Episode 99 Morals

In plain English, these are the morals from Episode 99:

Swap Meat

This is really an episode about mixing things around a bit, seasoned with a few pointed remarks about things that went weirdly this week.

I sure don't like those scenes like happened (drug out over days) with Chris getting everyone to think the wrong thing. She should have been aware of the obvious confusion she was causing and corrected people rather than allow the confusion to run rampant. And then, after Paul was forced to humiliate himself out of bogus confusion over where Chris had gone, you'd think he'd not do it again to Lynne, but no... this tired joke is always worn thin even within the episodes it's used in. Oh, and did I mention that Paul's deductive skills are about nil? I can't believe he'd concluded that there was no chance for himself. I pity his clients and the `conclusions' he makes for them.

As for Phillip, I'm sure expecting something weird to happen with him. He's getting way too weird to not get suddenly out of hand. I really am expecting Trisha to wind up dead one of these days soon.

On the matter of Victor, I just couldn't believe him having the gall to use his `old key' this week. And then I was flabbergasted to see Diane say "it's just as much your place as mine" when Victor had recently signed it over to her. Where do we get people like this?

As for the pregnancy thing--you're right. I made up the whole cabin thing. Well, there's a tradition for that on Y&R, of course. But is it really that much harder to swallow than the present thing in which we flashed back (in late May) to late January (four months earlier) to remember a deliberate plotting to get pregnant. Could she really then have forgotten for all those months and missed periods? Some have said yes. I'm skeptical.

And Nick's suggestion to his dad that he married too young? I couldn't agree more. As such, I thought my story to be the obvious answer, and quite fair on the matter I think.

Mostly I just wrote this on a hot summer night, and I was thinking maybe it was time to inflict the sense of ``summer heat'' on everyone else. I hope people felt like this mixed things up a bit.

Later... A reader pointed out I'd failed to explain about the Neil and Dru thing. My issue here is partly just the simple point that everyone is using `code' to talk about the relationship. They're all carefully saying that he's in a tricky situation, and it's ambiguous whether they mean the power relationship with Vikki's father or the race thing. I think they always mean the race thing when they say it, but I think they mean us to pretend they mean `concern about Victor'. I find this tedious. I wish as much as anyone that race was not an issue in the world, but given that it is, I think sometimes you have to talk about it openly. I think it would be useful if some of the characters mirrored real life and carried at least a little racial baggage. They don't have to be racist--they could just be worried that a mixed relationship won't work, that a white kid raised by a black man will have troubles, that a white woman married to a black man will have troubles, etc. It is true that Neil is moving fast and that Neil and Dru need to settle things before Neil moves on, but that's not really why I brought back Dru in this one. I brought back Dru because, ironically, she's the only character with the refreshing ability to call a spade a spade (so to speak) and to confront this issue for what it is. Maybe she does have a score to settle with Neil, but frankly, I don't miss her just for that. I miss her because she's a great character and there's no substitute for her elsewhere on the show.

That's all for Episode 99's morals. Don't miss Episode 100 and its morals!
If you missed any older episodes, see the index.