Mommie Dearest (or A Damn Solid Episode)

This is a bittersweet afterglow from today's One Life to Live, entirely because of the empty space in the hour before its airing. (Don't bother writing in to tell me about some lame lifestyle show in that timeslot, it's empty! Shh!) I almost feel guilty for having enjoyed the show so much today, as if I am supposed to give All My Children its proper stages of grief (I think I've watched the first ten minutes of that finale about nine times so far).

But I digress. Because One Life to Live rocked today. They let Blair be a serious smartypants today and used excellent callbacks to history while she worked to manipulate Jack into telling the truth (and almost succeeded!). Tomas and Dani continued to bond and put all their own guilt out on the table. Todd convinced Téa of his innocence and to represent him, which now means we get a fun little plot with Blair and Téa faking being at odds in the hopes that it'll make Jack recant -- I hope they milk this for what it's worth, since they know what they've got in Kassie dePaiva and Florencia Lozano. Natalie told John about her engagement to Brody, and I'll be damned if I didn't actually feel sympathy for John McBain. He seemed sincerely heartbroken!

Best of all, though, was the confrontation between Viki and Irene that we've been waiting for. One of the soap cliches that cracks me up the most is when horrible people justify their actions by claiming that they "aren't perfect," and today we got a big fat heaping serving of Irene of all people saying she wasn't a perfect mother! "Sure, I kidnapped and tortured one of my children for eight years, abandoned another, and brainwashed the third. So I wasn't a perfect Mom, neither is anyone! Let's not get hyperbolic here and call me a Bad Mother!" Love it. (In fact her actual line was, "No one can say that I didn't do my best." That was her best? I'm clearly not trying hard enough in my own life because I'm yet to join a rogue CIA operation and use it to play God with my family.) And it was also a nice treat that after complaining that she'd turned evil because of how badly Victor Lord treated her and Viki pointed out that's no excuse, Irene aptly pointed out that Viki has evil alters for the very same reason and therefore uses the same excuse. 

They discussed Tina, which got me excited but then immediately disappointed because Viki said that Tina turned out as "selfish and thoughtless" as Irene. Whoa, Viki. When Tina kidnaps CJ and tortures him for the better part of a decade and then brainwashes Sarah into thinking she's CJ, you can start comparing Tina to Irene. It's strange to me that she's mourning her brother Victor who she apparently loved so much, but Tina is somehow not good enough? Tina's a selfish mess, but she has not scratched the surface of Victor's sins.

By the way, this whole conversation between Irene and Viki was all under the guise of Irene coming to apologize! This woman is a hoot. I seriously cannot wait to see her in scenes with Tina. It's going to be campy awesomeness, I just know it. And we should see it this week! I'm a little excited. Just a little.

Comments

[LadyBug]

Today's show was all kinds of awesome!

Irene was right on the money that Viki and (Jessica) use their alters to do their dirty work! Bravo! I have been wanting peeps for years to nail Viki with her own tendency to use her alters while Victor, Todd, Natalie and Tina did their schemes and lies out in the open instead of hiding behind some mental issues.

Blair is one slick Momma bear as she tries to get Jack to come clean with his lies. I really hope that Victor is still alive somewhere hidden by his Mommy dearest!

Pfft. I don't feel in the least bit sorry for old Johnny boy who would still be sleeping with Kelly if she had not dumped his butt.

[MelP]

I still want John to crawl over broken glass, begging Natalie to come back to him...and, I STILL want Natalie to tell him he had his chance & she's finally found someone who'll love, appreciate & treat her like she's first in her life. I wanted it to be Christian (no offense to Jared fans, I wasn't watching during that s/l).

[LB]

I did like today's show a lot. But I'm starting to become distracted by the lack of Todd and Blair scenes. He's made himself known for 2 months and we've got 2 scenes. I wasn't even a big Todd and Blair shipper back in the day though I did enjoy them but it's so weird to see characters that should matter each other pretty much avoiding each other.

Other than that, awesome show! I'm starting to like John and am puzzled by my feelings.

[Bourgeois Nerd]

This show WAS awesome! Any time Viki gets to let out her righteous indignation is a good one. And I just have to say, I love Irene. The woman is deranged, yet so funny! But I guess Todd and Victor and Tina are all the same way, really. Like crazy mother, like crazy children!

Blair playing Jack was delicious. That boy just doesn't know what kind of master he's going up against. I laughed when she talked about herself being "naive." Blair Cramer hasn't been naive a day her damn life!

It's amazing how much better Dani is with people whose names begin with "T": Todd, Tea, and Tomas.

John and Natalie are infuriating. They're just such cowards. And I've just had it with Natalie. She practically shudders every time Brody hugs her, and knows she's still in love with John, but she's going to marry the poor, deluded Pocket SEAL anyway. I don't care that he's keeping Liam's paternity a secret (which, BTW, was exactly what Natalie was planning to do not so long ago): the dude has given her plenty of times to bolt. Woman up!

[Ron]

Today certainly was a balm to the pain of losing AMC. I'm so glad I picked up on OLTL a while back. The cast is awesome, and the storylines have been pretty amazing as well.

Irene is a twisted delight. Have you noticed she never blinks? Her delivery is so perfectly nutzoid, her explanations do make sense, but only if you're as crazy as she is. And she is utterly self-possessed. Quite the formidable opponent.

I was very happy to see Tea back in lawyer mode today. I think FL has done a good job with the grief, but I'm glad to see her in thinking and action mode. And Dani isn't so bad when she's not screaming, and today she wasn't.

The best, though, for me, was Blair. Watching her play Jack was tremendous. And it's good to see Blair again in an active storyline, instead of just reacting to what's going on around her.

John and Gnat. FF material. I don't like either of them to begin with, and knowing hat Brody will be thrown under the bus to make it okay to bring together then unwashed and the untalented means nothing to me. That lab test, though, is starting to rival the tape player for most seen prop by the audience but by no-one in the storyline. At this point, I don't care who Liam's father is.

[givingback105]

Cannot WAIT for Tina and Mama Manning!

[The Queen B]

I looooved Blair today and I have to admit that AT delivered much more than I thought he was capable of today. Jack looked like such a lost little boy instead of the surly man-child that's been raging all over town lately. He even had that panicky guilt squirm going on. LOL. Go, Blair!

Tomas interrupting was so contrived that even TK looked like he knew it. And I saw noooo inkling of a romantic anything between Blair and Tomas right there. I saw more chem in just the way Todd has been saying Blair's name lately and how Blair spoke about loving Todd to Jack today than the actual face to face scenes between Blair and Tomas...or Todd and Tea for that matter. Yet the show won't let Todd and Blair have a scene together. In the same room. Le sigh.

Dani was quiet and she and Jack were cute together bonding over the pic of Vic.

Vicki and Irene were just awesome. I love Vicki anyway, but when Irene and her camp is added to the mix, I get sparks. LOL. I cannot wait for Tina and Cord to show up. Yay!!

I could like Tea more if I saw less of her. The contrived way she is shoehorned into every aspect of the show is wearing on me. For reals, y'all. I need a break from the Tea Delgado Hour. Is that too much to ask for?

[Linda]

Ron,
That lab test and tape player have nothing on the bag-of-blood during that Shane and Stacy Morasco sl. I began to think of it as a staring character named B.O.B. I'm glad OLTL is so much better now, but they do occasionally fall in love with a particular prop, don't they?

[Jeff Gerard]

I loathe Natalie. She's selfish, self-righteous and really trampy. More than anything, I want her to end up alone.

[Ron]

Yeah, I know we had to see Fudd in his weiner suit and Jessica acting dumber than dirt. And we had to see those two misbegotten Buchanan mutants, Rex and Gnat moan at each other while they ate a salad like as if Kendall had taught them the grosser ways of dining (there must be something seriously deficient in the Buchanan gene pool to explain those two horrors), but that all just pales with the rest!

We had, on screen for most of the episode, Vicki and Irene, Blair and Tea, then we had them all together, and THEN!! in strolls David Vickers the Dog to pee on Blair's shoe, followed by the squealing and marvelously over-the-top Tina. How does it get better than that?? It gets better than that when the lawyer reads the will, and it turns out that Victor/Todd has left every single freakin thing to Irene. Yup, Crazy Grandma inherits it all. How great is this?

And, maybe it was the euphoria from seeing this many magnificent characters and sterling actors all together, but....I didn't mind Starr today. I actually liked her scenes with RH Todd. I never watched when those two were onscreen in the past - that infamous * YEARS AGO - but if this is any indication of how they worked together, I can see why this father/daughter duo had fans.

And I can FF through any number of irrelevent and unwanted Fudd and Jessica and Gnat scenes if the above-mentioned women are the payoff.

(Of course, it would be utter perfection if among those scenes, they threw in just one of Fudd being barbecued on a grill for his last hot dog appearance, but I'll just have to hope for that.)

Linda, I had blocked the Bag o' Blood from my mind, but you're right! That thing popped up everywhere. And funny that, these overdone props all seem to be involved in storylines that we just don't care about.

Like, oh yeah, we saw Ghost Gigi again....yawn..... They seriously should NOT put FF in the same episode with the fore-mentioned women. She just fades from memory....oh, if only she would.

[Andrea]

Today's will reading scenes and Todd/Star scenes were awesome. Everything else I completely ignored.

I cannot believe how deliciously campy Irene is. Her "kiss grandma on the cheek" and "I have candy" routines were so incredibly hilarious. I loved, loved how creeped out Jack was.

Tina's entrance was awesome as were her and Blair's banter.

[gato]

TINA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Judy]

I hate the Jessica and Ford pairing with the best of you, but I gotta say, apart from the weiner jokes (seriously, writers, are you FIVE?), that sequence was very cute. Jessica laughing at him on the ground charmed the hell out of me. And all her other bits - the Tess-like desire to deck someone, the jumprope - so cute!

I just wish it wasn't Ford doing the banter dance with Jess.

[Pinky]

Cant wait for John and Nat. Not before John does some serious begging!