Reflections by Jill - A Weekly Commentary for OLTL for July 30, 2007

Well, I sure can’t say I was sorry to see Tate finally caught in the act. It makes me so happy to see the bad guys picked off, but Tate sure didn’t go down easily, did he? It was quite harrowing to watch him hiding in the closet while Vincent and Layla were talking about whether or not he was dangerous. It was a big Uh-oh moment when Vincent left Layla and she turned around to see Tate staring her in the face. And of course Tate easily found out where she and Vincent were going to be from Layla’s end of their phone conversation. It was really unbelievable how deplorable Tate’s behavior was from the time he smashed that baseball bat over Vincent’s head to all the vile things he said to all of them before he went over that ledge.

It was pretty terrifying when he got Adriana up on that ledge after using every ethnic slur he could think of to describe her, Layla and Vincent. But wait a minute. Let’s talk about Adriana for a minute. After all this time, isn’t this girl just a bit too naïve? I’ll just call it like I see it and say that she is more than a little bit stupid. I held out a little bit of hope for her when she went to Rex with her suspicions about Tate, but even though she knew how serious the situation was, she still lied to Talia and Rex when Layla called and Tate told her to come to the Palace roof alone. At least Rex was on the ball. I knew he didn’t believe a word she said and that he’d be in that hallway ready to follow her. Sure, she was scared for Layla’s life, but come on, what did she think she would accomplish going there alone? And Rex is really too kind when he tells her that she’s not stupid and that she’s just a kind, trusting person. No Rex, she is many times more than a little bit stupid, sorry!

Who could blame Vincent when Tate was hanging off that building and he hesitated to help him when Talia couldn’t reach far? We knew Vincent would save him, but I wouldn’t have blamed him if he had a little oops and dropped that slime to the ground. I have to admit that Vincent has become much more of a human being and wants to be a decent man. The old Vincent probably would have let Tate die and would have taunted him on the way down. Okay, I give points to Vincent, but I really think he should have been given a few minutes to rearrange Tate’s face when they were at the police station later and Tate said, “Vincent, I can’t wait until I can get a shower and wash myself off wherever you touched me.” He said some awful things to Adriana when he used those ethnic slurs about her Hispanic heritage, but she needed to hear it all to finally realize what a disgusting person she’s been defending. He didn’t hold back for a minute when she asked why he did what he did and said, “You were my cover. Did you really think I’d want to be with a mutt, a mongrel like you?” That was disgusting. Maybe Adriana won’t be so blindly trusting the next time.

So, Todd is back in the warm embrace of his family and is as obnoxious as ever. Should I be surprised? I guess Viki said it all when she said, “I can’t believe he cheated death yet again.” He didn’t wait thirty seconds after seeing Starr to start badmouthing Cole and chastising Starr for lying to him. You have to love Starr because she is never at a loss for something to say that puts her parents in their places. All Todd had to mention was lying and Starr rightfully said, “I can’t believe you two. You are the king and queen of liars.”

Wow, very true! I’ll bet Starr would rather have pulled her teeth out without anesthesia than have to admit to Todd that she was seeing Cole while he was missing. At least Blair piped up and for a while was the voice of reason when she tried to convince Todd that Starr was so miserable without Cole and that maybe their way of handling things wasn’t working very well. It was also good that she admitted to Todd that she knows how Starr felt.

At least now Starr is willing to talk to Cole. I felt sorry for that kid when he came over to see Starr and tried to explain why he didn’t tell her he knew Todd was alive. At first Starr didn’t want to understand how Cole could keep that secret and he was right to try to convince her that he was trying to save his mother. I couldn’t even blame Cole when the argument got really heated and he said, “Your dad raped my mom and I’m supposed to take his side over hers?” Starr only saw Cole’s behavior as payback at that point, but once she had a chance to deal with the whole situation and once she had her father back, she could think straighter and she was brave to stand up to Todd and tell him and Blair that she could understand why Cole did what he did and that she would have done the same thing. It also didn’t hurt that Markko spoke to her and made her understand that Cole did what he did for his mom and that she is the only parent he has left. I guess there’s more depth to Markko that we’re starting to see.

It figures that Todd would crawl his way out of the hospital and head for the jail to attack Miles. I guess it was choke the bad guy week and personally, I didn’t mind it. I wouldn’t have minded if Bo put Miles and Tate in the same cell and let Vincent and Todd have a little party for a while. It’s too bad they haven’t found Hunter yet. They could have tossed him in there, too.