Dear readers, some weeks I feel like I could just submit a one paragraph scoop for The Young and the Restless. Something like this..."The Abbots are bickering over who is in charge at Jabot. The Newmans are bickering about who is in charge at Newman. The Chancellor-Winters team is bickering over who is in charge at Chancellor-Winters."
Sometimes the monotony of it drives me mad. This week, Jack and Billy's alliance has caused a jealous Kyle to join forces with Audra. Poor Jack will feel blindsided when he finds out his son was working against him. My poor sweet Jack never learns. This cycle in one form or another repeats endlessly all over Genoa City.
Over a Zoom call, Jill is having a conniption because she can't figure out Mamie's true intention in buying into Chancellor-Winters. Lily and Devon think she is totally on the level, but Jill smells a rat with a vendetta. Victor is cruelly tormenting his kids by pretending to be feeble just to find out who will be the first to betray him. With a town filled with so many rich, interesting, and pretty people, can't they ever do anything fun?
Maybe I am biased. I watch and write a column for General Hospital, too. On GH this week, they traveled to Puerto Rico for a wedding, there was a kidnapping with a gunfight and a struggle on a cliff. A villain was released from prison, and another one was in the hospital recovering from a beating. Stuff happened. People went places. Action scenes! Each soap has things it does especially well. GH excels at action-packed storylines, but Y&R is better on cast consistency. They have proven that lately by bringing back both Mamie and Danny Romalotti, both with the original cast members. I love that. But will they be able to break the pattern?
This week, Danny and Phyllis went to the park for a fruit salad picnic. That was a nice change of pace. It didn't happen at Crimson Lights, Society, or someone's dark office. I enjoyed the scene both for the variety of location and because I like Danny and Phyllis. I know, I know, Danny is a saint, and Phyllis is the devil, which is exactly why I like them together. Danny inspires her to be her best self, and Phyllis just lights up like a Christmas tree when she's around him. I know I am supposed to be rooting for Danny and Cricket. I did like them together in the day, and maybe when Christine returns and I see them in scenes together, my old heart will melt. But right now, I'm low-key rooting for Phyllis and Danny. But my mind is open for any possibility. I am just so thrilled to have Michael Damien back in Genoa City.
Heather and Lucy are coming back to Genoa City full time again, and that will throw some obstacles in the path of Lily and Daniel's love life. Especially now that Lily and Daniel live in the same building. How many times will Lily see Heather leaving Daniel's place before she blows? "It's not what it looks like! I was just here to talk about Lucy." I can hear it now and see the daggers in Lily's eyes. Oh, please make it even more interesting and let Heather rent a place in that building, too! "Come and knock on our door, we've been waiting for you...." (RIP, Suzanne Somers.)
Lily's focus is divided right now between love and business because her partner Jill is freaking the heck out over Mamie's investment in Chancellor-Winters. Readers, Jess Walton is 74 years old. She has been doing Zoom scenes for quite a while now. I wonder if she has decided it is time to retire. When she returned for Mamie's party, I thought, "Oh, yay! She's back!" But alas, she's back on Zoom. I can't help asking myself if this Mamie storyline was designed to facilitate Jill's exit from Genoa City. If Mamie and Tucker's ploy to get Jill out of the way and give Lily and Devon control of Katherine's company is successful, I can't see Jill carrying on as an intern at Jabot or something. I am not sure how this will all play out, but that thought crossed my mind.
But age is just a number, as Eric Braeden proves. He is 82 and was battling cancer but is still on our screens and still pounding the hell out of punching bags. I am convinced that if one of Victor's cantankerous kids tried to fight him, Victor could still take them. My dad was the same way. He used to work as a chaplain in a kids' psychiatric hospital, and some punk thought he could fight the preacher and came at my dad full speed. My dad, who was well into his retirement years, had the kid on the ground with only one hand. I miss him.
But I digress. My point is that age has no bearing. Some people are ready to retire at 50, and some work until the day they drop dead. Look at Aunt Mamie! Veronica Redd is 75, and I have the feeling that Aunt Mamie is just getting started. I'm slightly disappointed that she's in cahoots with Tucker, because I was hoping she was in cahoots with Malcolm or Olivia -- or that Drucilla was back from the dead. Instead, it's just stupid, scheming Tucker.
Tucker threw a glass at the wall after Ashley sent a one word "No" text back to his plea for yet another chance. Which means he will dive into the deep end of his revenge scheme. I don't understand why Audra keeps caving in to Tucker's demands. He has nothing on her anymore, as she came clean to Victor about her part in the cover-up at McCall. It must be that she's just playing both sides against the middle. No matter who wins, both sides think she is on their team. But she's only on Audra's team.
There was a time in my life where I would have judged Audra far more harshly for her disloyalty to her company. But I retired this year after working for 46 years, and let me tell you, no company that I showed blind loyalty to ever deserved it. So, if she's out for herself and her own success, she is smarter than I ever was.
I like Audra and Kyle together, even though I know she will eventually devour him. I know that Kyle will fall under her spell, do anything she whispers in his ear, and probably end up losing his family company. By the time that happens, Audra will have found another rich and powerful man to snuggle up to so she can get another rung up the ladder. I predict Kyle will end up with nothing.
The real question is this: when Diane must choose between being on Jack's side or Kyle's side, which side will she choose? She wants her son back in the co-CEO spot, and will she cross Jack and Billy to get him there? I have been suspicious of Diane ever since she got back, but lately, I have said to myself, "Maybe you were wrong about her. Maybe she can be trusted. Maybe she has changed." But I think this brewing feud between Jack and Kyle will reveal her loyalties one way or the other.
Sally's divided loyalties cost her a relationship with Nick, but is it a loss? You know, I have realized lately the times I get the angriest at characters in TV and movies are when they make mistakes I have made. I can say to this fictional character, "What are you doing? Why are you so stupid!" but what I am really saying is, "Why am *I* so stupid?" Do you ever feel that way?
Sally was involved with Nick, a totally nice guy, a very safe choice, and he treated her well. But she still had feelings for Adam, and the two of them have been like magnet and steel since the day they met. Sally has sworn off Adam a dozen times, but then she sees him, and it's like an invisible force pulling her in his direction.
Sally's impassioned speech to Adam about how every time she starts to be happy, he comes in and makes her doubt and question herself was very powerful. She asked him why he can't just let her go but then admitted that she can't let go of Adam, either. They cannot stay away from each other. It's not possible. They are twin flames. They are soul mates. They understand one another on some inexplicable cosmic level. Who knows why it is true? It just is.
So, why doesn't Sally just cave in and let herself be with Adam? I think sometimes in life when we have been dealt some body blows, we almost fear the thing we think will make us happy.
Why? In my life, there have been times when everything was exactly as I hoped it would be. Times when my life was in order, I was happy and content. But then, almost as soon as I whispered, "I have never been happier," a tragedy struck. A car accident, a death in the family, a layoff, a turn of fortune. Something bad happened. So, you train yourself not to let yourself have the things you want because if you don't have them, they can't be taken from you.
I feel that is where Sally is right now. I believe she still loves Adam, but he crushed her heart before. It doesn't matter that he thought he was doing it for her own good. It doesn't matter that it ripped him up to do it. It just matters that it destroyed her.
So, if Sally allows herself to get back together with him, it gives him the power to destroy her again, to take his love away again. I think they are at their absolute best together. They each make the other better and stronger. But Sally knows it could all fall apart and that if it didn't work, she'd be leveled. So, she keeps her distance from the man she loves more than anything because she fears the heartache that she anticipates will befall her somewhere in the future.
I believe they belong together, and I am rooting for them to overcome their fears and try again. And if they do, I will pray they stay out of their own way and let themselves be happy because they both deserve it. Nick's endgame is Sharon, in my opinion, and I hope they reconnect as they get their new company off the ground.
But if Victor has anything to say about it, his kids won't have time for love lives because he is faking dementia to torment them in some sick scheme. There is an old movie called Greedy, with Kirk Douglas, about a wealthy man who concocts a scheme to find out which of his relatives really loves him to determine who he will leave his fortune to when he dies. It's hilarious and irreverent -- if you can stream it somewhere, you should. It's the first thing I thought of when I realized Victor was faking his memory lapses.
This had the potential to play out in like manner and see what shenanigans Victor could get into while making his kids reveals their true nature. But instead, if next week's previews are as they seem, Nick has already figured out his dad is faking and is reporting back to Sharon about it. Why all the buildup with no payoff? It seems like a missed opportunity not to use this to bring a little comedy and levity into Genoa City.
As I said earlier, each soap has its strengths and weaknesses, and GH is better at interspersing comedy into the drama. When is the last time any people in Genoa City were happy and laughing. Consider Phyllis' glee while letting Tucker know that she discovered his link to Mamie and taunting him that she has the upper hand again in their game of cat and mouse.
I think that's one of the reasons I love Michele Stafford and Phyllis so much. No matter what happens to her, she exhibits joie de vivre, the joy of life, in every circumstance. Think about her scenes with Danny this week; even when she is taking ownership of her bad decisions, she laughs and smiles and has a gleam in her eyes as she does it. She is the least mopey person in Genoa City. I root for her just because she makes me happy.
Courtney Hope (Sally) has that same spark inside her, but lately, the writing for Sally has been so gloomy -- losing a baby, two love interests, and her job -- that she hasn't had much opportunity to stop crying long enough to sparkle.
Gloria used to be a fantastic comic relief character on Y&R. I saw a preview that there will be a Baldwin family reunion soon, and I am all for it. Bring back Gloria, Kevin, and whichever husband Gloria is on now. Give me all her crazy. Cheer me up.
Or let Mamie and Jill have a hair-pulling fight, or maybe Victor and Jack become drinking buddies commiserating over their families, or let Tracy write a new book about the history of Genoa City's millionaires and show me a million clips of the old days. Just make something new happen!
So, readers, what is the deal with Claire Grace? Who do you think she could be working for? Does Nikki have an old enemy we have forgotten? Or is it someone that holds Victor responsible for their downfall? I am curious to see what Claire's deal is.
What will happen tomorrow? Will Victor's kids turn the tables on him and have him committed when they discover he's been faking dementia? Will Phyllis try to scrape anyone else off the bottom of her shoe when her archrival Cricket gets back to town? Will Tucker ever get uncomfortable about repeatedly lying to Devon's face? Will Audra and Claire Grace come to blows over who is best at sucking up to Nikki? Will Aunt Mamie listen to Tucker and stop trying to persuade that snake Nate back to the family company?
Will Summer seduce Chance away from Sharon? (I hope so.) Will Diane side with Kyle over Jack, and Jack can be the next Golden Bachelor? Will Chloe ever get her own love interest and storyline again, or is she forever doomed to be the understanding best friend who just listens to everyone's troubles? Will Billy have to be a monk until Chelsea comes back to town, or can he find a little happiness in life?
Will Esther start marketing pumpkin spice lattes at Crimson Lights and boost the business in her new managerial role? Will Tucker bug some more bonsai trees as Christmas gifts for his long list of enemies this year? Will the Y&R writers start writing some smiles into the scripts?
Only tomorrow knows, dear readers, and I will tune in tomorrow as long as there are tomorrows.
Tamilu
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