And the Word of the Week is: "Finally!"

It seems like it'd be tough to have action-packed episodes when one evening is lasting two weeks on this show, but we've had them nonetheless.  It feels like a month ago that Shaun, Kelly, and Fake English Dude jetted off to New York City to see what was described as "the hottest musical on Broadway," which I assumed was left intentionally vague.  I had happy images of the three of them rocking out at American Idiot.  However, upon their return we learned that the hottest musical on Broadway is...

The Lion King??? Are we in 1997?  Maybe I should just give the props department the benefit of the doubt and imagine that Kelly and company just went to some Broadway souvenir shop that just happens to use bags with Lion King images?

After a week of pretty fun episodes, Friday opened with something very sad:

Oh yeah.  They're on this show.  We'd had a blissful five straight episodes without Rex and Gigi.  Now, I don't fast forward because hey, it's just not Serial Drama style to only come here and write about the good stuff, but it's honestly as if I did fast forward this storyline, because I don't remember what happened.  I think they talked the guard into letting them make a phone call and Rex called Bo but decided he didn't want to "disappoint" him and neglected to tell him they're in jail, but that doesn't seem like it would take up a whole episode.  Did it?  Did something else happen?

But I digress.  In "Finally!" news, the latter part of this week gave us: Langston got busted, Brody and Natalie hit the sheets, and Jess got her freaking memory back.  Will she be allowed to have her old personality back, too?

Well, hello!  That was hot.  (Finally!)  Afterward, when they were talking about how it wasn't effective in making the pain go away, I literally yelled out loud at the television, "Then do it again!"  Because they certainly didn't look like they felt bad in the act. Oh, and did I mention:

Definitely my favorite shot of the day -- the frantic unbuckling of the belt on the military dress whites.  Can I have some please?  And because I was told by a friend that I "better" mention this in my next post -- why the hell didn't Natalie take a moment to bask in all that hotness during their post-coital moments?  Sure, it was just drunk sex and didn't mean anything, but she still is a red-blooded heterosexual woman and he is what he is.  But no, she was busy pining over:

This guy.  This sad sack.  Why is he running around town out of breath as if this were so urgent, when he showed zero interest in Natalie's letter and had to be coerced by his ex-girlfriend of ten minutes ago to go after Natalie, then gave up again and had to be coerced by Roxy, then gave up again and had to be coerced by Kelly (?).  What a great love!  I daresay they are... star-crossed lovers!  Remind me again why women are repeatedly tying themselves into knots over this douche? 

And hooray!  Jess got her memory back!  Finally!  Friday's episode had some excellent safe-for-daytime-but-kind-of-softcore moments, and I'm not sure if Ford and Jess had actually already started having sex when she had her freakout but it sure looked like it to me.  Are they going to write Bree Williamson's pregnancy into this somehow?  Oh dear, a mini-Ford running around is a bad, bad idea.  But Jess fled the scene back to Daddy's house (How is she getting from place to place?  Someone is either letting this nutjob drive, or she has the most oblivious chauffeur in history.), where she spotted Brody's medal (how did that fall off his uniform undetected?) and her memories came flooding back.  As much as I've loathed this storyline, I confess that I got a little choked up when she finally remembered Bree.  Now can this be over please?  Forever?  And can she please change out of that hideous prom dress immediately?

Because this is soap-land, I assume some unfortunate fate is about to befall Ford, because they've set up a number of potential suspects: Langston, Jessica, Brody, Markko, Cristian, Pizza Girl (I've forgotten her name, but I like her!), Hannah.  Am I forgetting any?  This could be fun if they do it well, and there's about a 35% chance of that.

And backing up a bit, Langston got busted.  Completely busted.  Finally!  I relished every second of it.  Ford coming clean that he was just having fun the instant Markko found out was absolutely delicious.  I love that this girl is getting knocked down from every angle; it's refreshing that they actually realize Langston is getting no sympathy from the viewers right now.  Markko's smackdown of Langston on Thursday was spectacular (and kudos to Jason Tam -- I'll admit I didn't think he could pull it off, at least without relying on interpretive dance, but he certainly proved me wrong and then some), but with all due respect to Brittany Underwood -- they couldn't have at least given the girl some effing eye drops?! 

Her makeup should've been running at least a little, there was so much of it!  Unfortunately, her completely dry eyes kept taking me out of what was otherwise a wonderful scene.  I hope we continue to see her get more of what she deserves once the truth becomes clear to Cole and to Starr, upon whose friendship Langston swore that the affair with Ford was kaput.  Is everyone else enjoying this payoff as much as I am?  I do hope the fallout of this actually leads to some related scenes with Langston and Dorian, you know, her mother. 

I'm a little depressed that the aftermath of this is going to involve scenes of John and Natalie getting together a few days after his girlfriend miscarried their child while we are supposed to celebrate recently-widowed, awesome, vibrant Natalie getting together with a total void of a black hole, but I did have a lot of fun this past week.

Time for me to start thinking about squeezing myself into a dress for the Drama Desk Awards, about which I'm super-giddy.  I am hoping that all the frequent OLTL/NYC theatre world crossover will yield my getting to report back to you guys soon with some fun stories!

Destiny out!

Comments

[LB]

The Langston smackdown was awesome. I've always disliked the character and watching Markko calling her out for lacking the decency to be honest to him was awesome.

The Natalie/Brody sex was hot. My problem, though, is I was a big Jared/Natalie fan. He's the only pairing I think she has had where the guy actually appreciated her. They pretty much trashed that by making her mourning period about her feelings for John and now it's also about havin sex with her sister's boyfriend. My heart can't take it.

I know there are a lot of fans for John/Natalie but he treats her like crap. And Brody is really all about Jessica. So I'm not loving these developments.

[Angie]

Langston got what she deserved. No question about it.

Natalie deserves so much more than John McBain. I hate that Marty had to tell him to go meet Natalie, then Roxie and Kelly had to tell him the same thing. What is he, like 45?

In a perfect soap world Brody will develop amnesia and only remember the sex he had with Natalie and forget Jessica entirely. Natalie will tell John to drop-dead and go back to Marty. Rex and Gigi will lose the directions back to Llanview and get stuck in wherever they're supposed to be. End result we will be treated to another hot round of sex with Nat/Brody.

[Bourgeois Nerd]

It's kinda scary how much we think alike, Louise. That unbuckling of the dress whites was, IMHO, the hottest moment in daytime ever. Just... *fans self*. I hope when John and Natalie next have sex *snoooooore*, she remembers how good Brody was and goes to herself, "Crap! Now I'm stuck with this loser."

I'm almost certain we're going to have a little Ford. It's just too close to what happened with Will, and RC really likes to do those mirroring kind of things. And I'm almost sure Natalie will end up pregnant and WTD?, too. I'm not saying I'm exactly looking forward to either of these things, but I think they're inevitable. And they COULD be good. I admit that some of my faith in the show has returned following this week's shows, so I'm trying to stay positive.

Rex is such a moron, with his snitting to the sheriff or deputy or whatever he was. Gigi was actually smart, though, which blows my mind: playing on the guy's paternal instincts was actually genius. Though that whole "Rex hasn't gotten a lot of breaks" thing? *rolls eyes*

Jason Tam was on FIAH this week. Total kudos.

[Knope]

Brody and Natalie's mega-hot sex SHOCKED me.

#1 Because it happened at all.

#2 Because it was the hottest sex scene in forever.

#3 Because they were so fun and sweet too.

Did anything else but their sex happen this past week because I can't recall anything else.

[marley]

I liked the moaning and the thrusting. I haven't seen that in FOREVER on daytime. Are soaps finally going to back racier sex scenes? They have been so lame since the Janet Jackson debacle.

[Dandesun]

Langston's scrunchy face did nothing for me. Nor did her quavery voice, nor did her absolute shock that Markko was leaving her. I hope this does lead to some stuff with her and Dorian, particularly since Dorian actually LIKED Markko a lot. And will Blair's advice to her all those months ago be completely ignored? Or the fact that she gave Dorian a heads up and that was ignored, too?

What am I saying? Cramer Women having story amongst themselves? Nevergonnahappen.

Count me among those who remain mystified as to how Brody's medal got in the Buchanan house. Did it fall off before they left for the prom? I could have sworn it was glittering on his chest during REO AND Cher so... I'm confused. Also... did Jessica run back to the Buchanan mansion after leaving Ford's den of squick? She had her shoes off when she came barreling into the house. So she went from Buchie Acres to Cris/Layla/Ford's back to Buchie Acres to Brody's. See, I always pictured the Buchanan mansion to be on the outskirts of town at least... they have property. And horses. Whereas Brody lives in Angel Square and I have no idea where Cris/Layla/Ford live.

The Brody/Nat hookup was nice and sexy. It's a weird place to be because I love Nat and Jess (when she's Jess) and I love Jess/Brody. But if there's a triangle, at Brody is a worthy man to have a triangle on. As opposed to Sad Sack McBain: The Cop Who Pouts Too Much.

Gigi/Rex. Oh look. There they are. Doing whatever they're doing. Thanks for the update, can we get back to Llanview, please?

I need me a Blair/Elijah fix. Come on, Show, they haven't been on since the 7th!!

[Knope]

The medal fell off while Brody and Jessica were arguing outside the mansion after Brody brought Jessica home. At one point Brody pulled at his collar and something fell off. How it got from outside the manse to inside the manse, no idea.

[izzi]

dont watch OLTL but loving your recaps, esp the hottt ones :drool:

[Tahnda Bailey]

ITA!! The lack of tears took me out of the moment. Eye drops, a bucket of water thrown in her face... ANYTHING but the scrunched up, dry heaves complete with sobbing sounds! Langston is officially the worst actress on the show, and that's saying something...

[Tess]

I have seen The Lion King Broadway musical, and it actually was fantastic, IMO. (And they actually had those bags, too.)

And, I am so loving Langston's drama. She deserves everything she gets for being such an idiot lately.

But this whole Jess thing is so not over. She may have gotten her memory back, but Brody just slept with her sister. We're going to have to put up with who-knows-how-long of Brody being torn up over that. And then once he admits what he's done to Jess, I'm praying she doesn't run to Cris.

[LadyBug]

Natalie and Brody were hot.

John has moved from Marty to Blair to Marty to Natalie all within two years...blech.

Please, no more Jess/Cris.

Poor Langston is learning rule number one not to cheat on your boyfriend with a sleazy guy.

[Monica]

ABC = Disney = The Lion King = Free self promotion! Hey, I'm all for anything that helps pay the bills and keeps this show on the air.

Loved the sex scene between Natalie and Brody! It was so yummy that I'm pretty sure I felt "the thrust that made Natalie moan" here in my living room (and in other places ;-) )!

[sanen85]

Count me in as another that found the Natalie/Brody scene hot. I really hope they move towards making them an actual item (despite hating that Natalie would be getting more of her sister's leftovers).