The Best And Worst On BTG, B&B, DAYS, GH And Y&R The Week Of Aug. 4-8

From Sami mourning John Black on Days of Our Lives to Kristina’s machinations creating a perfect storm on General Hospital and Claire’s backbone in confronting her grandfather Victor on The Young and the Restless, here are our critics’ picks for the best and worst on soaps last week.

The Best

Days of Our Lives: Sami Returns!

John Black deserves a long period of mourning, so it was great to see Alison Sweeney back as Sami to console her mom and give her stepdad his flowers.

“I didn’t tell him how sorry I was,” mourned Sami, who really gave that ole ISA agent a run for his money. Of all the crimes Sami committed, kidnapping Belle when she learned John was the father of her baby sister (and not Sami’s dad Roman) was up there. “I treated him like an imposter,” admitted Sami, who rejected John and Marlena’s marriage for years.

Marlena responded that she knew Sami had her issues w John (!) but said he never judged her for that. John wouldn’t want Sami to have any regrets and, if it helps, Sami should picture him telling one of his long baseball stories that used to make her laugh. That actually made Sami cry. Marlena joined her.

The great value in long-running actors in long-running roles is the attachment we have to them, and the amazing ways the show can remind us of that connection. Sami’s flashbacks with her mom’s soul mate were perfect, and the scenes with Marlena were necessary closure to the complex Sami/John relationship. Kudos to DAYS for caring enough to not skip this beat.

“I come here, and I fall apart,” lamented Sami. Us too.

General Hospital: Ava/Ric/Liz/Cody/Molly Heats Up

When Kristina hired Cody to seduce Ava, we initially panned it. That horse-loving yokel was so out of his league with the hellcat who killed Connie Falconeri and had sex with Sonny in the Quartermaine crypt while she was dating his son Morgan. But two months in, GH has cleverly roped Ric, Elizabeth and Molly into what is now becoming a perfect storm.

“Busy?” texted Ava to Cody after Ric turned down a date in favor of ostensibly working with Elizabeth on Willow’s custody case. Ava met the amiable prankster at the pool where she rubbed an ice cube on him (and later kissed him), which was observed by Kristina who had to steer her sister away because Molly and Cody have genuine feelings for each other and Kristina can’t have that. (She needs Cody to break up Ava and Ric so they will stop blackmailing Alexis for the car crash Kristina caused when she tried to kill Ava.) “We need Cody to stay on plan and on Ava,” Kristina asserted to her mom. “I don’t love the sound of that,” sighed Alexis.

Elizabeth’s presence in this story is refreshing — we’re seeing her out of her G.H. scrubs so much more lately! — and making Molly the heart of this messy quintet adds important rooting value. Because when you boil it down, Molly’s sister is the reason Ava is cheating on Molly’s dad with Molly’s crush — and Molly’s mother is complicit.

Beyond The Gates: Hayley’s Busted

Bill’s ex-wife Dani and daughter Naomi were suspicious of his new bride Hayley’s pregnancy from the jump, but Bill was oblivious. When Hayley “fell” over a box in his office, he insisted he accompany her to the doctor to “make sure our baby is healthy and strong.” (And real?)

Naomi’s spidey senses were triggered when she learned Hayley never got an ultrasound; she soon “lost” the baby. “Is my father mourning a baby that never existed?” Naomi questioned her former best friend (now awkward stepmom). “I think you’ve been manipulating my dad from day one.” Hayley admitted she pulled a random ultrasound off the Internet to show Bill, but insisted she did lose a baby a while back.

“Make it make sense,” demanded Naomi. The BTG vixen claimed she needed to buy time with the fake ultrasound to stay in denial until she could face her loss. A skeptical Naomi agreed to keep the secret, leaving Hayley to keep lying to Bill. “There’s nothing you could have done,” Bill consoled his wife.

Except tell the truth.

Young and Restless: Claire To Victor: I’m Done

After everything Victor had done to keep his granddaughter away from the son of his enemy Jack Abbott, the last straw came with a toast. Victor raised a glass to Cole after his funeral for rising above all the other suitors of Newman women who Victor had deemed unworthy. Kyle held his tongue, but an incredulous Claire wasn’t having it. She chastised Victor for using her father’s memory against the man she loves and told him “I’m done” right to his face.

Claire’s resolve grew stronger after Kyle told her Victor had funded Audra’s company because she promised to break up their relationship. Victor also stuck his nose into Claire and Kyle’s plan to buy Adam’s home, putting the kibosh on it by threatening Adam if the Y&R scion sold it to them.

If Victor can’t accept that she and Kyle are in love it’s his problem, not hers, asserted Claire, adding, “I’m no longer going to try to please Grampa!”

Good luck with that…

The Worst

Bold and Beautiful: Doctor Without Borders

After being busted by Finn, Dr. Grace Buckingham finally confessed that Liam didn’t have a fatal brain tumor after all. “I was sick for months,” argued a disbelieving Liam. “Why would you do that?”

So she could con a million dollars from his father Bill (to cover her ex Reese’s gambling debts) and “create” a miracle cure for Liam while prescribing meds that simulated symptoms of brain cancer. What about the experimental surgery she arranged? Superficial cuts to the scalp, explained Finn. How did nobody catch this? demanded Hope. Grace created a bogus MRI, answered Finn.

Not exactly a ringing endorsement for University Hospital or its doctors, which include Finn, Li and Bridget. Setting aside the implausibility of no other medical professional properly checking Liam’s scans, prescriptions or blood work, Grace risked her entire career and probably jail time for a million bucks? (“One million dollars” was deemed laughably small almost 30 years ago in the 1997 Austin Powers movie!) The million-dollar question, pun intended, is: If Grace needed money because thugs were threatening her off-screen daughters Paris and Zoe, why didn’t she simply ask Paris’s millionaire fiancé, Thomas Forrester, for the money? And it didn’t go unnoticed by fans that yet again, a Black doctor on the show was cast as the villain (or at the very least as unethical and untrustworthy).

Points for creativity, though. A fake tumor is certainly a more interesting way to un-doom Liam than the way Eric’s impending death was miraculously rolled back in 2023. Fair warning, though: Every time B&B cries wolf with a “fatal” disease, it loses effectiveness.

BTG: Andre and Ashley Zzzzzzz

We want to like these two because they’re both single and make sense together — and their portrayers Sean Freeman and Jen Jacob are so appealing. But BTG has done this duo no favors. They set Andre up with firebrand Dani Dupree with whom he positively crackles, and then inserted Ashley after she broke up with Derek as some sort of consolation prize. Scenes like Andre orchestrating a trip for Ashley to “Paris” at his pad with berets and French music feel forced when we’ve just seen him steaming up the sheets with Dani.

Ashley’s stilted dialogue doesn’t help. While other players get great lines (like Bill telling Dani he preferred “the battle to the guilt” after their divorce), Ashley is saddled more with clichés. She told Derek his proposal “felt like heaven on earth” but she can’t ignore the part of her that wants to “throw caution to the wind” because Andre represents a “sense of wonder.” For his part, Andre is just not believable when he tells Ashley he wants to be with her and then macks on Dani so hard they can’t even make it to the bed.

There’s not much rooting value for a couple this blatantly wishy-washy. Hopefully Ashley spying Dani in Andre’s arms will ignite a spark that propels this BTG triangle (quadrangle?) forward.