Reflections by Jill - A Weekly Commentary for OLTL for July 21, 2008

How lovely. Carlo has named Jonas Chamberlain the Crown Prince of Mendorra and Talia is slated to be his Queen. Don’t you just love watching this junk? And of course, if Talia doesn’t marry Jonas, Sarah and Cris will die and, oh yeah, Antonio’s death will be especially slow and painful. And Carlo will brainwash Cris into killing Sarah himself. Jeez, give me a break. Who could blame Talia for keeping it a secret that Carlo is her father? If I were Talia, I wouldn’t want anyone to know that I came from the loins of that spawn of Satan either. At least Antonio accepted everything when she told him that she couldn’t reveal that he was her father because she was so ashamed of him and that she came to Llanview to try to make up for some of the horrible things he has done. Talia can’t really believe that Antonio is so forgiving after what Carlo has done to his family, but he assured her that he knows what Carlo is capable of and that there is nothing to forgive her for.

Okay, on to something more interesting, which means ANYTHING BUT MENDORRA! And what could be more interesting that watching Todd Manning prey upon Cole’s weaknesses to get what he wants? Todd holds nothing back when he reminds Cole that going after Starr in court is what Marty would want him to do. That was low, but not unexpected from Todd. Cole worries that what Todd wants him to do to Starr is very cruel and feels that he will lose Starr. Of course Todd makes him feel a whole lot better by coldly reminding him, “You already lost Starr when you came to me and told me she was pregnant.”

So Todd and Cole show up in court with Todd’s idiot lawyer and Starr walks in right behind them with her lawyer and Marcie. Marcie has once again gone off the deep end and has convinced herself that she can raise Starr’s baby on her own if Michael leaves her. Oh well, there goes the marriage again. For a minute there Starr was thinking on her feet when she questioned how Marcie would be able to do it when she doesn’t have a job and might not have Michael to share the responsibility. Marcie’s desperation worked well on Starr because it didn’t take her long to go along with Marcie once she promised to be a wonderful mother to the baby no matter what. Yeah, that’s realistic. I think Marcie pushed Starr too hard and Starr has so much to deal with now that she can’t process everything properly.

I have to say that the judge who heard Cole and Starr’s case was no fool. She told Starr that she couldn’t enter into any contracts now as far as making plans for the baby and that she had to wait until after the baby was born. The judge also told Cole that he had rights and had to wait until after the baby was born but that his rights will supersede any contract Starr might make with Marcie to adopt the baby. But the best thing that came out of the hearing was the judge (who knows all about Todd Manning) warning Cole, “Be wary of listening to this man.” Well said, judge.

The hardest thing to see is how hurt and disappointed Starr is in Cole for what he did. No matter what is at stake, Cole has foolishly aligned himself with Todd and Starr can’t forgive that. Starr told Cole to think about siding with her father and she gave him a few truths to think about when she said, “If you manage to get the baby, you’ll never be rid of my father. Think about how he has hurt you and how much he hates you. Is that what you want?” Starr stood there and put her heart on the line and Cole wouldn’t relent. It was a very real but sad moment when Starr was standing alone outside the courtroom and Cole walked up to her. She didn’t even turn around to face him when he walked up behind her and said, “I’m sorry” and she said, “I’m not” and walked away from him.

Michael is lucky he has John to turn to as a sounding board. John doesn’t want to see Marcie and Michael break up but Michael reminds him that in a perfect world, he’d want to be with Marcie and have a family but it’s not a perfect world. He asked the perfect question of John when he said, “How can any world with Todd Manning in it be a perfect world?” I don’t blame Michael for not wanting to rehash the past with Marcie when it comes to children.

It is obvious that TPTB are testing the waters for a John and Blair pairing. It was one thing when they were involved in looking for Starr and Cole or ran into each other somewhere in town and commiserated, but now Blair is stopping by John’s apartment with Sam and pouring her heart out to him and John is not turning her away. He is very concerned about her and what is now a good friendship is going to slip into something more in another week or so when John and Blair will take the plunge. Very bad idea! How long will it take for Marty and Blair to battle over John?

Nice try Langston. Obviously, Langston doesn’t know much about David if she thinks she can seduce him on tape to prove that he’s a creep so that she can get him out of Dorian and Addie’s lives. David has much too much at stake to fall for an amateur plot like that. Langston has a lot to learn about the way her darling Dorian and David “do business.” Money is the only thing that talks where David is concerned. Langston is too nice a kid to get it at this point, but with Dorian as her guardian, she’ll learn fast enough.

What a surprise for Dorian when she left her new office and found that David was driving her limo. (I laughed my head off when he said, “I’m driving Miss Crazy.”) And Dorian got an even bigger surprise when David confronted her with the fact that he found the date rape drug in her medical bag and asked her what she was doing with a drug that incapacitates people. Nothing rattles Dorian. Even though David knows that Dorian used that drug on Charlie, it doesn’t seem to bother her because she sees herself as invincible.