Episode 100 Morals

In plain English, these are the morals from Episode 100:

Grin and Bare It

``I just have to say'' before going on to other remarks that I arrive at the 100th episode with, for once, a great deal of optimism about Y&R's future. Recently, Kay Alden took over as head writer. Maybe it's complete coincidence, maybe not. But the last few weeks of shows since she began have really showed tremendous promise, and I'm hopeful it's part of an organized new plan for returning Y&R to the vitality it had in the years I got hooked on it. I'm going to keep doing my parody bit, but I feel--at least for now--like maybe it's more just an optional extra and not a necessary part of struggling through the tedium that have dominated Y&R plots for the last two or three years.

When I asked around about what to do for a 100th episode, the two main themes were to bring Victor to his knees and to bring back some of the old characters. I miss the old characters, but I didn't come up with a reasonable way of combining them into a single plot, so I went for the fall of Victor. We're seeing some hints that there will be a showdown between Diane and Victor on the show. I can only say, I hope they carry this through and don't back out of it before Victor has been completely demolished. Ever since Victor took over Jabot, the world has been out of balance and it's time for this to be set right. I hope it's finally going to be time to see that played out. Give someone else power for a while--make Victor see the error of his ways and actually need something from someone so that they can refuse it and he can realize how deeply he has hurt people.

On the lighter side, in spite of better plots generally lately, there still is the occasional overuse of the word ``incredible''. And I think I sprinkled in a use or two of it in this episode. It would be nice to rein in some of these old cliches. Some of them add personality, but some just make each actor sound like each other. We need less "interchangeable dialog" (phrases and speeches that could come from anyone) and more personalized things.

Another thing that's nagging at me vocabulary-wise is ``options''. I tried to highlight the problem in this parody. But come on--say what you mean. Abortion is abortion. It is one of the options. It is not options. Pro-Choice people don't mean "choice" to refer just to abortion. That's certainly in there, but they mean to intend a discussion among various options, from abortion to adoption to just raising the child. Regardless of your opinion on this matter, the question I have is: How can we have a public dialog about something in which people are afraid to use the correct terms? Half the time people don't even know what you're talking about!

By the way, getting back to plot, I know Katherine and Jill seem headed for some kind of showdown over Phillip's memory, but personally this bugs me. What happened to the pictures of Rex? Did Katherine just forget him? And Jill, too, for that matter? They are talking lately like Rex never existed. And I don't mind a discussion of these old things but somehow you have to address, rather than sweep under the rug, why you aren't focused on the other. Even if just to mention the names and make some excuse--so we know it isn't writer's amnesia at play. I find it really detracts from the ongoing plot with Kate and Jill, and as a result I'm having a hard time getting into it.

I'm also tired of not seeing Billy. The thing recently where John returned with Billy but we didn't see Billy really bugged me for some reason. Why not have him killed in a skiing accident or something if you're not going to use him. I didn't kill him off in this episode, though. Instead I chose to leave him dropped off, like a package, at the Swiss boarding school. The reason was to emphasize the callousness with which he's being kicked around. But seriously, something must be done with him or you might as well stop mentioning him. For as much as I think it's nuts for Mary never to have mentioned Carl, Steve, Todd, etc. it's even more nuts for someone to mention someone who's supposedly around but who we still never see. Heck, why not just continue the Dru plot--we just won't show her on screen. Neil can just talk to Victoria about what a pain she's being or whatever. We've seen enough of her--we can imagine how she is.

The book actually taught me something, too. It taught me that Cole is a babbling idiot. He's been wandering around saying what a fabulously complex murder the Veronica thing was, and yet Cassie had to pad to make it six pages. Indeed, I got to the sixth panel (hadn't done the preface or cover) and said "oops, it's over". I couldn't believe it was that short. Funny how the view from Cassie's eyes always clarifies things.

Oh, and people wanted Bingo back for Episode 100. Well, he's there in spirit, just far away. I thought about it for a while and decided he was happily back on the farm with Hope and that the two of them were better off far from Genoa City. So if you didn't hear him barking happily, it's because he was just too far away to be heard. But he's happy and sends his love.

That's all for Episode 100's morals. Don't miss Episode 101 and its morals!
If you missed any older episodes, see the index.