Carolyn Hinsey’s It’s Only My Opinion

Room For One More: GH’s Laura (Genie Francis) adopted Ace, but it’s Lucky or Lulu whose return is most needed.

It’s the dead of winter so I’m getting an extra kick out of characters bringing the heat, aka telling people off.

I’m looking at you, GH’s Nina! I’m so sick of Carly and Drew being all holier-than-thou about Nina turning them into the SEC for something they did. Drew firing Nina from a magazine she was successfully running was bad enough, but installing Carly as the new editor when she had zero experience makes him a bad manager. (Speaking from experience, it takes a week just to learn the computer system, but there’s Carly shuffling pieces of paper like it’s 1990.) And don’t get me started on Drew, a former Navy SEAL with more killing, assault, breaking-and-entering and trespassing charges on his rap sheet than Sonny’s whole crew, who turned dark after one prison beating.

So Nina opening the walls of the Crimson offices because of a “water leak” to get revenge on that huffy duo was a welcome twist.

Carly: “I have a magazine to put out!”

Nina: “Good luck.”

Drew: “You made the choice to escalate, so you’re going to have to live with the fallout.”

Nina: “It can’t be any worse that what has already happened to me: I lost my husband, my family and my magazine.”

True that, although Sonny is still wearing his ring, so I don’t think that’s over. Carly begged Drew to let the universe deal with Nina but Anger Boy chose the warpath so I’m Team Nina.

Nina (to Drew): “I’ve made mistakes, just like the rest of you.”

Exactly.

Laura did the right thing forcing Nikolas to confess his crimes, even if it meant losing him to prison for awhile. The question then became what to do with Nik’s son Ace?

Laura: “Having a baby at our age is going to be a daunting task.”

Kevin: “This would be a new experience for me, but it feels right. It feels like us.”

Good for them for adopting that kid after having an honest conversation about age, especially since Laura has grown grandchildren (#oldlikeme). With Nik in prison and Spencer “dead” it’s time to resurrect Lucky or Lulu — or both. Liz/Finn and Dante/Sam could use some shaking up. Look what Tracy did to Lucy/Martin with just a few choice words about Scotty! Side note: Nothing is funnier than Tracy listing Scott in her phone as “Ambulance Chaser”.

No one needed telling off more than Y&R’s Phyllis, and her son was just the guy to do it.

Daniel: “Don’t play the wounded act. I saw your social media post.”

Phyllis: “I’m not ashamed for going after love.”

Stalking Danny and getting in Christine’s face is not “going after love,” which Daniel pointed out.

Daniel: “Besting your old rival is the only thing that makes you happy.”

Phyllis: “That’s the old Phyllis. How come you can’t accept who I am now?”

Daniel: “Because I need to see some actual change.”

There’s none of that, just a needy lunatic wandering the streets.

Christine (to Danny): “That woman is a walking apocalypse.”

Enter Phyllis.

Danny (hand up): “Don’t!”

Christine: “We’re having a private conversation.”

Not only can Phyllis not take a hint, she’s bragging to anyone who will listen that she’s in love with Danny and their life is magical. Nick was like whatever when they finally shared scenes together while surveying Summer on a date with Chance.

Phyllis: “We will always share that bond as parents.”

Nick: “Whether we like it or not.”

I’m glad Y&R addressed their distance and showed Phyllis thanking him for his forgiveness after faking her death. She screwed over her kids, loved ones and co-workers out of some misguided revenge against Diane and the only person holding her accountable is her ex-husband.

Nick: “It’s been very hard for me to let that go.”

As it should be.

On the down side, it makes no sense that Summer and Kyle don’t even cross paths, especially now that she’s dating the milquetoast Chance. Giving him dialogue straight out of a fortune cookie is not helpful if we are to buy him as a viable love interest for the fiery Summer.

Chance (re: Abby): “It hurt being betrayed but I learned you can’t force love. Hearts are unpredictable.”

Thank you Mr. Hallmark.

Give me Ashley’s trademark snark every time.

Ashley (to Audra): “Were you sleeping with Tucker the same time you were sleeping with Kyle? Classy.”

DAYS brought the heat, but in a bad way — by burning down the most iconic house on the show. They laid it on thick before the fire, I guess to make it worse?

Chad: “When I’m in this home I feel like I can breathe. It’s like we’re home.”

Julie: “Honey, you are home.”

We get it. Enter a masked figure to set it ablaze as punishment for Chad printing a newspaper story about the drug dealers in Salem. Leave it to Julie to try and pull a bright side out of the ashes.

Julie: “Our house is just a material thing. Your home is really your family. The people you love is your home. Isn’t that right.”

Maggie: “Definitely.”

But then reality set in.

Julie: “We’ve lost the Christmas ornaments!”

Uggghhhh. That’s the saddest thing of all. The one holiday tradition fans wait for every year is ruined… unless the boxes were somehow unharmed and we get a Christmas miracle in December along with Jack, Jen, Bo and Hope returning to hang the ornaments in the first year since 1970 when we won’t have our beloved Doug Williams.

Julie is the Salem sage, showcasing that stoic strength we’ve been watching for 50 years but she needs help.

Julie: “Where are we going to live?”

Maggie: “Right here.”

Julie: “You’ve got a house full of people already.”

Maggie: “It’s a mansion!”

More common sense from Maggie, which other characters could use. Ava found Harris shot and bleeding outside the Bistro and phoned her son.

Tripp: “Call 911!”

Ava: “No, I called you.”

Tripp (exasperated): “Wendy, call 911.”

Did Ava want him to die?

Which brings us to B&B and the tale of the magic mints that make you have sex with your boyfriend’s cousin. Assuming we buy the fact that there are mints that made Luna so out of it she stumbled into Zende’s bedroom by accident and hallucinated R.J. while having sex with Zende, what kind of story is this for the only young couple on the show? And how can they do sweet, adopted, hard-working Zende Forrester like that?

Zende (to a sobbing Luna): “You do know that what we shared was consensual?”

Not to her. Luna relayed the whole sordid tale to her mother who confessed that the mints she takes for “anxiety” — which Luna stole from her — were what lead to Luna mistaking a tall Black man for her stocky white boyfriend.

Luna: “Oh my God, I got drugged by my own mother!”

I can’t with this story, so let’s focus on how Li turned out to be right about her sister. I thought Finn’s mom had just become a nagging harpy, jealous of Poppy dating Bill Spencer, but then this:

Li: “You’ve had a parade of lovers, all very handsome and all very rich. Bill might be the jackpot. You say you’re carefree. Is that a euphemism for taking drugs? Your mints. I know about them. I see you reaching into your purse for your little stash. I’m a doctor. You can’t hide from me.”

So Poppy is a careless mother and Luna is a careless sex-haver and these promising new characters have now been undone by a box of mints.

Let’s give the last word to R.J., who brought the heat to his mother re: introducing Luna to the Forresters with their loooong history of impropriety.

R.J.: “I want to protect Luna from the drama.”

Brooke (sarcastic): “Our family? Drama?”

R.J.: “I come from two lines of constant public scandal.”

Brace yourself for some REAL scandal, son…

Hey. It’s only my opinion.