
Weekly Guiding Light Blog: Blogging from the Beacon
Week of August 11 – 15.
The big event of last week was Rafe returning to Springfield. Following one of Alan’s visions, he slipped away from Harley and jumped on a plane only to discover Daisy with Grady. The two boys started fighting over her. It was a battle of acting styles while the frequently manic Kane Manera (Grady) still tries to settle into the more laid back, yet still intense, naturalistic acting style favored by his co-stars. It serves for an interesting contrast. Daisy is insistent on staying devoted to Grady, yet another bad choice, though not as bad as deciding to become friends with Ashlee again. Grady promptly reported Rafe’s return to the cops and they quickly surrounded him. Poor Rafe, not only did his saintly mother report him to the cops, so did the local hitman. I’m still sure that even prison is better than being trapped with Harley though.
Anyway, once again, Springfield’s citizens, even its criminals, ended up doing most of the work for local law enforcement. Mallet and Marina bickered through most of the week and the series has introduced a nameless cop who seems to show up occasionally just to make a show of how lazy he is. I’m not complaining about this, I just find it to be a strange choice. It is something of a relief that they choose to emulate Barney Miller instead of CSI when it comes to the law and order aspects of the series. Soon they’ll be making endless jokes about toilet paper. I guess that would be a good opportunity for some P&G product placement.
In more serious matters, Dinah was right to call her brother out, pointing out that, “Your soon-to-be ex-wife is in a mental hospital and you’re worried about Alan Spaulding?” Bill, as usual, is doing everything he can to manipulate Lizzie who, as usual, has no idea what to do and, as usual, will change her mind half a dozen times and make herself into a victim. It’s painful. The only thing I enjoy about this now is the fact that Dinah has decided to get revenge on her brother, but, as with most of the “business” plots, this seems unnecessarily rushed and not properly thought through.
Bringing the entire mess to a head, we finally discovered that there’s something wrong with Alan’s brain. I think we all saw that coming. I only hope that this means that he and Dinah can form some sort of bond. That could be interesting, though doubtful.
Meanwhile, Olivia's still feeling the effects of her health problems and misinterpreting them as signs from Gus. Her entire week was her walking from one strange and awkward emotional sequence to the next. Grady trying to get a job from her and reminding her that she hired him to take out Ava was surprisingly quick and she played it very cool. The fact that they were standing in an empty street and she was carrying shopping bags while refusing to let the former killer-for-hire clean her toilet was an explicit commentary on their relationship, or so I assume. After repressing that bit of her past, she went to see Jeffrey, another man whose relationship with her is based on denial and repression. Then she analyzed his recent obsession with getting justice as a way of overcompensating for his various failings as a father to Ava and stand in father figure to Tammy. But the most peculiar moments for Olivia were the ones that she shared with Natalia. The two women have what may be the most convoluted relationship on the show, but I always find watching them strangely fascinating.
Most of the rest of the week was Remy and Marina continuing to remember Tammy or Reva and Josh providing more comic relief, something the show really doesn't need. Still, watching Reva infuriate Buzz was amusing and her claim that her relationship with Jeffrey is summed up in monogrammed towels seems strangely appropriate.
The more significant minor development of the week was between Cyrus and Cassie. After Daisy tried to apologize to her for Grady, arguing that Tammy would want him to have another chance, Cyrus tried to help her out as well. Once again, another not too subtle metaphor came up. Cassie's door is broken and every man she's involved with comes to try and fix it. First Josh then Jeffrey then Cyrus. She sends the first two away but Cyrus takes out some tools and goes to work. Not exactly subtle, and possibly quite crude, but just part of the odd symbolic register the show is being written in.
Please feel free to leave your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below. Have fun.
Matt Purvis
News and recap writer
Soaps.com