As The World Turns Weekly Blog
The black hole left by Damian. Damian's disappearance has shaken Luke up. He and Lily began suspecting that mad Meg could have something to do with it. Holden has been handling the entire problem badly. Whenever anyone so much as mentions the name of the despised Grimaldi, he gets nervous and tries to kill the subject as fast as possible. Of course, he has reason to be acting so guilty. When he wasn't making this obvious, he made up with Molly, which is a good thing since their relationship might be the only thing left of interest in the remnants story. I don't think many people actually want to see Holden and Lily end up back together at this point. I'm quite curious about what they'll try to do with this story in the coming weeks though. It's hard to imagine what Holden, Lily and Meg will actually do with Damian's departure leaving a huge black hole in their lives. But please, please do not turn this into a competition between Molly and Lily for Holden.
The Strange case of James Stenbeck and Mick Dante. The majority of the week was once again consumed by Mick and his version of the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story. Susan caught Ali looking for the morning after pill and managed to put things together. Mick managed to prove with DNA evidence that he is James, not that anyone seemed entirely convinced. Paul flipped out. Mick was arrested but escaped custody and begged Ali to run away with him. The whole family flipped out while Casey was left clueless. Mick finally explained how he met James and the old man basically implanted himself in his brain. The chip in the brain thing isn't as lame as it sounds. Now, when Paul had a chip in his brain a few months ago, that was kind of lame... At least if Barbara had a chip in her brain, it would explain the way she behaves half the time, instead of her just looking desperate. Once again, this was the most interesting story of the week for me. Aside from the weirdness of it all, and the fact that it provides a break from the sort of romantic pratfalls spread out around town, the acting is neat. Howarth and Pelphrey play well together and Pelphrey's channeling of James (and John Malkovich) is fun to watch. His meltdown at the end of the week was a nice piece of extremely theatrical acting. One of the other things I like about it is that it's given the Stewart women more airtime together. Emily has quite abruptly returned to her old self and we were treated to a few minutes of her and Paul showing how great their chemistry can be, but then he leaped back into the plot. Alison and Susan have also had juicier material than they've had in quite awhile.
Jack and Janet's awkwardness continued. I don't know who to feel worse for. I think I feel bad for everyone around them since they seem to know how painful this is. Watching Janet talk to Jack is like seeing someone talking to their imaginary friend even when they don't really believe in them anymore. Jack treats her like a puppy he's decided to put to sleep but keeps playing with like everything is normal. Dusty and Carly were left to make faces and look uncomfortable. Jack continued implying to her that he feels like he's cheating on her with Janet. Of course, he is, in all the ways that count. Although Janet may be a bit smitten with Dusty, she seems far too obsessed with her own grief to actually be having an affair, emotional or otherwise. And poor Liberty and Parker had to be the sideshow once again.
Anyway, that was my babbling for the week. You can catch a video preview for next week here. Please feel free to leave your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below and remember that this is all in fun.
Have a happy weekend everyone.
Matt Purvis
As The Word Turns.
Thoughts on the week of February 8-12.
Although most of the week still focused on two major stories, things in general felt much more integrated and coherent than they have in the past two weeks. The stories moved along brusquely, even if the upswing in action cost the show a bit in terms of atmosphere.
On the sidelines of things, Katie and Reid continued to settle in together. Henry clearly got jealous and got in Reid’s face about it. The doctor had him locked up under the guise that Henry was suffering from TB. When Reid went home, he attempted to comfort Katie as she cried about Brad. I think the doctor is warming to her a little too quickly, though he does provide a welcome break from the pity party that everyone else likes to throw for her. Frankly, I’m more interested to see how he’ll get along with Bob. Either way, it would feel like watching a sitcom if not for the fact that he has some major skeletons in his closet, though we’ll have to wait for a few weeks to see what they are. Meanwhile, Henry and Barbara shared a nice scene that illustrated that there is still something between them, which is destined to cause trouble when Vienna returns in the very near future.
Noah’s battle for independence. Luke and Noah got some more reasonably decent material this week. Since Luke has been left to worry about his father, Noah has backed off on him and they have a less stressed out relationship. Seeking to ease the stress even more, Noah has decided to get independent and move out of Lily’s and in with Maddie. They may have been a mistake as a couple, but as friends they’re rather enjoyable and she manages to bring out more likable aspects of his character than Luke tends to. Since he’s been written pretty thinly, I think Noah really needs that. He’s been written as the bland bottom half of a couple for so long that if he doesn’t get a little independence, he’ll just disappear.
