Why do scenes between exes resonate for viewers? Check out what Digest columnist Carolyn Hinsey has to say about what’s happening across the daytime dial.
Soaps are playing a lot of exes together and it’s turning out the same way it does in real life: Some reunions work, some don’t and some just leave you feeling stupid.
Kidnapping your own kid to get the upper hand with your blackmailing ex is up there — just ask DAYS’s Brady Black.
Brady: “We need to be patient.”
Kristen (hyperventilating): “Patient, patient, aaahhh! I can’t sit still! I love that little girl! Ah, ah, ah, ah.”
Brady: “Take a deep breath.”
As much as I despise Kristen, watching her scream like a banshee about her missing child was not entertaining. Watching brothers Brady and Eric team up to trick her, however, was. Eric lying that Rachel couldn’t go home because “Mommy is sick” was next level. (Nice work from a former priest.) Unfortunately, Brady telling Eric on the phone that he had to be “really, really careful” about when he came clean to Kristen about the kidnapping plot was sloppy.
Kristen (overhearing): “What the hell did you do with my daughter?”
Brady: “You’re not going to get her back until you hand over the orchid.”
A quick trip to the DiMera secret room revealed The Magic Flower that would cure Marlena, Kayla and Kate was gone (so our favorite divas started “dying”), but that didn’t stop Brady from heading straight to Chloe to beg forgiveness for dumping her.
Brady: “Kristen had the orchid. She’d provide the serum if I agreed to end my relationship with you. I love you and I hope you come to realize you love me, too.”
Chloe: Not so fast.
The Magic Flower Reveal ignited two other popular former pairs, with similar results.
Nicole (to Eric): “Kristen forced you to break up with me?”
Gabi (to an indifferent Stefan): “Now we know what they all did to keep you and me apart!”
While those old flames were weighing the pros and cons of soap opera love, Kristen had to move back to the DiMera mansion with her designer tail between her legs — to the chagrin of her disapproving brother.
EJ: “All this so Brady would break up with Chloe?”
Kristen: “Brady is my baby daddy and Rachel wanted us to be a family!”
I liked it better when she was screaming.
I was the one screaming when B&B unveiled The Plot To Save Sheila, which involved getting her exes Deacon and Mike to lie for her while she somehow gaslit Bill into blackmailing the mother of his grandchild to keep her out of jail.
Steffy (to Finn): “If we testify against Sheila, my mom is going to end up in prison, too!”
Seems Bill would press charges against Taylor for shooting him if Steffy and Finn didn’t drop the charges against Sheila for shooting them. Here’s the problem: Taylor shot Bill in the spring of 2018. The statute of limitations in L.A. for assault with a deadly weapon is three years (I looked it up) so the entire premise makes no sense. Besides, Taylor could get a good lawyer, testify that she acted in the heat of the moment after Bill slept with her daughter, and let a jury decide. That’s certainly better than letting a vengeful murderer like Sheila go free.
Other wrinkles: The cops also had Sheila on the attempted murder of Li, escaping custody, faking her own death…
Steffy: “Our charges aren’t the only ones necessary to convict her.”
Right! Most glaring is the fact that Dollar Bill Spencer would never throw away his relationship with his sons for a manipulative murderer he supposedly fell for last Tuesday.
Sheila (purring): “You’ve been with good girls who wanted to change you. You’re not one of them. Neither one of us are.”
Blech. On the bright side, good for B&B for resurrecting the major plot point of Taylor being an unhinged shooter and Brooke’s reaction to her ex-husband bedding her worst enemy will be soapy goodness. And I am always in when a show winks at us about a recast.
Steffy: “My mom was a different person back then.”
Okay, that’s funny.
GH’s Ava went scorched earth on her estranged husband Nikolas when she found out Esme was 1) alive and 2) pregnant.
Ava: “The baby that Esme is carrying is yours, isn’t it?”
Nikolas: “Yes.”
Thwack!
Laura’s face was priceless. Spencer wasn’t too excited about it either, causing him to remark to Cam that Joss probably cheated on him, too.
Spencer: “My father slept with my girlfriend, so forgive me if I don’t have a lot of faith in relationships.”
Jack falling for Diane’s b.s. on Y&R weakens him and makes both him and Kyle — the son she conceived by stealing Jack’s sperm — look like dopes. They are risking their loved ones for her and she is so not worth it.
Ashley: “You have bought Diane’s ‘poor me’ act.”
Jack: “It is not ‘poor me’. I have decided to protect my son’s mother.”
Ashley: “So years ago, Diane chose to double-cross a dangerous criminal and now our family is in danger.”
Jack committing grand larceny for Diane is beyond ridiculous when they could just call the cops and report Diane’s ex, Jeremy, for stalking, blackmail, whatever, instead of robbing Jack’s ex-wife Nikki to somehow “prove Diane’s loyalty” to Jeremy.
Jack (to Diane): “I’ll get in, get out, bring a piece of Nikki’s jewelry back.”
I hope Nikki and Victor prosecute Jack and Diane all the way into the slammer.
Which brings us to Ashley falling for her ex-husband Tucker’s smarmy bedroom charms and then finding out he was using her (and also sleeping with Audra, which we knew).
Abby: “Devon saw you and Tucker together.”
Ashley: “I feel stupid.”
Like I said…
Hey. It’s only my opinion.
