Why do I love Ron Carlivati? Simple, that man knows how to drop a bombshell -- or two -- without warning when you least expect it. Thursday's episode was a perfect example of that because that was the episode where it was revealed that Ava is preggers, and the man running around claiming to be Luke is, in fact, not Luke but rather an imposter.
I'm sure that many were not surprised to learn that the real Lucas Lorenzo Spencer is locked up at Miscavige while someone vile and disgusting has slithered into his place to terrorize everyone who crosses his path.
I find it supremely satisfying when one of my theories plays out on-screen because it means that I picked up on all the right clues and/or I have figured out how the writers think. However, it should be noted that even if you do figure out how the writers think, they always throw in unexpected twists. This week, they gave us two. In Ava's case, it's a question of paternity, not bloodline, and in Luke's case, it's a matter of who is posing as Luke.
Let's start with Sonny, the man with the magical sperm that could impregnate a granny after a hysterectomy if he crossed paths with her on the street. In case you've lost count -- I know that I occasionally do -- Ava's child, if it's Sonny's, will be biological baby number four. However, he's impregnated a total of seven women -- Olivia, Lily, Alexis, Carly, Sam, Claudia, and now possibly Ava. Seriously, he should donate his testicles to science because he's more potent than an Axe body spray war. If you have teenage boys, you know the horrors of that particular nightmare game.
Anyway, I want the baby to be Sonny's, not Morgan's, because Morgan would be foolish enough to want to marry Ava to do right by the baby. Sonny just plans to cap her after the baby is born.
The good news for Ava is that she just bought herself a nine-month reprieve from execution; the bad news is that she's going to have to deal with Sonny every single second of those nine months, so she will probably wish he had just shot her on that veranda before they left his private island.
Not that I blame Sonny for wanting to kill Ava. Ava deserves every bit of the misery that is headed her way, but that doesn't mean that Sonny is off the hook for his role in A.J.'s death, even if Sonny acknowledged his wrongs and showed genuine regret.
In a sublimely written scene that felt like it had been plucked straight out of my daydreams, Sonny realized that he had shot and killed an innocent man and that A.J. hadn't been the fiend that Sonny had believed A.J. to be. There was no hiding how much regret Sonny felt as he acknowledged in a choked-up voice to Carly that A.J. had been innocent. I had been longing for that moment ever since Sonny pulled the trigger. It was everything that I had hoped for, but it's not enough for Sonny to just recognize what he did was wrong; he has to own it and then atone for it.
I hate that Sonny and Carly continue to justify keeping the truth from Michael to spare him from the pain of losing another parent (Sonny) because what they are really doing is setting Michael up to lose both of his remaining parents. Michael told Kiki this week, in no uncertain terms, when he learned why she hadn't told him about Sonny's illicit tryst with Ava, that he'd rather deal with something when it happened than be blindsided by it later. Michael made it clear that he wanted the truth, no matter how much it hurt, rather than to have someone lie to save him from the pain.
Both Sonny and Carly are doing exactly that, which will infuriate Michael and drive him away from both Sonny and Carly. How could it not when he can't trust the people who claim to love him the most? I truly believe that it would be better for Sonny to go to Michael and share the recording that A.J. made, so Michael could hear the whole ugly truth and decide whether he can forgive Sonny or not. If Michael learns from anyone other than Sonny, I don't see forgiveness being a possibility. The same goes for Carly when he finds out that she knew and didn't tell him.
I don't expect Sonny and Carly to go to the police, but I do expect them to be honest with Michael.
The other twist this week is the confirmation that the man running around town molesting and sexually harassing women, threatening little children, and basically making everyone's life miserable, including this viewer's, is not really Luke. The real Luke is drugged and locked up at Miscavige, sporting a far more attractive look with that buzz cut than imposter Luke with the shaggy hair. Luke is desperately trying to fight his way through the haze of high-grade mind-altering medications, but he's way too drugged out of his gourd to be of help to himself. Unless someone puts the pieces together or Heather has an attack of conscience, I don't see Luke getting out anytime soon.
I did love how Luke found the strength to tell creepy imposter Luke not to touch Tracy. I'm not a Luke fan, but I do love Tracy, and that woman has earned the right to have the real Luke love her after everything that she's gone through with Luke, including this.
The scenes with imposter Luke and the real Luke were very disturbing and showed me that the imposter is a true sociopath who is clearly capable of doing the worst of deeds. Beyond Anthony Zacchara, Manny Ruiz, and Luis Alcazar -- all of whom are very dead -- I can't think of any other past criminal who was like that. Stavros and Helena are still on ice, and Faison is dead, so who could it be? Who has such a burning hatred for Sonny that he would go through all of this trouble? I'm liking Damien Smith for this more and more.
Unfortunately, as things heated up between Ric and Elizabeth in the hotel suite, Julian walked into the police station with a big old bucket of ice water to toss on Ric and Liz's night of passion by naming Ric as the head of the Jerome organization. With a few clicks on a keyboard, Julian then provided Scott and Anna with concrete proof of Ric's "guilt."
I'm so disappointed in Julian because I had really hoped that Julian would do the right thing. Imposter Luke's claims about having a long reach even from jail are just a bunch of hot air. Of course he's going to say that to Julian because imposter Luke wants to appear invincible. However, invincible people don't need to hide behind others because, duh, they are invincible. Imposter Luke hides because exposure would weaken him exponentially.
I still hold out hope that Julian will do the right thing before it's too late because I saw an attack of conscience several times as he thought about what he had done by sending an innocent man to jail, especially when Alexis talked about how crushed Molly will be when Molly finds out about Ric and then again later when Liz showed up and confronted him about lying.
As a Nikolas and Liz fan, I want Ric out of the picture long enough for Nikolas to make his move, but I just wish that it wasn't under these circumstances. I don't want Liz to pick Nikolas because she feels that Ric has betrayed her. I want her to pick Nikolas because she knows that he's the right one, no matter how drawn she is to Ric. Ric is Liz's crack -- she needs to stay away from him because he's no good for her.
Ric hasn't been around long enough to prove himself, and after everything that he's done, especially to Liz, that's exactly what he needs to do before Liz gets involved with him. Right now, it seems as if she's rushing headlong into a relationship with Ric to avoid having her heart broken again by Nikolas.
I really love what Nikolas said about Liz having always been in his heart because I do recall that he struggled with his decision to marry Britt when Liz declared his love for him, and I also remember years ago when Helena ordered Nikolas to kill Liz, knowing that he loved her, to prove his loyalty to Helena. His love for Liz didn't begin when they had an affair. It was something that ebbed and flowed over the years but remained ever constant, whether through friendship or romance. I think that is why I want to see their relationship explored more than I want to see Ric and Liz right now.
However, I wouldn't be opposed to the writers penning a scene of Nikolas and Ric meeting at dawn, shirtless, on the cliffs of Spoon Island to fence each other for the love of the fair maiden, Elizabeth. Pluck that from my daydreams, Ron!
Folks, this week I actually had an opportunity to use the show to illustrate to my headstrong, but wonderfully brilliant, teenage daughter that I'm not the crazy person she thinks I am. First, let me assure you that my daughter is a great kid, but she unfortunately suffers from the belief that it's not necessary for mom to know where she is when she takes off in the car because she's seventeen, a member of the student council, has excellent grades, and works part-time.
Not too long ago, my daughter fell off the grid when she wasn't where she was supposed to be. It wasn't as if she had taken off with her friends on a joyride to a sketchy part of town to score drugs, but she was off the radar in a car that her father and I had bought for her and that we pay the insurance on.
In this house, there are rules for the kids who drive, starting with always checking in and keeping mom apprised of where you are and who you are with. It's not an unreasonable request in this day and age because we each have cell phones with unlimited texting, so it just takes ten seconds to type up a message and send it to keep me updated.
My 19-year-old son never had a problem with this rule, but my daughter seems to feel as if it's akin to putting a GPS on her forehead. Mind you, this is the same teenager who sends an average of a million text messages a day to her friends.
Naturally, I lectured my daughter about trust and responsibility and how it takes time to rebuild trust once it's broken. To a teenager, three days is like three months, so she couldn't understand why I wasn't over her disappearing act within a week.
Then this week, Nikolas stopped by to talk to Alexis, and I suddenly heard almost the same exact words coming out of Alexis' mouth that I have been repeatedly saying to my daughter. I immediately called her into the room, rewound the DVR and then smugly played the scene of Alexis explaining to Nikolas that she's trying to trust Molly again, but it takes time. "See?" I asked my daughter. "I'm not as crazy as you seem to think. Other mothers feel the same way that I do," I added, feeling vindicated.
My daughter smiled and then readily agreed that I was as neurotic as Alexis. Sarcastic teenage daughter: 1/Mom: 0. It's times like that when I recall my mother telling me, "I hope you have a daughter and she turns out to be just like you." Proof that prayers work.
In other news, Patrick and Sabrina's baby boy finally has a name, Gabriel Drake Santiago. I like the name, and I'm really hoping that the little tyke pulls through because Patrick actually seems happier than he has been since Robin left. My hope is for Patrick to move on because regardless of Robin's reasons for leaving, what she did to him and Emma was pretty crappy.
I adore Robin, but I don't think that she has the right to expect her family to wait for her. The first time was beyond her control, but this time was not. She essentially picked three criminals over her husband and daughter. The truth is, Jason would not have expected or have wanted Robin to hurt Emma by leaving because Jason appreciated that he had made the choices that he had, and those choices could get him killed. Jason would have put Emma's happiness above his own life.
What about Danny? I think that Jason would feel that Danny was probably better off not being raised around the danger. That was something that Jason had always struggled with because he saw how the lifestyle had repeatedly disrupted Michael and Morgan's lives.
Back to Patrick and Sabrina. I will admit that I was one of those viewers who couldn't understand the delay in naming the baby until Patrick and Sabrina explained it beautifully when they admitted that they had been afraid that naming Gabriel would make losing him more real and more painful. It was such a poignant scene because they both agreed that it wouldn't have made a difference since they had already fallen in love with and had bonded with their son, so the loss and grief would have been just as gut-wrenching, regardless of whether they named Gabriel or not. It was a very well-written scene.
The person that I'm most disappointed with this week is Anna, yet again. I understand her soul-deep hatred for Julian and certainly don't begrudge her the right to feel that way until her last dying breath, but when someone walks in and offers to give you the name of a crime boss who is running drugs through your town, you don't turn them away. I can see why the DEA had reservations about clueing Anna in on Jordan's undercover assignment because Anna tends to put her own personal agenda ahead of the greater good when it comes to Julian.
I don't know what's going on with Anna these days because it's pretty sad when Carly is the only person in the entire town that figured out that the crimson clue that Connie had left behind stood for Ava Jerome not A.J. This thought never even occurred to Anna, yet she's a brilliant international spy, even though she can't seem to investigate a crime past her nose. I was also surprised by the unprofessional and even callous way that Anna treated Liz when Anna arrested Ric in the hotel room.
Anna didn't even have the decency to order the male police officers to leave so Liz could get out of bed and dressed. Instead, Anna left Liz to slip on a robe and then slink out from under the covers in a room with a dozen male police officers searching every square inch of the room. Nice way to treat your daughter's best friend, Anna.
I'm starting to wonder if murdering Faison and then Robin leaving town with barely an explanation has messed with Anna's head so badly that she can no longer be an effective police commissioner. There's been so much anger in Anna lately, plus she's been holding back with Duke even though she demands complete honesty from him.
Sadly, knowing Anna murdered Faison also makes Anna ranting at Julian about getting away with crimes ring hollow. After all, hasn't she done exactly the same thing? True, Faison deserved to die, but it shouldn't have been by Anna and Robert's hands and in cold blood. Anna swore to uphold the law, not to participate in vigilante justice.
Things that tickled my fancy
Carly reveals to Franco that Sonny knows the whole truth about Ava's lies
Franco: "So, Sonny knows everything?"
Carly: "Yeah. You should have seen his face when I played the recording. It was like his whole world came crashing down."
Franco: "I'm surprised we're all still standing. I would have thought Sonny would scorch the earth by now."
Carly: "Give it time."
Ric stops by Carly's table and introduces himself to Franco
Ric: "Ric Lansing."
Franco: "Hi. I'm Franco."
Carly: "Why don't you finish that? Ric Lansing -- Sonny's half-brother. Locked me in a panic room when I was pregnant with Morgan, planning to give my baby to Elizabeth Webber."
Ric: "I also do birthday parties."
Franco: "Cool. Carly, should we, uh -- should we take his lunch money, beat him up?"
Alexis talks to Nikolas about her trust issues with Molly
Alexis: "I'm trying. I really am trying, though. I-I -- I'm having trouble since she lied to me about doing you-know-what with you-know-who."
Nikolas: "Alexis, she's a teenager. Besides, you stopped them before anything happened, right?"
Alexis: "I did. And I know that I have to trust her, and I will. Look. See?"
[Sets cell phone down until it rings seconds later]
Alexis: "Don't judge me. It's a process. She's at the library."
Until next time, dear readers, take care.
Liz Masters
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