Episode 98 Morals

In plain English, these are the morals from Episode 98:

Nick cashes in on what he's learned in his marriage.

Nick's treatment of Sharon is really just painful to watch. It is excruciating with no hint of relief. It's so obvious that if Nick's father were watching, he'd intervene to fix things but it's so obvious that's never going to happen. It wasn't very much of a stretch to relate this stuff to the Jerry Springer show. It's the only explanation I have for why we might be doing plots like this. Unfortunately, I'm not a big fan of "beat-em-up" TV, so I'm just not getting it. Sigh.

Cassie does some pro bono work.

Any child should be able to explain to Sharon why what she's done wrong. So I figured I'd try. It's aggravating watching her knuckle under to Nick in the way she's doing. Once in a while we see Sharon exhibit backbone. But mostly not. Can't we have conflict on this show without people looking like idiots? I don't think all interestingness would fall away if suddenly Sharon stood up to Nick, and I frankly don't find it believable that she doesn't try harder to stand up to him.

Trisha helps Nina find a checkout line.

I don't know what to say about this plot. It seems utterly unmotivated and just plain weird. I don't know why Nina can't see that her son is being unreasonable. I have the weird fear that Nina is supposed to be hiding from her feelings and that we're soon going to be told that she really has secretly harbored a love for Ryan, but I don't really see it. And if she doesn't want to be with Ryan, she should be working harder to put Phillip's weird fantasies into check.

I also don't understand why Cole keeps stopping by. Maybe he's just being his writer self and nothing more, but mostly things don't work that way on Y&R so I have to be suspicious that there's more to it, and that one or the other of these two will suddenly feel drawn to the other, even though no buildup for that other than simple "togetherness" has been made for it.

Also, there seems to be some recent passion for doing black and white fantasy sequences, so I thought I'd join in as a way of expressing my frustration and confusion over this plot.

Michael finally pays for his crimes.

I was just thinking the other day about how simply Michael could be turned from good guy to bad by the revelation of a simple little "fact" like the one I made up here. And I wanted to try it on for size. I kinda like it, actually. Michael needs an edge, and this gives him one--something I think he's been missing for a while with Phyllis. For a while, the tension between him and Cricket might carry things, but I think once they finally get together (and they will), he'll be lost. I think it would be more fun if he'd plotted it--because then there will still be more fun when they do get together.

Miguel asks for a check.

Poor Miguel. He's written as such a dolt these days. Now, admittedly, I and others did clamor for him to have a part of his own, but boy have they written him dopey. So I continued it here, just to emphasize how ridiculous everyone looks with Saronica moving around in their midst and no one noticing. But really, this whole thing could have been done better from the start, and without making Miguel out to be a moron. Ugh.

That's all for Episode 98's morals. Don't miss Episode 99 and its morals!
If you missed any older episodes, see the index.