Oh Darlin’

(No joke, I started this blog post the day before the news broke that Quinn Redeker had died. Until then, I had no idea that he was an Oscar-nominated screenwriter! He co-wrote the Deer Hunter, which was nominated in 1978, the year before he started at Days.)

I always liked Alex, and it was a joy rediscovering him on my DVD’s, along with Quinn’s devilish charm. He brought such a zest to his performance, so much so that you couldn’t help rooting for Alex to win, at least sometimes.

But he seldom did. Honestly, I think the fact that he rarely came out on top was part of the secret of his appeal. He was the opposite of the bad guys today who always get away with everything. He was often poor, and he was generally despised by everyone in town. People didn’t forgive him or brush aside the things he did, like they do today with Kate, for example.

He wasn’t a Big Bad like Stefano or Victor. He wasn’t powerful, he didn’t have an empire, he didn’t have anyone at his beck and call. His schemes were small, too. Blackmail, insurance scams, marrying for money — that was his line. He’s got a great line of patter and an eye for his main chance, and he was always sniffing around the other Salemites’ secrets, because there might be some money to be made.

Yes, he’d screw you over in a heartbeat, but it’s nothing personal, darlin.

He didn’t have any illusions about himself, or anyone else either. He was a great one for calling out the other Salemites on their hypocrisy, and he was always great fun paired up with some other baddie: Anna (who he called “Saddle Shoes”), Emma, Linda, Victor. He always seemed to get such a kick out of watching someone else be bad.

His charm and his above-it-all amusement could lull you into underestimating him, but then he could turn on a dime and turn up the baddie within. There’s was one scene that seemed to come out of nowhere and made me sit up and take notice, where he’s menacing a mysterious, always-veiled Madame X, who’s running a prostitution ring in Salem. He wants in on her racket, and when she won’t cooperate, he starts pushing her around and manhandling her, doing his Alex-talk all the while, calling her darlin’ and sweetheart. It was actually genuinely scary and threatening, like the prelude to a rape scene. 

But when he got what he wanted (a peek behind that veil), he drops the act immediately, and on the way out we see his secret, private grin. Oh, you thought those emotions were sincere? Not a chance.

But he had depth too. When Days gave Alex a real love story, like the one he had with Marie Horton, Quinn absolutely nailed that too. I’m telling you, this guy could do it all.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to revisit that particular story, or what I suspect was his heyday on the show, because it predates the VCR era (release the tapes, Ken Corday!). But what I did get to see was a real treat.

He was written out in a very Alex-like way, when he was arrested for trying to burn down the Salem Inn (which he owned) for the insurance money. It’s such a shame that in all the years since we never got a Alex Marshall return. Y&R snapped him up right after he left Days, and he stayed there for the next 17 years.

Their gain, our loss.

Let us mourn

Since I came back to the show, I have heard whispers here and there that Ron played favorites with John and Marlena at the expense of other couples and characters, but I hadn’t seen anything since I started watching again that demonstrated that.

Until last week, that is.

I’ve always liked John, and I respect Marlena’s place on the show. The annoyance I used to feel for her back in the early 2000’s pretty much dissolved when I watched my full episode DVDs and I was reminded of how delightful she was in the 80’s. Dee brought such joy to playing Marlena back then, and as I wrote about here, I thought she and Don were extremely compelling as friendly exes. I didn’t care for Roman and Marlena, but that was because of Wayne Northrup. Marlena and John, version 1.0, was also pretty great, though they actually had surprisingly little screen time together after their (re)marriage, because Dee was off filming Our House.

Anyway. a major character’s death is the soap version of an easy layup; the drama is pretty much baked-in, the dialogue practically writes itself, deathbed monologues are catnip for soap actors (I thought Greg Vaughan was particularly good), and it’s a chance to see families all together and bring back old favorites for a visit. Throw in some flashbacks and you’ve got yourself a week or two of shows.

That being said, this type of thing isn’t really my cup of tea, in general. I love Steve with all my heart, but his death back in 1990 went on for forever and a day, and just thinking about the Blue Tunnel of Death makes me cringe. Until last week’s Marlena Grieve-a-thon, I was generally content at the shortness of Kayla’s death episode. I appreciated that pretty much everyone in town referenced Kate and Kayla’s death, and even though I was very disappointed that Tripp and Joey’s return didn’t give us even ONE scene of the family all together, I consoled myself with the fact that we’d seen them all together the first go-round.

But if you’re going to kill off three leading ladies, and only one of them gets the pull-out-all-the-stops Major Character Death treatment, you’re practically begging for fans to throw rotten tomatoes at you. Why bring Tripp and Joey back at all if they’re just going to be scattered to the four winds having scenes with Wendy or whoever, and having heart-to-heart conversations about Alex instead of their mother? It seems so pointless. And yesterday, why bring Jack back for several interminable scenes of him disowning Gwen (which, by the way, really? This is the last straw for him?) and then throw in a moment with Steve as practically an afterthought?

But, I have to say, fleeting as it was — my God, this moment was sublime:

I loved the way that Steve initially stiffened up when Jack put his arms around him, and then just melted and accepted his brother’s comfort. God, I love them.

Screencaps @abetterlizard and @stevekaylagroup

A Rose for Steven

Live shot of me watching Thursday’s show:

I have to admit that sometimes when Steve and Kayla are onscreen, I’m so alert and on edge that it sometimes interferes with my ability to just watch and connect with what’s happening. That didn’t happen on Thursday. I totally got swept up in Steve’s grief and I loved every minute of it.

There was some great dialogue in these scenes. (In contrast, I winced and winced again at Roman’s scenes with Kate’s urn, until I just had to laugh. I don’t care about Kate or Roman, but wow. That was bad.)

The reference to Kayla’s “eye bobs” was a nice wink to the fans who know how much Mary Beth loves them. I also loved Steve looking over all of the family mementos and telling Jada why Kayla kept them there — in order to remind herself that her patients had families too. That felt very real, and true to Kayla as a character.

Jada was a perfect confidant, reminding me powerfully of how Marcus used to be there for Steve no matter what. It would have been even better if his relationship with her had been highlighted before now — like, ever — but I still appreciated that they featured the relationship, and actually mentioned Marcus.

I want more Stephanie/Steve scenes where they mourn together, but in a way, they might have each felt freer to break down without the other to “be strong” for. I loved Chad being there for Stephanie, and how the show is using this story to create a natural, understandable disruption for her and Alex. (I actually thought Alex would cover up his secret for longer! The fact that he admitted it was nice for sowing a seed of a future redemption. I’m guessing this might lead to a backslide for awhile, but we’ll see what happens.)

Loved Abe’s visit too. I loved the line they gave him where he said that the people who loved Kayla would do what would make her happy, and right now that meant looking after Steve. James Reynolds has always had a gift for bringing depth and gravity to a simple, heartfelt line, and this was lovely.

Then, this is when I really started bawling:

Loved seeing a yellow rose, of course, but mostly I loved how it immediately brought up a scenario of Steve surprising Kayla with flowers at work, and Kayla taking one of them and pressing it in the pages of her medical reference book. It highlights their connection from both sides. So much done with a simple prop. Excellent.

screenshots @stevekaylagroup

Is this Salem?

I’m really enjoying how the Chad/Stephanie/Alex triangle is so… realistic, for lack of a better word.

Their problems don’t involve brainwashing, coming back from the dead, blackmail, or even smaller soapy issues like keeping secrets and lying. Chad is attracted to Stephanie, doesn’t feel ready for a relationship, but he can’t help himself from wanting to spend time with her. Alex wants to have a relationship, but he hasn’t had much experience, so he’s making mistakes, like talking to Chad behind Stephanie’s back. But he isn’t scheming to get Chad fired or calling Dr. Rolf to brainwash him. Nobody is a bad guy.

I see chemistry with both couples, and so far I’ve been able to enjoy the prospect of her with either one. We can see that Stephanie and Chad are just friends, so what she said to Alex is true, but she’s also downplaying the flirtatious energy between them. Alex isn’t wrong to be jealous; there is something there.

However, that doesn’t mean Alex is right to be possessive, and Stephanie very rightly called him out on it. I liked that Alex apologized and agreed he was out of line, but after that we still saw him react to the fact that Chad was massaging Stephanie’s sore ankle (showing the jealousy is still there).

All of this sets up Alex ignoring Chad’s call and turning off Stephanie’s phone. If, as I suspect will happen, Stephanie is going to break it off with Alex because she doesn’t get to the hospital in time, it taps nicely into issues we’ve already seen them dealing with. And, since we’ve seen Chad and Stephanie come together before over shared grief, it feels very natural that she would turn to him afterwards.

It’s all so strangely — refreshingly — normal.

That means there are probably people complaining that it’s boring, but I don’t care.

At the other end of the believability spectrum, we have Kristen’s plot to get Brady back with her extremely complicated blackmail scheme, and Stefan’s brainwashing at the hands of Li and Kristen. I’ve been pretty underwhelmed with both of these stories all around, but it was great fun to see all the secrets coming out the past few weeks. Dr. Rolf frantically calling Li that Gabi’s memory might return, seconds before it returns, could have done with a little more smoothly, but who doesn’t love a soap wedding where the bride rips the groom a new one in front of all of their guests?

I was less happy with the scenes of Gabi with Stefan and Chloe. I couldn’t see any reason for Stefan and Chloe to declare they’d be friends at the beginning of the episode, and then fall into bed at the end. And funny as it was to watch Gabi haranguing them as they stood there naked, I thought Stefan should have shown a little more emotion at the news that he’d been brainwashed. And, I feel bad for Stabi shippers — this is no way to write a rooting couple, presuming they are the rooting couple. The only thing I like about brainwashing stories is when we get to see moments of True Love surfacing despite the brainwashing, and there’s been very little of that. Stefan is a little fixated on Gabi, but his manner is so scornful and dismissive it’s hard to see why they should be together.

Eric’s role in the Brady/Kristen drama has been an interesting, unexpected twist.

It’s always nice when the good guys strike back at the bad guys, instead of suffering in silence like Brady has up til now. I do appreciate that they set up Eric’s motivation for doing something so wildly out of character, by having him tell multiple people that being the “good twin” hasn’t gotten him very far in life. In fact, Eric and Nicole have basically switched places post-breakup, with Nicole being very mature and self-aware about sleeping or not sleeping with EJ, and Eric running around hatching Sami-style schemes and jumping into bed with someone he just met.

I’m about to dive into today’s episode, and I’ll be posting more about the “dying women” story later in the week!

screencaps @abetterlizard and @stevekaylagroup

Nightmares

I’m sorry I went radio silent for a few weeks. Christmas and work conspired to make it difficult to find time to blog.

Something that Steve and Kayla fans complain about (with good reason) is that we never see Kayla find out that it was Bo who took out Steve’s eye. We especially want her to know because he’s constantly warning her against him and saying Steve is bad guy, without ever mentioning that part of the reason Steve is a “bad guy” is a direct result of Bo’s actions.

In fact, after early 1986, the show rarely alluded to the fact that Bo was the one who took out Steve’s eye. And when I say “rarely,” I mean “almost never.” That goes for later runs, too. When Steve came back in 2006 with amnesia, he and Bo have one brief exchange about it. Bo alludes to it indirectly, and Steve says, “Yes, Kayla told me, and also that we got past it.” Okay then. Glad that’s settled.

Given that, it’s kind of gratifying as a Steve fan to watch his early storyline and see multiple conversations about it. Here’s one:

I love Steve’s expression when Bo says he has nightmares about that night. He’s obviously thinking that Bo might have nightmares, but Steve has to live that nightmare every day.

Personally, I think Bo — and the show — lets himself off the hook a little too easily. He says “It wasn’t supposed to happen,” but in the next breath blames Steve: “You screwed up.” He’s referring to the fact that Bo discovered Steve and Britta in bed together, and he thought they set him up to take the fall for Britta’s espionage (but it was only Britta who did that). He had reason to be angry, definitely. But given the circumstances, Steve was not only unarmed but probably nearly naked when Bo decided to pull that knife. What did he think was going to happen?

Then, when Bo finally tells Hope what happened, he tells her about Britta and Steve’s eye (leaving out the whole espionage thing). Hope is shocked, but when Bo expresses some guilt about it, she quickly reassures him that it was an accident. (Again, if you draw a knife in a fight, how is injuring the other person an “accident”?) Then, she moves on to being jealous of Britta and interrogates Bo about his feelings for her.

Not what I would have focused on, had my husband told me that story!

Later, sensing there’s more to it, Hope asks Howie to help dig into Bo’s past with Steve, and repeats what Bo told her. Howie muses, “Seems to me he has reason to hold a grudge.” Finally! Thank you, Howie.