Reflections by Jill - A Weekly Commentary for OLTL for November 17, 2008

OH BOY! Sometimes all the complaining we do about the show and all the junk we have to sit through finally pays off and to my utter joy and excitement, that is exactly what happened last week. Todd is finally caught with nowhere to run and although I am not a violent person and don’t even like to watch bloody medical shows, I felt an immense sense of justice and no qualms about the violence with each blow John delivered to Todd. No one has ever deserved the consequences of his actions more that Todd does and we have waited way too long for him to get his comeuppance. It’s just a crying shame that so many people had to get hurt. Maybe now some of them can begin to heal.

One of my favorite moments was when Todd walked into the room and saw John with Marty. I guess at that point, Todd still thought he could babble his way out of the situation. Silly, stupid man! Marty started out by not trusting John and insisting that she trusted Todd and that he told her the truth about how John tried to kill her and left her to die in the van. Were you as shocked as I was that John held his temper as long as he did? It didn’t take long for Todd to realize that he couldn’t cajole his way out of trouble so he retreated into his little fantasy world where he tried to convince Marty that at first he used her to try to get back at everyone who had wronged him, but he then fell in love with her and it made him a changed man who only wanted to love her and be good to her. Todd said it all when he yelled at Marty, “I had lost everything.” Yes, he lost everything because he is a selfish, useless human being and in his warped mind, it’s okay for a nice, decent person like Marty to be his victim so he can feel better. Oh, and let’s not forget that brilliant comment he made when he told Marty, “I figured if I could get the person who hates me the most in this world to care about me, I could be a different man.” I was smart this time. I didn’t have dinner while I was watching the show because that little tirade would have made me gag my head off.

Marty temporarily pushed aside John’s accusation that Todd was her lead rapist back in college because once she heard that she had a son, she couldn’t think about anything else. I have to give Marty credit; she kept her head straight and took in all the facts. And hey, who cares that she was waving a gun? Remember that Margaret Cochran shot out Todd’s legs when he crossed her, so he should have been expecting a little more of the Kathy Bates routine a la “Misery.” Marty held back as well as John did for a while. And wow, the lies just kept on leaking out. Poor Marty just stood there as Todd admitted each infraction, like when John heard Marty say that Starr was going to give Todd her baby and John realized that Todd was going to steal the baby. And let’s not forget Todd having to admit that Cole was Marty’s son. If the situation wasn’t so pathetically sad, it might have been comical to hear Marty say, “So, your grandchild is my grandchild!”

And let’s not forget that all the time Todd was a “changed man” he was trying to get Marty to give him the gun so he could shoot John, as if that might happen. Hah!

But let’s get to the real kicker. I gave John a lot of credit for holding back and not kicking Todd’s butt all these months, but the straw that broke the camel’s back was John hearing Marty admit that she and Todd had had sex and that now it is like he raped her all over again. It was like watching poetry in motion as John just gracefully turned to Todd and struck him with a blow that knocked him right off his disgusting feet. That was the end of John’s control and I cheered him on every second. Am I starting to sound like a bloodthirsty lunatic? LOL! Who cares? I praise John for realizing that beating Todd to death was too good for him. But Marty doesn’t seem to agree as she has that gun poised to finish Todd off. I’m glad that John convinced her to put the gun down, even when Todd asked her to shoot him. Sure, he’d rather face death than what he’ll have to deal with when everyone finds out what he’s been up to.

Finally, word got out at the police station that John actually did know that Marty was being held at Todd’s house and Antonio and Talia rushed over there to stop the madness. I felt so sorry for Marty because now that the shock of everything is finally setting in, she will have to be very strong so as not to crack under the reality of what Todd did to her. What a moment that was when Marty got off the elevator at the hospital and was standing face to face with Cole. And poor Cole; this kid has been through the wringer since his mother died and didn’t get a break before he found out that Starr was pregnant. Marty won’t remember Cole right away and that’s going to be hard on Cole.

There was just one crazy situation after another last week. I have to give a big shout out to Bree Williamson because as much as I want the alters gone and have had Tess up to my eyeballs, she has done an amazing job. The addition of Bess was very well done. I found it terribly sad that Jessica’s baby had to die. Obviously it won’t take that long before it comes out that the babies were switched and then Jessica will have to face the death of yet another child. It was so terribly said when she and her family went through the loss of little Megan years ago and now after all she’s been through she has to deal with the death of another child. It just seems like too much after losing Nash and I wish the show hadn’t gone in this direction. Jess already knows something is off about her baby’s birth and Tess will tell her that this is not the baby she gave birth to. Good luck trying to convince anyone of that.