It’s Only My Opinion For The Soap Week Ending May 9

I Know Something You Don’t Know: Secrets are dominating — and blowing up — the stories of (from l.) GH’s Ava (Maura West), BTG’s Leslie (Trisha Mann-Grant), B&B’s Liam (Scott Clifton) and Y&R’s Tessa (Cait Fairbanks).

Oh, what a tangled web they weave… but timing is everything with soap opera secrets.

Behind The Gates got it right with Ted and Nicole’s anniversary party. Just as we were growing tired of Leslie donning “dollar store wigs” and stalking the Duprees, she blew up the bash with the truth about Ted fathering Eva.

Leslie: “Hiding me away is not going to work anymore.”

You can say that again! Nicole stormed out of the bash and excoriated Ted when he followed her to talk through his betrayal.

Nicole: “She weaponized that child you created and came back to shatter our lives. You thought your indiscretion left town? All you did was start a ticking time bomb! Now here we stand in the rubble.”

Cut to Eva pleading her case to her new half-sister, explaining that Leslie raised her to believe Ted knew about her birth but chose to be a deadbeat dad.

Kat (sarcastic): “Neither of us had the dad we thought we did, yay.”

Eva: “I loved Ted and Nicole.”

Kat: “You’re dead to me.”

So… that went well. It’s hard to believe Eva thought the reveal would go any other way but we’ll chalk that up to timing. As Leslie’s nasty plan was accelerating, Ted and Nicole were offering to help Eva with her career. Their kindness overwhelmed her, but it was too late.

Over at the Dupree house, Leslie was inflicting more pain on Nicole’s reeling family. Anita asked what gave Leslie the right to darken their doorstep and she responded that she was looking for understanding.

Dani: “What corner of hell vomited you to the curb?”

Anita: “Ladies, manners.”

Out came the DNA test proving Eva was indeed part of their extended family and the wrenching news that Eva and Kat were born two weeks apart (Ted sure got around).

Leslie: “You pride yourself on being good people. Here’s your chance to show that is the truth. I bid you farewell.”

Anita: “Our uninvited guest thinks she can have the last word? No, sweetheart. I have home court advantage. A real mother loves and protects her child and raises her up to be a good person. A real mother doesn’t ruin a blessing. You filled Eva with your hate and wielded that child like a weapon. This community doesn’t forget.”

Leslie left, Vernon gave the fam a pep talk, and Anita launched into “Amazing Grace” at the piano. Her music served as a moving backdrop for scenes of Kat consoling her sobbing mother and Eva arriving home to find the door locked — while Leslie smiled wickedly on the other side of the door.

Good vs. evil… well done.

On Y&R, Victor’s clandestine plan to ruin Kyle put him on the wrong side of his lawyer.

Michael: “Imagine how hard it is for me to do my job when you keep leaving me in the dark.”

Victor (dismissive): “Don’t worry about Kyle Abbott.”

Victor himself should worry about Kyle, since he and Claire want to buy Adam’s apartment and move in together without telling him.

Adam: “You know my father will lose his mind, right?”

Kyle: “That doesn’t change our decision.”

Adam: “Those are brave words from the most recent face on Victor’s dart board.”

Consequences! Victoria confided Kyle and Claire’s plans to Nick, who had the same reaction as his half-brother.

Nick: “Dad has a way of finding things out — especially when you don’t want him to.”

Tessa has a way of finding things out, too. She told Daniel that Mariah was hiding something bad from her, which Mariah confirmed to Sharon.

Mariah: “My wife can never find out what I did.”

Suggestion: Stop talking about it in public places.

DAYS has slowed down on the police being the ones to solve “Who shot EJ?” — which is too bad because that whodunnit looked like a good umbrella story. There was Rafe trying to keep Gabi from being a suspect while Leo rooted through her bag and pressed Jada on the status of the investigation.

Leo: “I am a journalist for The Spectator on a mission to find out which rapscallion shot Elvis Aaron DiMera.”

Rafe: “Stay the hell away from Gabi.”

When the local gossip columnist cares more about finding the shooter than the cops, the story is fizzling.

But here comes the fight for the hospital (which has a miracle sepsis cure in the hopper). Xander and EJ are pretending their motives are pure but they’re both aware the drug could make whoever owns it a lot of money.

Kayla: “You want to buy University Hospital?”

EJ: “Almost dying has a way of changing your outlook on life. I want to use my great fortune to be a better man. Will you help me help you?”

Kayla: “Hard pass.”

Ha! Kiriakis vs. DiMera is a good recipe for drama, especially when the major players are keeping their true intentions secret. And sooner or later it’s going to come out that Sarah knew Philip was scamming Xander, which will up the ante.

Liam wanted to keep his terminal diagnosis confidential on B&B, but Steffy (the mother of his daughter, Kelly) pushed him to tell Hope. That made sense since they have a child together, too (Beth).

Liam: “You’ve got to let me do this my way.”

Steffy: “You can’t hurt Hope that way. Tell her today.”

Liam: “I’ve got precious little time. I don’t want to watch people sit around being sad all day long. Grieving can wait until after I’m gone.”

Sorry, kids! Daddy disappeared.

The last time we saw Liam with his father they had a big fight, which apparently gave Liam a brain tumor. The payoff here will be Bill Spencer finding out his son is dying (if he really is) and Steffy kept it from him. Was her secrecy payback for Bill getting Luna out of prison? Play it!

GH is exploding with secrets. Portia blackmailed Brad into getting her ketamine so Nina could hire a hooker to slip it to Drew to make Willow think he cheated on her and break them up.

Nina: “What are you thinking?”

Willow: “I think someone hired the call girl to set Drew up.”

That one didn’t even last a week.

Alexis knows Kristina tried to kill Ava but hurt Ric and Elizabeth instead, so she’s protecting Kristina by allowing Ava and Ric to blackmail her and laundering Cassadine money to them through a shell corporation.

Ric: “You know what you’ve been paying? You’re going to need to double that.”

Lucky also knows and is covering for Kristina, which will only make sense if Elizabeth finds out and dumps him.

Lucky’s sister, Lulu, is keeping a doozy, but Laura said it’s not Lulu’s place to tell. (She would know — look what happened to the Spencers when Laura brought a teenaged Nikolas into the family to basically give young Lulu a body part.)

Laura: “Choosing to expose somebody else’s secret is hubris, and everything that happened after that you’d be responsible for. I hope you would think long and hard before you did anything.”

Lulu almost blabbed to Dante, but then Brook Lynn actually did blurt it out to her grandmother.

Tracy: “Did you say you had a baby?”

Brook Lynn: “In high school. I gave it up for adoption. Up until recently the only person I told was my mom.”

Tracy was surprisingly sympathetic, but gave Brook Lynn’s mother no such courtesy.

Tracy (to Lois): “Where is my great grandson?”

Right under your nose! Poor Gio got blamed for Rocco getting alcohol poisoning, but it was a good setup to have Dante and Gio at odds before they find out they’re father and son. Lois’s forceful defense of Gio ignited Lulu’s spidey-sense, which will likely lead to that long-buried secret coming out. Lois’s anger also caused her daughter to be suspicious.

Brook Lynn: “Why is this upsetting you so much?”

Oh, what a tangled web she weaves…

Hey. It’s only my opinion.