Reflections by Jill - A Weekly Commentary for OLTL for September 2, 2008

I know that we have given the writers a lot of grief over the Mendorra storyline. It has been boring, senseless and nearly impossible to watch. However, I am going to let those poor, abused writers off the hook a little bit this week because they have definitely redeemed themselves a bit in my eyes. Who cares how Cristian, Sarah and Antonio were able to penetrate the royal palace or whatever you call that monstrosity? They got in, they drugged Jonas and Carlo and honestly, it was funny enough when they placed Jonas in bed with Talia and made it look to all the world like they had consummated their marriage, but I absolutely died laughing and applauded from my couch when every reporter in town was led to the master bedroom to find Carlo and Jonas asleep in bed in each others’ arms. That was brilliant and funny beyond words, not to mention that it was the very least Carlo deserved. I guess a little public humiliation will have to do. I’m sure he’ll find a way to get out of having his precious head chopped off, but who cares? Let’s move on; at least we got a good laugh at the end.

As if leaving Mendorra wasn’t enough of a treat, we have finally gotten Gigi and Rex back to 2008. Usually I am happy when summer ends because I can’t stand the hot weather. This year, I’m thrilled that summer’s end brought us the end of Carlo, as well as the end of 1968. Finally, Rex knows that Shane is his son. I wondered how he would take the news and how it would make him feel about Gigi, but I am very glad that they didn’t have a major split over it. Sure, Rex was upset and rightfully so, but he and Gigi really love each other and he made his peace with her secret once she explained to him that she always loved him and wanted him to be with her once she knew he loved her and wasn’t with her only because he was Shane’s father. These two are going to have enough to deal with once Adriana is back in the picture. After all, Rex is still a married man and I’m sure Adriana thinks they can still work things out.

Brody is annoying the heck out of me. I know he thinks he has to protect Shane in case Gigi doesn’t come back because he’s afraid that if she doesn’t come back Shane will be taken away from him. However, it was totally WRONG for him to involve Shane in that DNA test. If Brody wanted to pull a stupid stunt like faking a paternity test, he could have done it without Shane even knowing. It was stupid and selfish for him to bring Shane to the hospital and drag him into that mess. Does Brody have some idea that he’s going to convince anyone that he is Shane’s father? Doesn’t he think that kid will be hurt enough when the real truth comes out? He thinks he is putting Shane first, but he’s putting himself first. Who knows? Maybe he’ll glue himself to a nasty scheme with Adriana and really mess things up. Just once I would love to see someone on a soap opera say to themselves, “What if I do this and it backfires in my face?” Surely that will never happen.

I’m getting to the point where I want to lock Jared in that room Jessica is building in the basement and never let him out. I’m getting so tired of hearing him talk about his guilt over what happened and the fact that he’ll do anything to make things right with Clint so that Natalie can have her daddy’s love back. Give me a break! So, Jared admits to Natalie that he’s accepted Clint’s challenge to him; to help him go after Langston by going after a family member in Colombia so that he will have leverage to get Dorian to give back B.E. Natalie is furious that Jared has agreed to do this dirty deed for Clint because wonder of wonders, she has a big enough heart to remind Jared that Langston is just a kid who has been through enough and doesn’t deserve to be hurt by her vengeful father. Although Jared loves Natalie, he just can’t live with the guilt that he caused the Buchanans to lose the company and I was so glad that Natalie stopped him cold when he was trying to justify helping Clint by saying that Dorian was the cause of all the trouble. She very sternly reminded Jared that yes, Dorian bears some responsibility, but in the end, it was Jared who started everything and she who backed him up. She reminded him that the company wouldn’t have been lost and Nash wouldn’t have died if they hadn’t ultimately been responsible. Good for Natalie! In the end, Natalie couldn’t convince Jared to back away from Clint’s deal and although she doesn’t condone what he’s doing, she loves him and had no choice but to let him go. I think she should have threatened to toss him out of her life if he did this deed for her father, but hey, that’s just me.

And when are we going to be treated with a little respect and not have to watch Tess make a fool out of everyone in Llanview? She’s just blatantly tooling her way around town and everyone looks like fools.

You just knew that Tess was going to create a diversion so that John wouldn’t find Marty when he showed up at Todd’s place with a search warrant. And once again, we’re supposed to believe that with a ten second diversion by Tess bending over in pain, Marty was easily whisked from a second story bedroom. Gee, maybe she has wings. After all, she did miraculously disappear from a penthouse apartment.