HOWARD WISE JPI/ABC
Y&R’s Daniel (Michael Graziadei) became a common cause for Phyllis (Michelle Stafford, l.) and Christine (Lauralee Bell), while on GH, Sam’s (Kelly Monaco) tragic demise was a showcase for stellar acting by Nancy Lee Grahn (Alexis).
The Best
Young and Restless: Christine To The Rescue
When Daniel got arrested for killing Heather, he called in his mother’s worst enemy to defend him — and it did not sit well with Mommy Dearest. “You’re going to make sure he gets the electric chair,” Phyllis screamed at Christine, who kept her cool and said what everyone in Genoa City has been wanting to say for 30 years: “Shut the hell up!”
Phyllis asked Michael to take over the case and he pointed out a few obvious facts. Such as: 1) Daniel gets to hire his own attorney 2) Christine is a good lawyer and 3) Christine would never tank a case against the son of her boyfriend (Danny). Indeed, Christine got right to work, questioning Daniel about the theory that Sharon is the actual murderer and convincing Phyllis to help her prove it.
To quote the old proverb, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Christine and Phyllis setting aside their long-standing feud to save Daniel is a recipe for peak drama — one that does not bode well for the clearly unraveling Sharon.
Days of our Lives: Vivian Returns — With Philip!
Vivian Alamain is one of those rare (and valuable!) characters who can always be relied on to pop in and cause trouble. Her latest appearance involved kidnapping her son Stefan “for his own good” to get him away from Gabi and putting the kibosh on Xander’s deal with Kristen to trade away Victor’s company. “Soon Titan will belong to us!” she exulted to Philip, who accompanied her on this latest hit-and-run.
Philip has as much of a claim on Titan as Xander does; more if someone is to believe Victor’s letter Philip brought with him (don’t believe it — it was forged by Vivian). That, of course, prompted the unhinged Xander to ask Kristen to murder Philip — a bridge too far even for the woman who has kidnapped half the town. With Xander v. Philip firmly in place, Vivian’s rivalry with Kate cannot be far behind. “Guess who?” chirped Kate as she excitedly entered her son Philip’s room in the Friday tag. True to form, out popped Vivian!
The Best and The Worst
General Hospital: Sam’s Death
To be clear, we are not calling GH’s decision to kill off Sam the best of the week. The ouster of Kelly Monaco, a 21-year veteran, is hardly sitting well with most GH watchers, who have rallied behind the actress and passionately protested the loss of her popular alter ego. And the manner of Sam’s death — she made it through surgery, got engaged to Dante, and was exchanging loving sentiments with her mom Alexis when she abruptly took a turn for the worse — was hardly the ending Sam fans would have scripted for the vibrant adventurer who had gotten herself out of countless life-or-death scrapes for two decades.
But we can’t talk about the week that was without praising the agonizingly emotional scenes that came out of the sudden death of this character. Sam happily showing Dante’s sparkler to her mom just before she coded, Alexis’s devastated reaction (“She’s so cold!”), Jason’s flashback-filled good-bye (“I will never forget”), Liz’s advice to Jason to keep it simple when telling the kids (“Do it for Sam”), Sonny consoling Dante re: his regret at focusing on Lulu instead of Sam before the surgery, Laura explaining prayer to Rocco in the chapel… every scene combined intense emotional drama with great performances that were a credit to GH and the legacy of Sam McCall.
Far less great, of course, was losing a beloved character in such a grievous way. And Jason pouring his heart out to Sam’s corpse felt like a final slap in the face to “JaSam” fans who had longed to hear those words when their fave was alive. We also have to big side-eye to Jason’s mismatched twin Drew reminiscing about Sam’s life with Carly (of all people! And before Sam’s sisters or Spinelli found out, too!) while Jason was breaking the news to Drew’s daughter Scout that her mommy had died. Father of the year Drew is not.
“Is there anything I can do?” asked Sonny.
“Bring her back,” responded a tearful Alexis, speaking for every viewer who has ever lost a loved one.
The Worst
Y&R: The Endless Battle For Chancellor
It’s been months of “So-and-so better watch out!” as many of Genoa City’s A-listers jockey to either stay at, regain control of, or take over Chancellor Industries. Katherine left the company to Victor who sold it to Jill who put Billy in charge who changed the name to Abbott-Chancellor and fired Lily and hired Phyllis which made Jill mad so she ordered Billy to fire Phyllis and rehire Lily.
But wait, there’s more! Victor is planning a hostile takeover and wants Nikki in charge, but he promised the company to Lily in exchange for dirt on Billy and then double-crossed her, so a vengeful Lily now wants to come back as sole CEO, a job Billy has vowed to retain. It’s a confusing round-robin made worse by the fact that Jill, who should be at the center of this story, only appears in brief video chats to yell at Billy for screwing up the company.
Meanwhile, Nikki wants Lily to come work with her at Chancellor, a company she doesn’t even own or work for… The pieces are in place for a juicy climax but we only get conversation between the players, mostly in bars.
“You and Victor need to find a new dream,” Lily advised Nikki. How about a new storyline?
