Episode 79 Morals

In plain English, these are the morals from Episode 79:

Will Vikki warm to thoughts of becoming a threesome?

Frankly, I'm bugged by the whole Victoria/Ashley/Cole thing because Vikki is being very confusing about this (first saying to Nikki she's setting Cole up, then sounding really jealous, then sometimes seeming happy to be free) and Ashley is just silly (character totally adrift, unmotivatedly in love). And Cole seems a male slut, just kind of riding with whatever goes along. It's not engaging, it's just there. But I figured it was the topic of the day, so I should do something to rescue it.

Something about the idea of Vikki picking up Cole's manuscript and reading it seemed a little too pat to me. Since Y&R seems to revel in deeper confusions, I thought it'd be more fun if it was Nina's. And since there are both Trisha-Nina-Ryan and Ashley-Vikki-Cole triangles, I mostly just wanted to highlight the more interesting possibility of getting them confused. I could imagine here a sort of Cyrano de Bergerac variant here where Nina unknowingly was writing words of love for Cole to Vikki.

I almost had the bug play sounding board about the story, but I really think she's in too many plots, and I was happy to have a reason to reinclude Flo in some scenes. I think she gets all too little play.

Will Ryan come to find bliss behind door number 301?

I was a little disappointed that Trisha and Ryan really did the deed on the first try. I'd have been content to have them try and fail for a few times. Her cluelessness is really up to that. So I thought I'd show a possible way it could lose. Well, of course, the stuff with Paul and Lynne was mostly for comedic effect--but the basic scene in the room could have happened as explained.

I'd originally planned to have Keith actually phone in during the sex, but then when I got the idea of Mary tagging along after Paul, I just couldn't have her sitting there doing nothing, so Keith in the end didn't have to intervene. And anyway, it's kinda fun when Mary gets involved a bit more and doesn't just whine at Paul all the time.

By the way, I was a little miffed that the writers chose to express the reason for Trisha needing the condoms as being pregnancy-avoidance and not also AIDS-avoidance. I tried to fix that here.

Also, AWO aficionados will recognize the Newman Enterprises teleporter as having been previously used in Episode 28 (The Why-Files).

Will Tony finally come clean with Sharon about Cassie?

This all started with the line on the show where Nick said "I'm not leaving this office until you tell me what's up." I was thinking, "What if that were really true?" Would he stay there night after night, with news reporters talking about Day 53 of the Grace/Tony/Cassie/Sharon/Nick stand-off? They might as well. I mean, CBS wastes day after day of a plot in daytime TV going nowhere and just making the audience count the days. It would almost be a relief to fly in some reporter who had as his job to entertain us while we wait!

I also think it'd be fun if Tony finally went and told Sharon. And I thought, how would Sharon tease it out of him (especially since Nick is stuck in Grace's office with the news team doing his hostage thing). And--what can I say--I'm a sucker for that stupid bed joke... I just had to try it one more time.

That's all for Episode 79's morals. Don't miss Episode 80 and its morals!
If you missed any older episodes, see the index.