Reflections by Jill - A Weekly Commentary for OLTL for December 17, 2007

Oh boy, Charlie is really stewing in the old vodka bottle, isn’t he? I wonder how he’s going to come out of this if it only took his first encounter with his very bitter son, Jared, to send him over the edge. And Viki sure wasn’t home for very long before Gigi called her and told her that Charlie was off the wagon and needed her. I think most women would have second thoughts about any further involvement with the boatload of problems Charlie presents, but not our Viki. You can tell she has come a long way when she gets the call from Gigi and immediately decides to head back to Texas, in spite of the fact that there are oodles of family problems that she could throw herself into right there in Llanview. I say GOOD FOR YOU, VIKI! Everyone will be able to survive without you, especially Natalie and her “faux uncle” problems with Jared. Once Viki heard about Natalie’s involvement with Jared and the “fact” that he turned out to be Asa’s son, I was very proud of Viki for not jumping into that pile of disaster. She’s probably knows she’ll never figure out Natalie’s man problems anyway but she did think that Jared looked familiar. She doesn’t know yet that he looks familiar because he’s Charlie’s son. And once again, people can just walk into someone’s mansion like Jared did at Llanfair and say, “The door was open.” Jared really laid it on when he met Viki, but she seemed unimpressed and just blew by him as if to say, “Don’t bug me buddy, I eat tushy-kissers like you for breakfast every day.” Hmmm, Viki wouldn’t say tushy, would she?

I am sticking by my recent prediction. Don’t write it down or do anything to memorialize it because you know I’m never right, but I really think Jared is the daddy of Gigi’s son, Shane. I’ve been thinking that for a while, but it hit me again the other day when Charlie stumbled into the diner drunk and started telling Gigi his sad tale about his long lost son. He asked her if she wanted to see a picture of him and if you noticed, he never got around to actually showing her the picture. Maybe once she hits Llanview, her biggest surprise will be finding Shane’s supposedly dead daddy. Actually, it will be Shane who is surprised because Gigi made up the story about Shane’s father being dead for his sake.

I was so glad that Viki paid a visit to La Boulaie before she headed for the airport. I never get tired of watching Viki and Dorian trade barbs and I never get enough of Dorian ranting on and on while Viki sits there comfortably taking it all in with that little, “Dorian, you’re such a fool” smirk on her face. Dorian is surprised that Viki has been off on her journey for so long while so much has been going on at home and she’s not too happy about the fact that Viki doesn’t care that she and Clint broke up. I absolutely died laughing when Dorian found a way once again to blame everything on Viki, even her breakup with Clint by telling her that because she cheated on Clint years ago when they were married, Clint now has zero tolerance for her infidelity. It’s Viki’s fault that Clint won’t listen to Dorian’s silly explanations. Don’t you just love it? Dorian could never be responsible for anything she does, even sleeping with David in a house where Clint’s family was in mourning. Viki just sat there taking it all in and Dorian was speechless when she told her that it was their discussion in the wine cellar that made her take the trip and change her life. I love watching these two women face off and I hope they never, ever become friends. On this show, I am sure of one thing. That will never happen!

I am very glad that Talia has stopped moping around about Antonio and has faced off with him and told him exactly what she thinks of him. There’s Antonio confronting her and wanting to know why things can’t be the way they used to be between them and she looks at him like he’s the dumbest stick of wood she’s ever seen. Talia has so much pride and it was bad enough that Antonio didn’t return her feelings, but what really humiliated her was the fact that he knew she had feelings for him for quite a while and didn’t let on that he knew. Whether he was enjoying it and it was stroking his ego or he was just too dumb to know he was messing with her feelings, the results were the same. I thought it was a riot when she called him an “arrogant, insensitive bastard.” He should very humbly apologize to her and beg her to forgive him and put this behind them. Now she has turned in a request to be reassigned. I don’t blame her for feeling she can’t work with him. I think the only thing that would make her feel better would be for him to humble himself and try to salvage some kind of relationship. He also needs to finally put Jessica behind him and think about his own life and future as well as Jamie’s.

Oh, big surprise. The DNA results are in and Jared is the newest Buchanan. Too bad for him that he can’t get Natalie out of his mind and totally enjoy it. Obviously, his feelings for Natalie could be his undoing because when he ran out of the house after her and planted that big kiss on her, he probably surprised even himself. I don’t think he ever figured on having enough of a conscience to care about wanting Natalie while at the same time dying to be a Buchanan. And what about Renee giving him Asa’s favorite cuff links for an early Christmas gift. What is wrong with this woman?