Palmer's legacy to somehow get closer to Dixie -- and I am not completely backing away from that theory. Now I can't help but wonder if Palmer is the only "role model" that Billy Clyde could think of to emulate after he'd won his lottery jackpot.

Just when you thought you'd seen every side of Colby's one-dimensional bitchiness -- poof! -- a bunch of other sides suddenly pop out of thin air. During her visit to Soap Central Live two weeks ago, Brooke Newton promised me that viewers would soon see another side of Colby. She certainly didn't lie. But I'll get to the side everybody was talking about in a bit. Believe it or not, I found a couple of other sides, too.

When David coughed up $30,000 to get Colby out of her financial crisis, we all assumed that the money could come with strings attached. Now, the two have a no-strings attached sexual relationship. David hasn't once held the 30-large over Colby's head (fill free to write your own joke here), but that hasn't stopped Colby from wanting to partner with David of her own accord to shake things up a bit.

It was nice to see that the writers remembered that Colby and Cassandra shared a past. I remember when Colby, Cassandra, and Dre ran over Richie's body and thought that they had killed him. Their friendship back then never seemed to be incredibly deep, but obviously they remained friends even after Cassandra was removed from the canvas. Flighty, bitchy Colby wasn't the person that I expected to see as a calming, supportive force in Cassandra's life. I guess you really can't judge a book by its cover. The scenes were remarkable, and I was so riveted that I completely forgot that I was supposed to be live tweeting at the time.

There are three memorable AMC stories involving rape and pregnancy. Erica Kane was raped by Richard Fields, and she gave the baby (Kendall) up for adoption. Bianca was raped by Michael Cambias, and she opted to raise the child herself. Now, ten years after Bianca's rape, Cassandra is facing a similar decision, and the story feels completely different and far more realistic. A lot of viewers have strong opinions about this story, and I think that creating a dialogue is always a good thing.

I find the whole bachelor auction snoozy. I had to ask my Twitter followers if people even hold those types of events any more. It seems very late-1990s to me. Although it does explain what happened to Griffin -- he was auctioned off for charity, and the winner never gave him back.

Speaking of snoozy, I howled like a crazy person after Celia had her sexy little daydream about Pete. It wasn't that I was laughing at her for having the dream, it's that when it was revealed to viewers that Celia was daydreaming, Celia was making out with the air. Those are her good times. Then, if that wasn't enough, she had a daymare about... something. I have to think that if AMC were still airing four times a week, we'd have gotten a lot more detail about Celia's past by now. However, the two episodes per week just makes it seem like we've been waiting for eons to learn who her mystery man is. Maybe Evelyn is slipping Celia some sort of mind-altering drug to keep her in line.

Speaking of Evelyn -- where is she? Maybe she's the one who had the high bid on Griffin. If the headmistress' door's a rocking, don't come a-knockin'.

I'm a bit conflicted by JR's steroid use. There's a part of me that feels, "Here we go again. Angry JR rails against the world after another bender." And after last week's Two Scoops where I talked up the benefits of recycling or revisiting storylines, that may make me seem like I'm contradicting myself. I think the part of me that is leery of this walk down unpleasant memory lane is all due to my concerns over not knowing where the storyline is going. I think it's somewhat uncreative to say, "Hey! He was a drunk before, so let's just keep the substance abuse thing going." That's uninspired.

What works in this storyline is the setup. This wasn't just a case of JR "falling off the wagon" or there being some outrageous extenuating circumstance like his love interest falling for another woman that set him off. No, everything was crafted very carefully. JR and AJ's relationship has been mended. There's a possible love interest on the horizon. But everyone around JR is rightfully concerned that any stress could cause him to have some sort of relapse. It's ironic that their shielding him from those types of stressors is what has resulted in his backslide.

It's easy to understand why JR would want to use the performance enhancing drugs to speed along his recovery, even if it does mean that he's ignoring the medical advice of doctor/physical therapist/possible love interest Cara Castillo. I'm didn't go to the Dixie Martin School of Psychiatry, but I think that JR might believe that his life will be everything he wants it to be if he can get himself back to being 100% physically fit.

I think that he's forgotten that his life was still a mess even before he had some physical limitations. Strangely, JR's love life was most recently in its best form when JR was battling cancer; the moment he went into remission, he tanked his love life. That might be another one of Agnes Nixon's life lessons tucked away in a soap opera storyline: be thankful for your blessings.

I am thankful to everyone who checks out my Two Scoops column on a regular basis, especially those that take time out of their schedule to share some of their thoughts with me. Here are some of the recent comments I received in my Inbox from fans, this week's YouScoops:

I am unable to watch the show since its return but I read the updates religiously. Last week I read that Bianca flashed back to talking to the newborn Miranda. I thought Babe raised Miranda as her child when she was born... -- Paula

I find Celia boring also. We saw a glimmer of adventurous spirit and good chemistry with Pete when she ran off to New York. Now she's kind of in psycho wallflower mode. Maybe she has multiple personalities? Take a bow Sal Stowers! Great work. She draws me in and keeps me there with her. Hope Michael Knight makes it back some time. Nice to see Michael Nader back. Is David Canary EVER coming back? -- Therese

The one thing that I don't understand is everyone keeps talking about how someone could kill someone else in cold blood. Zach did that. He killed someone to change his identity. He was never formally charged with that but still he admitted it. It seems that some of the history is being forgotten. Oh hum.-- Kris

I thought that Uri had found out who Cassandra was before she had sex with any customers and kept her with him. Could that mean Uri is the father of her baby? How she handles the decision whether to keep the baby or not if Uri is the father could have serious long lasting repercussions. -- Patti

Miranda was stolen from Bianca shortly after her birth, but mother and daughter were reunited well before Miranda was grown. The photos that were used recently on AMC were not recreated; they really were from past episodes of AMC.

Yes, David Canary is now retired, but I do think that he agreed to make occasional appearances. Those occasional appearances just seem like rarities because of AMC's two episodes per week schedule.

Michael E. Knight has said that he is enjoying his life in Los Angeles, and isn't sure he wants to move back across the country -- again. In an interview with Soap Opera Digest, he said returning to AMC "just doesn't feel like a good fit right now." Like so many fans, I hope that the fit becomes right as soon as possible.

As for Zach, I've wracked my brain and even looked through our AMC Recaps Archive and Who's Who section, and I have to say that I don't remember him killing anyone to escape being Alexander Cambias, Jr. He staged his own death and started a new life using the name of a former schoolmate.

I'll be back next week with more comments, feedback, and questions, and maybe even a few answers. Remember that I want to hear from you! If you'd like to share your thoughts and have them possibly appear in a future column, just click here to send me an email. You can also post them below in the Comments section if you are a Facebook user.

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