The Best And Worst On BTG, B&B, DAYS, GH And Y&R The Week Of July 21-25

From Nicole taking back control on Beyond The Gates to a shell-shocked Willow walking down the aisle on General Hospital and Jack drawing the line with his brother Billy on The Young and the Restless, here are our critics’ picks for the best and worst on soaps last week.

The Best

Young and Restless: Jack to Billy: I’m Out

Watching Billy Abbott crash and burn is one of Y&R’s most enduring themes, and it looks like he’s headed for another hard landing.

“I should have known you would sabotage a good thing,” Jack chastised his brother after learning Billy had handed Abbott Communications to his girlfriend Sally so he could take another run at Chancellor. The problem? Jack was Billy’s sole investor in the startup and Billy made the change without consulting him. Jack asserted AC was a non-starter without him. “Are you in or out?” demanded the ego-driven Billy.

Out.

Torn by the encounter, Jack wondered whether he held Billy back by questioning his decisions. Diane said no, citing all the times Jack had saved his younger brother after his impulses got the better of him (his gambling addition, etc.). If Billy knows Jack is there to catch him he’ll take greater risks and fail even bigger, so cutting him off is the best course of action — even if it ruptures their longstanding relationship.

“I have to consider,” lamented Jack, “that the moment has arrived to let Billy go.”

General Hospital: Willow’s Wild Wedding

The signs were there. Portia threw the wedding invitation in the garbage and told Willow that Drew was blackmailing her; Willow didn’t care. Martin announced the only way he’d attend was if Drew paid him; Drew didn’t care. Then, as the guests were gathering, Curtis burst into Willow’s bridal suite with a drive-by shocker.

“Last summer, when you and Drew were falling love, Drew was sleeping with your mother,” he revealed. Now Willow cared. She confronted Nina, who admitted it, explaining that she had no idea Willow and Drew were a thing when it started, and she ended it when she realized they were falling in love. A horrified Willow asked why her mom didn’t just tell her the truth. Nina claimed it was too late by then. Roared Willow, “You watched as I threw away my marriage and my children for a man you knew was lying to me and you said nothing!”

Nina regretted her actions — but it was way too late for that to matter. Willow called her mom a coward and sobbed that she had burned every bridge and sacrificed everything for Drew. She envied her late twin Nelle for dying before knowing Nina was her mother. “Get the hell out!” she ordered. (Kudos to both Katelyn MacMullen, Willow, and Cynthia Watros, Nina, for their bravura performances.)

Stricken, Nina settled into her pew and told Liesl there would be no wedding that day on GH. Just then, Willow appeared at the back of the church…

Beyond The Gates: Nicole Takes Charge

When it comes to shockers, finding out your son killed a man and maimed his brother, your husband operated on the disfigured bad guy, and your parents hid it from you for two years is up there. Distraught, Nicole turned to her sister.

“What do you want to do?” asked Dani. “Get 25 years back,” responded Nicole, spinning out about how Vernon and Anita could have kept her son Martin’s crime and subsequent suffering from her. Dani reminded her “sissy” that the good thing about being in the Dupree family is you’re never alone. “Stop pushing us away,” she counseled. “We’re not going anywhere.”

But Nicole was. She stormed over to Bill’s and excoriated her former brother-in-law for helping her family cover up the crime. Bill lashed out, saying Vernon is not the hero Nicole thinks he is because good men don’t need cleanup men (like him). “Your father wanted to maintain the image of a pristine family dynasty instead of doing the hard work to become a good family,” he spit. Nicole clapped back, saying Martin has his whole life ahead of him and there is so much good he can still do for the world as a congressman. He may be damaged by Bill’s “fixing,” but that ends here.

“I am the fixer now,” decreed the BTG shrink.

Days of Our Lives: EJ Spars With Kayla

When the hospital’s annoying new owner burst into her office demanding she find him an office immediately, Dr. Kayla Brady wasn’t having it.

“That didn’t sound like a work call,” snarked EJ to his chief-of-staff. “And that didn’t sound like a knock on my door, but here we are,” retorted Kayla. The sniping escalated, with Kayla pointing out EJ only bought the hospital to get his “greedy little hands” on University’s new lucrative drug. She serves at his pleasure and he needs an office, retorted EJ.

A lesser chief-of-staff would have been intimidated but this seen-it-all DAYS heroine used sarcasm to make her point, offering him a utility closet next to the morgue. “Ah, that infamous Brady wit,” responded EJ, “dripping with sarcasm with just a hint of Irish Catholic piety.” The back-and-forth continued with Kayla saying he may own the hospital but she runs it. Correction: She used to run it but now she’d better figure out how to do more with less or she’d be out. Exasperated, Kayla told EJ to back the hell off or accept her resignation.

He backed off, agreeing to use Kayla’s office for now — but the detente was clearly temporary.

The Worst

Bold and Beautiful: Li Defends Luna?!

How many times did we watch Li bust into Finn’s office to warn him away from his bio daughter Luna? She’s dangerous, irredeemable, a threat to his wife and family, blah blah. Then Luna died — with Li the only doctor in the room — and all of a sudden it was poor Luna.

“It wasn’t her fault,” Li insisted to Sheila and Deacon. “Luna needed help from a very young age but her poor excuse of a mother was too drugged-up to notice.” Li blamed her sister Penelope (Poppy) for the murderous path her niece took, saying Luna never had a chance. Deacon barked that Luna two killed people, got a second chance, and then shot two people. Defiant Li was still Team Luna.

Since when? None of this tracks with how Li felt about her niece during her life or how she treated the girl when she was growing up. Li didn’t step in, not even when she found out her niece was also her granddaughter via Finn.

Obviously Li’s about-face and the lack of a funeral (“It’s handled,” she dismissed) points to Luna being alive, which is a trademark B&B twist. But this “sticks out like a sore thumb” storytelling is hard to swallow after Luna’s long reign of terror.

DAYS: Too Little, Too Late For Doug III

Why wait until a character’s final appearance to make us like him? The grandson of the late Doug Williams hit town in 2024 to steal a diamond necklace from Doug’s widow Julie during his funeral and it was downhill from there. The rest of Doug III’s story involved selling the necklace to pay off bad guys, pursuing Holly, a vapid sexual relationship with Ari, and being the reason Holly and Ari were held hostage by a loan shark.

Post-rescue, Doug III apologized to the girls for getting them kidnapped (Ari slapped him) and told them he was leaving town to keep them safe. Then he dropped by Julie’s to return the necklace which he had stolen from Gwen (who claimed to have bought it). “When Gwen finds out I’ve got this back, her head will explode,” remarked Julie, adding that she’ll keep mum about where she got it. Doug III appreciated her kindness and launched into an earnest speech about how sorry he was that he broke her trust. Touched, Julie pulled out a watch that Doug had carried in WWII and gave it to Doug III hoping it would bring him the same luck it brought his grandfather. She also offered money to pay off the loan shark, recognizing the danger he was in. Julie said he’s family — and loaded with “wonderful DNA” — but he’s just got to get his life together.

The scenes were lovely and heartwarming but many months too late because we didn’t care one whit about this guy until the day he left. Here’s hoping the next time a legacy character gets a newly created relative he’s less rotten thief and more misguided soul with a good heart — like Doug III was on his last day.