Reflections by Jill - A Weekly Commentary for OLTL for September 28, 2009

Wow, Ernesto Rivera and George Fish certainly won’t be winning any awards for Fathers of the Year, will they?

Let’s start with Ernesto, the stubborn bull. This guy is too much. He shows up at the diner to berate and blame his son, Markko, just because his wife has had the good sense to wise up and decided to leave him. Sure, it’s his wife’s fault that he’s an unrelenting ass who thinks that an 18-year old son having sex before marriage is a good reason to disown him and kick him out of the house. Ernesto immediately assumed that Markko had a hand in his mother’s brilliant decision, rather than admit that he has hurt his own wife terribly by what he did to their son. I was very glad that Markko stood up to him, even though his father’s attitude hurts him badly every time they have an encounter. It wasn’t until later on when Ernesto was sitting alone and moping in the diner that he overheard the conversation between David and Bo where Bo tried to explain to David what it is like to lose a son and David explains to Bo that Matthew loves his father, but needs to know that he can be his own person and not just what Bo wants him to be.

Shockingly, on some level listening to Bo got through to Ernesto because he wound up on Markko’s doorstep and offered what I guess for him can be considered an olive branch. He wasn’t pleased to find Langston there with Markko, but Markko had already told him that if he ever came to his place it was “my house my rules.” Ernesto finally gave in a little bit and told Markko that he was welcome any time he wanted to come by the house for dinner and that he was welcome to bring Langston. Whatever drove Ernesto to give in even a little bit made Markko so happy, so maybe Ernesto realizes he has been a fool and maybe part of his motivation came from the fact that he’d get his wife back if he wised up.

And speaking of David, although his mission is basically to be silly and entertaining (and get money for nothing whenever he can, LOL), I loved the moment he had with Bo when he reminded Bo that he was his son, just like Matthew. Bo usually doesn’t remember that, and I’m sure he’d like to forget it, but I thought it was a very sweet moment when David said to Bo, “I know you never wanted a son like me, but I always wanted a dad like you. You don’t always do the right thing but you always try.” That was such a sweet moment for these two men and I loved it when Bo took him seriously and invited him to breakfast. David loved it and I had to laugh when he asked if Bo was buying and Bo said, “I’m the father.”

David got back down to business later that day when he showed up at Dorian’s and let her know he was moving in. She was furious at him, but she let him stay on the condition that he digs up some new dirt on Viki to use in the campaign. We all know that if Dorian doesn’t find any dirt, she’ll create some and that’s what is most troublesome, like when she drugged Charlie and got him drunk. Viki doesn’t seem to worried about Dorian and I had a good laugh when she told Charlie, “Dorian has so many skeletons in her closet she could open a museum.”

Anyway, back to the crazy dads of Llanview, we have to deal with George Fish. Oliver’s father is such a dinosaur it is unbelievable. He has decided that having a gay son is just more than he is willing to handle so of course, he disowns Oliver. Here’s another candidate for Dad of the Year. So, old George can’t wait to get out of town and he’s waiting to check out of the hotel when he runs into John and Marty. They introduce themselves and John realizes that George is Oliver’s father. But George informs John that he’s not Oliver’s father any more because his son is gay. George also figures that John and the other officers on the force would be equally repulsed by this information but John, decent as ever, doesn’t take the bait. He didn’t know Oliver was gay and he couldn’t care less. John only has good things to say about Oliver, telling George that his son is a great cop and a hero, but George doesn’t care to hear it. Marty makes a little progress when she talks to George and tries to convince him that he shouldn’t cast his son aside because he will regret it. Unlike Ernesto, all George can manage to do is show up on Oliver’s doorstep and make a small concession. He tells Oliver that in spite of everything, he loves him and always has and that he will pray for him. OMG! George, could you spare the compassion? Nevertheless, the fact that Oliver’s parents even came back to the apartment was a huge thing for Oliver and gave him some modicum of peace in his decision to come out.

Oliver later went to see John at the station and of course John knew what he wanted to tell him. This is what I love about John. He never says much, but he is a decent, kind man and would never make a good man like Oliver feel bad for what he is. John just whipped out a bottle of booze from his desk and shared a drink with Oliver, letting Oliver know that he could always come to him and that it didn’t matter to him what Oliver’s personal life was.

Oh boy! The big wedding! Todd and Tea have decided to get married but they hit a snag when Tea has trouble getting over the fact that Todd nearly burned down the cabana when he thought Blair was with another man. Tea decided (for about three seconds) that she couldn’t marry a man who couldn’t forget another woman and of course, Todd gave her the same lame excuse that Blair always uses; that he cares what Blair does because of their kids. You know if I had a dollar for every time Todd and Blair used that line of b.s., I’d have enough money to bribe one of those writers to give Todd a very long vacation. Anyway, I had no doubt that Tea would buy Todd’s line of bull and put the ring back on her finger and she didn’t disappoint me. Tea tried to tell Todd the truth about her and Ross, but he was so set on what he wanted (a wedding that night) that he wouldn’t let her tell him her secret. Tea’s desire to belong to Todd (ewww) is so strong that she let him bulldoze her and never told him the truth.