Reflections by Jill - A Weekly Commentary for OLTL for September 22, 2008

Did anyone think that Todd had to worry about Starr’s doctor not going along with his blackmail plan? I laughed when the doctor told Todd that she had changed her mind about handing over Starr’s baby to him. I guess the doctor only thought she knew what kind of man Todd is because it only took all of five seconds for him to reinforce his blackmail threat and order her to deliver Starr’s baby, tell Starr, Blair and Marcie that the baby died, and then hand the baby over to him. The doctor crumbled like a stale cookie. It will be just another day in the life of Todd Manning, who is insanely capable of justifying all of his obscene behavior. The biggest laugh was the doctor asking Todd, “How can you be so heartless?” Is she kidding? He eats pawns like her for breakfast!

So, Ray Montez is in town and as I expected, A Martinez once again delivers a very powerful performance. Right now he is doing Clint’s bidding, but it is more than obvious that he is already forming a bond with Langston and doesn’t want to see her hurt. Langston is very moved by the fact that she has a relative, especially one who can give her more memories of her mother whom she desperately misses. Dorian worked very hard to put that party together to celebrate her planned adoption of Langston and Ray just came alone and popped it like a balloon. Dorian zeroed in on Markko like an overprotective mother to warn him not to hurt Langston and it was pretty funny when she got Markko alone and warned, “I am a trained physician and if you ever hurt that girl, I’ll take a very sharp instrument and cut out your heart.” I guess she told him. Markko can relax now that Dorian will be sharpening that scalpel to use on Ray instead of on him. LOL! Maybe Ray should be clued in on what Dorian did to Charlie.

Of course Blair and Dorian aren’t buying any of Ray’s explanations as to why he has shown up all of a sudden even though he is very well rehearsed. Dorian is terrified of losing Langston to a blood relative. Dorian doesn’t have a clue that Clint is behind sending Ray after Langston; she thinks he’s after her money, which would normally be a pretty astute assumption. I’m wondering what kind of information Dorian’s people will find when they search for dirty on Ray. Clint probably figured out a way of disguising or wiping out Ray’s past, especially his stint in prison which so suddenly recently ended. It is kind of fun to watch Dorian go up against someone who seems so unruffled by her threats, but when I think about Clint, I just want to throw something at him.

Clint showed what a devious, selfish person he is when Nora was so upset about Matthew going off to his first day of high school. It was nice to see that Matthew had his whole family there to send him off, not to mention Cole, Markko, Langston and Starr to run interference for him at school. However, Clint had his own agenda that day. He had sent Ray off to Dorian’s house to threaten her with a court battle over custody of Langston. Clint made a good show of being involved with the family, especially when he told Matthew stories about Bo’s early days in school and gave him lunch money. What happened next really made me furious. Nora was so upset over Matthew growing up and missing her little boy and she was glad to have Clint there to offer a shoulder to cry on. He was so sympathetic, consoling her and letting her get it all out and as he was holding her, he was looking at his watch as if to say, “I wonder if Ray has lowered the boom on Dorian yet.” That’s how much he really cares about Nora’s feelings. I hope that Nora doesn’t let Clint’s five-minute show of family concern distract her from what he’s really up to. It was just the other day that she was upset with him for doing something that could very possibly hurt Langston and told him, “Oh, Asa would be so proud of you.” Wow, if that wasn’t the biggest insult, I don’t know what was. Clint probably thought it was a compliment. And it’s very hard for me to feel sorry for Jared. He went along with Clint’s plan and even though he feels guilty for springing a murderer from jail, he did it anyway. I’m tired of listening to him say that he did it all so Natalie’s family would accept her back into the fold. That is so weak. If that’s what has to be done for Clint to forgive Natalie, she’s better off without her dear old daddy’s approval?

So, Nigel finally confessed to his part in keeping Jared’s secret. Nigel didn’t have a thing to worry about. Clint would never let him resign because now he can use Nigel any way he wants to and Nigel will always be grateful that Clint forgave him and let him keep his job. Nigel’s shame over his part in hurting the family works very well for Clint. Clint told Nigel in no uncertain terms that he owed him and Nigel’s words really rang true when he said, “It’s as if Mr. Asa has spoken.” No kidding Nigel!

Hopefully, the prison story won’t last very long. Cristian is in prison in Ray’s place and Ray’s wife comes to visit. It took a lot of convincing, but Cristian seemed to finally get her to work with him to contact Antonio and get him out of there. We’ll see if she follows through. Meanwhile, back in Llanview, John gets a tip on Carlo Hesser while he is talking to Jared and Jared recognizes the fake name that Carlo was using. Of course, Jared has to admit that he ran into this man in a Colombian prison, but hopefully this will lead to finding Cris and we already know that Carlo will be gone this month from the show, so that’s a good thing. With John on the trail, it should be very interesting.

On to Jared, Tess and Natalie. I can’t believe that we are still supposed to believe that Tess is getting away with her scheme against Natalie and Jared. Jared was suspicious of Jessica’s behavior when she first asked him and Natalie to move into Llanfair and now that he has gotten that kiss off letter that Tess forced Natalie to write, it is ridiculous to think that he doesn’t figure out that Tess is behind it all.