January 29, 2007

As a fan of Zach, I hated watching Josh and Ryan attack him, drug him and interrogate him.  I’ll be perfectly honest, though, and say that it was only the fact that someone I don’t like was doing it to someone I do like that made me think it was so awful.  This is a soap, and like all soaps and fiction in general, we tend to accept a different set of morality rules for behavior.  If it had been another set of characters – let’s say David drugging JR to get him to confess to plotting against Babe – I would have been laughing my ass off, cheering David on.  Really, it wasn’t the drugging and interrogating so much that pissed me off – I rather enjoyed TK’s portrayal during those scenes – it was the fact that Ryan doesn’t even once choke on his hypocrisy.  Ryan has always been one of the “white knights” that reviles morally questionable behavior.  He’ll look down on Zach for causing the blackout or David for all of his various drug schemes.  Yet when Josh (who isn’t a hypocrite because he’s always pulling this kind of thing) suggests the truth serum, Ryan was all over it.  Didn’t even hesitate.  The irony in the whole situation was that, as Zach pointed out, Ryan didn’t find out anything useful regarding the killer.  Zach had been perfectly open with Ryan about the important stuff he found. 

Hypocrisy part two:  Ryan’s behavior towards Kendall.  Now, I’m not saying his anger wasn’t justified.  She kept something huge from him, for very questionable reasons.  (I still think her behavior would have been more sympathetic if we saw that she was still grieving the painful end of her friendship with Greenlee and their plans to provide Ryan with a family, and was therefore resentful of Annie’s effortless accomplishment of said goal)  He has the right to be hurt, to not want to have anything to do with her - at least for awhile.  But Ryan always takes it too far.  He did this before when he was in Greenlee’s pocket and then married her.  Kendall did some messed up things in that time period because he hurt her so badly, and he responded by treating her as if she were scum.  If someone hurts you, walk away.  You don’t verbally abuse them.  I might not feel as strongly about it if he were going off on someone like David for whom insults just roll off his back.  David would just give it right back to him.  When Ryan takes jabs at Kendall, she takes it right to heart.  Ryan knows this, and it is exactly why he does it.  He may be proud of the fact that he refrains from throwing punches like his old man, but he is throwing psychic punches, and that type of wound lasts a hell of a lot longer.  

The hypocritical part comes in because Ryan has no room to talk about betrayal.  He let his wife think he was dead.  He subjected her to watching, for the second time, her husband go over a long drop and supposedly die.  When you pull something like that, you kind of lose all credibility to self-righteousness.  As a hypocrisy addendum, Ryan expected Zach to keep his mouth shut about knowing he was alive, yet spewed at Zach for keeping Kendall’s secret from him.   

I love the jokes that fly as Josh gets used to the Kane dynamic.  Erica roasts Maggie and Babe over the coals and Josh says to Bianca “I so get why you moved to Paris.”  Then there was the odd little bonding moment between Maggie and Babe where they wanted to punch Erica. 

One of the things I love about Zoe is how she’ll slip in naughty little things in the course of a conversation.  “Who could give up the swagger and the muscle and the bulge for a closet full of couture and a lifetime of counting calories?”   

I will love it when Josh finally gets the hell over his psycho daddy being killed.  I think he’s upset because there was so much more evil he could have learned from his pappy, and now the opportunity is gone.  It’s really too bad that Greg didn’t get around to writing that book, “Science + Brilliance + Hero Worship: Mixing the Perfect God Complex.”  The first few chapters would have outlined how Dr. Frankenstein went about it all wrong. 

Linda finally died!  And she did it off-screen!  Yay!  Oh come on, I’m not completely heartless.  I melted at watching Tad help Julia work up the nerve to tell Kathy the bad news.  I also hearted Jackson trying to keep Jonathan from self-destructing. 

Line of the week that had me spewing coffee out of my mouth goes to Derek:  “I don't know if the guy's full of it or if he really is some sort of sentimental weirdo, but either way, I have nothing to hold him on.”  (a lot of it was in the delivery) 

Good Point of the week goes to Bianca:  “J.R., if Josh and Babe wanted to be together, they would be together. They wouldn't need to plan some kind of big conspiracy against you.” 

Snark of the week:  JR talking about Babe, “She wants to hug the damn world.” 

Well, this is going to be a rough week.  I’m going to spend the majority of it really, really pissed off.  When I get this worked up about a character that I only marginally care about, you know that the ca ca has really hit the fan.  Here’s not looking forward to it.

Thanks for reading.  Cheers!

Want more Dax?  Check out her website: