I Dreamed a Dream

“These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air.”
—The Tempest

( Days and Shakespeare, why not?)

80’s Days used dreams and fantasy sequences all the time, for different purposes—to fake us out, to fill time, to whet our appetite for seeing a couple get together, as a relief when our couple was estranged, for added romance, and, most importantly, to show us what characters were feeling and thinking. My favorite version of this was when the dream or fantasy connected very explicitly to what was going on in the show at the time, usually an alternate version of reality. This allowed us to see what characters really wanted (compared to what they said they wanted) and who they cared for.

Over the last several episodes on my DVDs, the show has been highlighting Jen’s feelings for Jack and her reactions to him. She has broken up with Emilio, and is plainly jealous of Isabella. This shifts the power away from Jen and balances things out nicely—before Isabella’s appearance, Jen was in the inherently privileged position of the being in the middle of a triangle—and helps to create sympathy for her. It also helps to raise the stakes for the decision that Jen will soon have to make—is she willing to risk being hurt again and again if she decides to go after Jack?

In the following scene, Jen is scared that someone is following her, so she calls Jack for help. While she’s waiting for him to arrive, she has a fantasy about what will happen when he gets there. Then Jack actually shows up:

First, I find it very touching that Jen sees Jack as her hero in her fantasy. But, what I love most of all is the contrast between Jen’s fantasy and the reality. Jen keeps trying to follow the “script” and make her fantasy come true, but things go off kilter from the start. She throws her arms around Jack when he gets there, just like she did in her fantasy, but while he doesn’t push her away he keeps walking into the room, dragging her along with him. Then she thanks him for coming over, and he says “You know I would,” just like he did in the fantasy. But instead of sounding tender and reassuring, he sounds more like “Well duh.” (The difference is subtle and nicely played by Matt Ashford.)

So things aren’t exactly going the way Jen wanted them to. But, then he does say with some emotion that he wishes he’d never gotten her involved in this, and Jen responds to that by saying he doesn’t need to worry about her. But then he replies that he’s not worried about her, it’s just that she blew their whole cover. What a dash of cold water on Jen! But that moment wouldn’t have nearly the same impact if we hadn’t seen the fantasy beforehand. It neatly raises the emotional stakes so we feel for Jen much more keenly than we would have otherwise.

The scene above made me remember another, similar scenario from early Steve and Kayla, at a time when Kayla is trying to distance herself from Steve (after Britta comes back to town). She’s trying to see Steve like everyone else sees him, as a thug, plain and simple. Of course, it will never be that easy. Steve saves Kayla from a junkie who has broken into the Emergency Center—showing that other side of himself she’s trying to deny exists. He also helps her dress her wound afterward (leading to some very nice UST). Back at the loft, Kayla falls asleep and has a dream:

(This is a longer clip, but the dream starts at about 2:45.)

We can tell we’re in a Kayla fantasy because they get down to serious business so quickly on the couch. Steve’s dreams and fantasies were usually much more romantic—which nicely showed the inner romanticism of the character. With Kayla, her dreams and fantasies were a way to show that underneath that good girl exterior beat the heart of a passionate, sensual woman. It was a nice contrast that wasn’t unduly emphasized, just a part of the fabric of their story.

Kayla’s dream serves to remind us that she does indeed have feelings for Steve—in fact we’ve never seen it so explicitly. She’s been mostly freezing Steve out for weeks, ever since she saw Britta half naked in his apartment, so this is a good reminder for us.

Afterward, they use the same trick as they do for Jennifer in the first clip I posted. Steve shows up for real, and for a moment reality mirrors the fantasy, until the two widely diverge. Unlike Jennifer, Kayla is guarded at first (which fits with the distance Kayla is trying to create right now), but when she says “why are you here?” she softens her manner, seeming to invite the possibility of him following the script of her fantasy. When he says he was checking on her, she thanks him for worrying about her.

But, just like his brother Jack, this idea of being caught worrying about someone is just too much to admit. Steve retreats behind his familiar sleazy smile and denies it, then leers that a “sweet thing” like her needs protection. Kayla’s walls snap back into place. But without the earlier dream sequence, we wouldn’t see as clearly that her disgusted reaction is a form of self-protection.

All this provides extra motivation for Kayla to continue to distance herself from Steve. So, ironically, what could have been a step forward—Steve being a hero, Kayla dreaming about Steve—instead is a step backward. That sets up the next story arc, where Kayla (temporarily) believes Steve is guilty of Britta’s murder, very nicely.

But—though this may be getting into too many circles within circles—by highlighting Kayla’s continuing attraction to Steve, whether she wants to feel it or not, it also sets up the next step forward on down the line.

 

Supercouple Fatigue

In January of 1990, there was a headwriter change on Days. Anne Howard Bailey was fired, after being there for less than a year, and replaced with the team of Anne Schoettle and Richard J. Allen.

Bailey was fired due to a ratings decline, and executive producer Al Rabin had this to say about her when she left:

“[Bailey is] a wonderful writer before she got here. She was a wonderful writer here and she will be a wonderful writer in her next project. It’s just that the emphasis shifted slightly from romance to adventure. Since we preferred the audience that we had, we will be shifting back.”

Knowing future events, that in just a few short years the show drastically veers away from the supercouple formula, this quote is very interesting. It shows that Al Rabin was himself a true believer in the formula, not surprising considering he was an executive producer of Days throughout the 80’s. (He left in 1992, replaced by Tom “the era of the supercouple is over” Langan.)

But more crucially, I think Al Rabin, and whoever else made the decision for a headwriter change, was very aware of one drawback of the supercouple formula, perhaps the major drawback: without a constant supply of new couples, after awhile you run out of stories. (I’m not saying it is impossible to write dynamic stories for established couples, only that Days has never been able to do so.) This is what was happening to Days in 1989. And even though Days had been following the supercouple formula since roughly 1983, it really was the first time the show faced this problem. Because Roman “died” and then Marlena “died,” Pete and Melissa were permanently broken up, and Bo and Hope left town, there was never a significant bunch of established couples crowding out air time, and new couples could come along in their turn.

But in the fall of 1989, Steve and Kayla are broken up, Justin and Adrienne are broken up, and Shane and Kim are broken up. Steve and Kayla have the “back from the dead” spouse story plus a pregnancy story, Justin and Adrienne have the “scheming third party” story (with fertility problems thrown in), and Shane and Kim have the “presumed dead so the surviving spouse moves on” story. These stories have been decently well-executed, but they lack freshness and originality. It’s clear that none of these breakups is permanent, and eventually all the couples will reconcile—okay, then what? Start the whole dance over again? What’s left?

How about new couples? A new character had been brought on for Roman, Yvette, but it wasn’t clicking. Nick and Eve seemed to have run their course, Mike was gone (sob, Michael T. Weiss), and Nick and April weren’t catching on fire. The show hadn’t committed to either Jack or Emilio for Jennifer, and their stories were mostly going around in circles. The show needed fresh blood if the supercouple formula were to continue, or they needed to find a new formula.

The quote above shows clearly that from 1990-1992 they decided to stick with their formula, and toward that end they got rid of their headwriter, and directed the new headwriter to find some new couples, quickly. I’ve already discussed how in December 1989 and January 1990 there is a significant shift toward Jack and Jennifer. Isabella is brought on and eventually she and Roman/John have a successful love story. Bo and Hope come back and Hope just as quickly dies, so Bo is free to move on with Carly. (The whole “Cruise of Deception” story seems an attempt to recapture the magic of Stockholm with the new generation of couples.) Marlena returns in 1991 and is torn between Roman (and Supercouple) v.1 and v.2—which I have to admit, is pretty clever. Justin and Adrienne leave with a happy ending in 1991, Stephen Nichols leaves in 1990. And though poor Shane, Kayla, and Kim are then given the dreaded “Shayla” story, this era really does represent the last gasp of the supercouple concept.

I always wonder what Sheri Anderson and her team, the originators of the formula, would have done with the “established couples” problem. Would she have been better at writing for longer term couples? Maybe so. I actually think that she also might have been more ruthless about breaking couples up after the stories weren’t there anymore. She did it to Pete and Melissa, after all—and though in retrospect perhaps they were a second tier couple, at the time I didn’t perceive a difference between them and Bo and Hope. Ironically, Sheri Anderson did come back in June of 1992. But Al Rabin left in the same month, and his replacement Tom Langan and Ken Corday hired James E. Reilly in December of 1992. The era between June and December of 1992 would probably be very interesting to watch, to see what Sheri Anderson’s writing was like without Al Rabin and the rest of team she had behind her in 1983-86—but my DVDs don’t go that far, so I won’t be able to find out.

Before leaving in April of ‘93, Sheri Anderson actually worked as co-headwriter with Reilly—a fact that always makes my head explode.

 

Christmas 1989

I am off on a road trip tomorrow, so this will be a quick post. Gotta love the holidays on Days:

(Sorry about the picture quality.)

I gotta say, the Santa sighting, plus the magical transformation of the lighthouse, exceeds the acceptable level of cheese for me. But then they distract me nicely with that honest-to-God, first-time-in-forever Steve and Kayla kiss. Whoo-hoo!

 

Kidnapped!

These somewhat unlikely scenes have found their way into the S&K pantheon of classics:

(The background: Victor has been dropping hints left and right about doing something to Kayla if Steve doesn’t find the key for him. Kayla refuses to leave town and lay low—she doesn’t want her Christmas ruined—so Steve takes matters into his own hands and kidnaps her himself.)

I think what makes this so much fun is partly the context: it’s the first gleam of lightheartedness that Steve and Kayla have had for months upon months. Also, Stephen and Mary Beth don’t really get this type of scene to play very often (the only others I can think of are the ones when they’re handcuffed together in the honeymoon suite after Britta’s murder). They really make the most of it, striking just the right note. Kayla could have seen this as a major betrayal and this could have been a major step back, but instead it’s like Carole Lombard and John Barrymore squaring off in Twentieth Century. Kayla is angry at Steve, but she isn’t hurt, she isn’t devastated. She’s just pissed off. And Steve is so impish and adorable, obviously really pleased with himself that he pulled this off

They get some good lines: I love when Steve says that he brought all the books she keeps telling people she’s going to read, and now she’ll get her chance. And of course, her favorite jammies: the ones with the feet. And Mary Beth’s comic timing is perfect when she snaps back that she hates those jammies.

There’s a glimmer of seriousness, too, when Kayla says that she doesn’t like it when other people make decisions for her. This calls to mind all the times Steve has done exactly that: keeping the truth from her about Marina, or breaking up with her for Jack. But Steve gets his own good points in, when Kayla says that only she knows what’s best for her, and he says that keeping her and the baby safe is best for her. She forced him to take drastic measures by refusing to take any steps to protect herself from Victor. When Kayla turns away but doesn’t say anything, I think she knows Steve has a point.

We even get a historical reference, when Steve leans in and blows on her hair before he leaves, just like he did when he used to bug her at the Emergency Center. Steve says, “Just like the old days,” and Kayla might be remembering too. Then, even as angry as she is, Kayla can’t help but call after him when he leaves, telling him to be careful. It’s a wonderful note to end this on, and what makes this feel like step forward in spite of everything.

 

Jennifer’s choice

One scenario that has become very familiar over the last few months is Jennifer helping Jack, Emilio getting mad about it, Jen getting defensive and saying Emilio has nothing to worry about, and Emilio being doubtful but accepting her reassurance.

So here we think we’re in familiar territory:

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But then there is a shift: they both calm down, and Emiio says they’ve been tap dancing around this long enough and he wants to know how much she cares about Jack. This isn’t an accusation anymore, and Jen responds to that sincerity and finally comes out with, “I don’t know.” This is a big step forward for Jen (and for the storyline). After that, I like that Emilio gets to keep some dignity by telling her to let him know when she figures it out, and walking away.

After this admission, the next scene starts with Jen sitting quietly at the loft, hearing Jack and Isabella come up the stairs together bantering and laughing as they bring up a Christmas tree. She’s never seen Jack act that way with anyone but her, and so she feels left out before the scene even starts. Then, her concern about Victor (he stopped by pretending to be interested in buying the loft) makes Jack turn to Isabella to reassure her. That might factor into her desire to “get some air” right then. Missy Reeves give a great look as she leaves, registering Jen noticing how Jack is fussing over Isabella, teasing her about her cold hands, and touching her. Jen has finally admitted she has feelings for Jack, and she might have lost Emilio as a result. And now suddenly Jack seems very far away, seeming not at all interested in her, and in fact seeming very much interested in someone else. I love the irony, soapy and perfect.

All this sets up perfectly Jen’s eventual pursuit of Jack. As I’ve discussed, up until now, while Jen was shown to be conflicted about Jack, we usually saw Jack’s buried emotions more. Generally, any angsty longing belonged to him. But now things are changing. Because we’re about to see Jen make a choice, it makes sense to concentrate on her emotions for awhile. And, just as Jen’s emotions are coming closer to the surface, Jack is burying his deeper and deeper. This is clear in the next scene, when Isabella says with a significant look that “Jen was scared, too” (of Victor), and Jack says dismissively that “she’ll be okay.”

I think what’s going on here is that Jack has clued in to the fact that Isabella suspects he has feelings for Jen, and he is trying hard not to give her any more material to make her talk to him about it. Believing as he does that Jen has chosen Emilio, I think he is overcompensating, desperately trying to avoid anything close to his inability to let go of Kayla. This isn’t his only motivation for keeping those feelings buried, but I think it intensifies it.

That subtext leads nicely into the wonderful scene that follows, where Jack explains to Isabella why people in Salem don’t trust him. (Isabella just saw Jack talking to Marcus, and Marcus was very suspicious of Jack.) I love the sad finality of his answer to her question: “Yeah, I did something.” It says so much about Jack’s acceptance now of what he did, and his acceptance of how people treat him because of it.

Then he goes on to tell Isabella the story—it’s a little vague on the exact details but it’s much more than we expect Jack to share. So we not only get to see Jack’s regret and sorrow, but we respect him for telling Isabella this at all. It’s like Jack doesn’t want Isabella to be his friend based on false pretenses. I think when he was visiting her in the sanitarium he was content to just bask in the idea that he could have a fresh start with someone who didn’t know him, but now that she is part of his real life he thinks she has a right to know before the friendship gets too far.

I love the way Matt Ashford plays this scene, he doesn’t have that frenetic quality as he’s speaking that Jack sometimes gets–that I think is part of how he covers up his feelings and vulnerabilities. Here he speaks in measured tones and I think that shows Jack really comfortable with Isabella, not only talking but wanting to talk. After that it’s nice to see Isabella so quickly understand what he is trying to do with his current actions, his determination to do something about the future.

This is a wonderful scene on its own for Jack and Isabella and their friendship, but it also fits into the shift in Jack and Jennifer’s story. It shows that Jennifer’s jealousy is based on something real. She’s not crazy to think that there is something going on between them, because there is: a real and meaningful friendship. Jack really does feel closer to Isabella in some ways than he does with Jen right now, and his feelings for Jen really are buried under layers of denial. This means Jack and Jennifer have a real journey ahead of them, and not just a clearing up of a misunderstanding (”Oh, you like me? Well, I like you!”)

I can’t wait.

 

The Days Diet

(I hope y’all don’t mind if I share a personal story today.)

After my first baby was born, I was about 10 pounds heavier than before I’d gotten pregnant, leaving me weighing about 150 pounds. When my baby was 18 months old, I joined a gym and changed my eating habits and lost all my baby weight, plus a little extra, leaving me at a very happy weight of about 133. I maintained that until I had my second baby, and then I found myself back at 150 again.

I meant to rejoin the gym and reclaim my pre-pregnancy eating habits, but somehow between having a toddler and baby and working 4 days a week, it just all seemed too difficult. Nearly three years later, last April (2008), I still weighed the same 150. During a visit with my mom, we were lamenting how neither of us was exercising regularly. Listening to myself make my excuses out loud, I heard how weak they sounded (”but I’m so busy …”).

At the time, I was at a peak of frustration at Dena Higley’s Days, and was nearly ready to give it up. I resolved to give it a chance through May sweeps. It was hard going. It dawned on me one day, as I sat there watching, annoyed, frustrated, and bored, my finger itching over the fast-forward button, that I had found my time to exercise.

So that’s what I did. As I watched Nick get thrown under the bus in favor of Max-the-bartending-genius, Chelsea make google-eyes at Daniel, and EJami vs. Lumi go through another round on their merry-go-round, I did push-ups, sit-ups, lunges, squats, and jumping jacks, whatever I didn’t need any special equipment for. A month later, I joined the gym. In August 2008, I started the South Beach diet. Since then have gained a new appreciation for vegetables and fresh food, cooking from scratch, and using whole foods.

Well, two weeks ago I weighed in at 128. It took me a whole year, with lots of bumps and ups and downs along the way. I’ve changed my life a lot in the last year, really trying to make this a lifestyle change. But for getting me started on the path, I owe it all to Dena.

Pictures!

I wasn’t able to find a really good “before” shot, but here we go. As you can see from the size of the baby in the sling, it was taken not long after baby #2 was born:

And here I am in a new dress purchased to celebrate my new, smaller size. My older daughter took this picture this morning. (Ever notice that everyone always does the “hands on hips” pose for “after” pictures? I don’t know, but I did it too!)

Thanks, Dena!

 

Trusting Jack

Days has carefully established a fragile bond between Kayla and Jack. They’ve used it to create some jealousy and angst for Steve when his relationship with Kayla was at its worst, but what’s going to happen now that things are a little better?

This is a fun denouement to the plot where Jack tries to break Isabella out of Bayview. He succeeds, but in the process ends up getting himself and Kayla captured. (In desperation, he called Steve for help, but Kayla came instead.) Steve finds out where Kayla is and springs into action:

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Steve pretending to be a cop is always fun. I love how Jack adds “bribery” to the charges that Steve is listing—since Jack was the one doing the bribing when he was sneaking in to see Isabella. He reminds me of snotty little brother in this scene, big brother is here to rescue him now and he can hang back and shoot off smartmouth remarks. It’s very cute. And I love the very last look between Jack and Kayla as Steve is leading her away. They seem to have a shared understanding of, “Yes, Steve is shouting and ordering us around, but it’s best to just humor him, really.” It’s a perfect way to show that the bond between them is still there, and this little adventure has reinforced it.

Back at the Brady house, Steve keeps trying to blame Jack and Kayla keeps defending him. Mary Beth plays this very calmly, though, and not with the passion Kayla usually has when she’s defending someone. She can step back enough to see he has changed and, in typical Kayla fashion, doesn’t let her own issues stop her from speaking up for Jack when the situation seems to warrant it. But, she is still not totally comfortable in that role, and I like that tension. It would have been very easy for the show to make everything hunky-dory between Jack and Kayla after this storyline, but that doesn’t happen—though admittedly this is partly due to Mary Beth and Matt Ashford and the way they play it, never letting Jack and Kayla get too comfortable with each other.

But, at the moment, she is certainly more inclined to trust him than Steve is. When Jack arrives, Steve is still unconvinced. But, he lets him in calmly (no lapels grabbing).

When Jack asks for Steve’s help, I can really feel what a brave thing this is for him to do, to let down his walls enough to reach out like this. Plus, I love the way he prefaces it by saying Steve has every right to turn him down. It shows he’s not going to play the martyr if Steve turns him down. He used to use Steve’s suspicions about him as an excuse to lash out and act even worse than he would have otherwise. Now he seems to sense that he has to accept those suspicions, and work through them, in order to have any hope of being in a position of trust again.

Steve agrees to look for Isabella with Jack (but makes it clear that it’s only because he wants to find her too). As Jack turns to leave and says “Thank you, both of you”, Kayla gives one look at Steve but leaves him alone, not pushing it. And then there’s the ending shot on Steve’s face, contemplating that Jack might have good motives, with a vulnerable look that shows he hopes it’s true. We haven’t seen his buried feelings for Jack in a long time. It’s irony is perfect. Steve was the last to give up on Jack (not counting Jo), and he will also be the last to start acknowledging any change in him. It shows how much damage Jack had to do to get Steve to let go. That means he will have to work that much harder to get Steve to accept him again.

After Jack leaves, we get a very nice, tender scene of Steve and Kayla together. Kayla still keeps a little distance when she expresses skepticism that he can really take care of her, listing all the things that could still go wrong. But when Steve ushers her over to the couch and says they shouldn’t think about it, she relents and lets him fuss over her. That’s a step forward in itself. Of course it’s very soapy that when he makes his heartfelt declaration of his love and faith in them, he turns around and finds she’s asleep. But then we get a sighworthy moment as he gently takes her cup from her hands and covers her up, and says, “I really love you,” in that husky voice. Perfect.

 

Tectonic Shift

Welcome to leading man status, Jack.

I’ve come to the conclusion that Isabella’s appearance is the major key (key, get it, get it? Oh, groan.) to Jack’s redemption, and the true beginning of Jack and Jen’s love story. As a new character who has no previous knowledge of Jack’s past, Isabella can form her opinion of Jack solely on what he does now, instead of his past. This allows her to be his cheerleader and his friend like no one else can. Also, one thing about Jack up until now is that Jack has no sounding board. Jo is probably closest, but their relationship is more thorny and difficult. In Isabella, Jack has someone he can talk to, or even when he doesn’t want to open up (which is frequently), she can ask him questions and we can usually see something about how he feels from his reaction. That’s crucial on a soap, where it’s so important to know how the characters feel about each other and what is going on.

But here’s where the fun really begins, when we get to see Jen’s reaction to Jack’s new friend:

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There’s a lot of talk about trust in these scenes. When Jack tells Jen that she has to trust him before he can ask for her help, she gets a wry look as she says, “Somehow I always do,” like she can’t quite figure out why. I love that. But Isabella can be perfectly sincere about seeing him as a hero. Jack doesn’t quite know how to respond when she tells him so, as he says no one has trusted him for a long time. Isabella says she doesn’t believe that, and I love Jack’s line, “Believe it.” Jack knows that he’s earned his reputation, but also that he’s trapped by it. (There’s also the sense that he thinks Isabella won’t view him as quite so heroic once she knows the truth.)

Isabella also quickly clues in to Jack’s feelings for Jen, when they get to the loft and see Jen and Emilio kissing, and he isn’t able to completely cover his reaction. But then Jen comes in, and she is taken aback in her turn at Isabella’s appearance.

After months and months of seeing Jen at the center of a triangle with Emilio and Jack, suddenly seeing her wondering about Jack and Isabella is a major shift, and a welcome one. My absolute favorite moment here is after Jen offers Isabella the guest bedroom, and Jack says, “What about me?” Missy Reeves does a great reaction shot to that, her eyes going from Isabella to Jack and her uncertainty written all over her face. It’s wonderful to see her off balance and vulnerable. Then Jack says he’ll take the couch, and Isabella seems to be reassuring Jen a little bit here, when she quickly agrees.

But, when Jen says that Isabella must have meant a lot to Jack in order for him to help her, Isabella just says she’ll have to ask Jack. I love that Isabella chooses not to answer and defers to Jack instead. Later, Isabella is a great cheerleader for both of them, but here it’s an interesting dynamic to see her as Jack’s friend and not Jen’s.

The scene ends with an awkward moment of Jack putting his arms around both of them and talking about how much time they will be spending together. I love the reaction shots of the two women, Isabella’s uncomfortable look, and Jen’s more jealous and suspicious one. Though all the awkwardness, Jack seems to be enjoying himself. I think Jack has picked up on Jen’s jealousy vibe and is liking it, even though he believes that things won’t ever happen with her. In fact, that very certainty might make him more inclined to enjoy these little moments when they come. That lends a bittersweet flavor to the scene.

 

Patch is back

Okay, everybody, we can relax again now.

Recently I talked about how the show uses the fact that Steve re-injured his eye to build sympathy for him. Similarly, they also use the fact that Steve refuses to get another eye surgery to enrich the plot:

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Other than the lines about “punishing himself,” I really like this scene. First, because Steve is worried Kayla is in danger, he doesn’t want to go into surgery and recovery in case it prevents him from protecting her. Also, I like the way Steve talks about the loss of his eye more symbolically, as something to keep him grounded. If the patch symbolizes how far he has come, and what Kayla’s love and faith means to his life, then getting it back is a reminder of all of that. (This wouldn’t work if they hadn’t set up how much Steve really wants and loves Kayla before he ever lost his eye again.) I also love the way Stephen plays the fact that all this discussion about the surgery is an annoyance and a distraction for Steve. If he has Kayla, the patch doesn’t matter. If he doesn’t have Kayla, not having the patch won’t matter either.

The above scene takes place at the point of maximum estrangement for the two of them. This next scene takes place several weeks later. We can see that things have improved:

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This is such a wonderful callback to the first patch removal scene. He grabs her hand as she reaches for the bandage, just like he did then. It shows that this is still not easy for him, and I love that they keep that element. It’s something that made the character who he was when we first met him, and even though he can mostly get over it, it makes sense that he would still be sensitive about it. Then I love how she looks at him with reassurance and love, and he looks at her like he’s pulling his strength from her as he lets her take the bandage off and covers up his bad eye.

I also love the look Mary Beth gives when Steve brings out the patch and gives it to Kayla. It might have been tempting on the writers’ part to put some words in Kayla’s mouth here to suggest that she actually prefers him with the patch (to go along with the fan reaction). I think Mary Beth would have played it fine even if they had, but I’m glad that they didn’t go that way. There would be the danger of coming across as insensitive, especially given his emotion right here. Instead it’s clear that her primary concern is for Steve, and how he’s coping with this, which is just right. But her look as she touches the patch conveys that this is an emotional thing for her as well, just a touch of “I missed this.”

Steve takes a deep breath as he puts it on and Kayla says, “It’s okay.” Then we see the re-patched Steve again and he’s nodding his head saying “okay” and trying to smile as well. He seems to be trying to tell her, “I’m okay with this.” And after she leaves (pausing to lean against the door as she also did back then), he nods again and says, “it’s okay,” reassuring himself too. It’s really a wonderful scene, so much rich subtext played with just their looks and expressions. The patch might not be as big a deal as it once was, but it’s still charged with emotion for both of them, and carries a lot of memories—good and bad..

(As a bonus, I’ve included the scene just before this one, where Kayla refuses to be sent out of town. I love the ways she insists that she won’t be any safer away from her family, and it was Steve keeping things from her—in order to “protect” her—that got them into this mess. When she says if she stays at her folks’ house, Roman “… and you” will be there to keep her saf, represents a big step forward for Kayla. She’s granting him her trust there, to be with her and protect her. And I love the way Steve responds to that, and relents.)

 

Fun and Games

There is not much going on with Jack and Jennifer right now, since we’re still in a period of stasis (that is going to change very soon, however!). But here is a nice little pair of scenes. Soon after Marina’s death, Jack is trying to figure out how to get Isabella out of Bayview, and Jen is trying to figure out what Jack is up to.

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We get a little silliness when Jack is creeping out of Bayview and Jennifer scares him, and then when he fake-cries to try to convince her this is about Harper. And I like how this sets up Jen’s motivation for wanting to help Jack. At first it seems to be mostly because she’s a reporter with a nose for a story, and she doesn’t like being left out of a possible adventure. At the end of the first scene, she smiles at his denials and says, “Yeah, I got it, Jack,” seeming to relish the opportunity to find out the truth regardless. And I love seeing that, seeing her spirit and determination.

But in the following scene, things take a more serious tone. We see the hurt poke through as she pleads with Jack to let her help. She did help him before, when he was trying to track down Steve in Italy, so the way he shuts her out now feels like a rejection. But more importantly, we see the underlying concern for Jack’s safety. Seeing the gun he is hiding in his desk makes her truly worried he’s involved with something dangerous and he could get hurt or killed.

That danger, of course, makes Jack all the more determined to keep Jen out of this. He keeps his mask firmly in place as he fends her off, making snarky remarks. When Jen accuses him of being in trouble, it is both a deflection and a shot at himself when he says coolly that according to people in this town, “I am trouble.” And when Jen gets upset and says she’ll just have to read about his death in the papers, I love his line about “as long as it’s the Spectator.” Hee. Then after she goes, we see the mask fall away.

There’s a little comedy, a little adventure, and an underlying seriousness that taps into their feelings for each other—all in what is mostly a filler scene. Ah, Days of old. So good, it almost seems effortless. And didn’t we all just take it for granted?