November 14, 2006

“When the world was still cooling, I used to love Girl’s Night Out.”  “I've already spent girls' night out with a couple of your friends -- not at the same time.”  “And you call yourself a Martin.”  I love, love, love me some Tad.  His one-liners are always exquisite, whether he’s being charming, cynical, darkly amused, world-weary, or filled with glee.  I also like the (possibly temporary) acknowledgement that he can no longer claim to be self-righteous.  That was always an edge that David had over Tad.  David would sometimes be hypocritical, but he never thought he was above morally questionable behavior. 

When JR asked Babe if she had told Josh she loved him, I wondered what JR would consider the bigger betrayal:  her sleeping with Josh or her loving him.  Anyway, the predictable happened.  JR went on a bender.  *yawn* 

The scenes between JR and Bianca were bizarre.  It was as if they were trying to recreate the tense and ultimately horrifying encounter between Bianca and Michael Cambias that fateful night at Myrtle’s boarding house.  Frankly, I think that was exactly what they were hoping to accomplish.  They failed.  Only writers of rare talent can recreate magic.  It’s much better for everyone to weave a whole new spell (if you can do it).   

I was definitely tense when I watched the scene.  While I knew he was going to ultimately jump out a window, I didn’t know what would lead up to it.  Were they going to ruin the character of JR even further by having him entertain the possibility of raping Bianca?  The whole exchange was annoying and at times silly.  JR menacingly tells Bianca that somebody has to pay.  The dramatic music reached a crescendo as Bianca wondered at his meaning.  Then he makes a crack about the mini-bar, the music stopped abruptly, the tension broke, and my eyes rolled back in my head.  This same cycle played out a few too many more times, with the added bonus of Erica, and then finally JR ended my misery by jumping out the window. 

There’s good soapy, and there’s bad soapy.  I guess it’s like the difference between good booze and bad booze.  The good kind goes down smooth and makes you feel deliciously mellow.  The bad kind makes you sick the moment you’re forced to swallow it.  Actually, there was some good soap in there.  Bianca got to deliver yet another scathing speech.  So far I haven’t gotten tired of them.   

Once the window-jumping commenced, things got very soapy in a good way.  Heroic saves.  Hospital vigils.  Tears.  Recriminations.  Hugging.  Yelling.  People getting decked.  Blame flung around like monkeys flinging poo.  Aaaaah.  Good times, good times.   

There were some good family encounters.  Di and Dixie shared a few sisterly moments.  Josh went to see Kendall, despite his continued insistence that he doesn’t need his family. 

Remember my comment from last week?  “I’m eagerly anticipating what nugget of truth we’ll learn about Zach after his visceral reaction to the walk-through.”  What was my reward for my patience over the weekend?  “It was the spitting image of the house that I grew up in. Everything about it -- the entranceway and the -- the paint and the balcony -- it was just like the balcony I would sit and -- and wait for my dad to come home, and I dreaded it.”  “My dad took everything away from me. Everything, everyone I ever loved, he would take away from me. Now whenever I -- I feel like I'm losing someone that I care about, I'd see his face.”  Now, there’s nothing wrong with all that.  I enjoy Tortured Zach.  I enjoy Zach sharing his feelings.  But what new thing did we learn about him?  There was nothing substantive in those statements that I didn’t already know.  It was a tease.  Just like the hallucination of Alexander Cambias a few weeks ago.  As an hors d'oeuvre it was very tasty, but a meal it does not make. 

A meal that I have found to be very satisfactory so far is Laura’s return on GH.  I plan to enjoy every last drop of this storyline before she goes off into that good night.  It took Luke awhile to finally agree to Laura’s suggestion to marry again, and when he did her relief was unmistakable.  She was clearly torn up by his prolonged hesitation, afraid that he would say no.  Even more tangible was Luke’s fear as she begged him for the truth up in the attic.  Weariness and doubt oppressed him as he whispered over and over that he couldn’t do this again.  “Me and my big, powerful love.”  Interspersed with the drama were a few chuckleworthy lines from Luke, including his plea to sit instead of kneel, because he’ll otherwise get a charley horse. 

On a whole other wavelength, but just as bittersweet, was the interaction between Luke and Tracy.  I was fascinated by her tale of what she had really thought about Luke and Laura as a couple in the past.  She seemed to hint that her interest in Luke went back much farther than any of us knew.  I was frankly surprised that she agreed to a divorce.  I also thought it was sweet of Edward to recognize how his daughter felt about Luke, and consider how she might react to Luke getting remarried on her family’s grounds. 

I apologize profusely for the atrociously bad song parody yesterday.  I give you my soapy promise never to do it again.  You know how much soapy promises are worth.

Thanks for reading.  Cheers! 

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