CHEERS!
This has been an, overall, incredible week for One Life to Live! As I said last week, the whole kidnapping story was *at last* beginning to move again. This week was an even greater testament of it. I was riveted…finally…the show has me riveted.
The Kidnapping Story…
It was a nice touch with Monday through Wednesday steadily building to a climax, while Thursday and Friday’s episodes focused solely on the story. My gripe however was that, IMO, Friday should have had Marcie surrendering to the authorities. That should have been the cliffhanger.
Frankly, I also found it a bit amusing how:
a) Everyone in Llanview just happened to be watching television at the same time when this ‘special report’ broke out.
b) That this news was national (as opposed to just local) interest. Kind of makes you wonder just how famous these people are supposed to be in the OLTL universe.
Marcie pointing a gun at—and threatening to shoot—Viki…all while Tommy/Sam was in the room? Wow. Marcie, what has become of you? We saw her spiraling out of control, becoming disconcertingly erratic, and inching closer and closer to going completely over the edge…but it was still somewhat of a jolt to see it look as though the spirit of Margaret Cochran literally took over her. She came off like a demented psycho.On a practical level, what I didn’t understand was why Viki didn’t grab the gun? At several points while they were hold up in that diner, it looked as though Marcie had placed it down while she pranced around in hysterics. Viki could have easily took over the situation. The fact that she didn’t was undoubtedly a deliberate move on the parts of the writers, so that there could be this sort of ‘profound’ exchange between the two—where Viki (despite the startling situation) would offer Marcie her usual brand of compassion & reasoning in an attempt to make Marcie seem a bit more “sympathetic.”
I just think it went too far when Viki suddenly started having a heart attack. On the surface a total plot device to get Michael (a doctor) on the inside, I also think that it was an underhanded ploy to momentarily de-demonize Marcie. Have her temporarily forget about rancorously holding Viki hostage, and become concerned about her health…just to show that she still had a heart underneath all that mad desperation. The problem, though, was that it only made me slightly more irritated at the whole thing.
When Michael took Viki’s place as hostage, however, was when the situation suddenly became more conducive for me. Michael and Marcie’s “reunion,” with Tommy/Sam in tow, was touching and very effective. I’ve been (and continue to be) on Todd’s side through out this whole thing, but this is one of the rare instances where I empathized with the McBain’s pain. Seeing Michael proclaim that it was “the end of the line” and painfully rationalize to a defiant Marcie, who attempted to reject what he was saying, despite his words clearly beginning to resonate with her, made the scenes brilliant and spellbinding. Kathy Brier and Chris Stack gave A+ performances. (On a side note: Chris Stack has done WONDERS in—and for—the role of Michael McBain. I’d rank him in the top 10 of “OLTL’s Best-Ever Recasts.”)FauxTess v. Jared…
I totally hate it! Really, I do. Usually, I like Jessica, but she’s been taxing on my nerves these past few weeks in her silly obsession with exposing Jared. Yes, I would *love* to see that insufferable snake-in-the-grass Jared get his comeuppance, but this is a joke. Her plot to get him to believe that she is actually Tess is so exasperating that her scenes are insufferable to watch. I still don’t really see what practical purpose she thinks that it will serve. As much as I can’t stand Jared, he’s no fool. Does she actually believe that if he thought that she was Tess that she’d be able to seduce all his secrets and schemes out of him? Tess is the one who got him locked up for two years. I really cannot see why he would be happy to see her again. Jessica’s an idiot to believe that Tess is so irresistible that he’d forget all about that long enough to be put under such a spell of infatuation so much that he’d sing like a canary. Talk about delusions of grandeur. The truly HYSTERICAL part in all this was during this chaos with Viki, when Jessica absentmindedly dropped the whole Tess act and behaved as her obvious self while interacting with the family…with Jared right there looking on and observing.
Just let it go Jessica. While I have no doubt that Tess herself could handle Jared, or at least match wits with him, you simply can’t. Unless you’re willing to have someone scream reminders at you in horrible detail what Norman Leeds did all those years ago in an attempt to lure Tess back out for real, again…just let it go. You look like an imbecile posing as fake Tess. No one buys it.
Why not just go to Clint and tell him what Jared is attempting to do, and see if he can somehow block the board at B.E. from considering the offer. Clint know what the vineyard means to Nash and I’m sure would do all he could to help thwart Jared’s scheme. At this point I wish Nash and Jessica would pull out and let Jared have the damn vineyard. Doesn’t Nash own another one in California? Why not pull your 49 percent share in the Pennsylvania operation and sink that money into the west coast venture to make it bigger? That way he can still hold onto his “dream.”
Honestly, I wish that Nash would find a new career anyway. There’s got to be something else he could do; the whole winemaker shtick has gotten old. IMO, it’s never really been especially interesting. Perhaps I’d feel different if the Brennan Winery was made out to be some thriving success, but after all this time it’s still being presented as this sort of fledgling operation that has yet to really take off. Meh.
More than anything, I just want the writers to separate Nash and Jessica away from Jared and Natalie. Collectively, they seem like a bad rehash of the Cord-Tina-Max-Gabrielle quad from twenty years ago. I’m not finding anything interesting about this foursome constantly joined at the hip. I’d be perfectly content to see Jessica and Natalie on opposite ends of the show, congregating only at the occasional Buchanan family get together.
Odd 'n Ends…
It was cool how Viki’s Texas friends didn’t seem too upset upon learning who she actually is. I was sure that they when they did find out that she wasn’t “one of them” after all that they would be tempted to brand her as a deceitful, hoity-toity Yankee. Now I’m left wondering who will follow her back to Llanview, besides Gigi, of course. In the meantime, it was a lightly comical to watch the reactions of her family in Llanview so spectacularly finding out that she hadn’t been in Paris, France as they believed, and that she’d become a waitress in Texas. I especially got a kick out of Clint’s quasi-cynical reaction to hearing these developments.
Moe and Noelle…awww, even though the two of them define the term “seat filler,” it’s still kind of cute how he seems to have a thing for her. I wouldn’t want to see an entire story unfold centering around the two of them together, but it’s cute just the same.- Marc
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