January 22, 2007

Last week I vented my ire that Josh would gaslight his own sister into doing what he wants.  He’s certainly not the first.  Ever since Kendall has come back to the show, people have used her insecurities against her time and again.  Apparently Josh was not to be the last to mess with her mind.  JR was doing it this week.  Granted, she tried to do it to him, but I don’t give a flying fig about him.  Especially not when he’s back to slobbering all over her in that creepy way again.  That was something about their former friendship that I had not missed at all.  So as much as I wanted to pound on Josh, let’s just say that I’m fantasizing about shoving a stick of dynamite up JR’s ass and lighting it with a Cuban cigar. 

It’s really sad to see Ryan back to acting like a hypocritical jerk.  I’m beginning to wonder if there’s a Jekyll and Hyde thing going on, because there are times when he acts perfectly reasonable and charming and even funny.  Then he goes into self-righteous mode and sucks all the air out of the room.  Tad also exhibits these traits from time to time, and I was afraid I was going to have to deal with them double-teaming Zach.   I had to laugh at Ryan when he said, “I got an idea -- why don't you investigate the thousands of people that Zach screwed over?”  Do you really want to take that tone of voice, Ryan, considering your former career as a con artist?  I won’t even go into Ryan’s refusal to help Fusion get back on track, or his jumping down on Kendall on the rooftop (WTF?).   

It was very romantic of Jeff to transform the patio at the Valley Inn into a lovely dinner for two, complete with heaters, cascading white flowers, twinkling lights and soft music.  But I liked it much better the first time, when Zach transformed the gazebo for Kendall last New Years Eve.   It makes me pretty ill that TPTB would use the same type of setting for Jeff’s attempts at bludgeoning Erica’s marriage to death. 

I wanted to pet Tad and put him in my pocket for being one of the first to give Zoe the benefit of the doubt while the rock star was still AWOL.  Later in the week I wanted to have his babies after watching him take Jeff to task.  He perfectly voiced my disgust over Jeff’s vulture-like behavior and his complete insensitivity towards Jackson.   

But Tad will have to take second place to Zach, as usual.  When Zach shared with Kendall that he understood Zoe’s identity crisis because of his own when he was a young man, I wanted to pass out.  He didn’t see Zoe as a freak, and not just because he’s been around transgenders, like Josh and Jamie.  In his own way, he understood.  But the other thing about Zach this week that made my heart go pitty-pat was that he wore a t-shirt to bed that said “Spike Rocks.”  There are no words for the awesomeness. 

Kenny is the latest suspect, even though he isn’t being seriously considered.  I would love it if he turned out to be the killer.  Even though it is starting to look like a former lover of Amelia is doing this out of revenge, it could all just be a deliberate red herring that Kenny created to avert suspicion away from himself.  He could have learned a few details from Simone if she talked to him about Ethan.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Ethan knew about how his grandmother died – he would have tried to dig up as much about his father’s past as he could and had probably toured the warehouse at some point before he died.  If he had shared what he found with Simone, she might have shared it with Kenny.  Or perhaps Kenny is (coincidentally!) the son of Amelia’s lover, and is getting revenge on Zach on behalf of his dad and sticking it to those condescending Fusion girls while he’s at it.  Anyway, that’s my current speculation that will be completely wrong.  

I don’t think Amanda was showing good judgment by agreeing that Jonathan should escort Kenny to the police station.  Given his violent behavior recently, and his past tendencies to turn vigilante, it didn’t seem like a good idea.  Of course, Kenny had it really easy compared to the other suspect that was roughed up this week.  I mentioned in my last column that lynch mobs freak me out, and it was certainly at its freakiest this week.  Fortunately no one got strung up or even beat up, but it was certainly very tense.  

Major kudos to all the actors in that tense scene.  There was a lot going on, and there were a lot of emotions at play – many of which are unfamiliar to a lot of the characters.  I think everyone did a good job of staying true to their characters in such a highly-charged atmosphere.  My stomach and all my muscles were in knots the whole time. 

I had to laugh when Jackson and Tad were saying that Derek shouldn’t be working the case because he can’t be objective.  Uh…hello?  Granted, we would be hard-pressed to find anyone in the town that could be objective about these murders, but it was amusing nonetheless. 

Other amusements this week:  Kendall’s relentless snarking on Maggie and Dixie’s feeble attempts to get JR off Krystal’s scent.  Line of the week goes to Erica, who said, “Doesn’t anyone know how to break up and make it stick?”

Thanks for reading.  Cheers!

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