It’s Only My Opinion: GH’s Carly, Y&R’s Jack and More Are Haunted By Their Past

There are a lot of chickens coming home to roost on General Hospital, Young and Restless, Days of Our Lives, Beyond the Gates and Bold and Beautiful — with mixed results. Carolyn Hinsey examines how characters’ pasts coming back to haunt them is playing out for GH’s Carly, Y&R‘s Jack and B&B’s Brooke.

Payback Time

The most welcome victim of her own karma is GH’s Carly, who is paying for her many bad choices via oldest daughter Josslyn joining the WSB. Joss had a ringside seat to Carly forgiving Sonny over and over while her childhood filled up with shootings, kidnappings and deaths (A.J., Connie, Morgan, mobsters, etc.). That made Joss ripe for the picking when her boyfriend Dex was murdered by Cyrus (after she already lost Oscar to cancer).

Carly: “I knew Josslyn resented Sonny’s way of life, but I had no idea she was carrying this much anger and hostility.”

Jason: “I guess being an agent makes her feel she has the power to protect the people she loves.”

Carly: “All those times I forgave Sonny, I didn’t anticipate how my choices would affect Josslyn. I failed as a parent. To make up for it I have to do anything I can to get her out of this mess.”

By “anything” she means hooking up with former WSB baddie Valentin to coax Joss out of the bureau. Sonny and Jason are also part of this free-for-all, set in motion by Carly’s actions and Josslyn’s reactions. It’s textbook, and very entertaining.

As is Valentin’s daughter, Charlotte, for different reasons. She was raised on the run with her fugitive dad and is now skulking around Port Charles like he taught her to do, while doing everything to protect him.

Charlotte (to Danny): “I overheard Nina and Brennan talking. The second he threatened her precious Willow she caved. Nina made a huge mistake betraying me and my dad. I’ll never forgive her. I’m a Cassadine and I’ll show her exactly what that means.”

Bring it! Bad parenting is impacting other stories, too. Jason’s lax discipline has Danny trashing the gatehouse and secretly smooching Charlotte (his second cousin)… Lulu and Dante’s long absences have Rocco on the hook for community service while growing closer to Britt… Willow’s mother abandoning her to a cult turns out to have created a true sociopath — wow did Drew misjudge her. He thought he could manipulate Willow and lie to her; now he’s paralyzed and mute thanks to repeated drugging by his “devoted” wife.

Bad guy du jour Sidwell is behind it, of course.

Willow: “I’m grateful for your help.”

Sidwell: “You have free rein as long as it doesn’t conflict with my interests.”

His “interests” will also cause the ladies of Deception to reap what they sowed after getting into bed with that crook. Consequences!

Small Miracles

Ted got his comeuppance on BTG after cheating on Nicole with Leslie, and it looks like Leslie might finally get hers. Her negatives include dating crooked cop Marcel and being on the wrong side of both the Duprees and mobster Joey Armstrong.

Joey (to Marcel): “I need you to put a little more energy into your crazy girlfriend because I’m tired of her flirting with me. Leslie has homicidal tendencies.”

Indeed, she still hasn’t been caught for running Laura off the road and it’s positively maddening that Anita’s generosity resulted in Leslie buying a nearby house. The construction noise is deafening.

Kat: “How does that loud, messy woman keep running circles around us?”

Make it stop!

Over on DAYS, so much of the show is newbies and recasts it’s hard to find a story rooted in history — so Abe reminiscing about Lexie was a welcome tug at the heartstrings. He deserves that chicken to come home even if she is the 900th Salem-ite returning from the dead (and a recast).

Roman: “You okay, partner?”

Abe: “I’ve been thinking about Lexie a lot lately. It started when Theo took the CEO job at DiMera. Paulina has healed me in so many ways, but Lexie is still in my heart.”

Cut to EJ showing Paulina the body of Abe’s “late” wife cryogenically frozen by Dr. Rolf, setting up an interesting dilemma for Madame Mayor about whether to tell her husband about the experiment being conducted in the hospital basement.

EJ: “If you decide to keep Abe from his dearly departed wife, and Theo from his sainted mother, I’d hate for them to find out it was you who stopped this miracle from happening.”

Paulina: “Miracles don’t come from the devil.”

An OG triangle with people we care about would be a miracle.

History Channel

Conversely, Patty resurfacing on Y&R is not a welcome return. The unstable nutbag got inexplicably released from prison after stalking, kidnapping and shooting multiple people including Victor and Jack (at their wedding!), as well as causing Colleen’s death. She’s the second lunatic to return after Matt Clark (third if you count Ian Ward) and none of them were missed when they were dead and/or incarcerated.

Patty came back randomly holding Jack hostage on a yacht in the middle of a lake. As preposterous as that was, it turned out Victor was somehow behind it. So Victor can just kidnap people now and no one calls the police? Boom, there goes Jack and everyone’s like “We have to meet Victor’s demands!” As opposed to calling the police and treating it like the crime it was?!

Patty (coming on to Jack): “What if we’re stuck here forever?”

Is Patty a sex worker? She purrs every sentence like she’s on Playboy After Dark instead of a daytime soap opera. She demanded a kiss before she would let Jack out of the room and he pushed her to admit that “the dark knight” was behind his incarceration.

Patty (ignoring him): “Now about that kiss.”

He gave her a peck.

Patty: “No no no, Jack, that’s not going to cut it. Not if you want a tour of the yacht. You’ve got to kiss me like you mean it.”

And then she literally mauled him for three episodes.

Jack: “Something is not right.”

You can say that again. Back in Genoa City, Nikki was not pleased to learn her current husband was behind her ex-husband going missing. She got into it with Diane and Phyllis, which was amusing because the hysterical Diane kept referring to Jack as “my husband!” without acknowledging that every woman in the conversation had also been married to him.

The comeuppance there will come when Victor pulls out his go-to move of a new house or diamond necklace to beg forgiveness and Nikki tells him to kick rocks.

Nikki (making a vow): “You’re going to have to deal with me.”

B&B’s Logan sisters are finally dealing with long-held disses, hurts and grudges. Brooke arranged a kumbaya dinner to try and make amends and it did not go well.

Brooke: “Things were a little tense the last time we got together.”

Ridge: “When the two of you used my 80-year-old dad to try and get your little company off the ground.”

Bill: “He came to us after he was shoved out the door by you.”

Brooke: “That’s not helpful. Katie, I was wondering if you’d like to come back to Forrester Creations.”

Bill: “This is great. Dinner and a comedy show!”

Katie responded that Logan was moving forward with Eric’s designs despite his return to Forrester and there was nothing they could do about it because his work was bought and paid for. A fight erupted and the sisters asked to talk alone.

Brooke: “We dealt with our childhood traumas in very different ways.”

Katie: “Things have not been easy for me. But now I have an incredible man, despite your best efforts. You had to seduce him. It will always live between us.”

Brooke: “Why are you bringing this up?”

Because it’s fantastic drama and if you’ve been watching B&B since 1987 it wasloooong  overdue. Brooke, Ridge and Eric busted into Logan’s big launch and were shocked to see Eric’s designs dazzling onlookers as the models sashayed down the runway.

Brooke: “This is war!”

When chickens come home to roost, feathers will fly.

Hey. It’s only my opinion.