Kaydee’s Sassy Soap Corner - A Commentary for OLTL for February 1, 2012

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF SHEYNA RAMONE..And to all of my loyal readers, the loyal OLTL fans, the actors, to Katherine Thurston, and to my cyber-family at Kaydee Writes:

I don’t even know how to start this. It has taken me a good week to even get to this point. Like all of you, I spent the last week crying and SCREAMING, talking aloud to myself and to fellow fans, ranting and raving, then savoring what good storylines there WERE, only to cry and scream all over again.

The best I can spit out to start with is…WHAT THE HELL?! What a sick, disgusting, facetious, cowardly and HORRIBLY DISRESPECTFUL way to end four-point-three decades of loyal service by the employees and viewership by the fans of this show! If I forgot any damned adjectives, please feel free to let me know! First the good stuff. Lord knows we need to interject with some of that.

Gigi, Rex and Shane received a classy send-off. I was very happy to see that the tragedy and atrocity suffered in Shane’s life were amended and rewarded with the return of his mother and a chance to pursue his lifetime dreams. Rex, too deserved some peace after all of the unfair bombs that have been dropped on him: the DNA fiasco that kept him clinging to false identities, connecting with the wrong parents, only to be spit on by the right ones, watching his suicidal son lose more of his grip on peace of mind while dealing with a “ghost” and then being bounced around alternative truths about his dead fiancée while staring at her face. Not to mention that he was unknowingly featured for the star role as the other half of relationship with a con artist. At least the writers saw fit to write something we could live with for this family.

Starr and Cole’s reunion? Er..I don’t have a committed loyalty in either direction about this. I hate the way they broke up James and Starr so choppily. The entire turn of events clearly reflected the writers’ decision to off James from the list. Think about it. Someone who clearly is vested in a relationship with a person who has a child from someone else would NOT have been so quick to conclude that what he overheard Starr say to a dying Cole meant it was time to end things. Cole is the father of Starr’s child, and even though she’s moved on, her love for the first man in her life will NEVER die. James knew that coming into the relationship. Starr didn’t say anything that any other person would have said in a desperate effort to will a dying person out of unconsciousness. Cole is the father of her daughter, and she most certainly would want to do anything to avoid having to have that fatal talk with her child about Daddy going to Heaven. And we all know that James would have understood that with no hard feelings or hasty reactions if the show wasn’t in its final days and James was scheduled to move on with the show. Shame on you, writers!

On the other hand, it was good to see Cole and Starr back together, although Brandon Buddy OWNS that role! No offense to the new actor intended, but Kirsten and Brandon created and grew up in the roles, and they just have more magic and fitting chemistry to me. I don’t like the fact that the writers chose to make Starr’s only option for stardom remain in the hands of porn king Rick Powers. Starr is talented beyond all words, and it would have been nice if the writers allowed for some random bigwig to have heard Starr’s demo and offered her a real contract not tainted with the stench of Rick’s infamous expertise in exploitation. I would have loved for American Idol, Miley Cyrus, or someone else to have guest starred on the show and saved Starr from being associated with Rick the Pri…um…PIG, (please excuse my speech impediment), in her musical journey. This storyline could have ended with all of the class that the actors have spent 43 years giving to the show. Again, shame on you, writers!

FINALLY, we were able to witness John and Natalie’s reunion! Jeez, it’s almost too little too late. And then we weren’t even given THAT with a clean slate! What the hell? Did Natalie REALLY have the nerve to repeat to John that she was PISSED OFF because he didn’t stop her from making a STUPID decision to marry Brody??? REALLY? What?! What? WHO DOES THAT? And what’s worse…did John ask for FORGIVENESS??? Really? For WHAT?

Yes, he made some spiteful gestures in the past when he was with Kelly, and I may not have agreed with the callous way he simply dropped Liam and Natalie when the news came out, but newsflash, Natalie…..

HE WAS ACTING OUT FROM HIS PAIN!!!!!! Natalie was the liar who kept a huge secret from him. She wasn’t certain that he was her unborn child’s father, and she pretended that he was anyway. She was the one who spun herself deeper into a web of deceit that she couldn’t keep up with, and eventually Marty sunk her hooks into the situation. Once all of the chaos of the prison break was cleared up, and John saved Natalie’s a..um, HIDE..she should have dumped her pride and audacity in the garbage can by the church doors and joined her family with a clean slate. Given the fact that this was the final week, there should have been no “UGH” occasions, but lo and behold……

Want more good news? The writers allowed us to see the birth of Destiny and Matthew's child, AND we were graced with the turn of Matthew’s attitude toward his child. I also found their choosing to name the baby “Drew” a poignant touch in the muck, and it was saddening to see that the writers decided to introduce a quality storyline in Finale Week. It would have been another outpour of salt in the wound if the show had ended with Matthew being a deadbeat dad.

While I was definitely happy that Vivian and Shaun reunited, it would have been nice to see that Vivian could trust Shaun enough to realize that they could break her family cycle regarding marriage and make THEIR marriage work. The Evans come from longevity, and Sean isn’t her father, so he works from a whole different outlook on life. It was sad and wonderful to see Bo connect with Asa as he rightfully took his place as the patriarch of yet another division of Buchanans—Matthew and Destiny’s child.

Clint and Viki's reunion was at least given a bit more grace and development time, and they were able to get a few bonuses along the way. First, they watched their daughters become sisters again. Nice touch, writers. Somehow, they found a way to stop pouting and grow up twins, as they should have months ago. Clint and Viki were also given the opportunity to discover that Jessica is Clint’s daughter after all, and I found it a marvelous touch that Vimal was the person chosen to perform the task. It certainly helped that the writers gave Vimal one more shot at his neurotic stand-up comedy routine in the process. Viki and Clint were one of the few who kept finale week entertaining and worthy of watching, but then it brings on the fury for the nasty way this veteran couple was butchered by the cancellation. GRRR!! I was NOT happy that they killed off Bobby Ford. I get it…he wasn’t slated to move on with the show, but did they have to kill him off? I found it insulting that Stacy, Eddie and Mitch were allowed to live on, even if it was as demons. Ford had redeemed himself, and he was becoming a good thing for Jessica. If All My Children could resurrect every character in town for the big send-off, couldn’t Llanview deserve the same treat? GRR!!!

The return of Markko and Langston was a nice touch, too. Both of those characters have certainly matured and are pleasant to watch, so allowing Starr to be reunited with the original four and then be reunited with Cole to complete the package was a good consolation trinket.

The Manning saga was definitely a heap of chaos. Tea was still a screeching angry mess well into Finale Week, Tomas resurfaced with John’s help, determined to explain himself to Blair, who was in bed with Todd on the other side of town. I don’t know about any of you, but Blair has always loved Todd, and no matter how many turns she makes on that Road of Love, she always winds up parking on Todd’s doorstep. I was as happy as a kid in a toy store when they reunited, but of course, there’s the “UGH” factor in this situation…Todd’s arrest. I found John to be quite tasteless in coming up into their bedroom to carry out the warrant, and I think he could have done it a bit better, considering he’s a friend of Blair’s.

Funny, Jack’s story seems to have been unresolved, but I can’t say I wasn’t happy that Neela was rejected by him. She deserves so much more than to have been sucked into the world of Manning Men Mayhem and should be spared the insanity that comes with the recovery process of once having loved a Manning. I think I was grateful that Todd was too distracted by Blair to continue the bail-out-Jack mission and that there wasn’t too much screen time in the final week for the little monster.

Speaking of monsters….

I was grateful that Eddie Ford and Stacy-Ick Morasco came to collect Mitch once and for all. Roscoe Born does a marvelous job with sinister, but Mitch Lawrence should have been named Supercat, because he has definitely exceeded all feline lifespan capacities by at least six lives more. This man has come back from the dead ninety zillion times, and it was a relief to watch him be carried away to the Underworld without the possibility of return. Creepy freak!

It was good to see Brody’s good character be restored for the ending. I actually would have loved to see him hook up with Jessica since both of them could use the healing, but then I thought about it and feel that Brody had spent more than enough time latching on to other people’s recycled property, and he deserves a fresh start with a fresh woman.

I Loved the Heaven and Hell segment, especially since it brought back our old favorites. Seeing Lindsay, Troy, Megan, Gabrielle and Luna was priceless! They, too are all richly talented actors and quality characters that gave the show its vintage flair and makes it a one-of-a-kind franchise. I hated that Lindsay and Troy slipped off into the cliffhanger without any final resolution as well.

Okay, now that the pleasantries are over, it’s time for the gloves to come off.

Of all the ideas the network could have come up with to end the show with the honor it deserves, they decided to make the ending a narrative story told by Allison Perkins! WHAT? Frankly, a narration is horrible enough, but at least it was more fitting, to say the VERY least, when Erika Slezak did it for historical purposes. She certainly warrants being the front runner for such a task, but to have Allison Perkins end this franchise was despicable! If the contracts of the actors and all other ABC staff members prohibits them from speaking their minds about this atrocity, then by all means….