Reflections by Jill - A Weekly Commentary for OLTL for March 24, 2008

It was fun to see Viki back at work doing something she finds enjoyable and she sure did enjoy tying on that apron and pitching in at the diner, didn’t she? I thought it was a riot that just that day when Viki was helping Carlotta, everyone in Llanview showed up at the diner. What was even funnier was the fact that it didn’t bother Viki in the least. I love the way she gets a kick out of shocking everyone when she does the unexpected. Of course Lindsay had to get her digs into Viki when she showed up with Clint and placed her order with Viki in a way that would annoy any sane waitress but it sure didn’t ruffle Viki’s feathers.

And Dorian, sweet Dorian, figured she’d have some fun when she found out that Viki was waitressing and called the mayor to change their lunch date to the diner. I died laughing when Viki came to take Dorian and the mayor’s orders and Dorian said, “Oh, Viki, things must be really bad at The Banner” and Viki just smirked and said, “Oh yes, Carlotta was kind enough to give me a job and now I have two big tippers at my table. Aren’t I a lucky girl?” I just love the way Viki lets Dorian’s digs bounce off her and the best part was when the mayor figured it out and told Dorian that if her reason for meeting him at the diner was to humiliate Viki, then it was a major failure. And now we know that Dorian is involved in some dirty deal with the mayor involving a lot of money and surely a big scandal in the making. No surprise there.

Gig is sure having an eventful first few days working at B.E., isn’t she? Aside from wearing a toner cartridge full of ink all over her and spilling coffee all over the floor, she gets to kiss the hunky new Buchanan. What was that about? I heard that Gigi and Jared would have a brief fling and obviously Jared is showing himself to be a decent guy by being nice to her and trying to make her feel comfortable even when she screws up, but that kiss was out of left field and I didn’t see the point except that it riled up Natalie and Rex. I guess that was the point.

Rex is doing a very poor job of hiding his jealousy and feelings for Gigi. For someone who is engaged and so happy to see his fiancé back in town, he can’t get Gigi out of his mind and he really blew his cover by going after Jared at the diner about coming on to Gigi. I guess in the mood Jared was in after his emotional talk with Charlie, Rex just pushed all the wrong buttons and Jared hauled off and socked Rex. Nice move!

And speaking of Jared, we got a whole new insight into this man last week. I remember predicting that there was a lot more to Jared and also predicting that even though he was behaving like a creep by deceiving Natalie and all the Buchanans, I was going to like him. Okay, I think I do like Jared. We sure learned a lot more about him and his past when he and Charlie discussed what happened to his younger brother, Jimmy. It was hard for Charlie to hear and even harder for Jared to tell the story of how their stepfather had beaten them and their mother and how one day things go so bad that Jared and Jimmy were hiding in the yard and when their stepfather came after them, Jimmy got so scared that he ran into the street and was hit by a truck. Jared has had to live his whole life with that memory and feeling guilty that he couldn’t protect and save his little brother. Charlie now has to live with the fact that his drinking caused him to leave his family behind to a horrible fate. When all was said and done, it seemed like Jared and Charlie had come to a new understanding and caring for each other but they are not yet ready to reveal their secret. Big Mistake!

And don’t you just hate that ridiculous soap opera trick where there are a million near misses and finally a secret that should have been revealed months ago still remains a secret. We had to watch that once again when Natalie came within a second of hearing Jared’s secret conversation with Nigel on that tape and she got interrupted so many times by Jared trying to keep her from hearing it. It was totally unrealistic and what was even dumber was Natalie believing Jared’s explanation when she kept catching him behind her desk playing with the tape. Oh sure, he was talking to Nigel about his feelings for Natalie. It’s hard to believe that Natalie wouldn’t secretly want to hear that tape and would take Jared at his word.

I think I’ve had just about enough of Adriana, haven’t you? I don’t blame her for being suspicious about Gigi. After all, Rex is showing her a lot of attention and even more to Shane. But Adriana has been showing that nasty “Dorian streak” that she seems to have perfected and she was in rare form when she came back from Paris and found Gigi at Rex’s place. Of course Gigi had just confessed her secret about Shane being Rex’s son but Rex didn’t hear a word of it, and I don’t blame Adriana for wondering why Gigi was at Rex’s place, but she was so nasty and condescending to Gigi that I wanted to smack her. It was totally uncalled for when Gigi said something about getting better clothes when she gets her paycheck and Adriana told her that it didn’t really matter what she wore because it wasn’t like she was an executive or anything. That was catty and nasty and totally something that her mother would say.