How many people have to get hit over the head or have things thrown at their heads or need to have common sense knocked into their heads? These are the running themes this past week in Oakdale. Right now, there are two young women who seem to be in the middle of lot of what is happening in Oakdale: Sophie and Ameera. Let's just hope that the interim writers are telling these tales until the regular staff comes back to work to focus on the characters we really want to see.

Martha Byrne is Leaving
With the current state of things in Oakdale, how can this show afford to lose another major player right now? I keep checking to see if there is breaking news about TPTB making amends with Martha and she is now staying. This is going to be a major loss for the show - remember when she left before. The replacement Lily was a good actress but she was not Martha Byrne. She will be missed and she still has great chemistry with Jon Hensley. I hope this works itself out as with so many major losses lately - Oakdale may become very unrecognizable shortly.

It was nice to see Holden and Lily being romantic and being a good team as parents. Lily had that jealousy look on her face when she saw Holden embracing Bonnie. It is true that they have some work to do on their marriage. How will work without Martha and the history she brings to this relationship?

Did Kit Kill Sam?
I believe that she did - however, I am beginning not to care who killed Sam. They are spending more time on Sam's (short term character) murder than was spent on Dusty's murder. It is so obvious that it is Kit unless it really is someone else; I will surely eat my words if I am wrong.

How could Kit hit Katie in the head with a baseball bat and she is still walking around to talk about it? We all know that Katie has a hard head as she moves from man to man without much effort. Kit is serious in her attempts to get even with Carly and her need to get rid of her escalated once Carly told her she knew she was he killer.

How dumb is Carly? Going to a deserted building without her cell phone knowing she was lured by a possible murderer is crazy. Kit wants Carly out of the way and Carly has always been smarter than this. It is so hard to watch such stupidity sometimes.

What is Gray's story?
The better question is what is his connection with Matt? These characters are really too new to really care what happens to them. Gray has the kind of pull to get Casey out of trouble with Homeland Security agents. They may be more to this guy than meets the eye. After all, why did he have Brad knocked around? There are so many signs that he is a bad guy.

Matt does not seem like a bad guy and that he just got caught up with the wrong people; he wants to be accepted and given a second chance. He hooked up with Alison Stewart and appears to like her. She is being very suspicious. After all she has done, you would think she would be able to give someone the benefit of the doubt.

Sophie
The men in Oakdale are running to her aid at every turn - why? Her character is for the most part: boring. There was Aaron who tried to protect her when she first arrived, then she caught the eye of Chris Hughes who is very interested in her and Paul wants to protect her for some reason.

Chris' interest in Sophie is obviously romantic and Paul's intentions do not seem romantic at all. Why did she gravitate towards him and why is so determined to help her? I still see Paul as being very much in love with Meg.

Ameera
This young lady has been in Oakdale for a few weeks and already she is in the middle of Luke and Noah's relationship. It looks like she and Noah are going to get married in order for her to stay in the country. How long will it be before Noah decides he wants to be with her instead of Luke? This may not be true but there could have been another way to help beside Noah marrying her - she could marry Casey instead.

The other thing that keeps running through my mind is how much of this is Noah's father pulling the strings from prison. This is just too coincidental.

Here are some thoughts from some readers:

Pixie said," Gone are the days of Kim & Bob Lisa & her men and Barbara with a man to fight with. We are left with new people with fading relationships and storylines that falter before the fire is ever fanned.

Lily and Holden should not have had the crap dialogue they both suffered through for months! I can see Martha Byrne's point and would like to see her evolve into an Emmy performance, or move on; she can take them all on. Jon Hensley- if Lily should leave then hook him up with Emily- There has to be tons of chemistry there for goodness sakes they are married in real life and share a family and years of memories on the show. Finally if AS THE World TURNS wants it ratings up- BRING back JOHN DIXON- Emma Snyder and Cal Strickland, and don't forget Iva that would be a good invasion for Lucinda to battle over the grandkids love against the other grandmother!"

Brenda said, "I used to love this show, but now it's not too good. I have gone to another soap."

Chris said, "Did anyone else notice how much Cowboy Jack and Jack looked alike? It was the funniest thing on lately. I love Parker's scenes - he is an awesome young actor."

Marie said, "It is too late for the show to get better and better. I have stopped watching too. I am so disappointed that Craig, Gwen, Will and Dusty are gone. And I am sick of Katie/Carly/Jack & Brad and they seem to be the only ones with storylines."

Finally, hopefully I won't have to spend another column writing about all of these new folks who just arrived in Oakdale. Where are the characters we know and love?

That's all I have for now.
Reggie Jackson