Christmas to Week Ending 1-8-2016

With Christmas right around the corner this week, all of Salem is celebrating.  Nobody seems to notice Chad’s strange behavior as he does his best to court Belle.  Theresa and Brady are still playing house, Lucas is desperately missing Will, Abby is moping around, Hope has been arrested for murder, and all the old folks are reminiscing (week end 12-25).

Rafe is diligently trying to prove Hope’s innocence, while keeping his feelings for her under wraps; Abby finally suspects that something is wrong with Chad… she questions Stephano and Andre’, but gets nowhere of course; and Theresa’s fashion show was almost a disaster.  She pulls it off, though, of course.   The New Year’s Eve party brings the town together; Gabby and JJ are getting close, Steve and Kayla are a couple again, Daniel and Nichole are engaged to be married - Eric doesn’t look happy about that - and Basic Black is a success with the girls running it.  Abby’s baby is sick; the tests ran in the hospital revealed that Ben is not the father; that means Chad is the father and Abby is elated about that, thinking it will change everything once she tells him (week end 12-31).

Abby finally gets the chance to tell Chad that he is the father, on New Year’s Day… he doesn’t believe her, though.  Accuses her of lying, to try to get him back.  But once he holds the baby again, he starts to remember – crying, he begs Abby to forgive him.  Eric is rushed into the hospital, after Brady and Abby’s mom (I forget her name, oops)… drinking and driving after leaving the party, he caused a pile up; apparently, he really wasn’t happy when he saw Nichole and Daniel kiss.  Daniel is brought in next.  Chad and Abby bump into each other in the elevator – he’s there to have his own paternity test run.  Apparently, Daniel is beyond saving; his heart goes to Brady…they feel Eric could recover with other treatment.  Kayla performed the heart transplant… so I guess Daniel is really off of the show.  Brady woke up, pretty much; Rafe said Eric’s blood-alcohol level was “through the roof” (week ending 1-8).  Wow.  What do they have in store for us next?

Week ending 12-18-2015

Now, Chad and Abby start making plans for the future, go get the baby checked out at the hospital, and Chad decides he wants to go back to see Marlaina(sp?) again – to try to figure out what happened during his ‘blackouts’.  As soon as he is hypnotized, the office door opens (which is stupid, because any therapist would have the door locked during a hypnosis session with a client); in walks Chad’s conniving uncle, and chloroforms Marlaina!  When she comes to, Chad is missing – and the automatic assumption is that Chad attacked her?  They figured out it wasn’t him before… why would they suspect him now??  So… supposedly still hypnotized, Chad is ‘brainwashed’ by his uncle to break up with Abby and to put the moves on Belle instead (week ending 12-18).

Belle is hesitantly holding the key to all the money Sammi stole from Stephano’s family, while Sammi is on the run and no one knows where she is.  Abby comes to tell Chad some good news, not knowing that he is supposedly still hypnotized (end of week 12-18).

So now Abby is shocked by Chad’s sudden “breakup” with her, but seems to accept it without questioning too much – I figured she would just know something was wrong… optimistic me.  But instead of noticing that something is obviously not right with him, she just gets pissed and decides they don’t need him.  Whatever.

 

Hope caved into the kidnappers to get her daughter back; then, obviously thinking about shooting the guy responsible, she takes her gun to the park – and someone else shoots the guy, supposedly, with her gun (but she came home and put the gun away, so… idk). 

Week ending 12-11-2015

(Prepared, 01-08-16)

Ok, so it’s been a few weeks – I’ve just been at a loss for words as of late – and busy with school… so, instead of a cavalry waiting outside the door of the cabin to rescue Abby and Chad from the fire, Chad somehow (magically) slipped his hand out of his cuff AND got Abby out of hers (not sure how); and what about the ones that were one their ankles??  There was a cuff on each of their ankles, too, wasn’t there?  I don’t know.  Maybe I’m confused.  I could swear Ben had cuffed each of them, wrist and ankle.

So Chad and Abby get off the bed and out of the cabin without so much as a mild burn, and the cabin goes up in flames behind them; then they simply go back to town and tell everyone about it, as if it’s not that a big a deal.  I can't believe that Rafe didn't have a whole team on the way to get them... Abby's mom told him how worried she was - he already knew Chad was on his way - why did he do nothing???  Abby is frantic wanting to know where Ben left the baby, while Ben is in custody now and totally incoherent.

Meanwhile, Hope goes on a mission to find out who had been holding Bo captive, takes, ties up and threatens to torture one of the guys she knows is involved (but he overpowers her), and then Ciara gets kidnapped and threatened.

 

And… I’m sorry, but I just don’t buy this kissy, wissy, lovey, dovey relationship that Brady and Theresa supposedly have now.  He’s acting like he’s head over heels for her.  It just doesn’t fly with me; and I’m sure I’m not the only one that feels this way.  Totally bored with that storyline. Yawn.

Week ending 12-4-15

Alright. So I miss one or two shows and all kinds of stuff must have happened… I am not happy that nbc.com only makes the latest five episodes available.  They should have all the shows on there by now, for every season.  But nonetheless, I’ll catch up.

            I remember Theresa being shunned from Thanksgiving dinner; then all of the sudden, after several episodes without her even in them, she has her suitcases packed and at the door.  She’s telling Brady the baby is upstairs and she’ll call in the morning.  Ok.

            But wait.  Brady is going to get in a fight with his grandpa over kicking her out and now he’s going to move into the townhouse he bought for her, with her??  Wow.  They have him acting like he’s falling in love with her – which, to me, is just too unbelievable.  He despised her so badly; there’s just no way.  Not happy with that.

            Almost missed Bo’s death too…because it was so stupid.  Not sure what to say here; why so sudden, sitting on a park bench, after all that time in supposed captivity?  And why did the paramedics just stand there behind her while she sobbed over his lifeless body, for several minutes no less, rather than making any attempt to see if he could still be resuscitated?  Had they been given prior notice that he was terminal anyway so they shouldn’t even bother seeing if he could be brought back?  I guess, because they just threw a sheet right over his facer, as if they were prepared to take him to the morgue.

            I like Hope better as the strong, determined woman she is here again, than the naïve ditz she was portrayed as with Aiden, though.  But I think it sucks that they even brought Bo back, just to kill him off right away, in order to develop this role for Hope.

            Now, let’s talk about Abby and Ben.  Great storyline here, but still some hokey acting/ script-writing.  I do like the psychotic character Ben has become; it’s an interesting twist for what had become a rather boring love triangle story.  However, I don’t believe he would have flipped on Abby quite so fast – he would have tried a lot harder to convince her that he still truly loved her and was doing all of this ‘for them’.  Then there’s the birth, which, for all of us mothers (who have done this a time or two) was just ridiculous.  The whole scenario was poorly constructed from the moment the midwife handed Ben the clean sheet to put on the bed up (which never got put on) to and including the moment she held up a perfectly clean, healthy pink, (what?) two-month premature ‘newborn’ baby, who weighs at least eight pounds.  Enough said.

            Abby acts so helpless, it irritates me… she has always been so submissive to Ben, even before we knew he was, indeed, psychotic (I always had my suspicions) I never really liked her character.  I like Chad more and more, though – he just burst in to save Abby and the baby.  We’ll see how that goes.

            Ok. Not so well… after a short attempt at talking Ben into letting Abby and the baby go, Chad is knocked out, face down, on the floor.  Abby stupidly handed the baby to Ben, with the gun still in his hands, giving up her only leverage over him; and after Chad regains consciousness and struggles with Ben a bit, he and Abby end up cuffed to the bed by arms and legs, and Ben sets the bed on fire.  Doesn’t look good for them.

 

            I’m sure the police force must be right outside ready to save them; Ben exits.  Quite a cliffhanger, I must admit, although sloppily orchestrated.  Better luck next week.