Peacock
Winging It: DAYS’ Nicole (Arianne Zucker) gave Eric (Greg Vaughan) one heck of a reason to not board his flight.
What makes a good soap opera arc? Lots of little payoffs and then a big one.
DAYS made us wait eight months for Nicole to find out that: 1) Sloan stole her baby, 2) Eric was the father, and 3) Nicole’s husband EJ found out and didn’t tell her. Characters learned the truth along the way (Leo, Stefan), which kept the secret percolating so that when it exploded we were paying attention.
The first prong was a letdown. When the news came out that Sloan had stolen — not adopted — baby Jude to raise with Eric, she suffered no consequences. Sloan just snuck out of town. The second and third prongs came faster and better: Who saw Gabi blowing up EJ’s life on the first day she got out of prison?
Nicole (as a reporter): “What role did DA DiMera play in overturning your case?”
Gabi: “Much credit must go to your husband. The only reason he exonerated me was he was afraid of losing his beloved wife to Eric Brady. Because EJ is not Jude’s father. Eric is.”
Bam! Nicole turned to EJ and apologized that he wasn’t the father, still clueless about the rotten snake she married.
Gabi: “He already knew.”
Gabi was taking no prisoners, spilling out the entire truth — including that Melinda and Stefan had blackmailed EJ. With hindsight, Nicole had to be pretty dense not to have seen the signs that her husband was being blackmailed, but she finally caught on.
EJ: “Where are you going?”
Nicole: “None of your business.”
Cut to Nicole running up to Eric at the airport as he was getting on a plane like she could just push a baby carriage right up to the gate without a boarding pass. Who does she think she is, Rachel running after Ross in 1998 London?
Nicole (to Eric): “I had to stop you from getting on that plane!”
Eric: “I don’t understand.”
Nicole: “You are Jude’s father. Gabi found out and decided I needed to know.”
The scenes were too rushed for the culmination of such a long and important story. In two episodes, they went from Gabi’s revelation to Nicole telling Eric to Nicole demanding a divorce from EJ. But at least they got a real baby for Eric to cry over. I also appreciated the added layer of Gabi explaining to Stefan that the time she lost with her daughter, Arianna, prompted her to come clean in order to spare Eric the same missed time with his child.
Stefan called BS.
Stefan: “You did this to stick it to EJ.”
That was just a bonus.
GH gets props for the methodical way they’ve set up Sonny vs. Ava, but I’m not sure who I’m supposed to be rooting for in this story. Sonny’s meds were tampered with, so he gets a pass on his bad behavior, but Ava lost a child and deserves our sympathy in her battle to keep Sonny from getting sole custody of Avery. Where does Ava recording Natalia’s homophobic rant and releasing it to a tabloid fit into this narrative?
Alexis (to Ava): “You are alone, and you have no friends. You wreaked havoc and never stopped to consider the life you ruined would be your own.”
Alexis promised to “decimate” Ava, Sonny vowed to ruin Ava, she burned her bridges with Nina, and even Trina is looking sideways at her, so here’s me: Are we headed for a custody battle or a murder mystery? Either way, I’m in.
Cody repeatedly lied about the paternity test and Sasha tampered with Felicia’s secret test to keep the secret bubbling until Mac returned to town.
Cody (watching fireworks with Mac): “I’m your son.”
Mac was predictably mad, but Maxie counseled Cody to be patient and Felicia weighed in with her trademark bright side.
Mac: “He’s nothing but a grifter.”
Felicia: “You don’t think he came clean because he needs a kidney or points to shave off his driver’s license.”
They agreed that internal organs are off the table (ha!).
But I can’t say I’m on board for the 900th career change and love interest for Drew Cain… er Drew Quartermaine. To review: this guy was an angry Navy SEAL with a rap sheet a mile long (assaulted Nikolas, Franco, Valentin, etc.) when he was retconned into Jason’s twin, Carly’s lover, upstanding CEO of Aurora, and now politician. I thought I had something when Tracy got wind of Drew changing his name to Quartermaine to run for Congress, but no.
Tracy: “My brother Alan would be very proud of you.”
What a missed opportunity for drama — Drew didn’t even ask permission to take their name! If he’s going to be a real Q, give us flashbacks of his parents Alan Quartermaine and Susan Moore and scenes with Tracy/Ned/Jason to beef up the connection.
And yes, Drew having hate sex on the floor with Nina and then kissing her daughter Willow (which Sasha witnessed) has all the makings of soapy deliciousness, but it came out of left field.
Willow: “I wouldn’t be alive if you hadn’t risked your life in Greenland. I don’t want you to move to D.C. I’d miss you.”
Drew: “I’d miss you too.”
SMOOCH! Their discussion about how if they’d only met at a different time, it could have been “love” gave me icky Dad/Babysitter vibes — and not just because of their 25-year age difference.
Drew: “When we met you were already in love with Michael.”
Willow: “I don’t know what I’m doing.”
Me neither. Spill it, Sasha!
B&B’s Poppy came out of left field, too. One day she crossed paths with Bill, they remembered a magical one-night stand they had 20 years ago, and poof! Bill had a daughter named Luna.
Except now they’ve added shade to that tale, sprinkling in dubious facts about Poppy like her jealousy of Bill’s ex, Katie, and a guy named Tom who claimed he was Luna’s father. Oh, and Tom just got murdered! That left Poppy a little… distracted.
Bill: “If something is upsetting you, I want to hear about it. There’s nothing you can’t tell me.”
Poppy rambled on about her new life being overwhelming, but it sounded more like she was worried about whoever she was in cahoots with to kill Tom (Li? Jack? Justin?). Here’s hoping the next arc involves Liam secretly doing another DNA test. Why share the Spencer wealth with his “new sister” if Luna isn’t even a Spencer?
The Kyle vs. Jack and Diane conflict on Y&R bounced along for months until she finally fired him. The payoff came when Kyle jumped ship from Jabot to Glissade, working with his backstabbing ex-lover Audra for Victor Newman.
Kyle (to Jack): “I work for the enemy and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.”
Further complicating things is the fact that Kyle still lives in the Abbott family home.
Kyle: “I think it’s best if I find my own place.”
Jack: “Neither of us want you to move out.
Kyle: “What about what I want?”
What is that, scorched earth? Diane leaked the news to Summer, who wasn’t pleased to hear her ex was planning to move their son out of the only home he has known in Genoa City.
Summer: “You’re starting a war with Harrison’s grandparents.”
Kyle: “You aren’t even Harrison’s biological mother! Go after custody. You will fail.”
As much as I like Kyle punishing Diane for faking her death and leaving him to grow up in boarding school (with occasional visits home like all good soap opera children), he is cruisin’ for a bruisin’ challenging his parents and ex-wife like that — but kudos to Y&R for making me care so much about what is essentially a business story.
Will the next beat be Glissade besting Jabot? Jack getting revenge on Victor for stealing his son? Audra backstabbing Kyle? Any one of those would work, but my money’s on the latter.
Audra (re: Kyle): “I could use your advice.”
Nate: “Fire his ass.”
A double whammy: Payoff and payback.
Hey. It’s only my opinion.
