Sam and Jason have decided that love isn't enough to save their marriage. Sam didn't know if she could ever forgive Jason for not accepting her baby and for keeping John from helping her on that fateful night when her baby had "died," while Jason didn't know if he could get used to the idea of John being a part of Sam's life.
I cry foul. First of all, why would Sam even ask that of Jason, knowing that she was making out with John on the docks on the Fourth of July? The kiss didn't mean anything? No way, Sam. I watched those scenes. It wasn't just a single kiss; it was several kisses.
Sam has flat-out admitted that she is attracted to John and that there is something between them that goes beyond friendship. What man in his right mind would be okay with his wife staying friends with a guy whom she feels an obvious connection and physical attraction to?
I don't think that Sam and Jason love each other anymore, at least not the way that a married couple should. I suspect that their loving feeling began to fade during their nightmare honeymoon, after Franco had drugged them and raped Sam. Perhaps a part of Sam lost some faith in Jason in Hawaii, which continued to wane as months passed and he repeatedly let her down. As for Jason, I think that he's frustrated, because he couldn't be the man that Sam needed him to be when everything began to fall spectacularly apart.
Regardless, I really don't think that finding their son will, nor should, bring Sam and Jason together, because when the going got tough, they bailed on each other. Sam can't forgive Jason because she doesn't want to, not because she can't. She wants out of the marriage but doesn't know how to articulate it. That's why she needed Jason to say the words.
It really irks me that Sam not only tries to pass her Fourth of July encounter with John off as insignificant, but she also keeps insisting that they had been drinking, as if it had just been a drunken peck on the lips. I want her to really own it, not try to pass it off as nothing, because we can all see that it was something.
I think that was why I was so shocked when Sam suggested talking to Natalie on John's behalf to explain that that kiss hadn't meant anything to them. I applauded Alexis for pointing out what a phenomenally stupid idea that actually was. Natalie would have cleaned Sam's clock, and Sam would have deserved it.
Sam was livid when Liz tried to talk to Sam about giving Jason a second chance, so what makes Sam think that Natalie would have a different reaction to Sam, the stranger who had kissed Nat's man, urging Natalie to forgive John?
I think that Sam and Jason made the right decision to call it quits because neither of them has shown any real effort to save their marriage. They never scheduled a session with Gail Baldwin or Lainey Winters to talk things out, they never sat down for a long heart-to-heart with each other, and they were quick to part ways when things became difficult. At least they aren't clinging to a marriage that is dead in the water, like Carly.
This week we learned that Carly never signed her divorce papers to Jax. I'm a little confused, because I thought that she had signed the divorce papers as a show of good faith to Johnny. Could that be a rewrite to explain Jax's return?
Meanwhile, Kristina needs to schedule an appointment with Patrick to have that chip on her shoulder surgically removed. All of the awful and degrading things that she accuses her parents of thinking about her are actually things that she thinks about herself.
Part of the reason that I just can't get into the character of Kristina is the performer. Ms. Morgan is a beautiful woman, but she reminds me of Goldilocks searching for the right fit. She seems to lack chemistry with most of the cast, and she looks like the odd woman out when she's in scenes with the other Davis women. I'm disappointed, because GH's casting department is usually spot-on. You not only feel an emotional connection, but also a physical one with the actors who are cast as family members, because they often look like each other.
I want to like Kristina, but I just can't. At this point, I have to blame the actress, because Kristina is a situation that should be garnering my sympathy, but I'm not feeling it. The writing is there, but the performance isn't speaking to me.
In comparison, my compassion for Trey's situation is growing day-by-day.
Joe is a truly despicable man in every sense of the word because it's clear that he's been manipulating Trey since Trey's birth. I really feel sorry for Trey. He's merely a pawn in his father's vendetta against Sonny. I don't for a minute think that Joe cares about how all of this will affect Trey, especially with Kate in the mix.
Joe knows that Kate is Trey's mother, but rather than prepare his son for the inevitable reveal, which I'm sure Joe will hold off until it can do the maximum damage, he's sending his son into a situation both vulnerable and blind.
Trey, it turns out, is a decent enough guy. He is genuinely disgusted by the abuse that Kristina suffered at Kiefer's hands and didn't hesitate to speak up when Joe callously dismissed Kristina's claims of abuse as "So, she says" and "There are two sides to every story." Joe is a character that I'm supposed to hate, so my hat is off to Mr. Steinmetz, because he is doing a fantastic job.
I can understand why Trey is going along with Joe's plan. Joe knows exactly which buttons to push to make Trey dance to his tune. When Trey insisted that there had to be another way to get to Sonny, instead of using Kristina, Joe changed tactics and showered Trey with declarations of love and reminders that it was them against the world. It was sad to see how eagerly Trey lapped up that affection, as if it had often been withheld in the past when Trey had dared to do something that displeased his father.
Speaking of fathers, Trey's roommate, Starr, had her hands full with Todd this week when she found out that Todd had pressed assault charges against John after mailing Natalie a picture of John and Sam smooching on the docks.
I love Todd, but I can assure you that I see his flaws, and I don't condone some of the bad things that he's done. However, like Starr, I see the good in Todd too. I appreciate that he doesn't hold himself up as a paragon of virtue. In Todd's defense, he does constantly warn everyone around him that he can't, and shouldn't, be trusted. It's not Todd's fault that everyone thinks that they are some sort of exception to the rule.
I also enjoy the humor that Todd brings to the show. Todd's outrageousness, one-liners, and blatant disregard for society's rules make him fun to watch. He's just a fictional character, so I don't have to worry about real people being hurt by anything that he does. Todd's actions allow other characters to have good scenes.
Example; if it weren't for Todd sending Natalie that picture of John and Sam kissing, we wouldn't have had that fight scene when John decided to teach Todd a lesson about messing with people's lives. Todd totally deserved it, and he took his licks like a man.
It was a good scene to watch. The only thing that would have made it better was if John and Todd had had the courtesy to take off their shirts first.
Maybe John and Todd can get a membership at Volonino's Gym, where serious fighters like Sonny and Jason hang out.
This week, GH unveiled their new set, a gym complete with a boxing ring and big punching bag. Jason promptly schlepped Spinelli there to give Spinelli a few lessons in the art of pugilism. Poor Spinelli spent more time on his posterior than actually hitting anything. The scenes were amusing until Spinelli began to talk about Jason's great pain.
Spinelli told Jason, "You've never been overly communicative with your feelings, and perhaps you're reluctant to talk to me because I am Sam's friend and business partner. But I am your friend, too. And -- and this loss weighs heavily on you, maybe even in some ways more than her because she has her family that has closed ranks around her while you're struggling with this alone."
What? The loss of Sam's baby and breakdown of Jason and Sam's marriage weighs more heavily on Jason than on Sam, because Jason is alone? Since when has Jason been struggling with this alone? Jason has been talking to Sonny and Liz. I like Spinelli, but he really needs to pay more attention to what Jason is up to, which is namely hanging out with Liz.
I'm not sure what to make of Liz and Jason. I am, and will always be, a Liason fan, but I don't want them to be together if nothing is going to change. We went down this road when Jason asked Liz to marry him and then broke things off with her to keep her and the children safe. I want more for Liason than that, if Ron is going to revisit this pairing. I'm not interested in Liz being a placeholder until Sam and Jason are reunited with their son. If that is going to be the case, then fix the damage done to Ewen.
Namely, Ewen's baffling association with Jerry.
Jerry is back in town and up to his old tricks. Foolishly, Ewen played right into Jerry's hand by revealing how Ewen felt about Liz. Ewen might as well have painted a big ole target on Liz's back, because Jerry quickly determined that Liz is Ewen's Achilles heel. Jerry, ever the opportunist, promptly preyed on Ewen's insecurities by talking up Jason and Liz's history. Whether Jerry believed what he was telling Ewen about Liz and Jason is irrelevant, because it was all about mind games, not the truth.
That said, I'm dying to know why Ewen is helping Jerry in the first place. If Ewen is a good guy, then why would he ever agree to go along with kidnapping a woman, planting a body in her place so that her family believes that she's dead, and then spiriting that woman out of town, knowing how devastated her family is? And why would Ewen ever agree to kidnap a child?
I'm sure that we will soon find out what Jerry's hold over Ewen is, because Jerry's days are numbered if that nasty cough is anything to go by. Seasoned soap viewers know that there is no such thing as an ordinary cough on a soap opera.
Until Jerry meets his maker, he is determined to play his games until the very bitter end, because after he sent Ewen to kidnap Josslyn, Jerry called Alexis, pretending to be Fernando the caretaker. Alexis hit the teleporter that they use to get back and forth from Atlantic City with to beam herself over to Wyndemere, where Jerry was waiting.
I'm not sure what Jerry had in that vial, but it can't be good. Good is not Jerry's style.
Meanwhile, Ewen proved to be the world's luckiest kidnapper, because he just strolled right through Carly's front door, in broad daylight, just mere seconds after Carly and Johnny slipped into her bedroom for a little afternoon delight, while Josslyn napped. Only on a soap would a move like that work.
Finally, I hope that I wasn't the only one who was intrigued with Olivia's new visions/acid flashbacks. Could Olivia now have the gift of sight? I hope so, because I've always found Olivia to be somewhat dull and often preachy. Her character needed a little revamping, and this appears to be just the ticket. I think that having someone around with the sight could prove to be a very useful tool as various storylines play out.
